If You Look Up Miserable in the Dictionary....

You might find an illustration similar to this picture of Brooks:

The boys (minus Isaac) have been suffering from a respiratory illness going on a week now. We'd like to kick it out of our house and home, but it keeps on lingering. Good news is their O2 saturations are well in the acceptable range (meaning no hospital visits), just lots of TEARS!

Our doctor's visit went well despite the shots, measurements, tears, and waiting (Doctor's offices are SWAMPED right now!) Here's the updated weights and since we have several math nerd readers (Jaimie),some extra stats to go with...

Henry 18lbs. 14oz. (6.9 x his original birth-weight)

Brooks 19lbs. 0oz. (6.3 x his original birth-weight)

Clark 20lbs. 6oz. (5.9 x his original birth-weight)

Isaac 22lbs. 1oz. (5.5 x his original birth-weight)

Quad-Pounder of Beef Total: 80lbs. 5oz (By next year they should out weigh me!)

You can compare their weights from their 9mo appointment here. Their growth rates have leveled out a bit since they are on the move, but they are doing GREAT! We always walk away encouraged (and wiped out) after our check-ups!

And some more pictures to document our 1 year appointment:

Henry

Isaac

Clark

Isaac

Hands on My Heart...

This morning I found our Valentine's Day card from last year in our NICU Memory Box. Lisa, our primary night nurse made it for us, and it's something we'll hold on to for life! It's really surreal to think about how tiny and precious their hands were a year ago. Tomorrow is the BIG One Year Check-up and we'll get to see how much they've grown all around! I had this grand idea of re-making the card with their big boy handprints for a Daddy card, but let's just say it wasn't meant to be (but I have ink stained hands to prove we tried).....

Happy Valentine's Day from the Murray Crew!

All Aboard! Next Stop: Pediatrician's Office

Choo! Choo! Here they are (front to back) Clark, Henry, Brooks, and Isaac sporting their Colts' Blue for Blue Friday. Hopefully our Colts can "chug" on to another victory on Sunday to make us a perfect "7" (7-0).

This is our new Choo-Choo Wagon. Do you like it? It was highly recommended from other higher order multiple families. We bought it for the boys for Christmas, but decided this was an occasion to try it out. It worked great since there's 4 of them and only 2 of us, and as you can imagine undressing, weighing/measuring, holding for the examination, getting shots, etc. takes a lot of effort! They were able to sit safely in their own car while they waited their turn. The only down side is, I think the wagon draws even more attention as our boys got their pictures taken 4 times in the doctor's office! They are so stinkin' cute in it, though, I have to admit! I can't blame them.

We have nothing but good news to report from our check-up. You can refer to our 7 month weight post to see their progress. Here's the latest weights:

Henry - 18 lbs. even

Brooks - 17 lbs. 11 oz.

Clark - 19 lbs even

Isaac - 21 lbs 9 oz!!!! (20 lbs is the 1 year goal)

Unbelievable! They are all on the charts for weight and are right on track or better for developmental milestones, especially for preemies! Our doctor was encouraged and amazed. We love that!

Here's Brooks waiting for his turn (Clark in the background looking embarrassed) Just want to kiss those cheeks!

Thanks for letting us share our great news! Go Colts!

With Love,

The Blue Crew

Scale Tippin' at 7 Months

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I interupt this post to inform you of some eventful news live from the Murray house. Brooks Layton Murray is exhibiting 2 lower teeth! They appear to be central incisors. That brings the Murray Quad Tooth Count to 4! Henry 2, Brooks 2. Stay tuned here to 4tunate as we bring live teeth updates, as they appear. Back to our regular posting....
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We had an awesome check-up on Friday. Our boys are growing and thriving - Praise be to God! Here are the updated weights in birth order:

Henry: 16lbs. 3oz. (2 lbs. 12 oz @birth)

Brooks: 15 lbs. 14 0z. (3lbs. @birth)

Clark: 16 lbs. 11oz. (3lbs. 7 oz @birth)

Isaac: 19 lbs. 3 oz!!!!! (4lbs @birth)

29% of you guessed correctly on Isaac's weight. Congratulations, winning voters, you get the joy of changing a dirty diaper of your choice redeemable any day of the week!

Everyone is on the growth charts for weight for actual age. A huge accomplishment, because usually they are still going by the adjusted age for charting (5 months vs. 7). Isaac is in the upper 50-75% for his actual age. Henry is not our "little Henry" anymore -he's passed up Brooks! Our doctor was quite pleased with everyone's progress and isn't referring us to any therapies at this time. It was a very encouraging appointment.

Our first shot at cereal was Saturday. It was pretty much a disaster, but last night showed measurable improvement. We are anxiously awaiting our feeding table to be shipped. A group of our volunteers went together to basically cover the cost for us to purchase one and now after trying to feed them in 4 bouncy seats on the floor, we are even more excited to use it (and so are our achin' backs)! I think it will be a HUGE blessing! Thank you to all of you who went together to make it possible, it was an incredible surprise. We'll post more pictures as our adventure in solid foods continues!

Also, we would continue to ask for your prayers for our family. We know that we are well "out of the woods" by now, but raising four babies is a challenge, especially as we are trying to feed 4 babies at the same time, and as I have less help coming in. We are definitely staying positive and LOVE this adventure, just pray that we would have strength, patience, endurance, and energy to run this race and for wisdom in upcoming decisions. We are soooo grateful for each of their lives and want to raise them to our best possible ability through God's power. Often, we catch ourselves trying to do so much on our own, without depending fully on HIM! This is how you could specifically be praying for us. Thank you so much, friends!

Isaac, Brooks, Henry, and Clark after their first attempt at semi-people food.

Next up, baths for every sticky one of you!

Clark's thoughts: "What's the big deal over eating by spoon? I'm all over it!"

Bring on the Steak!

I wanted to let you know that King Henry has TWO teeth popping through his bottom gum! Tomorrow we go to our doctor's appointment for 16 shots! YIKES! Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac will be weighin' in. Be sure to vote for how much you think Isaac will weigh tomorrow, just for kicks! (For all you who are competitive and technical in nature, he will be weighing in "diaper only". )

We are also gonna start the cereal tomorrow. Bring on the Captain Crunch, Wheaties, Cocoa Pebbles, Lucky Charms, Trix.....Just kidding! We are excited to start this new messy adventure. Soooooo.....what's your favorite sugary treat cereal? Mine is a toss up between Rice Crispy Treat and Reese's Puffs.

Bulkin' Up

Well, for those of you curious about weights we had our 4 month appointment on Friday and according to our pediatrician their gains are "phenomenal".

Henry: 11lbs 4oz (2lbs 12oz at birth)
Brooks: 11lbs 14oz (3lbs at birth)
Clark: 11lbs 14 oz (3lbs 7 oz at birth) - yes, Clark finally caught up to Brooks, he's been working hard since his hospital stay
Isaac: a whopping 14lbs (4lbs at birth) He's unashamed of his flabby thighs. =)

The shots went alright, just low grade fevers and a bit of fussiness. We were very encouraged by our pediatrician. They are truly doing great! God is gracious!

"But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deed which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Titus 3: 4-7






Isaac, Brooks, Henry and Clark all in their race attire in celebration last week for the Indy 500!

Out and about......

Friends and Family:

Our doctor gave us some exciting news this week......we can get the boys out more! Jen and I are excited for a weekend of warm weather. If you happen to be at a mall this weekend, you might even spot our boys and their double strollers running around the place! He cautioned us that we should not allow everyone to touch and pick them up, but we are just excited that we can begin to get them out more. (Although they have already been out many times for walks around our neighborhood and a few others, not to mention one trip to starbucks)

At their appointment, our boys surprised us again by their incredible growth and health.

Henry: 8lbs. 11oz.
(Henry is longer and thinner, so he fooled us. Jen guessed 7 something, I guessed 8 even, he is coming up on 9lbs.!)

Brooks: 9lbs. 8oz.

Clark: 9lbs. 1oz. (Clark is gaining on Brooks, they look more alike each day)

Isaac: 10lbs. 14oz. (I dont know if he is ever going to let everyone else catch up!)

We are really enjoying watching our boys start to smile and gain enough strength to hold up their own heads and move around a bit. It is so fun as you can tell they are seeing more and more of the world around them for the first time. Our boys all love our skylights and the ceiling fan that is between them. They stare at them in amazement everyday from the comfort of their boppy pillows/bouncy seats.

More later, thank you all for your continued prayers. Brooks has an ultrasound on Monday to ensure that his hernia does not need surgery to fix it. His urologist is confident that it will close on its own in the next year as long as no intestines are protruding through it. Please pray that this is the case and that we can avoid surgery once again! Our God is great!!

Brad, Jen, Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac

PS I was just informed that I had a setting messed up on this new blog that did not allow non-bloggers to leave a comment. This has been fixed, so you should be able to leave comments again if you have tried before.

Back to the blog.....sorry for the blog vacation!

Friends and Family:

Hello from the Murray family!

I am sorrry for the delay in adding a new post to the website. As you can imagine, life has changed dramatically for Jen and I. I have found it difficult to find the time to give everyone an update, and when I have had a chance, I have been overwhelmed because of how many things there are to tell you about.

First, Jen and the boys are doing really well. As many of you have seen, Jen is back to her beautiful self, both physically and emotionally, and our boys are growing like weeds already! I cannot beleive that my little preemie sons are now 8-10+ pounds and doing so well. In the past two months, God has shown Jen and I how he intended to provide for us once the boys arrived. We have yet to purchase a single diaper or anything else for the boys. I had no idea how we were going to afford to raise our boys, and I still don't, but God has placed his hand of provision on our family and blessed us in a mighty way through your generosity.

A little about our new family:

Henry:

Henry, who is still our smallest, probably weighs in the vicinity of 8 pounds these days. Since starting life at 2lbs. 12 ounces, he has grown into his skin and is plumping up nicely. I am excited to see Henry's personality reveal itself further in the coming months. He does his own thing and rarely follows his brother's examples. Henry has continued to have miraculous health. Along with his brothers, he has had no illnesses, but he also has continued to grow and eat and give us very little worries about his health.

Brooks:

Brooks has been fun to watch since bringing him home in February. He came home weighing less than four pounds, but now is about nine pounds. As I mentioned in previous postings, Brooks has a hernia that we are watching, but his pediatric urologist seems to think that it will close on its own in the coming months. Please pray that this will happen, then we would be able to avoid surgery. The only other issue that we are dealing with daily with Brooks is his projectile spit-up. Many parents have told us their own stories of babies with this issue. As long as he is gaining weight, this is not a health concern for him. But, I think Jen and I should buy some stock in Resolve cleaner, as Brooks is trying to stain every peice of furniture and carpet we own! :) Brooks is a calm little boy and a pure joy to watch develop.

Clark:

Clark has not looked back since leaving the hospital in March. All of our concerns for him as we brought him home have turned into relief as he has thrived. He truely is our little superman. Clark has joined Brooks in having problems with projectile spit-ups, giving us plenty of messes to clean up. In fact, little Clark decided it was payback time last week. Brooks spit-up right in Clark's face a couple of weeks ago as I left for work. So, a few days ago, while laying in their cribs, Clark nailed Brooks in the face, making them even. Neither were very happy when they were rudely awaked from their sleep by about three ounces of formula in the face coming from their brother! The boys now seem to be getting along fine, please pray that this fight is settled! :)

Isaac:

Isaac is still the tank. Born a whopping four pounds, we are now guessing that he has left 10 pounds in the dust. We go tomorrow for a weight check, so we will know for sure then. Isaac is the most vocal of the Murray Crew. (except for me of course) Isaac makes noise when he is sitting in his bouncy seat, when he is eating, and even when he is sleeping. Jen and I lay awake one night a week or so ago listening to him make a little sigh noise over and over. I worried that he might be weazing or something, so I went in to check on him. After leaning in close, it was clear that it was just his voice, making little ahhh sounds as he exhaled. I have a feeling once he learns to talk, we may never experience silence again! (he gets this honestly from his father)

Well, I have also attached some pictures below. These are not really up to date, but they are as up-to-date as I have on my flash drive. I will post more later and I hope to post a little more often now.

We love you all, thank you for your love and support, our God is so good.

Brad, Jen, Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac

Our two double strollers, thank you RCI!

From the left: Brooks, Isaac, Henry, and Clark

From the left: Isaac, Henry, Clark, and Brooks

Clark and Brooks

Brooks and Clark

Top to bottom: Henry and Isaac

Isaac

Formula for one month!

Update:

Friends and Family:

Sorry it has been a while since the blog has been updated, but as you can imagine, the daily grind has taken most of our time recently. But, the pace has been tolerable thanks to a bunch of awesome help that we have received from many different places. Brownsburg schools employees and our church members along with some other friends and family have made the first couple weeks of caring for four babies a lot of fun. It is so awesome to have the reality of our four children in our home for the past two weeks. God has an great plan for these little guys and I am excited that the journey into their lives has begun.

Today, we went to the pediatrician for a check-up and the dreaded two month immunization shots. Each of our boys received four shots, two in each thigh and really did great with them. They each cried during the actual shot, but our nurse, Kim, did an skillful job of making it quick and they quickly settled down in our arms.

We also got new measurements and weights for our boys. They continue to have incredible growth and weight gain with each passing week. Our pediatrician, Dr. Kersteff, said that the goal is 1oz. per day average weight gain and our boys continue to average closer to 2oz. per day.

One minor setback was found with Brooks this morning. He appears to have a lower abdominal hernia that will need to be repaired. We are setting up an appointment to have him looked at in the very near future. This is not a serious problem and is causing Brooks no pain or ill effects, but it will need to be fixed soon. Please pray that this problem would have an easy solution and no other issues associated with it.

Ok, here are the weights as of 10am this morning:

Henry: 6lbs. 5oz.
Brooks: 7lbs. 15oz.
Clark: 6lbs. 7oz.
Isaac: 8lbs. 4oz.

I will try to get back on here and give you an update with a little more regularity, thank you for keeping up with, and praying for, our family!!

We love you all,

Brad, Jen, Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac

Our Family of 6 is Complete!

Friends and Family,

Wednesday evening we finally went up and got Clark and brought him home! We are so excited to finally have our family at home complete. After over two months in the hospital, we finally have no reason to go to St. Vincent Women's Hospital anymore. We want to thank everyone at the hospital for the amazing care that Jen and the boys received.

We took our first trip out with all four boys yesterday since Clark got home. The boys went to the pediatrician for a check-up and weight check. Our boys are thriving and continuing to gain weight.

Updated Weights:

Isaac: 6lbs. 13oz.
Brooks: 5lbs. 11oz.
Clark: 5lbs. 1oz.
Henry: 5lbs. 3oz.

This will be the final post for this blog. We are so thankful for everyone who has followed our progress here for the past 7 months. God is so gracious and continues to provide in amazing ways for our family. If you would like to continue to follow our family, please check out our new blogspot, I will be posting pictures there in the near future.

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

Weights Update

Hello Everyone,

We wanted to give you all an update on the boy’s growth over the past two weeks. Can you believe it? Tomorrow will be the boys two week birthday!!

Henry
Birth weight: 2lbs. 12oz.
Weight today: 3lbs. 7oz. (wow!)

Brooks
Birth weight: 3lbs.
Weight today: 3lbs. 7 oz.

Clark
Birth weight: 3lbs. 7 oz.
Weight today: 3lbs. 12oz.

Isaac
Birth weight: 4lbs.
Weight today: 4lbs. 8oz.

Henry has grown the most because he was able to start his feedings the earliest. Clark and Isaac are now taking all of their nutrition from milk through a tube that runs down their throat and into their stomach, no IV’s! Henry and Brooks are still on IV fluids but are digesting milk well and should be off their IV fluids in the next few days. Then, the next big hurdle will be learning to eat by mouth. Please be praying for this. Our nurses have told us that for some reason, white males typically have the hardest time learning this skill. This is hard to believe because as a white male, I know we have no problems eating later in life!!

More later….

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