Wild Weekend!!

First, and most importantly, the babies are perfectly fine! They enjoyed a rather calm weekend truthfully. It was their Mommy who had the wild weekend...and it started right around 6 on Friday. Out of no where I got really hot and sick while visiting the babies and was in horrible pain. Came home, talked to the doc and decided to just kinda take it easy and see what happens. After more sickness on Saturday and Saturday night Joseph took me to Urgent Care first thing Sunday morning, they sent us to the ER and it was determined that the gall bladder had to come out. Monday morning at 9 surgery started, the gall bladder is gone, I am at home now and feel 100% better. Apparently gall bladder issues after delivery are very common, so this wasn't too outta whack...not even for me!

And while I am here, I figured I better update on the babies and I have made some changes to "The Triple Crown" in hopes of getting more people interested. Babies first of course...they are all still doing awesome. They are in big girl and big boy beds maintaining their own body temps. They are also taking all of their feedings, often times more then they need. They are pooping. They are almost completely ready to come home...just two more little obstacles in our way, and one is going to prove tougher then the other. They have to pass their car seat test (I don't even know how they are going to fit in the car seat they are so small!) and they have to eat from a bottle using a full term nipple. Last week we had been switching them back and forth and I felt this wasn't working and asked them to just use the preemie nipple and let them eat and get the hang of it. Today we are going to move up to the next size and hang here for a few days. Then hopefully we can move up to the full term nipple. Needless to say...they are headed in the right direction and we are pretty close to home! Which is mind blowing, but I can't wait to have them home and here and begin our life as a family! It is going to happen soon...how soon, well we will just have to see, which leads me right into....

The Triple Crown Event...which sounded a lot better in my head I guess. I just wanted to find a creative way to raise money for Families of SMA in Memory of Jackson and thought the coming home guessing game would be great...I have only had one participant and I hope more of you join in. I know I gave you until this evening to get your pick in so we still have time! I am going to change up the rules a little bit though and go with this...make any size donation to Families of SMA and you get 1 pick on when the babies are coming home. Simple enough?! I hope more of you can join in the game and give even just a little to Families of SMA...can you believe it has been 3 years since Jackson passed away and they still need our help in finding a cure for this horrible disease. I hope you will help if you can! And a big shout out to Michelle and Adam for their awesome donation. I will fill in your guesses on the calendar and get the calendar posted soon!

And now I am off to put my feet up. Though I feel so much better I am still pretty swollen and need to get off of my feet. Thanks for sharing in our journey! As always,

please Remember Jackson!

All my love...Nichole

And no post is complete without a picture or two right?!

One week old party in Claire's big girl bed. Claire, Abby and Brayden!

And who doesn't love some little piggies?!

1 Week Old and The Hedgepeth Triple Crown Event

Oh my gosh...the babies are a week old already! I can not beleive how fast that first week went, and I even know how life in the NICU is and how fast it goes. Those babies are truely amazing and a gift sent straight from heaven above, as I cry writing that. I never thought that I would be able to look at them and love them as much as I do, but boy oh boy was I wrong. And then to watch Joseph with them...that's a whole box of tissues right there.

I first have to say thank you to all of you for supporting us these last 3 years, first with our battle against SMA and loving Jackson Cole so much, so much that we let him go, to keeping these triplets in until almost 33 weeks (which they will not say, 1 day away and they keep calling them 32 weekers). It is just amazing how well they are doing and I know it is because of all the love they feel and know is out there for them...

So...how are those babies doing you ask?! I keep saying amazing, but I can't think of another word. They are now 7 days old completely off all tubes and IV's (except their leads which monitor their heart and breathing rate while in their house, when we hold them these aren't even on them...it's our eyes that do that job). They are up to full feeds (28mL) and eat every three hours. Right now they are letting them eat as much (or little sometimes) as they want to see how close they are to that 28. If they can get their calories, gain weight and meet their goal for the day then they are in an awesome spot. In other words, in one feeding if they only take 20 mL but the next time they take 40 mL that's a total of 60 mL and they need to have at least 56 mL between those two feedings so they hit their goal. Now if they took 20 and 20, well that's only 40 and we aren't there. Make sense?! Another issue right now is maintaining body temps...which they are actually doing and could be moved into a bed, BUT considering they are only 7 days old, 32 weekers and working on feeding they are staying in the isolettes for now so they do not have to work as hard at keeping their temp up and feeding. Feeding is more important right now, so that is what we are focusing on. All in all, they say the babies could come home within the next couple of days to 2, 3, 4 weeks, it's just a wait and see kind of plan. We should also be expecting set backs at this point...I don't think these babies know the word failure so we are just going to keep chugging along and see what happens!

Quick update on Mom and Dad...I think Joseph is wearing himself thin being wrapped around not 1, not 2 but 3 little fingers already. They cry he runs and picks them up, end of story (we may have to start working on that!). He is still working full time right now (he was there for the delivery and took some days this week to help me get settled back at home). He will being taking time off when they come home, but probably only a week and saving a week for "vacation" sometime in the next 18 years! Me...well I am all swelled up again as we like to say. I gave birth to 11 pounds of baby and I'm down 5 pounds...those don't add up to me! I am back on Lasix and Dr. Hilton has asked me very nicely to go on bedrest, which I am trying to do. Just since being up 1.5 hours the swelling which had gone down nicely in my belly over night is already starting to come back. So...I am really taking it easy and have even conseeded to the wheelchair while at the hospital...the things we do for babies! Hopefully after a few days I'll look like a normal person again!

Each week I plan on updating about the babies and if one is off then I will update as needed about him/her. Right now they are all at the same spot and doing their thing. In honor of them coming home this month I decided to do a little contest. You can find information about the Hedgepeth Triple Crown over to the right, over there ------>. I will also try to end each post with some pictures from the week, but you can always see daily pictures on Facebook...are we friends?! I really hope that you check out the Hedgepeth Triple Crown...it's not what you are expecting I am sure. And if you can support our little idea, well thank you, and if you can't, I understand that too. So here are the pictures from our first seven days...

Friday...hello world! All I know is Abby has the A on her hat and I just noticed for the first time the 3 nurses standing guard behind Joseph...


Saturday...was a blur and I can't find a great picture!

Sunday...Kangaroo Kare!


Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...just lots of feedings, scheduling and holding of precious babies, who got to put on clothes. Here are some of the favs...

Three very different personalities! Can you guess who just hangs out where ever? The relaxed one? The drama queen/king?


Daddy getting crafty with three babies. My Mom has already given me my next idea...


And it's already been posted a time or two...but my perfect family. What you can't see...all of our love for one another, our determination to make our life with these babies the best ever, our promises to them, our dreams for them, our love for each other, and finally...our love for Jackson Cole deep in our hearts forever...


All my love,
Nichole

Coming Soon...

I have decided that instead of stressing myself over the blog I will try to have updates on the babies up on Friday. I can't put another thing on my plate right now and know y'all understand. So, later tonight or in the morning there SHOULD be an update on the babies. Thanks for the support!

Also, a bonus tomorrow. They are already mentioning the "h" word for the babies, which blows my mind, but whatever! I have come up with quite the little contest that I hope you can join us in...a guess the day the baby/babies may come home for a small donation all going to a great cause and even a little something for the winner contest. If you read my blog daily or have an opinion please take the poll over there -----> to help with part of the contest, or if you have an opinion that isn't an option leave it in the comment secetion. Thanks!

Talk with you tomorrow...

Nichole

The Hedgepeth's...Party of Two to Five in less than 2 minutes!

The babies arrived safe and sound Friday afternoon between 12:32 (Abby and Claire) and 12:33 (Brayden). Everything happened so quickly...I don't even know if I could explain how it happened. I woke up feeling a little "funny," the doc checked me, I was 5 cm, they sent me downstairs for monitoring, doc checked again, 6 cm, decided it was time to deliver and before I knew what was happening the room was full of family and friends, Joseph got there, away for a c-section we go. Several minutes after all the babies were here and checked out our family was complete...










Things continue to go so well...as of right now ALL babies are breathing on their own, they are not on any oxygen and they are eating 10 cc's (2 whooping teaspoons) every 3 hours.

There was a time when Claire was on a nasal cannula, but she has come off of that and seems to be doing a lot better and is a lot more comfortable. She still has a tube in her nose in case she has trouble taking a bottle, but that has not been an issue since the nasal cannula was removed. Tonight I got to give her a bath and that baby has some lungs on her. I am so impressed with how well she continues to do. At one point yesterday I would have said she is the weakest of the three...but now I would say they are all pretty even. Anyway...introducing Claire Elizabeth...










Brayden was also struggling with his feeds a little bit Saturday so they put in a tube for feedings for him, which he has NOT used since. He continues to defy the odds if you will...boys are notorious for struggling more in the NICU, but not my Brayden. He is doing everything on his own and comes in a close second at feeding time for getting the bottle down and burping. He has remained the most stable so far and is just amazing...I love my baby boy! Introducing Brayden Jae...










Abby, the runt if you will, continues to amaze me and seems the strongest of the 3...she is Joseph's daughter that is for sure, she eats a bottle and burps in about 3 minutes flat! I always secretly worried about Abby and everyone told me the smallest is usually the strongest and well, she is proving all of those people right! She did decide to see if we were paying attention once or twice by forgetting to breath, and they threatened to put her on the nasal cannula but that has not been an issue since Saturday morning. She is going to be one strong willed little girl! Introducing Abby Love...










Sunday had to be one of the greatest days of my life. Joseph and I got to do "Kangaroo Kare" which is skin to skin contact with the babies. This helps them in so many ways and it helps me with the milk issue (which is going so-so). Below are a few pictures from our session, which lasted from about 8:00 to 10:30...the best 2.5 hours of my life so far...and I am sure there are many more great times like these to come!

Here is Joseph with the girls. It takes a real man to whip off his shirt in public and hold his baby girls. I think the girls were excited to be together again, what do you think?










Here is Mommy with Baby Boy. They just slipped him right under my shirt. He got nice and comfy and enjoyed the time with Mom...










Here is a picture of all three babies together again...it's a lotta work to get them together, but the nurses have been wonderful and very helpful in any way that we ask. The order is Brayden, Claire then Abby...










And finally, the most recent picture of our new, completed, five member family...











So...that's the latest with the world's cutest triplets ever! My new goal in life is to spend time with them and get them home, but also to work on giving an update at least a few times a week. I can not thank y'all enough for being part of our journey and I hope you continue to be part of our journey. I love all of y'all. Until next time, as always, Please Remember Jackson!

Nichole (whose working on a new signature...)