I just added new pictures to the site. Sorry for the delay, but adding pictures isn’t just a point and click. It takes a little time. To see the most up to date pics, check out the multiple new albums that I added to the media page.
Click here to see a video of all of the kids and a look at their bedroom.
Until next time…
Well, I don’t even know what to write. Elise, one of our volunteers tonight, suggested a ton of stuff so here are a couple of topic updates on a brief scale.
Meredith is doing well. She’s our first and our baseline so it’s hard to get a grasp on how she’s really doing. She has great days and bad days. Meredith has melt downs just like other toddlers, but I don’t know that that isn’t anything that any other toddler would or wouldn’t do. There’s no way to tell if those bad days are a reaction to all the changes at home or if she wouldn’t just have them anyway. But on her good days she can be the sweetest little girl you’ve ever met. Meredith deals with the quints great. She gives them kisses and is pretty gentle with them at this stage. However, she has her own “baby” and will give her a bottle and burp her when we feed the kids. It’s pretty cute that she gets upset and cries when the quints cry. “Baby cryin?”
Maggie, our cocker spaniel, is doing well also. She hasn’t reacted poorly at all, but it’s clear that she misses some of the attention that she used to get from mom and dad. She is starting to do really well with Meredith. Meredith just loves it when Maggie gives her kisses which she didn’t do when Meredith was younger. I’m sure that makes my grandma cringe. I kinda miss the days of when I’d take Maggie for a walk to the park and take a “beverage” with me. When it was gone, we should be close to home. Real healthy, huh???
Becky, Angela’s mom, is still with us and will be for another week or so. She’s been such a blessing. She took on some very difficult overnight shifts early on, but we’ve been getting her to bed on time lately. We’ve really tried to set up shifts between Angela and myself with the intent not having Becky around long term. Using a baseball reference, she’s been an awesome utility infielder. She’s played all the positions well and we couldn’t make it through the season without her. She helps with feedings and diaper changes, she’s helped with cooking and cleaning around the house, and most importantly, she’s took on the majority of the care of Meredith.
So what do I mean by shifts. We’re trying to share the responsibility of being around to help with the kids and the volunteers, but also have time for Meredith. Frankly, finding time to care for Meredith is our biggest challenge right now. Angela and I see each other in passing in the night around 1 am for a couple minutes as she gets up from bed and I go down for the night. She then stays up through the day and goes to bed around 6 pm right after getting a bite to eat. I get up around 5-6 am and get ready for work. Yep, I’ve gone back to work this week, but I’ll be taking some more time off after Angela’s mom goes home. I get home around 5 pm and see her for a few minutes before she goes back down to sleep. We did have dinner this week, but I really haven’t spent any quality time with Angela in a long time. We see each other for about 30-60 minutes (only in passing) a day and I don’t see that changing for a year or two. She’s doing such an awesome job. I love her so much and miss her. Someday, we’ll break away for ourselves…
The quints…they all had their first appointment with their doctor as a group. OMG! What an undertaking. It literally took half the day. We took three of them in first and then came back later in the day with the other two, plus Meredith. They got their first round of shots. Angela and I even got a shot, our flu shots. What the ____!!! It was the first one that I’ve ever gotten. I don’t know why they just couldn’t have given it to me last time I was in. If you’re a regular reader, we all know how that went! The quints are all gaining a ton of weight!!! A couple 7 pounders even!!! Here’s the latest as of Tuesday…
Brook – 6 lbs., 12 oz.
Madeline – 7 lbs., 0 oz.
Lauren – 5 lbs., 14 oz.
Alex – 7 lbs., 4 oz.
Emma – 5 lbs., 10 oz.
We’ve increased the feedings on Alex, Madeline and Brook and we may do it again in the coming days. Lauren and Emma are doing really well too and they’ll catch up very soon. Clearly, they’re all gaining weight. Please take a look at the media page in the next day or two as I’ll update the photo album with some recent stuff from home. Sorry for the delay, but frankly we’ve just been too busy to and too tired to take pictures, download em from the camera and post them to the site.
Lastly, if you’re in the River Falls community and you’d like to help out with the kids, please attend our next orientation if you haven’t already done so. It will be held at 7 pm on Sunday, August 30 at Ezekiel Lutheran Church. If you’ve already been to one and I didn’t scare you off, take a peek at the schedule by clicking here and request a spot on the calendar. Pastor Hall, my bride and I are really excited to have you and your wife coming to help out on Saturday night. Just by chance, you’ve lucked out and its bath night. Dad’s running the show. Bath time is during my shift as Angela will likely be in bed during that part of the night but you’ll see her before she goes down to sleep. Plan on being busy! It might get messy!
Until next time…
3:10 am…We just finished the 2 am feeding and I have an hour and 30 minutes until the next round begins. These feedings start up every 3 hours. I have 3 volunteers here with me: Karen, her daughter Savana and Marlys. The kids didn’t do well on this feeding. They just didn’t want to wake up and you can only force feed them so much.
Tonight is my first night up for the entire night. Emma and Lauren came home Friday morning. Sorry for the anticlimatic announcement. (Isn’t anticlimactic a $5 word? If not, it should be.) I think back to what a friend told me, “now we’re cookin with grease!” Angela and her mom typically share the 11 pm and the 2 am shifts and then I normally get up at 4:15 to get things started for the 5 am feeding. I got the night off last night so that I could work on Saturday morning and be refreshed. I’ve been trying to write this post for a couple days now, but always had my hands full. So let’s back up a bit.
Gma Lucy with Alex
Oma with Meredith at the pool.
We got the call on Friday morning that the last two kids were ready to come home. Lauren and Emma had really progressed over the past couple days with their feedings. Angela and her mom left kinda early to go pick em up. While they were gone, my dad and I took the other three to the clinic for their weekly weigh ins. Other than Brook throwing up all over the place in the exam room (Food God, what a mess), the trip went pretty well. I suppose now would be a good time to go over the weights, huh?
Brooklyn – 6 lbs., 7 oz.
Madeline – 6 lbs., 11 oz.
Alex – 6 lbs., 13 oz.
Lauren – 5 lbs., 8 oz.
Emma – 5 lbs., 3 oz.
The long and short of this is: All of our children are home now and HEALTHY! That’s the only thing that we’ve ever asked for.
The volunteers have kicked in to full throttle. We typically have anywhere from 1-3 people with us 24/7. It’s a bit awkward having strangers here all the time. There’s always someone here. They see us at our best and worst. When we get out of bed. We have our meals in front of them. We discipline Meredith in front of them. I don’t think that I’ve done anything too bad yet. However, I would imagine that there’s a sense of hesitation and nervousness with the volunteers too. We’re strangers to them and I’m sure that until they get ot know us a little, they may feel a little weird about things too or I just don’t have a clue what the hell I’m talking about. After all, its after 4 am now and may be a bit “off.” All I know is that we’re all just gonna have to get used to it. There is no way that we would ever be able to make it through the next year (heck, just the next couple weeks) without them. It’ll come…It has too.
So with that said, if you’d like to volunteer, please don’t hesitate to contact one of us by clicking here. If you haven’t attended one of our orientations, no worries, we have another one scheduled for Aug. 30 at 7 pm at the Ezekiel Lutheran Church in River Falls.
It’s now 4:30 am and I need to get Alex ready for his next feeding in 5 minutes. Hopefully his diaper isn’t too bad. Wish me luck!
Until next time…
I’m so sorry but this post will not be quite as entertaining as the previous one. I hope that isn’t too much of a disappointment for you all. In this post, I will not be talking about my “package;” just an old fashioned update on the kids.
Some of you may already know this, but for those who do not, we brought home Alex this past weekend. Alex came home weighing 6 lbs., 8 oz. He hardly looks like a preemie, but you must remember that he’s 2 months old now. Surprisingly, he isn’t quite the eater that his sisters are, but he’s getting better. Sorry, I don’t have any pics to update the site with yet. It’s been a bit busy.
Brook and Maddie, the other two at home, are also doing extremely well. They’re taking their bottles well and gaining weight. They’re approaching 6 pounds and will go in for weekly weigh ins with their doctor. They look so much alike, but there are a few little things that we can tell them apart with. Madeline has bigger eyes and her nose is a little more “pug like” compared to Brook. So at this point, we’re not doing anything to identify who’s who.
Lauren and Emma continue to do well in the hospital. They are both taking bottles, but are a bit inconsistent. They finish about 2-5 out of the 8 that they get during the course of the day. They need to take all 8 of them before they can come home. They’re gaining weight and are both members of the 5 pound club. Lauren weighs 5 lbs., 8 oz. and Emma weighs 5 lbs., 3 oz. We’re planning on getting them home in a week or so.
So how the heck are we doing it…well…this is why you haven’t heard from me in a while. Two wasn’t too bad and we had a pretty good system set up, but when we threw Alex into the fold, it got a little hairy. The kids get fed every three hours. Every 2, 5, 8, and 11 of the a.m. and p.m. they get a 2 oz bottle. Angela, her mother and I have been sharing the shifts, including the overnights. By the time we finish feeding all of them, we need to start the next feeding in an hour so it’s a never-ending process. So after a couple days of that, we decided to call in the troops.
For those who do not live in the River Falls community, we have been working at setting up a volunteer system. Our new friend, Brenda Derks, has volunteered to manage the volunteer system. She has planned and organized all of the orientations so far, has put together the schedule and is handling all of the communication with volunteers. To see the schedule click here or it can be found on our “How to Help” page. Our first volunteer started on Monday morning. We currently have one or two people for every 3 hour shift running 24/7, but that will hopefully increase a little in the coming weeks as the final two kids come home. I eventually have to get back to work and Angela’s mom isn’t gonna be with us forever. Brenda is doing an awesome job helping us out! It has to be taking a ton of time, more than I can probably imagine. She put together the link to our website that shows the volunteer schedule. However, the biggest reason that this is such a selfless and amazing job is because Brenda is the original mother of quintuplets in River Falls. I’m sure that she has enough going on at home to put the normal person over the brink of insanity. She actually has 6 kids. Her oldest is several years older than her quints. Brenda’s quints are 6 now and heading to school in a week or two. We have been so blessed by the amazing generosity of this woman who already has so much on her plate, but also sooooooo much experience. Thank you so much Brenda!!! If you’d like to help out, you can reach any of us, including Brenda, by clicking here and using the drop down menu for the person you’d like to contact. To see what spots are open on the volunteer calendar, you can view the schedule by clicking here.
I’ll probably have some pics up by the weekend as my parents and grandparents are making a trip to River Falls this week. I’m sure my mom and grandmother will love having their pictures online for everyone in the world to see. Ha Ha!
Until then…
I want to do my due diligence to warn everyone ahead of time before you read today’s blog post. A very sensitive topic will be discussed and some of you will find the topic and the leisure nature in the way I talk about it offensive. I volunteered to have a vasectomy performed yesterday and I’d like to talk about it. Yeah, that’s right. I’m gonna talk openly and freely about my experience. You may learn a little more about me today then you have in the past 3-4 months of reading so advance with caution. If you have children reading this blog, either read it over first or just walk away now.
Last chance…you can still stop reading. Just click away and come back later this week for the next update.
First of all…Lynn Klett, please note that this was the worst experience of my life and if Philip needs 6-7 days in bed to recover, just let him. He’s gonna need it. Actually tell him to quit acting like a little girl and get in there and get it done. So let’s get to the story…
I just finished the 5 am feeding. As I type away I have my new best friend with me; my bag of frozen peas. This bag was introduced to my “undercarriage” promptly after my procedure yesterday and we’ve spent quite a bit of time together since then.
So I went in for my little procedure (stop with the “little” jokes now) yesterday afternoon. My doctor came in, we exchanged a few pleasantries, and then he told me to lie down. Yikes. Kind of forward I thought, but I guess I didn’t expect him to buy me a drink first either. No one other than my wife has seen me with my pants off going all the way back to a little experience over Homecoming back at UNI. So, I guess you could say I was a bit nervous. So after he fondled me up, he said, “I’m gonna get started; a little bee sting here.” My toes curled. Two of my biggest fears are needles and bees. I hate shots. I get light headed when I need to give a blood sample. It’s just a bad experience. I’m also deathly afraid of bees. As the bee was stinging me, I told my doctor that this was a unique feeling unlike anything else that I’ve ever experienced. He said, “A bee sting?” I replied, “No, a bee sting in the nut sack. I’ve usually got that part of my anatomy pretty well covered up.”
We talked about a ton of topics during “the procedure;” bike riding, movies, my job, the Tille kids, and a variety of other things. He was done about 20-30 minutes later and then he told me to get dressed and go home. That was it? No, “Thanks for the great time, but I gotta go?” I gotta be honest, I felt a bit used. So I got dressed and Angela drove me home. I did manage to sucker her into a trip to Dairy Queen for a treat. After all, I deserved it, right? You’re damn right I deserved it. I just let a complete stranger take a knife and cut up my goodie bag.
So I’m gonna try to milk this a little, but I don’t think it’s gonna work. The one that I’m trying to milk just spent 6 months on her back. I don’t know if I’d feel right about it. So with that said, Meredith is throwing a fit in her high chair wanting something else for breakfast. My bag of peas and I should probably go help.
Until next time…
What a first night. It’s so great to have Madeline home. This is just another reflection of how well the kids have done. This is two of them nearly a month prior to their original due date. At first glance, Madeline and Brooklyn look so much alike, but after spending some time with them, there are small differences that we’ve picked up.
Brooklyn and Madeline together once again.
So when are they all coming home?
I have no idea.
Lauren is doing great as she increases her feedings back up and is gaining weight. I didn’t get weights today on any of the kids, but I know that she’s still less than 5 pounds. She’s close though.
Alex is doing great as well. As of this morning he finished all of 6 out of 8 of his feedings in the past 24 hours. He could come home yet this week or over the weekend if he could just get past the hump and finish all of his feedings in one 24 hour stretch. He is several ounces over 6 pounds now.
Emma is also doing well and gaining weight every day. She finished one of her feedings yesterday for the first time; a very big development that we’re proud of. She’s also starting to look a little more like he others now that she’s putting on some pounds. She’s in the mid to upper 4 pound range.
Madeline and Brooklyn are doing great at home. They have appointments with our pediatrician this afternoon and then Angela and I will attend our orientation meeting for volunteers tonight. DON’T FORGET. 7 PM TONIGHT AT THE RIVER FALLS LIBRARY. IF YOU CAN’T ATTEND BUT WOULD STILL LIKE TO VOLUNTEER, PLEASE EMAIL ONE OF US (USE THE DROP DOWN MENU TO PICK WHO YOU WANT TO CONTACT) BY CLICKING HERE.
Until next time…
I learned an acronym in college from Dr. Gayle Pohl in one of my public relations courses. KISS. KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Dr. Pohl, if you’re reading this tonight, this one is for you…here we go.
Laruen is doing better today. It turned out that her belly was a bit irritated causing the blood in her stool over the weekend. She went back to her feedings after a brief period of time off. She seems fine now and will increase her feedings over the next few days back to normal levels.
Alex is doing well. The kid is a chunk. Even though he’s 7 weeks old, he (and all of his sisters) is still considered 4 weeks premature, but he’s officially over six pounds. He will not be the size of a preemie when he comes home! I saw him the other day for the first time in weeks without his hat on his head. He has a skull for a child four weeks early, but the face of a child at full term. He has really fat cheeks. I’m sorry that I don’t have more updated pics of the kids. Alex is just so excited about getting a bottle that he sucks so hard that he tires himself out and can’t seem to finish. He’s not like his father. He’s definitely a sprinter. We’ll see how he does over the course of the week.
Emma is doing well. She’s still the smallest. She is tolerating her feedings fine, but not finishing any of them yet. She’s progressing, but just isn’t there yet. She’s starting to fill out as she gains weight and it’s very scary how similar she’s starting to look like all of the others. There’s no way that we’ll be able to tell them apart without some type of identifier. All of them will have their name on the wall over their crib, just like Meredith does. They’ll be color coded and that may be how we handle telling who’s who?
Madeline did well over the past 24 hours. Since I was in the other day with all of the kids, Madeline has tolerated all of her feedings. Her feeding tube was removed today, which we’re happy about. If she makes it through the night without complication, she will come home tomorrow!!! After all, Angela’s mom is here and I took the week off. We may as well have her home, right? Say your prayers!
Brook is having a great time at home. She’s feeding awesome and sleeping a ton. She’s still on the 3-hour schedule and Angela and I have been sharing those duties. Becky, Angela’s mom, has been helping too. Everything has been great. She has another appointment with her pediatrician on Wednesday night and another eye appointment on Friday. Nothing to worry about, just standard appointments.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Meredith and how she’s doing. She’s doing great. The biggest issue is that she wants to help out with feedings and diaper changes and she gets upset when we have to redirect her interests. Angela’s mom said it best tonight when she said, “there really isn’t any way to explain how independent, determined and stubborn she is until you spend a few days with her. There’s nothing mamby pamby about her.” This little girl has a mind of her own!
That was as simple as I can make it. Thank you Dr. Pohl for making my night a little easier.
Until next time…
So here I sit early on this wonderful Sunday morning thinking, man, I really need to write something. It’s been several days since my last post and so much has gone on that I’m not sure that I can reflect back on everything. But I’ll do my best to give the latest and greatest.
Brooklyn is home and Angela and I are working hard to keep things on a schedule. Brook has already been in and met with Dr. Zimmerman, our new pediatrician. All of the kids will see him, including Meredith. I’m up early this morning because I just finished Brook’s 5 am feeding. She’s on a 3-hour feeding schedule and takes about 2 oz at each feeding. The schedule is as follows: 2 am, 5 am, 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm, 8 pm, and 11 pm. She doesn’t need to be on a schedule like that and could get her feedings on demand just like any other hungry newborn, but things are gonna be different at our house. Everyone will be on a feeding schedule and that’s just the way it’s gonna be. There’s just no way that we could make it if we tried to just deal with everyone on demand so we’re just gonna go with a schedule right from the start. Unfortunately, it’s gonna be very militant at our home. At night, Angela has been taking the 11 pm and 2 am shifts and I’ve been picking up the 5 am and 8 am shifts. Oma was here to help out during the past week. Thank you Mom! Angela’s Mom is here now and will be with us for a while. We don’t necessarily need any help at home with Meredith and/or Brook, but our issue is that we can’t do everything at home w/o an extra set of hands and still get in to see the kids in the hospital. Brook is doing great. Her feedings are going well and she’s gaining weight. I have no idea what she weighs today, but I know that she’s up.
As for the other kids…
Lauren is having a bit of a hard time as of late. She’s got some diaper rash. Nothing is working on it and it’s to the point where she has open wounds on her back side. They’re working on it, but it just isn’t getting any better. Hopefully her butt will have a little break over the next day or two. On a little more serious note, Lauren had a bit of blood in her stool. They stopped her feedings and hooked her up to an IV so that she could get some nutrition and fluids. We’ll cross our fingers that it clears up soon. She weighed in today at 4 lbs., 14 oz. She’s down just a little bit because they stopped her feedings. I’m very sure that her weight will jump back up once she gets back on the bottle.
Alex is doing great. He’s flippin huge. He weighed in at 5 lbs., 15.8 oz. He’s on the verge of 6 lbs! Hardly a preemie. He doesn’t fit in any of the preemie clothes that we have for him. I personally think Alex is a bit lazy as he is inconsistent with his feedings. He’ll take the entire bottle for 12-24 hours or so, but then not finish a bottle for 12-24 hours. Maybe that laziness is why he’s getting so tubby??? Hopefully we have him home this week. It seems like everyone at ANW has different views about him. Some say that he’ll be home Monday or Tuesday and others don’t think it will be till the end of the week. I guess we’ll just have to wait it out.
Emma is doing very well. She isn’t completing any of her feedings, but doing well in the grand scheme of things. When she doesn’t finish the feeding, they just give her the rest of the formula through her feeding tube. She weighed in at 4 lbs., 9 oz. She’s obviously gaining weight as she’s more than doubled in size since being born.
Madeline is catching up to Alex. She’s feeding very well, but a little like Alex in that she does very well and then gets lazy for a while. She needs to be more consistent before she can come home. She weighed in at 5 lbs., 11 oz. If she doesn’t come home with Alex this week, she won’t be far behind him.
I want to finish with a big Thank You to Brenda Derks. Brenda is the original mom of quintuplets in River Falls. Her quints are 6 now and going to kindergarten in the fall. She has volunteered to be our coordinator for volunteers. She held the first of our orientations for volunteers yesterday. She did a great job and has really taken this huge responsibility by the horns. We have another orientation at the library in River Falls on Wednesday night. If you’d like to help out with the kids once they all come home, please check out our How to Help page and send Brenda an email by clicking here. We are asking that everyone attend one of our orientations. If you can’t make it, please let Brenda know in your communication with her as we’ll be scheduling more orientations as we move forward. Thank you so much to everyone who attended the first meeting. We’re so blessed that there are so many people like you in this wonderful community!!! Angela and I look forward to getting to know all of you!
Until next time…
Its been a very long 24 hours so here’s a few links to the stuff on the news at WCCO. I’m gonna let the professional news people take care of this blog for me.
To view our news story, click here.
To read the same news story, click here.
To see slide show of pictures, click here.
I’ll get something up soon about night #1 and how Meredith handled being big sis for the first time. We may have another one home by end of week and a third home by end of the weekend and the final two not far behind. Holy S***, this is gonna get hairy very quickly.
Until next time…
And so it begins…
Brooklyn is coming home sooner than expected; tomorrow. Angela was asked if she could spend the night with her in a parent suite while we were there today. Brook passed her test in her car seat and we’re gonna bring her home tomorrow after I finish my day at work. Its a very important day so I pray that Meredith sleeps tonight so that I can get a good night sleep. I need it!
If you’re in the Minneapolis area and have any interest in the Tille Family, you’ll want to check out the 10:00 news tomorrow night (Tuesday) on WCCO (channel 4) as there will be a story on us and the kids. I can’t promise, but I would imagine that they’ll have it on their website as well. I’ll get a link to it on our site when I find time later this week. I forgot our camera and today was the day we really needed it. I took this pic with my phone and this is the stuff you’ll see tomorrow night on Channel 4.
All 5 ready for TV interview
Until next time…