When we got to maternity triage at the hospital, the staff moved very quickly. The doctor saw the amount of blood, did a quick ultrasound of the babies to make sure all were still okay, got a hold of my perinatologist who said "DELIVER!" and immediately I was prepped for the C-section. The doctors were afraid that the bleeding was caused by the breakdown of one of the placentas (probably the girls' as they shared one placenta) as placentas of multiples age more quickly. If that was the case, the babies would not be safe for very long.
This was not supposed to happen. All of my doctors were very optimistic that I would make it to 34 or 35 weeks as so far everything had gone smoothly. Although I had slowed down a lot in recent weeks due to the discomfort of carrying so much extra weight and having lots of contractions throughout the day, I was never officially told to slow down and go on any sort of bed rest. I also could not believe that I didn't even make it to the average triplet gestation of 32 weeks.
Micah and I hardly had time to think as this really was an emergency situation, although luckily they still had time to give me the epidural as the babies were not under any distress yet. Within minutes I was wheeled into the operating room, poked twice for the epidural (the first one went into a vein which was very painful and the anesthesiologist said a "first" for him), they put up the drapes, had Micah come in, and they started cutting.
A C-section is a very strange experience. You literally feel paralyzed from the chest down while the top part of your body is shaking uncontrollably (although they do give you medicine to help slow the shakes). I just stared at Micah the entire time and when baby A (Alexis Joy) was pulled out of my tummy I literally felt the weight of her three pounds lifted off of me. The nurses had told me I'd be able to see each baby as they carried them into the NICU but I didn't know I had to look to the right, and since I was staring at Micah on my left, I only saw one of them being carried away and sadly I don't know who it was.
Alexis Joy was born first at 11:09, Jack Micah second at 11:10, and Faith Elizabeth third at 11:10. Since Alexis and Faith shared a placenta and only had a thin membrane between them, apparently it is unusual that Jack was born second. (The nurses in the NICU keep joking that he just didn't want to be the "baby" in the family since he is the only boy and Faith is the smallest anyway.) Alexis weighed 3 lbs, Jack 3 lbs 3 oz, and Faith 2 lbs 13 oz, which means I had nine pounds of baby in me in addition two one large and one regular placenta.
While I was in recovery, Micah went to the NICU to meet the babies. I asked him to take pictures and bring them back to me in recovery, but I think he was in shock and totally forgot to do that. The nurse brought me into the NICU on my way to my room. I was wheeled around on a gurney to my babies' bedsides and one of the nurses handed Faith to me (in her bedding so I wasn't 100% holding her, but enough). They all looked so tiny yet so perfect.
Although the triplet's birth story is not at all how I had imagined it would go, I am so thankful that I did make it to 31 weeks and 2 days as they really just need to develop their lungs a bit, gain weight (they need to be at least 4 lbs before they can leave the hospital), and learn to suck, swallow, and breath so that they can eat. I will be spending hours upon hours in the NICU from now until Alexis, Faith, and Jack come home in a couple of months. I cannot wait until the day when they are home and sleeping in their cribs, but until then I will work with them in whatever ways I can so that they grow and develop as needed before they are discharged.
Here are the first pics taken of the triplets. This is how I first saw them as I was wheeled around the NICU after the C-section. Unfortunately, the CPAP breathing machines cover so much of their tiny faces that it is hard to get a good look at them, but they are all beautiful. All three have blond hair (really just peach fuzz right now) and blue eyes (I know babies eyes can change, but I'm guessing they'll stay blue since Micah and I both have blue eyes). I'll post more pics in other posts!
 |
| Faith Elizabeth |
 |
| Alexis Joy |
 |
| Jack Micah |
No comments:
Post a Comment