BockTriplets!

Its serious, but not life-threatening. As a preemie, Daniel had some breathing problems. He was on a ventilator for a little more than a week, and needed a steroid to help his lungs develop a little faster; all routine stuff for premies these days, but it put him at a higher risk for some breathing problems later on. That would be now.

Last fall he started wheezing when pollen counts are high. Nothing too serious, but something we had to keep an eye on. We had some medications that always dealt with the worst of it. Until last night.

Two nights ago we moved the kids from their cribs onto beds. They had been crawling out for months, so it was pretty much time. Well, the first night they didn’t sleep much – it seemed like a slumber party. The next day they were all tired and cranky. They also missed most of their nap, so it was a little hard among the tantrums to tell if Daniel was having much of an issue part of the day yesterday.

The kids were also out on the front porch yesterday, about the time our lawn was mowed. Add to the pollen count that the 1 acre+ field next to our house now has 3-foot-tall grass. None of that is in Daniel’s favor.

Last night we gave him the meds that normally clear him up, but he kept going downhill. By 9:00, he had really labored breathing, felt like he had a temperature, and seemed like he was going to pass out. We took him to the emergency room.

Once there they gave him some other meds, took an x-ray, drew some blood, and admitted him. I was home by 1:30 while Lorna stayed at the hospital… I had to go take care of the other two and prep as much as I could for the next day.

This morning Anthony came down sick too – 102 degree temperature, snotty nose, etc… So add to complications from pollen count and lack of sleep a respiratory infection, and you have a recipe for disaster.

At the hospital this morning we found out that the middle of Daniel’s right lung collapsed, which is why he was having such trouble breathing and why our initial med treatment didn’t do any good. All the rapid mouth-breathing was also dehydrating him, do he’s on an IV drip of fluids. I spent the day with him (and Lorna is back there tonight), and he alternates between a tired, grumpy haze and bouncing off the walls giggling. He’s not thrilled with the hospital, but he’s doing well. They have some fun stuff to make kids exercise their lungs, including bubble wands and pinwheels… The only problem is he can’t run around because of the oxygen sensor on his foot and the IV.

Among the drama and concern though, there are some great moments. This morning when Anthony and Christopher woke up, I went into the room and Anthony started saying “Da…. DA…. DAAA!!!”, which I took as his usual “da da” greeting when he sees me. But then he said crystal clear, “DAN… EL…”. I realized, “Oh my God… he’s asking how Daniel is!”. I think that is the third time I have heard the boys refer to each other by name, definitely the first sign of concern. (when looking at pictures or videos of themselves, they point and say “Baby!”)

Do I told him, “He’s at the doctor with Mommy. He’s sick, but he’s ok and will be home soon.”. Christopher picked up Daniel’s bee blanket (one of the comfort stuffed animals he carries around), took it to the bedroom door, and started pressing it against the doorknob.

This afternoon Lorna and I videoconferenced with iChat… Even though Daniel and I were in the hospital, the boys all ate dinner together. They are used to seeing me on iChat, so they really seemed to understand where Daniel was.

I have recorded a little bit of video I’ll post if I ever get a chance to edit it down.

By the way, I cannot praise Loudoun Hospital’s facilities enough. Daniel is in a private pediatric room with plenty of room for a parent to stay – with some nicer furnishings and a nicer bathroom than your typical Marriot-type hotel. The staff is fantastic – checking on us often enough that we never want for anything, and giving Daniel great care. The only drawback is the hospital food. Today the lunch was – no kidding – Salsbury steak, peas, and mashed potatoes. There is something about that menu that seems less like reality and more like bad fiction about a hospital stay.

I’ll write more once he’s out.

My Dad had a poem he’d often recite this time of year…

Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where the flowers iz?

This morning we went out in the yard and played with dirt, found a worm, rode tricycles around the driveway, and picked some of Grandma’s flowers. Its a long video (almost 8 minutes), but it is full of cute stuff… and I cut it down from about 40 minutes of video, so there was some cute stuff that didn’t make it.

They will be 2 years old in just about 3 weeks. Amazing how time flies.

I have a bunch of photos up on my Facebook photo album. This weekend we went on a little excursion up to PetSmart to visit the dogs up for adoption, and on the way home we stopped at a little park in town. I took about 500 photos, but rather than bore you to death, I narrowed it down to those 10.

By the way, I appreciate the comments people leave on the blog. Keep it up, but be aware that I also get a million spam comments posted. So when you post, they don’t show up until I approve them. This lame blog software doesn’t tell you this though.

A few weeks ago my mom was giving the kids fishsticks for dinner. One broke in half, and she gave it to Daniel. He wasn’t very happy… he picked up the two pieces of fishstick, tried putting them back together, all the time saying “Back! Back!”

Ever since then, he hasn’t been a fan of ‘broken’ food. He cries if you take a bananna and break it into pieces to spread between him and his brothers, and he freaks out if he sees you breaking a graham cracker along the dotted lines.

This afternoon Lorna was giving them animal crackers, and of course, there are always a bunch of ‘assorted animal parts’ in the box. Daniel was holding them up as if he expected me to be some culinary Dr. Frankenstein and make some random creature out of assorted bodies, feet, and tails. Instead, I reached over and grabbed one of his intact animals, bit off the head, and handed it back to him. He cried for about 10 minutes. I’m not sure if he’s over it, or if that will become the earliest repressed memory some future therapist has to dig out of him.

Anyone who knows me knows that from time to time, I dabble with small card tricks and other magic. Yesterday, Christopher learned this the hard way.

He came up to me carrying a little plastic duck. I snatched it from his hand, and while I had his attention, I showed it to him, rubbed my hands together, and palmed the duck so that it seemed to disappear.

He looked at me, surprised, and started turning my hands over. Before he could get to the hand I had it hidden in, I rubbed them together and made it appear again.

He was amazed.

The whole time Daniel is sitting in my lap laughing, because he could see exactly what was going on. So I made it disappear again, this time ditching it while he was inspecting my first hand. He couldn’t find it anywhere.

What I find so amazing is that just a few months ago, this little mind had things coming and going in front of him without any concern. Now he has an expectation of the way the Universe works, and is visibly amazed when something unexpected happens. Every day there are new lights on in there… This is so much fun.

We saw Santa yesterday. Heres a picture, with video to follow soon. Anthony is still the skeptcal one.

From left to right, looking at the photo: Daniel, Christopher, and Anthony.

This isn’t exactly recent news… it happened about a month ago. In the boy’s bedroo, there is a border around the room with an “Old MacDonald” theme. We were in the hbit of asking the boys “Where’s the farmer? Where’s the sheep?” as we would put them to bed.

One night, Daniel babbled back to me and scanned around the room, as if to say, “Daddy’s thery are everywhere”. Then next night he did the same thing, but he pointed.

He started pointing to something in the closet, and I walked over and started asking, “is this what you want?” and he got all excited, bouncing as if to say “I’m communicating! He understands me!”

By the next day both his brothers were pointing at stuff too.

Left to Right: Anthony, Christopher, Daniel

The boys had their first hair cut at Daddy’s barber, Saturday September 13th. The barber and the boys were awsome. Not a tear was shed, not even by Mom – well the barber almost shed a tear when he saw 15 month old triplets come into his shop.

This Saturday was their first birthday, which I didn’t realize until it was upon me, combines three of my favorite things – the kids, cake baking, and photography.

No matter how many pictures I took, I couldn’t get one with all the hats on and all of them looking at me. After about 500 shots, I stopped trying.

I baked and decorated the Elmo head cake too – although it was the first time they had ever seen something like that, so I don’t think they realized it was food. Not that it matters much, as everything ends up in their mouths anyway. I wanted to just sit them around it and have them make a mess of it, but Lorna wouldn’t let me.