Olivia Goes to Aunt Crystal's

My sister Crystal generously offered to have Olivia come and stay with them this week. It was very hard for me to let her go, but since I need help caring for her anyways right now, and I knew that she would probably have lots of fun, I thought I would take her up on her offer.

As you can see she seems to be having a great time playing with her cousins!

Olivia and Jaxen (or as Liv says, "Jaxy") holding Ella (or as Jaxen says, "Eller")

Stacking blocks TOGETHER!

Jaxen giving Liv a little ride on his bike.

Ahhh....Hugs!

So it looks like and sounds like they are all having a great time and playing very good together.

Olivia is 19 months old
Jaxen is 2 years 4 months old
Ella is 5 months on the 13th

A Look Back At Their First Week!

Wow, what a week! I guess I should start by thanking everyone who thought about us and prayed for us over the last 7 months, because God couldn't have blessed us with anything better then He did. First we were blessed with Olivia, and now He has blessed us again times three! We are so thankful but continue to pray for them because we know that this is only the beginning. They are all doing so well right now, but we know that it is still early and they have a long ways to go.

The babies are still in Iowa City and will remain there until they are doing well enough that they can go home. The good news is that they have all graduated into NICU Bay 3 and share one big long room. The originally started of in NICU Bay 1 and each had their own separate rooms. That made for a lot of running back and forth.

I have posted a blog about each one's first week of life below. Sorry it has taken so long but I swear I have been working on it the last three days!

We are learning a lot of new terminology so if you have any questions just post a comment and I will try to answer it.

Thanks again for all of your love and support!

Hannah Alexis Sadler

Where do I even start with Hannah! All throughout the pregnancy Hannah has always been the one we worried about. She was the little one. And now she is doing about the best out of all of them!

In Hannah's first week of life she has gone from 3lbs 2.2oz down to 2lbs 15oz, and then back up to 3lbs 2.7oz! She started her feedings of breast milk at 4cc's every 6 hours and by the end of her first week she was getting 16cc's (that is about a half an ounce) every 4 hours. When it comes to breathing Hannah has gone from having a tube run down her nose, to having a nasal cannula, to finally being able to breath good old room air. She has also been on and off photo therapy twice for jaundice. But overall Hannah is doing remarkably well.

I know that in the pictures they look so big, but when you compare the size of Hannah's foot to my thumb you can see how really small they are. (And I have long fingers!)

Here is Hannah just about 1 day old.
She always looks so relaxed.

Hannah, 5 days old.

In this picture she has her little eye mask on to keep the bright light out from the lamps that they use to help with the jaundice. (One of the nurses drew some cute eyelashes on them.)

Hannah, 1 week old.

They took the lamps off her today!

Now we can see her sweet little face. She loves to sleep with her arms up by her head.

Hayden Sophia Sadler

Hayden. Sweet little Hayden.

In Hayden's first week of life she went from 3lbs 6.5oz down to 3lbs 1.4oz, and then back up to 3lbs 2oz. They started her feedings at 4cc's every 6 hours and then by then of her first week she was up to 9cc's every 3 hours. Hayden was having some problems digesting her food so it has taken her a little longer to move up on the amounts. When it comes to breathing Hayden also had a breathing tube at first then moved to a nasal cannula, and then now is on room air. Like her sister she has been on photo therapy a few times now too. Overall, Hayden is very strong and I'm sure it won't take long for her to catch up to her brother and sister.

Hayden almost 1 day old.

Hayden, 2 days old.
Basking under the lights for some photo therapy to help with the jaundice.

Hayden, 5 days old.
Just got off the photo therapy. It is a little bright out after having that eye mask on for so long.

Hayden, 1 week old. Snug as a bug! Isn't she so cute!

Jonathan Austin Sadler

Jonathan. While being prego with Jonathan we never had to worry about him. He didn't have to share any of his food, he always measured bigger then the girls, and he always passed his tests first.

In week one Jonathan has gone from 4lbs 9.5oz down to 4lbs 2.6oz, and then back up to 4lbs 5.7oz. The started his feedings at 5cc's of breast milk every 6 hours and at the end of the week he was at 24cc's every 3 hours. When it comes to breathing Jonathan has also gone from having a tube down his nose, to having a nasal cannula, to breathing room air. But then because he was having some "spells" they put him back on the nasal cannula, but by the end of the week they decided he was doing well enough to discontinue that and go back to just breathing normal room air. Sometimes Jonathan decides not to breath and when he does that they call it a spell. Most of the time he comes out of it on his own but every once in a while they have to give him a little tap to remind him. I have to say that his "spells" are pretty scary and it is very hard to watch and wait to see if he comes out of it on his own. Even though Jonathan is the biggest he has really given us the most scares. He is having fewer and fewer each day though, so that is good.

Jonathan, almost 1 day old.
I already think that he looks just like his dad.

Jonathan, 3 days old. All snuggled up.

Jonathan, 5 days old. He looks pretty comfortable.

Jonathan, 1 week old. Loving Life.

Details on the BIG DAY!

Tuesday evening I wasn't feeling quite right and seemed to be having a few more contractions then normal. Adam was suppose to play basketball that night but I told him that maybe he might want to stay home, just in case. Well, I changed my mind and told him to go ahead and go and I would just take it easy. After he left I called my sister, Paula, who is a nurse for an OB/GYN to get her opinion. She asked me all the normal questions, "how far apart are your contractions, how many have you had in an hour?" But of course I didn't know any of the answers to those questions because I was in the wonderful river of denial! Thinking that if I didn't keep track then I wasn't really probably having that many contractions. She thought that I should go in to be on the safe side and so I made a deal with her. I would keep track of how many and how far apart my contractions were while Adam was gone if and depending on how that went I would go in. Needless to say by the time Adam got home it had been about an hour and I had had 11 contractions ranging anywhere between 8 minutes and 4 minutes apart. So I kept my end of the deal and called in to the hospital and they had told me what Paula said, "Come in!"

By the time Adam's mom got to our house to stay with Olivia it was already a little after 11:00pm. When we finally got to the hospital around 11:45pm and checked into Labor & Delivery I was still contracting and my cervix had dilated to 5 cm! So they moved some people around and by 12:45 they were wheeling me back to Operating Room 2 and prepping me for surgery! Adam and I were shocked! We couldn't believe that this was it, this was really happening, and it was happening NOW! We were both thinking that we would come in and maybe after a few hours they would bring us back, but that was obviously not the case!

(Here we are about to go back to the operating room!)

Once they got me back to the OR they immediately started the spinal block, so that I wouldn't feel anything during the surgery. But as soon as that started to kick in I started not to feel so well. My blood pressure really dropped and I thought I was going to die! They gave me something else to help but in the meantime they hadn't brought Adam in yet and Hannah's heart rate dropped into the 70's. It wasn't probably a minute later when my BP was back up and they started the c-section. When they announced that they were cutting into my uterus I was asking were Adam was. They said he was on his way, and right as the nurse was bringing him in they were pulling out Hannah! He just about didn't get there in time. I think things were progressing faster then we all had anticipated due to the sudden drop in my BP, leading to Hannah's drop in her heart rate. But all was well and on March 4th at 1:06am Hannah was poked from her waters! Then very soon after Hayden was born at 1:07am, and not even a minute later Jonathan was born! I couldn't see them but I could hear them crying. And what a wonderful feeling that was to hear their tiny little voices! Then as they they stitching me up they wheeled them over one at a time so that I could see them before they took them back to the NICU. They were so beautiful and I wanted to hold them so bad! It felt like I was dreaming! The doctors all commented on how well they looked and how healthy they seemed. Here are some pictures of them while they are still in the operating room getting all cleaned up and checked out!

(One of our little girls!)

(Jonathan)

(Another girl!)

Adam got to go back to the NICU with them while they finished their work on me. It was a little after 2:00am once they finished their work on me and I was back in the recovery room. Then at about 4:30am my legs were just awake enough for them to let me see the babies before they would wheel me to the Mother Baby Unit.

So that was our early morning on March 4th. What a blessed day!

Liv Would Like to Announce the Arrivals of...

...her new baby sisters, Hannah and Hayden, and her new litter brother, Jonathan!

Hannah Alexis Sadler

Born at 1:06 am

on March 4th, 2009

3 lbs 2 oz

Hayden Sophia Sadler
Born at 1:07 am
on March 4th, 2009
3 lbs 6 oz

Jonathan Austin Sadler

Born at 1:07 am
on March 4th, 2009
4 lbs 9 oz

Everyone is doing very well including mom! Hopefully tomorrow I will have some more time and energy to post about their arrivals! It has been a very long and crazy 24 hours!

Thanks for everyone's prayers, calls, emails, and texts. It has meant so much to us knowing that we have such wonderful friends and family by our sides!

Love to all, and more updates and details coming soon!

What It's Like To Be 32 Weeks Prego With Trips!

I have to say that I have gotten a lot of the "Oh, you look so good for being pregnant with triplets! You can't even tell that there is three in there." Maybe some say that because they think that I would be 250 lbs by now. Either way what a wonderful comment and/or lie! As you can imagine I'm not feeling like I look so good. Maybe because I can only fit into two pairs of the 10 pairs of maternity pants that I have, or when I put on some of Adam's t-shirts some of them can't even cover my ever growing belly!

So here I am, I made it to 32 weeks! Wooowhoo! The babies, according to the statistics, should all be able to do very well if I were to deliver them now. But of course everyone would like them to stay in as long as they can. Everyday is a blessing for them. For me on the other hand, everyday is getting harder and harder. My gigantor belly is making it very difficult to do numerous things. Examples would be; getting up, rolling from one side to the other, sitting up straight without having to spread my legs, putting on socks and shoes, and breathing to name a few. Poor Olivia can barely fit on my lap anymore, so she sits next to me on the floor or couch to read books and snuggle.