effective today, the following sign is hanging off collin's ductus:

meaning can be found in a german dictionary

we are proud of him!


of our vicky, too! she is slowly getting better, most values are back in spec. all together we will make it and hold our girl in our arms soon... the rocky gates of sesame slowly start moving to give way to our treasure, it's already shining through...

this picture is copyrighted to EUROFANT

thank you to all finger crossers, you DO make a difference. so, please, dont stop!

"vicky's got a combattant's heart!" - dr. noeh

"vicky is stabil, for now." - dr. thomas

"vicky waved her little hand at me!" - bruna

"alert level changed from RED to ORANGE..." - mick

on track to kick some virus butt, vicky!




thanx, larry!

please, little vicky, stay with us!
you barely just arrived here.
yet, we watch in sudden fear
you fragile under glass.

please, little vicky, be a sister
for your brothers many seasons!
each second knows a thousand reasons
to have you in our midst here.

vicky, conquer your new room,
vicky lighting every gloom,
our only girl so precious!

daddys belly, mommies song,
garden, yard and heras tongue
you'll venerate, i promise!

we are asked very often, why we call our off spring "dragon", out of all... so often, in fact, that i would like to explain a bit. well:

first of all, when we say "dragon" we do not think of the usual images, like the evil things knights have to slay in order to get the princess, or even the classical dragon image: the mother-in-law... oh, that's all off by a long shot!

when we say "dragon" we mean something like the dronkeys in SHREK, here::





or PUFF the magic dragon.

the three heads are - naturally - a symbol for the triplets, but ALSO a symbol for an inseparable unit: one dragon, three heads, three sets of abilities, one purpose to serve...

well, that's the theory behind it, anyways, we will see where it will go! :)

news, news, news. i am almost falling behind, writing... :) and ONLY good news, at that!

our first kid broke through the barrier of birth weight... benjamin, 640 grams, yesterday. well, he drinks a grand total of 4.5 grams of mother's milk per hour, that's .16oz. sounds not much, i know, but let me show you, percentagewise: .16 ounces per hour times 24 hours per day make almost 4 ounces per day, and that's 17% of his own body weight. if _I_ would drink this much, i'd need almost 3 stone or over 5 gallons of milk per day! (look at that german engineer juggling with them imperial units! impressive!) but with the little dragon this is different, of course. they all need growing. and they do. and they will NEVER become too heavy for daddy's belly!

last night we also became members of the society of preemie supporters, "federleicht" (translates to "featherlight"). that is a group of very humane human beings (reference chapter 44) - parents of former preemies, doctors and nurses - who materially and ideologically seek to assist and support parents and their ambience. in a very comfortable atmosphere there is talking, listening, laughing, eating, drinking and helping. many a project have been carried through, devices bought, aid procured, parents' room refurbished. all points of view are present: medical necessity, caring opportunity, parental request. we are very glad and proud to be an active part of this from here on in.

and last but certainly not least, we were in the newspaper yesterday, the local one, in the birth anouncements. and as it should be with triplets, three times! daddy made a special trip to the gas station to buy it. :)

so, it was a pretty filled up day that leaves a warm and cosy feeling in us...

times ago, bruna used to dog sit for people temporaerily out of time or opportunity. they would drop their quadpeds off at our house, we would watch them for a while. one time, we had paula, an 8 months old aussie shepherd of exceptional beauty. hera was about 5 or 6 years old at that time. so we assumed the "little one" would learn from the "big one" all the good and important stuff a dog needs for life. obviously, we were mistaken. by a long shot: paula tought hera all the annoying bogus a dog needs to bug mommie and daddy on the highest levels for hours on end - i.e. sitting in the driver's seat when left in the van for any stretch of time...

great story, thinks the reader, where is the punch line? well, in baby intensive care it is just like in real - or dog's - life: after both benjamin and collin were re-intubated, their middle sister did not want to stay offsite, leaned back a little for a break and lets machines assist her breathing. they ARE triplets, after all - an inseparable unit. well, if breaks are necessary, so be it. a goood leap takes a good inrun...
and the peace and quiet - alarmwise - in their room now, are definately a very good inrun...

plus, their reactions become more obvious every time. it is really hard to overlook by now how the three-headed dragon reacts to skin contact, heart beat, voice, smell and breathing. little hands stretching for mommie's petting fingers, little feet scrabbling on daddy's belly, little heads snuggled up close, even their facial expression - now with the tubus all the better visible than with the C-PAP masks - look a lot more relaxed.

family is neat!

...it's circus time! :)

victoria is playing frogger and squats on mommie's belly, her legs underneath herself.
benjamin has studied a sloth act and falls asleep within 2 milli seconds of being placed on daddy's belly.
and collin is the elephant and plays with his tubus-trunk.



we have butterflies in our bellies.

today we were praised. no, praised VERY MUCH! well, actually, the dragon was. for exceptionally few alarms. for outstandingly unobtrusive behavior. for good heart rates, oxygen saturations, breathing frequencies...

two of the three ductuses are now closed, collin is a little behind on that one. however, because of the re-intubation he is stable enough to tolerate the medication again to help close it. so, alltogether pretty favourable odds, really. speaking of re-intubation: benjamin had to copy his twin brother and got his "trunk" back, too. needs some rest and assistance breathing. but he is also more stable as far as the rest goes, so this is no real biggie. only our little victoria keeps breathing on her own - despite her problems with fluid in her lungs and the respective cortison therapy. she is showing off!

summarizing, today was the longed for "up" after the past days' "downs"... well, ups and downs had been promised, so we're pretty much on schedule, here.

and we keep snuggling courage and self esteem into our little dragon. a little at a time... and today an exceptionally big little.

now he got some R&R. only some... the breathing machine has disadvantages, too: the lungs are better off working themselves. food would be better without the tubus, pure mother's milk not mixed as he gets it now. and also the medication would better help to close the ductus. at this point time is in fact against our little big one: the older the kid the slimmer the odds for medicational success.

next step would be surgery. a 10-minutes-issue. normal risk. lower than an open ductus. well...

still, optimism comes before every surgery! he wont need to have surgery. smiling like this, he can do it on his own! make us proud, collin!

a song text popped into my head today and just wouldn't get back out... this one:

"Yes, it's true, (yes it's true) I'm so happy to be stuck with you
'Cause I can see, (I can see) that you're happy to be stuck with me."

it was precisely when i saw this picture here: