Starting to count down

I haven't blogged yet this week but the update Monday morning was 95-99% we are delivering next week.  Just don't know what day yet.  There are 2 specialists that do my sonograms and one is much more informative than the other, I had the quiet one Friday so I didn't get the full story.  Monday I had the doc I prefer and who talks and it turns out that even though Emma gained weight she didn't gain any abdominal circumference.  That is where they measure growth at this stage.  He said her brain is protected first so the 4oz went to her brain and a bit in her femur length but nothing to her abdomen.  The doctors are both agreed that based on the absence of her growth they will still let us go all this week to 32 (which starts next Monday the 27th) as long as none of the more serious problems rear their ugly heads this week.  They will also measure Emma again this Friday to do a 3 week growth comparison but they don't think she will have grown this week if she didn't the last 2 weeks.  :(  I'm waiting on my OB to visit today, Tuesday, to get a better idea of what is going on next week.

We might get to choose a day next week for them to be born.  Yuan is totally pulling for leap day.  Such a meanie, he wants to mess with the kids.  ;)  

I posted a 31 week photo of my belly.  They dropped down low since the 30 week pic which I definitely feel.  They are heavier now and Ethan feels like he is falling out!  I'm contracting more too.  BUT, I still have a rock solid 2.5cm long cervix.  Still not looking like labor will make this happen.  


I got Jacuzzi privileges this week which has been awesome!  I soak in oatmeal to help with the itching and float to help relieve the aches and pains.  The area of Labor and Delivery where the tub is is under construction so they nurses sneak me in at night.  It's entertaining.


My itching is a bit more manageable again but it takes constant doses of medicine which comes with fun side effects.  It will be nice to be off of everything soon!

Almost 31 Weeks!

I'm writing this post at 4am.  I've been up for most of the night itching like crazy.  The medicine is not working well anymore.  This is night 2 or 3 that I can't sleep.  I have lovely bruises all over my body from scratching, better than drawing blood I'm told.  The Benadryl I take to try to knock myself out and help with a little itching isn't working either.  I was hoping it wouldn't get this bad yet.  We still have at least a week (8 more nights) until I am willing to deliver.  :)  I'm pretty sure my days and nights are going to reverse soon, napping during the day is the only good sleep I get.

Per my last comment above, that is my excuse for not blogging much this week.  I sleep so much of the day now.  This week we were anxious for Friday's measurement of the babies growth.  Friday morning was torture waiting for the doctor who turns out wasn't coming until later in the day...  He showed up around lunch time.  It was one of my longest sonograms yet during which he was silent a lot and then checking my chart a lot.  This is the specialist that tends to give us all of our bad news so I was laying on the table dying!!!  He gave me their new sizes:

Ethan is 3lb and 12oz, gain 10oz

Alex is 2lb and 13 oz, gain of 6 oz

Emma is 2lb and 7oz, gain of 4 oz

Emma's gain just met the minimum growth requirement so we were cleared to keep waiting.  But after the measurements he completely freaked me out buzzing the babies trying to make them move a TON of times then having me roll to one side and while he shook and buzzed my belly.  I was so worried they had stopped moving.  My kiddos are super active so I was a bit perplexed and of course scared something drastic had changed.  But it turned out all he wanted to see was practice breathing...  I hadn't had lunch yet which apparently makes them do this more so he was trying to tick them off and get them to do it.  Finally we are finished and the doctor, notoriously moody, was silent, so I said sonogram Monday and I assume everything else is ok?  He said yep and I left figuring I'd speak with my OB about the next milestone.

Of course I haven't seen my OB yet so I don't know what our next milestone will be.  Yuan and I think that we will get to keep trucking through this 31st week but don't know what will happen at 32 weeks.  We don't know if at exactly 32 weeks we will deliver or if they will let us continue to 32 and 5 days when we are due for another growth check.  If Emma had grown this time a little more I think they might let us go later in the 32nd week but now I'm not so sure.  The on call OB today said he would love to see us get all the babies over 3lbs, us too!  We think Alex has a chance if we can go to late 32 weeks but Emma probably won't make it.

Other than those 2 big items nothing else much new.  I had another week of amazing visitors to keep me company, thank you so much ladies for your visits and lunches and treats!!!  I'm really wearing out on hospital food.  I have most of next week free for visits :)  Tuesday is taken but if anyone has any time the rest of the week I would be happy to see you!!!

30 Week Monday

I just posted a 30 week pic of my tummy.  I think I got bigger closer to my chest.  Emma has really taken up residence right under my rib cage.  I haven't changed size around the largest part of my tummy though, still 46". They should get measured on Friday so hopefully they will still show good growth.

My sonogram today went better.  It was with the other specialist who didn't see any change since I saw him last Wednesday and was surprised his partner and the on call OB freaked out so much this weekend.  He says we are still hanging in there and he wouldn't have suggested the steroids just yet.  Oh well.  He also wanted my cervical length checked, though he agreed he wouldn't prevent labor either he said it would be a good indication of imminent delivery.  And so I get to brag that yay, no change, 2.5cm still!!!  These babies are only coming early due to the stinking placenta, the babies and I are in tip top shape!

The itching is starting to come back, I'm going to have to cave soon and take the medicine again.  My tummy is still upset from the first time.  I'm not looking forward to it...  TUMS have become my best friend.

Today the construction workers really did decide to dig out under my room.  For about 2 hours it looked as though a giant back hoe would be coming through my window!  The shaking was crazy and even the diesel fuel smell was filling the room.  Yuck.

My friend Katie came to visit today with lunch, what a treat!  I'm getting bit tired of hospital food so it was such a nice change of pace.  She is great company and helped pass much of the day!  Thank you again Katie!!

Week 30!!

I have been holding off on posting because so much has been up in the air the last few days.  It's been a bit stressful to say the least.  A week ago I posted that Alex was having decreased diastolic flow as well and they monitored her closely over the last week and it steadily progressed to no flow.  Friday morning my normally very calm perinatologist seemed concerned and started to talk delivery over the weekend.  Of course my OB went out of town this weekend Fri thru Mon and he is my calm doctor who always de-stresses the situation.  So the on call doctor, one of my OB's partners, and the perinatologist decided it was best to do my second round of steroid shots starting Friday.  I was wary after all my talks with my OB about when to do the second round of steroids.  I told them I didn't want to start them Friday.  The on call OB came back to visit me and explained why he and the specialist wanted me to take the shots now.  They both felt the progression of Alex from diastolic flow to no flow was fairly fast and the pattern looked to be heading to reverse flow sooner than later.  Even though we still can't predict the delivery date the steroids will assist in their bowel development and help protect them from brain hemorrhage.  While the steroids are most effective for their respiratory systems when delivered 72 hours prior to birth they are more effective for the other two issues no matter when given.  Even if we don't deliver until 32 weeks the babies should get the benefit in their bowels and brains from the steroids.  After this discussion I agreed to the shots.

Saturday morning the perinatologist came in again to do another sonogram.  Still no reverse flow, yay!  And he felt ok not doing a sonogram again until Monday.   We monitor heart rates 3 times a day for 30 minutes each time and that should be enough to detect any issues in the babies in between sonograms.  The goal is still to make it to 32 weeks.  Neither the specialist nor the on call OB feels this will happen they both predict this week.  My guess is my OB will still be hopeful for 32 weeks.  Of course that is our hope too.  I at least don't want it to be until Tuesday when my OB returns to work.  I picked him largely for his C-section skills!!  Plus I would just feel calmer with him making the decision.  The major factor for delivery is still the presence of reverse diastolic flow.  As long as neither girl develops this we can keep hanging on.  Everything else still looks great.  No decrease in anyone's amniotic fluid.  So far during monitoring the girls have very few variables or decelerations.  We even started monitoring them with the contraction monitor on to see if their blood supply is affected by contractions and it doesn't seem to do much.  All really good.  So we just need their darn placenta to hang on 2 more weeks!  The doctors also say they won't stop me if I go into labor at this point, however the way things are going that doesn't seem to be an issue either.

We started treating the choleostasis on Friday.  I took 2 doses of the medicine for it.  Stopped the itching but OMG the miserable side effects.  It did a number on my GI system.  I was so nauseated with horrible acid reflux and indigestion.  I could barely eat, had to not allow myself to vomit (didn't want to start labor) and sleep sitting up.  I was maxing out on Tums!!  Miserable, it was like having morning sickness again.  I talked to the doc and he said lets go to one dose a day.  Well, yesterday I didn't itch so I didn't take a dose and today I'm still at a place where I can tolerate what itching has returned.  So maybe I can hang on with 1 dose every 2 to 3 days.  It shouldn't be more than 2 weeks.  :)

I'm getting sad though as we approach delivery.  Even with the side effects of pregnancy, which aren't a blast, I love being pregnant!!  I love feeling the babies move and trying to predict their personalities based on how they are acting in the womb.  I love the way my body looks pregnant.  I love the feeling of carrying around life inside me.  I will miss this when it's over and I'm sad it's only going to be once.  Although I think 3 will be quite enough.  :)  I spend a lot of time each day just watching my tummy move and playing with the kids as they push a hand or foot out.  I feel bad there is nothing we can do to allow them to stay inside longer, I wish they could make it to 35/36 weeks.  It is so frustrating that their placenta gave out too early.  Otherwise they are all so healthy as am I.  Grrr.  Ethan is really getting the shaft too, he is not having any issues and just has to go along with the girls.  Guess he better get used to that.  Yuan and I are still grateful we made it to 30 weeks!  Each passing day decreases their complication risks.

Speaking of Yuan, he brought me beautiful Valentine's Day flowers this morning and home cooked Chinese food!  I have officially gotten sick of the hospital food.  I miss his cooking so much.  So all weekend I've had awesome food!  Some is about to arrive for dinner too.  We also finally got a chance to snuggle up in my tiny hospital bed and take a nap this afternoon.  It was so wonderful to sleep next to my husband again.  I"m sure we will have to play some Canasta after dinner since I soundly whooped him yesterday, he wants revenge.  He has been amazing through all this, you can certainly tell what your marriage is made of when you go through infertility and a multiple pregnancy!

As long as I'm not having babies Thursday is open for a visitor this week!  ;)  Looking forward to seeing everyone else who already told me they are coming other days.  I'll post my 30 week picture later.

Fire! No. Building being demolished! No. OK, I survived today.

It's been entertaining here today.  For the majority of the day my room has been shaking as the patio below me is demolished.  I've considered that I may have to quickly exit my room if they miss the ground and hit a pillar instead.  It has felt like the building was being hit by a wrecking ball all day.  Luckily I had guests all day to keep my mind off the noise.  Of course, in Baylor Grapevine tradition the fire alarm has now started going off at random.  This also happened when I was here for my 13 week over nighter.  We lost power that night too so hopefully that doesn't happen too.

The big news of the day is my itching.  It's gotten worse.  :(  Labs showing liver is getting more unhappy so it's time to start some meds.  Darn.  Still not to a point where we would have to deliver because of it.  In the mean time it is miserable.  I'm not sleeping much because of it which is frustrating.  Hope this new medicine makes it tolerable again.

The babies have been stable this week, Emma still no diastolic flow and Alex decreased diastolic flow.  So we will keep on trucking.  29 weeks and 4 days today.  We need to get to 32 weeks, that is our current goal.  If we make it to 33 we will celebrate!!  Tomorrow marks 3 weeks in the hospital.  I won't say it's fun or I like being here but it isn't as bad as I expected it to be.  I have amazing friends who visit me often, I sleep a lot, play canasta all weekend with Yuan, and I am learning how to knit a really misshapen washcloth.  I am not getting to even 25% of the stuff I thought I would while in here.  I was going to read a ton - nope, I just fall asleep.  I was going to write thank you cards - nope can't move my wrists to write (thankfully I can type!!),  I was going to cut stencils for a project for the babies - nope, need my heat knife the x-acto knife isn't working.  Basically, most things I try to do make me fall asleep.  I'm so exciting right now...  Wish I could bank all this sleep for when the babies get here.

I'm not sure I mentioned this in an earlier post but we had a NICU tour this past weekend.  We were glad we did it, we learned a lot and now have an idea of what to expect.  Still can't believe my tiny belly has 3 29 week old babies in it!!

Sonogram tomorrow morning; fingers crossed there are no changes.

I have a visitor on Monday and probably Tuesday so I'm taking offers for the other three days :)  Thanks again to everyone who is keeping me company!!

Ugh, really Emma

The babies made some big moves this weekend to some new positions.  Emma has unfortunately reversed her position and now has her head in my stomach, gallbladder and liver.  The result of this is mom is nauseated and has increased heart burn.  Here is a very crude drawing of their locations, it's killing me to post stick figures considering my profession but my tools are pretty limited on my laptop (Paint and a lap top finger pad...)

I think Miss Alex is making a play for the first baby out position.  Ethan better hold his ground.

The updated on everyone's health is still pretty good.  After Alex showed decreased diastolic flow last week on Friday we got put on daily sonograms and there was a lot of conversation about whether I should get my next round of steroids this week for delivery this week.  However, after 3 sonograms she seems to be holding fairly steady.

I just spoke at length with our OB about what conditions require delivery and what we can keep them in utero with.  If both girls keep their current situation, one with no diastolic flow and one with decreased, as long as they have weight gain every 2 weeks we can keep them gestating  If Alex develops no flow also we can still keep them in utero as long as there is weight gain.  The perinatologist said at 32 weeks with no diastolic flow in both babies he would recommend delivery.  I asked our OB about that because our baby measuring takes place at the end of our weeks so at the beginning of 32 we wouldn't have checked their growth yet.  I wanted to know if we could wait until the end of 32 weeks to measure them and then decide.  If they are still showing decent growth the OB agreed we could keep going.  If at any time we have reverse flow on any baby, or amniotic fluid starts to get too low on any baby or if anyone's HR starts showing a deceleration pattern then we deliver much sooner.  We would hope to decide to deliver and be able to push delivery off for 72 hours so we can get steroids on board first.  A much more immediate delivery is a possibility though with those problems.  Basically we take everything day by day but we know the criteria for delivery.

My contractions are still super manageable and make everyone happy.  They aren't dictating delivery at all right now.  Bed rest and eating are the only things I can do to help the babies keep growing.  The placenta degradation is dictating everything at this point.  I could be hooked up to an IV with an extra 1000 calories going in every day and it wouldn't help anything, the placenta is only letting through a certain amount and they feel I am eating all the calories I need.

Emma finally rolled over and we got the first picture of her face in 3 months!  So below are two sono pics from the morning showing Emma and Alex.  I think they look pretty similar, but how can one really tell with resolution this poor.

 Emma

Alex

PS-Ethan actually put on 5 oz in his last measurement.  I incorrectly calculated his weight gain.  The girls both put on 6oz and Ethan 5oz.  Yay!

2 Weeks Down

Another week gone by.  We had a few issues come up this week.  On Thursday Alex decided she wanted more attention so she had a heart rate deceleration during monitoring.  The perinatologists said they aren't concerned that both Emma and Alex have had just one deceleration each.  There is no pattern so they are probably isolated incidents.  But of course this means no decrease in monitoring, we have to stay with 3 times a day.

On Friday we found out that Alex has decreased diastolic flow now.  Emma's is absent, and hasn't changed from that since they first found it.  We were warned that this might happen to Alex too, her's is not absent but has decreased.  They won't deliver unless someone's flow reverses, so hopefully we won't reach that point.  We did discuss with our OB the timing of our second round of steroid shots to help mature the babies lungs.  The timing of these shots is really difficult because they are most effective when given 72 hours before delivery.  Figuring out when 72 hours before delivery is going to be is quite the challenge.  As of right now we are on a sonogram to sonogram decision making process, the babies could stay this way a long time.  Or things could change rapidly.  We are going to see how things go next week.

The babies got weighed on Friday.  Ethan is 3lbs 2 oz, Alex is 2lbs 7oz, and Emma is 2lbs 4oz.  Both girls gained 6oz over the last 2 weeks and Ethan gained 3oz.  Amazingly enough I lost weight from last week to this week even though I gained a 1lb of baby + fluid and placenta.  Ugh, bed rest is making all my muscle disappear.

We hit the 29 week mark tomorrow.  Yay, another week of baby gestation down, hopefully 6+ to go!
No baby pictures this week, only one of our specialists does them and he didn't this week.  I suspect there wouldn't be much change :)

Nothing else new, I had a great group of visitors this week, a huge thank you to Brenley, Carolynn, Meijken and Kaija, Michelle (who cut my hair!!) and of course Yuan.  Lindsay is coming today and bringing me a chai latte which I've been craving!  I probably don't need the sugar but they are so yummy.  A volunteer started my knitting lessons this week.  I can knit two rows of a washcloth like a pro, then I'm totally stuck.  Looking forward to Monday's lesson so maybe I can do a few more rows.  I'm certainly not a natural.  It is great to kill time and keeps my hands busy so I don't scratch as much.  I was diagnosed with choleostasis this week so at least I have a reason for the itching!!  No treatment as of now, we will discuss that option if it gets worse and unmanageable.  I can tough it out for now!  Yuan and I will watch the super bowl tomorrow night, go Giants! and eat way too many wings.  I think perhaps the hospital knows a lot of people are ordering dinner out tomorrow, they have terrible food choices for Sunday night ;)

For next week I have visitor openings on Wednesday and possibly Friday morning, though I'm emailing someone about Friday morning now.  I'm hoping to get a massage Friday afternoon!  Thanks a million to everyone who is visiting, it helps more than you will ever know!!!

PS-I was unable to find a way to post a calendar, sorry, just email me about visiting days.

2nd Monday, 5 more Mondays to go? Fingers Crossed

No sonogram yet today so I'll post the results of that later today after it finally happens.  The Peri on today is not much for routine.  He was here this morning but only had time for one more emergent patient and is coming back this afternoon to do the rest of our sonograms in antepartum.

I had a dream last night that my OB called to tell me I was actually having 5 babies and I needed to have that confirmed during my sonogram this morning.  I took the news surprisingly well.  Luckily we still only found 3 heart beats this morning, so I think I'm safe.

Emma and Ethan were good babies this morning and monitored really well, Alex would have no part of it and spent her entire 10 minutes kicking and punching the monitoring pad.  Thankfully my nurse is level headed and doesn't spend an hour trying to make an uncooperative baby get on the monitor when she is clearly moving and we can hear her heart beat.  Emma is the only one that MUST have a 10 minute printed strip so when she isn't in the mood to cooperate monitoring takes forever.

Here's a picture of me all hooked up to the heart beat monitors yesterday afternoon.  You can see how hard the nurses are pushing trying to get the HR's to trace on the computer.  Big surprise this started contractions.  The better nurses don't push this hard.

Yuan has convinced me to start posting my diameter in my weekly tummy size pictures to the right.  Since I'm about the size, or larger, than a 40 week single pregnancy at this point I can safely say, I would have had a cute sized single baby belly.  I am all up front and a cute little round ball of babies.  I'm interested to find out what I look like in 6 or 7 weeks.  I still don't think I'll be as big as I expect.  Thank goodness for being so tall!!

This weekend Yuan brought me noodles with beef /Chinese celery and eggs/ tomatoes - so delicious.  We had that twice.  We played a ton of California Canasta and he killed me.  I need a new strategy...  We took a nice wheel chair ride Sunday, it was in the 60's with tons of sunshine.  Yuan decided to make a work out out of it and found a line of traffic cones in the parking lot that we he ran and pushed me weaving through a few times.  He thinks his record time is about 30 seconds and dares anyone else to beat his time!  He is awesome, I've kept him busy on the weekends with cooking, cleaning and errands.  He tends to spend the mornings at home trying to accomplish everything then the rest of the day and evening here at the hospital.  He also stops by every night and sometimes in the mornings too.  I don't think either of us will be well rested when the babies arrive...  Maybe better to not have such a shock to our systems upon their arrival.  He is an awesome husband, I couldn't ask for anyone better.  

I'm hopefully going to learn how to Knit.  Volunteer services offers knitting and crocheting lessons.  I figured something to pass the time while I watch tv might be nice.  We will see how this goes, I'm not the best at anything sewing related.  My instructor just stopped by to meet me and said she will be back with supplies.  

Had our sonogram this afternoon and yet again no worsening in Emma, yay!  Good fluid, good movements and stable circulation issue.  HR monitoring afterward was less than successful, both Emma and Alex weren't in the mood.  We did the best we could but knowing they had just looked fine on the sonogram helped.

My friend Brenley came by this morning to chat and brought me cookies!!!  Soooo good.  I told her she managed to tie my friend Katie's title for best chocolate chip cookies!  I also got a care package from my brother and his wife that was funny and awesome - thanks again guys!

I have lots of visitors this week, I'm so excited.  Next week is currently open so just contact me to set up a day and time.  I'm going to seek out a way to post a calendar if I can now.  Thanks for being such great friends and family everyone!!

1 week mark

It's been a chaotic morning, not because anything was wrong but because the normal things are all out of wack.  I asked for my breakfast to be delivered at 8:30 today as I had to fast for blood work that had yet to be ordered and most likely wouldn't get drawn until 8:15.  The nutrition hostess last night said it would be no problem she would enter it in my chart.  Well, the food showed up at 7:30 of course.  I told the hostess the situation and she said ok, I'll set it out here for later.  To which I replied, no, I'm not eating hour plus old food, I want a new tray when I asked for it at 8:30.

Over the next hour I had my sonogram which went great, Emma is still the same, other two look good and my cervix hasn't changed even a millimeter!!  Bed rest is helping as are the shots to stop the contractions.  My OB stopped by and he ordered the liver test for choleostasis and said sorry the only thing you can do for some relief from the itching is ice.  :(  But even if I have choleostasis it shouldn't make us have to deliver early.  Yay!!

The nurse was able to get the lab up to draw my blood pretty fast, so they rolled in at 8:15 and got that done.  Then my tray of food was brought in.  Same tray, cold old food with warm milk for my cereal.  Disgusting.  I was pissed-but also starving.  So I just ate the gross breakfast, minus the warm milk.  Then at 9am, nutrition services rolls in with a fresh breakfast tray.  I'm thinking, you have to be kidding me.  I was so aggravated.  It's hard enough getting them to monitor the babies around meal times so I don't always eat cold food.  It would be nice to try and get at least 1 hot meal a day...  Grr.

1st heart rate monitoring of the day good.  Didn't happen until 11am, but still good.  2 more to go.

Yummy lunch today too, chef's salad.  For hospital food I expected far worse, it's been fairly decent.  Definitely edible.  Yuan is making and bringing dinner for the both of us tonight.  Noodles with veggie dishes on top.  So good!  Looking forward to that.  :)  I am having a pedicure today too!  The hospital has approved people than can come in for things like that.  I am so looking forward to that!!  My poor neglected toes.

Here are the sonogram pictures from today.

Ethan's profile.  Mainly his head with a little of the top of his chest.  You can even see a healthy ventricle in his brain!

Alex's portrait.  She is face forward, a little haunting but some well defined features for an ultrasound.  I assume that is her hand next to her head but they are getting crowded in there so it could be someone else's...

The back of Emma's head and part of her spine...  Yep, she rolled over 2 months ago and we haven't seen her face since.  She is camera shy, or else is demanding 1 million dollars for the first portrait of herself-Blue Ivy ain't got nothing on Emma Gao.  Since she is an identical twin I assume she looks a lot like her sister above.  :)

Since everything is looking good today they probably won't do a sonogram again until Monday morning.

Have a nice weekend, I'll only write if something worthy of an update happens.

Oh the itching!

It has been an eventful few days as far as hospitalization goes.  Yesterday, Wednesday we had a scare with Emma.  During her morning heart rate monitoring she had a major deceleration, she was down to 50 bpm and under 100 for 6 minutes of monitoring, in the 50's for at least 2 of those.  The normal HR for a in utero baby is 120 to 180 bpm.  The nurse quickly had me roll from my back to one side then the other trying to get it back up.  She quickly called my OB who said keep monitoring her and get the sonogram done asap!  Her HR did start to climb and luckily the perinatalogist had just arrived so they rushed me to sonogram.  He looked and of course her HR was normal again and thankfully her circulatory problem had not worsened.  She was the same still.  They ordered more monitoring a day to see if this was an isolated event for Emma, like she rolled onto her cord, or if it is a pattern.  So far all her monitoring since has been normal.  :)

I also had a wonderful baby shower yesterday that my friends held here at the hospital in my room.  It was so sweet of them and so many of them were able to alter their plans and make the trip to the hospital.  Thank you again Sarah for arranging everything.

The new news is my itching.  I've been itching all over for a month but it's been manageable.  The last two days it has become far worse.  Last night I barely slept had such bad itching of my palms and soles of my feet.  So we ran some liver blood work today which came back slightly abnormal.  I might have a bile acids test run tomorrow to see if I am developing choleostasis.  If I am it sounds like we have to  hope the acids rise slowly because there is no fix other than delivery...  There is a drink they can put you on to try and keep them lower and delay needing to deliver.  Grr.  So hopefully I'm not going to be a problem.  The blood test takes 4 days to come back.

Having the fun terbutaline shakes right now as I try and type, that's a challenge.  But luckily still only had maximum of 2 a day usage of it for the contractions.  That is good.

My friend Katie and her daughter Annabelle came for a visit today and brought their amazing chocolate chip cookies - of which I've eaten way too many already!  We chatted and then they took me on my wheel chair ride.  It was lovely out and I so appreciated some fresh air.  It was great to have company and helped to fill my morning.  After they left I ate lunch then took a 2.5 hour nap until almost 4pm!  Awesome!

Sonogram tomorrow morning, I'll report on the babies after that.  Wish me a far less itchy night so I can sleep!!!

Tuesday - Day 3, or is it technically day 4?

Since I didn't check in last Friday until about 3pm I'm not sure I can really count that as a day in the hospital.  :)  Although it feels like it.

Nothing much new today.  We did not have a sonogram so the only update on the babies is their first heart rate monitoring of the day was good, everyone close to or in the 150's and everyone is kicking, punching and flipping up a storm.  It makes me feel so reassured to feel them move so much and get stronger with each week.  But it is a busy belly for sure.

My doctor came to discuss contractions this morning.  He is pleased with where I stand with them so far, they aren't too concerning, in fact very typical for 27 weeks with triplets, not worse than they should be.  No regular medication needed for them at this point.  We will continue to treat the ones that come up and start to get regular with intermittent injections of medicine.  It was a reassuring discussion.  I also got permission to have a massage therapist come!  Yay!  I already scheduled a pedicure for Friday - can't wait for that!  It's been 3 months already since I could really reach my toes so they are looking neglected.  He also gave me permission to sit in one of the chairs of my room for meals and here and there during the day for a change of pace.  Though I will eventually be entirely restricted to the bed right now he is more interested in limiting my activity to basically nothing.  But sitting in a chair is cool.  So yay again, a break from the bed!

I tried to get someone from volunteer services to come give me a wheel chair ride today but so far no luck.  I think I missed my window of decent weather now.  At 2pm it was supposed to be 65, the high for the day.  Plus the rain is coming!  Storms are predicted for this evening.  We need the rain so I can't complain.  Hopefully there will be a good lightening show so I have something to watch!

I'm super excited for tomorrow, my friends are throwing me a baby shower at the hospital.  I'm so looking forward to the company, and honestly, the cupcakes.  :)  I also have visitors Thursday and Friday.  I know having someone visit as often as possible will help with the boredom.

I sewed a ripped hem of a nightgown and talked on the phone all morning, that helped.  This afternoon I spoke with my mother in law and have been watching a movie and playing online.  It has become too cloudy to read, I'll just fall asleep though that might just happen anyway.  Better take advantage of naps now!

Moving Monday

I was woken up this morning by a nurse coming in to say you all ready to move to your new room?  That was at 7:20am.  I looked at her and said, I just woke up and this is the first I've heard of the move so can I at least wait for my husband to arrive and pack me and maybe go pee?  :)

Things happened all on top of each other then.  Yuan arrived, quickly packed me, the nurses came to help move our stuff and I jumped into a wheel chair.  I managed to get a ride to the door of my room and was diverted to the Sonogram room for my scan with the perinatologist.  Then during the scan my OB came and found us, said I've been looking everywhere for you, your old room, your new room, if you weren't here I'd think you escaped!

The scan this morning showed no change in Emma's circulation.  But no change is still good.  It didn't get worse.  Ethan and Alex look good too.

Heart rate monitoring went so much faster this morning too!  15-20 minutes tops.  What a difference good monitors make.  :)  But the combo of moving rooms, a sonogram, heart rate monitoring and a shower stirred things up and my contractions were going.  Another shot of Terbutaline.  One last night too.  But I was informed today that my uterus is already the size of a 40 week single pregnancy uterus!  So my body thinks it needs to start contracting and begin labor.

In my new room now.  It is slightly smaller than the LD room but still quite nice.  Better view and better bed!!  A refrigerator and places to put my personal items.  So a good move I think.  Luckily it is quiet too.  You sort of go into a closet to get into my room so I have double doors, that helps with noise - except when people need in the closet...  But I'm ok with it.  I just need a plant or something, I can see brown trees in the distance outside but it feels very sterile.  I was hoping my windows would open, but no luck.  Not like I could fit through the opening to jump out..  Oh well.  My new room is LDR13 and the direct phone number is 817-305-5351.  I have my cell with me at all times so you can just call on that.

Thanks for all the comments and well wishes, they make me feel far less alone.  Hopefully we will make it 8 more weeks!  Seems like an eternity but it would be so awesome for the babies!!!

PS - Thank you to all my neighbors and friends on Delaina for the shower you were all having for me on Friday.  I'm bummed it had to be cancelled but it was such a nice thing to have you all participate in.  I received your gift - thank you to everyone!  And Angie sent the cake with Yuan to the hospital, it was delicious and so cute.  We shared with the LD floor and everyone was excited.  Here is a picture of the cake before the feeding frenzy began.

They are technically Gao Triplets :)  

No worries, having a different last name than your husband messes a lot of things up.  

Thank you so much Angie and Kim for organizing the shower!  That was incredibly thoughtful of you.

Catching You Up

I decided to start a blog to keep everyone updated on the triplet's progress day to day.  It seemed easier than sending and answering individual emails and texts - though that is one way to kill the time!  So here goes the first post which includes a little catching you all up on the last few days so it is going to be a little long.

On Friday January 20th at our Perinatologist appointment it was discovered that Baby C, better known as Emma, is having circulatory issues.  That alone landed me in the hospital that day for bed rest and close monitoring of her especially but also her identical twin Alex since they now share a placenta.  Additionally, my cervix had shortened to 2.5cm which is the cut off for being off bed rest and needing to be put on it.  So double whammy Friday morning.  Luckily there was no imminent danger so I was allowed to go home and pack, eat lunch, and I even squeezed in a maternity photo shoot with my amazing photographer friend Sarah!  So happy to have done those photo's, Sarah already sent me two and they are awesome!  I will find out if I can post some soon.

Emma's circulatory issue stems from the placenta.  She has low/immeasurable diastolic pressure.  Simply meaning the blood from the placenta is flowing into her still but isn't coming back out as well as it should.  She currently doesn't have back flow of the blood which is a good thing!  So there are many scenarios of what could happen with this.  One, the worst case is she starts having back flow of blood and that will stop her growth and everyone has to be delivered early, this week or next.  Two, the circulation stays the way it currently is, not worsening not improving, and she still doesn't have good growth in two weeks, we probably deliver at 29 weeks.  Third, circulation stays the way it is but she keeps growing enough then everyone stays in.  Fourth, her circulation improves and she grows then again everyone stays in and we shoot for 34 + weeks.  There is a small possibility Alex's circulation could become affected also but that would mostly happen if Emma's worsens or doesn't improve.  This apparently is very common in triplets, even twins, and a lot of them do manage to hang on with bed rest for many more weeks.  So we are hopeful.  Just to clarify, the problem is in the placenta, not Emma's heart so this won't affect her outside the womb.

When we finally go to the hospital I was admitted and put in a Labor and Delivery room because antipartum was full.  No big deal they are right next to each other and nice for me because the LD room is HUGE compared to the Anti room.  I didn't have to go on an IV which is so nice, I have more mobility and less irritating things attached to me.  They gave me my first steroid shot to help mature the triplets lungs in case things get worse and we have to deliver in the next week or two.  So I will hang out in LD until a woman with triplets in antipartum delivers this week, then I get her room :)  The nice thing about having triplets is I need so much additional monitoring equipment that they have to keep me in big rooms.  This hospital only has 2 large antipartum rooms so I have one waiting for me now.  :)  Yay!  This is a big deal to me because I was in a small room at 13 weeks and it was icky.  Old, run down, tiny tiny with a tiny tiny bathroom to boot, and loud in a more used hallway.  The large room is much more quite, recently updated and doesn't feel claustrophobic.  Fingers crossed it has a view too, my current room does and that's nice.

Saturday morning both my OB and the second perinatologist visited me and gave a lot of reassurance.  The perinatologist did another sonogram and nothing had changed.  I will be given a sonogram every other day unless anything indicates I need one sooner.  I get their heart rates monitored 2 times a day, which is a ridiculous ordeal right now.  Since there are a lot of women here needing monitored and another triplet mom I got stuck with one new monitor and one old one.  They each only monitor 2 babies at a time.  So for the past 2 days they have had Ethan and Alex on the new monitor and then they spend over an hour trying to get Emma on the old monitor.  Finally this morning I asked why we couldn't try getting Emma on the new monitor, she is deeper and harder to trace and the new monitor seems far more sensitive.  Well, they got her immediately, of course...  But that meant one of the other babies needed to move to the old monitor.  I suggested Ethan he doesn't have as much room to move and is fairly shallow.  They were able to get him on the monitor pretty quickly too.  Now you'd think they would then catch Alex on the new monitor, but for some stupid reason they try and get her on the old one too...  Why?  So they spend 30+ minutes trying to catch Alex's heart rate and of course they can't.  I am getting more and more frustrated at this point and have asked twice why they can't just get her on the new monitor.  FINALLY, a new nurse comes in and does it they way I keep suggesting and we have everyone easy and finally finish, again after an hour.  So tonight I am demanding Emma and Alex go on the new monitor and Ethan only on the old.  Apparently when I get the other triplet mom's room I get two new monitors and this won't be an issue.  I know, seems like I"m making a big deal out of this but is is very irritating and uncomfortable to my stomach leaving me with a red itchy belly.  They also always do it when my dinner arrives so I only eat cold dinners...  AND they interrupt prime time TV which is the only TV worth watching each day.  So it would be great if this got easier.  :)

Sunday morning I was woken up by strong contractions at 5am.  I been having contractions since 17 weeks it isn't abnormal to be feeling them.  They have woken me up at night before.  So I cat napped with them until about 6:30 and then called a nurse to put me on a monitor.  After an hour it showed I was having regular contractions every 7 minutes and she wanted to call a doc to ask about giving me a Terbutaline injection to calm them down.  The doc decided with the other stuff going on we should do the shot.  So at 8:30 I got the drug.  The nurse asked if I'd had the medicine before, I said no and she said the common side effect is feeling gittery like having too much caffeine.  I got the shot, ran to the bathroom, came back out and was shaking head to toe.  The nurse came back in with my breakfast right away and I asked if it happened that fast and she said yep.  I was shaking like crazy, far more than caffeine can make you shake, more like having drug with draws or very advanced Parkinson's.  Kind of crazy.  It lasted about an hour and a half.  The nurse said the drug opens up all the vessels to get blood to the uterus and relax it.

Also, today, Sunday the Neonatologist came to visit us and talk about what the babies might face with premature birth, both starting next week and through 34 weeks.  He was very nice, explained everything thoroughly and in an understandable manner.  He was very positive that even if we have to deliver soon things will be ok.  There will be struggles but they have a lot of experience with babies as early as 23 weeks that make it.

The rest of Sunday has been fairly uneventful.  There was some entertainment earlier in the day, the woman in the room next to me was in labor and the first time I heard her the was a lot of screaming and cussing as her first painful contractions started.  I don't think she was prepared to feel that.  :)  For the next 8 hours we heard a lot out of her.  Did I say my room was quiet?  Haha.  No, it really is, so no worries.

Yuan cooked me dinner tonight for Chinese New Years and as of midnight tonight our babies will officially be born as Dragons!  For those of you who don't know Yuan is a tiger and I'm a dragon so he is going to be very out numbered by 4 dragons.  Dragons are a bit of an aggressive year so he's in for 3 more Adrienne personalities...  Poor guy.  He made dumplings and some Chinese broccoli - they were DELICIOUS and I wanted to keep eating but my limited space meant limited dumplings.  I'm hoping for a repeat tomorrow night.  :)

Sunday looks like it is ending with us watching the 49ers and Giants (go Eli!) and waiting for our 2nd hear rate monitoring of the day.

I will try to blog about progress at least every other day and I doubt they will be nearly as long as this, but as I said, I had some catching up to do.

I'm at Baylor of Grapevine Hospital in the Labor and Delivery ward, 2nd floor of the Women's Center.  I would love visitors so email me and we can set up a day and time. My friend Katie recommended borrowing dvd's of TV shows I haven't seen so if you have any that you are willing to share email me and I'll tell you if I've seen or not.  If you are visiting I would love to play games, I have cards, or you can bring a game, just talk, and some of you will get roped into giving me my 30 minute wheel chair ride of the day or helping me with bed exercises.

Thank you all who already know and have written with well wishes, we really appreciate them.  Just keep praying for them to stay in 34+ weeks.