Good Sabbath Day

Today was the Sabbath Day and like usual we went to church, except this time in a different city. We attended the Jefferson Ward in the New Orleans Stake. It is a very interesting building that my in-laws attend, it used to be a RLDS building. They are using that because the Stake Center is being renovated. It seemed like a very nice Ward. Thomas and I decided to take a tour of the city this afternoon. We went through the French Quarters and along Bourbon street. There was a festival and a parade going on so it was crowded. All I can say is that Bourbon street and the French Quarters is a very different place than what I am accustomed to. We also drove around downtown New Orleans and enjoyed seeing the history of the city, it was kind of a neat thing to see. This evening we attended a Young Single Adult Fireside. My Father In-law spoke. He did a great job. It has been nice visiting my in-laws and seeing the sights of New Orleans.

Update on the girls...
We had a bit of a scare this evening, Thomas called to check on the girls, and they told him Ashlyn was having an extremely difficult time keeping her O2 Saturation's up. She was dipping into the forties. The MD had to start bagging her, that still didn't work either, finally after probably a couple of minutes she started coming back up. The tube had gotten moved and was therefore not in the right spot. They corrected that issue and she is doing much better. Haley, and Rachel had a great day, and so did Ashlyn other than that brief episode she went through this evening. They increased the amount of breast milk Rachel is getting through her feeding tube. She is tolerating it so far. They also started feedings on Haley after a long time off of them. All in all my beautiful little girls are doing great. We are so thrilled to go home tomorrow and see them. We have missed them. We are so thankful that they are doing well and are continuing to make baby steps forward. We are also so grateful for all the prayers being said for their health and comfort. This sabbath day I reflected on our loving heavenly father and the miracles he has done for us. I am grateful for him and know that all the prayers being said are being heard and answered. He knows and loves us all. This I know for sure.

New Orleans

Today we did some sight seeing around New Orleans. We drove to the French Quater and down Bourbon street. It was raining and we couldn't find a parking spot so we didn't get out of the car and walk around. The French Quater was definitely different, but interesting. This is my first time in New Orleans. We also drove and saw some plantation homes outside of New Orleans. They were neat to see. One of the homes had a long path leading to the house that was lined with beautiful trees. I had never seen anything like it. Near the plantation homes, we walked up the levee and saw the Mississippi river. We also did some shopping. We bought the girls some cute outfits. I look forward to dressing the girls up in these clothes and all the other clothes we have for them. We have been keeping in touch with the girls nurses today. They continue to do well. Of course we miss them and while it has been difficult to leave Rachel, Haley and Ashlyn behind in Houston, it has been nice to see my in-laws who are dedicating a year and a half to serve the Lord here in the New Orleans area. They haven't had the chance to see our children yet, because of their mission so we showed pictures and video footage of the girls, they really enjoyed that very much. So we have had a great time here in New Orleans and are glad to have had this opportunity to visit.

Happy One month!

We arrived in New Orleans safely this evening. We are looking forward to relaxing and enjoying ourselves for a couple of days. We look forward to seeing all that New Orleans has to offer. We have been calling the NICU to check up on the girls probably every four to six hours, They are doing well. They are one month old today! How fast the month has gone by. Today they have all been weaned down on their oxygen percentages. This is great news as this means their lungs are healing and growing stronger. Ashlyn had to go back on the dopamine medicine to help her blood pressure. When dopamine is being given they stop the feeds because the blood flow is decreased to the gut. It is important to have a good blood flow to the gut when being fed. The doctors stop the feeds to help prevent problems like NEC (Necrotizing enterocolitis). Haley on the other hand is being weaned off the dopamine and will get to start feeds when she is off of it. She is still on the oscillator, because it seems likes she likes it so much better than the traditional vent, plus her ABG's (Arterial Blood Gas's) look much better on it. Rachel is doing really well today, we are so excited about that. They have been able to wean her O2 to the best settings yet for her. Over all they all seem like they are getting some what stronger as the days go by. We love these little precious girls. They have truly touched and blessed our lives already. We look forward to spending many days ahead with them. Ashlyn, Rachel, and Haley are so amazingly strong. We are so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who has permitted them to remain with us thus far. We feel so blessed to have them in our family.

Good Day

Tonight was a great night with our girls and at the same time a hard night. They all seemed to have had a good day. Dr. de Guzman was able to remove 4 cc's of spinal fluid from Ashlyn today. We are so happy about this as this will keep pressure from building in her brain. We hope the doctors can continue to remove the extra spinal fluid by doing these spinal taps. Rachel and Ashlyn were restarted on continuous feeds with my breast milk. So far they are tolerating it well. Haley is improving as well. She had a head ultrasound today and it showed no change so that means her head has not gotten worse. So they all seem to be hanging strong today. We are so grateful for these good days. We know more are to come. The hard part of the night was leaving the girls because we have decided to go to New Orleans for the Labor day weekend to visit Thomas's parents who are currently there serving a mission for our church. It is extremely difficult to go because we don't like to leave our precious little girls behind. It will be the first time we will have not been able to see them for three days straight. Thomas took it hard. Of course mama did too! Thomas had tears in his eyes when we left the NICU tonight. We will miss them. We debated about going, but we felt a little vacation would be good for us. We also figured that we won't be able to take a vacation again in a really long time. So tomorrow afternoon we will be heading out to New Orleans. We hope to have a relaxing time and a good visit with Thomas's parents.

Here are pictures of the girls name tags for their beds. One of the nurses makes these for all of the babies in the NICU. She also made one for each of our other little ones who have passed.









Here is a picture of Haley's nurse (Kodi). Kodi is one of our favorite nurses. She is so great with Haley.

Day by day

Tonight we went to a NICU parent support group meeting. The topic of discussion was infant safety seats and how to install them correctly in your car. Since we have car seats for the babies already we wanted to go to this meeting to learn how to correctly install them in the car. I know this isn't something we needed to know right away since our girls will be in the NICU for quite some time, but we were interested in learning for when the time does come when they will come home. I learned quite a bit on how to properly install an infant car seat. I look forward to when we will be installing 3 car seats in the car and bringing them home. Well we still don't know when that will be. None of their doctor's have given us an idea of when they will be able to come home. We are hoping to bring at least one of them home before Christmas, but that is just our desire. It would be a wonderful Christmas gift.

Baby update...
Rachel is doing well after the surgery she had this afternoon to put in the PICC line. They were able to successfully place it without any problems. She was sleeping when we saw her due to all the sedatives from the surgery. Ashlyn was just hanging out as usual. Nothing really new going on with her. Ashlyn will be getting another spinal tap soon. Haley continues on the oscillator vent, but her oxygen needs on the vent have come down. Still don't know for sure if she has pneumonia. She doesn't seem sick at all. None of the girls are getting breast milk feeds right now. Rachel will be restarted on them tomorrow. Not sure when they will restart Haley and Ashlyn on the feeds. They are waiting for their belly's to not be distended. The doctor's are keeping a close watch out for NEC. They have gotten X-rays of their belly's and all looks good and they don't suspect NEC. So all in all they girls are doing good.

Here are pictures of the babies covered up in their isolates:

ASHLYN


HALEY


RACHEL

Response to comments

Just wanted to give a response to the comments that we have gotten. First of all I want to thank everyone for the uplifting and encouraging comments. We appreciate all of them so much! We always enjoy reading them. It's so comforting to know so many people love us and pray for us. We know all prayers are being heard as we have gained strength through all of this. Even though we have not met most of you, we feel we know you by the love you share for us. Second I wanted to let everyone know that I have updated some of the past posts. I updated the August 5 post with the weights and lengths of all the babies. Also explained what happened the day I delivered the babies. Look through some of our other older posts in August and you will see pictures that I have added. We have not added pictures of the babies just yet due to the media. We appreciate every one's patience. In time we will post pictures of them. We want everyone to know we love you and are so grateful for every one's sincere thoughts and prayers. Keep those comments coming!

Love, Amanda and Thomas

4 weeks old!

Happy 4 weeks! The girls are 4 weeks old today! We are so grateful for their precious little lives. We can't believe how fast 4 weeks has gone by. We are also so grateful for the little baby steps forward they have made. Yesterday we got good news that the doctor was able to get 3 1/2 ml of spinal fluid out of Ashlyn. They did a follow up head ultrasound this morning and it showed no change with her ventricles. We were hoping that they had decreased in size, but are glad they have not gotten bigger. This means the spinal taps they are doing are working. We are hoping that they will continue to work and she won't have to have more invasive procedures on her brain to get the fluid out. Rachel has been restarted on the breast milk feeds. They are going to feed her a small amount continuously versus giving her 1 ml boluses every 3 hours. Also with Rachel, they tried to put in a new PICC line, but they were unsuccessful so she will have it surgically put in tomorrow. She needs this PICC line for the TPN. Haley is still on the oscillator vent. The doctor suspects she has pneumonia. She was already on one antibiotic. They started her on another. We are faithful she will be make it through this challenge. We are so amazed everyday how strong and resilient they are. Even with all the challenges they are facing, they continue to fight. Before we know it we will be celebrating their one year birthday. What a glorious day that will be.