Babies!

After my frustration and venting the other day, my body decided it was done with being pregnant.  I was having stronger, more painful contractions so we decided to go into the hospital even though my own doctor said that it didn't sound like true labor.  Well, the contractions were 1-2 minutes apart when they hooked me up.  The babies started out fine, but as my contractions continued they started to get a little bit stressed out.  By this time it was past midnight-we made it to 32 weeks and 1 day! Luckily I had not eaten anything since 3 p.m. the day before because my doctor was on his way to the hospital to deliver the babies!

The nurse had said if they make the decision to deliver, things would go quickly-she was not kidding! They shaved my lower belly, gave Brad scrubs to wear, and we were off.  The epidural did not hurt at all, but I hated the feeling of not being able to move.  They started the surgery around 3 a.m. and Baby A was born at 3:07, B and C at 3:08.  I am not sure who cried, but I was able to hear some of them.  Their first APGAR scores were 7, 8, and 8 and their five minute scores were all 9.  Not too bad! Our girl weighed 3 lb 9.5 oz., Baby B was 3 lb 8 oz., and Baby C was 3 lb 7 oz. Their lengths were between 16 and 16.5 inches.  I was happy that they all weighed more than 3.5 lbs.

While the doctors were finishing up on me,  I started to feel extremely sick, so they gave me some drugs for that too. I am a little fuzzy on the details of what was going on with me because I was trying to listen for the babies and what was going on with them.  At some point, I started bleeding more than they would've liked.  Brad said that there was a lot of blood on the floor and he had his feet up on the stool because he didn't want to get it on his feet.  I remember them closing me up and having my stomach pushed on, but that's about it. I don't remember going to the recovery room or being in the hallway, etc. 

My blood pressure was initially good after the surgery, but my pulse was in the 120's because of the blood I had lost.  They gave me fluids and medicine to help my uterus contract,  but I was still pretty groggy and out of it.  One of the doctors/residents came in and helped us decide to go with the blood transfusion.  I received 2 pints of blood to help stablize everything.  While all this was going on, Brad was able to go see the babies and bring our parents down to see them.  I was so glad everyone was able to see them and that the babies had people down there who love them so much. It was hard to not be able to go down there myself though, but I knew that it wasn't an option for me to see them yet.  They were all doing pretty well at that point, so I was able to relax a little bit.

I was allowed to have Morphine every 2 hours for pain.  They normally give patients a different drug and ibuprofen, but because of the bleeding I couldn't have that special cocktail. I slept a lot that first day-just couldn't keep my eyes open! I have now been upgraded to a different drug that works pretty well, although it'll be really nice when I don't have to take anything at all! I am feeling much better now 3 days out from surgery.  I have been up and around since Thursday afternoon and I have taken advantage of that! My blood pressure is still iffy and they are keeping a watch on that, but hopefully it'll even out on it's own soon.  I spent a little too much time on my feet in the NICU yesterday and had some high BP symptoms when we came back to my room.

As of last night, the babies are doing great! Our girl is off of everything! No breathing assistance (which she hasn't had since right after birth), and they turned off her IV yesterday because she is taking bottles so well. Her nurse yesterday said she was still hungry and interested in eating after her normal amount, so she let her keep going.  She ended up eating 50cc's that time! Later she would have to eat 32 or more to stay off the IV.  We were down there when she started the feeding and she had eaten 25 before we had to leave. My mom and I noticed a little, tiny fat roll on her arm yesterday! My little overachiever!

Baby B is doing pretty well too, more of what is expected of a 32 weeker.  They took him off CPAP in the morning; it was great to finally see his face! He is back on the nasal canula, like his brother, and is doing pretty well.  He had some residuals from his feeds, so they have not risen the amount he is receiving which is 5.  He was moving constantly each time I saw him yesterday, which is pretty much what he did inside of me!

Baby C has maintained his status too.  He is on his canula still, but at room level oxygen.  He had been taking feedings well, but started to throw them up a lot.  They started to decrease that, but then he had a massive diaper blow-out and we are hoping that was keeping everything backed up.  They went back to what they had been feeding him, (10cc), and he was doing well with those as of last night.

I believe I am going to be released tomorrow.  I am so excited to go home and sleep in my own bed, but am so sad to have to leave the babies behind.  I wish we didn't live so darn far away from the hospital! I will try to visit everyday, but I know there will be somedays that I won't make it down here.  The phone number to the NICU is going to save my sanity on those days! The NICU policy is that only parents and grandparents can visit during flu season, which I understand completely.  The other part of the policy is that the grandparents can only visit when they are with one of the parents.  I had hoped that if there were times I wasn't able to make it down here, that my parents or Brad's parents would be able to come and keep them company.  I guess I will be in the car a lot more that I had planned on! Hopefully the bouncing doesn't hurt too much!

I have decided that I am not posting any pictures on here, so I am sorry to those of you who have followed the blog these past few months/weeks.  There are just too many creepos out there! I am posting on Facebook, so you can check there if you are one of my "friends." I know our families have shared this blog with their friends to keep everyone in the loop, so hopefully they will share some pictures with those of you who fit into that category.

Time to decide what to have for breakfast! I will continue to update this blog with info on the babies. Sunday is their next weigh-in, so it'll be interesting to see who has started to gain weight back.  They suspect our daughter will end up under bili lights soon, which is pretty common and not too serious. And on Monday they will all have brain scans done to make sure they don't have any bleeds going on.

Thanks for all your love and support!