3 Peas in a Pod

Who is Who? Can you tell?
Their favorite night nurse, Tracy, took these snapshots of the girls.

So peaceful.....


Party time!



The girls have made some amazing strides in the last several days. All 3 are in open air cribs and all 3 are eating from a bottle on their own, so no more feeding tubes! They are mastering the 3 things they need to do before they can come home - eat from a bottle exclusively, maintain their own temperature and breathe on their own. The babies have small boughts of apnea (just like adults get sleep apnea where their heart rate drops) every once in a while, so once they are apnea-free for 5 days, they can come home! They seem to have their own little competition going as to who will come home first...hopefully our little over-achievers don't wind up all coming home at the same time!!!

Here are some recent weights on the girls:
Sasha - 3 lbs. 14 oz.
Anna & Josephine - 3 lbs. 12 oz.


In case anybody is interested in Luke and I (ha-ha) - we're doing good. I'm feeling much more like myself and have been able to do more around the house to get it ready for the big homecoming. Luke has been back at work for a couple of weeks and will take his 3 week paternity leave when the girls all come home. Tomorrow is his 34th birthday, so we're going to go out for a quiet dinner - just the two of us. We need to take advantage of these last few days of peace and quiet! I'm going to see the Sex and the City movie on Saturday night and I know it will be one of the last movies I go out to see for a long time!

Who is who in the pictures? Left to right - Josephine, Sasha, Anna

10 Days Old - Can You Believe It?!

Anna, Sasha, and Josephine are 10 days old today...it's hard to believe!

They are doing awesome and making great strides. Luke and I are truly lucky and truly blessed.

The reigning heavy weight is Sasha coming in at 3lbs. 8 oz. followed by Josephine at 3 lbs. 5.5 oz and following close behind is Anna at 3 lbs. 5 oz.

They are all taking a bottle - Sasha is definitely excelling at eating and hasn't had a tube feeding since yesterday! Anna and Josephine are definitely getting the hang of it too and don't like to be upstaged by their sister.

The nurses and doctors at Evanston Northwestern Hospital (ENH) are incredible and we're so happy our girls are getting such great care. We wonder if any of the girls will want to go to Northwestern since they've been spending so much time in Evanston. If so, we hope she gets a scholarship!!

Here are some recent pics for your enjoyment:

Josephine's first smile...or maybe it's just gas?!

Daddy feeding Sasha

Anna says, "Ahhhh...I could get used to this!"

Hello to everyone! It's great to be back online! Thanks to you all for you thoughts, prayers, support, phone calls and emails over the last few days. I apologize if I haven't gotten back to you..give me a few days and I hope to have all communications returned!

I was discharged from the hospital yesterday and am feeling pretty decent (thank goodness for pain pills!) It was much harder to leave the hospital than I ever thought it would be. We know the girls are in excellent hands, but it was still tough to leave them. We made a trip back to see them first thing this morning and everybody is doing great. They are up to 15cc's every feeding (they started out at 3 cc's) and are tolerating it well.

Luke and I are so grateful to you all and please keep our little ones in your prayers!


Josephine hanging out with Mommy.

Sasha enjoying a warm, restful nap!

Anna loves hanging out with Daddy!

The triplets DO make an early entrance!!!

Hi everyone!

I'm (Luke) taking over the blog! Don't worry, it is on a temporary basis. Your regularly scheduled writer will return soon.

Well, they're here! I think I emailed everyone in the last day or two about our wonderful news. Or, you were able to find out through our families. If I haven't, I apologize.

Just a recap: After about 12 hours of labor, Becky delivered our 3 princesses on Monday, May 12th at an even 31 weeks. We were hoping for a few more weeks, but the girls had their own ideas. Baby A's water broke on Monday morning precipitating the flurry of activity. (I guess we know who is going to rule the roost!) Here are the vitals:

Anna McKenzie (Baby A), 5:10pm, 2 lb, 15 oz
Sasha Kathleen (Baby B), 5:11pm, 3 lb, 2 oz

Josephine Janina (Baby C), 5:12pm, 3 lb, 3.5 oz

Becky had a C-section and it went very well. No complications. This was Becky's first time going into surgery and she performed wonderfully. She was a champ and I'm very proud of her! The girls are doing well. They are breathing on their own which is wonderful news, since babies born this premature have respiratory difficulties and usually need help. Their first night went equally well. Today, they had their first feeding through a feeding tube, about 3 cc each.

They will probably stay in the hospital until they get to their original due date which is July 14. However, if they continue to do well, they may be able to come home eariler. Also, they probably won't all come home at the same time. They usually stagger them...mostly for the parents' sake. I can't imagine bringing home 3 babies at the same time. We are very fortunate that the trips are off to a good start. We pray that they continue to do well and hope that their hospital stay is short.

Here are some pictures:

Josephine, our "biggest" baby.

Josephine settling into her new temporary home.

Sasha chilling out.

Sasha already took a pacifier...but spit it out soon after.And finally, our little troublemaker who started Monday's activities, Anna.We thought the McMahon chin would skip a generation. We weren't that lucky! Poor Anna.

The triplets are trying to make an early entrance!

Well, we've had some excitement the last few days..... I went in for my doctor's appointment on Weds and found out I was 3 cm dialated and having contractions every 2 minutes (which I couldn't feel). They whisked me over to the woment's hospital into labor and delivery and I underwent a bunch of tests and they decided to admit me into the hospital for a couple of days. It was a little scary at first because they were talking like they might have to do an emergency c-section and to make matters worse, Luke was in Louisville trying to make his way home to Chicago. Luckily my mom was with me, but it definitely wasn't the same. Poor guy, I felt worse for him than me...I at least knew what was going on - he was stuck in an airport delayed because of weather. Good news is that they didn't have to deliver the babies.

So, I'm now on stricter bedrest, which I actually welcome wholeheartedly. For a while there it looked like I was going to have to stay in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy, which really would have stunk (no wireless internet access!!!) Basically this level of bedrest means that they want me to stay on the floor of the house that has a bathroom and to either be laying down on my side or sitting in a reclining position. No more going up and down stairs, getting my own food, etc. Luckily I can take a 5 minute shower every day - compared to other stories I've heard of people on bed rest, this is definitely not that bad.

Needless to say both Luke and I are exhausted, but happy that I'm home and we are all just keeping our fingers crossed that we can keep the buns in the oven for a few more weeks!

Visitors

Last week brought lots of visits from various family and friends. I can't tell you how much I appreciate these visits - especially with gas prices being the way they are!

Jen came down (again!) and brought Taylor and Drew with her this time. It was great to see them, but Aunt Becky isn't much fun just sitting around with her feet up, so about an hour into their visit they asked if Grandma could come over to play! I got on the phone with my mom and of course, within a few minutes she was over playing hide and go seek and took the kids to the park. This gave Jen and I some quiet time to talk...she's a wealth of information and I'm slowly starting to feel a little bit prepared for this whole adventure.

Taylor and Drew are quite a pair!

My biased opinion...they're too cute!

That's our Drew!

Katie, Mike and Ellie were down over the weekend. We got lots of Ellie time and she even warmed up to Luke by the end of the visit! She's a cutie, although watching her on the move around our house makes me wonder how we're going to handle 3 little girls running around the house - yikes!!

Looks like Luke is a natural!

I've had enough!