Together at last!

This is my favorite picture in the world. And that was my favorite moment ever. 

Together at last :) The 3 of them finally got to hang out for a minute. The minute was spent squirming and probably having flashbacks of getting kicked in the womb, but I enjoyed it. And I realized I will be lucky if I ever get a picture of all of them looking at the camera and/or happy. But they're cute. Real cute. 

 We have been so lucky to have such wonderful people taking care of the babies. It's hard not being with them 24/7, but knowing that they are in good hands makes it so much easier. One of our NP's, Jen, has been amazing. We love her and all she's done for us and our babies. She was stolen from us by Banner Desert, so yesterday was the last time we'll see her :(

 I also have to give a shout out to our primary nurse, Jane. I breathe a sigh of relief every day that I walk in and she is working. I'm not really sure what we are going to do when the babies come home...without her. She has been such a blessing, Not only does she care for our babies, but she looks out for me and Matt. She makes a bed for me on the couch so I can nap if I need to, and she insists Matt and I get our time together before the babies come home. We will NEVER forget these amazing ladies.

Now if I only had 3 arms...

Today Jane brought Sterling to me while I was holding Jones. Then she left the room for a minute. So I was alone holding the two of them... precious :) Until Sterling lost her binki and started crying and Jones got squirmy and fussy and in my head I was like "Ahhh! what do I do?! How do I move?! Who allowed me to have 3 babies?!" But I figured it out pretty fast. Thank goodness. And I played it cool like I knew exactly what I was doing. 

63 Days

I can't believe the kiddos are already 2 months old. (2 days ago) And I REALLY can't believe everything they've been through and overcome in just two months. They are way stronger than me. I'm so amazed.

They are SO close to coming home, but not close enough. Hopefully in the next week or so Sterling and Jones will be home! Cash is just a little behind because of his lung problems. But he's working on it :)

Jones and Sterling both got their feeding tubes taken out today! They are eating really well from the bottle. So they just have to continue that, keep gaining weight, and they can't have any apnea spells that require us to stimulate them to get them to breathe... then they can come home! 

Sterling

Can you believe how much she's changed in 2 months?!

I still can't wrap my head around it. 

Jones

and 2 months ago...

Cash

I can't believe this chunky guy was ever this small...

I cant say it enough, we feel SO incredibly blessed.

We have strong, healthy babies. 3 of them. 

We have encountered so many other parents in our same situation who were not so lucky, who have suffered so many more heartaches than we have had to. The other day we went to a little seminar the NICU had for parents to get together and there was a couple there talking about their experience. Going around the room talking about our different situations, other people told about how their babies had surgeries, or were deaf, and 2 of the parents had babies pass away. I CANNOT imagine. I can't even think about it. We realized that day just how lucky we are. I don't take for granted one single minute I have with each of my precious babies. I've been holding them a little tighter since that day. Someone has been watching over all of us. My babies are little miracles. 

Last weekend was the first time we were all together in the same room. 

Brother time :)

If only we knew what these two were planning. I said whatever it was, they better include their sister :)

6 weeks!

This was the week that I would have been delivering the babies... that is, if life turned out the way we planned. But it didn't (it never does). And our babies will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. I can't imagine them all still being inside of me seeing how big they are. I catch myself wondering how different it would be for them if I had made it to 35 weeks. Then I have to remind myself that there is really no point focusing on 'what might have been', and instead i'm so grateful for this past 6 weeks with our little ones, and i'm SO grateful they are doing so well.

Our lil' Jones is following in his sister's footsteps and is breathing on his own! One step closer to coming home :) I'm seriously so excited. Now if they could start eating on their own... :) He's such a cute little chunky boy. He has his momma's double chin, and I am so proud.

As if 2 of them breathing on their own wasn't enough excitement for us...

Words cannot describe how this picture makes me feel. I'm crying just thinking about it. Sterling and Cash got to be together for the first time since birth. It was honestly one of the happiest moments of my life. I wish I knew what was going through their heads. "Oh hey! There you are! Isn't Mom AWESOME?!" ;)
They were so dang cute together. Making cute little noises, looking at each other. And they kept doing the same things with their hands. I swear we didn't touch them.

Seeing the two of them together made it so much more real to me. I wish Jones could have joined them, we felt like we were leaving him out. But it was kind of a big deal for her to go to another room. Stuff like that can take a lot out of them. She'll go visit him soon. Now that Jones is breathing on his own he can take trips next door too! (In our NICU all the babies have their own room)

Sterling is doing awesome. Her next goal is to be able to eat on her own. It can be a slow process. Which is fine. We're on her schedule. I adore this little girl so much. 

Cash weaned off his CPAP today and is now breathing with 3L of high flow! Its exciting stuff for him. Especially when we think about how far he's come with his breathing problems. He has done so good this week. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be on room air this week! I love my lil red head.

Baby Steps :)

Look who is breathing on her own!!! No tubes! (except her feeding tube going into her nose)

I was so happy to get to the hospital this morning to find that Sterling had been breathing completely on her own!

She is a whole 3 lbs 4 oz now

I swear she looks so different everyday.

Cash had a little more trouble with his lungs, so they started him back on steroids and diaretics and he has been doing so much better. He has such a personality now. This kid LOVES his baths too. I love it. 

He's 4 lbs 4oz. 

Jones :) He's bigger than Cash now, and I can't believe it. 4 lbs 5 oz. We're hoping he will be off of his oxygen support within the next week! He's been doing so good :) 

One of our night nurses made this scrapbook page for us. I love it so much. Mostly because I know my babies will never be that small again. It means so much to me. Can't wait to take it home and frame it. I wish I had more time to do stuff like this myself.