On the morning of 2/24/12 our OB made the decision to deliver the triplets. There was no emergency but Emma had not grown in 3 weeks and there was no sense in waiting any longer. At 12:13pm Ethan Mingrui Gao was born followed by Alexandria Minglei Gao at 12:14 and a few minutes later 12:16 Emma Mingli Gao joined her siblings. Ethan was 4lb 3oz, Alex 2lb 12oz, and tiny Emma was 2lb 5oz.
In the NICU Alex never needed any respiratory assistance, she was strong and healthy. Emma required a CPAP, which is a little oxygen mask, for less than 24 hours. Ethan had a little more trouble and was on the CPAP for a couple days then they intubated him for a day and a half and given surfactant. After that his natural surfactant kicked in he went back to a CPAP for a day then to nasal canula and after 4 days was off everything. Everyone was amazed at how healthy they all were and are.
Right after the c-section mom had a little trouble, my body temperature dropped to 92 degrees so I required a bear hugger for a couple hours to raise my temp back to normal. I was in recovery about 3 hours before I was stable enough to go visit the kids. I was in the hospital the normal 4 days for recovery and then discharged. However I was doing so poorly that Yuan and I decided to room in for 3 more days. We didn't have any medical care any more but we could use the room, so I could use the hospital bed, shower with a seat and toilet with bars... We didn't know how I would do anything at home, I was still in tons of pain and too weak. It was also nice to be so close to the babies still. We did finally leave the hospital though, a week after the babies were born. I made it 3 days, spiked a really high fever and got sent to the ER where they determined I had a huge hematoma on my uterus from internal bleeding. My hematocrit and hemaglobin were super low, so low the ER doc didn't know how I was still conscious. So I was admitted to the hospital again. The Flower Mound ER was great and they transferred me back to Baylor Grapevine to be with the kiddos. Once there I had 3 or 4 bags of blood and IV antibiotics.
I spent a week in the hospital anxiously waiting for a sonogram at the end of the week to determine if I got to go home or had to have surgery. The hematoma had to shrink for me to be able to leave, otherwise I had to have surgical repair. Thankfully the better outcome prevailed and home I went. Still in a lot of pain and not doing well.
The babies did well throughout their stay, Ethan stayed in the NICU about 3 weeks, Alex 4.5 and Emma 6. The girls needed longer to grow. Alex came home on some reflux medicine but that was it.
We weren't sure how we were going to survive with all of them at home. All my planning and ideas were rapidly being smashed to pieces. I was sure I wouldn't need help, my husband and I could do it ourselves, we would just do shifts. HA! Right.
Continue reading my posts to see how it all turned out!
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