Things I Did On St. Patty's Day

Brought in my own baby clothes. They are all growing too fast! What a tragedy to NEVER wear one of their gifts or hand-me-downs!

Passed on the corned beef and cabbage special at the hospital cafeteria. Is that really the only dish from Ireland that we know of? Really?

Overheard a conversation in hospital lobby:

"What are you doing tonight?"

"Going to (insert some Irish sounding bar). And I'm going with (insert any male name) and he's Irish, so it's going to be really fun!"


Hmmm. I wonder if I'm ever in Ireland and someone decides to light fireworks on July 4th they will think it is extra stellar because I'm there.

My babies wanted to tell you all 'good luck.' (They don't really understand the holiday too well yet.)

Gabe Baby Reporting...Channel Hospital News

Gabe Gallagher here. It's night shift here at the old NBICU. That's what most people would call the newborn intensive care unit. Me? I just call it home. For now. I mention it's the night shift because it seems a little more lax here at night. The charge nurse is a little more flexible. Not so many specialists and other hospital personnel standing over your shoulder. For this reason, my nurse is letting me borrow her computer to update our progress. The nurses here are awesome by the way. Well, except when they bring in that little vacuum thing and suction all the boogers out of my nose. I hate that! I wish I had the strength, dexterity, general coordination and knowledge to blow my own nose. Sheesh. It's a killer. It's like the giant vacuum of doom whenever I see that thing coming. Other than that, they are all wonderful. I know they like me. "Oh Gabe! You are sooo cute!" "Oh Gabe! Look at those pretty eyes!" I know, I know. My parents made a pretty good looking kid, what can I say?

So, on to how we are doing. Today, we are officially 34 weeks. That is how they date us here. If we were still inside my mom's body (I tried to talk everyone into staying in there by they way...) we would be 34 weeks along. So this marks the week where we are supposed to be learning that whole suck, swallow, breath thing that is so important when you eat. Well, (ahem) I actually know how to do that as of a week ago! That's right. I know how to latch and everything. Everyone keeps telling me how smart I am. I really like it too! It's so much fun to be so close to my mommy and eat at the same time. The only tricky part is that it is sooo exhausting. I mean, I try for about 15 minutes and I am wiped out! They won't let me practice or try for longer than 30 minutes or else I will expend more calories than I am actually getting. I need a good six or seven hours of rest before I can try again. My mom tells me she is going to try and figure out a plan to breast feed all of us, somehow, in some way. Personally, I think she is crazy. But I appreciate her for trying. Who knows? Maybe it will actually work.

My brother Christian has been practicing too. He told me he's latched a few times but doesn't quite have it down like I do. I told him to just relax and let it happen. But he wants to do it perfect and right away. If he doesn't do it right away and perfectly, he gets all worked up and stressed and needs to close his eyes and sleep it off. He's kind of an intense preemie. Just chill man. That's what I try to tell him. Just chill broseph.

My sister, Sunshine, just got the clear from the doctor yesterday to go ahead and start practicing breast feeding with mom. She had higher oxygen requirements than we did and needed to be a little more stable. But now, all three of us are on what's called a 'regular flow' nasal cannula getting 1 liter of oxygen help. It is a big deal! I thought my parents were going to die when Sunny finally was on a regular flow. They were so happy and lavished exorbitant amounts of praise on her. She sure took her sweet time. But now that is finally on regular flow, she is doing awesome.

So learning how to eat is our next big obstacle. Right now, we all have tubes through our nose that we get my mom's breast milk in. We have to learn how to eat from a bottle as well as from my mom to be able to go home. Obviously they won't send us home with this silly tube. I mean, who's to say my dad won't try and put Mt. Dew in there or something? Speaking of caffeine, we all get a little caffeine shot twice a day. It is supposed to help us have less apnea episodes. Because we are so small and so early in coming to this crazy world, sometimes we forget to breath and our heart rate drops dangerously low. My mom and dad hate this. But we usually recover on our own OK. Only sometimes do we need help from the nurse to come back up. But the older we get, the less we have been having.

We are getting so big! My bro Christian is 4lbs 2 oz. Sunshine is 3lbs 14 oz. And I am the svelte, thinner guy weighing in at 3lbs 9 oz. Another milestone to note here. Usually at 4 lbs, we are able to keep ourselves warm and don't need to be in our little hot plastic boxes. We still are however. It's a slow progression. When we can keep ourselves warm, we will move to an open crib situation. I have mixed emotions about this. It will be nice to be a little bigger. My mom will be able to handle me more, I'll sleep deeper, I won't look like I belong in a child's play crib. But I'm afraid it will be too darn noisy out there! I'm sure it will be fine. I'll be ready. My mom keeps telling me I am brave and she's proud of me. So we just keep our heads down and keep keeping on!

Hey, Sunny! Psst, wake up! Do you want to add anything to our progress update? Sunshine! Yoo hoo! Last chance to say hello sis. Well, she is really passed out. Maybe next time.

Christian. Hey sleepy head. Did you want to add anything to my report? "What? What are you talking about? What report? I am soo tired. Dude, let me go back to sleep."

Okay. I guess nobody has anything to add. I wish I could meet all of you in person. Maybe someday. I can't wait to smile at you and maybe even cuddle with some of you someday and tell you thanks for helping our progress along. Thanks for your sweet thoughts and occasional meals for my mom and help with cleaning her house and painting our nursery and lots and lots and lots of prayers.

This is Gabe Gallagher signing off for now. Good night!

My First Blog Post

Hello out there! This is Christian. I am the oldest of my brother and sister by 2 minutes. I swiped my mom's phone while she was with my brother and decided to update everyone on how we are doing. Apparently, it's a lot easier to breath and eat and be warm inside my mom's body. It is hard work out here! There's breathing and staying warm and eating on my own and keeping my heart rate at a normal pace and peeing and pooping the amount they want me to. Phew! There is so much. My brother Gabe and sister Sunny kind of wore themselves out during their first week of life. They both need a ventilator for the time being to help them breath. Because it is so uncomfortable to have a giant tube in their throat, they are kept comfortably sedated. Gabe got sick and can't have my mom's milk anymore. He will get better and eventually and won't have to have IV nutrition. Sunshine was introduced to breast milk for the first time on Thursday. She started with one millileter and as of today she is getting four! I'm not trying to brag but I eat 20 millileters each time I eat. I'm trying to set an example for everyone so Gabe and Sunny will catch up.

My dad has been working hard and comes to see us as often as he can. Everyone says I look just like him! My mom even told me she recognized my dad's nose in an ultrasound. I'm glad I look like him.

My mom is doing ok. She smiles at us and talks to us and tells us she loves us. But I know she misses us being inside her. I know she misses when we were all together as a family and she could feel us kicking and stretching. I know she feels like she leaves pieces of her soul behind each time she walks out of the hospital doors. I know it's hard for her to see such big machines hooked up to such tiny bodies like Gabe and Sunny's. She gets to hold me though. Once a day! Pretty soon it will be twice a day. I know she can't wait to hold my brother and sister and sometimes her heart just aches because all she wants to do is hold them. But they have a lot of wires and tubes. So not yet. But eventually. How do I know these things? Babies just know. What can I say?

We have so many people praying for us and thinking about us. It's truly amazing. I'm pretty sure my mom cries sometimes just thinking about all the people that care about us and want us to be home healthy and sound.

Well I better go. It might look suspicious if anyone catches a 2 lb 4 oz baby using an iPhone. Thanks again to everyone praying for us!

Love,
Christian