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We went for check ups today and it was the first time all 3 were out together. It was an adventure!
The boys are continuing to grow like crazy.
Lawrence is gaining weight so well and is up to 7lbs 2 oz!
Harris, the biggest at birth, is up to 7.6 lbs
Antonio, who was only 5.6 at birth, but who is our guy who wants to he held and eat all the time is up to 7.9 lbs!!
Here are some photos from out appointment today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bYt-V65aCc
The boys are three weeks old already - they are almost as big as Amelia was when she was first born.
Because they were so teeny they are changing almost on a daily basis. Here's some photos from the last couple days.
Amelia has her own little camera that she has been using to take photos and videos of the boys. She likes to do EXTREME CLOSEUPS and we had to show her how to take photos with her flash off as she was constantly flashing their poor little faces.
Harris finally came home on Saturday so we had quite a photo shoot on Saturday night, and then on Sunday morning we had a photographer, Leslie Callan come by and get photos of the boys, Amelia and the whole family. Amelia was pretty excited about the photo shoot and took some photos of her own as well as video.
Photo of the photo shoot:
Video:
Yesterday I was going through her camera and she actually has some sweet little photos of her brothers, and some pretty entertaining videos of her brothers, and some just of herself. Here's an example of one of her extreme closeups of her brothers.
Then this sweet one she took of the three of them in the crib together on their first night.
Then her camera also has photos like this one:
And videos like this one -- which appears to be dedicated to her Cheerios:
And this one where she has lost her ever-lovin-mind:
She loves to take photos and it will be fun to see the photos of the boys as they grow as captured by their big sister.
Today was our second visit to the doctors office. The boys are growing like crazy! Stats:
Antonio is up to 6.7lb up over a pound from his birth weight. He's 19 inches long. Antonio has an outie belly button.
Lawrence is up to 6 lbs, well over a pound from his teeny birth weight of 4.11lbs. Also, in the NICU, LJ dropped to 4 lbs 4 oz, so getting up to 6 lbs so quickly is awesome. He's also 19 inches long and his head is bigger than Antonio's.
Here's a video of them heading off to the doctor today:
And a photo - Antonio on the left, Lawrence (wide awake) on the right)
Another photo - love the smile on Antonio's face:
Here's a photo of me on my way to the doctor too. 35 lbs down, 50 to go... ugh.
Some quick bullets of info that don't really go anywhere, but I don't want to forget them:
We got to bring Lawrence home yesterday and the first night went well. I wish Harris was with us too but we are currently on a 7 day countdown. We hope to have him home by Saturday. The boys are good sleepers and it's so sweet to see them slowly getting back to the group they belong.
Here are some photos from the past couple days. The first is a comparison of Antonio coming home vs. Lawrence.
Antonio came home from the hospital the day after I did. Monday. It has been a nice slow introduction to babies again to have Antonio come home first. It's a little calmer and allows us to take time to adjust Amelia to a baby, giving her opportunities to feed him and dress him before the chaos starts.
But going back and forth to the NICU has been an exhausting practice too. Right now the boys are slated to come home Monday and we'll have a whole new kind of exhausting.
Today I was able to visit the boys in the NICU and brought Antonio along and was able to get some photos of all of them together. I was also trying to compare their photos to Amelia to see who they looked like.
Amelia Day 1:
Here's a photo of all 3 boys together (left to right - Lawrence, Antonio and Harris) -- who do you think looks like Amelia??
Here's a few of Lawrence and Antonio together - I thought they looked most alike so I was trying to capture that. I think I've confirmed they don't look that much alike...
Lawrence and Harris
Here's Antonio on way to the doctor - I put my hand up for perspective as to how teeny he is:
Lawrence:
We'll be at the NICU a lot this weekend making sure the boys keep up their improvements so they can come home!
Most everyone has caught the news through quick Twitter posts, Facebook updates, emails and even old school phone calls. But, here is a thorough overview of the adventure we have undergone in the last 5 days...
Tuesday we came to the hospital in the morning to get all checked in for an afternoon c-section. I was so happy that my dad could come down from Washington to be there and he and Amelia got to spend the morning in the room with me until the surgery.
Mike and my mom were there and were to be in the room with me during the surgery.
We arrived and we were all allowed to wait in a prep room together. Here I am ready-ish to go:
Yeah - so those gowns are not slimming...
During the c-section, I was extremely nervous, however, I was lucky to have two of the perinatologists perform my surgery together. I felt in very very good hands. The c-section (up to delivery part) went so fast. The boys were all born one minute apart. There was a team of people in the OR, with each baby having their own team of nurses and doctors as well. I had 2 nurses, 2 perinatologists, 3 doctors on the anesthesia "team", in addition to about 3 other individuals just for me that I didn't catch what their role was. Each baby had 2 nurses, a neonatologist, respiratory specialist and others totalling about 8 or 9 individuals for each baby. It was beautiful chaos.
The surgery itself actually goes really fast. I felt immediate relief and could breathe properly for the first time in several months when the first baby came out...
Born at 1:52 - The baby formerly known as Baby A - Antonio James Chase 5lbs 6 oz.. Antonio is a Brazilian name Mike and I both really liked, its also the name of Amelia's godfather, and my uncle. In Rio the nickname for Antonio is Tonico. James is the name of one of Mike's little brother. Antonio I think looks most like Amelia as a baby.
Born a minute later, the baby they said was Baby B but who I think is really Baby C because of his size ... Harris Matthew Chase 5lbs. 9oz. Harris is the biggest, and Baby C was always the biggest, so I really think he is C but it doesn't really matter anymore... Harris is the name of my grandfather on my father's side. He passed away right after I was born, soon after my father passed away and I never knew him. Everyone says he was a lovely, calm and positive person. Also, I just love the name. Matthew is my baby brother's name.
The last baby out is Lawrence Jeffrey Chase 4lbs 11 oz. Lawrence is the teeniest and I think resembles Antonio a bit. Lawrence is Mike's dad's name and Jeffrey is my middle brother's name. A little boy who is a combination of Mike's dad and my brother Jeffrey is going to be a wonderful mix to watch grow up.
Amelia got to be at the hospital during the delivery. She sat out in the waiting room with my dad during the surgery and got to see the boys almost immediately after their birth. I initially had intended to have Amelia keep her routine as normal as possible and go to school that day. Amelia DID. NOT. AGREE. with that plan. She also packed an elaborate bag to bring to the hospital which included her American Girl doll, several wardrobe changes, 8 barbies, 1200 stickers, paper, books, snacks (goldfish crackers, rice cakes and fruit leather), water bottle and pajamas (just in case she was allowed to stay the night).
After I spent some time in recovery, I was wheeled (gurney and all) into the NICU to see the boys. I was so excited to learn that they were all doing so well. None of the boys required any assitance breathing or feeding. Lawrence was in a slightly higher NICU level mostly because of his size, but the other two were in a very relaxed and warm NICU room pretty much thriving.
The next several days are a blur of middle of the night pain meds, feedings with the babies, recovery and visits with friends. As of Saturday night, I was still very swollen and not quite ready to go home, but I will be home today - Mother's Day.
Unfortunately, the boys will not be going home with us quite yet. We don't have a set go home date yet for the boys... They need to be consistently gaining weight and go 7 days with no "Brady's" AKA heartrate declelerations. Hopefully we are close...
In the meantime, here's a few more gratuitous photos of our gorgeous baby boys.
We're in the final stretch now - today was my last doctor appointment and tomorrow is my last NST test. I'm so ready and hoping that I am giving these guys a good final days of rest and relaxation.
Here are some photos from today. Since the boys are supposedly the size of pineapples, I tried to get some of my stomach with pineapples to give you a frame of reference.
The people at the store gave us some funny looks - the things I do for you people!! ;-)
