3.5 month stats

Well, we had yet another perfect checkup today! Hard to believe the babies are 3.5 months old, and almost 2 months adjusted!

Some stats:
Jacen 23 in (long), 11lb3oz (weight), 41.8cm (head)
Jaina 21.5 in, 9lb8oz, 38cm
Valerie 22 in, 9lb13oz, 38.7cm

They’re right on track for where they should be, and ahead in some areas (compared to their adjusted age). Val is “talking” up a storm with us, and Jacen’s got the body strength going. Jaina is right in the middle, but doing great as well! It’ll be fun to see them start to interact more over the next few months and see what they do when they figure out they’ve got other babies around all the time!

8 weeks

Wow, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 8 weeks. The babies now have an “adjusted age” of 1 week. For those of you who don’t know what that means, when a baby is born premature we look at two different ages for them – their “actual age” which is how long it’s been since they were born. Then we also look at their “adjusted age” which is how old they would have been had they been full term singletons (40 weeks). So for these little guys being born at 33 weeks 1 day they have an actual age of 8 weeks, and an adjusted age of 1 week.

What does this mean? Well, for developmental milestones, we go by their adjusted age until they are about 2 years old. As they get closer to that the gap will get smaller (it’s said that by 2 years of age there is no difference between a premie and a full-term baby developmentally speaking). Until then, though, we expect they’ll be a little late. At the same time, they could be right on schedule. It’s almost nice – it’s less pressure. When reading a baby book or talking to someone else, there’s no worrying about what their kid is doing and yours isn’t, because we don’t *expect* them to do everything the same. We shouldn’t expect ANY kid to do the same thing as another, but it’s hard to not compare in this competition of mommy-hood where we worry that we’re not stimulating our kid enough, talking to them enough, teaching them their ABCs and 123s fast enough, etc. It’s almost like if our kid isn’t a star at calculus by age 3 like so-and-so’s kid that we’ve done something wrong. It’s so much easier to escape all of that with preemies. Now if only I could get myself to stop comparing them to each other!

So rant over, here are some updates:

Jacen: 7lbs 14oz, 21″ long
Jaina: 6lbs 12 oz, 19.5″
Valerie: 6lbs 10 oz, 19.5″

As they have been since birth, the girls are the exact same length. Crazy how that works!

Developmentally, they’re doing great. Jacen’s allowed to sleep as long as he wants at night (he went almost 6 hours the other night!) and the girls are allowed to go 4 hours. Amazing how just that little bit more sleep helps. Unless of course the sleep consists of me slightly propped up with a baby on my chest because they like to sleep on their bellies better and we can’t let them do that, so they end up on me! Jaina smiled back at me last week – it was adorable. They don’t do it reliably on command enough to get a picture yet, but we’ll get those soon. Jaina was first, and since then Val and Jace have smiled a couple times (non-sleeping smiles). They’re staying awake more than they used to and tummy time is getting amusing as they scoot around the floor and normally end up head butting each other. Val and tummy time are counterproductive, though, as she likes to fall asleep on her belly, so instead of working on her neck muscles and motor skills, she curls into a ball and falls asleep more often than not.

I’ll get some new pics loaded soon, but had to update you all!

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37 weeks

Wow. I have full term babies now! We brought brother and sister to visit yesterday and got new weights on the kiddos:
Jacen 5 lbs 12.9 oz
Jaina 5 lbs 6 oz
Valerie 5 lbs

Crazy isn’t it? 8 weeks ago we got in the car wondering if we’d be meeting our children. 8 weeks ago I entered this hospital for the first time as an inpatient. 8 weeks ago the docs stopped my labor and while I pray no Hunt has to be an inpatient ever again, I am eternally thankful for those 4 weeks and the perfect children I got because of it.

The words “thank you” have a whole new dimension now. You say, “Thank you,”  to the person that holds a door for you, to the person who serves your dinner at a restaurant, or to a person who says “Bless you” when you sneeze. What in the world can express the gratitude for keeping you safe for 4 weeks, for delivering your children safely, and watching over them for another 4 weeks? A plate of cookies? A heartfelt note? Nothing can express my feelings for the nurses and docs on 3 South, L&D, and the NICU.  If you are reading this, know that the triplets will be told about you and the care you gave over these many days, the tears shed together both in celebration and frustration, and how you will all hold a special place in my heart for years to come.

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Really?

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So everyone asks, “How much do they weigh now?” Well, I don’t know. At least not for the ones at home.

Val on the other hand weighs 4 lbs 15.9 oz. Yes, she is 3 grams away from 5 lbs.

No real updates. We’re hoping she’ll be home in the next few days. She still hates the bottle but suffers through when needed.

5 pound club

Well, Jacen officially reached the 5 pound club! His sisters are still a ways behind him, but they’re catching up fast! Way to go big boy!

Jaina is nippling almost all feeds now. Val is still the smart baby waiting for it to just magically appear in her belly 🙂 She’s not a morning person either – you have to unwrap her 15 minutes before its time to eat for there to be any chance of her waking!

2 weeks!

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Well, at 2 weeks old we are:
Jacen – 4lbs 10oz, 18.75
Jaina – 4 lbs 5oz, 18
Valerie – 4lbs  3oz, 18

Other than that, we’re enjoying the weather, Mima’s last day here, and a great holiday. Happy 4th to you all!

One week!

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Wow, I can’t believe its been a week!

Some stats:
Birth-
Jacen 4lb 10 oz, 17.7 in
Jaina 3lb 12 oz, 16.9 in
Valerie 3lb 15 oz, 16.9 in

One week-
Jacen 4lb 7 oz, 18.0 in
Jaina 4lb 4 oz, 17.5 in
Valerie 4lb 1 oz, 17.5 in

All the babes are off IV as of today! We’re also starting to wean down the isolette, so they get to wear cute little shirts now! Such huge steps in the right direction.

They are up to 140ml/kg/day of milk (160 is “full” feeds). That means right now Jacen gets 37ml every 3 hours, Jaina 33, and Valerie 32. That’s 105ml every 3 hours. These guys are giving me a run for my money!

Aiden is getting really clingy to mommy, but he seems to be doing okay. He saw the babies yesterday and didn’t understand why he can’t hold them. I think he’ll honestly do better with them home than with this. It’ll be nice to be home again finally!

If I haven’t mentioned this before, if you ever want a worthy charity to donate to or raise money for (i.e. a marathon team, etc), the Fisher House is it. I don’t know how we would do this if we didn’t have it. It’s gorgeous, clean, well stocked, and all they ask is that we clean our room before checking out.