Another Photo Shoot

A new photo shoot by Reyanna ( Rey of Light)

http://itsazombielife.blogspot.com/

3 months old

Ashlynn

Hunter

Kristner

Rey is really becoming a great photographer and I'm lucky to have her as a sister.  Pretty soon she's going to start charging me.

Thank you sis for my beautiful pictures!

12 Weeks!

Precious little monsters.  They already have personalities.  Ashlynn is our screaming princess.  Hunter requires his pacifier.  Kristner and Ashlynn must be swattled.  Hold them all upright while they eat or they will spit it all up.  The boys are laid back while Ashlynn is plotting something; she can’t put words together yet, but you see her wheels turnin’.

As they grow bigger, they are still small little things.  

The cargo is precious and the patience must be never ending; three little ones at one time or another requiring your attention all at once.  You feel bad when your hands are full with one while another seems to be crying hysterically because they think they are going to starve if you don’t stick a bottle in their mouth at once.

They all seem to require some little extra something; like Hunter’s reflux demands we be extra careful during feeding and diaper rashes that blister before going away and Kristner’s neck that only wants to lean to the left.  All need special attention to detail for one or two particular little things but so small that we really could not ask for better. 

The babies only cry when something is wrong.  Better find that something before they all wake up, though.  Happy little monsters.

THE TRIPLETS ARE HOME!!!!

As most of you know THE TRIPLETS ARE HOME!!!! Although they didn’t come home together they are ALL finally home and doing fantastic!!! The only reason the babies had to stay in the hospital was to learn how to eat from a bottle. That from what I found that was a very difficult task and took them longer than I hoped to get down. But in reality I could not ask for more… I had three very healthy babies. I made it about a month longer than most people with triplets. The average is about 30 weeks and I made it to 34 ½!!! The babies were only on oxygen for a day and a half and had no other medical issues. We had one scare with Kristner but soon found that everything was fine (the longest 6 hours of my life!!!) The babies are now 5 weeks old already!!! The first to come home was Ashlynn (everyone expected that!!!) the nurses call all boys wimpy white boys because they all seem to come home last. When she was born she was 4lbs 3oz and now at 5 weeks old she’s our biggest baby at 6lbs 15oz. Ashlynn was in the hospital for three weeks and one day. The first night home went great. The next day our little Hunter came home. When he was born he was 4lbs 6oz and he is now 6lbs 8oz trying hard to catch up to his sister. And a very LONG week later Kristner came home at 3 weeks and 1 day. When Kristner was born he was our littlest at 4lbs 1oz (I blame it on him being squished on the bottom) now at 5 weeks he is still the littlest at 6lbs 2oz. When Hunter came home having  2 babies here was cake!!!! But when Kristner came home it got a little more hectic. Thank goodness we had plenty of help!!! A HUGE THANK YOU to my mom who came out and stayed with us for 5 WEEKS!!! ( we all only thought she would last 2-3 weeks away from dad ) She was a tremendous help!!! She did whatever we needed including feeding a screaming baby, doing laundry, cooking meals and spoiling Melissa with incredible sweets!!! Now that mom has gone home and Melissa is back to work its just me and the babies alone all day and its hectic at times (usually only when they all want to eat at the same time) but its manageable. I even get out a few times a week to run errands like going to the mail, going shopping, go to the cousins baseball games, we even did the march of dimes walk with my co-workers. Even though that’s a lot of work to load up three babies to go places life does not stop and the kiddos should not have to miss out on anything just because it’s a hard task. Besides just the reaction from people when you are pushing a triple stroller is SO worth it!!! The babies have grown SO much in the last 5 weeks. Here’s a few pictures we have taken along the way…

Three days before Delivery!!!

What it takes to go to a baseball game!!!

We love our Boppys!!!

Ready to go!!!

Sweet Dreams

Grandma Loves Us!!!

My SUPER TALENTED sister got to do the triplets first mini photo shoot. Here’s how it turned out…

Ashlynn (5weeks)

 

Ashlynn (stole it from facebook with my phone)

Hunter (5weeks)

Hunter

Kristner (5weeks)

Kristner

Guess thats all for now!!! XOXO

Happy Birthday: Our Day Has Come!

April 6th, 2011  -  The moment we were waiting for has finally come.  Three little ones, so anticipated, have now come into the world.

At just 34 weeks and 4 days, Kristner Zane, Ashlynn Presley and Hunter Thomas are all doing great.

It was an amazing experience when Melissa and Mom got to be in the delivery room for the special occasion.   Melissa got to go immediately with the babies while Mom stayed with me for a bit.  They both had a senior moment when they got caught up in the moment and forgot to begin taking pictures of Kristner, as the first to come.  Mom got to go see the babies shortly after while they patched me up.  It was a few hours later when I finally got to see my precious ones.

Kristner at 12:58 pm,  4 lbs 1 oz,  16.5’’ 

 

Ashlynn 1:00 pm,  4 lbs 3 oz,  17.5’’

Hunter at 1:01 pm,  4 lbs 6 oz,  16.5’’

With Ashlynn staying well ahead of the boys during most of the pregnancy, she is the healthiest without needing much oxygen and is feeding right away.  Both boys are on oxygen but doing amazingly well.  Kristner is a little behind with maintaining on his own but not by far and is catching up.
Ashlynn and Hunter are dark haired beauties while Kristner is blonde as can be.  Their eyes seem to sparkle the short time they are open.

Day 2 brought more joy as we finally got to hold Ashlynn, the healthiest of them all.  We also had the added joy of changing two of the baby’s diapers and holding the feeding tube for two feedings and take their temperatures.

We like to thank everyone for the prayers, well-wishes and visits.  It’s amazing how much love and support has been shown by everyone.   We love you all.

Hatched By 2 Chicks soon to be 2 Prince's and A Princess

The shower this past weekend was wonderful.  The food, the family and friends made for the most exciting welcoming of our new family. Our hosts were amazing as well as the food and decorations.  A most special thanks to Reyanna and Sheila for a magnificent welcoming feeling.  They not only shared in the hosting and celebration and work to put this wonderful event together but they were such amazing hosts that I felt like everyone was welcomed to the event as part of the family and not just as friends or co-workers.  The best baby shower I ever attended, but I'm probably biast. LOL

Marks Amazing Brushetta

Fruit Platter given to us by Itialian American Social Club

Beautiful cake made by Shiela

Wonderful treat table set up so that everyone could take home a goodie bag from the babies!!!

Some of the decorations made by Reyanna  

Thanks to all that came to welcome our new family.  Everyone that did come or planned to come or couldn't come because of other things going on; we love you all and know that you hold a special place in our hearts.

To Mom that showed up as a surprise just to be with us on our special day, your gift of cherished blankets will be a special gift we will keep all our lives but so will the thought of how special your gift was that flew out for a special surprise on a wonderful day that meant so much to both of us that even now, I can't believe how fortunate I am to have the most amazing Mother in the world.

Ashlynn's Carebear Blanket

To my Dad and Kevin who couldn't be with us, you made a special sacrifice by letting Mom come to be with us during this very special occasion that I love you more than ever before.  Not only did you let her leave your side to be with us a few special days, but you will be doing it again very soon so that she can be by my side during my c-section.  A special thanks for your heartfelt gift of love to us.

While mom was here she got to experience one of our doctor appointments. Although we didn’t get any additional pictures because it was just a monitoring appointment, we did have a few fun little things happen. Mom got to see a quick ultrasound and during it she got to see Ashlynn with the hiccups and Hunter opening and closing his eyes. But the best part of all is when the doctor came in while we were doing the heart monitoring and asked if we wanted to set the date for the C-Section!!! Before I could even answer mom had said YES!!! So the date is set for April 6th, 2011 they will do an amnio on the 5th to make sure that we have lung development and as long as it all comes back ok then we will deliver on the 6th. Mom was also able to ask if I could have 2 people back during my C-Section but the doctor said its not up to him but he will try and sneak her back there... Well guess that’s all for now!!! Thanks again to everyone for their generosity, love and support!!! It means more than you will ever know!!!

29 WEEK DR. APPOINTMENT

The time is near!!!  We had our 29 week Dr. appointment. Everyone is doing GREAT!!! My hopes for a natural “vaginal” delivery are dwindling down to nothing. The stipulations on a vaginal delivery with triplet’s  is that Kristner (Baby A) has to be the biggest baby and has to be head down also known as the vertex position.  So as of right now its looking like a C-section.  But I don’t mind as long as they are here safe and sound!!!

Kristner (Baby A) is currently 2lbs 13oz and in the Breech position (Butt down), Ashlynn (Baby B) is 3lbs and ready to go in the Vertex position (Head down), and Hunter (Baby C) is 2lbs 11oz in the Vertex position (Head down). The average weight for a single baby around 29 weeks should be 2lbs 6oz so we are ahead of the weight class still!!! And I’m hoping to keep it that way!!! The Dr. says that they are all actively practicing their breathing which is great!!! That hopefully means less time in the NICU. He is saying that in a couple weeks we will look at a calendar and set the date (between 34-35 weeks) as long as I don’t go in to labor or have any issues come up before then… If I can make it to 34-35 weeks (April 2-15) he says that their NICU stay should not be too long. Just long enough to make sure they are eating on their own and gaining weight. The average is only a week!!! That’s going to be the hard part for me!!! I can’t stand the thought of leaving them in the hospital (even though my house is only 10 min away) or seeing them with any tubes on their fragile little bodies.

Now that they are getting big I am finding it harder and harder to breathe!!! I get out of breath just standing sometimes!!! And when it comes to sleep I have my good days and bad days!!! As long as I can get all the pillows propped up right I sleep great!!! But sometimes it’s just not possible and I find a couch is sometimes better!!!  

The bigger they get the harder it is to get good ultrasound pictures of them but here are a few...

Hunter's Profile

Ashlynn's Profile

We could not get any good pictures of Kristner this time!!! But we did get this cute little video of Ashlynn playing with her tongue!!!

Now that we are almost a month away I have gone to twice a week monitoring!!!  I now have to go every Friday and every Tuesday!!! They will just be checking for heartbeats and tracking their heart rates as well as my blood pressure and blood sugar… They will do just a quick ultra sound along with it but we will more than likely not get any pictures… They will do another big ultrasound in 4 weeks on the 29^th to measure them and check their weight gain again… 

25 Week Doctor Appointment

So we had our 25 week doctor appointment today… Everyone is doing great!!! I call them my little piglets!!! I still have not gained ANY weight!!!! However each of them is up one pound!!! At our last visit the doctor compared them to cans of coke.  Baby A and Baby C weighed 12 ounces and Baby B weighed 13 ounces… This visit ALL three of them weighed 1 pound and 11 ounces!!! So they are growing like crazy!!! The doctor was VERY surprised… He said that he has never had triplets all the same size before!!! Here is the pictures from today’s ultrasounds there are a few are a few that are rather funny…

All Three!!! They finally lined up so that we could have a picture of their three little heads!!!

Baby A - Kristner Zane

Baby B - Ashlynn Presley

Baby C - Hunter Thomas

Kristner's Profile

Ashlynn's Profile

Hunter Yawning

We laughed SO hard when we saw this!!! Its Hunter kicking Ashlynn in the head!!!! They are fighting already!!!!

He is still saying that I will deliver between 34-35 weeks so only about 9 more weeks to go!! However that’s only if things keep going as great as they have been lately… If for some reason I develop high blood pressure or gestational diabetes (all the things that can go along with a high risk pregnancy) then we will have to play it by ear and it could be sooner but for now were looking at the beginning of April!!! Our next appointment is just a general office visit in 2 weeks (Feb. 14^th) and our next ultrasound is in 4 weeks (Feb 28^th) let’s hope for another pound or pound and a half!!! Ok maybe I’m getting greedy lol Until next time!!!! Stay safe everyone!!!!

How our Journey Began

So everyone has been wondering where our fertility journey began…  Rather that explain it 100 times I decided we would start this blog and update it after our dr appointments… I met Melissa in 2006 and in 2007 we decided we wanted to start a family.  At the time we were living in Texas. We found a fertility dr and started the process of IUI also known as Artificial Insemination. After spending a thousand dollars on medications (our insurance covered the procedures) we did two cycles both with a negative result.  Giving up hope for the time being we ended up moving to Kentucky when the company Melissa was working for closed. At that time I went to work for a bank’s call center in Kentucky we had great insurance and I had high hopes that we could try again. However the insurance company would not approve me to use the fertility benefits because I was not “declared infertile” my only problem was that I had a same sex partner. And I guess to them that was not a valid problem. So knowing that paying out of pocket was out of the question since it runs about $10,000 every time you try we tried not to think about it and knew it would happen when the time was right. We spent a year in Kentucky and then headed back to Las Vegas!!! After we got to Vegas we did about 2-3 more cycles of IUI and STILL NOTHING!!!! But soon after getting back to Vegas I went back to work for the same bank that declined me fertility coverage in Kentucky. I decided to find a new Dr and see if they could figure out what was wrong and why IUI would not work… After explaining to my new gynecologist the issues that we have had the last few years she ordered several very painful tests they found that my “tubes” are not round and smooth. They are jagged and full of fluid. This not only explains the reason I could not get pregnant but also posed a HIGH risk for an ectopic pregnancy (where the egg implants in the tube instead of the uterus and if not caught can be fatal to both mother and child) So I was sent to a fertility specialist with the recommendation that my tubes be removed and that pregnancy must be achieved thru IVF             (In vitro Fertilization) Knowing that my insurance declined me before I decided to call them one more time. Much to my surprise they approved me to use my fertility benefits. This time I was approved because I had a “valid” issue with my tubes that would not allow me to get pregnant naturally. The fertility dr saw no reason to have my tubes removed because according to her there was not very much fluid in my tubes and that everything should be fine. Taking her advice we moved forward with IVF. We went thru our first IVF cycle in May of 2010 (transferring 2 embryos) with high hopes we waited for our results. The day finally came and the results were negative. Trying not to appear to let down (of course I was) I said let’s do it again. So in July we did our 2^nd cycle (again 2 embryos) with another negative result!!! I lost all hope and did not want to do it again. The shots were insane!!! It even got to where it hurt to walk, sit, lay, because I had knots the size of a softballs in my butt!!! Knowing that our fertility benefits had a lifetime max and that we were quickly approaching the end of them. We decided to do one last try in August and use the last 4 of our embryos. A total of about 257 shots later (the total from all three cycles) The waiting game started again and seemed like forever!!! This time I caved and bought a home pregnancy test. I took the first test and I thought I saw a VERY faint line. So the next day I took another then another!!! Each time the line got a little darker!!! I wanted to tell everyone!!!! But I knew I couldn’t!!! I waited till the blood test came back and this time it was positive!!!! So excited I tried to call mom (she has to be the first to know…right!!) So holding in my good news I called her and got no answer!!!! I called again and again!!! No answer I had to hold my news in for 2 hours waiting for her to call me back!!! Once I was able to tell her I knew it could now be announced to everyone else… Everyone was super excited!!!

                     

The next thing we had to wait for was to find out how many embryos took…. A LONG 10 days later we went for our first ultrasound… I think Melissa about fainted when the dr said all 4 embryos took!!!  Knowing that there is still a high chance of miscarriage in IVF patients we were monitored very close. At about week 7 we found that one of the embryos was not developing at the same rate as the others and by about week 9 it disappeared all together.  It was not considered a miscarriage because it never developed in the first place. So its triplets for us!!!! As of right now they are all doing great and we are having 2 boys and 1 girl. We think we have names picked out but you never know it could change. As for now its Kristner Zane, Ashlynn Presley, And Hunter Thomas. I am now at 25 weeks and they say they are going to deliver me between 34-35 weeks (as soon as lung development has occurred) I will update our blog after each of our appointments with pictures and ultrasounds starting Monday. Hope this answers most everyone’s questions just let me know if you have more!!!