What's RSV?

Ok. this is going to be a boring post, BUT very informative and important for the sake of our babies health! I got all the info from http://www.synagis.com/
RSV stands for "Respiratory syncytial virus (sin-SISH-shul VI-rus), or RSV, is a common, seasonal and easily spread virus. You’ve probably had RSV and thought it was just a bad cold. In fact, nearly all children will get their first RSV infection by age two.

Most people with RSV suffer moderate to severe cold-like symptoms. For some babies, RSV can be more serious—it's the #1 cause of hospitalization in infants. Preemies and babies born with a heart or lung condition are at higher risk for severe RSV disease, which could lead to serious lung infections like pneumonia and bronchiolitis. It is estimated that the annual infant death rate due to RSV is 10 times greater than that of the flu, with up to 400 infant deaths from RSV each year in the U.S."

Just by reading this from the information that I received in the NICU, it didn't really hit me how how vulnerable my babies are to RSV, until I saw the following picture comparing the lungs of a preemature baby to the lungs of a full term baby. Please take a look (if you click on the image it will get bigger and you can see it in better detail): This is why we CAN'T forget the vulnerability of our babies lungs. Even though they look big and healthy now, we can't forget that their lungs are still developing and we need to be as careful as possible, especially now during RSV season.

This is another shocking comparison between a term baby's airway and a preemie baby's airway.

So you are probably wondering what kind of precautions are we taking to prevent the babies from getting RSV and what kind of precautions visitors need to take:

1. If we are starting a cough/cold/flu we wear a mask, BUT if you are starting one of those please stay away (we love you, but we need to be careful).
2. We wash wash wash wash wash wash our hands as often as possible (my hands are VERY dry and rough from all the washing 24/7). This is one of the best ways to prevent any germs from spreading (sometimes we don't know that we'll be getting sick so it's important to wash our hands as often as possible). So please don't feel offended if you come visit and we ask you to wash your hands.
3. Also the babies will receive the Synagis shot once a month.

Thanks for taking the time to ready this mini-informative post about RSV and for caring SO much for our babies:)

RSV shots!

Today we had a nurse come to our home and give the babies the first RSV shot for the season which starts on November 1st. Only the girls got the shots today because the nurse thought that the babies weight less than what they did and she didn't have enough for everybody. So Armando will get his shot tomorrow:( RSV is a scary thing that can happen to babies in general but it can be very serious on premies, so we are doing shots through out the season which ends on April:( but better the shots than getting sick. I will post more information on RSV later for those of you that don't know much about it (I never heard about it until I had my premie babies).

The highlight of the whole day was that the nurse brought a scale to find out the weight and then know what dose they needed, so here are the latest weight:

Arianna is 11lbs & 2oz
Alea is 11lbs & 9oz
Armando is 12 lbs and 15oz

SOOOOOOO we are allllll double digits now!! how exciting!!

Funny things the babies do

Arianna fell asleep whole playing so she had one hand on big bird and the other on cookie monster. That was very funny. Here is a closer picture so you can see that she is sleeping.

Arianna also loves to look at books and she gets so serious:) Alea loves to suck on her thumb with any fabric she can find (usually her bib), that's her new way to fall asleep in the swing after eating. Arianna is the same way.

Armando laughs and screams a lot! He can get very loud! but he won't do anything in front of the camera, so he was laughing and giggling with grandma. He didn't realized that I was recording him! but at the end he sees the camera and gets so serious. Check it out how his face changes at the very end of the video.

Bath Day

The MOST common question I get is: how often do the triplets get baths? why is this SO INTERESTING TO PEOPLE? I don't know!! but I can say that almost everybody who has come to help and/or visit ALWAYS asks this particualr question. Here is the answer: they get baths every other day. I don't mind the question at all, I'm just puzzled about the interest in the frequency of baths. I love giving baths to the babies, but it's recommended to do it every other day so that the babies' skin won't get too dry. I always love giving the bath, but not always the babies enjoyed it. At the beginning they didn't like it at all! and here is a picture to prove it: This is Arianna and her first bath, she hated it!!! But here she is later on and now she LOVES it! in fact, when she is being miss cranky pants and nothing else works, I give her a bath and that usually relaxes her:) Now she laughs, splashes and kicks during bath time! but the crying comes when I take her out of the tub.

This is Alea and she also LOVES her bath!! it took a few tries before we got to this point, but now she really really loves it! And also cries when I take her out of the water.

And last but not least Armando giving us a smile! he likes his bath as well, but when his feet hit the water, I have to remind him how much he likes the water and then he laughs and kicks a lot! he loves to splash and get me all wet! very soon we'll have to move him to the bath tub (messy boy!)

Frankie and the babies

Frankie is our 1 and 1/2 year old puppy! when the babies started to wear cloths in the NICU, I often brought their laundry home for Frankie to smell it. When the first baby came home (Alea) he was very curious about her and everything that was going on. Every morning he had to go up to the nursery to check things out and to smell every thing! he would just look at her and wonder what was this new little thing that makes so much noise! then Armando came home and Frankie was even more confused! so now he had to check out the nursery more than once a day! 2 or 3 times! and boy when Arianna came home then he truly didn't know what to think. I think he wonder how many more noisy little things where going to show up the next day! now his play area was full of other things or toys that he wasn't allow to play with. Also he couldn't play with his toys because there was no room!! But now he knows that these babies are part of the family and he is very protective of them! He has stopped going to the nursery, I think he knows that there won't be more little ones coming home that we have the full gang here! he loves to lick their feet and the spit ups from the carpet (gross)! Frankie has have his jealousy moments and he has chew on his pillow! which we had to replace and the new one already has wholes:S Some how we will need to spend more time with Mr. Frankie.

The babies are also mesmerized at this creature! now that they can see so much more they like to look at this huge puppy. Here are some pictures that you will appreciate:)

Frankie and the kids hanging out. (Arianna in pink, Alea Green and Armando of course in blue)

Frankie telling the kids a story

Frankie and the babies hanging out and licking previous spit ups from the carpet. You probably wonder if Frankie is too big to be close to the babies, well yes he is, but we don't leave him alone with the babies and he spends most of his time outside.

This is Frankie protecting little brother and daddy from what ever come through the door as long as it isn't a scary calf (Frankie is scare of them sometimes).

Life can be crazy with a huge but sweet doberman and 3 little babies, but it's lots of fun!

Our identical twins

We have triplets and two of them are identical twins! Arianna and Alea. Let's play a game called can you tell them apart? I'm posting an individual picture of each one, look at it! study it and then move on to the pictures of the two of them together and try to guess which one is which. I posted which one is which below each picture so no cheating! Ok.
This Arianna:)

This Alea:)

Arianna has the white diaper cover and Alea has the printed one.

Arianna has the pink dress and Alea the blue and white one.

Here they are wearing their summer dress:) Alea has the white/green/pink one and Arianna has the orange one:)

So where you able to tell them apart?

Feeding time

This is what feeding time looks like!