ChezPerky

Okay, seriously, I'm exclusively breastfeeding not one, not two, but three babies. Shouldn't this give me a get-out-of-PMS-free card for a while? My babies are two months old (can you believe it??) and I'm having my second period. I have not had two consecutive periods in about ten years without medical intervention (hence, the fertility treatment). What. The. Frack??

All three babies have thrush, so guess who else has thrush? Yes, that would be me. And can I tell you how seriously uncomfortable it is to have thrush on your breasts?? Ugh!

Sam has been very needy lately… needing to be held ALL THE TIME. If he were a singleton this would be easier, but on the days where Abby also needs to be held all day long or Ellie needs to be held all day long, or both… well, then it's a bit more complicated, especially when you add in the need to feed them, pump milk, and do ANYTHING else.

My milk supply seems to be dwindling, but I'm not sure if it's just because they're nursing so much that there's not much left for pumping sessions. Regardless, it's stressing me out, which is, I'm sure, exacerbating the problem. I don't like taking herbal supplements because I have enough other problems that I never know what will interact with other medications I've got. I can't convince my doctor to give me Reglan, and Domperidone isn't available in the US. Someone told me that oatmeal improves milk production, but I hate oatmeal. I've been eating it anyway, but haven't noticed a difference. And before you suggest beer…I can't drink beer because it gives me tremendous migraines and makes me throw up violently. Yuck.

Other than those niggling things, though, things are going well. I've had mostly good days and have mostly managed to keep my sh*t together (though Jess was witness to the one night that I completely lost it). But now Ellie's crying, so it's time for me to go. More later!

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I haven’t had time to post lately…or rather, when I’ve had the time, I’ve been doing important things like washing bottles, mooing, or napping. Anyway, here’s a few points from the last week or so…

Last Monday I met a local triplet-mom-to-be. She’s 24 weeks pregnant and looks fantastic. She came here to visit… when I was 24 weeks pregnant, I was on Procardia, a Terbutaline Pump, Home Uterine Activity Monitoring, and bed rest. She had just come from her job as a personal trainer. Sheesh! She was really fantastic and I’m so glad I got to meet her. She came back the next day to lend me some things she doesn’t need yet (her double snap n’ go and some podee bottles) and I gave her a bunch of books. I’ve promised her a bunch of clothes and other things for when her babies are born. It’s really exciting to already have someone to pass things along to!

Tuesday I had to take the kids to the pediatrician. By myself. The catch was that that triplet stroller would NEVER fit through the pediatrician’s narrow hallways. Worse… I was driving a rented van because my van had been hit by a drunk driver while parked on the street Halloween night and the stupid triplet stroller wouldn’t even FIT in the rented van!! So my original plan of wheeling the stroller into the waiting room and letting the staff just help me carry babies was scrapped in favor of thinking outside the box. Ultimately what I did was wear Sam in a sling and carry the other two babies in their car seats. Man, I’ve got muscles I didn’t know I had! I practiced Monday night to make sure I really COULD carry two car seats and a baby in a sling, and it was a snap… but what I hadn’t counted on was that I also needed to carry Ellie’s monitor and the diaper bag. That made the balancing act a little more precarious. Still, I pulled it off, further reaffirming my super-mom status!

The appointment was primarily for a weight check, but I made the appointment with the nurse practitioner who is also a lactation consultant, in hopes of working through a few of the issues we’ve been having. All the babies were bigger than they had been two weeks previous:
Sam: 6 lb, 2 oz (up from 5 lb, 4.5 oz)
Ellie: 5 lb, 12 oz (up from 5 lb, 6 oz)
Abby: 5 lb, 7 oz (up from 4 lb, 7 oz!!!)
So they all grew, but you can see that Ellie was a bit worrisome… she only grew 6 ounces in 14 days. Abby was the superstar! The rest of the appointment we focused on lactation issues. Abby has been refusing to latch on so gets only expressed milk in bottles. This works out just fine since she gets extra calories added to her expressed milk, and since she’s ONLY getting expressed milk, it’s clearly helping her grow quickly, but I really would like to limit the number of bottles I have to wash every day! Plus, she was my best breastfeeder in the NICU, so it’s beyond aggravating that she refuses to latch now!! The LC suggested I get a Supplemental Nursing System to try to get her to latch, since she wasn’t any more successful than I’d been. The other issue I’ve been having is that Ellie and Sam wouldn’t nurse without a nipple shield, which isn’t the end of the world, but it’s a pain in the rear. The LC also wasn’t successful in that session to get Sam to latch without it, but did give me some suggestions for trying to wean him (and Ellie), and also suggested that the SNS might help with them as well.

And so… I ordered that ridiculous contraption. All three of my babies hate it. Sam will latch on to the tube and not on to me. Ellie latches on to me and spits out the tube. Abby just screams. BUT! A miracle… Ellie and Sam will now latch without the stupid shield! Victory!

The rest of the week is a blur, to be honest. I can’t remember much about it, but I know there were lots of feedings, diapers, and little sleep. I spent some time worried about Ellie because she didn’t seem to be growing much more. Her pudgy cheeks stopped being pudgy. Her brother and sister outgrew a different outfit every day, but she’s still in the outfits she was in a week ago. Finally, yesterday morning I called in to the doctor’s office because she’s been on a bit of a hunger strike and she definitely didn’t seem to be growing and anyway, it may have been a Sunday, but the nurse had told me on Friday to definitely call over the weekend if I was still worried, so I called. I brought her in for a weight check and she was… 5 pounds, 11.8 oz. No change from last Tuesday. At least she hadn’t lost weight, right? I hadn’t been able to get her to eat in over six hours (what mother has this problem with an infant???), but getting her naked and sticking her on a cold, hard scale pissed her off enough that she was finally willing to eat, so I stayed at the office to nurse her and she ate and ate and ate and ate. So we weighed her afterward to see if she’d gotten any actual milk, to make sure she wasn’t just nursing in vain without actually successfully getting milk. Well, that’s not the problem, she ate FOUR ounces (she only reliably eats 3 ounces from a bottle)! The babies have another appointment on Thursday for their two-month check up (can you believe it???), so if she hasn’t grown more by then, we’ll have to talk about supplementing her, because something’s not right. Poor baby.

Taking Ellie to the pediatrician threw my whole schedule for the day off, though, because I missed a feeding at home with the other two. So I’d been planning on spending the afternoon with the DC-area bloggers, but I had to keep my visit with them short because I didn’t want to be away for too long and leave Seth with all three of them starving. But I did make it to the get-together for a little while and had a great time seeing everyone, so that was fun. It was my first time socializing just for me since the babies were born. Hooray!

Ooops, Sam is waking up to eat…time to go!

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I haven't had time to post lately…or rather, when I've had the time, I've been doing important things like washing bottles, mooing, or napping. Anyway, here's a few points from the last week or so…

Last Monday I met a local triplet-mom-to-be. She's 24 weeks pregnant and looks fantastic. She came here to visit… when I was 24 weeks pregnant, I was on Procardia, a Terbutaline Pump, Home Uterine Activity Monitoring, and bed rest. She had just come from her job as a personal trainer. Sheesh! She was really fantastic and I'm so glad I got to meet her. She came back the next day to lend me some things she doesn't need yet (her double snap n' go and some podee bottles) and I gave her a bunch of books. I've promised her a bunch of clothes and other things for when her babies are born. It's really exciting to already have someone to pass things along to!

Tuesday I had to take the kids to the pediatrician. By myself. The catch was that that triplet stroller would NEVER fit through the pediatrician's narrow hallways. Worse… I was driving a rented van because my van had been hit by a drunk driver while parked on the street Halloween night and the stupid triplet stroller wouldn't even FIT in the rented van!! So my original plan of wheeling the stroller into the waiting room and letting the staff just help me carry babies was scrapped in favor of thinking outside the box. Ultimately what I did was wear Sam in a sling and carry the other two babies in their car seats. Man, I've got muscles I didn't know I had! I practiced Monday night to make sure I really COULD carry two car seats and a baby in a sling, and it was a snap… but what I hadn't counted on was that I also needed to carry Ellie's monitor and the diaper bag. That made the balancing act a little more precarious. Still, I pulled it off, further reaffirming my super-mom status!

The appointment was primarily for a weight check, but I made the appointment with the nurse practitioner who is also a lactation consultant, in hopes of working through a few of the issues we've been having. All the babies were bigger than they had been two weeks previous:
Sam: 6 lb, 2 oz (up from 5 lb, 4.5 oz)
Ellie: 5 lb, 12 oz (up from 5 lb, 6 oz)
Abby: 5 lb, 7 oz (up from 4 lb, 7 oz!!!)
So they all grew, but you can see that Ellie was a bit worrisome… she only grew 6 ounces in 14 days. Abby was the superstar! The rest of the appointment we focused on lactation issues. Abby has been refusing to latch on so gets only expressed milk in bottles. This works out just fine since she gets extra calories added to her expressed milk, and since she's ONLY getting expressed milk, it's clearly helping her grow quickly, but I really would like to limit the number of bottles I have to wash every day! Plus, she was my best breastfeeder in the NICU, so it's beyond aggravating that she refuses to latch now!! The LC suggested I get a Supplemental Nursing System to try to get her to latch, since she wasn't any more successful than I'd been. The other issue I've been having is that Ellie and Sam wouldn't nurse without a nipple shield, which isn't the end of the world, but it's a pain in the rear. The LC also wasn't successful in that session to get Sam to latch without it, but did give me some suggestions for trying to wean him (and Ellie), and also suggested that the SNS might help with them as well.

And so… I ordered that ridiculous contraption. All three of my babies hate it. Sam will latch on to the tube and not on to me. Ellie latches on to me and spits out the tube. Abby just screams. BUT! A miracle… Ellie and Sam will now latch without the stupid shield! Victory!

The rest of the week is a blur, to be honest. I can't remember much about it, but I know there were lots of feedings, diapers, and little sleep. I spent some time worried about Ellie because she didn't seem to be growing much more. Her pudgy cheeks stopped being pudgy. Her brother and sister outgrew a different outfit every day, but she's still in the outfits she was in a week ago. Finally, yesterday morning I called in to the doctor's office because she's been on a bit of a hunger strike and she definitely didn't seem to be growing and anyway, it may have been a Sunday, but the nurse had told me on Friday to definitely call over the weekend if I was still worried, so I called. I brought her in for a weight check and she was… 5 pounds, 11.8 oz. No change from last Tuesday. At least she hadn't lost weight, right? I hadn't been able to get her to eat in over six hours (what mother has this problem with an infant???), but getting her naked and sticking her on a cold, hard scale pissed her off enough that she was finally willing to eat, so I stayed at the office to nurse her and she ate and ate and ate and ate. So we weighed her afterward to see if she'd gotten any actual milk, to make sure she wasn't just nursing in vain without actually successfully getting milk. Well, that's not the problem, she ate FOUR ounces (she only reliably eats 3 ounces from a bottle)! The babies have another appointment on Thursday for their two-month check up (can you believe it???), so if she hasn't grown more by then, we'll have to talk about supplementing her, because something's not right. Poor baby.

Taking Ellie to the pediatrician threw my whole schedule for the day off, though, because I missed a feeding at home with the other two. So I'd been planning on spending the afternoon with the DC-area bloggers, but I had to keep my visit with them short because I didn't want to be away for too long and leave Seth with all three of them starving. But I did make it to the get-together for a little while and had a great time seeing everyone, so that was fun. It was my first time socializing just for me since the babies were born. Hooray!

Ooops, Sam is waking up to eat…time to go!

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Our little man has a name at last! Introducing….

Shmuel (Samuel) Mendel. We’ll call him Sam. He’s my beautiful boy and a real trooper. Mommy survived the bris, and baby is doing well.

We did a stealthy, unannounced bris in our home with little fanfare. I wanted as few people around these little babies as possible, and I got my wish. There will be time too ooh and aah over them later, but right now, it’s time to give them some space and let them be. So we VERY quietly made the arrangements yesterday and had an early morning bris today.

And now my little guy has a name. And I love him so much, just like his sisters. I can’t believe they are really here and they are really mine.

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Our little man has a name at last! Introducing….

Shmuel (Samuel) Mendel. We'll call him Sam. He's my beautiful boy and a real trooper. Mommy survived the bris, and baby is doing well.

We did a stealthy, unannounced bris in our home with little fanfare. I wanted as few people around these little babies as possible, and I got my wish. There will be time too ooh and aah over them later, but right now, it's time to give them some space and let them be. So we VERY quietly made the arrangements yesterday and had an early morning bris today.

And now my little guy has a name. And I love him so much, just like his sisters. I can't believe they are really here and they are really mine.

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It is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you all with much fanfare…

KAREN’S BABIES!!

Baby Boy ‘A’
Born 9:45ish
Eighteen Inches
Three lbs. Twelve oz.

Baby Girl ‘B’
Born 9:45ish
Seventeen Inches
Three lbs. Twelve oz.

Baby Girl ‘C’
Born 9:45ish
Sixteen Inches
Two lbs. Eleven oz.

After sitting for like, what seemed like fourteen excruciating hours in a chemotherapy treatment room, patiently waiting, with not only my cell phone, but also my husbands cell phone AND my laptop in my lap. I thought I was going to have a ginormous nervous breakdown if I didn’t hear from Seth or Karen herself very soon. Knowing full well that the surgery could have been bumped by somebody of higher importance (who could POSSIBLY be more important though??) I tried to rationalize that all was totally fine. I got home from chemo, got Jonny settled, and my au pair mentions to me that Seth called… OMG. WHAT??!?!?! WHEN!!! WHAT DID HE SAY!?!?!?!?!? She tell me that he really didn’t say much, and that he sounded kind of “bored”(!!!!), not like she would have expected the man who just had three babies to sound. I was utterly LOST. He didn’t leave a MESSAGE?!?!? Nope. No message, just told you to call him. UGH. Did he say if Karen was ok? Nope. Ok. cool.

Proceeded to call Seth. No answer. Called Karen’s old room. No answer. Called The hospital, KAREN WASN’T IN A ROOM YET. (this was at 2pm) This was when the nursing end of me kicked in and freaked out. WHY THE HELL ISN’T SHE IN A ROOM? The operator had NO answer for me. I hung up. Sat on the floor and thought about crying, knew it would do me NO good, and figured I’d try calling Seth ONE more time. He answered. Thank You.
I know he couldn’t hear the panic in my voice, but if it had been Karen, she would’ve laughed at me. Because that whole scenario I just played out for you?? Totally me. It’s completely what I do. And it’s completely what Karen has done to me throughout this entire pregnancy, so I’m not surprised that this is what she did today… She stays calm, I freak out enough for both of us… It’s fine.

Anyway!! The babies!! Karen!! Ahh!! So good!! Perfect even… Seth wasn’t completely positive of the time of birth, so lets just go with a round a bout 945ish eh? He said Dr. Mattias did the delivery, Karen was at ease with having her spinal placed, and as we spoke it was beginning to wear off…The babies were all adorable (of course!) He was only sure that Baby ‘A’ had hair… Not too sure of the others yet… All of them are on supplemental oxygen, TPN through an IV in their belly button, and no really huge interventional stuff right now. Karen was able to see the kiddos in the OR, but has yet to check them out up close. She was still in the PACU due to a lack of beds on the main floor.

I’m still planning on heading up to see everyone tomorrow… I’m hoping to come home with all kinds of fun pictures to share!!

Yay Karen, Seth, & a Huge Congrats to J on becoming a VERY big Brother!! We love you all!!

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It is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you all with much fanfare…

KAREN'S BABIES!!

Baby Boy 'A'
Born 9:45ish
Eighteen Inches
Three lbs. Twelve oz.

Baby Girl 'B'
Born 9:45ish
Seventeen Inches
Three lbs. Twelve oz.

Baby Girl 'C'
Born 9:45ish
Sixteen Inches
Two lbs. Eleven oz.

After sitting for like, what seemed like fourteen excruciating hours in a chemotherapy treatment room, patiently waiting, with not only my cell phone, but also my husbands cell phone AND my laptop in my lap. I thought I was going to have a ginormous nervous breakdown if I didn't hear from Seth or Karen herself very soon. Knowing full well that the surgery could have been bumped by somebody of higher importance (who could POSSIBLY be more important though??) I tried to rationalize that all was totally fine. I got home from chemo, got Jonny settled, and my au pair mentions to me that Seth called… OMG. WHAT??!?!?! WHEN!!! WHAT DID HE SAY!?!?!?!?!? She tell me that he really didn't say much, and that he sounded kind of "bored"(!!!!), not like she would have expected the man who just had three babies to sound. I was utterly LOST. He didn't leave a MESSAGE?!?!? Nope. No message, just told you to call him. UGH. Did he say if Karen was ok? Nope. Ok. cool.

Proceeded to call Seth. No answer. Called Karen's old room. No answer. Called The hospital, KAREN WASN'T IN A ROOM YET. (this was at 2pm) This was when the nursing end of me kicked in and freaked out. WHY THE HELL ISN'T SHE IN A ROOM? The operator had NO answer for me. I hung up. Sat on the floor and thought about crying, knew it would do me NO good, and figured I'd try calling Seth ONE more time. He answered. Thank You.
I know he couldn't hear the panic in my voice, but if it had been Karen, she would've laughed at me. Because that whole scenario I just played out for you?? Totally me. It's completely what I do. And it's completely what Karen has done to me throughout this entire pregnancy, so I'm not surprised that this is what she did today… She stays calm, I freak out enough for both of us… It's fine.

Anyway!! The babies!! Karen!! Ahh!! So good!! Perfect even… Seth wasn't completely positive of the time of birth, so lets just go with a round a bout 945ish eh? He said Dr. Mattias did the delivery, Karen was at ease with having her spinal placed, and as we spoke it was beginning to wear off…The babies were all adorable (of course!) He was only sure that Baby 'A' had hair… Not too sure of the others yet… All of them are on supplemental oxygen, TPN through an IV in their belly button, and no really huge interventional stuff right now. Karen was able to see the kiddos in the OR, but has yet to check them out up close. She was still in the PACU due to a lack of beds on the main floor.

I'm still planning on heading up to see everyone tomorrow… I'm hoping to come home with all kinds of fun pictures to share!!

Yay Karen, Seth, & a Huge Congrats to J on becoming a VERY big Brother!! We love you all!!

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I’m so WICKED excited to tell you all this!! (It’s still Jessica btw)

Karen will be having her C-Section TOMORROW MORNING, Wednesday the 19th, at 9am!!

I am beyond excited for her, and when I got off the phone with her, she sounded AWESOME. Totally at peace with the decision and really very gleeful. I know that in her mind she still wants that vaginal delivery, and she’ll probably mention it at least 14 times tomorrow before they tell her to be quiet and take out the last baby 🙂 But at least she’ll have tried right?

Now, onto the reasoning behind this ‘impromptu’ delivery. As one of Karen’s readers “hadjare” had asked yesterday, the growth of Baby “C” has been a little off for a bit of time. When Karen and I chatted about this last night (since I wanted to be a good guest blogger and answer Hadjare’s question) she told me that the last time they scanned her, Baby “C” was still smaller but not so small that it warranted them ending the entire pregnancy on his/her behalf. I asked if they had any other growth ultrasounds planned, and to Karen’s knowledge, they didn’t. Until today… When they did one. Found out that Baby “C” has now become discordant. They’re estimating Baby “A” to be in the mid 4 lb range, Baby “B” to be in the upper 3 lb range, and for Baby “C” to be in the mid 2 lb range. So while with the margin of error being within a pound for the ultrasound, the executive decision was to go ahead and take the kiddos out. Good decision.

The huge news is that tomorrow marks 33 weeks gestation for Karen, Seth, and the Babes… This is huge. I can’t express how well Karen has done, how much of a trooper she’s been, and how through it all… just HOW awesome she’s been. I unfortunately cannot be there tomorrow, I had SO few days that I had made her PROMISE she wouldn’t deliver on… Being as defiant as she is, it doesn’t surprise me that she did this. But, I’ll be waiting VERY patiently with my laptop and both cell phones, waiting for any news from Seth updating all of you. I will be out to the hospital on Thursday to see these beautiful miracles with my own two eyes… I’ll bring lots of pictures back, I promise!

Until then, please keep Karen, Seth, J, and all three of these most precious babies in your thoughts and prayers over the next 24 hours. It is SO appreciated!! Updates about the babies to come tomorrow!! YAY!!

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I'm so WICKED excited to tell you all this!! (It's still Jessica btw)

Karen will be having her C-Section TOMORROW MORNING, Wednesday the 19th, at 9am!!

I am beyond excited for her, and when I got off the phone with her, she sounded AWESOME. Totally at peace with the decision and really very gleeful. I know that in her mind she still wants that vaginal delivery, and she'll probably mention it at least 14 times tomorrow before they tell her to be quiet and take out the last baby 🙂 But at least she'll have tried right?

Now, onto the reasoning behind this 'impromptu' delivery. As one of Karen's readers "hadjare" had asked yesterday, the growth of Baby "C" has been a little off for a bit of time. When Karen and I chatted about this last night (since I wanted to be a good guest blogger and answer Hadjare's question) she told me that the last time they scanned her, Baby "C" was still smaller but not so small that it warranted them ending the entire pregnancy on his/her behalf. I asked if they had any other growth ultrasounds planned, and to Karen's knowledge, they didn't. Until today… When they did one. Found out that Baby "C" has now become discordant. They're estimating Baby "A" to be in the mid 4 lb range, Baby "B" to be in the upper 3 lb range, and for Baby "C" to be in the mid 2 lb range. So while with the margin of error being within a pound for the ultrasound, the executive decision was to go ahead and take the kiddos out. Good decision.

The huge news is that tomorrow marks 33 weeks gestation for Karen, Seth, and the Babes… This is huge. I can't express how well Karen has done, how much of a trooper she's been, and how through it all… just HOW awesome she's been. I unfortunately cannot be there tomorrow, I had SO few days that I had made her PROMISE she wouldn't deliver on… Being as defiant as she is, it doesn't surprise me that she did this. But, I'll be waiting VERY patiently with my laptop and both cell phones, waiting for any news from Seth updating all of you. I will be out to the hospital on Thursday to see these beautiful miracles with my own two eyes… I'll bring lots of pictures back, I promise!

Until then, please keep Karen, Seth, J, and all three of these most precious babies in your thoughts and prayers over the next 24 hours. It is SO appreciated!! Updates about the babies to come tomorrow!! YAY!!

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Jessica here…still…
How was my weekend you ask? It was fine. Full of romping, running, and enjoying the brisk early autumn weather… How was Karen’s weekend? It was fine… Full of contractions, kicks to her bladder, and most recently enjoying her newly itchy hands and feet! Ahh… The joys of pregnancy.

I have a SERIOUS case of writers block tonight, but need to get the info out to Karen’s pep squad! 🙂 So let me give it to you in bulleted form… OK?

• Karen is still Pregnant.
• The babies are all still doing well!
• No we still don’t know what she’s having (but I have some SERIOUS hunches)
• Her Doctor from this weekend scheduled her for a C-Section on Friday the 21st.
• Karen didn’t agree with this idea and now we’re back to having no scheduled date.
• Yom Kippur begins Friday at dusk.
• On Saturday evening Karen developed intense itching in her hands and feet.
• Her Doctor from this morning thinks the itching may be a pregnancy condition called Cholestasis.
• They also think this may be what is causing the slightly elevated liver panels from last week.
• This is not to say that the pre-eclampsia is still not an option.
• Karen’s Blood Pressures have been good, but still elevated.
• When I talked to her on Saturday she had a terrible headache…
• On Sunday she felt and sounded much better…

That’s all I’ve got folks… I hope you’re all doing well and that you all enjoyed this awesome weather we had this weekend!! I’m absolutely worn out from running after the kids outside all weekend! Feel free to post in the comments if there’s something I missed, or if there’s questions you have, I’ve been keeping up with the comments… So I’ll see any questions ya’ll throw out there!

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