Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
OB Update
Well I'm writing this from the hospital! I find it humorous that I was writing this post a couple hours before we headed to the hospital. Yesterday I started have several frequent non painful contractions and after calling the Doctor on call to see if there was anything we should do, he asked us to come in. After some IV fluids and motrin, things calmed down. I'm here again tonight and possibly longer but were are just waiting to see. And now back to the previously written post :)
At my OB appointment on Thursday the ultrasound showed continual funneling of my cervix. It is now down to 4 mm closed from the 8 mm last week. Not good news but the doctor said that she was encouraged that it was going so slowly. We are heading towards an inevitable hospital stay, its just a matter of when. Most likely it wont be until almost 24 weeks gestation because that is the point they can/will start more aggressively treating pre-term labor. That would get me to the beginning of September before heading to the hospital. I feel a little more positive about this situation at the moment because the Dr. (the one I feel is the most helpful, attentive, and aware of my current situation) said on Thursday that even if there is no closed cervix left, dilating starts, one of the membranes ruptures, it doesn't mean its the end of the pregnancy. That was surprising to me since I thought thats exactly what all of those meant. Friday's ultrasound will also be the first growth ultrasound since the anatomy scan. They will be estimating weight and size of the babies at that visit. I am looking forward to it but it also means a good couple of HOURS laying on my back and having someone pushing on the belly. Measuring 3 sets of everything takes a while!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Journey to Triplets - 21 Weeks
The semi-annual TMOTT sale in Raleigh really is an excellent resource for parents, whether of multiples or singles - I couldn't believe the bargains we found!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Journey to Triplets - 20 weeks
What's this? A weekly picture posted on time? That's right - the 20 weeks picture is being posted on Heather's 20 weeks date! Unheard of, I know... don't get too used to it!
Hello little ones
The best thing about this pregnancy is how often we get to see the little ones. Thanks to them wanting to keep a close look on my cervix we're seeing the babies about once a week on ultrasound. It is simply amazing how fast they are growing and how much they are moving around in there. I still can't feel the movements though! So far they are all on schedule size wise - I guess they aren't feeling too crowded yet. They are now too big to get all of them in one picture so let me show you their individual pictures! :)
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| Baby Girl A |
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| Baby Girl B |
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| Baby Boy C |
Baby C never got a good 3D picture but I like this 2D one. He rolled over while we were watching him and started sucking his thumb. Cuteness. We also got a really good picture of his male parts but I can't decide if you are supposed to post that on the internet or not. :)
Now to decide on names! Six names is a heck of a lot to pick in one go. Especially when my husband suggests things like Zelda, Link, Mario, Freya and other similar choices. He is very helpful! :)
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Not the greatest week
Since I had the cerclage (about 2 weeks) I've had a couple contractions every day. They are completely painless and I just feel a strong tightening in my lower abdomen. On Tuesday I started getting a lot more of them closer together. We called the OB on call and she said to drink a ton of water and lay on my side and if it didn't get better call back. They did get better until the next morning when it started again. So they sent me back over to the hospital for monitoring. What I find very odd about Labor and Delivery at the hospital is that they don't let you eat or drink anything for hours! Especially when drinking water is the first thing everyone normally says when you complain of contractions. And we are talking about pregnant women here who aren't allowed to eat? Craziness.
Of course 8 different people all ask you the same questions and all give you a different impression of what's going on. I think I am getting more used to this now and I think I will only be paying attention to what the attending doctor says from now on. Otherwise you end up completely confused, overwhelmed and frustrated with the conflicting answers. Oh and I think doctors should have to wear their rank and how it relates to the hospital hierarchy.Apparently I asked the wrong level of doctor a difficult question because she said "well your level of complexity is way above my level of training and practice." I am pretty sure I saw 4 different doctors in the 5 hours I was in the hospital and it would be a lot more helpful if you had a better idea how they fit into the picture. Just saying :)
After they ran a whole bunch of different tests they decided I have a minor infection that may be causing the uterine irritability and a little medication would hopefully clear it up. Yay - a possible reason and an easy solution, you can't ask for much more than that!
The next day at my regular (weekly!) OB visit and ultrasound the news was all bad. My cervix was continuing to shorten and had noticeably done so since the previous day at the hospital. It looked to be funneling even past the cerclage stitch. She said all sorts of sucky things like having to take the stitch out if it continues, preterm labor, more infections. ACK!! Oh and the best part was they said we'll have to wait and see what happens. "Since the babies aren't viable yet there really isnt much else they can/would do. Oh but stay positive cause stress won't help the situation." Right, of course, let me sing my happy song now.
I went home and pretty much glued myself to the couch. I didnt want to do anything to make the situation worse. The next day I called the doctor I know the best and trust and she gave me a few words of
encouragement and said that really keeping as much pressure off the cervix as possible can help. She suggested stricter bedrest and going on leave from work. She also called in a prescription for me to help with the contractions. I've been trying the stricter bedrest for a day and half now and it seems to be helping... but of course there are no guarantees.
I'm doing my best to give my body a pep talk and give it nothing to stress about but growing babies and keeping them inside. Any prayers, positive thoughts, good karma you want to send this way would be appreciated. :-)
Of course 8 different people all ask you the same questions and all give you a different impression of what's going on. I think I am getting more used to this now and I think I will only be paying attention to what the attending doctor says from now on. Otherwise you end up completely confused, overwhelmed and frustrated with the conflicting answers. Oh and I think doctors should have to wear their rank and how it relates to the hospital hierarchy.Apparently I asked the wrong level of doctor a difficult question because she said "well your level of complexity is way above my level of training and practice." I am pretty sure I saw 4 different doctors in the 5 hours I was in the hospital and it would be a lot more helpful if you had a better idea how they fit into the picture. Just saying :)
After they ran a whole bunch of different tests they decided I have a minor infection that may be causing the uterine irritability and a little medication would hopefully clear it up. Yay - a possible reason and an easy solution, you can't ask for much more than that!
The next day at my regular (weekly!) OB visit and ultrasound the news was all bad. My cervix was continuing to shorten and had noticeably done so since the previous day at the hospital. It looked to be funneling even past the cerclage stitch. She said all sorts of sucky things like having to take the stitch out if it continues, preterm labor, more infections. ACK!! Oh and the best part was they said we'll have to wait and see what happens. "Since the babies aren't viable yet there really isnt much else they can/would do. Oh but stay positive cause stress won't help the situation." Right, of course, let me sing my happy song now.
I went home and pretty much glued myself to the couch. I didnt want to do anything to make the situation worse. The next day I called the doctor I know the best and trust and she gave me a few words of
encouragement and said that really keeping as much pressure off the cervix as possible can help. She suggested stricter bedrest and going on leave from work. She also called in a prescription for me to help with the contractions. I've been trying the stricter bedrest for a day and half now and it seems to be helping... but of course there are no guarantees.
I'm doing my best to give my body a pep talk and give it nothing to stress about but growing babies and keeping them inside. Any prayers, positive thoughts, good karma you want to send this way would be appreciated. :-)
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Hospital Vacation
So I’m finally getting around to posting about last week. Glenn and I went in for my normal OB appointment Tuesday morning. Everything was going well and Glenn and I even joked, while the doctor left the office to get the ultrasound laptop, that we might be out in less than an hour! Yes! “Isn’t it great that everything is going smoothly again?!” chirped Glenn. He gets credit for the giant slip up in over-confidence. :)
Cue doctor and ultrasound. “Everyone is looking good…huh that doesn't look right.” It looked as though my cervix was funneling. She sent us over to do another ultrasound on a better machine and confirmed my cervix failure. There was only 1 cm still closed and the rest was open. This is only supposed to happen right before dilating and labor so it was definitely bad news and far too early for this to happen. (It was scary then but a little funny now: in the ultrasound we saw baby A sticking her little arm down into my open cervix like she was discovering the way out.) The Sonographer tried to console us by saying it could be worse and that they could still stop it. Off we went scared and upset to the hospital and so began our 4 day luxury vacation at the hospital.
As it normally seems to go with these things, you never really have a full picture of the plan of attack. You get little snip-its and the little snip-its keep changing. Our first impression was that we would only be there a a few hours to get the cerclage. Then we found out it would probably be late in the afternoon/evening since I ate breakfast that morning. Which is when we learned that this procedure was a little more serious than we had previously assumed. It required an epidural and involved some risks to baby A but the risks of not getting the procedure were far worse.
Next was the problem with me being on a blood thinner. They didn't want to go into the OR until it was out of my system for 24 hours. We would stay overnight, have the cerclage first thing in the morning and be out by lunchtime. It was a relief to be moved upstairs to our room though. The bed was soooo much better than the terrible thing I was laying on in Triage. Glenn camped out on the tiny pull out chair bed thing and we tried to come to grips that we were in the hospital.
The procedure was pretty scary I’ll have to admit. It took the anesthesiologists forever to get the epidural in. After numerous try's they finally got it in and apparently it took more than one person. Not sure what makes my back so much more difficult. After that, I think I may have been a little on the freaked out side of things. They kept asking me things and I had to try hard not to turn into a blubbering fool. It didn’t help that my hind side was up in the air for about 12 people to stare at. (The anesthesiologist assured me no one was staring..haha) After getting prepped and draped, prodded and poked they realized I was feeling far more than I should and I would never make it though the actual cerclage. Another epidural, rinse and repeat. That time I couldn’t feel or move anything from the hips down.
Afterwards things seemed to be going fine though the main doctor wanted me to stay the night for observation just in case. We were bummed but glad we did. The next couple of days involved pretty steady bleeding and some contractions that kept us in the hospital until Friday. The amazing thing about all of it was that at every check and ultrasound of the babies they were doing fine – heart rates were good and moving around like normal. It just seemed to be their mama that was having all the trouble. :) Apparently carrying triplets is hard work.
We are officially not planning any more vacations (Even if I wasn’t on bedrest!!). At the OB visit, mentioned above, we were planning to confirm with doc that it would be ok for us to fly down to Ft. Lauderdale. We had tickets we needed to use from our canceled cruise. We were going to stay in a nice hotel on the beach and relax. But alas no, we spent our vacation time in the hospital. :)
Cue doctor and ultrasound. “Everyone is looking good…huh that doesn't look right.” It looked as though my cervix was funneling. She sent us over to do another ultrasound on a better machine and confirmed my cervix failure. There was only 1 cm still closed and the rest was open. This is only supposed to happen right before dilating and labor so it was definitely bad news and far too early for this to happen. (It was scary then but a little funny now: in the ultrasound we saw baby A sticking her little arm down into my open cervix like she was discovering the way out.) The Sonographer tried to console us by saying it could be worse and that they could still stop it. Off we went scared and upset to the hospital and so began our 4 day luxury vacation at the hospital.
As it normally seems to go with these things, you never really have a full picture of the plan of attack. You get little snip-its and the little snip-its keep changing. Our first impression was that we would only be there a a few hours to get the cerclage. Then we found out it would probably be late in the afternoon/evening since I ate breakfast that morning. Which is when we learned that this procedure was a little more serious than we had previously assumed. It required an epidural and involved some risks to baby A but the risks of not getting the procedure were far worse.
Next was the problem with me being on a blood thinner. They didn't want to go into the OR until it was out of my system for 24 hours. We would stay overnight, have the cerclage first thing in the morning and be out by lunchtime. It was a relief to be moved upstairs to our room though. The bed was soooo much better than the terrible thing I was laying on in Triage. Glenn camped out on the tiny pull out chair bed thing and we tried to come to grips that we were in the hospital.
The procedure was pretty scary I’ll have to admit. It took the anesthesiologists forever to get the epidural in. After numerous try's they finally got it in and apparently it took more than one person. Not sure what makes my back so much more difficult. After that, I think I may have been a little on the freaked out side of things. They kept asking me things and I had to try hard not to turn into a blubbering fool. It didn’t help that my hind side was up in the air for about 12 people to stare at. (The anesthesiologist assured me no one was staring..haha) After getting prepped and draped, prodded and poked they realized I was feeling far more than I should and I would never make it though the actual cerclage. Another epidural, rinse and repeat. That time I couldn’t feel or move anything from the hips down.
Afterwards things seemed to be going fine though the main doctor wanted me to stay the night for observation just in case. We were bummed but glad we did. The next couple of days involved pretty steady bleeding and some contractions that kept us in the hospital until Friday. The amazing thing about all of it was that at every check and ultrasound of the babies they were doing fine – heart rates were good and moving around like normal. It just seemed to be their mama that was having all the trouble. :) Apparently carrying triplets is hard work.
We are officially not planning any more vacations (Even if I wasn’t on bedrest!!). At the OB visit, mentioned above, we were planning to confirm with doc that it would be ok for us to fly down to Ft. Lauderdale. We had tickets we needed to use from our canceled cruise. We were going to stay in a nice hotel on the beach and relax. But alas no, we spent our vacation time in the hospital. :)
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