Robinson Triplets - Slideshow

There is an article on the NWF Daily News website about a family's journey with their triplets.  As a mom to triplets, I'm always interested in the life's of similar families.  The Robinson family had/has a particular tough ride with its triplets. 

Robinson Triplets

Here is an excerpt:

The sun is finally coming up for a local family who has spent most of the last year battling nearly insurmountable odds.

It began with the unexpected news that Rita and Greg Robinson were expecting triplets and became more complicated as health issues for Rita and the premature babies stacked up.

Zamen had acid reflux and a cyst on his brain that made him incapable of ever feeling full. Zamyah had underdeveloped lungs and a hole in her heart. Niren had two holes in his heart, an extremely narrow tube leading to his heart and far too low oxygen levels in his blood.

Here's the link to the full article.

My Book at Amazon: Five Strands of Hope ($0.99)

Can iPod Replace Drugs in the NICU?

As a mother of preemies, I found this article very interesting.  Music is known to have healing powers.  I use music as an antidepressant, a therapist and to elevate an already joyous mood.  This might make you laugh, but when I was having a rough time in high school, I found Wilson Philips' song, "Hold On...for one more day," to be encouraging.  I wasn't naive enough to believe that they were actually singing to me, but the song made me feel like I wasn't alone.  So it sounds plausible that music can replace some drugs in a NICU.

Candy Bruton is the neonatal intensive care unit supervisor at Texas Health HEB in Bedford, Texas.  She will lead a music therapy study to see how classical lullaby music impacts premature babies.

"Usually if they're fussy their heart rate goes up, their saturations can fall down and when you play the music it calms them,” Bruton said. “Their heart rate comes back to a normal resting heart rate and their saturations come back up."

Fifty premature babies will take part in the study.  Bruton said the music reaches only 45 decibels and mimics the mothers heartbeat.  There have been other studies, which have suggested that music therapy actually shortens the time spent in neonatal intensive care units.

Here is the link to the full article.

My Book at Amazon: Five Strands of Hope

Here are links to previous blog posts: 

I'll Have Another

A Mother's Fears

The Strongest Women

The Loneliness of Having Triplets

What is the "Right" Number of Children to Have?

The Baby Making Project: IVF

Acupuncture Improves Your Chances

Stress Kills Your Chances

Smoking's Bad

It's Not Your Lifestyle: Male Infertility

Grasping at Straws: Laptops Damage Sperm

The Holistic Approach to Infertility

Fresh vs Frozen Embryo Transfer

Premature Babies Twice as Likely to Suffer Mental Disorders

Does IVF Increased Your Breast Cancer Risk?

Here are links to chapter one of my book:

Chapter 1 (part 1)

Chapter 1 (part 2)

Stem Cells for Premature Babies

Stem cell doc aims for innovative treatment for premature babies 
By Graham Lankree - Metro Ottawa

Half of premature babies develop chronic lung disease, yet Dr. Bernard Thebaud believes their undeveloped lungs can be given a second chance with stem cell therapies created here in Ottawa, Canada.

“There’s a structure in Ottawa to help that dream come true,” said Dr. Thebaud, a renowned stem cell research scientist, Wednesday following an announcement that this fall he will join the city’s Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research.

“Since it opened in 2006, the centre has become internationally recognized,” Dr. Thebaud said. And within five years he plans to harness its resources to develop treatments for premature baby’s lungs and launch clinical trials for 10 to 20 patients.

Most premature babies are kept on respirators and given oxygen to keep them alive, but these treatments damage their lungs and there is presently no cure, he said.

“Dr. Thebaud is without a doubt, a world-leader in stem cell research and as a clinician-scientist, he is ideally positioned to develop and test new therapies for patients,” said fellow stem-cell researcher Dr. Duncan Stewart, who is CEO and Scientific Director at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Here are links to previous blog posts: 

The Loneliness of Having Triplets

The Joys of Having Triplets

Time to See a Fertility Specialist

Here are links to chapter one of my book:

Chapter 1 (part 1)

Chapter 1 (part 2)

The Sadness of Triplets Turning Three

Today is the eve of my triplets' first birthday.  My heard feels like there is black coal weighing it down.  I am happy and know that I'm lucky to have triplets in the first place.  But where are my babies?

On the eve of the triplets' birth, I stared up at the ceiling or across the room at the door and my mind whirled with fret.  The triplets that I bawled over for weeks and weeks, believing that I wouldn't birth living babies, were going to be born within twenty hours.  Tears of happiness, excitement and anxiousness gathered in the corner of my eyes.  Disbelief clouded my brain.  It couldn't' be.  My mind couldn't accept that Anna, Liam and Owen were actually going to be outside of my belly.  How the heck was I going to manage preemie triplets and a twenty month old? I thought as the reality of them began to seep through my fogginess of my head.

(Liam, Anna & Owen ~ 2 months old)

A positive pregnancy test greeted me on the eve of the triplets' first birthday.  A positive test that I dreamt of having since the triplets were milliseconds old.  A positive test whose reality initially scared the daylights out of me when I realized that I would have one 3 1/2 year old, three 19 month olds and a newborn.  A positive test that, with the passage of minutes, filled me with excited at the thrill of seeing a new creation of my husband's and my love and another child to add more happiness and excitement to our family.  (A few weeks later, I miscarried, but I carry that child in my heart and always think of him on the eve of the triplets' birthday.)

(Owen, Anna, Gavin, & Liam)

The triplets' second birthday came and went without much fan fare, as did their birthday eve.  I thought about the baby I lost the previous year as well as the other babies I've lost.  We had a little family birthday and went out to dinner.  It was a quiet day.

(Gavin, Owen, Anna & Liam)

So here we are today, May 29th, 2012.  My heart floated a little higher while looking at pictures of the kids throughout the years.  However, its fluttering has stopped and the coal has seemed to multiplied sending my heart into the pit of my stomach.  My babies are gone.  I have two big personality boys who believe that they can do everything themselves and a little fashionista who is determine and then does do everything herself.  Dare I, a tomboy, try to dress her.  She'll just take off the comfy shorts and pull a dress over her head.  Tell her that she can't swim to the other side of the pool, she will (with floaties on).

Yes, a smile comes to my face when I see my children learn and grow, accomplish things that they couldn't do the day before.  But where are my babies?  I think it was the Reverend Mother in "The Sound of Music"  who said, "When the lord closes one door, he often opens another."  I just LOVE "The Sound of Music."  So with lead in my shoes and my heart on the floor, I am saying good-bye to my babies and hello to the wonderful girl and boys that have become.

(Liam, Owen, Gavin & Anna)

Happy 3rd Birthday!

I'd love to know how you felt on the eve of your children's birthday.

Here's a link to the blog post, The Loneliness of Having Triplets

Here's a link to the blog post, Time to See a Fertility Specialist

Here are links to chapter one of my book:

Chapter 1 (part 1)

Chapter 1 (part 2)