Well we officially made it to our biggest milestone! 32 weeks! I'm pretty sure that no one thought we would make it this far, but we did. By 32 weeks, the babies are now fully developed. They just have some more growing to do, but my belly isn't going to be able to accommodate that for much longer. Trying to get in and out of bed is quite the chore. My belly is huge! Dr. Stoessel has officially taken me off of the magnesium around 10:15am. For those of you who don't know, the magnesium is given intravenously to keep contractions away. I still have contractions non-stop regardless, but I don't feel any of them so they haven't been a worry. Most people are only on magnesium for 24-48 hours, but it has been almost 9 weeks for me! If my body cooperates once the magnesium is out of my system, Dr. S may let me go home! Yay! Please pray that everything works out. I'm so ready to go home. Also, if I get to go home, I will now be able to have the babies at Tradition. This would be so much closer and convenient for us while the babies are in the NICU for a while.
So, that's about all of my news for today. Michael and I have moved our date night from last night to tonight just so he can be here if something does happen and we have to deliver the babies. It's pretty much just a waiting game at this point. I will be sure to keep everyone updated. Thanks again for all your prayers and kind words! We are finally in the home stretch! Thank goodness!
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Happy 31 weeks plus 2 days!!!
Well, I am still pregnant! Today's ultrasound showed an unbelievable amount of growth which leads us to believe that the last ultrasound was incorrect. As of today, Baby A ( the princess) weighs 3 pounds and 10 ounces. That's a 10 ounce gain. Baby B is still the chunky one at 4 pounds and 3 ounces. That is an 11 ounce gain. Baby C which supposedly didn't grow at our last ultrasound is now up to 4 pounds which is a 15 ounce gain. This means that I now have 11 pounds and 13 ounces of baby inside of me and let me tell you, I feel like I am carrying that much. This is not to mention the 8-10 extra pounds that make up all the amniotic fluid and the 3 separate placentas! Whew! There is sure a lot going on in there.
After Dr. Stoessel discussed the weights and went over the report with me, he then decided to shock the heck out of me! I still can't wrap my head around it. As some of you know, I have been on magnesium sulfate for 8 weeks now in order to control my contractions. Typically, magnesium is only used for 24-48 hours but my body has tolerated it well and I have been through 123 bags of it thus far. Since I am quickly approaching 32 weeks, Dr.S said we would talk about going off of the magnesium on Friday or Saturday and see how my body handles it and if everything is okay he said I could go home!!!! At 32 weeks, I am able to deliver at our new hospital, Tradition Medical Center. For those of you who don't know, that's only 25-30 minutes from our house compared to over an hour at the hospital that I'm currently at. This would be such a blessing to be closer to home and I know Dr. S would have never mentioned it if he had any doubts. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm thankful to have something to look forward to this week. Being able to look forward to things and counting down the days until my next ultrasound or my next test are the biggest things that have gotten me through the last 8 weeks. I know the end is finally in sight and we will soon be holding 3 babies and living in our new house which will be done very soon!! Lots of exciting things going on and I just wanted to keep everyone updated. Please continue to pray for us and pray that my body will cooperate after I am taken off of the magnesium. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to spend the remainder of my pregnancy at home with my husband and my family and of course my very cute and cuddly cat!!
After Dr. Stoessel discussed the weights and went over the report with me, he then decided to shock the heck out of me! I still can't wrap my head around it. As some of you know, I have been on magnesium sulfate for 8 weeks now in order to control my contractions. Typically, magnesium is only used for 24-48 hours but my body has tolerated it well and I have been through 123 bags of it thus far. Since I am quickly approaching 32 weeks, Dr.S said we would talk about going off of the magnesium on Friday or Saturday and see how my body handles it and if everything is okay he said I could go home!!!! At 32 weeks, I am able to deliver at our new hospital, Tradition Medical Center. For those of you who don't know, that's only 25-30 minutes from our house compared to over an hour at the hospital that I'm currently at. This would be such a blessing to be closer to home and I know Dr. S would have never mentioned it if he had any doubts. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm thankful to have something to look forward to this week. Being able to look forward to things and counting down the days until my next ultrasound or my next test are the biggest things that have gotten me through the last 8 weeks. I know the end is finally in sight and we will soon be holding 3 babies and living in our new house which will be done very soon!! Lots of exciting things going on and I just wanted to keep everyone updated. Please continue to pray for us and pray that my body will cooperate after I am taken off of the magnesium. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to spend the remainder of my pregnancy at home with my husband and my family and of course my very cute and cuddly cat!!
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Happy 31 weeks!!!
I really don't have many updates, but we have officially made it to 31 weeks!!! I totally had a meltdown in front of my doctor this week when he told me that he would let me go as far as 35 weeks before he took the babies and he wouldn't let me do home bed rest either!! Just the thought of being in the hospital for 4 more weeks mixed with hormones of a woman pregnant with triplets was enough to make me cry and to make him feel bad. This got me two perks though. I now get to eat off of the hospital VIP dinner menu. I'm not sure what normally qualifies someone as a VIP, but I'm happy to say that I am officially a dinner VIP and the food is way better than the regular food. Thank goodness. My second perk was that I got to ride in a wheel chair to get an ultrasound. This is pretty huge because when I say that I am on hospital bed rest this means that I haven't left my hospital room in 8 weeks. Needless to say, somehow I was forgotten about and ended up sitting in the hallway for 30 minutes after my ultrasound and for someone who is not used to sitting up for so long, I was completely exhausted the rest of the day. No more wheelchair rides for me.
In other news, we have ultrasounds every other day to check fluid levels and blood flow. All of the results have been great. We have our next growth ultrasound on Monday. Dr. Stoessel says that if Baby C hasn't grown again then it is possible that we may have to deliver them on Monday. If this is the case, I will be sure to update everyone as soon as I know. It is crazy to think that we can possibly be meeting our babies in 2 short days. I would like to thank everyone again for your thoughts and prayers. This has been a very long journey and definitely not what I thought my pregnancy would be like but it will be worth it when we lay eyes on our babies! It's still crazy to think that we are having triplets. Life will never be dull or boring again!!!
In other news, we have ultrasounds every other day to check fluid levels and blood flow. All of the results have been great. We have our next growth ultrasound on Monday. Dr. Stoessel says that if Baby C hasn't grown again then it is possible that we may have to deliver them on Monday. If this is the case, I will be sure to update everyone as soon as I know. It is crazy to think that we can possibly be meeting our babies in 2 short days. I would like to thank everyone again for your thoughts and prayers. This has been a very long journey and definitely not what I thought my pregnancy would be like but it will be worth it when we lay eyes on our babies! It's still crazy to think that we are having triplets. Life will never be dull or boring again!!!
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Happy 30 weeks plus 3 days!!
We have officially made it into the thirties!! Today also marks 7 weeks since I moved in at St.Mary's and I am more than ever ready to go home!! A person can only stay sane so long being in this place!
I know it's been a while since my last update, but I had a pretty tough few days. Last Thursday I started not feeling very well which led to blood tests that said my liver enzymes were elevated. Friday morning, I was put on a liquid diet and told that if my liver enzymes didn't stable out or go down that I would be having the babies. Needless to say, my levels remained stable and we didn't have the babies. Saturday I still wasn't feeling super great, but my levels were still okay. By Sunday, my levels were back up again and Dr.Stoessel once again put me on a water only diet and said we may have to deliver the babies if my second set of blood work didn't remain stable or go down. It was hard waiting those 2 hours for my results considering I could have been having my babies that day. When the results finally came back, they had went down a little so the babies were staying in. Since then, my liver enzyme levels have declined and I have been feeling better.
We still have our sites set on reaching the next milestone of 32 weeks, but babies born after 30 weeks thrive, so I feel that a lot of the pressure is off. We did have another growth ultrasound done on the 14th. Everyone is growing except for Baby C. Baby A gained 5 ounces and now weighs 3 pounds even. Baby B is a chunker. He gained 8 ounces and now weighs 3 pounds and 8 ounces. And as I said, Baby C gained only an ounce and weighs 3 pounds and 1 ounce. Since Baby C is having growth issues, I have ultrasounds every other day in order to make sure that he is getting proper blood flow and that all the babies have plenty of amniotic fluid. So far, all of our ultrasounds have shown that everything is functioning as it should. Our next growth ultrasound will be on the 24th and we will reevaluate Baby C's growth. It is very common for multiples to become growth restricted, so we will have to wait and see what the next ultrasound says.
Oh, one other important thing that I forgot to mention, Dr. Stoessel did finally decide to give me steroids to build the babies' lungs. This will help the babies breathe easier if they are born within the next week or two.
Okay, well I think that is all of the updates that I have for now. Everything is pretty much a guessing game right now because these babies could come at any time. It's like riding space mountain at Disney World and not being able to see what is coming next!
Again, I would like to thank everyone for your kind words and prayers. It's fantastic to have such wonderful friends and family who have reached out to me and Michael and our parents during these past 7 weeks. I'll be sure to update everyone again after our growth ultrasound on the 24th unless something happens before then that needs updating!!
I know it's been a while since my last update, but I had a pretty tough few days. Last Thursday I started not feeling very well which led to blood tests that said my liver enzymes were elevated. Friday morning, I was put on a liquid diet and told that if my liver enzymes didn't stable out or go down that I would be having the babies. Needless to say, my levels remained stable and we didn't have the babies. Saturday I still wasn't feeling super great, but my levels were still okay. By Sunday, my levels were back up again and Dr.Stoessel once again put me on a water only diet and said we may have to deliver the babies if my second set of blood work didn't remain stable or go down. It was hard waiting those 2 hours for my results considering I could have been having my babies that day. When the results finally came back, they had went down a little so the babies were staying in. Since then, my liver enzyme levels have declined and I have been feeling better.
We still have our sites set on reaching the next milestone of 32 weeks, but babies born after 30 weeks thrive, so I feel that a lot of the pressure is off. We did have another growth ultrasound done on the 14th. Everyone is growing except for Baby C. Baby A gained 5 ounces and now weighs 3 pounds even. Baby B is a chunker. He gained 8 ounces and now weighs 3 pounds and 8 ounces. And as I said, Baby C gained only an ounce and weighs 3 pounds and 1 ounce. Since Baby C is having growth issues, I have ultrasounds every other day in order to make sure that he is getting proper blood flow and that all the babies have plenty of amniotic fluid. So far, all of our ultrasounds have shown that everything is functioning as it should. Our next growth ultrasound will be on the 24th and we will reevaluate Baby C's growth. It is very common for multiples to become growth restricted, so we will have to wait and see what the next ultrasound says.
Oh, one other important thing that I forgot to mention, Dr. Stoessel did finally decide to give me steroids to build the babies' lungs. This will help the babies breathe easier if they are born within the next week or two.
Okay, well I think that is all of the updates that I have for now. Everything is pretty much a guessing game right now because these babies could come at any time. It's like riding space mountain at Disney World and not being able to see what is coming next!
Again, I would like to thank everyone for your kind words and prayers. It's fantastic to have such wonderful friends and family who have reached out to me and Michael and our parents during these past 7 weeks. I'll be sure to update everyone again after our growth ultrasound on the 24th unless something happens before then that needs updating!!
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Happy 28 weeks plus 3 days!!
Well, today marks 5 weeks since I started calling St.Mary's Medical Center my home, but it has all been worth it since last Saturday we hit another huge milestone by making it to 28 weeks!!! We have also received some really great test results in the past few days! On Friday, we repeated the FFN test (the test that tells you the likelihood of going into labor in the next 2 weeks) and we once again received a negative result, which is great news. The same day, I had my cervix checked and it actually has remained stable. So again, some very good news! However, I think the best news was from our growth ultrasound yesterday. As many of you may remember, our babies were not growing so good for the past few weeks. Matter of fact, they had hardly grown at all in the 10 day span between the previous 2 ultrasounds. It was such a big worry that my doctor was actually talking about taking them out at 30 weeks. Well, yesterday's ultrasound proved to be better! Baby A (the princess) is currently weighing in at 2 pounds 11 ounces. That's a change of 11 ounces in only 10 days! Baby B is now 3 pounds even. He gained approximately 13 ounces in 10 days! And finally, Baby C is also an even 3 pounds, which is approximately a 14 ounce gain in 10 days! I met with Dr. Stoessel today and he was very pleased with this progress and he is still going to hold off on giving me the steroids to build the babies' lungs which means he thinks we can keep them in for a little while longer. I should be having another growth ultrasound in approximately 10 days so hopefully we can continue the progress and the princess can work towards 3 pounds and the boys can work towards 4 pounds! When put into perspective, it's crazy to think that I'm currently carrying 8 pounds and 11 ounces of baby and I'm only a little over 28 weeks. It's crazy what a woman's body can do!
I just want to thank everyone for their continued prayers and kind words! Please keep the prayers coming! The longer we can keep these babies in, the less chance they have of any long term effects from being a preemie! So, happy trails until next time!
I just want to thank everyone for their continued prayers and kind words! Please keep the prayers coming! The longer we can keep these babies in, the less chance they have of any long term effects from being a preemie! So, happy trails until next time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)