Birth Story

I'm going to try to write down the boys birth story through dictation while I'm pumping (already getting the hang of this mom thing- multitasking!) So let's see how this works…

I hit 34 weeks on Friday, June 19 and apparently hit the end of my rope in terms of gestating three babies. The whole day I was feeling different, to the point that I started trying to count/monitor what I thought might be contractions. They were only coming about once an hour, though, and weren't painful or uncomfortable so I didn't think much of it. 

We went to Will's dads house for dinner that evening and by then my stomach was really tightening up a lot. But I still couldn't figure out if they were contractions or if I was just uncomfortable. A lot of the books had said (and people had told me) that if I was having labor-type contractions, I would definitely know as they feel like very painful menstrual cramps. But these tightenings were not painful, just very uncomfortable. I ended up calling both my sister-in-law Sandy and Our friend Amy who recently gave birth (to twins!) to ask them what I should be looking for in terms of whether or not I was in labor and if I was having real contractions or just Braxton hicks. The general conclusion from both of them was that if I was in labor, I would know.

I woke up Saturday morning and felt like the tightening had gone away. However, I was exhausted! I slept most of the day and just couldn't seem to stay awake for more than a short period of time. I also noticed that I couldn't feel the boys moving as much as normal. They would still move around a little bit here and there, but they weren't their usual active selves.

Sunday morning when I woke up, I took my blood pressure and noted that the reading was higher than normal- the lower number was 90, which is not a good thing. They had told me to call if the lower number was 90 or higher or if the top number was 140 or higher as an elevated BP could put me at risk die preeclampsia. I waited a few minutes and then retook it and the number jumped up to 95. My parents were driving in for the day to see me "one last time" while I was pregnant and we were scheduled to meet at church, so I decided to hop in the shower and get ready before checking my BP one more time before we left for church to see if it had gone down at all. The lower number did go down, but just to 88 so it was still high. Will Encouraged me to call the on-call doctor just to see what they thought given that my blood pressure was higher than normal. When she called back I let her know what was going on and mentioned that I hadn't felt the boys move as much as usual in the past day. When she heard that, she encouraged me to go to labor and delivery to be checked out and to have the boys monitored just in case something was wrong. She told me I could have something to eat before I went and it wasn't an emergency situation, so I had a bowl of cereal and some orange juice and then off we went! We made sure to have all of our bags packed "just in case", but it hadn't occurred to me that we were truly leaving the house to go have some babies.

I'm sure mom and dad were surprised when I called to let them know that we wouldn't be at church because we are on our way to the hospital. But I told them to go ahead and go to church and plan to meet us down at the hospital afterwards since I figured we would be at Labor and delivery for a while being monitored. 

The whole ride down to the hospital my stomach was doing the tightening thing again. Again, the tightening wasn't extremely painful, but I noticed that they were definitely getting more and more uncomfortable and frequent. The on-call doctor had called ahead to let them know that we were on our way, so we we got put into a triage room immediately to start being monitored. It took a little finagling to find all three boys and start measuring the heartbeats. By this point, I was starting to feel some pain with my stomach tightening. I learned very quickly that the tightening I had been feeling were actually contractions, and I was contracting about every 2 to 3 minutes. It appeared that I was going into labor on my own, though likely in the very early stages.  They checked my cervix found that I was thinning, but not yet dilated at all. One of the doctor stopped in to the triage room, and asked when I eaten. I let her know it was around 10 AM and she said "okay then, we're going to go ahead and take the babies today as you're 34 weeks and 2 days- we want to be sure your body has time to get the food out of it system. But we will likely have you in surgery around 4 or 6 PM tonight".

34 weeks, 2 days...and done.

Needless to say, I had a bit of a panic attack at hearing those words! I definitely cried some panicked tears and immediately got pretty scared. While I should've known, and I guess in the back of my head I did probably know, that it was possible that they were going to decide to deliver them that day, I hadn't really allowed myself to think about that as a reality. But after a few minutes I calmed down and realized that today was the day we have been planning for and just to get ready to enjoy the ride. Will and I also joked that this would be a Father's Day to remember for him as he was going to get the greatest present of all – becoming a dad himself. All future Father's Day presents will fail in comparison to these gifts!

All the dads in my life on Father's Day

We decided not to tell a lot of people that we were going to be delivering the boys that day as we wanted to wait until they were here and know everything was okay before we started telling family and friends. And really, there was no point in alarming people who would then be waiting on pins and needles for news the rest of the day. We only told immediate family – our parents, and Will's sisters since they live close enough to have been able to get there for the delivery. Clearly my parents picked a good day to come down and visit with me! They called as soon as they were out of church and we let them know to come to the hospital, but we didn't tell him we were going to be delivering the boys until they got there. I found out once my mom and dad came back to triage to see me that they had brought Ella down with them for a surprise so she was here when we deliver the boys, too! She didn't get to meet them, though, as she was too young to come back to the NICU.  

By the time I learned that we are going to be going into surgery that afternoon, it was already close to 1:00 or 2:00 pm so there really wasn't a whole lot of time to panic or think too much about the upcoming C-section. It was actually a bit of a blur as they move me from triage to a prep room. Everyone in the family (who were old enough) was able to stop in and say hello while I was in that room before moving into the waiting room for the news of the boys' arrival. The contractions I had been having were starting to get pretty darn painful and I admit I was glad to know that I wouldn't have to endure them for very long since we were going into surgery so soon. But I'm also happy to know that I was going into labor naturally and got to experience what a "real" contraction felt like. Admittedly though, they did not feel like menstrual cramps at all to me! Good thing I didn't wait for that to be a cue before calling the hospital or going down to labor and delivery!

At just after 4:00 the team came and got me and wheeled me down to the surgery room. They gave me a spinal epidural to numb me up. I had somewhat been dreading that moment as I didn't know how it was going to feel. Thankfully it wasn't as terrible as I thought it was going to be and I went numb fairly quickly. They had warned me ahead of time that there would be a lot of activity going on around me throughout the surgery and to expect a lot of people coming in and out of the room. In addition to my surgery team, each baby had their own NICU team to take care of them once they delivered. Those teams stood on call just outside of the operating room and entered in as soon as each baby was born. Once my spinal was in place and they had me set up to the surgery, they let Will in the room. The first thing I said to him when he walked in was that he looked like he was in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory- his outfit looked like an oompa-loompa!

Oompa-Looma outfit, right?!

From the time they made their first incision to the time they closed me up was very fast- only 48 minutes total. Some things that will stick out to me about the surgery: the Number of people who were in such a small room – it was organized chaos. Also, the smell. It was awful, and at one point I thought I was going to pass out from the overwhelming smell. Will equated the smell to when they use the drill at the dentist office- x100. Fortunately, the anesthesiologist had warned me that I might feel like I was going to pass out and to just let them know as they could give me a med to help with that. Luckily it did! As soon as they had cut me open they called for the NICU teams to come in and suddenly swarms of people entered into the room- each baby had at least 3-4 people working on them. The door to the room looked like a clown car- people just kept coming in!

Willard Joseph IV arrived at 4:55 PM with a cry. What a surreal feeling to hear your baby cry for the first time! He was immediately taken out of that room to another room for all his vitals and observation as my room was only equipped to hold 2 babies at a time. I didn't get to see him at all on his way out the door so I had no idea what he looked like. 

Willard Joseph IV

Griffin Sawyer

Cooper Riley

Griffin Sawyer came one minute later, and the baby of the family, Cooper Riley, arrived a minute after that. We can't be sure because they never officially told us who was pulled out from what position, but we think (based on their last growth ultrasound where Snap was the smallest, Crackle was the middle weight, and Pop was the biggest) that they were pulled out Crackle (left side of my belly) Pop (top right of my belly), then Snap (lower part of my belly, closest to my cervix). The doctors did a vertical incision instead of a horizontal one along my bikini line to be sure they had enough space to pull them out. So it makes sense that Snap, who we always assumed would be the first out, actually came out last. 

On that note, we're glad we didn't start calling them by name when they were still in utero! We knew that the first baby out would be named Will IV but we hadn't discussed who would get the other two names. While they worked on Baby 3, one of the doctors brought Baby 2 over and sat him in Will's arms. It was a bit of a surprise to Will as he wasn't expecting to hold any of the boys in the room. As the doctor sat him down she asked what his name was- Will and I kind of looked at each other then I looked at the baby and said "Griffin Sawyer!" and at that, all our boys had names. Having had a few days to get used to their names, I think we did a great job- Cooper looks like he should be a Cooper and Griffin is totally a Griffin. 

The observing doctor invited Will to take pictures of all the boys so he snapped what he could without getting in the way of the care teams. Shortly after that the boys were on their way to the Stahlman NICU and I was headed to recovery. 

I felt pretty ok overall following the surgery. They let me see family right after I was in my recovery room, where we shared the news of the boys' names and weights. After hat they moved me to a postpartum room where I spent the next several nights. I got to eat several hours later, but I couldn't go to see my babies until I was able to stand on my own without getting woozy and could transfer to a wheelchair. That was certain motivation to get recovery going! Will and I were finally able to visit the boys just before midnight, so a full 7 hours after they were delivered. 

They were perfect. It was really emotional to see them each for the first time. I cried as we moved from baby to baby. They all looked so unique! I didn't know it was possible to fall so deeply in love with a tiny person that you are seeing for the first time! All three were on Cpap machines to help with their breathing and had lots of monitors and cords attached to them, but overall they were doing well. The nurses kept commenting on how good they looked for being 34 weeks, and how big they were for being triplets! They have a long way to go before they're ready to officially come home to us, but I'm so glad they're here!

Cooper in the Stahlman NICU

Griffin in the Stahlman NICU

 

Will in the Stahlman NICU

(This whole dictation thing works pretty well! I was able to write this while pumping and/or snuggling with one of my boys- multitasking at its best!)