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Show Me The Babies...

Well, it has been another week of moments that have flown by and time that has been hard to come by (how long do you think we will be able to continue to use that excuse??). Anyway, everyone is doing very well and the babies continue to grow at an amazing rate! Their latest doctor's appointment was last Thursday and Maddalie weighed in at 7lb 6oz, Rylan was at 6lb 9oz and Hayden tipped the scales at 6lb 1oz. Since there isn't much time for anything other than feeding babies and changing diapers, we just wanted to say a quick hello, give a quick update and include a few of our favorite pictures. We hope you enjoy and we will try to give a better update shortly.

Here are a couple pictures of Hayden....

and Rylan....

here's Maddalie....

and all together (can you tell who is who??)....

With love,

The Belleville 7 :)

What A Week

OK...we know some of you are probably wondering if we fell off the face of the earth since it has been over a week since last posting. I guess this is what all of the other triplet bloggers meant when they said that you barely have time to breathe once all of your babies are home. It sure would be nice to have a few of those St. Vincent nurses hanging around the bedroom at night to soothe and feed fussy babies. :)

Needless to say, our first week home with the babies has been quite the adventure. We knew from our time in the NICU that when you feed every three hours, the next feeding sneaks up quick once you finish the last, but you don't realize how quick it does until you are trying to sneak in 90 minutes of sleep. One week of 4-5 hours of sleep per night (on good nights) has been pretty interesting. I have to say that I'm not always the nicest at 2:30 when I have to get up after just falling asleep.

As hard as this first week has been, it has also been amazing. We have had Aunt JJ (my sister Jess) here for a bit and she has been a big help. The extra set of hands has come in pretty handy. It truly is something to sit back and just take in these three little ones. Well feeding time is upon us, enjoy the new pictures below and we will try very hard to be more diligent with posting.

Here is a picture of evening feeding preparation (this covers from 11:30PM to 8:30AM)....




Here are the three little ones all lined up....



The babies having a little slumber party in Mommy and Daddy's bed...

Until next time!

The Belleville 7 :)

Welcome Home Rylan and Hayden

After 16 days in the NICU Rylan and Hayden were released today finally completing our family at home. Our first few hours at home were a lot of what we expected (feeding, pooing and sleeping times three). We can't begin to explain what it feels like to finally have everyone home with us. It is pretty amazing to just sit back and look at three little babies and realize that they are all yours. We have waited two long weeks to finally have them back together again. We are all pretty wiped out and looking forward to a good nights sleep (HA HA HA), but wanted to get some new pictures online to commemorate our day. We hope you enjoy them, and we will be sure to keep more coming. :)

Hayden's first trip in the car...

Rylan sound asleep on the way home...

Here is the whole crew on the front lawn upon arriving home...

Check out how cute these little guys are napping at home....

With love,

The Belleville 7 :)

Update on the Boys!

The boys are enjoying their last night in the NICU tonight. Tomorrow they finally get to come home and re-join their sister Maddalie. They have done really well this week and are both taking all of their meals by bottle (finally the feeding tubes are out). Both boys continue to pack on weight and are over their birth weights...Rylan weighed in at 5lb7oz tonight and Hayden at 5lb1oz.

We would be remiss without once again saying "Thank You" to all of the amazing doctors and nurses at St. Vincent's Women's Hospital who have been caring for the triplets. Not only have they made taking care of the babies their priority, but they have been wonderful at always involving us in the care of the babies and helping to keep us informed each day. While we won't miss the daily trips to the hospital, we will certainly miss all of the amazing people we have had the chance to get to know.

Rylan Michael

Hayden Christopher

Check back tomorrow for pictures of the boys coming home.

Love,

The Belleville 7 :)

Taylor and Andon....We Love You!

This post is a tribute to the world's greatest Big Sister and Big Brother. We can't tell you how proud we are of Taylor and Andon. As hard as we say this pregnancy has been on us, it has been equally as hard on these two wonderful children. Through it all, their spirits stayed true and they have been absolutely amazing.

Since Maddalie has been home, they have both been such a big help. Andon can't walk into the room without asking where his little sister is, and Taylor anxiously awaits the end of each night so that she can hold Maddalie for a bit before heading to bed. We may set records for hand sanitizer consumption as a household because Taylor uses it every 10 minutes hoping her turn to hold Maddalie is close.

Taylor and Andon never cease to amaze us. We can only hope that with such great role models, these babies will always have someone to look up to. We want to just make sure that Taylor and Andon never forget that we love them so much, and are so glad that we will all be able to enjoy these new wonderful babies together. These three little ones make the perfect addition to our family, and we can only pray that they turn out as wonderful as their Big Sister and Big Brother!



Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Welcome Home Maddalie

After 9 short (not really short) days in the NICU, our little Maddalie was released yesterday and came home. While we were very excited to be able to have our little girl come home, it was with mixed emotions yesterday that we left with Rylan and Hayden still remaining in the NICU.

The boys continue to improve daily. At this point it is largely a matter of enhancing their eating habits and continuing to put on a little weight. They still require some assistance with eating...they just get worn out too easy and keeping them awake for an entire feeding is quite the challenge.

Miss Maddalie, on the other hand, works the bottle like a champ and is not afraid to let you know when she is hungry. Our first night home was a little bit of reality, and makes us only wonder what more we have coming our way. Taylor and Andon are very happy to have a baby in the house. Andon started off as soon as she got in the door, wondering if it was OK to "pet" his baby sister.

After 24 hours we are quite lacking on sleep, but not on excitement for what lies ahead. We can't say enough how blessed we are...God has truly given us the most amazing gift in these babies. Through these babies we have found a new appreciation for our family, and our eyes have been opened to the generosity of our family, friends and those we hope to continue to get to know better. We are very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful and amazingly supportive people. We truly love and cherish you all. Thank you for everything you have been to us.

Happy Birthday Mommy

I would be remiss if I let the day pass without another post wishing Elisabeth a "Happy Birthday". I know that in terms of how she feels physically, this might not be at the top of the list of birthday experiences, but emotionally this day is filled with so much love for our life and our family.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to let Mommy know how much I love her and hope that this birthday will forever be remembered. I thank her for her strength, I thank her for her love and I thank her for her friendship.

Elisabeth, I love you and wish you the happiest of birthday's.

A Quick Baby Update

We just wanted to give everyone a quick update on the babies. They are six days old today and continue to do very well. All of the babies have been off of IV fluids for a couple of days now and are all sleeping in cribs (no heat lamps, no photo therapy, nada..). The babies continue to improve their eating habits and are all taking bottles for their feedings. Little Miss Maddalie is the piggy of the bunch and has no trouble getting her meals in. Mr. Rylan and Mr. Hayden continue to need a little help now and then, and still have feeding tubes to finish off feedings as necessary (they seem to have a little trouble staying awake long enough to eat). We are hopeful that the babies will continue to put on a little bit of weight and will be released early next week.

More to come, but here are a few new pictures for your viewing pleasure...

Our Little Pirate Rylan

Our Sleeping Beauty Maddalie

Our Little Peanut Hayden

With Love,

The Belleville 7 :)

CPAP Free (Yeah!!)

Well, it has been a couple of days and we wanted to provide everyone an update on the little ones. Early Saturday morning, the babies we taken off of CPAP. They have been breathing without assistance since that time which is UNBELIEVABLE. Today (Sunday) they were taken off the heat lamps and have done very well at holding their own body temperature. They have also made great strides in the last two days with eating. Both Rylan and Maddalie have done well with taking their meals from a bottle and have continued to increase their intake each day. Hayden has been a bit more finnicky, and still requires portions of every feeding through his feeding tube. He does seem to prefer eating for Mommy over eating for Daddy, but we can live with that for now.

The doctors and nurses (they are AMAZING here and we will never be able to thank them enough) have been thrilled with their progress. We still don't have an indication of when they will come home, but the doctor has indicated that he would like to be able to release them all together.

Elisabeth continues her recovery. She is in quite a bit of pain still, but it is hard to convince her to rest because all she wants to do is visit the little ones in the NICU. I can't say enough about Mommy...she has really been quite the trooper through this process. I only hope these babies one day know how much their Mommy gave of herself to get them here. These last eight months (and last month in particular) have been the most unbelievable challenge, but Mommy took it in stride always knowing that in the end it would all be worth it. If I can speak for her, she was right. I know these babies will learn to love their Mommy as much as their Daddy does!

In closing, I thought I would share a few more pictures. I call these my before and after pics. Seeing the little ones on the CPAP was pretty hard to see. We are so fortunate that they only needed a short amount of time on them. However, it makes you appreciate the amazing job the doctors and nurses do and the fact that they are so well cared for here. Anyway, here they are....

Rylan Before

Rylan After

Maddalie Before

Maddalie After

Hayden Before

Hayden After

Thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers. We love you all!

1,2,3....they're here!

Our babies are finally here and doing well...they arrived today at 1:21PM and it was quite the amazing experience. Both Mom and babies are doing very well. The babies are all on CPAP machines which are pushing air into the lungs to help them breathe. They are currently not in need of oxygen and are just having room air pushed through the CPAP. If all goes well, there is the chance they could be off assisted breathing some time in the next day or two. We want to say an enormous "Thank You" to everyone for their thoughts and prayers today. We could not have made it through this experience with out all of your love and support. God has truly blessed our family, and if you don't want to take my word for it, just see below....welcome the Belleville Triplets!

Rylan Michael Belleville

5 lbs 4 oz

18.0 inches

Maddalie Noelle Belleville

6 lbs 1 oz

18.3 inches

Hayden Christopher Belleville

4 lbs 13 oz

18.5 inches

All of our love,

The Belleville 7 :)

Anxiously awaiting....

15 hours and counting....here we sit for our last night in room 255. After 4 weeks in the hospital, our day has finally come. Tomorrow at 1:00 PM, our three little blessings will finally be here. We are so very excited to move on to the next step in this chapter of our lives. All of the challenges over these last eight months have been worth the effort as we look so forward to meeting our three little babies.

We want to say "Thank You" to everyone that has been by our side throughout this journey....we truly believe that it is through prayer and the grace of God that we have overcome all of these challenges to make it to this day.