As the Bottle Turns

So we've been home for two weeks now and it has gone quickly.  From our moms helping out to the routine that makes time fly, we don't know where the days have gone.  

The kids are doing well.  They are growing, partly due to the juiced-up recipe of formula we're mixing (it has about 25% more calories than breast milk).  Max is over 10lbs, Olivia must be sniffing 7lbs and August is close to 8.  

Mom and dad are doing well, too, and the extra hands have helped. When Grandma Kuhlenbeck and Norris are here, either of us are able to rest, or in my case, go to work.  Night feedings with three adults is a luxury that we won't soon forget.  

Once the grandmas left, we found out how daunting a baby's schedule is times three.  We are undoubtedly fortunate to be on a roughly 4-hour schedule and God bless those who wake up every hour or two with newborns to feed or change.  

The 4-hour schedule, if everything works out, gives us a little down time to do the things we need to make the day work: wash and fill bottles, launder the baby stuff, feed ourselves, and any chores or errands that are left.  Saturday morning, we gave the trio baths and from the 8am feeding plus the baths, 12pm feeding and miscellaneous tasks, we found ourselves immersed in baby until 1pm when we broke for lunch.  

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Kelly and I shared some great times this weekend with the kids - our first Hawkeye game together and our first walk outside. 

The kids didn't know it, but they were being quietly indoctrinated into Hawkeye fandom.  We'll see if it lasts, but Max did look like he enjoyed his #1 Iowa jersey.  

Past Hawk players who wore the #1 jersey?  Tim Dodge (db/wr), Kyle Schlicher (k), Daniel Murray (k) and...that's all I got.  And you're welcome for the cocktail trivia.  I think Kelly would be fine with both boys being kickers if they ever play football!   

Today Team Norris took the triplet stroller on its inaugural journey.  We didn't have any champagne to crack against it, so we took a picture.  

The temperature was a balmy 54 deg, the sun was shining and our kids had on two layers, beany hats and three blankets.  The stroller was great, rolling both on and off road with ease.  At times, rolling on lawns was smoother than the broken sidewalks in our neighborhood.  

How many people stopped us on the walk to check out the kids?  Three.  Actually, only one person we didn't know.  They just came to a complete stop in the middle of the road, a woman got out of the car and was absolutely giddy at the sight of three babies in a stroller.  A quick peak and she hopped back in the car. 

Quick stats from two weeks at home: 

Daily diapers: ~30; two weeks: 420

Daily formula consumption: ~80 oz; two weeks: 8.75 gal

Daily bottles: 18; two weeks: 252

August also goes in for hernia surgery this coming Wednesday.  We're coming home on Thanksgiving day, so keep him in your prayers for a smooth procedure and recovery.  

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Let's go around the table and say what we're thankful for...Kelly and I are thankful for our three babies, our wonderful family and friends and all the blessings God has bestowed on us. 

Now, it's your turn! 

Home Sweet Home

We are finally home.  

After 5 1/2 weeks on bedrest, and 5 weeks in the NICU, Team Norris is back in B-town.  

Kelly jokes that she missed an entire season in the hospital!  It's funny because it's true.  

On November 9, Kelly and I drove back to Burlington from Iowa City in two cars, packed with the miscellany we had accumulated after over 2 months at UIHC, and our three babies.  

It seemed oddly familiar to be home with the trio and we let out a collective sigh of relief to be in our home again.  

The trip wasn't bad - the babies really didn't fuss the entire way.  Once we were home, it was back to the four-hour feeding schedule and we didn't miss a beat.  

Many of you may be wondering how in the h-e-double hockey sticks we take care of three at home.  Kelly and I wonder about how people with four or more babies do it!  

We have a crib downstairs in our living room, with a chest of drawers full of baby accessories - diapers, wipes, clothes, blankets, etc.  Upstairs is the formal nursery with another crib and standard shelves and drawers full of other baby things.  In the nursery we also have a mini-fridge for keeping formula cool, and a crock pot that keeps water warm for late-night bottles.  The kitchen is where we prepare bottles for the day, and wash them.  That's pretty much it.  

Feedings are going well, with the 2am shift being the beast.  We do not want to think about how we will feed every four hours with out our super grandmas' help and Kelly's time off to cushion the fatigue.  Hopefully we'll be on a 5 or 6 hour schedule at that point.  

Grandma Norris has helped out immensely the first week, and it's Grandma Kuhlenbeck's turn next week.  As in basketball, a 3 on 2 fast break favors the offense (or a hockey power play for our northern friends, eh) and with a grandma here we've helped the defense.  Kelly and I better figure out some good defensive strategy soon, because after a few weeks, it's back to 3 on 2!  

The babies are doing well.  Max is up to 8lb 10oz, verified at his appointment today.  That's a 3lb 7oz gain in  6 weeks, or 70 percent increase.  To put this into perspective again, that's like me putting on 140lbs in a month and a half.  Crazy!  

August is now a tick over 6lbs, measured on Monday.  That is a 2lb 7oz gain or a 70 percent increase.  Atta boy.  

Olivia is the undisputed weight gain champ by percent.  She's up to 5 1/2lbs, up 2lb 14oz or a 109 percent weight gain.  That's a full doubling of her birth weight and change.  Kelly snagged a couple of diapers that Olivia wore immediately after birth, and they sell doll diapers bigger than these.  Take a Kleenex, fold it in half lengthwise, shorten it by about three inches and you get the idea. 

Check out the three peas in a crib: 

Thanks to everyone for their emails, cards, gifts, phone calls, visits, prayers and everything else during the past 11 weeks.  Kelly and I are truly thankful to have been blessed with three babies and with so many giving friends, family and co-workers.  

NICU Week 4

Apologies in advance for this quick and thin post. Our family's four-week anniversary in the NICU passed on Friday, and with it came some news and changes, as always.

Maxwell was to be discharged on Saturday, but was delayed until Monday due to a couple breathing spells. He is eating and sleeping well and gaining weight. He is now part of the 7-pound club, coming in at 7lb 3oz as of Sunday night.

Kelly and I will keep our Helen Rossi House room at the hospital and run back and forth from the room to the NICU with Max while we still care for Olivia and August. Only inconvenient thing is Max being discharged with oxygen. He still needs a little so that he doesn't have to work so hard to breathe, and that promotes weight gain. Apparently this strategy has paid dividends for Max.

We'll be discharged with a portable apnea monitor and oxygen tank with regulator. In our more permanent residences (Helen Rossi and Burlington) UIHC Home Care will drop off 175lb oxygen tanks. The portable tank will last us about 16 hours and the larger tanks two weeks. The portable apnea monitor was spared a gory demise this morning....but more on that.

Olivia is surprising us in many ways, mostly because she is still in the isolett and feeding some through her NG tube. We certainly thought with her early progress she was a dark horse to go home first. Not to be! She is still gaining weight, and looking very good at a lean 4lb 8oz. She's just about doubled in size in four weeks! But she is taking the bottle and nursing well, so it's only a matter of time. We think she'll be in at least another week, maybe two.

Next up on the 'going home list' is August. He probably would have gone home Tuesday or Wednesday, but on Sunday night he had a short spell, which spells another five days of monitoring in the NICU! He is off of oxygen, however, which would be a huge bonus if he can stay off it when he is discharged. August is steadily gaining, and tipping the scales at 5lb 8oz. Nearly two pounds heavier than his birthweight of 3lb 9oz.

Kelly and I got our first real dose of late-night partying, baby style on Sunday. Waking up at midnight and 4am to give August and Max their favorite baby cocktail, 27kCal neosure premie formula was, to be expected, tiring.

Max is also on his home monitor, which lets out the most god-forsaken screech this side of the Mississippi. If I had had anything heavier than my shoe at the moment that thing went off, it would have been e-waste headed for the scrap pile. The alarm sounds in cases of apnea, but also when Max's leads are off, and I just about tumbled out of the mutant chair/bed I was sleeping in when the first one sounded. We'll have to check if insurance replaces accidentally damaged monitors.

So Max is officially ours as of later today, and we'll be adjusting to the new 24-hour schedule that baby ownership demands. We were actually really lucky to have had all the sleep in the previous four weeks...so it begins.

More pictures to come.