30 fingers 30 toes

It has been almost a month since our last post and what many changes have occurred.  (Sorry to not have posted earlier)  Let’s rewind a bit.  They all progressed well in the NICU and we were able to hold them, feed them and just be with them more and more as time permitted.  It was difficult to have Jared go to work, Kimber stay home and watch Katelyn and Lincoln, but also to go down every day to deliever milk to the triplets and hold them.  We were logging at least 100 miles every day between going to work, running errands and simply going to the hospital, a 60 mile round trip by itself.  Our days were packed with things that needed to be done and we were just hoping to one day, take the triplets home.  On February 2nd, we were told to bring in a car seat for Preston in order for him to have the car seat challenge.  An infant needs to be placed in the car seat and remain there for 2 hours without dropping saturations, heart rate, or look extremely uncomfortable with the quality and rate of respirations in order for them to pass the car seat challenge.  We were glad that Preston was progressing to this stage.  On February 3rd, Preston was placed in the car seat only to fail a half an hour after being placed in the seat.  Although the failure was unfortunate, it was actually really good for the rest of the family to prepare for an infant to finally come home.  We knew that the triplets wouldn’t stay in the NICU forever and they would eventually come home, however, after 2 plus weeks in the NICU, you kinda loose a bit of that sight.  

Kimber and I closed on a house the day she was discharged from the hospital.  (January 24th)  We thought that we would just slowly move over to our new home, just a few blocks away from our apartment.  Over the next couple of months, we would eventually be in our new home.  However, with the thought of Preston coming home with the girls to soon follow, we thought, perhaps we wouldn’t have time to just slowly pack and move over.  How could we pack and take care of triplets as well as Katelyn and Lincoln?  We went from running to sprinting as we madly started to pack boxes and move items to our new home.  We relied heavily on family to help move over our possessions and we really appreciate the help.  On Tuesday, February 7th, we had the elder’s quorm and my brother Russell come over to help move the final essential items.  We slept our first night in our new house that evening!  

On February 8th, we prepared for Kinsley to come home!  Kimber and I completed our CPR class and we were set for our triplets to come home, either all at once or one at a time.  It was wonderful!  We picked up Kinsley in the late afternoon and had a nice rest of the day with her.  Kinsley still needed to be fed every 3 hours around the clock.  That night prepared us for the events that would soon follow.  Preston and Kira were expected to be discharged from the hospital February 9th.  

With Kinsley in the back of the car, we traveled to the hospital hopefully one final time to pick up Kira and Preston.  All three of them would be together again after having only one night of being separated.  Towards the evening of a long day, we had all five of our children together!  It was a wonderful, but tiring day.  However, the day simply didn’t end there, we needed to continue to feed the triplets every three hours, day and night.  We continued this behavior, every three hours, alternating shifts through the night, trying to meet the schedule the triplets had with the schedule we were accustomed to.  Kimber would do the midnight and three am, while Jared would do the six and nine am feeding.  through the day, Kimber and Jared would work together to continue to feed the triplets every three hours while entertaining Katelyn and Lincoln.  

On Valentines day, we took the triplets to the pediatrician for their first routine check up.  The song by Big and Rich entitled “Freak Parade” describes the feelings we had as we walked into the pediatrician’s office with three infant car seats!  It was quite a sight!  Each of the triplets had gained some weight and were over five pounds each.  But that was not the only good news, the pediatrician told us that we could be a bit more relaxed with their feeding schedule and not be such drill sergeants, making sure that they ate at least 40 mls per feeding every 3 hours, especially through the night.  He assured us that they were gaining weight and that they will have more of an appetite on their own.  We figured it would still be a good idea to keep them on a schedule and when one wakes up hungry, they will all be fed and changed.  

Life with the triplets:

• We go through at least 24 diapers per day, not including Lincoln’s diaper changes.
• Kimber pumps at least a liter per 24 hours.  A singleton pregnancy would require 400 mls per day and she is pumping at least 1000 mls.
• It takes just over an hour to feed the triplets, burp them, and get them changed and wrapped back up into bed. That gives us roughly 2 hours in between to do other home stuff.  
• There is at least one to two loads of laundry per day just with the laundry the triplets are generating.  Let alone the many shirts that we have gone through while “burping” the babies and having an explosive, unexpected guerrilla warfare vomit.