The first week at home

It's been a very eventful first week at home. I'm happy to report that the three boys are doing very well. The first few days they mostly just slept and ate. The last couple of days they seem to be staying awake a little longer in between feedings.

Michael is steadily becoming a better eater. He's now regularly taking 45-50ml per feed and keeps it all down. He is gaining weight and is closing in on his birth weight of 5lb 3 oz. Twice, once in the hospital and once at home, he has thrown up an entire feed and parts of subsequent feeds after taking his vitamins. We've stopped giving him the vitamins for now and he seems to be doing much better. He is the most alert of the three and as Christina said today, he would melt your heart. He just seems to have a very placid and peaceful demeanor.

Cian reminds me of the guy Rocky fought in the Rocky IV movie. He's absolutely clinical when it comes to eating. He takes 60-70ml per feed and never spills a drop. He's a man on a mission and is gaining weight hand over fist, already well ahead of his birth weight. He's also the only one of the three who doesn't cry when he's getting his nappy changed. He's definitely the tough guy amongst the three.

Tighe is the funny guy. His facial expressions are classic. When lying down he adopts the pose of cupid having just let the arrow go. He's always the first to wake up for his feed and is taking 55-65ml. He's also well ahead of his birth weight now.

We were very lucky to have Jennifer (Gigi's friend from high school) stay with us last week. She was a tremendous help and lots of fun. I don't take direction very well and Jennifer is one of the very few people I've ever met who manages to let me know when I'm doing something wrong without actually annoying me. She put together some great meals for us, carried the load on the feedings and turned into one of Clara's best friends. Clara is another member of the family who doesn't take direction well, but again Jennifer had her number. So, a very sincere thank you to Jennifer.

The boys had their first outing last Wednesday night when we took a walk down to the local Frozen Yoghurt store. The above pic of Clara and her friends Ryan and Sienna was taken that night.

Thursday was a big night. Jay (Gigi's brother) and Rachel (one of Europes greatest chefs) brought us a great dinner and good beer. Clara was very excited to have her cousins Sarah, Jack and Joe over and she had a lot of fun. We had dinner outside as the kids played in the garden. For those of you who don't know Jay, he's the one holding the three lads in the above photo. For some reason I don't have any good photo's of the kids that night so Rachel or Marge please send me some so I can include them in my next post.

Friday saw the opening of the Olympic Games. I've always been a big fan of the Olympics and remember staying up every night during the 1984 LA Olympics to watch the events live. If someone had told me then that 28 years later I'd also be up through the night watching, but would be feeding triplets in California, I'd never have believed them.

Marge arrived down last Wednesday night and has also been a tremendous help. On top of helping with the triplets, Marge is like the energizer bunny when it comes to getting stuff done around the house. Gigi and Marge are running the show at home this week as I am back in work and taking Clara to and from pre-school each day.

Thanks to our neighbor Ann-Marie for preparing an excellent dinner for us last night (which included possibly the best mashed potatoes I've ever had). Ann-Marie was also responsible for some very cool banners and balloons on our house when we arrived home with the boys last week. It was a very nice touch, one we really appreciated. We continue to get many offers of help from our neighbors, from watching Clara, to shopping, to making dinners for us. We are extremely grateful for all these offers. Ann-Marie has been co-ordinating our neighbors wrt dates when they will prepare dinner for us. I think partly due to that Irish/Catholic guilt that never goes away, I actually feel uncomfortable accepting so much help, and hence uncomfortable saying how many dinners have been arranged for us. All I can say is that we REALLY appreciate the help and hope we can return the favor one day.