On Friday the babies had their 18 month well check, even though they will be 19 months on the 22nd of this month. With last month being so busy this was the closest we could get to the 18 month mark. The Pedi said they are all looking really good for being born 11 weeks early. The Pedi said she would have never thought L and D were preemies just by looking at them. C is a little more behind since he isn't walking yet and due to the hearing loss he isn't speaking but other than that Pedi say C looks great.
L: Height 31" 25% Weight 20 lbs 11 oz 3% Head Circumference 18 1/2 inches 45% Teeth: 14 Says about 20 words Signs Language 10 signs
C: Height 31.2" 25% Weight 20 lbs 9 oz 3% Head Circumference 18 1/2 inches 45% Teeth: 16 Signs Language 6 signs
D: Height 31.2" 50% Weight 20 lbs 5 oz 10% Head Circumference 18 1/2 inches 50% Teeth: 12 Says about 40-50 words Signs Language 15 signs
We are finally all on the growth curve!! YAY!!
We had GREAT weather over the weekend so we spent Sat and Sun outside. Here are a few pictures:
Triplets and Twins (my Sister's Girls) in Aunt T's Backyard:
Here is my second post for Thanksgiving Thursday but before I begin I want to catch you all up on the results from Colton's CT scan.
Sorry I am just now posting on the results but I just now have some free time to post. We got his results on Tuesday and we got great news. C's ears look great, he had no fluid, no scar tissue and nothing that would prevent the Cochlear implant from working. I asked the Dr. if his ears look so good, what caused his hearing loss? The Dr said since hearing loss doesn't run in our families he has no idea what the cause. It could have been caused in the womb, him being born premature, from the vent, from the blood transfusions or any of the med's that he was given to keep him alive. Even without knowing what caused the hearing loss I would have done it all again to have him here with me now healthy and happy. We scheduled his surgery for Feb. 4th and I can't wait! They will only put one implant in one ear for now and then in 6 months to a year later they will do the second implant for the other ear. It should be an outpatient surgery, so if all goes well he will be home by that night. The Dr. said he should be in bandies for about 4 days and then 10 days after the surgery they will turn the implant on. Tomorrow I will be meeting with the Dr. who will be mapping(programing) the implant and picking out which implant we are going to go with. Once I post this update I will be doing a little research on the different implants, so when I go in tomorrow I look like I know what I am talking about: ) I have high hopes for C to hear once he has the surgery. It will not be an easy process but it will be worth it when I hear him say his first word. There is a blog(The Lawrence Triplets)that I follow regularly and the author is the mother of a set of BBB triplets. One of her precious sons also has profound hearing loss and has had the Cochlear implant surgery. This brave little boy has been such an inspiration to me. If you have time you should stop by her blog and see how amazing the Cochlear implant is(it doesn't help that her little boy is VERY smart).
Thanksgiving Thursday: 1) Great Friends!!! 2) Our Family Disney Vacation is only 46 days away. 3) C's good CT results 4) The start of American Idol 5) Daddy teaching D a new word "Apple" 6) I am off tomorrow 7) Tomorrow is Payday 8) My brother started his new job this week 9) Hubby's 85 year old Grandpa had knee surgery this week and he is home doing great. 10)God's Love
PS. Tomorrow the babies will also be having their 18 month check up so I will try to post ASAP to let you know how that went.
On Friday morning when I went to wake the babies I was met with a surprise from C. He had thrown up all in his bed. And then it all began...
C threw up 2 more times before I made it out the door to go to work. Once I got to my Mom's to drop the triplets off I noticed that L had fever and was tugging on his ear. So I put a call in the the Dr and I took them in. They all have pharyngitis and on top of that C had a stomach virus. Great just what I need right before the holidays. Grrrr.
Well as you can imagine this weekend was FUN. All the babies ended up getting the virus so I have spent all weekend getting thrown up on and doing laundry.
L wins the award for having the highest fever it reached 103.4 yikes!! I had to strip him down and put him in a cool bath. Poor baby he screamed and shivered the whole time.
D won the award for throwing up the most in a 3 hour period, 13 times. I almost had to take her to the ER Saturday night but at 2 am I was finally able to keep the Pedia-light down her. I let her sleep on my chest that night and at 4 am she woke me up asking me for a "Cracker", after that I knew she was going to be fine.
C wins that award for being the easiest to take care of when sick. He was so sweet. He just wanted to lay in his bed, suck his thumb and sleep.
Well, please say a prayer for my Hubby and I in hope that we don't also get sick before Christmas. I have tried to get as many things done around here so if that happens I will be prepared. And if I don't blog again before Christmas I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!
On June 22nd we took a memorable trip on the Polar Express. Here is was happened in my Mom's words...
This is a true story of our ride on the Polar Express train last night. You honestly won't believe what happened... Miggy, I can't wait to read your story since yall were near the back of the train behind us! I also put in a few of the photos taken during the ride so you can actually see the events unfold!
Love, Jenny
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
The Polar Express..."A Grandma's Story"
"We had a GREAT time... and then we had to get on the train."
Yes...that's a quote from my darling daughter Tanna, about our much anticipated Polar Express train ride last night.
Being in love with the Polar Express book and the movie, we all were drooling at the prospect of going on this fantasy train ride to the North Pole. We have five - one year old grand babies that are looking forward to Christmas this year (ok...maybe they don't quite "get" the whole Santa and his reindeer thing yet but they will) so I gladly paid $22.00 for my ticket since this was going to be a "magical ride we'd remember for years to come.
My daughters (mothers of twins and triplets) have both been looking feverishly for weeks for matching Christmas PJ's for their little tots. Finally Tara found cute pj's that would be perfect for girl AND boy babies. She also talked about how warm and cozy these candy cane fleece footy pajamas would be since it would surely be frigid on the night of our journey. Tanna decided these still might not be warm enough so she put long sleeved onsies and socks under her three babies jammies just to be safe.
We were to be at the station 30 minutes before time to board the train and all went smoothly. Mommies, Daddies, babies and I all showed up dressed appropriately with warm clothes and coats. Some passengers even had fuzzy hats and gloves on and for an instant I wondered if we were under dressed. Cameras were flashing while we feverishly took pictures of the babies who by this time were having a ball toddling around beside the train admiring each others new duds. There were elves running amongst the passengers which added to the overall effect of this magical event.
Finally, "ALL ABOARD" was heard so we rushed to what was going to be our most anticipated adventure. Tara and Rusty carried Brynly and Breigh aboard the train while I followed with Dakota in my arms. Tanna waited outside with a baby boy in each of her arms waiting for Gary to arrive from work. Yay...he made it on time and I'm sure he was just as thrilled as we were to be there.
As we entered the train we were met with a huge wave of heat...kind of like walking into a man sized oven with the temperature set to "pre-heat." We ambled to our seats where Tara and Brynly sat in the seat by the window, Rusty and Breigh in the middle and Kota and I were on the aisle. Soon Tanna and Gary came in toting the boys and took to their seats right across the aisle from me. We were all atwitter with excitement even though we were all beginning to melt in the heat as we tried to figure out how to pull off a few layers of clothes to cool off.
The train's decorations consisted of a few spindly sprigs of garland and a plastic bell or two (which Kota managed to pull off while later sitting in her mommy's lap) Ok..not exactly the winter wonderland we'd hoped for but we were sure it would get better since there was going to be entertainment.
The conductor, quite nice even though he was NOT Tom Hanks, welcomed us all. As he wiped the sweat from his brow, he grinned shakily telling us the train ride "might roll a bit from side to side and not to worry." Well, we thought, "How bad could it be, for Heaven's sake...and if it did roll a bit, it would just add to the adventure!"
Finally the moment we had all waited for was at hand...the train was leaving the station! We were packed in like sardines in a too small can dabbing at the sweat trickling down our forheads. Choo choo.... we were off! Within seconds I was holding on to the side of my seat with one hand while trying to hang on to Kota so she wouldn't fly across the aisle... um... yes a wee bit of "rolling" indeed!
During all this I was still trying to capture the "magic moment" with my camera which was SURE to happen any second now, when some helpers with "Chef's hats" started up and down the aisle talking to the passengers. Well, one took a liking to our little group and even though Colton would wail and scream every time she looked at him, she was determined to not give up. She was SURE if she got in his face he'd immediately change his mind and fall in love with her.... DIDN'T HAPPEN!!! We didn't want to be rude and just pull him away and cover his head each time she passed so we sat in dread each time she looked our way. Breigh wasn't exactly excited to be held by her either... After a bit, Tara said "There's the North Pole, girls!" We then all looked out the window and saw some elves dancing around and old Santa himself heading to the train. The place was not exactly lit up "north pole" style and the few little sprigs of lights here and there on a few shabby little buildings led us to believe that was the best we'd get. Suddenly we looked up and Santa was on the train! He came out and spoke to each child as he went down the aisle. Surprisingly all our babies liked him instantly, even Colton whose cheeks were still red from his traumatic experience with the chef earlier not to mention the 95 degree heat. Brynly and Breigh were thrilled as Santa handed each of them a Christmas bell. Their little smiles were contagious and I almost teared up with pride just looking at them. Lincoln was grinning up at Santa and shaking his little bell while Colton and Kota also received their bells. Those two were not as thrilled to see Santa as the others but still were very brave. I was one very hot yet happy and proud "Gee."
The jolly old elf finally departed our train. Then a few helpers hesitantly walked out holding some wrinkled sheets of paper with from what I could see, words to Christmas songs. I fleetingly wondered why they weren't more prepared and at least had learned the words to Frosty the Snowman but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and kept quiet. An elf spoke up and said "Who wants to come up and sing with me?" A few brave souls raised their hands and one little girl slowly went forward. The elf began singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." I honestly could not believe my ears... If you can imagine being given a sheet of paper with words only of a song you've never heard in your life and had no idea of the tune... and then told to sing it...this is exactly how she sounded. She began the worst rendition I've EVER HEARD in my life of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. The little girl she'd called up to be her "helper" looked like she was about to cry but bravely stood there and sung along with the girl that sang like the actor, "Boris Karloff" on crack. We in the audience were stunned but tried to sing along. As I looked over I saw Tara hiding behind Breigh trying not to laugh so anyone could see... then there was Rusty who was bravely trying to sing with Brynly but looking a bit confused. Then across the aisle, I spy Tanna laughing hysterically behind Kota's back and Gary who was holding Lincoln, just looked stunned and a bit bored.
Thank goodness we were made to sit through only a few "happy songs." As the train was within 10 or 15 minutes of taking us back home and out of our misery.... the lights on the train started to sputter. A voice nervously told us not to worry...there had been a slight electrical problem earlier but all would be fine. A few more flickers of lights going on and off and then it happened. PITCH BLACK!!! Babies started to bawl and there were moans and grumblings from overheated parents and grandparents wondering what the heck was going to happen next. The little amount of cool air that HAD been trickling into that overheated train ride to...well you know where... stopped and there we were, like trapped rats holding sweaty bawling squirming babies and wondering when it would all end. The conductor came out and plied us with more lies saying that we were only TWO minutes from home. Rusty, by this time was threatening to pull off all his clothes as sweat was pouring from his poor body. The conductor told us they were going to open the doors on the moving train to cool things off and would we please not walk up and down the aisles (as we were pitching violently from side to side) because he would not want us falling off the train. To me...this sounded like a good thing so I briefly considered hurling myself out the door and into cool air... I did however come to my senses because Colton was screaming in Rusty's arms so I traded babies with him as I started to peel off his layers of clothes as I blew air down his little onsie to cool him off. (Colton's not Rusty's)
After being told several times our destination was near, the train finally stopped and we were home! It was still pitch black except for a cell phone light or two and by this time most bawling babies had worn themselves out. As for Colton, now that the scary chef was gone and his Christmas jammies were off, the steam was rising from his little sweaty body and he was grinning from ear to ear! We were told to take our time leaving the train but we leapt out of our seats and dashed to the exits as fast as we could. Immediately the cold air hit us and oh how wonderful it was!
It started out as a night that would start this Christmas season off in fine fashion...and ended truly as one of the most memorable nights of our lives!
Little did I know 2 years ago, today my adventure with triplets would begin. After 3 and a half years of trying to get pregnant on December 12, 2006 we had an IUI (intrauterine insemination -- is performed by threading a very thin flexible catheter through the cervix and injecting washed sperm directly into the uterus). Going into the procedure we had 3 follicles(eggs) and knew there was a 20% chance of conceiving, so we NEVER thought all 3 would take. We had high hopes that it would work and we would be preggers with one baby or twins. I never dreamed that all three would take and I would be preggers with triplets. I still remember the day we found out it was triplets. Gary had to work so my Mom went to Dr appointment with me. As the nurse was examining me she said "congratulations here's your baby". At that moment I remember being sad because there was only one. BUT then the nurse moved over and said "Wait there are two more on this side". I couldn't believe my ears, I was so excited. The nurse looked worried until she could see the excitement in mine and my Mom's face. At that point I was blissfully unaware how scary a triplet pregnancy could be. Today I will remember as one of the most important days of my life. The day the Lord blessed us with three beautiful babies.
And then Momma barricaded the stocking so her 3 little monkeys could not destroy them.
I have finally decorated the house for the holidays. As you can see by the pictures I have to block EVERYTHING off to keep them out.
The main culprit is D. She can get into everything.
D has figured how to get in and out of her baby bed. When she wants to, she can climb over the security gate. The other day I looked over and D was on top of the dinning room table just about to stand up. That girl is going to be the death of me. I don't know what to do to keep her from climbing and getting into everything. My Mom keeps the babies for me during the day and she has a baby fence that goes around 3/4ths of her living room and this is to keep D out of everything. Really the fence doesn't stop her they just slow her down. Beside the little toot getting into everything she is talking up a storm. Her favorite words right now are Santa, Clock, Pretty, Up, and What's that. Her favorite sentence is "No, no hot". Which she uses on her bothers to get them to not touch her toys. She is too smart for her own good.
L is doing really good he doesn't say as much as his sister but now when he sees Santa he says He, He, He; which is suppose to be Ho, Ho, Ho. He is a little confused but it is really cute. At this time L may be on Santa's naughty list due to his need to bit his brother and sister. I have tried about everything to get him to stop but nothing seems to work. I hope this is just a stage he is going through but only time will tell.
Big boy C is also doing really well. C has profound hearing loss and in testing we found that he can only hear low loud tones, so in day to day life he can't hear anything. He will be having his Cochlear implant surgery next month. I am not sure of the exact day yet but we go to the Dr on the 16th of Dec to schedule everything. We have high hopes that this surgery will help him hear. To what amount he will hear, I am unsure but the Dr's have high hopes that he should hear at about 80%. He is doing great in his development. He has learned that if we aren't looking at him he need to vocally make a noise to get our attention. He has also learned a few signs. He signs ball, more, cracker, bye bye, hi, and come here. I love seeing him sign, it like hearing him say his first word. L and D are also learning signs but since they can hear, they have picked up the signs a little faster.
The babies are now 17 months old and I don't know were time has flown. L and C are cutting 4 new teeth, two on top and two on bottom. That puts their total up to 16 teeth. D is bringing up the rear with 8 teeth but she is in the process of cutting her jaw teeth so that brings her total to 12.
Well my Husband has taken the boys for the day to watch football at a friend’s house so D and I are off to go Christmas shopping. I am running out of time Eeeeekkkkk.
For those who don't know me I thought I would take this time to introduce myself. My name is Tanna and I have been married to a wonderful man for 5 and a half years. We met when we were both working for a local grocery store over 12 years ago. At the time I was 16 years old and Gary was a little older at 23. For me it was love at first sight, I knew from that moment on I would one day marry Gary. Because of our age difference we didn't have our first date until 3 years later, 2 days before my 19th birthday. After dating for 4 years we married and we started right a way trying to have a baby. Little did we know it wouldn't be as easy to have a baby as we thought. After trying different fertility treatments we found out we were preggers 3 days before Christmas '06. Wow, what a Christmas present. I would have to say it was the best Christmas ever. A few weeks later we found out we were having triplets. We were scared and excited all at the same time. Even though we were scared to have triplets, we were blissfully unaware of how scary a triplet pregnancy could be. I was in an out of the hospital 5 times, with my final stay lasting almost 2 months. In June of '07 we welcomed our babies 11 weeks early. L was first to be born weighing in at 2 lbs 13 oz, C was second to come, weighed 2 lbs 14.4 oz and last was our baby girl D at 2 lbs 10 oz. They were all rushed off to the NICU right after birth and being born at 29 weeks the babies had only an 80% survival rate. The NICU has been described as a rollercoaster ride. We were lucky enough to have a smooth ride, with only a few twists and turns. L had a stay of 40 days while C and D came home after 47 days. Without all the GREAT Doctors and Nurses I don't think my babies would have made it out as healthy as they did. These Doctors and Nurses all hold a very special place in my heart. Today my babies are now 17 months old and you would never know they were born 11 weeks early. They are all healthy and happy babies. L is my sensitive child and has a bit of a biting problem. C, even though has profound hearing loss, is my easy going baby. D is the monkey of the family always getting into something. The Lord has blessed me with a great life and great family. Thanks for stopping by.
Hello, my name is Tanna, I am married to a wonder full man and I'm the mother of BBG triplets. My son was born deaf but now has bilateral cochlear implants. Here is our story.
