Thursday Update (I need to come up with a better word for these posts)

"...No eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him"

(1 Corinthians 2:9, NLT)

Lots going on of course..

I'll start with a short story...

We spent the day with the girls and then went to dinner before bath time, weighing time and the last feeding before heading home. When we were at the light getting ready to turn back into the hospital four fire trucks and police cars went flying into the premise of the hospital and as much as I thought, it can't be the hospital they are all rushing to is it...it WAS! We pulled up and firemen were rushing into the building, equipment on and hoses out...HELLO, I completely freaked out and practically ran into the hospital with all the alarms going off. Tim, being a fireman and EMT himself for a few years, did not think this was very smart, and especially since I jumped right on the elevator (I KNOW--STUPID, but if this place was burning down, I was going to go save my children and I did not have time to look for the freakin stairs...I think I was having a panic attack in the elevator and when it opened to the third floor, and everyone was just sitting around, paying no attention to anything or even know that there were numerous fire trucks outside and men running into the building with hoses, made me feel better. As long as I made it to my girls, I was ok. And within ten minutes or so, the alarms stopped and this little voice came over the system and said, "code red has been lifted"...Geeze, I'm SO glad everyone was SO worried. Blew my mind. But then it opened up all these questions and the nurse probably thought I was a nut case. I'm asking things like, what do you do if there is a fire, what do you do if there is a gunman...she was sweet and actually made me feel comfortable, but can you imagine what went through my head there for a few minutes!?!?!

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Anyway....

The girl's had a pretty good day yesterday. They were still pretty tired most of the day but did much better on their feedings throughout the day. When I seem to be their giving them their bottles or other certain, ahem, more experienced nurses, they tend to eat a lot better than when I'm not their or they have the "rookie cops" as Tim calls the less experienced nurses. This somewhat makes me a little upset because of course I want them to eat from their bottle and not "get tubed" as another reference stated from Tim. Madelynn was up to 28cc's, Claire was up to 32cc's (just over 1 WHOLE ounce) and Natlaee is at 15cc's. They are got some boobie time yesterday and Claire is a CHAMP. She has quite the suction, let me tell you! She just does so well. Natalee also does really well too, and Madelynn just like to lick and somewhat feel around to see if she is going to take it or not. She will come around. The nurses said by 34 week (next Tuesday--MY BIRTHDAY) they should really be sucking great!

Last night I got to give Madelynn and Claire baths all by myself. I can even go and take them out of their "homes" by myself now, which is wonderful.  Madelynn did great on her second bath and so did Claire. Claire barely cried at all. They are the sweetest things.

Madelynn and Claire also weight exactly the same amount, 1650 or 3lbs. 10 ounces. Natalee is at 1230, which is 2lbs. 11 ounces. SO they are definitely growing back up to their birth weights!

Natalee has had some blood in her stool (yesterday, haven't checked in today, waiting for feeding time to be over before I call and check on them) and so the nurse said it could be an infection (insert--crazy new mom who had to sit down before I freaking lost it) or a fisher on her bottom, which thank heavens was all it was. Hopefully today it will be better. To think something is wrong with her breaks my heart. They said it could just be something that upset in tummy and since she was pooping a lot, it just irritated her, but still I was freaking out. They are going to watch it and see if maybe it is something I am eating, sometimes they see this in babies who become lactose intolerant, which does run in both sides of our family, very heavily. She does not seems bothered by it at all and is still very, very active and squiggling all over the place!

Both Madelynn and Claire and IV free and only on the little sticky things for heart rate, breathing and pulse ox. We couldn't be happier! They will get their little piggy toes painted today so we don't get them confused as they continue to grow. Since we have our own little suite in the NICU now, the twins can get confused when we bring them to be held away from their "homes". (I can tell them apart, but they want to make sure everyone else can)

We took some video of them yesterday at one week old, but it was dark in the room and you couldn't see them very well, so we are getting more of them today.

My Grandma also came to see them for the first time yesterday which was wonderful! She got very emotional (these are her only great-grand children and probably will only be). I love that my grandma, who I'm super close with can be a part of this. It's something I always wanted and thought about many times as I was growing up.

We plan on spending all day with the girls today and into 2011. Last year on New Year's Eve, we spent the evening at our friends house and joked with everyone that we thought we were pregnant (since ya know IUI's work on the first try...right??) and so I didn't dare drink anything and when Tim's best friend, Nathan came in, we said, guess what, were having triplets, and everyone laughed. Nathan was sure surprised but then of course we let him in that it was a joke. AND so this year, as tonight approaches, Tim and I laugh at that joke we teased everyone with last year, and to our surprise that is just what God was planning for us. 

Happy New Year to all and many wishes to you are your loved ones all the year through!