Lloyd Family in Real Life

One of those Mommy Moments

2010-09-09T21:21:00.000-07:00

Every night Miriam picks out three books for me to read to her at bedtime. Tonight she picked this book; my favorite children's book given to me by my best friend of my whole life Devyn

The book is written from a mom to her little girl when she was a child. She tells her daughter "One day I counted your fingers and kissed each one" and "One day the first snowflakes fell and I watched them melt on your baby skin." Then she tells her daughter all the things she will experience "Someday." When Miriam picked this book, I said

"Oh I love this book! This is about us Miri!" She had questions or commentary on each page

"Mommy! Look I'm a big girl there! I don't have training wheels!" "Mommy, what song am I singing there?"

The last page says "Someday your own hair will glow silver in the sun and when that day comes love, you will remember me." and there is a picture of an old woman with gray hair sitting on the porch and on the table is a framed picture of the mom counting and kissing her baby daughters fingers. Miri asked,

"Mommy, why do you have white hair?"

"Oh sweetie, that is you when you are a grandma."

"Where are you?"

"When you are a grandma, I will be in Heaven."

I look down at her and her little bottom lip is quivering, her eyes are big and tearing and she has that little look on her face when she is trying to be brave and not cry.

"What's wrong sweetie?!"

"Mommy, this book makes me feel kinda sad."

"How come?"

"Because I will miss you so much. But you can come and visit me from heaven, right?

"Oh sweetie, I always get to be with you."

"Mommy can you cuddle me?"

Love being a Girl.

2010-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing I have all girls. I wouldn't know quite what to do with a boy and all this girl stuff just keeps getting more and more FUN!
Miri had her first dance recital a few months ago. What is cuter than a bunch of 3 year old in tu-tus on a stage? Nothing.

And then there was the Princess Festival...

Love it!!!

To My Angel Lady

2010-05-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to see you or thank you. I wish I could hug you and somehow repay you. Everything changed so quickly in a matter of seconds tonight. We took our four girls to Wheeler Park to have a picnic with our friends, Jake, Manon and their little daughter Leiden. The kids were having so much fun feeding the ducks and looking at all the animals. My attention was on my one year old triplets, when all of a sudden I realized I hadn't seen my three year old daughter Miriam for at least 30 seconds. I started looking around, asking everyone we were with where she was. After about 30 seconds panic turned into terror. I realized that about 40 feet away from us was a river... with a strong current. For the next 5 minutes, which seemed eternal, I ran along the river screaming for my daughter and screaming at everyone I could see to help me find my daughter. I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that she had fallen in the river. I didn't know what to do. I've never felt such sickening horror. I was frantically praying and when the 911 operator told me I needed to calm down, I lost it. "I can't calm down!!!!!" I screamed at her "I can't find my baby and I'm by a river!!!" I was freaking out like a crazed mad lunatic. It was then that I saw our friend Jake running toward me holding my Miriam. He had found her all the way back by the parking lot with you. Thank you for finding my Miriam and keeping her safe from the river, from wandering out to the road, from someone who could have harmed her.
You are someones daughter, friend, probably sister and mother. I know you did what any woman in the world would do when they see a lost child, but to me, it meant the world. I made my Miriam sleep in bed with me tonight. I want her close to me where I can see her and touch her. You were my Angel today. Thank you.

Baby Makeovers

2010-04-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

Babies can make a lot of un-cute things look cute that none of us can pull off. For example toothless smiles and extra chub on the thighs. One thing that is never a good look on anyone of any age is a mullet. So why did I wait 18 months to take care of their baby mullets? No idea. One thing I do know is that their first haircuts made them look like such grown up girls.

We started with Lia (who by the way thinks her name is Lady Bug.) She is just one agreeable little pleasant thing, as long as she isn't hungry or tired. Here are the befores and afters:

Then it was Brynns turn. She's my Diva baby. If you are doing anything to make her "pretty" she soaks it up and can't get enough.
Last was little Claire. She was so terrified of the blow dryer, she got her "after" picture taken with Daddy.

These new haircuts have made their little necks even more kissable. I'm a lucky mama.

Claire's New Roommate

2010-02-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

We finally know what we are dealing with. When Brynn was admitted to the hospital last week, she was tested for several viruses: RSV, Influenza, H1N1, etc. All came back negative. She was treated for Pneumonia, but it wasn't viral. It was assumed that one of the many head colds she has had in the past few months settled in her lungs and was exacerbated by her weak premature lungs. When Claire came down with the same symptoms and her illness seemed to be progressing exactly the same, things seemed suspicious. After Claire was admitted to Primary's, they tested for several other things and found the culprit: Human Metapneumovirus. It is a cousin to RSV and looks and acts the same way. It was a relief to know what this horrible thing was that is hospitalizing my children. I told Claire's Attending Physician at Primary's that Lia was starting to get this just like the other two have and I am very concerned about her as she has always had the weakest lungs and most trouble with her breathing from the day they were born. She told me that as soon as Lia starts wheezing, take her to her pediatrician and she wrote down numbers to call and all the info the pediatrician would need for a very quick admit to Primary's. Even though my pediatrician's office doesn't have "privileges" at Primary's, she provided me with all the info he would need to cut through the red tape and even her personal pager. This morning, sure enough, Lia was making some wheezing sounds when she was breathing. I called her pediatrician's office and made the first available appointment. Our regular pediatrician wasn't in, so we saw Dr. Dork. I've had to take my kids to him once before and was very under impressed with his bedside manner, but whatever. So, when I heard that we could only get in to see Dr. Idiot, I was dreading it, but thought it would be quick and straight forward. I have all the information he needs. I explained to him the situation: Lia's two sister have both been hospitalized, one was even life flighted and had to stay in the ICU. Lia's illness is following the exact same progression as her sisters did and I knew that with in 24 hours, she would be in very bad shape. I told him about the conversation that I had with Claire's Attending Physician and gave him the paper with all the information he needs to have her admitted. His reply was "She's stable. We don't admit stable children to the hospital." Ummmm... Ok Dr. Moron. LET ME EXPLAIN AGAIN THE SITUATION. After quite a bit of arguing, and telling him that considering Lia's history of prematurity and chronic lung disease and that her sisters have been hospitalized for this exact illness, it would be very reckless to wait until she also needs to be life flighted to be monitored and given treatment. He finally said, "Well I'll call, but they won't admit a stable child." 15 minutes later, Lia and I were heading to Primary's. We're so lucky to live 30 miles away from Primary Children's. The girls are getting such excellent top notch care there. I can see why people come from surrounding to states to receive care there. It's just a whole different level than Dr. Arrogant and his little man syndrome. This little rant about him has made me feel much better. I should seriously be wearing a warning sign that says "You really don't want to cross me today, especially if it has anything to do with my kids."
So Claire and Lia are little rommies now. I wish I had my video camera when they first saw each other. They were so happy and excited and jumping up and down and trying to touch each other. So sweet. Claire is on a liter of oxygen, regaining strength and still receiving steroids and breathing treatments. Lia was becoming dehydrated, so they hooked her up to IV fluids. Her respiration rate is high, but oxygen saturation level is still fine. She is receiving steroids and breathing treatments. So far so good. Thanks for all the support and love. I have such wonderful family, friends and neighbors.

Out of the ICU

2010-02-09T14:49:00.001-08:00

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Yesterday around 4pm Claire turned a corner. She perked up and started breathing a little better on her own. She was released from the ICU and we're enjoying the comfort and privacy of a normal room in the pediatric unit now. She still has a long way to go, but now I know she'll be ok. 24 hours ago I didn't feel so confident. Now my worries are focusing on Lia. She's taking steroids in anticipation that she will be dealing with this at the same level her sisters have. I feel like I'm looking out the window waiting for the third round of a hurricane to hit.

One thing I know for sure... I will NEVER take my children's health for granted.

Some Sick Little Bugs

2010-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

I deserve a "Most Drama Imaginable" award. We've had quite an eventful 10 days. Two weeks ago all the kids were finally well, and then Brynn started to have a little cough. She coughed for a couple days and then from Friday night to Saturday morning she went from occasionally coughing to struggling to breath. She was admitted to the hospital were she stayed for 6 days on oxygen, IV antibiotics and steroids to strengthen her lungs. She came home Thursday. That was the day I noticed Claire had a slight cough. Yesterday (Sunday) she woke up in the morning struggling to breath. I took her to the ER. Sure enough her oxygen saturation level was in the 70's. "Here we go again." I thought. Derek came in the late afternoon and said he was going to stay the night with her, and told me to go home, take care of the other 3 kids and come back in the morning. I was exhausted, but I had a strange uneasy feeling. I couldn't sleep, just drifted in and out. I couldn't figure out where the feeling was coming from. Claire was fine. Her situation mimicked Brynn's exactly. Claire is the one who has always had the strongest lungs. She was the only one who never had to be on a ventilator when she was a preemie. I kept telling myself everything was OK. I thought I was just dreading another week like the one I'd just had. Finally at 3:20 I went downstairs and wrote Derek an email. I didn't want to call and disturb him. I wrote "How is my Claire? I feel so much stress in my mind and in my heart. I'm worried about so many things right now. I wish I had you here, I want a big hug from you." I didn't expect to hear back from him because I assumed he was sleeping. He wasn't sleeping. As I was writing that, the life flight helicopter landed at the hospital at 3:30 and took Claire to Primarys. Whenever I see the Life Flight heading to where ever, I always say a prayer for whoever is in there and whoever is worried about and loves the person in there. I hope there were lots of people praying for my baby. At 4am when I heard the garage door open I was so confused. I went running downstairs and yelled "WHERE'S CLAIRE!?" Derek explained to me that she had taken a turn for the worse. She had been on 4 L of Oxygen (During Brynn's 6 day stay, she never required more that a little over 1 L) and they couldn't keep her oxygen saturation level up and she was working so hard to breath. Her heart rate and respiration rate was incredibly high. The doctor told Derek that this was over his head and called Life Flight. Five minutes after Derek got home, his mom showed up and Derek and I drove to the hospital. So, here we sit. Claire is in the ICU. Not much has changed. She's not in good shape, but hasn't gotten any worse. I think that the Pediatric ICU is the saddest place in the world. Little kids shouldn't have to go through these things.

I'm really trying to be as strong as I can right now. I usually can hold it together pretty well in the midst of a crisis. It's after that I fall to pieces. I don't have any good reason to think that Claire will not be OK.

I called my mother in law awhile ago to check on my other kids. Lia has started coughing this morning. I'm most concerned about her. She has always had the weakest lungs by far.

Thank you for all of your kind words and prayers. I really feel it. I'll keep this updated.

Catching Up

2009-11-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

What a lazy blogger I've become. I'll start with the most recent and work my way back. Last week Derek, Miri and I went to The Happiest Place on Earth. I think I love Disneyland more now that I have kids than I did when I was a kid. We celebrated Derek's 30th birthday there and I can't even explain how much I savored every second of my vacation. Things like having my hotel room cleaned when I got back at night and eating food that I didn't make and sleeping in until 7:30 just felt like heaven. We left the triplets home with my sister (Jenette- how can I ever re-pay you? You are the best. Love you Nettie.) Here are some pics from our fun vacation:

And now on to Halloween. Here's Snow White (with her right hand man, cousin Jake) and the Three Bugs:

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch:

And now, never mind that these pictures were taken 2 1/2 months ago. Tiffany Erickson was our photographer and she was amazing. When I asked her to do these, I gave her a disclaimer and warned her that my little family can be a little lout of control. She was totally up for it and I couldn't have been happier with the outcome. Here are just a few of my favorites.

LiaBrynn
Claire

Miriam

Whew. All Caught up.

Put in My Place

2009-10-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last week I was driving Miriam and her cute little BFF Reagan to their dance class. This was the conversation they had in the back seat:

Miriam: I'm going to be Snow White for Halloween.
Reagan: Ohhhhh!!! I'm going to be Cinderella! Is your mommy going to be Sleeping Beauty?
Miriam: No. She's going to be the Wicked Witch. And my daddy is going to be my Prince Charming.

I guess I know my standing in the family. Oh well. There is always next year. Maybe Miriam will promote me to something like the Wicked Step Mother.

Three Little Birthday Chicks

2009-09-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

First there was Lia...

Then came Brynn...Last but not least was little Claire...

And then there were three...

And Miriam has enjoyed every minute of it.
And so have we.

Happy Birthday Babies!

2009-09-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

What a Difference a Year Can Make

2009-09-18T22:22:00.001-07:00

It was exactly one year ago from right now... I was lying in my hospital bed and had just been told hours before that my triplets were coming the next morning - 8 weeks premature and a month earlier than I was anticipating even the day before. I remember like it was yesterday the fears that were tormenting my mind... what kind of physical challenges will my babies have to face? Will their lungs function ok? How will it be having babies in the hospital and not being able to have them with me? How in the world am I going to give these babies what they need?
Fast forward one year. What's on my mind tonight? Wondering if I made enough potato salad for the babies birthday BBQ tomorrow. Yes, things have definitely changed in a year.

Successful Adventure

2009-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

We don't get out much. It's quite a production to coordinate naps, feedings and diaper changes, pack the bags and load all the kids in the mini-van, chase after them in a non-baby proof environment and then pack them up again. We usually have our fun at home. One fine day Derek and I decided we were going to be adventurous and take a trip to the zoo with the kiddos. We were planning for the worst, but were amazed after 2 full hours at the zoo with no major meltdowns.
We may as well have been part of a zoo exhibit with all the gawking our stroller caused. My favorite was an old lady who came waddling over to me while I was waiting for Derek and Miri who had gone through the Madagascar Exhibit (no monster truck-sized strollers allowed.)
"Oh my! triplet boys!"
"Oh, they are girls" I responded with a friendly smile.
And then came the question that almost made me laugh out loud.
"Are they artificial?"
I get asked all the time if they are "natural" but this is the first time I've been asked if they are "artificial." I wanted to tell her that they are actually plastic, but she probably would have believed me.
She then went on to tell me about some relation of hers who had triplets and "nursed those kids until they were three years old." Wow. All I could think about was how many teeth a 3 year old has.
Here's some more fun stuff we've been doing this summer.

Pool parties with friends and cousins.
Play date with the Kirby triplets.

Our Happy 4th

2009-07-05T18:57:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July is my absolute favorite holiday. Here are some pics from our fun day.

Our festivities started the day before. Miri and her cousins made 4th of July cupcakes.

Here are Miri's finished products. Yum.For as long as I can remember, my dad would get up around 3 am on the morning of the 4th to save us all the best seats available for the Freedom Festival Parade. Hopefully my dad wasn't expecting that we would outgrow enjoying the parade. He STILL gets up in the wee hours of the morning and stakes a claim for the best seats on the route. Poor guy. We all still love a parade. The kiddos loved it too. Thanks daddy :)
Miri and ClaireMy Cute little miss Miri-MooBrynny rabbit with my favorite neighbor and little bro, Dave.
Lady Lia Bugs.

We then went back to my moms for a nap. Well, at least a nap for the kids and Derek. We headed over to our sister-in-law Danielle's parents house for a pool party. Miri and her daddy had too much fun.
I have one daring little 2 year old. Sometimes the things she will try with no hesitation make me nervous. I've got to keep a close eye on this girl.

Her little sisters were quite impressed with her too. Here they are at the pool looking on and admiring their big sisters gutsy tricks...

And trampoline dancing...

And what would the 4th be without fireworks? Happy 4th Everybody!

Nine Month Stats

2009-06-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

First of all, happy late Fathers Day to the wonderful daddy of my babies. My girls are so lucky to have a daddy like him. I love you Derek.

The girls had their 9 month appointments yesterday. My, how they have grown.

LIA: (a.k.a. Lady Lia Bug, Squishy.)

Height: 27.2 inches

Weight: 18 lb 1 oz

Tooth Count: 0

BRYNN: (a.k.a. Brynny Rabbit, Snorts)

Height: 27.5 inches

Weight: 17 lb 12 oz

Tooth Count: 2

CLAIRE: (a.k.a Claire Bear, Thumper)

Height: 27.3 inches

Weight: 17 lbs 14 oz

Tooth Count: 0

Brynn's Mishap

2009-06-16T20:48:00.001-07:00

Brynn has awesome hair. It's a combination of an upside down mullet and a Mohawk. Unfortunately everything good comes with a price. A few days ago Derek and I were sitting in the living room playing with the girls. We look over and Brynn is being dragged across the room BY THE HAIR. It took Brynn a few seconds to realize what was going on and then the uncontrollable screaming started. Miri got a major time out for that. When we asked Miri why she would do such a thing, she casually explained "I was taking baby Brynn for a ride."

Moving On

2009-06-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just a little over a month ago we decided to take a look at a short sale. My brother lives in a beautiful neighborhood that he loves and he kept telling us to come take a look at this house that was a street above him, so we did. Within about 5 minutes of looking at it, Derek and I knew we would make an offer. It was perfect for us. We made an offer expecting the bank to take forever and for us to have to go back and forth. We were surprised when the bank accepted our offer a little over a week later. We expected something to go wrong, but it didn't. We closed two weeks later and now here we are in our new home. We've been here for a week. And what a week it's been. Moving + three babies sick with Roseola= mass chaos and a breakdown on Wednesday for the mommy.

Also, we have a special new little friend. On Friday night I went to my sisters house for awhile and came back late, around midnight. I turned on the light in the kitchen and screamed so loud I hurt my own ears. Derek had fallen asleep on the couch. I've never seen him move so fast. He jumped up like a sling shot. We spent the next 30 seconds trying to corner the mouse, and then the little Houdini disappeared. Wait, it gets way worse. Last night Derek had a headache in the middle of the night and went downstairs to get some Tylenol. He saw our little friend again and discovered an interesting fact about him. His food of choice; old breast milk. Derek saw him literally sucking from an almost empty bottle of milk that had been left out. Derek said it was "kind of cute." Oh really? Cute, huh? Ya, cute like a wolf spider eating its offspring. The little beasts hours are numbered. Monster Pest Control is coming tomorrow. DIE MOUSE.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2009-05-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

I was bending over getting pizza out of the oven.
Miriam observed "Mommy! You have a BIG bum bum!"
Thanks Miri.

A Heart as Good as New

2009-04-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

What a relief to have the heart surgeries out of the way. Claire did great and all went well, except she has horrible bruising. Lia didn't bruise at all from the exact same procedure. Also, I was really freaked out the day after the surgery when I took off her bandage and there was quite a bit of blood, old and new. The doctor and nurse said to expect no bleeding and call if there was any. When I called, the nurse seemed kind of alarmed and concerned. When I spoke with a Cardiologist, he said to watch it and make sure it's not oozing. She seems to be recovering just fine. Preparing for the big event.All ready to go.After the fact.. groggy and sore but all fixed.

Claire's Turn

2009-04-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Claire has heart surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning. I would appreciate it if you would please say a prayer for Claire and for her surgeon, Dr. Gray. Thanks

Easter and Birthday Fun

2009-04-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here are my little Easter chicks.

The day after Easter, I turned the big 3-0. I have such a sweet husband. He took a half day off work, arranged for his mom to tend the kids and we went to an afternoon dinner and matinee movie (that is what old people do, so we're just playing the part.) We needed to be home by 7 to put all the kids down. When we got home, Derek had planned a surprise party for me. He's been planning this for months. He's one in a million. I love you babe.

My favorite birthday gift of my entire life was given to me by my cute sister in law, Jen. FIVE HOURS OF PROFESSIONAL CLEANING. Fabulous. My house no longer smells like diapers. I haven't had a house this clean since before I got pregnant with the triplets. My least favorite gift ever that I got for my birthday this year is a stomach ulcer. I haven't been to the doctor yet, but my google search tells me it's an ulcer. Unless eating 12 pieces of cake in 2 days could mimic the symptoms of an ulcer. That could be it too.

Miriam's Traumatic Afternoon

2009-04-11T20:32:00.001-07:00

We decided to find a babysitters for the triplets (thanks Betty and Shaylene) so we could take Miriam to the Eggstravaganza at Thanksgiving Point.

We should have taken the cold weather and rain as a sign that things may not go as planned. Miriam was under impressed with the Easter egg hunt. She got about 5 eggs in her basket and announced "I'm done. Lets do something else." Apparently, she doesn't buy into the whole "more is better" way of thinking.

We saw this guy:

He freaked Miriam out, which then required some consoling.

While I was saving our place in the 45 minute line so that Miriam could ride a pony for 30 seconds, Derek took Miriam over to the "petting zoo." They were feeding a donkey and too bad Derek didn't see this
Until this happened.
Miriam was able to overcome being bit on the hand by the Donkey in time to enjoy her pony ride.The highlight of the day was when the "Balloon Man" made Miriam a pink balloon puppy.
Unfortunately it popped on the way home.

Bad April Fools Joke

2009-04-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so you know it's a bad April Fools joke when I can't get anyone to believe me for a second. Of course I'm not pregnant. If I were, you can bet I wouldn't be blogging. I'd be huddled in a corner in the fetal position twitching.

Pregnant Again

2009-04-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling pretty irritable and nauseous lately, but I figured that just kind of goes along with taking care of 6 month old triplets and a toddler. I finally decided to take a home pregnancy test, just in case. I got a big fat positive. I'm due in October. Just when I thought life couldn't get any more hectic... Derek goes and slips one past the goalie.

Get Lia's Heart Fixed... Check.

2009-03-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

That was something I was very happy to check off my "to do" list. All went well with Lia's heart surgery. We checked in at Primary Children's Medical Center at 6 AM. Lia's surgery was scheduled for 7:30 AM. We went through all the paperwork and blah, blah, blah. She looked so cute in her miniature hospital gown. Handing her over to the nurse when it was time for her to go into surgery was seriously one of the hardest things I've had to do. I was all shaky and teary. I know these people are professionals and she is in very good hands, but they are strangers to me, and I'm pretty much trusting them with her life. So, about 2 1/2 hours later our pager went off and we went to meet with the doctor. He said that Lia was very "interesting." He explained that as they were doing the procedure, he was "tickling" her heart and the hole closed up on it's own. He said they were all baffled. They had never seen anything like this before, but he had a colleague who this had happened to once. They were all scratching their heads and taking pictures of her heart from all different angles, when all of a sudden the hole in Lia's heart opened up even bigger than it was before. Apparently that's amazing. They implanted the metal coil device and that was that. He was like a kid in a candy store talking about how fascinating the surgery was. They told me Lia would be pretty cranky and upset, but she woke up smiling at the nurses and has just been doing better and better. I'm so proud of my sweet little Lia. Luckily, my cute niece Kylee has been staying with us and is a tremendous help. This 10 year old is better than any nanny we could ever find. We love you Ky. Thanks for all your help.

New Pics

2009-03-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken by Alisa Linton. I think she does beautiful work. Maybe I'm biased because she was photographing my kids. These are just a few of my favorites out of almost 200 pictures. Thanks Alisa.

Prayers for Lia, Please.

2009-03-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

We found out Friday that Lia will not have her surgery in April, it will be Thursday. As in 4 days away. She saw her doctor on Friday who explained her condition like this: "She has started Congestive Heart Failure, which has caused her liver to swell." Lia is eating a lot less than she used to and breathing looks like it takes her more effort than it should. The actual procedure that she will have to fix her PDA is very common and has a super high success rate. The biggest concerns are 1) risk of infection, which is always a concern during surgeries and 2) risks from the anesthesia. I learned about a statistic that really startled me. 1/1000 babies under one year old who are put under anesthesia don't wake up. I've been wondering why that 1/1oth of one percent chance has been keeping me awake worrying at night, and then I realized why. I've been known to defy odds in the past, seeing as the chance of having triplets is about 1/8000 births. I'm confident that everything will go as planned and my little Lady Lia Bug will have a long healthy and happy life. Please say a prayer for my baby.

Six Months and Still Kickin'

2009-03-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

The babies turned 6 months old today. Time flies when you don't have time to look at the clock. Recently we have observed the most amazing miracle of our lives. Claire and Brynn are SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Not just a wimpy 7 or 8 hours. I'm talking 12 straight hours. It's a beautiful thing. Too bad Lia can't jump on board. We're not going to go hard core with Lia quite yet... I just took her to the Cardiologist again today. She hasn't been eating nearly as well as usual and her breathing seems pretty labored. Long story short... her heart has continued to enlarge to the point that it's pushed her Liver down (?? What???) She is going to get her surgery next month instead of in May. I just want to get it over with.

Here are some random pics of some of the fun stuff going on in the Lloyd home:

Miriam has taken on a new hobby... she's a monkey and climbs all over everything. Mostly furniture, but she also enjoys the backyard with all the rock walls and overgrown weeds. She calls it "The Jungle." Another favorite pass time of hers is holding her baby sisters. She loves them a little too much and has to constantly be reminded to be gentle.

Miriam also really loves watching "Scooby Doo" but gets pretty scared. She needs to hug her stuffed puppy and Daddy for support.
I must say, I heart warm weather. Yesterday it was finally warm enough to take the girls out on the patio. It made me happy.

Apparently it made Brynn happy too.

Child Exploitation

2009-03-01T12:36:00.001-08:00

Exploiting our kids started pretty simple. Derek found a list online of companies who have "multiples programs." If you have twins, triplets or more, you send them a letter along with copies of birth certificates and the companies send you free stuff. We've had stuff coming in the mail for months: diapers, formula, toys, sippy cups, onsies and lots of coupons among other things. Yesterday exploiting our kiddos went to a whole new level. I was out for my regular Saturday trip to the grocery store. It had taken a lot longer than I anticipated. Derek called to tell me to hustle because all the girls were hungry and crying. I was about 30 seconds from home when I looked in my rear view mirror. Oh crap.
Police officer: Hi Ma'am. I'm pulling you over for speeding and I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to give you a citation.
Me: Oh, Really?
Police Officer: Do you know what the speed limit is through here?
Me: 25?
Police Officer: Ya. Did you even see the flashing sign back there telling you how fast you were going?
Me: Umm, no.
Police Officer: I noticed you were on your phone.
Me: Ya. I have baby triplets at home. My husband was calling to tell me to hurry home because they are all hungry and crying.
Police Officer: Triplets? Wow. Well, do you want me to follow you home? You can take care of them and then we can take care of this.
Me: That's alright. It will only take a couple minutes, right?
So he gave me my ticket and I rushed (not sped) home to feed the babies. After I finished feeding them I was putting Miriam down for nap and Derek came in with my cell. This was the voice mail I had:
"Hi Mrs. Lloyd. This is Officer so-and-so. I just pulled you over and gave you a citation. I'm going to go ahead and void that. I think with triplets you have enough stress in you life."
Fabulous. Who knew they could even do that? Good work baby girls. Way to start pulling some of your own financial weight. Keep it up. Next stop: Tax Return. CHA-Ching.

Blessings, Blessings and More Blessings

2009-02-15T20:46:00.001-08:00

Two weeks ago we finally blessed the girls. Derek gave them beautiful blessings and they looked like little angels. I looked everywhere to find three different dresses that I felt fit each personality. (L-R Claire, Brynn, Lia)

Lia and Claire will both have their heart surgeries in May. At their Cardiology appointment, Dr. Pinto informed us that both girls have fluid in their lungs and both have enlarged hearts.... sounds urgent to me, but she feels it's best to wait a couple more months until they are a little bigger. Ideally they don't like to do this surgery until a baby is a year old, but waiting that long isn't an option. NOT to say that these girls are small! They are now weighing in between 12 and 13 1/2 pounds. That's 3-4x their birthweights. I know they will be just fine. They will recieve wonderful care and this procedure is very common. I just feel so fortunate that it is not something more serious, life threatening or something that will need to be dealt with life long.

SPEAKING of blessings... I can't even express how grateful I am for some wonderful angels in my life. My mom goes back to work full time in March. Oh how I will miss my mommy! She has been here helping me every Monday and Tuesday from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm for the last 6 months. I have the most wonderful mommy in the world. My sister Jenette is the greatest too. Every Wednesday she comes to help me and then Miriam goes to her home on Thursdays to play with her cousins and get out of the house. My sister Jenette is the most loving and generous person I know. She is the mom I hope I can be someday. And also, my girls surrogate grandma (who is actually my little sister Julianne's mother-in-law) Annie. She loves my girls like they're her own. Just to give an idea of the kind of person she is.... she called me the day before Valentines and said "It would be a blessing to me if I could come and watch your kids so you and Derek could go out for Valentines Day." She watched all four all by herself and was still smiling when we came home. What a woman. Here she is with (L-R) Lia, Brynn and Claire. Thanks Annie. We love you.

"Mommy! Baby Sisters are Everywhere!"

2009-01-27T13:25:00.001-08:00

That was Miriam's observation the other day, and yes Miriam, baby sisters are everywhere. Everyone thinks that their own kids are the most adorable and bright and funny and I'm no exception with how I feel about Miri. When ever I mention that I'm going to "pump" or she sees me washing the parts to my breast pump she loudly exclaims "I'm comin' mommy!" She gets as many books and stuffed puppies as her little arms can handle and hauls them upstairs into my room and we sit together on my bed while I pump. She will comb my hair or read me stories. The other day she pulled out one of her sesame street books and read the entire book to me word for word. Each page was only one or two sentences, but still I was quite impressed. When she finished, I said "Your a smarty pants." She replied "No I not mommy, I Mee-yum." (Her own special pronunciation of her name.) One area that Miriam hasn't especially excelled in is potty training. The other day we decided to test out bribery. I told her if she went pee in the potty she could have a candy. She sat on her potty buck naked for an entire hour watching Mickey Mouse before finally peeing a tiny amount. We decided to put her big girl Dora panties on her instead of a diaper and gave her the promised candy. She was so proud of herself and excited she started running in circles around the kitchen island. Within about 3 minutes she had wet her panties.

As far as the triplets, here are some update highlights:

Lia has done really well on her formula and I'm now able to nurse her once a day.

Claire and Lia have a follow up appointment with their Cardiologist on the 10th and their heart procedures will probably be scheduled then.

All three girls made it through their first head cold. That was the reward we got for taking them out on Christmas.

All three girls are also laughing as well. It's adorable, especially Claires roaring belly laugh.

We're blessing the girls on Sunday at 10:30. Anyone who would like to come we'd love it. Email me if you'd like directions to our church stephie_lloyd@hotmail.com

A Sad Day

2009-01-09T18:37:00.001-08:00

I'm sad today. My little Lia has been having a little bit of mucousy blood in her poops for the past week and a half. They did a bunch of tests and ruled out infection. The doctor told me that it is most likely an allergy to cows milk, which seems weird since she is 100% breast milk fed. Apparently the cows milk proteins can come through my breast milk from my diet. For the past 4 days I've completely eliminated dairy from my diet (which is actually harder than it seems.) It hasn't helped, actually she's been having even more blood in her poops. I checked in with her pediatrician today. He told me that he still thinks it's a food allergy... could be soy, wheat, corn or a number of other things. He said that it is pretty much impossible to breast feed a baby with such sensitive allergies and told me that I will need to stop breastfeeding her and start giving her a hypo-allergenic formula instead. He said that the number one priority is to stop the bleeding in her intestines caused by irritation from a food allergy, of course I agree. It's disappointing because I have worked SO HARD to be able to breast feed my triplets and finally it has been working perfectly for all three. We have a system going and It makes me so sad to have to stop breastfeeding my Lia. There is nothing sweeter than a nursing baby. Lia is the one who has liked it the best too. She's grunts with pleasure while she nurses then looks up at me and smiles while milk spills out of the sides of her mouth. I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow. Today I'm just sad.

Merry Christmas and Fixing Hearts

2008-12-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Ours was wonderful. We actually took the babies out to enjoy the festivities... a first for us! Everyone is doing great. The girls are now in between 9 1/2 and 10 1/2 pounds, about triple their birth weights. They are all so chunky :) Really, their rolls have rolls. It's such a welcome sight after seeing them all so thin and sickly looking when they were born. I'm telling you, my breast milk must be cream. We took Lia and Claire to the Cardiologist on the 16th. They both had Echo cardiograms and we were told that both of their PDA's have not closed and they will require surgery to fix the valves. They like babies to be older and bigger for these procedures, but we were told that in about three months these will need to be taken care of. Apparently both of their hearts are enlarged on the left side due to the extra blood flowing through the open valve that should be closed. We will do the surgeries on separate days, because they will need to stay over night and I want to be able to give each baby all of my time and attention after the surgery individually. It shouldn't be a big deal. It sounds pretty routine, but anything like this kind of feels like a big deal. My girls are smiling all the time and Miriam absolutely adores them.

Family pix

2008-12-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

My good friend Suzy took these beautiful pictures of my sweet girls. I highly recommend her!!! You can find her at http://www.suzyophotography.com/ Thanks Suz! Love ya!

This Daycare is Seriously Understaffed

2008-11-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the joyful ciaos I call home.Above is me and my sweet babes. I can now hold them all at the same time because there are no more oxygen tubes or monitors. It's fabulous. Below is a shot of the way the girls sleep. We found that if we cuddle them all together so they are spooning each other they sleep much longer and much more sound. (L-R Claire, Brynn and Lia.)

Despite the look on Miri's face, she really does like her sisters now. She has adjusted really well. She used to just stand back and give them the stink eye. Now she is concerned when they cry ("Mommy! Mommy!! Baby sisters cryin'!") and offers them her stuffed puppies. She gives them kisses on their foreheads and has to be reminded to be gentle not to push them too high in their swings. She can't tell them apart yet, but tries to guess.
Claire and Lia just hanging out.

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Miri

2008-11-30T13:55:00.000-08:00

We felt that it was very appropriate that Miriam's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. Derek and I both agree that she is one of the greatest blessing of our lives. She has brought us more joy that we can express.Here is Miri playing with her new kitchen. Poor cousin Henry is looking on... We're still working with Miriam on the art of sharing. By the way, Kudos to Derek for staying up until 2 am the night before to put the kitchen together. Seriously, not one single part of it was assembled. The hinges weren't even attached to the doors. At least there was a 28 page instruction manual.

Strawberry flavored cupcakes with strawberry frosting and Strawberry Shortcake decoration. What more could a 2 year old want?

Here's Miri with her cousins Jake and Abi.

Going the Extra Mile

2008-11-29T19:02:00.000-08:00

Some people are exceptional at what they do and we crossed paths with one of these people while Lia, Brynn and Claire were in the NICU. We had so many wonderful nurses, but Susan was our favorite. I met her when the triplets were just a few days old. She seemed like such a kind and nurturing person, so I asked her if she would be a primary nurse for our girls. From then on she took care of our babies several times a week. There were many times that she didn't know I was watching her and she was not only taking good care of my daughters, but speaking to them sweetly and being so gentle. I can't even explain how much comfort it gave me to know that my girls were with someone who not only took the job of caring for them seriously, but really loved them. We love Susan and hope that she will always be a part of our babies lives. She has visited us in our home since the triplets came home and we hope to see her again soon.

Below is a picture of Susan, Claire and I. I think this was the last time she took care of them before they came home. And in the other picture, the girls are wearing little sweaters that Susan MADE for them. Yes, she made them. I have no idea how. (L-R Lia, Claire, Brynn)

My New Life

2008-11-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

Do I dare say that I'm starting to feel like things might be under control? We've remained on our same schedule, which basically consists of feeding every 3-4 hours, then "play time" if you can call being in a bouncer or tummy time "playing" then back to sleep after an hour or two until it's time to eat again. During the night, they all go right back to bed after eating and are actually sleeping very well. Last night they slept from 11 pm to 4 am. Fabulous. I must give credit where credit is due here... Derek is super dad and not only are these girls incredibly lucky to have such a hands on, affectionate and loving daddy, but I would be in the lunie bin without him. After the first few days of the girls being home, I was pretty exhausted and my breast milk supply was diminishing. He decided to take the night shifts and since then I've turned back into a dairy cow. Derek comes and gets me when it's time for feedings, and in between time he soothes them if they wake up. He rotates them sleeping on his chest. He says he loves the night shift because he doesn't get to spend time with them during the day while he's at work. What a wonderful man I married. Feeding time is basically down to a science. I have this enourmous pillow that straps to me and allows me to breastfeed two at a time. Once I get them both to latch on, I can hold a bottle for the third baby who is next to us on the floor in a Boppy. Burping them all gets pretty interesting and they all enjoy projectile pooping the second their diapers come off. We turned our living room into a nursery. All four bedrooms are upstairs and it would be difficult, even dangerous to be hauling oxygen tanks attached to babies up and down the steep wooden stairs.

The girls are doing great. Claire is off of Oxygen and Lia is getting close to coming off. The girls are growing like weeds! Lia is over 8 pounds, Brynn is 7 1/2 and Claire is almost 7 pounds. I fall in love with each of them more every day.

It's tough being two

2008-11-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

I knew it would be hard on Miriam going from an only child to having three newborn sisters. She has gone from being a confident happy little girl to clingy, whiny and even naughty. It breaks my heart. I love you little Miri.

Home Sweet Home

2008-11-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Wednesday turned out to be quite chaotic. Both my mom and Derek's mom wanted to be here when the babies came home, which was great because we needed someone to watch Miri. Well, my mom ended up with a terrible cold and poor Carol had an awful stomach flu. We didn't have anyone to watch Miri and little kids are not welcome in the NICU for more than 15 minutes. We ended up taking Miri to her Aunt Becky's house after Beck got off work and showed up 4 hours late to pick up the girls. Also, it snowed like crazy that day. We literally had over a foot of snow at our house. We loaded the girls up and headed home. Derek had a dream back in high school when we were dating that he was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat. He looked in the back seat and saw two car seats. I bet if he would have kept looking he would have seen two more car seats on the third row of the mini van. Sheesh. The ride home, which is usually 40 minutes was over an hour after picking up Miri and braving the slushy roads. After we got Miri in the car, she pointed to Lia and said "Whose that?" We got the babies home and before we could even get them out of their car seats, they all started to cry. I was unsuccessfully trying to feed two at a time and then I started to cry... things have calmed down quite a bit since. Bless every NICU nurses heart who helped to get these girls on a schedule. They eat every 3 hours in the day and every 4 hours at night, and have been pretty content in between. We'll just keep taking it a day at a time!

Halloween; Miriam's last chance for undivided attention from Mom and Dad.

2008-11-08T12:09:00.000-08:00

For Halloween, Derek and I decided that we should spend some quality individual time with Miri and make sure she had some good fun before the babies came home. The night before Halloween we took Miriam to Mabey Farm, a great pumpkin patch. (Thanks for the tip Rachel.) She had way too much fun climbing on the haystacks, pulling the wagons and picking out pumpkins.

On Halloween I took Miri to Derek's work were they had an office trick-or-treat. She is very particular about WHICH candy she chooses. She mainly likes suckers and occasional smarties. I rarely let Miriam have candy, but figured Halloween is once a year and just let her go crazy. I really regretted that decision 2 days later when she threw up all over in Sacrament Meeting. Lovely. Anyway we then went and visited Miriam's great Grandma Garlick, Great Grandpa Behling and then went to my moms and Derek's moms. Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine, until kids came along. This was Miriam's original Halloween costume, to go along with the triplets dressed up as carrots. Miriam hated the ears and hated having her face painted, so we went to plan B. I told Derek to go to Old Navy on his lunch break and pick out a cute little warm costume there. So what did her come home with? A rat. Yes, that's right. Other people's 2 year olds are cute little fairies and princesses. Mine was a rat, but a darn cute rat she is. Below are pictures of Miriam with her great Grandma Garlick ("Grandma Great") Great Grandpa Behling and her cousins Kylee, Abi and Jake (Jenette's kids.) The cute little piglet giving my cute little rat a hug is Miri's cousin Andelun.

And here I am with two of my favorite people in the world; my sisters Julianne and Jenette.

Let the fun begin

2008-11-02T19:43:00.001-08:00

This morning Derek and I were informed that our girls will come home on Wednesday. I have wanted them to come home so badly, but the news made me feel a little bit of panic. I can't even imagine how my crazy house is going to run. I don't function well on little sleep, I really like my house clean and love schedules. I'm going to just need to get over all of that. We had a great nurse at the NICU today. Her name is Becca and she is actually the one who resuscitated my little Lia after she was born and wasn't able to breath on her own and had to go on the Ventilator. I think she saw in my face that I'm a little nervous. People are constantly saying things to me like "I don't know how you are going to do this" and "I could never do that." While I totally understand why people say things like that, I would have said the same thing to someone in this type of a situation before I was thrown into it. But really, I just needed to hear someone say "You can do this, you will do this and you will do it well." Becca did. She told me that she has watched Derek and I since day one and that she knows we will do this wonderfully and the babies will be great. Thank you Becca! That encouragement meant the world to me. We were really surprised at how quickly this all happened. The girls have taken off with their feedings. They are now doing on demand feedings and eating tons. We thought some other things might keep them in the NICU longer, but apparently not! Lia will come home on Oxygen. She has had a bacterial infection called C-Diff (aka cooties) Anyone who touches her has to pretty much put on haz mat gear but they are going to let her come home anyway. She has had to be so patient waiting for her needs to be met while people suit up in the plastic gown and gloves. Her sweet little cry sounds like a goat. :) This past week we found out that little Lia has the exact same 2 heart issues that Claire has. She has an ASD and PDA. They are not going to treat at this point, just watch it and we will have to follow up with cardiology. They say it's random that they both have the exact same conditions, but I'm not convinced. I'm not a super smart girl, but in my mind there has to be some other sort of explanation. I took a lot of medications to get these babies and I hope that didn't negatively affect their development. Since the heart is one of the first major things to develop it seem like the strong hormone medications could still have been in my body. Luckily these conditions are treatable - if they even end up needing treatment. Only time will tell.

My Girls

2008-10-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I now am the mother of 4 girls. Here are some updates on each of my cuties!

Miriam Jenette is named after my sister Jenette and will be two next month. She is such a talker. She speaks in complete sentences and says things that I have no idea where she picked up. She has started singing... she loves the songs on Cinderella and tries to sing along. Bless the little girls heart - she is COMPLETELY tone deaf. The sound of her singing makes me happy. She loves books and puzzles. She went through a phase where she wanted to color constantly (on everything.) Now she likes to sit and peel the wrappers off the crayons. She is very independent and very social. She loves people, especially her cousins. She loves outside and has an obsession with animals, particularly puppies. She won't let go of her binky and has NO interest in the potty. She has a great laugh and smile and an enormous gap between her 2 front teeth. She can be be a little bit of a bully, but gives great kisses and is excellent at saying "please" and "thank you." Derek followed her around the house one day and took these pictures. He's trying to train her to be a sports fan... so far so good. She will chant "BYU COUGARS!!" when Derek is watching football and when basketball is on she'll yell "Ally Oop!!"

Lia Marie is named after Derek's mom, Carol Marie. She has always been and still is the biggest of the triplets. Last night she measured in at 5 lbs 15 oz. She is even getting some rolls on her... a very welcome sight on a preemie. As far as her little personality, she is very pleasant. She is laid back and calm and rarely fusses. She grunts a lot and is very expressive with her face. She's a little cuddle bug. She has had the most complications, initially with having to go on the Vent and she's now dealing with a bacterial infection called C-diff, but she's also come the farthest.There is a real sweetness about little Lia.

Brynn Rebecca is named after her Aunt Becky, Derek's sister. She is in the running for being the biggest and last night weighed 5 lbs 11 oz. Her little personality is so determined! It's so interesting how a preemie can already have such a strong personality! It's not that she isn't pleasant, she is. She just knows exactly what she wants. For instance, she tries so hard at breastfeeding. She becomes frustrated when she can't latch on right, but won't give up. Even when she is exhausted, she fight sleep because she wants to try and try again. She'll freak out if she feels like sucking on her binky and it falls out of her mouth. As soon as it's put back in she's as happy as can be. She's just figured out how to get the attention she wants. We affectionately call her "stinky." I don't know what her deal is, but she definitely can't go without a regular bath.

Claire Denice is named after my mom and is still our little runt. She is now 4 lbs 10 oz and still feels like a preemie. She scrunches her little body up like a monkey and always has to have her oxygen turned down when we hold her. She gets so comfortable and content she doesn't require the machine supplying her with the extra oxygen. Even though she is tiny, she is not shy. She has big eyes that are always looking around. She loves her binky and will hold it in her mouth with her tiny fist. She gave us quite a scare when we first learned about her heart issues, but things seem to have turned out OK and she will just need to be watched for now.

So, there they are. My four girls. I wish I could have seen this post 3 years ago when I was wondering if I'd ever have a child of my own. My cup runneth over....

Could carrots be any cuter?

2008-10-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

Penny strikes again. I mentioned her in a previous post... she is the awesome NICU nurse who took the pictures of my girls when they were a few days old. Well, she did it again, but this time MADE them Halloween costumes first. Lia is on the left. Another NICU mom said something about this pic of Lia that made me laugh. She said "That's the face I would be making if someone put me in a costume like that." Brynn is in the middle and Claire of the right. The girls are getting closer to coming home. Brynn will most likely be the first, followed shortly by Claire. Lia will most likely come home last... she's had a little bit of a hard time, but is making progress. I'm hoping they will all be home within the next two weeks. We had a scare a few days ago that luckily turned out to be nothing. Lia had a bloody stool and at the NICU they just went crazy with millions of tests and they stopped her feedings. Apparently they were afraid that she had something terrible called NEC where there is a part of the colon that actually dies and can be very dangerous. One NNP actually said to me "Now I'm not trying to scare you, but babies with NEC can get very sick very quickly and sometimes emergency surgery is required, and sometimes babies don't make it through this surgery." Ya, that doesn't sound scary, that sounds happy. All the testing has (so far) come back normal and she hasn't had any more weird poops. Claire is still getting an ECHO every week to monitor her heart issues. Things haven't changed, but they don't feel its necessary to treat her right now. So basically she's just being watched. My babies are getting so big! Claire is now 4 lbs 6 oz, Lia is 5 lbs 8 oz and Brynn is 5 lbs 6 oz. They are starting to look like normal newborns, especially Lia. They are all learning to eat so they can get rid of their feeding tubes and are all still working on getting off their oxygen. Things are going well... thank you all for the prayers and please keep them coming!

An Update on Claire

2008-10-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

Claire had another echocardiogram today. Her PDA looks the same. Last week I was told that if it was the same or any worse, we would move on to medication and if that doesn't work we'd move on to surgery. Well, today they told me that in babies as "old" as Claire, the medication rarely works. It has a high success rate if it's used within the first 4 days of life. Surgery is still a possibility, but they want to watch the PDA for awhile longer. They are hopeful it will close on it's own... kind of a different story than I was hearing last week, but I just have to trust that they know what they are doing and will take the best care possible of my little Claire. Oh, and Claire did make some progress today. She latched on and breastfed like she's been doing it for years. That makes her one step closer to coming home!

My Happy Moment

2008-10-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I got to hold all three of my babies together for the first time. Even though Brynn is tipped over, Claire is sliding down into her blanket and Lia looks like she is missing her left eye, this is one of my favorite pictures ever. Holding them all together brought me great joy!

Two steps forward, one step back...

2008-10-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Everyone tells me that's how it goes in the NICU. Lately it feels like one step forward two steps back with little Claire. Last week I got a call from one of the NNP's (neonatal nurse practitioner.) She said that they had done an echocardiogram on Claire's heart and they found two abnormalities. The first is called a PDA and is common in preemies and even sometimes happens in full term babies. Basically it's an abnormal opening between two major blood vessels leading from the heart. This opening usually closes on it's own soon after birth, but Claires hasn't. A PDA can be mild, moderate or severe. Claires is moderate. She has another echo on Thursday. If her PDA is the same or any worse, they will try to treat with medication, which I was told "sometimes" works. If it isn't successful, they will have to do a surgery to close the opening. The thought of surgery on little Claire's heart makes me sick, but I've been reassured that it's not as scary as it seems. The success rate is super high and recovery is only a few days. So, that's the first issue. The second problem is that Claire has an actual heart defect called an ASD. She has a hole between the two upper chambers in her heart. She will have to be followed and if she starts becoming "symptomatic" things like chronic chest infections, fatigue, high blood pressure, she will have to have surgery to basically "plug" this hole.
Besides the heart issues, Claire has just gone down hill a little bit. Her oxygen sats are all over the place, her respirations are high, and she used to be pretty alert and always seems pretty lethargic now. I can't breastfeed her... apparently it would force her to exert too much energy and they want to avoid that. Oh, but she is so beautiful. She crunches up like a little monkey and loves to be held. She is still gaining weight, which is promising. Please keep my little Claire in your prayers!
Lia and Brynn are both doing fabulous. Brynn is about 4 1/2 lbs and Lia is approaching 5 lbs. They should be in open cribs by the weekend and are maintaining their body temperature pretty well. They are both just on minimal amounts of oxygen and are progressing with feedings. Hopefully they will be home in a few weeks.
The drive to University Hospital twice a day is getting a little old, but there's no way I could stand going without seeing my babies.
All in all I have many blessings to count. Claire will be OK, it will just take some time. When I see other babies in the NICU and hear about all of the issues my girls could be facing right now I realize just how lucky we are.
Here are some updated pics taken a few days ago when the girls were two weeks old. Claire is in the first picture, Lia is in the middle and the bottom picture is Brynn with her daddy.

Good news from the NICU

2008-09-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on the girls... they were moved from "room 2" to "room 3." For those of you who are unfamiliar with the different NICU rooms, room 1 is where you don't want the babies to ever have to be. Those babies are considered unstable and that's were babies are typically lost. Room 2 is the more urgent care, but fairly stable. In room 3 they are considered very stable and just need to grow and learn how to feed. My girls had a short stay in room 1 right after they were born and have been in room 2 until a couple of days ago. Derek and I got to the NICU for our nightly visit and saw them wheeling Claire by us in her little isolette on her way to the new room. I'm so proud of my girls! They make little steps of progress and then have small setbacks, which is very typical of preemies. For instance, little Lia was able to come out of her isolette and be in an open crib for a couple of days, but stopped maintaining an appropriate temperature and had to be put back in the isolette. She is still on 1/2 L of oxygen. Brynn and Claire are both completely of of Oxygen. Little Brynn has a small eye infection which I was assured isn't a big deal at all. They girls tolerate their feedings really well and luckily I've been able to pump loads of milk (almost twice the amount they need!) They are gaining weight. As of last night, Lia was at 4 lbs 4oz (up 5 oz from birth) Brynn was at 3lbs 15oz (up 7 oz from birth) and Claire was at 3lbs 8oz (up 4 oz from birth) They are on track to be home by their due date, which would have been November 14th. I'm hopeful that they will be home by Halloween.
Right now my life is just a constant cycle of going back and forth from the hospital (which is a 40 minute drive each way) to spend time with my girls, spending as much quality time as I can with Miriam and pumping, pumping pumping! I'm feeling SOO much better now! I haven't felt this way for months and every day gets better. My belly is very slowly but surely starting to shrink back down, even though I could still pass for 4-5 months pregnant. I've lost 30 of the 40 pounds I gained during my pregnancy and figure the last 10 will be pretty slow to come off. I am just in absolute awe of what my body was able to do in carrying and giving life to these three babies. I couldn't feel more blessed.

Derek, Miri and I with Lia. This was one of the days she was in an open crib dressed in regular preemies clothes. Even though she's now back to being in the toasty isolette in just her diaper, I'm know she'll be back out soon. And below is my mom with Claire. Claire seems so much tinier than the other two. Holding her feels like you're holding a beenie baby.

A very over due update on my incredibly adorable little preemies

2008-09-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

First off, I just need to apologize to all of my friends and family and others whose calls/emails/texts I haven't returned. I love each of you and I'm so sorry to leave you out of the loop. I hope I haven't offended anyone. I appreciate so much your concern and prayers and I will be getting a hold of each of you soon.

So, let me introduce you to my beautiful girls. Penny, a wonderful NICU nurse took these pics.

Meet Lia, aka "baby A." She was the first born at 8:01 am. She has always been the biggest and was born weighing 3 lbs 14 oz. Despite being our biggest, initially she had the most trouble. She only scored 6/10 on her APGAR and they had to put her on a ventilator to breath for her. Fortunately, she was able to come off the vent the next day. She is now only on 1/2 L of Oxygen. She is gaining weight and doing so well. She is our furry little monkey and has fuzz covering her shoulders :)

Little Brynn, our "baby B" was born 1 minute after her sister at 8:02 weighing in at 3lbs 8 oz. She initially was doing great and scored 9/10 on her APGAR. The next day she took a turn for the worse and had to go on the Ventilator, but that didn't last long either. She was off the vent the next day and is now just on 1 L of oxygen. She has shown the most personality. One nurse described her as "feisty." She very much prefers breast feeding... something a little unusual for how young she is (usually is takes them awhile to get used to the sucking and Lia and Claire have been moderately interested) This little one just goes to town. Her little mouth opens SOO wide and she sucks like there's no tomorrow. :)

And last, our little runt Claire was born at 8:03 am. She was the tiniest weighing 3 lbs 4 oz. Even though she is our smallest, she has had the fewest problems. Apparently that's common for the smallest. They've had to fight so hard that often they are the strongest. She scored 9/10 on her APGAR and has never needed the ventilator. She is now on just 1/2 L of oxygen. I cant even express how happy and grateful that my girls are here and doing so well. If all goes as planned, they should most likely be home in about a month.

So, I'll back up a little and tell you about the craziest week of my life. Like I said in my earlier post, the news that they were coming so soon was a complete surprise. I barely slept Thursday night. I laid in my hospital bed in shock. I felt my babies moving in me just overwhelmed with what the morning would bring. It felt too soon... I had expected to carry these babies for several more weeks and knew that 32 weekers are still very premature and have the potential for serious issues.

The C-section is like a nightmare I don't even like to think about. I was terrified. I think I just really was not mentally prepared for this yet. Everything had happened so suddenly. I was shaking uncontrollably. They kept putting warm blankets on me until I was sweating. I wasn't cold, just terrified of the procedure and terrified for my babies. A C-section is so surreal. I heard them announce that they were going to start cutting and then it was a lot of pulling, tugging and ciaos. The only baby I saw was Brynn for a split second and she was the only one I heard let out a cry. After they put me back together and stitched me up, they wheeled me through the NICU to see my girls. This is all pretty fuzzy in my mind.

Over the course of the next few days I got really sick. I had lost half of my blood during the surgery and had to have a blood transfusion. My oxygen sats kept dropping down in the 70's. I'm not sure why my body wanted to stop breathing. I had some internal bleeding as well. After the blood transfusion I got really sick. I remember holding my stomach so afraid that my incision was going to rip open because I was throwing up so violently. I had an elias (which I guess is where the bowel twists and blocks after your bowels are put back in you after surgery- not sure if that's the correct spelling either) which was tons of fun too. Every nurse or doctor that would check my abdomen would gasp and say something like "I've never seen bruising like that" or "What happened to you?" Even my doctor and the resident who did the c-section seemed so puzzled as to why my bruising is so terrible. It covers my whole abdomen, wraps around my back and goes down the side of my thighs. Needless to say, those first 3 days of my babies lives were a nightmarish blur, but little by little I started getting better. I am a world better know and just so incredibly grateful that my girls are doing so well. They are so sweet, so adorable and I can't even express how much I love these three little tiny people.
I have more pictures to post later, so stay tuned!

Am I dreaming?

2008-09-18T21:48:00.001-07:00

Today was a crazy day. A random doctor came in at 5:00 am, woke me up and told me that depending on the results of my 24 hour protein urine test, they may let me go home this afternoon. Well thanks doc, could this bit of information waited until 7:00 am? Apparently not. Dr. Sullivan came in later this morning and said that because of my consistent high blood pressure, she would like to keep me through the weekend to be monitored. Even though I would really like to go home, I felt pretty comfortable with her being overly cautious. She came again at 3:30 and told me that the 24 hr protein urine test came back and the level was dangerously high. She said that they will take the babies tomorrow morning at 7:30. I totally gave her the deer in headlights stare for who knows how long. I don't think I've even been taken so off guard. Literally 2 days ago I had no signs or pre-eclampsia. Apparently it's nothing to mess with. SOOO.... tomorrow is the triplets birthday. Wow.

Live from University Hospital

2008-09-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

I knew this day would come, it just surprised me how quickly it crept up on me. I had a doc appointment yesterday, Tuesday. My ultrasound showed that the girls are growing and doing just fine. Lia is 3 lbs 15 oz and Claire and Brynn are both 3 lbs 8 oz. Not too shabby. My cervix has shortened quite a bit to 2.3 cm and I have started dilating and am 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced. My doc decided to start me on the steroid shots to help the girls lungs develop and said that it was time for me to go on full bed rest. So I stayed down all day and early this morning, about 3 am woke up with some killer contractions. I took my medication and for the hour after that I had 12 contractions. Yikes. I drove to the hospital where they admitted me for pre-term labor. Yesterday I had absolutely no sign of Toxemia. Today was a total different story: high blood pressure, swelling and protein in urine. So they are monitoring my contractions as well as Toxemia. This morning early they were talking about "if" the girls are born today, but it looks like it should at least be another few days, hopefully even weeks. This is one crazy ride.

The Truth Comes Out

2008-09-15T01:52:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This post is going to sound whiny... which isn't my intention at all, just wanting to make sure that I'm shedding a little light on all sides of this incredible experience I'm going through. Derek was looking at our blog yesterday and had a good point. He said that my posts are always cheery and make this pregnancy look easy, and it's not. SOOO without wanting to sound like a complainer, I'm going to share with you some of the more real and ugly parts of being pregnant with triplets. If I've made it look easy, I'm a big liar. We'll start with the nights, seeing as right now that's where I am... It's 3 am and I can't sleep. I can usually fall asleep alright around 10:30 or 11:00 pm. Roughly every 1 1/2 hours I'm up to pee. That part is sort of annoying, but really the hardest part is that it feels like a total workout to get out of bed. Honestly, I feel like I am an elderly obese woman with arthritis (and an over active bladder problem.) By 3:00 or4:00 am I'm usually awake for the day, I just can't sleep. The days are long. I take care of Miriam the best I can, but we end up watching a lot of movies- which is something I've always really limited with her. We read books and color, but it's nearly impossible for her to sit on my lap anymore. I get a lot of help with Miriam, which then makes me feel like a bum mom pawning my kid off on others. She doesn't seem to mind and has a lot of fun, I just want to be the one she is having fun with. I try and drink 100 oz of fluid per day, but I kid you not, even water gives me heartburn. Food tastes terrible, but I gag down as much protein as I can to put weight on these kiddos. Oh, and my ribs... I seriously think they might be dislocated. Ouch. My contractions are painful, like real labor, like the kind where you can't move can't breath through it type of contraction. My doc said as long as I'm not having more than 4 an hour to not worry about it. When I do have more than 4 an hour I take medication that slows down the contraction but gives me a killer headache and pretty much makes me feel like crap for about 24 hours. And then there is the emotional part... everything makes me cry. I'm such a sap! Also, I don't really go anywhere and it gets lonely and a little depressing. And I have to be honest that I'm scared to death to take care of these three little babies all at once. I think about it constantly. How in the world am I going to give all of them what they need all at the same time? I worry about Miriam being tossed to the side as well. These things are always on my mind.
Well, I could go on, but I think I've shared enough rays of sunshine for one day. Plus, I really have to go to the bathroom again. BUT before I go, let me just say that this is honestly the greatest blessing of my life. It wasn't very long ago I wondered if I'd ever be a mom, and now I've been blessed with my 4 girls. I've made it through the crucial part of my pregnancy with no complications. If the girls were born today they should be just fine and there is nothing like feeling them move inside of me all at the same time. Life is good.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record....

2008-09-07T04:24:00.000-07:00

My posts aren't very exciting these days.... nothing much has changed with the triplets. They are all still doing great. As far as the incubator (aka me) I have my days and I have my little breakdowns from time to time, but they pass. All I have to do is remind myself that this is temporary and the babies are great and that is usually enough to lift my spirits.

My ultrasound last Tuesday showed that the girls all continue to thrive. Thank heavens. My cervix is still unchanged. Dr. Sullivan told me "That's an amazing cervical length at this point, even for someone carrying one baby." She then went on to say something that made me laugh out loud "Your body was built to carry triplets." That comment was so ironic to me seeing as it takes a freaking miracle to GET me pregnant, but once I do I can carry a whole litter like a champ. Not much more to report.... Here's yet another belly shot. Is it seriously possible to be any more pregnant than this?

More Baby Stuff

2008-08-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have new stats on the girls... as of my Tuesday ultrasound Lia weights in at 3 lbs 5 oz (60th percentile) Brynn is a whopping 2 lbs 14 oz (50th percentile) and little Claire had a great growth spurt and is tipping the scales at 2 lbs 10 oz (40th percentile.) They seem to be thriving... and I couldn't be more happy with their progress. I hit 29 weeks tomorrow. I take medication as needed to stop my contractions, which are becoming more frequent. My cervix is still holding strong and measured 3.9cm. Odd considering that last time it was 3.7 cm. Can a cervix grow? Whatever, who really cares. I'm getting more and more tired and it's getting harder to move, but I'm still only on modified bed rest. I figured out that with three 3 lb babies, 3 placentas and 3 sacs of amniotic fluid, I'm carrying around what would be equal to a singleton pregnancy with roughly a 15 pound baby. By the time I'm finished hopefully the girls put on at least another 1 1/2 to 2 pounds, so by then I'll feel like I'm lugging around what would be a single pregnancy of a 20 pound baby. Sheesh, Miriam only weighs 25 pounds. Speaking of my sweet little Miri, I look back at how difficult I thought the end of my pregnancy with her was and want to laugh. When I was 39 weeks pregnant with her I thought I was so miserable I couldn't go another day so I went out jogging to induce labor. Well, it worked. My contractions started that afternoon, water broke at midnight and I delivered her at noon the next day. Oh, life was so simple then. What I wouldn't give to only feel 39 weeks pregnant :)

OK, so I have to post a picture of our enormous stroller. We weren't able to find a store that carried it, as it's probably not the highest demand item, so we read great reviews on it and ordered it online. When it showed up on the porch in 2 massive boxes, I knew it was going to be huge, but I'm telling you, this thing is ridiculous. It's about 6 feet long and has a freaking steering wheel. Not to mention it was insanely expensive. Unfortunately, there aren't many triplet strollers to choose from. The stroller is so big you can't even see our dining room table that is swallowed up behind the stroller.

And last, I just think these little booties are adorable. They are about 2 inches long. Awww...

Family shower

2008-08-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

First, I need to just say that between my mom, two sisters, eight sister's in law and my mother in law, I have some of the greatest women and most wonderful friends in my family. Thanks for such a fun family shower. You are all the best. Needless to say the triplets were very spoiled.My big sis Jenette, me, little sis Julianne (aka shmoobs) and my fabulous mommy at my family shower.

My Own Personal Holiday

2008-08-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today is a holiday for us Lloyds... I hit my 28 week mark, which I feel is the biggest of my pregnancy. The triplets really could come anytime now, but I hope to keep them cooking for another month, and don't have any reason to think they are coming soon. On Sunday I went in to Labor and Delivery again because my contractions wouldn't stop. They discussed giving me steroid shots to help develop the babies lungs, but decided against it. They explained to me that they do this only if they feel the babies will be coming within a week, and they didn't feel that was the case in my situation. I was given medication to stop the contractions and after about 5-6 hours was sent on my way. My cervix is still long and closed. My ultrasound on Tuesday showed no problems. All of the girls have great heartbeats and plenty of amniotic fluid. They will measure the babies growth and give weight estimates at my ultrasound this coming Tuesday. I'm pulling for little Claire to have had a big growth spurt! I can really tell the girls are growing, not just because of the size of me, but how forceful their movements are becoming. It's amazing to watch my stomach when they all get moving. Feeling them move really is one of the best parts of being pregnant. It's a happy holiday!

The almost 26 week post

2008-08-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

This weeks doctors appointment was very promising. I was a little concerned during the ultrasound when I was told that my cervix was now at 3.7 cm instead of the 4.7 it was last time... hmmmmm. The ultrasound tech assured me it was nothing to be worried about and so did the mid wife. My doc was out of town, so when I got home I emailed her. This was her response "I'm not concerned with 3.7 cm at 25 1/2 weeks, in fact I'm thrilled! You are in great shape right now." Lia, Claire and Brynn all looked great. Lia and Brynn are just over 2 pounds and little Claire is our runt. She is only 1 1/2 pounds. That also caused me to feel a little concerned, but I was again assured that it's nothing to worry about. She is continuing to grow at a normal rate, and that is what matters. All three have good amounts of amniotic fluid and strong heart beats. I asked for a picture of all three together, and since they are now so big, this was the best they could get:What you're looking at here is Lia's bum on the left and Brynn and Claires heads.

And here is the belly that is housing the three girls:

I am now officially bigger than I ever was during my pregnancy with Miriam. I am measuring over full term and I've gained 30 pounds. I know it's just a matter of days before the stretch marks start appearing and I'm ready for 'em! Bring it on.

Our First Big Milestone

2008-07-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

Last week we had two events... first of all I ended up in Labor and Delivery yet again because my contractions wouldn't stop. They must have given me a dozen tests. They informed me that I had a yeast infection (pregnancy is so glamorous) and they said that could be causing contractions, so I was given medication to treat that. They told me I'm anemic (not enough iron) and was slightly dehydrated. They pumped me full of fluids. After about 5 hours my contractions still hadn't stopped. The doctor (who I swear was at least 5 years younger than me, can you be a doctor at 24?) told me that if my contractions didn't stop, I couldn't go home and they may have to admit me. They gave me some medication that finally did calm them down, so I came stumbling home around midnight, exhausted but relieved that everything is alright. By the way, my cervix is still super woman strong, and that's what really matters.
My great news is that on Friday I hit the 24 week mark, which is considered the "viability" point. Most of the time babies born at this point will live, but roughly half would have some type of neurological problems or other long term issues... so of course we're praying every day for our girls to keep cookin' as long as possible. Our next major milestone will be at 28 weeks. At this point babies usually don't have neurological problems, but basically live in the NICU for months. Our goal is 32 weeks, which would be September 19th. I feel like I'm a little kid waiting for Christmas. Maybe I should make a countdown paper chain.

Getting Bigger by the Day

2008-07-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, for anyone interested in seeing my triplet carrying belly- here it is at 22 weeks. I'm getting close to measuring full term. The girls like to have dance parties and I've put on 23 pounds. Last time I went to the doctor, I asked about this strange rash I've had for the last two months on my chin. The NP told me "Oh honey, that's not a rash, that's acne." Lovely. Derek thinks it hilarious because I never went through the teenage acne stage that he so painfully had to endure. It's some kind of psychological revenge for him. Apparently the acne is courtesy of all the extra estrogen I have pumping through me. I think it is also to blame for me crying during shows like "A baby story" on TLC. Do these make anyone else cry? I have an ultrasound next week so hopefully I'll have some good pics to post!

I've been tagged!

2008-07-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

So in updating myself on friends blogs, I realized I've been tagged... twice-Once by Dev and once by Suzy. Here goes... I'll try and make it short and sweet:
What was I doing 10 years ago? Lets see, I was at Ricks College rooming with Sara. Derek was getting ready for his mission. Little did I know in a couple of months Derek was going to give me the ax. Thanks honey. Love you.
5 years ago? I was working as a social worker for Salt Lake County Aging Services and going through fertility treatments.
1 year ago? Spending lots of time with Miriam at the pool. We had just sold our Draper town home.
Yesterday? Church. THANK HEAVENS for the nursery. It is by far the best church program in existance. For the past 6 weeks I've actually been able to listen and relax during Relief Society and Sunday School. Last night was dinner with my family and extended family home evening. Sundays are my favorite.
Favorite Snacks? Cherries, Rasberries, Watermelon, Peach ice cream, Old Fashioned dounuts.
Favorite Books? I Love "The 5 People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. The best book I've read in the past several months is "The Book Theif" by Markus Zusak. I love the story and the way it's written is brilliant. "Silas Marner" by George Eliot is a great classic and I have to admit I'm in love with Stephenie Meyers "Twilight" series. I can't wait till the next book comes out in August. My favorite childrens book is called "Someday" I honestly can't read it without crying.
Bad Habits? I let clean laundry sit in the dryer and get wrinkly. It drives Derek crazy. Also I get impatient a lot.
Places I would like to run away to? I love any sandy beach. I'd like to go back to Italy and Derek really want's to show me Holland (where he served his mission.) It will be years before I get another vacation and then it will most likely be Disneyland.
Things I would never wear? I'm open to new things usually, but highwaisted jeans are a no-no. Honestly, who WANTS to look like they have long bum?
Pet peeves? Right now my pet peeves are maternity clothes, heartburn and leg cramps.
Famous People? No one really comes to mind. I've never really been the star struck type. People I want to tag! Julianne, April, Becky and Jen.

The Month of June

2008-07-06T08:34:00.001-07:00

So, I'm officially a lazy blogger. I've let an entire month pass with no updates. First things first... the triplets are doing great. One advantage to being pregnant with triplets is that I get ultrasounds at least every other week. Oh, and they are for sure all girls :) They are getting close to a pound each and are about 8-9 inches long. We have tentatively decided on names: Baby A (who is head down on my right side) is Lia Marie, Baby B (who is head down on my left side) is Brynn Rebecca and Baby C (who is straight across right in under my ribs) is Claire Denice. Claire and I have had lots of talks. Our conversations are one sided and go like this:

Me: "Claire, honey, could you please move down and stop jabbing and kicking mommys ribs?"

Like most children, sometimes she's obedient and sometimes me asking makes her rebel even more.

As for me, I'm on a modified bed rest. I have to lay down and rest for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. This all came about a week and a half ago when I started feeling regular contractions. I went in to Labor and Delivery and they hooked me up to all of the machines and confirmed that I was having contractions every 2-9 minutes. They did an ultrasound and the babies were great and I hadn't started dilating, so that's a good thing. I'm enormous.... Measuring at about 8 months even though I'm only 5 months along. I feel like I'm at the end of a pregnancy too. Who knows what these next 2-3 months will hold.

June was a fun and busy month for us. We started it out by taking a vacation to St. George with my family. Miri had fun playing with her cousins, Derek had fun golfing and I had fun seeing Zions, which was a first for me.

Also, we moved. We're are still in Sandy, but now have more room for all these little babies and all their stuff. We're still working on the nursery... luckily one of the bedrooms is big enough to fit all three cribs. I'll be sure and post a picture of the final product.

A couple of weeks ago my cute friend Suzy (who has been my friend since Junior High) had a diaper shower for me. We figure that we now have a 2-3 month supply of diapers for the triplets. Thanks everybody! And please, please, please, keep my triplets in your prayers!

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Estrogen Overload

2008-06-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Our ultrasound revealed today that we will be having THREE more girls! I'm giddy excited and Derek is fine as long as one of them ends up being a BYU football fan. Babies B and C were obviously girls, baby A was a little more difficult because the umbilical cord was between the legs. They couldn't get a straight on look, but from the side there was no twig or berries apparent. So, there's still a small chance that a teeny weeny could appear, but we're 90% sure that A's a girly too. Now we have to come up with three girl names. Any suggestions?

A Bump in the Road

2008-05-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: If reading about things like my cervix length and vaginal bleeding are going to offend you, read no more.
Yesterday we had quite a scare. I woke up, went in the bathroom and discovered the last thing any pregnant woman ever wants to discover: bleeding. LUCKILY Derek hadn't left for work. I called Maternal Fetal Medicine, they told me to get to the ER asap. I don't make very good decisions at 6:30 in the morning. For some reason I put on the dirty clothes I'd worn yesterday with food stains from Miri flinging her food at me. At least I didn't forget a bra. Derek got Miri's diaper changed and got her in the car and I called my great sister in law Becky (thanks Beck) woke her up and told her we're dropping Miri off.
When we got to the ER things starting sinking in a little and I got really nervous thinking about all of the terrible possibilities. At one point I remember praying "please don't let them all be gone." It was a nightmarish feeling.
A very kind nurse told me that I wouldn't have an ultrasound for awhile, but that she was going to help set my mind at ease with her Doppler (which is like a sophisticated stethoscope that can pick up the sound of babies heartbeats.) It didn't put my mind at ease at all after10 minutes when she could only pick up one heartbeat.
Awhile later some doc wheeled in a prehistoric ultrasound machine that must have been a hand me down from the 1950's. It took about 3 minutes to confirm that all three babies still have a heartbeat. What an incredible relief. The monitor showed my heart rate and blood pressure go down significantly after the good news. They did warn us that although this is promising, they still needed to find the source of the bleeding. The doctor said that my cervix appears to have shortened which they don't like to see, especially this early in a pregnancy. They discharge me from the ER and told me to go upstairs to maternal fetal medicine and Dr. Sullivan would be able to see me in about an hour. I got another ultrasound. All 3 babies look great... they are measuring right on schedule and heart beats are strong. Two of the babies weigh 4 oz and the third weighs 5 oz. They checked my cervix length and said it was fine (ER dingbats) Then they found the source of the bleeding... there is a hemorrhage on the wall of my uterus. Right now it doesn't seem to be affecting the babies. Dr. Sullivan's exact words "I'm not going to say I'm REALLY worried, but these things always cause concern." So more likely it will heal without affecting my babies. Worse case scenario it could get bigger and then.... well I don't want to go there yet, and I don't think that I'll have to. We're hopeful that everything will be fine. Please keep my babies in your prayers! I know it's going to take prayers and faith to get them all here safe and sound.

Almost half way there

2008-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

After many requests for another belly shot... Here I am in all of my pregnant glory. I'm now 15 weeks, and since my doc told me that he would be ecstatic if I made it to 32 weeks, I'm feeling almost half way done.

Another question I get a lot of is "Do you have to eat a lot?" The answer to that is YES!!! My diet (or at least the diet I strive for) is unbelievable; 4000 calories, 200 grams of protein per day (I never make that, I've found it's completely impossible to gag down more than 150 gram in a day.) 2 eggs, 10 oz of meat (preferably red meat) 15 servings of grains, 10 servings of dairy, 6 fruits, 8 veggies. Notice no mention of serving amount for doughnuts? Ya, that sucks because that is the only thing that doesn't taste like clay. Weight gain to date: 11 pounds.

May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month

2008-05-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Maddie and Max are our adorable neice and nephew who we love SO much! They both live with CF, if you would like to help or for more info on CF visit http://www.cff.org/.

Update on the triplets

2008-05-05T12:47:00.001-07:00

Last Tuesday we had our 12 week appointment and ultrasound. It was my first appointment with my new doc at the U. I was bummed that I had to change from Dr. Esplin at IMC after Derek's job change and insurance change, but I think Dr. Sullivan will be great. Esplin recommended her, and I definitely trust his judgement. I really think that she's the first doc who hasn't made me feel rushed and sat and talked with me forever. So onto the important stuff... all 3 babies are great! They are all growing at the same rate, which is a good thing and doesn't always happen with multiples. They are each about 2 inches from head to bum. Heartbeats were 167, 167 and 180. All three were moving around like crazy. One was sucking his/her fist, another one looked like s/he waved "hi" to us. For the first time it started to feel a little real. Our next ultrasound is at the end of May and they might (might) be able to tell the gender. We're keeping our fingers crossed because we're dying to know!
Baby A
Baby B

Baby C

3 happy little babies

Miri's best friend

2008-04-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Miri's best friend is her cousin Mitchell. Ever since they were born they've had a lot in common. They were both In Vitro babies, born 6 weeks apart, and have always looked like they could be twins. They get to play together twice a week, once at Miri's house and once at Mitchell's. Their favorite activities include: looking at doggies, hugging until they fall over, going for rides in the red wagon, stealing binkies, giving kisses, fighting over toys and feeding each other.

9 weeks and counting

2008-04-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

I promise it's not a typo. I didn't mean 19 weeks. This is really a picture of me one week ago when I was 9 weeks prego with the triplets. I am growing at an amazing rate. Yesterday I was in the dressing room trying on maternity clothes and the sales lady asked how far along I am. When I told her, she looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about.

Cousins

2008-04-07T19:27:00.000-07:00

In the Lloyd family, there were six babies born in six months. Miriam was #4. (From L-R Miriam, Henry, Judge, Andelun, Mitchell and Parker.)

Easter pictures

2008-04-07T19:20:00.001-07:00

Buy one, get two free

2008-03-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Most people love a great deal, and I'm a total bargain shopper. Today Dr. Peterson told us we will be getting the greatest deal of our life. That's right. Three babies all at once. We heard all three hearts beat and saw each seperate baby in it's own sac. We're a little freaked out thinking that they will most likely be 2 months early and I'm a little freaked out knowing that I will be on bedrest at 20 weeks, but wow, what a blessing.
We spent the afternoon at CarMax looking for mini-vans. Oh, heaven help me.

Our Happy News!!!

2008-03-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

After 5 positive home pregnancy tests and two blood tests, we finally feel like it's official... Miri will have a brother or sister in November. Actually, she may have both. My HCG blood levels were in the normal range for twins, which is also just in the high range for a single, so we'll have to wait and see. The first ultrasound is scheduled for March 25th and we should know for sure then. We couldn't be more grateful and excited!

An update on the quest to get Miriam a brother or sister

2008-02-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

Derek and I did In Vitro again on Wednesday. All 5 day old embryos look odd, but Dr. Peterson told us ours were exceptionally deformed and pathetic. I still think they are cute... I guess that every mama thinks her babies are cute, right? We were given a 45% chance of pregnancy, not the 70% chance we were given when we did In Vitro and got Miri, but we'll take it. We're staying cautiously optimistic for the next week until we take the BIG TEST to see if Miriam really will have a brother or sister. No matter what happens, we both have absolute trust and faith in the Lord that he is mindful of our situation and will bless us with an addition to our family.

Miriam's 1st birthday, November 27, 2007

2008-02-29T14:46:00.000-08:00

I was definitely more excited about Miriam's Tinkerbell

birthday party than she was. She just wanted the cake.

Miri daintily picked off and ate all of the pink frosting before

devouring it and eating literally half of the entire cake.

She inherited the sweet tooth from her mama.

Maui in December

2008-02-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

No one told us just how hard it would be to leave our little Miriam for a week, but we still managed to have fun on our vacation to Maui. We went scuba diving at Molokini, boogie boarding (it's the one "sport" that I'm actually better than Derek) :) and enjoyed all of the the other fabulous things that Maui has to offer. One tip if you are thinking about going to Hawaii: Don't eat at the restaurant "Da Kitchen" it was Da-sgusting. Oh, and one more thing, the road to Hana really is as beautiful as the travel books say.

The only thing we missed out on... Miriam starting walking while we were gone.

2008-02-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well, we've finally decided to join the blog world. We figure its a great way to keep in touch with all those friends we don't get to see often enough.

The past year has been a great and eventful one for us. Our little miracle Miriam Jenette was born November of 2006. She is the light in our lives. For any of you thinking about having kids, we highly recommend it!

Miriam is 15 months old and walking and talking. We're working on manners and trying to teach Miriam not to be such a bully. She can pretty much body slam the little 4 year old boys at church. She's quite independent and does what ever it takes to get her own way. I think she got that from Derek, and Derek thinks that trait came straight from me.

In September we moved from Draper to our new home in Sandy. We've loved it here, but miss our old ward and friends in South Mountain.