Heaven and Earth

Eric Scott Landon Jr. 11:01 PM 1lbs 13.5 oz 12" APGAR 2,6,8
Vivian Lynette Landon 11:02 PM 2lbs 3oz 14" APGAR 6,8
Levi Jesse Landon 11:02 PM 2lbs 3.5oz 14" APGAR 6,9



Our firstborn triplet, Eric Scott Jr., Levi's identical twin, passed away at 28 days of age, on November 12, 2003. He developed a bacterial infection and pnuemonia, and as a result his kidneys ceased functioning because they weren't strong enough to clean the medication from his system. We laid him to rest on November 17, 2003 at Evergreen Memorial Gardens. Little Eric was baby A, and from the start had a harder time. We suspect that his bag ruptured about 3 weeks before birth, about the time mom was admitted into the hospital again. The night the babies were born, Eric kicked through mom's cervix and prolapsed his cord. Mom had one contraction, and the doctors hooked up the monitors. All the babies had good heart rates , so they told mom to go to sleep for the night. A few minutes later, mom discovered Eric's cord. Soon, Mom was being wheeled out of her room and into the OR. Dad was told that they would stabilize Mom and Babies and then bring him into the OR. About 10 minutes later, they came out and told him that he can come and see his new babies. Mom thought initially that Little Eric didn't survive the birth, and was overjoyed to hear that he had. Neither of us ever thought that we would lose him at 1 month of age. So, as we feel so blessed to have Levi and Vivian with us, we are also torn, as we hear people ask if we have twins, and although they are not, we can't explain to everyone our story. People ask us if we can imagine having three, and that is such a hard thing to hear, because we would give anything to have our three together...




Long Days in the NICU...
Born at just 26 weeks gestation, our babies' NICU stay began on October 15 2003. The whirlwind of Drs. Nurses, Respitory Therapists and Specialists will never be forgotten.By the babies' one month birthday, we had been through surgery for all three babies, the boys had their PDA's closed at about 2 weeks of age, and Vivian had hers done a little over a week later.. We lost Little Eric 3 days shy of their one month birthday. Vivian's heart stopped after an attempt to extubate her after her surgery, Eric was there and watched all the staff rush to her bedside with the crash cart which you never want to see in the NICU. The doctors did a Tracheotomy on her about 5 weeks later, on December 17th. Our surviving triplets spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in the hospital. Levi came home after 92 days in the level 3 NICU, two days before he turned 3 months old, weighing less than 7 pounds. It was bittersweet leaving the hospital with only one baby, knowing we had to leave Vivian there, and also with the reality that one of our precious babies would never come home with us. Vivian was moved to the Level 2 NICU, (the transition-to-home part) a few days after Levi went home. She stayed at the hospital a total of 105 days. We were met at our house by a home care nurse, who helped us care for her, get her Trach equipment ready, and get everything situated for the care that she requires. She had a nurse at night up until June 18th, 2004. The nurses were a big help, but our family was happy when they were done, and are planning on trying to remove her Trach ( Decannulate) by the end of June...