24 Weeks & 4 Days - Sunday, November 17th, 2013
I know that in my last post I wrote about this date. After posting I had some visitors and I wanted to make a quick shout out to them. My brother Johnathan and his wife Erica came by along with my mother, father, a friend Tracy and future Pastor's of Massai Millville - Tracy and Sherlon Soman. They brought me laughter and lots of yummy food. My brother and his wife had their house warming party yesterday and I unfortunately couldn't make it due to be in the hospital. They were kind enough to bring me food today... happy tummy = happy mommy which = happy babies! It was such a nice visit and love to see my room so full of people who love and care so much for me, Tito and the girls. The hardest part - watching them all depart from the room. I cried instantly. I absolutely hate being alone here. Being alone allows for to much time and room to think and right now my thinking always leads to "what if they come tonight?" "What if I have to give birth right now?" Oh it's so scary and heart breaking. I tried to put myself together before the evening nurses came to see me but I failed. Poor nurse didn't know what to do with herself when she walked in my room and caught me sobbing. She just sat on the bed and held my hand. "It's going to be ok," she repeated over and over again. After settling down she took all my vital signs and then put me on the baby monitor. Heartbeats were great! And I wasn't contracting anymore. And for the first time since I came on Thursday ( 4 days ago) I didn't have to go to sleep with the IV fluids. SCORE!!!! Oh and here is a picture of Tito and I last night, I forgot to post it...
Yes - we both fit together on my bed =) Best husband in the world! PS: no my hair is not done. I have no energy right now to even think about doing more then washing it and brushing it limbo
24 Weeks & 5 Days - Monday, November 18th, 2013
Today was a little crazy. Morning vitals and heartbeat checks were all normal. The girls always give the tech nurse a hard time finding their heart beats but mommy always know where they are. I feel like a nurse now, lol, just kidding... I felt super tired today even though I had a great night. It was like nothing took my tiredness away and I spent most of the morning sleeping. Around noon Sabrina and Jasmine came by to visit me. It was so nice to see both of them. They made me laugh, which is always a plus right now. As soon as they were leaving my cousins Veronica & Laura came over. It was nice having a constant flow of visitors today. Especially with my mental break down yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn't socialize for long as I had an ultrasound appointment downstairs with Maternal Fetal Medicine. The entire ride down to MFM I was chewing my nails. Thursday's appointment yielded that I was 2cm Dilated and I was scared to know if I have dilated more or not by today. The first part of the ultrasound went well. Heart beats were great and the girls looked so cute! Hadassah was head down and ready for her grand entrance - but I yelled at her and told her "not yet." Isabella and Cianna were both lying side ways across my belly. Isabella was in my mid stomach and Cianna was high up by my ribs. We got some nice profile pictures of Isabella and Cianna but not of Hadassah as she was way to low and in the birth canal for a profile picture today. Then they did the internal ultrasound and the tech didn't even have to say anything to me. I saw with my own eyes that my cervix was opened wider and Hadassah's head was certainly pushing down on my cervix. I watched in horror as the tech measured that I was now dilated at 3cm. She gave me my pictures and left to get the Doctor as I sat there alone. I tried to focus on the ultrasound pictures. I prayed and I spoke with the girls but five minutes turned into almost an hour and I couldn't keep it together for an hour, not alone! Niagara Falls began to pour out my eyes. I was angry and frustrated and beyond scare. I just kept asking "why me?" How much more of this can I take? How much more disappointment can I handle? I felt like I'm about to break or have some kind of mental breakdown. I can't do this anymore... The Doctor came in and basically said that everything is just status quo and that they will check me again on Thursday. He said that if I continue to dilate at the rate of 1cm every 4 days then I may make it another 28 days which is 4 more weeks. That made me smile. It gave me hope. 4 more weeks would place me at 28 weeks pregnant and the girls would be so much more better off. I returned to my room quickly after that. I took a nap and woke up feeling a little pressure. Not to be gross but I just felt like I needed to go #2. But I was so afraid to go thinking that if I went I would pop Hadassah out or something. I also started having some contractions that weren't painful at all. I didn't think anything of it. My cousin Laura and friend Annette were with me in the evening when around 6pm Dr. Kelley from the NICU came to my room and spoke to me. She brought handy flash cards with pictures of babies born between 24-25 weeks. She provided me with a lot of information as to all the risks and concerns that a 24-25 weeker can have when born so early and all the delays and scare test and problems that they will/can face in the NICU. Dr. Kelley told me that the lungs are the biggest issue that Preemie babies encounter as well as brain bleeds. There are 4 levels of brain bleeds and each bring on a set of difficulties for the babies. Basically she scared me half to death before saying that now a days with so much technology a 24 weeker can survive. When she left the room I felt so overwhelmed. Annette, the ever faithful God fearing friend I have looked at me and said, "You won't have to worry about all that." My mother and aunt Laura came to visit me just as Annette was leaving. We joked for most of the evening about how I still felt like I needed to use the bathroom and how I was too afraid because I didn't want to pop any babies out. Dr. Minter came in and saw me around 8pm. She reassured me that I shouldn't be concerned about todays ultrasound and that in just three more days I would have another ultrasound. She seemed to confident that I still had a few more weeks left and so did I! I went to sleep that night confident that I still had time. For the first time in 5 days, I didn't cry myself to sleep.
Here is Cianna's Profile from today's ultrasound - 24w5d
Here is Isabella's profile from today at 24w5d
24 Weeks & 6 Days - Tuesday, November 19th, 2013 - THE BIRTH OF OUR GIRLS
Oh my heaven! I had the worst night of my life. I woke up at least every hour on the hour with weird contractions. I felt a lot of pressure and I would go to the bathroom and try to go but couldn't. When I got up from the toilet I felt like I couldn't straight from all the pressure. Being the inexperienced woman that I am, I thought the pressure during my contractions was backed up stuff, if you know what I mean. When I finally woke up around 7am I was finally able to "release" myself from the pressure. But then I still kept getting contractions about once to twice an hour and there was the pressure again. When the nurse came in for my vitals I told her what I was experiencing and she said she wasn't concerned but would relate the information to my OBGYN on call today. Then she put the heart monitor one and everything seemed fine. The girls gave the nurse a little hard time but nothing major. The babies heart beats need to be on the monitor for 20 minutes but that never happens with three tiny wiggling babies in my belly. So a 20 minute check turns into about an hour. So anyway, I felt very very very tired throughout the morning. I took a mid morning nap, got up and then ordered lunch. I order soup and a dinner roll. But I couldn't eat anything. I just felt so tired. So I fell asleep and woke up at 2pm with the strongest and most painful contraction yet! I went to the bathroom and checked to make sure I wasn't bleeding or anything. As I was coming out of the bathroom my OBGYN Dr. Huggins came into the room and saw the panic on my face as another contraction hit me. She helped me get into bed and called the nurse right away. She wanted me connected to the contraction monitor and baby heartbeat monitor asap! From 2-4pm I was connected to the machines. For the most part I was alone in my room as Dr. Huggins and the nurse watched my screens at the nurses hub. I felt the contractions get worse and with fewer time in-between. Around 3pm the nurse came and connected me to the IV machine. They poured 500ml of Fluids into me in about 30 minutes (that's super fast). From 3 to 4 pm I felt contractions that I never thought I would be feeling. I cried through them, I screamed through them, I literally climbed up my bed in so much pain. In between contractions I looked up how to breath during a contraction and I tried but seriously that crap didn't work. I think I said, "Oh my God," 1000 times. And I prayed that a nurse or Dr. wouldn't come in and catch me completely looking like a crazy lady as I tried to ride the contractions... alone. Every time I heard my door open I would put myself together. The nurse would ask how's the pain level on 1-10. I wanted to yell 1000 but I would always say "oh about a 3" with a smile on my face... LOL ... crazy lady here I say! Well at 4:30pm on the dot Dr. Huggins comes in and says, "I don't want to do it but you're contracting every 3-4 minutes and I have to check your cervix to make sure you aren't dilating." There is no secret that cervical checks are uncomfortable but I knew she knew what was best and I willingly became a participant of the check. When I saw her face as she checked me I just knew it wasn't going to be good news. When she finished her check she calming looked me in the eyes and said, "you're 6 cm dilated and Hadassah's head is right there. Call your husband, we are delivering these babies today." As the phone rang I heard Dr. Huggins shouting in the halls to "get the OR ready now! The triplets are coming! I need magnesium now! and a Crew!" By the time Tito answered his phone I was sobbing, "Tito get here as soon as you can they are taking the babies out today." But I'm here thinking that they wouldn't do for another hour or so to give him time to come. I hang up and call my mom, "MOM the babies need to come out now." I then hung up. By the time I finished the call there were at least 10 people in my room. "It's gonna get crazy and loud and it's going to get really busy, just breathe," Dr. Huggins said. Breathe?!?!?! I think I forgot how to do that. I was sobbing and I couldn't focus on anything. There were nurses putting magnesium into my IV line, nurses taking off my clothes, nurses trying to put a catheter in, Dr. Huggins holding my hand as I rode the contractions in between, the anesthesiologist shouting questions and throwing papers at me to sign. I remember him asking how old I was and I was so lost in time that I said, "I think I'm 25!' He asked me for my weight and I yelled, "I don't know anymore." Before I knew it I was being transported to the OR. The magnesium was burning the heck out of my hand. I wanted to pull the dang thing out so bad that my nurse had to hold my arm down. When we entered the OR room I saw three bassinets that looked like something from the future with at least 4-5 people around each one. Dr. Huggins asked if my husband was here and I said no. That's when I heard, "we can't wait for anyone, these babies need to come out NOW!" So my tech nurse from High Risk OB - Samantha asked if I would like her to stay with me since I had no family here. I said yes and she stayed with me. They rolled me over unto the OR bed. They made me roll into a fetal position and Dr. Huggins took my hands in one hand and then with her other she pushed my hair back and leaned in very close to me. "Breathe, it's all going to be ok. You are doing great. Think about the precious baby girls and breathe. You're doing great." They put another IV in my other arm. At exactly 4:58pm they put in the back epidural and something else, I can't remember. It all happened so fast. They rolled me over unto my back, pulled up a blue curtain above my chest and I felt some pressure. I kept looking around the room. Sam was still by my side and even took a picture of me and her. At 5:05pm Hadassah was born CRYING!!! I could hear her so clearly!!!! At 5:06pm Isabella was born. She was not crying. I heard the Dr. Kim and Dr. Huggins talking about how wrapped in her umbilical cord she was. Then at 5:07pm Cianna was born CRYING!!!! Sam went to see the babies and came back to tell me that they are doing well and are so beautiful. I felt so sick to my stomach but they gave me medicine to stop me from throwing up. As they stitched me up I was telling them how on this very day 15 years ago I met Tito and how now the date just became even more special with the birth of our daughters. I felt invincible at this point but maybe it was just the morphine. The girls were taken out of the room fairly quickly. I got a peek at Hadassah and Cianna but Isabella was critical so they couldn't stop for me to see her. And honestly the little I saw of Hadassah and Cianna I can't even remember. Samantha left to go and find Tito. Dr. Huggins was telling me how great I did and how good the babies were doing so far. And before I knew it I was being wheeled into recovery where Tito stood dumb founded. "Congratulations you're a dad!" I said as I got into the room. Poor guy had so many questions. I told him the whole story from beginning to end in between sobs and eating ice cubes. Instead of sleeping/resting I called my entire family, heck I even face-timed everyone in the waiting room. At 7:45pm I was in my Mommy & Baby Room, minus the babies. I was set up with everything I needed and then the gang was allowed in to visit with me. Visiting hours ended at 8pm but my nurses were so nice to let them come in and they stayed until almost 9:30pm. It was nice seeing everyone! At 11pm Dr. Kim from the NICU, also one of the doctors who helped deliver the babies, came to see Tito and I. Dr. Kim said that we could go and see the babies now. She told us that they were doing well. I was a little sore so Tito went on his own. Such a brave man! I waited impatiently for him to come back! When he walked through the door I could tell that he had been crying. His first words were, "They are doing good." I asked him why he looked so sad and he started crying as he said, "They are so small Jackie, so small, my babies." He broke my heart. But he took some pretty good first pictures of the girls. Here some shots from before Delivery to when Tito went to see the girls.
My last belly shot at around 12pm. It's crooked from Isabella rolling up into a ball on my left side.
Samantha and I after the delivery.
Hadassah - 6 hours old
1 pound 6 ounces
12 Inches long
Isabella - 6 hours old
1 pound 3.6 ounces
12 inches long
Cianna - 6 hours old
1 pound 4 ounces
11 1/4 inches long
All three girls were put on dopamine to control their blood pressure. All three girls are also on antibiotics. Hadassah and Isabella are on the HFOV (High Frequency Oscillator Ventilator) which makes them shake and provides a lot of little breathes for the girls. Cianna did not like the HFOV and gave Dr. Kim a very hard time so she is on a ventilator that is a step lower then the HFOV which is a GREAT thing. Cianna's ventilator is called a Conventional Ventilator and it does not make her shake like the HFOV.
So around 11:45pm my nurse came in and brought me a a Medela Symphony breast pump and all the supplies. She set me up to pump for the first time. Drops.. maybe 3-4 is all I got but the NICU wants it all. And I'll do anything for my baby girls so over the next few days we shall see how the breast pumping goes. I pray that I can produce milk and be able to provide such great nutrients to my baby girls. Wish me luck... I hear pumping hurts like a mother. lol
So now I'm going to bed and so is Tito. I'm drained both physically and emotionally. We can not wait for morning to go down together to visit with the girls.
I'm a mom!!!!!!!!! To three beautiful little fighters!!! I'm a mom!!!!!!!!
I'M A MOM. TITO IS A DAD... WE ARE OFFICIALLY PARENTS!!!
xoxo,
Jackie - mommy to 3 ;)
Amazing!!! You and Tito are so strong. And your little ladies are so beautiful and strong. God Bless your family!!! Love ya Chica :)
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