Róisín comes off breathing support and the triplets enjoy skin-to-skin

So life is already rather busy since these little babies arrived and they are not even home yet!

 

Following my last post, Róisín got her breathing support removed much quicker than previously anticipated and she is doing great without it, as are the other two. They have moved three times since then – firstly to a different room in intensive care so they could be together in a smaller room, then to HDU (high dependency) and now they are in SCBU (Special Care). They are all doing really well and have been gaining weight since they dropped weight in the first week.

 

We have managed to have cuddles every day with one or more of them since they were just over a week old, which is amazing. The idea is that you do skin-to-skin for at least an hour at a time to give them a chance to bond, so me and my husband have had lots of cuddles! It is so wonderful to have that closeness with them as we have to say goodbye to them each day and leave them in hospital. We even had the chance to hold the two girls together and also the three triplets together too, which is an amazing experience.

 

One really nice thing is that we get to do their 'cares' for them when we are in the hospital. This means cleaning their mouths and eyes with cotton wool and water when needed and changing their nappies before each tube feed. This is only done before a feed to avoid unnecessary handling and waking them up as they need sleep to grow.

 

 

Changing a nappy on a baby so tiny is quite a strange feeling. You have to do it by putting your hands through two little port holes of the incubator and changing the baby from the side. You carefully work around the wires that are stuck to their tummies which monitor and actually, you get to grips with it quite quickly.

 

My husband had the experience today of putting a clean nappy on Rebecca just before she fired out some lovely fresh poo! I was having skin to skin time with Róisín at the time and suddenly all I could hear was laughter from Conor, who just could not believe “a lady would do such a thing”. So funny and an experience that those of you with children know will be a frequent experience in the months to come, especially changing three sets of nappies a day!

 

So now they are wearing little vest tops and hopefully it won’t be too long before they are out of their incubators and into cots. They need to be 1.6kg and today they are 1.22kg, 1.44kg and 1.52kg. Their feeds are being increased from two hourly to two and a half hourly to three hourly. Three hourly feeds is what they will come home on. Elliot is on three hourly feeds now and Rebecca is on two and a half hourly. Róisín will be on two hourly for another few days yet until she is a little bigger.

 

 

Today before Róisín had her tube feed, I had the most wonderful experience of having a go at breastfeeding at the start of her skin-to-skin time. She is such a tiny little thing but was having a right good suck! It was quite an amazing feeling. Just to be so close to my beautiful baby girl was just wonderful.

 

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to do the same for Rebecca and Elliot. They can’t really breastfeed yet as they would get far too tired and are only just getting used to the sucking motion but getting them to latch on and get used to the feeling is a great start. During the tube feeds, they encourage them to suck on a soother at the moment so that they can experience the sucking motion with their tummies getting full. It is quite amazing what they do in the hospital to help them develop when they are not even 33 weeks gestation yet.

 

There are still a few more tests to be had before they come home. They have brain scans, heart scans, eye tests, weekly blood tests and the usual heel prick tests. All results have been good so far so let's hope that continues.

 

At home the nursery is ready for their arrival, along with the Moses baskets for our room. In the end we were given three, so my initial plan of having a cot bed in our room has changed. Moses baskets are easier to maneuver and space-wise, we can have two babies on one side of the bed and one on the other.

 

 

We have our Maxi Cosi car seats and isofix ready and have ordered our buggy too. The car seats fit perfectly across the back seat of our car as we were recommended the Cabriofix, which is quite streamlined. They also have adapters to fit to our new buggy so that we have a car seat option as well as stroller seats and carry cots too.

 

We have been given so many presents since the babies were born – friends and family are so generous with their thoughtful presents and cards. I am busy washing clothes so everything is ready for their arrival home in a few weeks. As soon as they move into a cot, we will be able to fully dress them in vests and babygros so I am getting them ready for this week. At the moment they are wearing vests that are up to 5lbs and so I have the matching sizes of babygros that have been borrowed from a friend who had premature twins in January, but I suppose it will be no time until they have grown out of them and into the next size up.