Motherhood Part II

I'm supposed to be going to bed.  I've had a long day... and tomorrow will be our second annual birthday trip to the beach, which means it will be a long day... so I decided to sneak to the computer before kissing the kids one last time and throw out a link to my "how we ended up with triplets" story and realized that I had never written it down.  How did I not do that?  And then, I found it... stuck deep in the draft pile (technically, not deep, it's the only one in the draft pile.... but since I felt that I was going to have to re-write it, it felt deep)!  Yes, saved!  Nope... I forgot about the nifty autosave and that draft is exactly what I just typed (hangs head in shame, or embarrassment, or just mystification over my... oh, I don't know).

So, if you read my Motherhood Part I, I left you woefully hanging, promising to tell you about Part II, and then just left it at that... for TWO years.  I'm sorry.  I'm not even sure I can remember what happened but I'll try!

Okay, so we had TW... Woo Hoo, Party!  We decided that we wanted to "try" again right away because it took us five years to have him.  When the little guy was six months I stopped nursing him and headed back to the fertility clinic on base (it was a little more involved than that, but you get the picture).  My first appointment was right before Christmas, on a Friday, and I decided that I needed a little umbrella stroller to take to the appointment to put TW in... so, in my infinite wisdom, I stopped at Toys R Us to pick one up.  Oh My Goodness.  I was so not 15 minutes early to my appointment... I don't recommend Toys R Us on a Friday, a week before Christmas!  Anyway, I really don't remember anything else about that appointment, except TW had on a green shirt and I bought him a light up, musical rattle.

Since we'd been through the fertility ringer, we didn't have much to do this go around.  A couple weeks of meds and we hopped right into the hormone pills.  I won't belabor the point (mostly because the scars have faded and I'm not sure what all happened).  I'm not even sure how many tries it took (one, two?), but we succeeded in a pregnancy!  It lasted about 10 weeks (I thought 14, hmm, now that I type that, it's all coming back to me... anywho).  I had surgery.  We left TW with some friends overnight since I had to be at the hospital super early.  I missed my little man.

We started right away again (I did wait the required few months though).  We got pregnant again.  I found out right around Valentine's Day... and J had, by this time been accepted in the Naval STA-21 program... so he was leaving for Rhode Island, we had just "sold" our house and I was planning on heading to Iowa with TW as soon as we closed.  All of my early check ups went fine.  Then I got to my 12 week check up, the day before I was signing the closing paperwork, also the day before I was leaving Virginia Beach, westward bound.  I had to drop TW off at the base childcare place and he cried (miserably).  An hour later, and I was sobbing myself.  Left in a room to cry after my baby had no heartbeat, listening to someone else's baby being monitored next door... thump, thump, thump, thump.  It was bittersweet.  Long story, short, or perhaps as long as it needs to be, I opted to try an oral medication which stimulates uterine contractions, thus causing my body to miscarry what it didn't want to miscarry.  I picked up my meds, signed house selling paperwork and headed out the next day.  The next two nights we stayed with two different sets of friends, both pregnant with their firsts!

We got into Iowa on April 3, in the middle of a snowstorm.  We planned on staying with J's mom and step dad until we found somewhere to live.  My MIL was out of town, so I warned my FIL (so many acronyms) I was taking medicine, just in case.  Nothing major happened (well, beyond what was supposed to happen).  A few days later, I flew "home" to Alaska to visit my parents for a month.  Once we were there a few days, I just felt like something wasn't right.  I was correct, and had surgery in Juneau.  Since it had been a week since I had taken the meds, I also ended up with an infection and on antibiotics.  I cried a lot.

Fast forwarding... We ended up with a great office in Des Moines... Dr Cooper :)  He took me off oral meds (because, apparently, I had surpassed the recommended dosages) and put me on the good stuff... that's right, the nice, expensive shots!  And, of course, the first round did not work (and I had thought I was saving money by having them shipped to me, only to find that half the stuff I couldn't use... argh).  But, the second round worked ;)  Lot's of blood draws later, we had our first ultrasound (7 weeks 2 days).  I was convinced it was twins because I felt bigger.  And I was right... we saw two little blips... the nurse went blip A, blip B, blip A, blip B... and J said, what's that other blip?  Yep... blip C... TRIPLETS!  He says his first thought was to count seats in the van.  I just wanted to see all three blips at once (which she finally got) as proof.

We survived the shock!  At 12 weeks we told everyone we were pregnant (and my stinkin' mom... sorry mom, had to go and ask me if it was just one and I couldn't lie, and then she had to ask if it was just two, and I couldn't lie... sheesh).  At 14 weeks, we found out the sexes, headed to Baby's R Us (it was past Christmas, we were good) and got 1 boy outfit and 2 girl outfits.  Then we went to J's moms work and J's dads house to make our "little" announcement.  They were surprised, to say the least!

So, I spent the next few months on the couch for the most part.  I wore out very quickly.  I went shopping for groceries at 16 weeks with J, and just collapsed on the bench back by the automotive section of Wal-Mart (not sure why were back there, but I remember the smell of tires)... and just cried, I was so tired, and I hadn't even made it through the store yet.  J took over grocery shopping, with very specific lists,written by me :)  Each month we headed to Des Moines for a check up and each visit I wondered if everyone would be okay, and they were!

June arrived.  We toured the hospital and NICU. And then, one Sunday I had x (I don't remember, I think it may have been 9) number of contractions in an hour, and it had hit the "call the office" number. So I called and as a precaution, they had us go in to be monitored for an hour or so and get the preterm labor test done (it was negative).  TW loved it, we let him watch cartoons the whole time :)  I had a doctors appointment the following Thursday, they checked me and everything was fine.  Then the next Thursday, we had another appointment.  We talked and they ultrasounded the babies and were about to send us on our merry way when I asked if they were going to "check" me again.

"No" they said "would you like us too?".

"Why yes, I'm mentally prepared for it" (and I had shaved my legs).

They checked, and guess what, I was 3 cm.  Okay then... you head over to the hospital for some steroid shots.  You'll have to stay overnight.

So, we trudged over.  J's mom came and saw me.  J went home and got me some hospital supplies and the laptop so I could go to my online nurtrition class.  It started at 8.  At 7:30, the nice doctor decided I needed to be on some magnesium sulfate (apparently my contractions were doing more than I thought).  I went to class having hot flashes.  It was aweful.  I decided then that I refuse to go through menopause... and I'm sticking to it!  At some point during (or after) class, the nurse came in carrying "that box".  The box that I had taken home to practice (on a dummy) with during my CNA classes.  The catheter box.  To be fair, it really wasn't that bad, but when I saw that box, I knew it couldn't be good... I was now on strict bed rest.  After they put that tube in me they gave me an ambien (an evil sleeping pill) to "help me sleep".

I woke up in the  middle night leaking... and called the nurse, telling them in some drug induced stupor, that my catheter was leaking.  It wasn't.  One of the waters had broken.  I called J, who didn't answer, so I called his sister, who had gone up to stay with TW while J went to math the next morning.  She woke J up and he came down right away (well, he had a 45 minute drive, but he came quickly).  And I called my mom... her version of our conversation and my version are very different (I told you those sleeping pills are evil).  I don't really remember much of what happened, but there is a picture of J in scrubs that I apparently took.  I do remember them showing me screaming, crying Mr. E, and then barely showing me the girls... and I remember being wheeled up to their nursery to see them... but I don't remember much after that for a while.  In case you were wondering, it was Mr. E's water that broke... he was on bottom, under the girls, so I just tell people he was tired of being picked on, got fed up, and just kicked until he broke his holding tank :)

I ended up being pretty miserable for a few days and a tiny bit scared (more likely very scared) when I had a reverberating amp in my head and a terrible headache anytime I wasn't lying down.  A possible side affect of the spinal anesthetic.  One possible fix (besides waiting it out) was caffeine.  I had to order Dt. Mt. Dew from food service :)  I was so hopped up on caffeine after not drinking much for 31 weeks!  Anyway, they did a spinal patch on me (drew purple blood from my arm and inserted it into my spine)... and I was good a few days later!

Then we did our every other day trips to see the babies.  Well, sort of, I went one day, J went the next.  On the weekends, we stayed with J's mom and I spent most of Saturday with the kiddos.  After 28 days, Mr. E came home, and the girls came the very next day.  Nobody had any problems.  Well... Berry did have low blood sugar one day and they gave her some sugar water... we joked at the time that they were setting her up to always wanting sweets... it's soooo true :)  And B had to have her tummy x-rayed for some reason or another.  But, nothing major happened, and everyone came home and stayed home and stayed healthy.  We were truly blessed!  And, if you know me, you know our story still did not end there!  And, hopefully, I'll fill you in on Smaug in August instead of waiting for 2 years!

So, without further ado... Happy Birthday to my FIVE year old triplets!!! xoxo

P.S.  iPhoto and I are not getting along right now, so this is a picture-less post.  Sorry :(