The Plan - The Measurements - The Needs

Friends and Family,

I have not been able to get on here to give you our latest updates, so this post is a three part post.

1. The Plan

We now have the timing down of the plan. Thursday morning our doctor will perform an amniocentesis to determine lung maturity. The test takes most of the day to get results, so we should find out the results on Thursday evening or Friday morning.

If their lungs are mature to ours and our doctors satisfaction, he will deliver our boys on Friday or soon there after. If not, we will need to decide whether we need to risk delivering babies with immature lungs, or wait for mature lungs and risk a cord accident. This decision will be difficult, so please be in prayer for this as well. But, most of all, continue to pray that their lungs are mature. Everyone agrees that we should deliver if their lungs are mature.

So, the exciting part here is that we may be talking about babies being born this week!!

2. New Measurements

Our babies got measured today for the first time since January 5th, here they are!

Baby A: 3lbs. - 2oz.
Baby B: 4lbs. - 4oz.
Baby C: 2lbs. - 12oz.
Baby D: 2lbs. - 12oz.

These are excellent sizes!

3. The needs list

Many people have ask us what our needs are when the babies come home. We have been so overwhelmed by the number of people who have told us that they would like to help once the babies come home. So many, in fact, that we are sure that we do not remember them all. So, here is the list. We have had a couple friends volunteer to organize the help once the babies come home. (you know who you are)

So, here is the plan:

If you would like to help take care of our baby boys and us as we adjust to having four infants at home, please look through this list. Pick out any of the things that you would be willing to help with and e-mail those things to me along with your name, phone number, and days/times that you are available. After we get the list compiled, we will contact you when then needs arise.

We know that all of you are not going to be interested in holding, changing, and feeding babies. But we will appreciate ANY type of help that you might be able and willing to give in this awesome time in our lives. Also, if you want to offer other kinds of help that we didn't think of, feel free to add to the list!

Things to do.....
1. Making us meals
2. Bottle cleaning and preparation
3. House cleaning/laundry
4. Feed and change babies (morning, afternoon, evening, and night shifts)
5. Grocery Shop / Run Errands
6. Yard Work (in the spring/summer)

Things we need.....
1. Diapers (or gift cards to buy them with)
2. Coupons for diapers and other baby stuff
3. Preemie Clothes
4. Double Stroller (we have one coming, need one more)
5. Registry items at Target/Babies R Us
6. Financial support

Please contact me at my email.

We only post this list because we have had so many people ask. You all need to understand that we expect nothing of you. If you are our best friends now, and don't have time to help, you will continue to be our best friends! :) We love you all and if all you did was pray for our babies, we are indebted to you for life. God has been gracious to us and we will depend wholly on Him to provide us with our needs. If you want to be a part of that provision, that's awesome!!

Brad, Jen, and the Blue Crew
Go Colts!!
(Remember, we ask you all to pray for a Superbowl birth/berth for us and the Colts, but now we would like to revise that request. Could you pray that the birth be timed so that Jen and I could both watch?)

(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

Past 30 Weeks and Still Going....

Friends and Family:

I wanted to quickly let you know that all is well with the pregnancy and the boys. Our boys continue to show very good heart rates and from all we can tell, they are very healthy.

If you would be willing, we ask that you would continue to pray for our babies safety. They all continue to be at risk, but God has been faithful thus far in preserving their lives, praise Him!

Also, please pray for Jen's physical comfort. As the boys grow and Jen gets stretched to the limit and beyond, her body is responding with a lot of aches and pains. And, this morning a new pain was added. As Jen turned over after having a sonogram, the boys took a major shift in position. Suddenly Jen was in a lot of pain and didn't know why. Dr. Sumners came in a while later and explained that it sounds like she may have pulled/strained her round ligament. He says this ligament is attached to her pubic bone and runs up and over her belly. Evidently, one of the boys must have crashed down on top of this ligament when it was already pulled tight, injuring it in the process. This has been the most painful day yet during this pregnancy.
Would you pray that this sharp pain would go away soon?

Thank you all, we are getting so close now. In a few weeks, we should be giving you names and weights of our new baby boys!!

(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

Almost to 30 - Keep Praying!

Friends and Family:

I wanted to write and give you all a quick update. Yesterday morning our boys underwent another biophysical profile and once again each scored 8/8. This test can last up to two hours, but only took about 30 minutes this time. Each baby needs to meet 4 criteria in thirty minutes or less, which did not turn out to be a problem.

Please continue to pray for the safety of our babies. 30 weeks is yet another huge milestone to achieve and we are thankful that we are drawing close to it.

Also, pray for Jen's physical comfort and endurance as the rapid growth of the babies makes her more uncomfortable every day.

Last, Jen and I ask that you pray for her best friend Jamie who just had a baby at prematurely. Her little girl is still in the hospital. Jamie is also still in some discomfort. Would you all pray that Jamie could get some rest and be able to recover? Also pray that her little girl can come home soon.

Thanks friends!

(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

29 Amazing Weeks....

Friends and Family:

We wanted to let you know that our 29 week appointment went very well! The boys got measured today and we were pleasantly surprised to find that all four of our babies have cleared two pounds. We are so excited about this. The only issue that presented itself that we would ask that you bath in prayer has to do with our two identical boys, C and D. (Yes, they do have names, be we aren't telling....) Dr. Sumners assures us that it is not a problem to be alarmed about, but it is one that he wants to keep an eye on.

Babies C and D are smaller in general, but this is to be expected because they share a placenta which often does not allow quite as much nutrients to reach them. What is not expected is the fact that their abdominal measurement was a little smaller than expected for their size. Dr. Sumners says that when their tummy's measurement is small, it can sometimes be an indicator that their growth is beginning to be restricted.

So What Now?
First, Dr. Sumners ordered that Jen get a round of steroids to bolster the boys lung development. This will prepare them for arrival in case the problem persists and Dr. Sumners decides to schedule a c-section next week. Next, he ordered a test known as a biophysical profile. This test is done with an ultrasound machine and simply watches for things such as movement, amniotic fluid levels, and breathing movements. The best possible score for this test is an 8, and each of our four boys scored 8 out of 8! Praise God, what a relief! This gave us the confidence that we should easily be able to wait the recommended 48 hours after steroids so that their lungs get that extra boost. Monday we should have another biophysical profile to help Dr. Sumners determine their continued well being.

Size?
Baby A: 2lbs. - 6oz. (Small forward)
Baby B: 3lbs. - 4oz. (Power forward)
Baby C: 2lbs. - 2oz. (Guard)
Baby D: 2lbs. - 2oz. (Point Guard)

(I think we need to adopt a fifth child whose parents were very tall. Neither Jen, nor I are probably going to produce a Center.)

Please continue to pray for the health and lives of our little baby boys. Also, pray that God would give our doctors wisdom as they seek to do the right thing for our babies. We are still praying for 32 weeks in spite of this new development. But, if the boys are born in the next week or two, please pray that they would thrive after birth.

We are almost their friends, thank you so much for all the encouragement and support through this blog, phone calls, and cards. We will never be able to repay you for the kindness you have displayed. We still plan to post a list of anticipated needs soon so that you can begin telling us what you might be willing to do. Please never feel obligated as we realize everyone has their own responsibilities, but we will post the needs in case any of you would like to help us further when the babies finally get to come home to us.

We had one anonymous post this week asking us to give them a list of things we need. Whoever you are, could you please specify which kind of needs you were inquiring about? We would be happy to tell you, but were not sure what kind of needs you were referring to. (current hospital needs, material needs, helping hands, baby stuff??)

(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

26 Week Checkup Goes Well + 4D Ultrasound

Friends and Family,

We wanted to let you all know that the appointment went really well this morning. We are so excited to have made it this far with virtually no complications. God has chosen to be gracious to us in spite of our lack of faith on a daily basis. He continues to reassure and remind us that we HAVE to trust Him through this process.

Please continue to pray for safety for the boys for a few more weeks. 28 weeks is the next big mark, but we would love to get to 30-32 for a very safe delivery.

We have so much to be thankful for this week. Our boys are doing wonderful, and God provided for them last night with an awesome shower put on by some of Jen's co-workers. It was such an encouragement to have so many come out to support us. Everyone has been so generous with their time and resources and we are very thankful for that.

We have had a lot of people offer to help us out in different ways once the babies arrive. So many, in fact, that it is difficult to remember everyone. So, in the next week or two, I am planning to post a list of things that we anticipate needing help with once we get to bring our boys home. I am going to ask all of you who are interested in helping to e-mail me at that time with what you are willing to help with from the list. (or anything else you think of) Then, as our needs arise, we will have a list of names and phone numbers to call. Now, please don't think this means that you cannot turn us down when we call, we realize everyone is busy, but it will at least give us a good list of names/numbers when the going gets tough.

Thank you all so much for your prayers! We are so thankful for how well things have gone so far.

We got the best look so far at one of the boys faces today at the appointment, check it out! We're in love!

Rough Week, but Things are Still Up

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C (not a very good shot, he wasn't cooperating with the sonographer)

Baby D



Friends and family,

This week has certainly been the most eventful week since the pregnancy began. As we told you earlier, Jen spent Monday night in the hospital to calm some early contractions, but was sent home Tuesday. Then, Thursday evening, a home contraction monitor was brought to the house for Jen to use twice a day. After an hour of monitoring laying down, the monitor showed that she was not having any contractions.

Late Thursday night, Jen started experiencing some pain that we hoped was just related to digestive problems. But, after 3-4 hours of this pain, we decided we better check with Dr. Sumners to see if he would be worried about it. Well, he told me to bring her into Triage to make sure the pain was not being caused by contractions. So, at 3am, we packed up and headed for the hospital. This time however, contractions were not the problem and we were sent home by 7am. We had to turn around and head back two hours later because Jen had a regularly scheduled appointment at 10am, but we were glad to be discharged none the less.

The greatest news is that all of our boys are doing very well and dispite some discomfort from four babies growing inside of her, Jen is doing very well also. At our doctors appointment, our babies were measured for the first time in a few weeks. As of Friday, babies A,B,C, and D were 1 lb-5oz, 1lb-5oz, 1lb-0oz, and 1lb-1oz respectively. Jen now monitors for contractions for an hour twice per day, but as of this morning, she was contraction free!

Thank you for praying. Our God has been faithful to keep our babies safe through 23 weeks of pregnancy. He is our strength and we continue to see Him work in wondrous ways in our lives.

Please continue to pray for:

- Strength, patience, and courage for Jen as she enters the most difficult phase of the pregnancy.

- For an uneventful week. (Friday makes 24, viability baby!)

- For relief from pain for Jen

- For the health of our babies.

- That God would allow us to glorify Him through this pregnancy by sharing with others the Good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

- Praise God with us also for allowing our insurance to cover the contraction monitor. Sometimes this is a problem as they do not see it as a necessity. This monitor is 75-100 dollars per day and thus very expensive to pay for on our own.

(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

Going for 21, Smooth Sailing...

Click on the image above to see an animation of our sonograms from weeks 6-19.

Thank you all again for praying, we are continually amazed at how our Lord is providing for our every need. Jen and I are sitting on the couch currently watching our boys turn her belly into all sorts of different shapes. I love to see them curl up in a little ball and make a half a softball show up on one side or the other. Jen doesn't mind them moving around too much, as long as its not under her ribs!

We are just so excited that our God has decided to give us such a good pregnancy so far. Our friend, Dr. Gentry, (an OB and elder at our church) talked with Jen tonight and seemed very encouraged about the fact that Jen has still gone contraction free. This, in turn, was very encouraging to us. We are just so thankful for the awesome people that God placed in our lives ahead of time for this event in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Will you please praise our Lord with us for what HE is doing? We often want to put all of our trust in doctors, nurses, and technology. And, I am very thankful for all of those things as I view them as provision from God himself. But, I need reminded sometimes that even doctors, nurses, friends, and medical technology are things that God gives. I think our doctor, Dr. Sumners, is an extremely intelligent man, but who created him? Who gave him those abilities?

God is providing abundantly in this journey. He is answering our prayers.

Could you continue to pray:

- That Jen would continue to go contraction free
- That all four of our babies would continue to grow and stay healthy.
- That Jen would stay healthy and cold/flu free
- That God would provide peace and patience for us

(Post copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

Baby A, B, C, and D!!

Individual Shots.....couldn't get them to pose like little league, but...

(Click on image for full size image)

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

Baby D


(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

4D Ultrasound Images

Here's what our babies look like in there....(Click on image for full size image) Absolutely amazing!

Baby C or D

Baby C or D

Baby C or D (Its hard to keep them straight, they can switch places!)

Baby B (no thats not a hole in his head, just the sonogram!) :)

Baby A
(Post copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

Introduction to Baby B and a Transabdominal Cerclage

Posted by Brad:

The end of this week has been an amazing week of ups and downs, all at the same time. We went for our appointment on Thursday anxious to find how our little ones were growing. The great news is, they are all very healthy size and appear to be doing very well. They are all about 6cm, or 2.25 inches long.
We had the wonderful opportunity to get a new kind of sonogram this week, 4d sonography. This is a somewhat new technology in which they are able to produce 3D images of the babies. This enabled us to get our first good look at our kiddos. We are in love with them already! Although very small (and resemble aliens, perhaps on Brad's side of the family, just kidding), they are already very recognizable as babies. We have been reassured through reading that they will only get cuter from here. :)

Baby "B" got the prize this week for sitting still long enough to get a clear picture. Although we don't know what gender the babies are yet, I am guessing this one to be a girl since she likes the camera so well! We did get shots of all of them, but they were moving around and doing gymnastics so much, it was impossible to get a great one.

The second portion of our appointment was much more difficult. After much consideration, our doctors, with us, have made the decision to give Jen a Transabdominal Cerclage. This is a "major" surgery that will keep Jen in the hospital for at least 2 nights, then home to recover for a few weeks. This surgery should give us the best chance at carrying our babies past that vital 28 week mark, and hopefully beyond. If you would like further details on this surgery, see the link below. This surgery will likely be this coming week, we are still working on getting it scheduled. We will let you know when we know when it is.

http://www.cpdx.com/cerclage/index.html

Prayer Requests:

-Please be praying the Jen and I can leave every fear and anxiety at the Lord's feet.

-Pray that Jen and the babies are safe during the TAC surgery.

-Praise God with us that He has been so faithful to us all the way through this.

-Prayer for sleep (specifically Jen) she hasn't slept much the last 2 nights

-Pray that Jesus Christ would be glorified by every action and decision that we make. That God would use our situation to show others the hope we have for salvation and eternal life with Him. We would not be able to withstand these difficult decisions without His constant hand of assurance.

(Post copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)

Our journey as parents begins.....

Posted by Brad:

Hey all!

Jen and I decided that we would like to keep track of our journey as parents via this blog in order to keep parents, siblings, and friends who cannot be with us regularly updated on our little ones progress.

What you see to the right is the sonogram from the ultrasound we got on Monday, August 7th. This is the image that left me awestruck and I am sure has changed our lives forever. The large black blobs are the individual sacks that each of our babies are in. The white part inside of those sacks are our babies. This particular shot shows all three sacks, but none of them actually show all three babies. I can assure you though mom (Janet and Kathy), I saw all three of their little hearts beating, it was amazing! :)

This entire week has been very surreal. I don't think the true reality of our blessing has totally sunk in yet. Jen is currently 7 weeks pregnant and looking great. She is feeling fairly well for being pregnant with three aside from being very, very tired.

Jen will add a post later to give you her perspective on things, but I wanted to go ahead and get a posting up here to get it started. We are going to try to update this regularly, so those of you who would be willing to pray with us for 34 weeks of pregnancy with a healthy mom and babies, check back in for updates!

(Post copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)