Birth Story of Triplets…Earlier than expected.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.  On Monday, Feb. 17th I delivered the triplets.   If you’ve not read my last post I urge you to read it first. I’m writing this 72hrs after birth and most people have no idea that I delivered. Especially those that know me personally. I didn’t want a lot of people to know as I would be recovering from major surgery and wouldn’t want to deal with having to answer phone calls, fb messages and text messages. I hope that you can respect that and not get upset b/c you didn’t know.

I woke up on Monday morning at 6:30am because I thought our kids had school.  Opps! I was helping my husband out by making breakfast and packing their lunch.  I had my prenatal massage scheduled for 10am.  That was amazing and felt really good.  After that my husband and I went to lunch then off to Earth Fare to grab a few things.  I was starting to drink 2 gals of milk this week to start fattening up these babies.  I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions all day just like I’ve been having since the week prior.  We left Earth Fare at about 2:30pm and the BH contractions I was feeling felt a bit more stronger, but nothing concerning no extra breathing or anything. I arrived at my chiropractor at 3:10pm for my adjustment which I get 1-2 times per week.  He has been doing a great job the entire pregnancy of keeping me in line.  Since my maternity leave officially started on Sunday (due to how  my cervix looked and the minor bleed that I had) I went to work to turn in my note and clean out my personal belongs of my desk.  Since I was going to be gone for 2.5-3months I felt better cleaning everything up in case my desk needed to be moved.  I also said a temporary good bye to most of my co-workers and management.  I really enjoy my job and appreciate all the people that express their interest and care about my well being with this pregnancy. I was still having sporatic BH contractions.  I returned home about 4:45pm and asked my husband to take the kids (16 & 13) out for ice cream.  I went to lay down and rest while they were gone.  I decided that I was going to track the BH contractions that I was having b/c my OB told me to keep an eye of them.  I found a great app that all I had to do is hit the ‘start’ & ‘stop’ button and it did all the math for me.

 

My 1st contraction that was slightly uncomfortable than any of the other ones was at 4:58pm. I had a few very light contractions that I could barely notice that felt like all the other ones that I’ve been having and was told it was normal. Then 20min later I felt another semi uncomfortable one. The contractions were running 6-8 min apart and only 45-50sec in duration. I know it sounds bad, but going through it there wasn’t much abnormal about it. I’ve been told that since my uterus was the size of a full term single pregnancy I would experience more BH contractions.
After I had the 2nd semi uncomfortable contraction I decided to lay on my left side to see if they would still come. I contacted my Doula at this point to ask her input, but she wan’t available to talk at that point. I had a few very light contractions and then the bigger one that I had to actually take a breath through. These were the ones I was really tracking. I had a few more very light contractions in between the bigger contractions that were nothing. Then at 5:58p
m I had another of the semi uncomfortable contraction. That was 4 of them in an hr so my OB said I would need to contact him/hospital to get checked out.
My husband and kids just came back at this point and my husband ran into the bathroom. I got up and went to the hall bathroom to pee. After I peed I felt another blood clot come out which has been happening since the day before and I was told it was fine and to come back to the hospital if I could fill up a pad within an hr or I had consistent bleeding. I told my husband that I think I need to go to the hospital. With having those contractions and then the blood clot I felt I needed to get check out. He said ok and came to the bathroom and asked if I needed an ambulance. I said NO! No longer I answered him, I wiped to get up and then blood started pouring out into the toilet. I immediately said, Yes get me an ambulance. I knew this wasn’t normal. He called 911 at 6:04pm and they dispatched the fire truck and ambulance to my house. While he was on the phone with the operator I sent a text to my IPs and Doula. I started to have another contraction and with everything going on I knew I couldn’t talk on the phone. IM replied back immediately and told me to let her know something as soon as I can. I was asked some questions about the pregnancy and if I had the urge to push, then the operator told my husband to get me off the toilet. I had to get a towel to wrap around me and as I was walking out into the living room like 6 firemen walked into my living room….I’ve got no pants on and a towel wrapped around me…So embarrassing!
I was calm, but knew something wasn’t right, the firemen were calm, but my husband was a bit worried. I don’t know where my kids were at this point. I can only assume my daughter was outside up the street with her friend letting them know what’s going on as I was causing concern with the firetruck and ambulance coming to our neighborhood. My son was probably in his room playing on his computer. As I sat on my ottoman I was calming asked question and as I was answering them my contractions were coming stronger and closer. These felt real, not like the other ones. By the time they got all there info my contractions were running 4 min apart. The paramedics (1 male 1 female) walked into my house with a stretcher and I was loaded on and taken out. There was so many people outside of their house watching…A bit embarrassing for me as I usually try not to cause a seen. It was a rough ride into the ambulance from my drive way and being lowered and raised while having contractions. Once in the ambulance I just remember them putting an IV in and asking if I had the urge to push which I didn’t and to let them know when I was having contractions. They didn’t have the lights on to the hospital b/c they said it would cause to much issues and they didn’t want to drive fast with me in the back and with the 2 lane road it would be difficult to have people pulling over. It was a pretty smooth drive. I live 10min away from the hospital, good thing we didn’t have to go to far.
My husband drove the car and met us there and had my cell phone and purse for me. He was keeping in contact with the IPs. When I arrived at the maternity entrance of the hospital I had to come in the same entrance as everyone comes and goes in….Remember….I didn’t have any pants on, Only a sheet and it was a bit drafty. I was once again embarrassed…lol… I noticed and she noticed me, the receptionist to check in with and she’s a blog reader and was surprised to see me (I was just there yesterday). It was good she was there b/c she knew my name and could get me registered. Hi Erica!!
I arrived at about 6:25pm. Since L&D knew I was coming they took me straight to a room and like 6 nurses came in. They were hooking me up to watch all 3 babies heart rates and the contractions. Oh, by the time I got to the hospital my contractions were 2 min apart…not good!
They had to assess me b/f they called the OB on call whom wasn’t my DR. The one on call wasn’t my favorite Dr., but I had only met him once and I didn’t give him a fair shot. He actually turned out to be a very good Dr.
As the nurses were doing what needed to be done to me (everything was moving to fast and I don’t remember what they were doing) I noticed one of the nurses as she was the triage nurse that that took care of me when I was in getting checked out 4wks ago. She remembered me, hold could she not….I was the one with triplets…lol… My husband had been in the room with me since the beginning and keeping in contact with the IPs and reaching out to a few select friends for prayers.
The Dr. was called around 6:40 and was already on his way in to check on another patient. He knew I was another Dr.’s patient and called him to let him know I was there (he later told me this). When he arrived he must have left his car at the front and walked straight in. He still had his jacket on. He immediately re-introduced himself to me and asked how I was doing. I was having to many contractions and told him he had to stop them b/c the babies couldn’t come right now. It was to early. He said he would check me out then we would see what to do. The nurses asked me what was my pain level with these contractions. I said a 6 or 7. They weren’t that bad, but coming to quick. I was down to every minute at this point. The Dr. did an immediate u/s and the babies looked good and Baby A had moved from head down to sideways (transverse). No placenta abruption, bag of water had not broken, but said it may be leaking, but couldn’t confirm it. Then he checked my cervix at 7pm and it was all over at that point….I was dilated to 10cm and 100% effaced. Emergency c-section it was for me. I asked if he could stop the contractions and then keep the babies in and he said it was to late. My main Dr. was on his way in to assist in the c-section which made me really happy as I was scared to still have a c-section.
My husband told the IPs that it was an emergency c-section and they had already been preparing to leave their home and waiting on the word to go. They live 6hrs away so they would miss everything. My Doula couldn’t make it in time for the c-section either, but would be there when I got out of surgery.
While I was getting prepped for surgery it was crazy fast as the nurses were moving quickly. They were shaving me, putting me in a gown and I don’t know what else. I was told that I could have a spinal so I can be awake for everything. I was very happy to hear that.
My spinal was put in while in the OR at 7:20pm and there were 15 people in there besides me. That room was packed. My OB was talking to be during the entire surgery and letting me know what’s going in as I didn’t have anyone to go in with me. My husband would be sick if he went in and he said he was told that he couldn’t go anyway. I guess b/c of how fast everything was. Babies were born in the same order as we’ve been calling them. That’s not always the case, but glad it was for us. My OB showed me each baby for a second. Baby A was born at 7:41pm, Baby B at 7:42 and Baby C at 7:43. All the babies were breathing and were crying at birth. I asked my OB if he could cut out some fat while he was in there….I had everyone laughing and he said he wishes he could, but it may not look pretty. The other OB (the one I wasn’t super happy about) finished the surgery of sewing me up. They knew that I wanted to use my uterus again so they did a bikini cut with double sutures so it would be strong for a Vbac birth the next time. I know you are thinking…She wants to do this again….Of course I’ve been thinking about doing another surrogacy over the past 2 weeks since my pregnancy was so great and all my Dr.’s are behind me and see no reason that I can’t, but I have to wait 1yr b/f I get pregnant. They said you can’t compare this early deliver to a singleton. It’s not the same.
I arrived in the recovery room at about 8:30pm and the Dr. told me that the surgery went great and he would check on me in the morning. My doula walked right in to be with me as I was getting settled in. She was very helpful and helped me understand what was going on and what to expect. I didn’t get into my regular room until about 10:30pm as there was a lot of paperwork for the nurse to enter in the computer while I was in recovery b/f she could move me. Since everything was so fast things didn’t get put in when they normally would.
As I was getting released this morning my OB answered some questions as to why this happened. He said first of all I did nothing wrong and triplets born anytime past 28.5wks was good. He & my MFM (I called him on Tues and got some insight from him also) said that Baby C is the one that started labor by not doing well. With her growth curve starting to slack off (which is why they were having me come back in 1wk) she screated a hormone (I forgot the name) that tells the uterus to start contracting so she can get out. OB also said this is something that they can’t stop b/c they are still working on understanding pre-term labor and how to stop it. The bleeding that I experienced was from my cervix dialating and effacing so fast. My OB’s couldn’t believe how fast I progressed. Also, I didn’t get the steroid shot on Sunday when I was at the hospital b/c he didn’t believe that I’d deliver within the next 2 wks. My MFM said the same thing. I was told I had like an 8% chance of delivering early and the steroid shot isn’t proven to help with multiples and you can’t over use it so he wanted to reserve it for later if needed.
The IPs arrived at about 2:45am and they came and saw me first and my nurse had their bracelets for the NICU.
The NICU nurses told me that they were good size for being 28w5d babies. They are doing as well as they can. Babies B & C are doing better than Baby A. It’s been explained to me that since they were sharing 1 placenta they were already use to having to ‘fight’. Here’s some info on NICU babies if you would like to read http://americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/carepremature.htm
All the girls needed a PICC line. Read here to know what that is. http://preemies.about.com/od/glossary/g/PICCline.htm
I’ve been pumping for the girls and doing great thus far. My 1st 2 pumps yielded 5ml then 2 pumps after that I wasn’t getting anything. After that I started getting more clostrum it started at 1ml then was 3ml, and by the end of the 19th I was getting 7ml. Very early on the 20th (today) I got 8ml and the nurses were like “nice”. Then my next pump was 30ml then 25ml, then my last pump b/f writting this post I started to over flow the little bottles and had to move into the 5oz bottles. I collected 2.5oz. This is just shy of 72hrs after birth. I should be able to keep up with the milk that these girls need. I will be dropping it by the NICU while the girls are here.
I gained 23lbs with this pregnancy and as of 48hrs after birth I lost 20.6lbs. So awesome….No I’m just going to have to deal with the extra skin and slowly get into a work out routine. I will not jump back into anything, I will take it slow, but I don’t want to sit around and make my recovery more difficult. Thus far my recovery has been great. I’ve had minimal pain, but my doula told me to stay ontop of it and to take my pain meds. I will start to wean off as I get closer to 1wk post partum.
The PBO (Pre Birth Order, so the IPs will be acknoldeged as the parents and not myself and my husband) was due to be signed this Friday. I know we were pushing it. I contacted my lawyer when I was in recovery after delivery and she was going to work on getting the court date moved up. She suceeded and the judge let me be on the phone and my husband and the IPs went to sign everything.
A few of my neighbors have been helpful from keeping my youngest on Monday night and picking both of them up from school on Tuesday while my husband was in court for the PBO. She has offered to help with whatever I needed. I had another neighbor bring us dinner as soon as I arrived home from the hospital today. Which was very helpful!
Well, I still have some things to say, but I’ll update another day as I’m getting tired. Here are the stats for the girls below.
I look forward to any comments and supportive thoughts. I’m hoping that this post has answered a lot of questions so I don’t get bombarded with a ton of questions.

Baby A: Sage Marie born at 7:41, 2lb 12oz, 15.5in long and abgar score 6/7
Baby B: Cameron Joy born at 7:42, 2lb 3oz, 15 in long and abgar score 8/9
Baby C; Lia Francine born at 7:43, 1lb 12oz 13.5in long and abgar score 7/8. (pronounced Leah)

It’s really hard to get good pics in the NICU.

Sage (Baby A)

Cameron (Baby B)

Lia (Baby C)