3 weeks old

Eden Hope

Bella Grace

Hannah Jane

We had a weigh-in at the Dr.'s office on Tuesday and the babies are all gaining weight! Hooray! All our feedings are paying off. Hannah now weighs in at 5 lbs. 8 oz. (18.5 in. long), Bella weighs 5 lbs. 6 oz. (19.5 in. long), and Eden is up to a whopping 4 lbs. 6 oz. (18.5 in. long)! It is so encouraging when preemies gain weight! It won't be long before they will be tying their own shoes, then running off to school, then asking for the car keys...okay, let's just work toward 6 pounds for now!

"Where are you taking us?"

"Where are you taking us?! We were just getting settled here in the NICU!"


Hannah was the first to come home on 11/15/08.


Eden actually seems quite comfortable in her cozy carbed.


Bella puts up with her carseat but isn't quite sure what's going on! "Where are you taking me?"

I'm finally getting around to posting some pics of the day the girls came home! Actually, it was a series of two days, Saturday, November 15 (Hannah) and Sunday, November 16 (Bella and Eden). As you can see, their carseats show how teeny they really were, but we were so happy to be able to bring them home! Hannah weighed 4 lbs. 15 oz., Bella weighed 4 lbs. 13 oz., and Eden weighed 3 lbs. 14 oz. the day they came home. We had to get a "carbed" for Eden to use until she reaches 5 lbs.

The Belly

My cute sister Ashley came up from L.A. to spend a week when she was between jobs. We had fun just hanging out. I was worried that my bedrest lifestyle would bore her, but she said it was a nice change from her busy one!


The PREGO mamas! Megan and I are about to pop.


So by special request from my cousin Staci I am posting a picture of my belly pre-delivery. This was taken about 2 1/2 weeks before I delivered, and I actually grew 6 cm. in that time, so it's not a complete reflection of how large I actually was...my final measurement was a whopping 57 cm.! But I refuse to post my bare belly pre-op picture on the net for the world to see, so this is all you get! Notice my sis-in-law Megan's cute belly at 1 week overdue. Mm-hm. She's about 1/3 my size and I am only 32.5 weeks along. Well, who said life was fair?! I got three babies and she only got one!

HOME

We just want to take a minute to announce that our beautiful babies are HOME!!! Hannah came home this past Saturday and Bella and Eden followed one day later on Sunday. It has taken me a few days to get this posted through my bleary, sleep-deprived eyes that can't see the computer keyboard clearly. There has been much feeding, much diaper-changing, much baby squawking, much baby-holding, and MUCH JOY! The doctors have given us strict orders to protect these little preemies through RSV season, so unfortunately we won't be putting them on display anytime soon! In fact, we can only allow a few caregivers to help with the babies. We are, however, allowed to receive meals and house-cleaning support from whoever we want! We'll be setting that up soon. (Also, you're welcome to take our older children out of the house to do something fun!) We'll post more pics soon. For now, back to sleep...

Reunited in the NICU

l-r Hannah, Bella, Eden (just imagine them UNDER my skin--ouch!)

On one of our final days in the NICU, we had a wonderful nurse who let us unhook the girls from their monitors and bring them together for some bonding and pictures! The girls loved being together--it was so obvious. They were so calm and sweet and the room filled with the most heavenly peace. We could all feel it. Thank you to our wonderfully intuitive nurse Jennie who knew that these girls needed to feel each other beside them! It was precious. (fyi, Hannah is top left, Bella is top right, and little Eden is center on the pic with Dave.

Finally!

Hey everybody! It's Haylee, and my mom told me to post this...

We have 3 tiny new little members to our family of 6!!! Mom had the C-Section on Wednesday, Nov. 5 around 5:55pm and we welcomed Hannah Jane, Bella Grace, and Eden Hope Tate to our family!!!

Hannah (A): 5lbs. 4oz. 18"

Bella (B): 4lbs. 9oz. 19"

Eden (C): 3lbs. 15oz. 17.5"

They are so cute! These pictures say it all, don't they??

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