Everyone here is doing very, very well. The babies are doing great, eating like crazy and sleeping like logs! It is amazing how much the babies sleep and rest in order to grow. They really get pooped out pretty quick. The new formula is still working well with the boys. I am buying lots of the stuff off of ebay and saving significant money per can, that is helping preserve our baby fund a little bit. Claire is doing great, she is really starting to pack it on and grow! She does have a fussy time at night between 5pm and about 10pm, it really is rough. This week we have gotten her into a little routine and she seems to be adapting to it real well. I have to give the credit to Shannel and Katie for dealing with the constant screaming. Honestly, I cannot handle it for too long! This picture is my absolute favorite of all of them so far, I just love it! Claire, Matt and Drew
The babies are 15 weeks old day from their birth and 8 weeks old from their due date. We go to the pediatrician next week for their 4 month check up, 4 MONTHS! HOLY! In some ways the time has flown and in others its lagged a little bit, sorta weird! We are anxious to see how much they weigh and how much they have grown in the past two months. Since my last update we have started "propping bottles". We have cut so much time out of the feeding it is amazing, what used to take us 2 hours to feed all three we can get it knocked out in 20-30 minutes, max! It has really allowed Katie and I much more free time and time to get things done, like writing the blog that really we didn't have time for before. We basically put each baby in a Boppy or a little bean bag sorta thing, they are somewhat sitting up, we put a bottle in their mouth and then prop the bottles with wadded up receiving blankets. They do pretty good most of the time, we usually have to hand feed the last bit for Claire and Drew. Matt...well, let's put it this way, you DO NOT get in the way of that baby and his bottle! Here is a picture of all three during feeding time! (remember to click on the picture to make it bigger!)
Part two of my little journal this post is about the wonderful doctor that helped us conceive our babies. In May of 2008, Katie miscarried, the whole pregnancy just wasn't right and God chose at that point not to make us parents. We laid low for a couple of months allowing Katie's body to recover and get everything straight, but even after giving it some time we seemed to be having an issue with making another pregnancy happen. Katie was diagnosed with PCOS, which is a condition that makes the timing of ovulation very unpredictable and difficult to pin down. Katie made an appointment to see Dr. Kaufmann at the Ft. Worth Fertility Clinic. Right off the bat, I liked this guy, he was cool, laid back and positive. I was joking with him about these crazy off the wall "get pregnant" brochures he had around, etc. He made it sound like our deal to him was like Michael Jordan taking one to the basket and slam dunking it. We were excited. He recommended we do one round of Clomid which essentially allows you to know when there are eggs on the ovary and then with a shot of medicine release the eggs off the ovary then its your turn to take care of business. Well, we did one round of Clomid and on a Monday Katie goes back to the Dr. to see if there are eggs on the ovaries and sure enough there are and these eggs by all looks of it are ready release ASAP! I happen to be in St. Louis on a business trip till Wednesday, DOH! Needless to say that particular Wednesday was the exact day of conception!
A couple of weeks go by, Katie does two pregnancy tests and at 5:30am in the morning, she comes running into the bedroom, "Honey, I'm pregnant!" How about THAT for a wake up call! Geez. We then go back to the Dr. just for confirmation, blood test, yep we were pregnant. The next appointment we do an ultrasound to check things out and to see how the eggs are doing the sac's. So, we are in the examination room with the Dr., the nurse, Katie and myself. I am a bit nervous, but she is pregnant, things seem good so far so I am cool with it. Which at that point the Dr. says, "Well, it looks like you guys hit the jackpot!" And I say, "Ummm, what does that mean?" "I see three eggs, it looks like you are having triplets!" At that point, I immediately said, "Doc if you are jacking with me, I am going to kick your &^%!" He looked at me and he had a couple tears in his eyes and said, "Todd, I am not kidding man...." Then I almost collapsed...I knew he wasn't ribbing me like he had been in other appointments.
I honestly believe that God put this doctor in our lives to bring our babies into the world. The chances of triplets from one Clomid dose is so small, he doesn't even bring it up in his consultation. Twins, yes, triplets, no way, he had only seen 2 sets of triplets in his 20+ years of fertility. Dr. Kaufmann put us both at ease, he was so confident and so sure that we would conceive it was almost like he was speaking on behalf of God saying "Relax, this time it will happen for you, be positive, be patient, it is my will for you to have children." Really, looking back at that time he was there to bless us with these babies. Completely amazing.
I recently sent Dr. Kaufmann a baby annoucement, I wanted him to see a picture of the babies and to let him know that everything went great and that the babies were fine. He immediately wrote me back the SAME DAY to say that he will "never forget that day" and that he was so happy that everything worked out well. I know this was a long story, but it is important to share, maybe for people that read this that don't even know us. When we were trying to get pregnant for the second time, I told Katie, "Dear, God will bless us with a pregnancy when he is ready for us to be parents." I believed that in my heart then and I believe it now.
OK, how about we wrap it up with a couple of cute pictures! The first one is of Claire chilling in the boppy with HER bodyguard, FRANK! Frank loves that little girl and watches over her like a HAWK, no kidding. The second picture is of of the boys a little pooped out from "tummy time" crashed out on the floor. It is amazing how these babies have to be touching each other when they are laying on the floor, really cool! Enjoy!
Our entire family hopes that this post finds everyone safe, happy, healthy and well! Thank you for the continued thoughts and prayers. Stay tuned for Halloween pics in the next post! God Bless!Love,
Todd, Katie, Drew, Matt and Claire
