The Trio Update!

The babies are all doing great. They are still in the NICU, but have come a long way since their birth almost a week ago! They all have their feeding tubes in their noses now. This gives them more freedom to suck on their pacifiers. This is the main thing keeping them from coming home. The doctors and nurses are working to train their strength and coordination to eat from a bottle. Yesterday Katherine got to try the bottle. She did great! She got 7 cc's down, she is an overachiever for her first feeding! Typically preemies get 1-2 on their first go and tend to choke on it, she did not! I told her to tell her brothers how yummy it was so we can get them to try soon!

Campbell and Christian are now co-bedding. They look so content! Before they each had to have their own bed so they could sit under warmers since they are still learning to regulate their own body temps. Katherine should be joining them soon. She has had a little tougher time, but we put socks on her yesterday so maybe this will help. Her little toes are always cold!

I have been home since Monday. It was so hard to leave the kiddos behind, but I know they are in good hands. I realized once I got home that I still have a lot of recovery to do, I am in no shape to take care of a baby much less 3 right now!!! I am trying to get to the NICU daily for several hours. I have just been warned by all the nurses and doctors to be sure and not wear myself out! It is just so hard to stay away from them.

We will post another update later in the week!

Thanks for all of your support, prayers, phone calls, texts, etc....!

Love,
Jennifer and Shelby

THE TRIO IS HERE!

What a crazy couple days. We actually ended up checking into the hospital Wednesday night because we thought my water broke (well, somone's water anyway)! It turned out to be a false alarm, but they let me stay since I had to be back 8 hours later anyway. I think they also felt bad making me move again, I was VERY miserable at this point and was contracting regularly.

The next morning, September 24th, 2009 at our scheduled 9:30 am C-section our 3 little angels entered this world...very quickly I might say!

Baby "A" was born at 9:59 am.
This is Campbell Joseph, 5 lbs 7 oz, 18 inches

Baby "B" was born at 10:00 am.
This is Katherine Emma, 5 lbs 4 oz, 18 inches

Baby "C" was born at 10:00 am
This is Christian Michael, 4 lbs 9 oz, 16.5 inches

They were cleaned up very quickly, said hi to mom and dad then were whisked away to the NICU...without any immediate concerns I might add. After I was "put back together" and spent an hour in recovery they wheeled me into the NICU to check on them. They all needed some extent of breathing assistance at first, but were all taken off as of Friday! As of now they are all ONLY on feeding tubes while they are developing the strength and coordination to suckle. I spent the whole first day in and out of consciousness so I relied on Dad, Nana Jo and Papa to keep an eye on them and give me updates. I did not see them again until Friday afternoon, but came in at the right time...I was the first to be there when they were ready to be held! I just could not believe how big they were! I mean I really had 15 lbs and 4 oz of baby in my belly? Crazy!

I am still in more pain than I ever thought, but am making progress. We continue to check in on them as much as possible, but we are even limited on when we can see and hold them while in the NICU. They expect them to be home in about 2 weeks, but they are progressing even faster than they imagined! I can't really tell who they look like yet, hoping to figure that out soon.

I will update again soon and promise to post pics! I am having trouble with downloading pics right now...sorry!!! Internet is a little slow here. If you have Facebook, there are pics on there! Oh, here is a link my Dad sent, hope you can see this!
http://beta.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=302790419210%3A471022641

Love,
Jennifer and Shelby

The latest news and my Top 10 list!

So today we set a C-section date! This Thursday....YAY! Our little Trio will be born on 9/24. We are both very excited, especially me. My body is saying, IT'S TIME! It is literally falling apart. In fact, I am wondering how I am going to make it to Thursday. This Thursday will be 34 weeks and the babies are all doing great. They will all weigh around 5 lbs (that's 15 lbs of baby folks!) and we cannot wait to meet them! Today the tech told us it looks like the girl (Katherine) has lots of hair! YAY! Bows, bows and more bows! We will definitely get everyone updates and photos as soon as we can. And yes, I promise to take a photo of my GI-NORMOUS belly right before going to the hospital.

I have been thinking about all the things I have missed doing over the last 34 weeks and especially the last 9 weeks while on bed rest. I decided to make the TOP 10 REASONS I CAN'T WAIT TO BE UN-PREGNANT!

10. I can't wait to be able to walk normal!
9. I am so looking forward to running/working out again.
8. Bending over! Any pregnant lady knows how hard this is!
7. NOT having to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes.
6. Not having to shower with my old lady shower seat.
5. Getting kicked! As this can be neat at times, the bigger they get the more it hurts. AND they LOVE to PARTY every night from about 1-3 am!
4. Margarita's!
3. Sleeping while actually lying down.
2. Sleeping in my own bed...I have been on the couch for MONTHS!
1. Getting my waistline back...eventually!

I am so just happy that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We will be in touch!

Love,
Jennifer and Shelby

We have Three 4 Up WOGS!

So it is just a family joke since we are in the chicken business. A WOG is a whole chicken (without giblets) and they are classified by weight. My dad keeps saying I am having Three 4 up WOGS and I am welcome to take some home from the plant to practice diapering and such. :) NO THANKS!

Anyway, on Wednesday I went to my high risk doctor and everything looked great. The babies all weighed over 4 lbs and looked good. I seem to be hanging in there too, although I told him I though 9/9/09 would be a pretty cool birth date. He looked at me like I had two heads and said, "but that is TODAY???" I guess that is a NO? He really wants me to get to 34 weeks and then he is going to be pretty much over me. At this point even if I went into labor they would not try and stop it. He just said with two more weeks it could really help with any breathing or feeding issues. OK, I guess I am in! I am really trying to hang in there, but "it is just hard and I do not like doing things that are hard!" (That is a direct quote from my sister!) I now start seeing my high risk doctor every week to make sure no one goes into distress, if so, they will do an immediate C-section. Now that they are getting big they don't want them to run out of room!

I go back to my regular doctor on Monday, I will post any updates then. As for now, I am SOOOO happy it is Football season! Lots more to watch on the weekend. Although, I have the ONLY husband in the world that does not like sports. Doesn't he realize that other guys would kill for a girl like me? So, GO CATS and GEAUX TIGERS!

DON'T FORGET.....FLU SHOTS PEOPLE!!!! :)

Love,
Jen and Shelby

....and released!!!

I get to go home! They checked me all out today and everything is stable even with a slight improvement with my cervix. Good stuff! I am 31 weeks tomorrow which is huge....they are happy with the growth of the babies and how I am holding up...considering it is 3 babies and all. We will all breath a sigh of relief at 32 weeks and at 34 if I cry hard enough they may take them out. I will just have to see just how miserable I am. I know the longer the better, but this is tough! I did get two rounds of steroids to help with the lungs in case they surprise us all and change our time line plans. The steroids should last a couple weeks so that makes us all feel better. They will measure them again on Wednesday so I will have a better idea of their estimated weight. So good reports all around! I have to say my stay here at Medical City was great!!! The staff here is great and the food isn't so bad. If any of you out there end up in my shoes, not such a bad gig. I just wish Sammie could come with me and they would have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming!!!

Thanks so much for all the e-mails, prayers, calls and visits. Will update after my appointment Wednesday or earlier if anything unexpected happens. HAPPY LABOR DAY!

Love,
Jen and Shelby

It was inevitable...

Here is a photo of me right before I have to be admitted into the hospital on Monday. I AM GINORMOUS!!! I am here for sure until Wednesday and on Wednesday they will determine my fate from there. My cervix just got too thin, anything below a 20 is considered the "red zone" and I measured at an 18 today. I guess the boluder I have been carrying around got a little too heavy! They also did an FFN test and I tested positive. FFN is some test that shows if some protein is present in your body that often shows up about 2 weeks prior to your body going into labor. I know I am full of scientific details, but what can I say? I sell chicken!!! :) I doesn't guarantee I will go into labor, it just helps determine the next course of action. I was given a steroid shot today and will get another one tomorrow. This will help develop the baby's lungs if they were to insist on coming here pretty soon!!! I am 30 weeks and 5 days today so we are doing pretty good considering the size of the litter! Obviously, the longer they hang with me the better!

I am doing OK, I had a feeling this was coming so I was mentally prepared. I just feel bad for my little Sammie, he was loving bed rest!!! All the nurses have been really nice though and I am loving room service!!!!

Will keep everyone updated, but it is just a sit and wait now. OH, I should add to make sure and get your flu shot!!! My pediatrician is insisting that I only allow visitors who have had their flu shot once the babies are here since they will be preemies!

Love,

Jen and Shelby