There are critical developmental milestones during pregnancy. Since multiples obviously arrive early and sometimes too early, those of us blessed with these particular pregnancies breathe enormous sighs of relief when each milestone is reached and then passed. Week 24 (threshold of viability) is the first. After that, the next goal is Week 28 (higher survival rate with less, but still possible, life long complications) , then 30, then 32 where there is an excellent chance for survival. After that, every 24 hours is bonus. John and I are acutely aware of how fortunate and blessed we were to make it to 34+ weeks with Johnny, Lizzy, and Gracie.
What is heartbreaking is that some stories don't end like ours. I've been following a triplet family for awhile and they just unexpectedly went into early labor at 22 weeks when Baby A's water broke. The mother delivered their three sweet boys a couple days ago and held them all too briefly because they were born 14 days too soon to even have a chance at life. Their story in its entirety is not mine to tell. It is too sad and personal. But their words in the telling are beautiful and filled with dignity and worth a read if you have the time.
I mentioned a couple posts ago that I pray for expectant triplet families as soon as I hear about them. This family brought me to my knees in a way I hadn't experienced in awhile and made me hold Annie longer before I placed her in her crib, even though she had been asleep for 20 minutes. It made me stand in the doorway of the triplets' room and watch them and pray over them as they slept as only small children can, arms and legs every-which-way. And it made me indulge Ainsley and read to her and snuggle with her longer than I have in months.
Read about the family and pray for them, if you will. I can not imagine their grief.
Showing posts with label pregnancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnancy. Show all posts
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Uninteresting Triplet Pregnancy/Birth Story
During my triplet pregnancy, I started reading lots of blogs from other triplet families. I was fascinated and comforted by their stories, especially from the women who were due about the same time I was. I wish now I had started blogging then, mostly because I have honestly forgotten a lot about that time period. Of course, part of the reason why I've forgotten is that it wasn't terribly interesting to begin with, especially since we had other craziness happening at the same time. So, here it is, 34 weeks, condensed into a couple longish paragraphs.
We obviously freaked in the ultrasound room when Mary, my very favoritist nurse who had been with us through all the horrible years of infertility, told us the news. She had gotten very quiet (never a good sign in the past) and was taking forever. Then the news "umm. hmmm. I'm counting 3". J and I laughed that nervous, sort of crazy laugh and then entered a peculiar world where you are well aware the path you are currently on just ends and there isn't a new one to take. You're in a random place without definition, without absolutes (yes, I realize there are no absolutes in life, just let me run with this), where the answers to your questions are often vague.
We talked to my ob, were given all the statistics (not that great) and sent on our way to just...wait. We called the very few people who knew we even did a FET (frozen embryo transfer), who all laughed the hysterical laugh we did with a few expletives occasionally chucked about.
There were lots and lots and lots of visits to: the specialist (loved him), regular ob (also loved him), the Perinatal Center at the hospital (really loved them), blah, blah, blah. J and I are very aware that we had a textbook triplet pregnancy (if there is such a thing) where there really never was any news or action required. I did develop a mild case of gestational diabetes and got a seriously NASTY rash where I ended up sleeping in the bathtub a few nights. That's about it. The stress of the pregnancy came from: making sure our then 2 1/2-year-old was taken care of, praying I could be at her 3rd birthday party (I was) and, oh yeah, we were putting on a now necessary large addition to the house. I didn't have a kitchen for a few months, or a bathroom on the first floor, or any running water on the first floor. It totally sucked. The good part was that the babies always looked great, I never had any of those major contractions, and was never on total bedrest. I voluntarily, with a lot of whining, finally submitted and checked into the hospital which was the most horrible part of the whole gig. I wasn't at home, AC cried when she and J left that night, I cried and cried and cried. Such a baby. So many other triplet moms would have maimed to stay off bedrest and here I was freaking out after making it to 34 weeks at home, walking around. That was Wednesday, October 17th and my water broke around 2:30 a.m. October 19th. I had rolled over to get out of bed and go to the bathroom when it happened, immediately called the nurse who asked "are you sure you just didn't wet the bed?". What the frick?????!??!?!?! I think a monkey would know the difference between urinating all over yourself and your water breaking. I remember sort of laughing and telling her I didn't wet the bed and, of course, there were several people in my room in 2 seconds. One of the cool things about that night was that an old friend of ours was doing her residency at our hospital and she was on duty that night. It was so awesome to see her walk in. Everything else is sort of surreal from there because it happened so fast. I remember J walking in with the camera bag, finally being allowed to use the toilet (absolute relief), a nurse not getting it that "no, I don't want to keep my pillow from home that has amniotic fluid all over it" (so grody), the nurses messing around with trying to strap on the heartrate monitors for the babies and finally giving up, the wonderfulness of the epidural, and then, by God's grace, my healthy babies arriving:
In order:
Baby A: IV, 5 lbs even
Baby B: EL, 4 lbs, 10 oz
Baby C: MG, 4 lbs, 13 oz
I don't remember too much of the delivery because the epidural meds always make me feel like I'm going to hurl and I couldn't really focus on what was going on. That's a bummer, but I can deal. I felt so bad that they put EL to my face so I could give her a kiss and I couldn't do it because I didn't want to throw up on her. So sad. MG did have a bit of oxygen for an hour (?) afterwards, but that's it and I know how fortunate that they were all relatively large and strong. I really need to write about post-delivery, because that was when life got sort of sucky for a week or so. Maybe in a few days.
We obviously freaked in the ultrasound room when Mary, my very favoritist nurse who had been with us through all the horrible years of infertility, told us the news. She had gotten very quiet (never a good sign in the past) and was taking forever. Then the news "umm. hmmm. I'm counting 3". J and I laughed that nervous, sort of crazy laugh and then entered a peculiar world where you are well aware the path you are currently on just ends and there isn't a new one to take. You're in a random place without definition, without absolutes (yes, I realize there are no absolutes in life, just let me run with this), where the answers to your questions are often vague.
We talked to my ob, were given all the statistics (not that great) and sent on our way to just...wait. We called the very few people who knew we even did a FET (frozen embryo transfer), who all laughed the hysterical laugh we did with a few expletives occasionally chucked about.
There were lots and lots and lots of visits to: the specialist (loved him), regular ob (also loved him), the Perinatal Center at the hospital (really loved them), blah, blah, blah. J and I are very aware that we had a textbook triplet pregnancy (if there is such a thing) where there really never was any news or action required. I did develop a mild case of gestational diabetes and got a seriously NASTY rash where I ended up sleeping in the bathtub a few nights. That's about it. The stress of the pregnancy came from: making sure our then 2 1/2-year-old was taken care of, praying I could be at her 3rd birthday party (I was) and, oh yeah, we were putting on a now necessary large addition to the house. I didn't have a kitchen for a few months, or a bathroom on the first floor, or any running water on the first floor. It totally sucked. The good part was that the babies always looked great, I never had any of those major contractions, and was never on total bedrest. I voluntarily, with a lot of whining, finally submitted and checked into the hospital which was the most horrible part of the whole gig. I wasn't at home, AC cried when she and J left that night, I cried and cried and cried. Such a baby. So many other triplet moms would have maimed to stay off bedrest and here I was freaking out after making it to 34 weeks at home, walking around. That was Wednesday, October 17th and my water broke around 2:30 a.m. October 19th. I had rolled over to get out of bed and go to the bathroom when it happened, immediately called the nurse who asked "are you sure you just didn't wet the bed?". What the frick?????!??!?!?! I think a monkey would know the difference between urinating all over yourself and your water breaking. I remember sort of laughing and telling her I didn't wet the bed and, of course, there were several people in my room in 2 seconds. One of the cool things about that night was that an old friend of ours was doing her residency at our hospital and she was on duty that night. It was so awesome to see her walk in. Everything else is sort of surreal from there because it happened so fast. I remember J walking in with the camera bag, finally being allowed to use the toilet (absolute relief), a nurse not getting it that "no, I don't want to keep my pillow from home that has amniotic fluid all over it" (so grody), the nurses messing around with trying to strap on the heartrate monitors for the babies and finally giving up, the wonderfulness of the epidural, and then, by God's grace, my healthy babies arriving:
In order:
Baby A: IV, 5 lbs even
Baby B: EL, 4 lbs, 10 oz
Baby C: MG, 4 lbs, 13 oz
I don't remember too much of the delivery because the epidural meds always make me feel like I'm going to hurl and I couldn't really focus on what was going on. That's a bummer, but I can deal. I felt so bad that they put EL to my face so I could give her a kiss and I couldn't do it because I didn't want to throw up on her. So sad. MG did have a bit of oxygen for an hour (?) afterwards, but that's it and I know how fortunate that they were all relatively large and strong. I really need to write about post-delivery, because that was when life got sort of sucky for a week or so. Maybe in a few days.
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