Flashback Friday: From crying in the NICU to Swimming in Seattle

Here we are again at Friday...time to choose another flashback for the trio.  As I was contemplating what to write about this week, I started searching Facebook for things I had written about the trio a year ago. I stumbled upon the Notes page I had started keeping about the girls in the NICU and Ethan at home. Here is what I found:

8/16/11- Corrected Age 41 3/7 weeks
"Today is the day! The triplets are 3 months old! What a great day in the NICU. We had yet another successful day for the girls. Katelynn took all her feedings by bottle today. She is now adlib demand which I talked about in last nights report. Today what that meant was she ate pretty much every 1 to 2 hours and sometimes had a stretch of 3 hours. She took several partial quantities of bottle. Her overall goal is to get 150cc per Kilo per day. So tonight she only has to take a total of 3 feeds and the rest partials or not at all if she is sleeping longer stretches. She is more tired at night than during the day. She is wide awake and ready to eat during the day! She was a star at eating and letting us know when she was hungry all day. She however didn't ever really want to be put down. The nurses, staff and I took turns holding her most of the day. She is a cuddle bug! :)The nurse is going to do Katelynn's carseat angle tolerance test tomorrow hopefully! One of the final steps before home! Katelynn still needs to go 48 hours without the ng tube being used before discharge. We'll see when she can do that! Ad-lib demand should help with that!"

I'll let Katelynn tell the story from here:

So that was a year ago today (8/16/12).   I'm writing this a little early because really something exciting happened.  A year ago today I was laying in the NICU and I was very sad.  I like to be held, but mommy was so busy with Melissa and the nurse was busy with all her other babies too.  You see, all the nurses babies are bottle feeding today, so she has to get everyone fed, not just me. I have to lay in my crib sometimes and I don't really want to be by myself.  I am sad and crying a lot today.  As mommy wrote above, I am a cuddle bug. Sometime that morning the nurse got a great idea to help me out.  She called the front desk of the NICU and asked for a buddy of mine to come back and see me.  When she came back to see me, I had tears in my eyes.  She picked me up, comforted me and held me, for as long as she could! I really liked that!  I cooed and tried to smile at her and won over her heart with my sweet little face.  Let's jump ahead now.

Today isn't just an ordinary day.  Today the trio is 15 months old! We are getting so big and doing so many things.  We are cruising, eating many different foods (crackers, cheese, puree, yogurt and my ultimate favorite PUFFS!), and we are growing up big and strong!  We are a busy bunch.  I (Katelynn) am even saying a few words.  My favorite right now is "Uh-Oh!".  I'm pretty cute when I say it and smile :) Anyway, I'm getting off track again.  You know me, I'm so busy that I'm into one thing and the next minute I've found something else! So back to the real story of today.

We're off on an adventure today to Seattle.  My Nanny, Mommy and Daddy loaded us up in the car this afternoon with big beach balls, our swim suits, towels and a lot of sunscreen. Mommy and Daddy got in the van and drove us to Seattle to a place called "Volunteer Park". It's a pretty cool park with toys, grassy areas, a museum and there is even a wading pool! We like to swim in our little pool in the back yard, but this is a BIG pool! We got to go swimming for the first time today in a BIG pool.  The best part wasn't the swimming though.  My NICU cuddle buddy was at Volunteer park with another one of my nurse friends! We'll tell you more about why they were there in a later blog post! So keep reading the blog to catch it!

Anyway, I was so excited to see my NICU friends, I decided to show everyone a new thing I could do! I learned to blow kisses!   It was so much fun.   Mommy and I think it's pretty neat that 1 year ago EXACTLY today was the day she was holding me in the NICU and today we got to meet up with her at the park.  I got to see her today and she got to hold me again! It was an amazing day! Both my NICU friends gave me a pep talk about eating my bottles! I'm going to try really hard! They say we all look good and healthy though! We've come so far in just a year! From crying in the NICU to swimming in Seattle!

Trio swimming in Seattle 8/16/12-Kate blowing kisses!