Just over a month...

Yupz.. the babies just celebrated their 1-month. Alot of relatives and friends came to share in the fun. Thanks goes out to all who came and thank you for the gifts. :-)

Here are some pics of the babies.
Dr Nair with us.




















Here's them on show... during the 1-month celebrations.

Parenthood.. 26 days in.

This parenting thing is not as easy and with 3 at a go, the effort required is three fold. As mentioned by Sharon, we need all the help we can get and it's not easy getting them. Current arrangement as it stands, Sharon's mom stays in with us most of the days.. except for the weekends and my mother swings by daily from Bedok and leaves at around 6pm. My mother is with us everyday but only during the days as she has to rush back home and look after my younger sister (16yrs old). My mother does not drive and so she has to either gets a lift from my retired dad or take a 1hr 30mins journey to my place in Sengkang. She has to do this almost everyday. :-(

So when night comes around, with Sharon's mother not around, we are left alone to fend for ourselves. We do have a maid with us, but she is there mainly to do the housework and to cook for us. The maid has alot of catching up to do before we are pleased with her performance. So with that, you know we can't depend on her for anything major unless we have to.

Also mentioned by Sharon, I have a day job and it's not easy working in the day and not getting enough rest at home. So far since the babies are back, I haven't had any decent sleep and I don't think Sharon has either. What I worry is if one of us falls ill, then we are in trouble as it means we would be down a pair of helping hands.

With Sharon's mother taking a 1 month holiday to China in April, we have to seriously consider how we can manage with just the two of us. Yes, my mother will still be around, but how can they handle 3 babies and still expect Sharon to rest in the day (since she tries and cover the night feeds). Not many options left and one of them is to consider moving back to my parent's place in Bedok. This would help as my mother will always be around and to add to the goodness of this, we have very nice neighbours.. the Chongs! who we can call for help if required. (I hope! :-) )

Pray for us to get thruogh this period. We need all the help we can get.

Love and hugz,
Mommy & Daddy.

Jared is home..... i.e. All the Babies are home =)

Hi, all the babies are finally home.... Jared came home on Wednesday when we brought Joanne for her 1st check up with her PD. Joanne weighs approx. 2.27kg, Jilllian wweighs approx. 2.02kg now..... Jared will be catching up with big sisters soon..... =)

And as expected, it's a "mad house", with millk feeds, crying, sleeping & lastly clearing of soiled diapers. And trust me, these babies "poo" alot......lots of help is required, both grandmas have been mobilised to help out as much in the day, while I usually cover the night feeding with Gene. It's a tuff job man....!!!! =) I'm sleep deprived. I usually try not to disturb Gene unless I really need his help, but he hears their cry too.... so I guess we have to sacrifice some of our sleep and we understand what most parents go thru now, but ours is triple the effect all at one go..... So here's what Gene and I have worked out, he'll go to bed earlier and then he can try to cover their early morning feeds while I'll stay up late to cover their wee hour feeds.... so lets see if this pattern works for both of us. =) hahaha..... I'll keep all posted.... maybe other triplet parents can use our arrangements as well.....

We'll post more photos as we go along and when we can afford the time.... stay tuned.....

Luv,
Dad & Mom.

Jillian is back home!!!

*snaps* *snaps*

Guess who called in the morning.. the PD! Yupz... he gave his green light on Jillian and she was back home with us in the afternoon. With them together, it still hard to tell who is who. Ha! Features aside, you can still tell who is who by their size... as Joanne is a bit bigger.

Jared should be back home soon so this week things are set to be exciting. Stay tuned! ;-p

Love and Hugs,
M & D

Sleepless Nites... and tots

Hahaha.. as expected, we haven't been getting enough sleep at night. The first nite was bad cause whenever Joanne made any noise, I would wake up. Not good. Second night is better and now, I'm getting used to it. Whenever Joanne requires a feed or changing, Sharon would wake up and do the required. Sounds bad for the husband not to do anything right? Well, I try to offer help if I can but I would be really tired out the next day.

With the rest of them coming back next week, it's gonna get even tougher and with how things are happening around here. We might need extra help and might consider shifting back to my parent's place. There are pro and cons with doing that, but I guess, there would be more pros than cons.

Joanne has been eating well and her habits are pretty predictable. It's either "feed me" or "clean me". I don't about the other two.. I just pray we can manage them.

Today at church during homily, Father talked about persistence and to look forward towards the goal/target. hmm..... Something to think about as I end today's blog entry.

Lov,
Mum & Dad

Joanne is home!!! (triplet 2)

Yes people.. she is home. She's setting the pace on which the rest of them would follow. :-p

Here's a pic of her ....

Updates.. updates...updates.

Finally came about to registering the babies with the Singapore Government. The counter staff over at ICA tried her very best to help register the babies in running sequence but only managed to register the girls in sequence with the boy skipping one number. Does not matter tho.... important thing is that they are Officially Singapore Citizens! Next step, claim baby bonus x 03!!! muahahahaha.

Joanne (the middle one and the biggest one) will be coming home sometime this week. Yeah!! *snaps* *snaps*. This is even without her touching the 2kg mark. The PD gave the go ahead provided that Sharon was ready to take her home. Take home process involves the ability to look after them and feed them accordinly. This is going to be so exciting as it sets the pace for the rest of sister and brother to follow. *snaps* *snaps*

Will update the blog as soon as she is back home... stay tuned!

Lov,
Mum & Dad

Kangaroo Care...and Chinese Names.

Today Sharon did Kangaroo Care with Jillian and Jared. I won't go into the details but here's a link to more info. Jillian was a bit more fiesty as compared to Jared and I could see that they both enjoyed the closeness with the mommy. We would be doing more of this as it is supposed to help them with their developement. And what did I do? I bottle fed Joanne for the first time and burped her as well. When trying to burp her, I could not really tell if she already burped as I kept on thinking that the burp would be something like what I usually did... *buuuuurp*

Some more good news, the doc said that if Joanne gets any better, then she can be discharged earlier even she did not reach 2kg. yeah!!! I think that's good cause I really want to bring them home.

Today we also managed to confirm on the chinese names for them with the help of some of Sharon's relatives. It was not easy. I wonder if the other races have such a tough time with naming their kids. hmmmm

Lov,
Mommy & Daddy

Day 7. Laying on the fat...

Yup.. they are ok and what they need to do is lay on the fat. Once they reach the target 2kg, they will be taken home with us. Yeah!!!

Sharon had her stitches removed today and it's healing well. I have a baby delivery theory.. for mothers to be. Pain will come.. it's a matter of when you want to get it. Normal labour.. you would be in pain for as long as required.. and if epidural is used.. If you opt for C-section, then your pain would be later than.. which is the case for Sharon. So, take your pick. Pain before or pain later.

Sharon also has been making steady progress on the "food" production. Soon, we really can churn out cartons of them. hahaha.

Today, Sharon got a chance to visit the babies and it was the first time, Sharon had a chance to touch them. As she touched them, she would offer comforting words and it's really really amazing to see them reacting to you. ;-p

I hope the babies can come home soon.... I miss them so much.

Lov,
Mom & Dad

Day 6. The babies are growing well.

Hi all,

Thanks for the prayers thus far. The babies are doing well and Joanne might be the one to set the trend for the rest to follow to come on home with us. ;-p.

The food supply has been steady and they are also on a formula mix if required. Today when I visited them, Joanne was just given her feed and she was up. I did snap a pic of here.. but as usual, I need to really sit down and process them for upload.

I've also got their Chinese names with me. I visited a Geomancer today and he did not charge me for the names... typically, for single to double names, he would charge $100 to $200. But in the case for the triplets, it's FREE!! yeah... I like freebies!!! He said that it's not like everyday he gets a triplet walking in to ask for names.. so when he does get it, it's free. You only have to present him with the babies one month celebration food. *snaps* *snaps*.

As mentioned by the mommy, we would be heading down to visit the babies tomorrow and if we can I will snap some mommy and babies pics as well. Till tomorrow then..... nite nite!

Lov,
Mom & Dad

edit: Some pics taken today.

A Big Thank You from Mommy

A BIG THANK YOU !!!!! to all relatives, colleagues and friends for your well wishes and prayers....I made it to 34weeks, delivered the triplets and I'm recuperating well at home. And also on behalf of the 3 little ones, THANK YOU everyone too!!!!

Daddy, has posted some of their pictures below, have a look, we'll try to post up more as we go along. The babies are still currently in NICU, doing well, eating well also. Their PD will be increasing their in take of milk today, so they will have both breastmilk and formula milk at the same time. Joanne may be able to come home this weekend if she continue to progress well (hurray... I miss my babies...!) I'll be visting them tomorrow before I go over to Dr. Nair's Clinic to have my stitches removed....... hurray!!!!!!! =) kekeke I'm so excited.... can't wait. So far only daddy has been visiting them.

More updates to come.... pls continue to pray for us.....

Love,
Gene, Sharon & the triple "Js"

ps: thats wat their PD call them "Triple Js" (hahahaha)

Day 5. Getting a Tan day...

Yupz... they gone under the UV light to get some tan. The weather wasn't too good outside to soak in the rays.. so they did it the fashionable way..in-doors! Time to get rid of the Jaundice....

As promised, some pics. I haven't been able to get some pics of them cause they are in their little bangalows and they often sleep facing away facing the wall. Except today when they are soaking it up... which in this case, did not matter which side you faced cause you were wearing those UV eye cover-ups so you don't really care what's happening outside. ;-p

Sharon is back home already as mentioned in the last blog. She is recovering well and the milk she has been expressing is coming along well. Soon, we can sell by the cartons! hahaha

Enough talk and here's the pics...

Day 4. The mommy comes home.

Yes people. Sharon is back home. The blood bp level was back up to the above acceptable level and the doc gave her to green light. Yeah!! *snaps* *snaps*

Another biggie today as well, Sharon managed to express out some milk and it's was a great confidence booster for her. Yeah yeah yeah!!! *snaps* *snaps* *snaps*

The babies are doing well and with the new found food supply, they can start with the strengthening and weight gaining routine. With Sharon trying to express milk every 3 hours or so today, I made a final milk run to the NIC unit at about 10:30pm (way past the visiting hours, but if it's milk, then it's OK! hahaha) .

With Sharon back home, Sharon's mom also moved in with us and she would be help me to take care of Sharon during her confinement and when the babies come back. My own mother would also be swinging by to help with the caretaking. As you can imagine, we need all the help we can get. ;-p It's going to tough for Sharon's mother and I honestly appreciate her help. (even though sometimes I don't really show it... if you get my drift)

More on the babies, Jared has opened his eyes as well and is as curious as his sisters.. he must be wondering.. why is everyone staring at me and where is my shirt?! (he' semi-naked most of the time) The girls are doing well and Joanne, being the biggest of them all, is taking the lead in showing the way out the NIC unit back to home. GO GO GO!

Jillian today was seen moving alot and I suspect she is the one that's been causing much discomfort to Sharon while she was still inside. When Dr Nair came by and visited, she was moving so much that he commented that she must be practising Yoga. ;-) Joanne was not left out from the attention but was sleeping away not hack caring what was going on. She was caught wearing the beanie cap again and I must say.. it looks fantastic!

Again.. I know it's hard visualizing all this without any pics.. I promise I will post some up on Monday. Till then, thanks for your continous prayers and God Bless.

Lov,
Mum & Dad

Day 3, taking the Right step in Life

First things first, the babies are doing well and the nurses have started feeding them 2ml of milk. Yeah.. it's not much but since it's formula milk, the nurses are playing it safe for the babies. The best milk comes from the manufacturer... i.e. The Mother. ;-p

As always.. the list of visitors Sharon got today...Thanks for the gifts and well wishes. :->
- Erm.. A couple that are friends of Sharon's mother.
- Jerry and Darryl
- Sharon's mom and dad again (the mother brings the good stuff for Sharon to for her meals)
- Joseph and Wife
- Ben, Wife and Kid
- More relatives...
- Sharon's brother and his GF, Steff.

More Updates
Sharon looked a little pale today and surprising Dr Nair dropped in on us today pretty early and he ordered blood tests for Sharon. As it turned out, Sharon was pretty low on the blood level and he ordered 2 pints of blood. Woah! When the blood was being dripped in, you can't help to wonder whoes blood it belonged to and if the collection agency (HSA) did what it was supppose to do and check all blood received. If you think about it, blood transfusion is a pretty scary thing.. you could be getting some diease from someone not well and you inturn get sick. Not funny man. Moral of the story -> If you are a blood donor, donate with the right intentions and ensure that you are WELL when giving the blood. Also be honest when filling up the questionaire on your health history and sexual activities. Do the right thing.

Well anyway, once the blood came in, the drip rate was rather slow and increasing it cause some discomfort for Sharon. So the nurse slowed the rate down. I know the adjusted rate was too slow cause after about 3 hours, the blood level in the packet only dropped like 1/4 of the way. Blood like all living things, needs to be "consumed" when fresh and with it going so slow, that was not a good thing. So came in the nurse again and adjusted it again. This time, the drip was so fast that any faster, it would become flowing. Soon the blood was gone and it was replaced with another packet. The second one went pretty quickly as well and it only took an hour. Even the nurse was suprised at the speed she "consumed" it that I started joking about how Sharon was actually a vampire in disguise. Hahaha. Hopefully the blood transfusion worked for Sharon and she could remove the painfull IV needle stuck at her hand. ;-(

If you have noticed, not a single pic is up yet... no, it not that I don't have a camera with me, it's that I have it but I need to do quite alot of processing and sorting before I want to put it up.. So many things to do, so little time. I promise I will get it up next week when Sharon is back home and I have a little more time.

For the babies, I check in on them whenever I can and they are pretty much sleeping most of the time and cry a bit when moved. hahaha... Overall, they are well and they need to catch up on the weight and they are getting a little jaundice(caused by the liver not being able to clear the toxins as yet) Other than that, they are getting on fine. Again, I can't help to thank all friends and family members in their prayers for the 3 angles. Thank you so so so much.

It's getting late and I have another big day ahead of me. Gonna catch some zzz and as usual, I will update the blog again tomorrow. ;-)

Love,
Mommy, & Daddy

Day 2. Updates... 17 Mar 2006.

The babies are doing well.... they started on glucose drips today (yesterday they had nothing to eat or drink) and they would move on to milk on Sat. The mommy (Sharon) will try and express milk for them (the babies can't come out and so the milk has to go to them).

Alot of people visited us today.. let me try and recall all of them and send out my thanks.

Lunch Time
- Sharon's Dad (came straight from the airport after a short offsite assignment)
- Sharon's Mom and her line-dacing friend
- Jake (aka the Liquor man)

Late Afternoon/Evening
- Sharon's Mom & Dad (they went home after the afternoon visit and came back with more food)
- Sharon's brother (Leonard)
- Quite a few of Sharon side of relatives also visited
- Sharon's Godma and Kum-Mo
- My Friends: Desmond, Tian Huan, Cecilia, Kelvin, WoSing
- Sharon's Colleagues: Audrey, Raphael, Huiling, Danny, Ad Lim, Thomas, Bee Keong & Jin Yi

Other than the friends that visited us, we also received alot of Fruit Baskets and Flowers of Well-Wishes. A big big big Thanks from the new Aw Family.

Some interesting observations today...
1. Most commented that the babies have "ALOT of Hair". Hair is good. You can always remove hair but not necessary true the other way round. ;-p
2. Grandpa (in-law) & I noticed that our babies had pretty long finger and the feet is pretty big as well. Now.. again, since we are both tall, I was kinda expecting that they would grow up tall and all but it was still pretty interesting to see that they picked up on the resemblance so quickly.

Going to sign-off now.. more updates tomorrow.

Daddy. (Has a nice ring to it)

Today is the day the Triples arrived!!!

Yes people, the day is finally here. The babies are out... yeah!!! "snaps snaps". We arrived at Mt Alvernia at about 5am this morning and got with the registration to admit Sharon into the hospital. If you ask me, that's way too early in the morning to be doing any paperwork. ;-p

After the paperwork was done, Sharon was assigned a ward and we were kinda hoping to get upgraded to the 2 bedder instead of the 4 bedder that we requested for. Upgrades are good... If you get them. Sharon settled into the bed and soon after, a nurse came to do some pre-op checks. While she was checking for their heart-beats, one of the babies (Sharon suspects its Jillian) kept jabbing at the probe where it picked up the heart-beats. As you can imagine, instead of hearing HBs, you kept on hearing to thumping sounds.... hahaha..

Nothing much happened after that till about 7:30 when nurse came in and gave Sharon a solution to drink to help with the recovery process after put into General anesthetic (GA). After that, the male nursed wheeled Sharon into the operation theatre. Her scheduled appointment was 8:30 but I guessed they needed time to prep and all. Having to wake up early in the morning, I did not manage to grab a good solid breakfast so when she was in, I took off to a nearby Mac to grab their $2 breakfast special. Nice...

When I got back about 9:30, I sat outside the op theatre and after about 30 mins of waiting, a nurse called me. With my heart pounding... I quickly rushed up and greeted the nurse and I was escorted to the NIC unit where my babies were. There, was the first time I saw my babies. Jillian, Jared and Joanne. They are the most beautiful babies I could ever wished for and more.

Since they were under-weight, they had to be put into the NIC unit they can reach 2kg. Till then, we need to pray that they don't suffer any complications and all they need to focus on is gaining weight. Pray for us as well.

On another note, I've received comments from both side of the Grand-Parents that our kids have a lot of hair..hmm.. Sharon did eat a lot of beef during her term.. and that could explain it. ;p

On to the mother now, Sharon is doing well with the exception of the pain where the op was done.. that's understandable and the docs are giving her mild pain-relief solutions. Other than that, she did not suffer any issues with the GA recovery and was SMSing and talking on the handphone 2 hours after the op. We all had to report to our fellow friends and colleagues on the progress as they were all equally excited as we were. Sharon would be on a IV diet for the 1st day and if the doc allows, move on to soft-food and later to solids. She should be out by the end of this week and her mother will start the month long process of looking after her and nursing her back to health. Sharon's mother is a fantastic cook and I hope Sharon picks up on that.

More to come on the babies progress and I will try to post something up every night before I sleep. Pray for us if you can and God Bless.

Love and Hugs,
Sharon, Gene, Jillian, Joanne & Jared (in correct order)
;=p

p/s As to what's with the "J" names... I wanted the names to all start with the same letter and they also had to sound great with great history and meaning to it. So we ended up with the "J" sequence. Also, "J" in between the letter "G" and "S". Ha!

p/s p/s. Editing this blog to add in some folks that visited us.

- Mervin, Debbie and Steffie (thanks to the Siows for bring me dinner and the fruits, without it, I think I would have gone home hungry)

The time has finally arrived

The time has arrived, I'll be checking into the hospital at 5am, 16 March 06, to deliever the babies. My C-Section is booked for 8.30am.... by about 10am or so, daddy will be seeing his babies for the 1st time..... everyone is excited.... !!!!! I'm both excited & scared. Excited to see my babies, but at the same time afraid of the pain from the C-Section. Natural I guess..... =)

Daddy, will be posting some pictures of the babies later on. Finally, this blog will live up to it's blog name; two of us, plus the triplets makes five of us in the family. (two and three = five).

Frens, Pray for us, for a safe delivery and healthy babies...

Catch up later with more updates and photos.......

I've finally reach 32 weeks

I have finally reached 32 weeks... ... it feels like a long pregnancy. The babies will be due sometime between 15 -17 March. My final appointment with the doctors is on the 10th. We'll all decide wat to do by the 10th.... 2 more weeks to go & I'll see the babies.... can't wait to see them though.... always wonder who they'll look like..... "Pretty" like mommy and "Handsome" like daddy..... kekeke =).

Maybe the next time we update this blogsite, the babies will be on it by then. We'll see ok.... if daddy has the time to upload some photos..... =)

Updates from the Father-to-be...

Sorry for the long delay in postings. Been pretty bz lately.. as you can imagine. We just got a maid to help around the house and so far.. she's been pretty ok except that she tends to be a little forgetful. I guess that is ok since she has so many things to learn in such a short span of time.

The babies have been rather active lately and that's a good sign but it's causing much discomfort for Sharon as they seem to be taking turns jabbing her when she's trying to sleep. Also, they are at a stage where are are just growing in size and you can imagine, having 3 of them inside fighting for space, it's tough for Sharon. I try and talk to the babies everynight before I go to sleep reminding them not to bully mommy. They don't always listen but I will still tell them.

We just recently decided on the english names for them. The boy is Jared Samuel Aw, and the girls would be Jillian Sarah Aw and Jolene Isabelle Aw. Might change the last Saint name Isabelle to Sophia so it might be Jolene Sophia Aw. I have to ask the mother on this. ;-)

Once the english names are confirmed, it's the chinese ones. It's not going to be easy as I can't even read chinese to save my life! hahaha. Returned it to MOE already. I will pick it up again as my children start learning it. Can't lose to them! Coming up with chinese characters for them is not easy as the name has to sound nice, be easy to write, have strokes when added up, be good, easy to write (good for me!) and finally, be in unison with the year of the Dog. Not easy.

Sharon is into her last 5 weeks of pregnacy and I pray to God that everything will go as planned. Please also pray for us if you can. Here's a pic that I took during Chinese New Year. As usual, she's wearing clothes designed and made by Fu$$yPat. aka her mother. (Standing next to her!) ;-)

This is Shannon our God-daughter

This is Shannon, our god-daughter. Picture was taken on her 1st birthday. Isn't she cute.... =)