Getting the Job done

It has been 73 days since my life have changed for ever. I am so tired and sleep deprived that I can only remember what happened between April and June because I keep posting every single thing i do in Facebook, which by the way, since Lorenzo was born, I declared my scrapbook.

I look at my scrap book and I can see how fast our triplets has grown, how much fatter and older I got and how smoothly my house become more chaotic and unexpectedly warm.

My job is to mainly take care of the triplets during the day and late night and to work from home for Graff3D, managing new projects and creating job proposals. Thank God my bosses are super flexible and I can do this in the remaining time.

My job description as a triplet caregiver is as follow:

I feed, I burp, I change and I put them back to sleep.

Same damn thing every 3-4 hours in the same order, from Monday to Sunday. I expend most of my time in franela short, bare feet and stretched Tshirts. If I go out I add a pair of Yoga-mat flip flops to my uniform. Thank God we live in Florida and short fits in all dressing code. 

Even if my job is always the same with my newborn, the joy and emotions are always growing making my life so full and dynamic. 

This InfoGraphic can describe better than words of what my life has become

Babies are here.

I feel standing in this infinite field of green grass, looking at a blurry horizont, with close fists and just waiting for life to change.

I am ready! Am I? I really don't know how much ready I am supposed to be. I may not know all the details of how to solve and provide for 4 babies in diapers but I know I have the courage to learn, fight and adapt. I guess yes, I am ready.

In the meantime I scape anytime I can and take picture of Lily, she is just magnificent! We are waiting for the twin boys to be release from the Hospital, we are waiting to be reunited as a family of 6 and then feel that our journey has began, but hey this is still the journey but seems so surreal because we are not in the same place at the same time. I guess all human needs this sense of belonging to a place in order to exist as a family.

The delivery was quick and dramatic. By the time we prepared an improvised bad with unnecessary things and left what was important and drove recklessly  to the Bayfront Children Place, the triplets were born.

Our surrogate broke water at around 6:30 am on April 1st and right when she started to push, the nurses knock her down with a sedative and took her to the operation room. They simply cut her belly and pull those babies out! It sounds brutal and not very romantic. But that is what it was.

Liam came first, then Lily and finally little Leo. The named them Baby A, B and C. The were between 2300 and 1900 gr. of weight and 34 weeks and 2 days.

We were the first male gay couple to cross the doors of All Children NICU claiming babies as their children. It was interesting to see all kind of reactions and a total lack of preparedness from the Hospital staff. I have to correct this lady in the reception desk that said to somebody else at the phone: "Here are the adoptive parents of the J.. triplets." while I was waiting to know where my children were after they took them from the operation room. Our surrogate husband was with me. I said: "Mom, there are our biological children, we are not adopting parents we are THE parents. Please be precise with your words" I felt right and fair. Also for J. who may felt uncomfortable after somebody was suggesting they were giving their children in adoption.

The nurses in the NICU were expecting us, good thing to have a friend that works there and she was able to announce our arrival and they got ready. However I learned that day that Social workers are watching like eagles who are getting in and out of the hospital.

We were not allow to see our precious babies until we were able to prove we were the parents. It took several discussion to make them understand this wasn't an adoption, we were bio parents and the surrogate wasn't their mom.  Until we said to the Social worker all perplexed, we got an egg donor, fertilize the eggs with our sperm and then transfer the embryo into our surrogate uterus.
In ordinary circumstances this can be very humiliating, but maybe because we have a thick skin about humiliation or because the emotion of being parents and have 3 healthy babies were so high. We really didn't care.  We just answered all the questions, give them the papers they wanted and 5 hours later we were walking into the place where we will met our triplets and stay day and night for the next 2 weeks.

They were separated in 3 different rooms. They were all wired and taped. They were red, the were small and almost transparent. There faces however were beautiful.

All the tension, anxiety, fears and stress from the past 10 months were absolutely gone when we were able to be there. Looking at our children. This small little things waggling and breathing.

In one point, just a few minutes later from our arrival, I found myself walking in and out from one room to the other, somehow trying to be with all of them at the same time. I felt confused. I needed to relate that feeling and behavior to understand what it was.

I remember one of our dogs having puppies and we as child moving their puppies in different places in the house to play and my dog going back and forth behind us, powerless, trying to keep them together. Thats the feeling! That is how I felt. Like a bitch trying to keep the litter together.

It has been 11 days since they discharged Lily from the NICU for been the heaviest and more mature of the three. I am staying at home with her and Lorenzo, our now 16 months old son. I can't stop staring at her, taking her pictures and trying to make any connection possible.  I feel such love already! Its so different to my older son however is not less or more intense.

I feel I am blessed, every day. I am totally blessed and don't even know why God chose me for this incredible journey. I don't need to know why. I am eternally grateful.

31 weeks

It has been so long since I wrote the last post. We are almost 31 weeks of pregnancy and our babies are about to born anytime now. In the last 2 months we expend the time getting the new house ready for this big change we can anticipate.
We painted all the interiors, replace and got some new furniture, set the Triplets nursery. Change our family/living room into a play room. Paint new art and decorate walls. And most important I renovated my office space which give me great pleasure and peace.

We choose a nice fresh green color and white 

We bought all the furniture and accessories from Ikea,
the curtain was the theme and inspiration to paint the walls

Detail of my wall painting 

Except for a few painting to hangs and some stuff to organize and clean we are ready!!!

Our surrogate has been in bed rest for several weeks now, she is doing great but she needed to stop working and stay calm in order to avoid complications on her own health. Baby are been monitored every week, they are healthy and growing well. They are very even in weight which is a good thing for multiple and we are expecting to have them at 34 or 35 weeks.

Lorenzo has officially started to walk and his personality is reshaping again. He is a little anxie about me and want to be hold and around me all the time. Quiet honest feels so good to be so important to somebody but after several hours of codependency my ego get diminished by a feeling of "trapped-ness"