We were so grateful to all who showed their love and support to us. Our parents took vacation days to watch Alyssa. Many called, stopped by and sent cards, flowers and dropped by meals. Other friends signed up to take shifts over the next several weeks to watch Alyssa, some with not very much notice! We are so thankful and blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thanks for being there for us and getting us through a very difficult time.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Home from the Hospital
Despite the day before being a pretty rough day, Amanda was allowed to go home from the hospital today. She had a lot of bad side effects from the anesthesia and recovery took a little longer than expected.
We were so grateful to all who showed their love and support to us. Our parents took vacation days to watch Alyssa. Many called, stopped by and sent cards, flowers and dropped by meals. Other friends signed up to take shifts over the next several weeks to watch Alyssa, some with not very much notice! We are so thankful and blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thanks for being there for us and getting us through a very difficult time.
We were so grateful to all who showed their love and support to us. Our parents took vacation days to watch Alyssa. Many called, stopped by and sent cards, flowers and dropped by meals. Other friends signed up to take shifts over the next several weeks to watch Alyssa, some with not very much notice! We are so thankful and blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thanks for being there for us and getting us through a very difficult time.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Surgery
Today was Amanda's surgery. She started the day by setting her alarm to get up at 2:30am to eat her double cheeseburger, potato cakes and milkshake Dave had gotten her the night before (you gotta love fast food when you are pregnant with triplets). This was her last chance to eat for a while, and it seemed like the impossible to go that long without any food or water. This was especially true, since eating was the only thing that helped the morning sickness (which was pretty bad at this point). Poor Dave was forbidden to create any strong breakfast smells in the kitchen that morning, especially coffee or bacon!
The surgery was delayed in getting started, due to an emergency C-section ahead of Amanda (good thing she ate that cheeseburger). When the anesthesiologist went to put the spinal in, he called Amanda a dream patient because she had a "slender back" which made it easy for him to do his job. How often does a woman pregnant with triplets get to be told any part of her body is slender!! As it turned out, though, when they tested to make sure she was numb, she yelled ouch several times. It was soon decided that she would need to be put under general anesthesia. So much for dream patient status! After that, the surgery itself went extremely well with no complications. Amanda woke up when they were doing an ultrasound and was reassured to see 3 strong heartbeats.
Alyssa visited later that day and seemed a little freaked out by seeing Mommy in the hospital. She seemed to really enjoy running up and down the halls more than visiting, anyway. Amanda was feeling pretty decent at this point, especially on morphine which helped calm down the cough from her bronchitis. We were just so thankful to have it over with and to know that the babies came through just fine. This was another major obstacle down and a huge sigh of relief for all of us! Praise God!
The surgery was delayed in getting started, due to an emergency C-section ahead of Amanda (good thing she ate that cheeseburger). When the anesthesiologist went to put the spinal in, he called Amanda a dream patient because she had a "slender back" which made it easy for him to do his job. How often does a woman pregnant with triplets get to be told any part of her body is slender!! As it turned out, though, when they tested to make sure she was numb, she yelled ouch several times. It was soon decided that she would need to be put under general anesthesia. So much for dream patient status! After that, the surgery itself went extremely well with no complications. Amanda woke up when they were doing an ultrasound and was reassured to see 3 strong heartbeats.
Alyssa visited later that day and seemed a little freaked out by seeing Mommy in the hospital. She seemed to really enjoy running up and down the halls more than visiting, anyway. Amanda was feeling pretty decent at this point, especially on morphine which helped calm down the cough from her bronchitis. We were just so thankful to have it over with and to know that the babies came through just fine. This was another major obstacle down and a huge sigh of relief for all of us! Praise God!
This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Ultrasound #5 - NT test (almost 12 wks)
For the ultrasound at today's doctor appointment, we underwent a test called nuchal translucency (NT). They measure the thickness of a specific region of the babies neck, and the size gives an indication for the risk of Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18. With a single pregnancy, they do something similar through a blood test (called the triple screen), but with multiples, those results aren't very accurate. The measurements for our babies were fantastic, and showed a very low risk for all 3 genetic disorders. What a relief! Thank God!
We had also decided by this point that we were going ahead with the transabdominal cerclage (TAC) surgery. The surgery was scheduled for Feb 20th (President's Day, when Dave is off). Now we were just hoping that the antibiotics would kick in to help Amanda over her bronchitis before then (she suffered from almost continuous respiratory infections in the first few months of this pregnancy).
We had also decided by this point that we were going ahead with the transabdominal cerclage (TAC) surgery. The surgery was scheduled for Feb 20th (President's Day, when Dave is off). Now we were just hoping that the antibiotics would kick in to help Amanda over her bronchitis before then (she suffered from almost continuous respiratory infections in the first few months of this pregnancy).
This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.
Thursday, February 9, 2006
First Visit to High Risk OB (almost 11 wks)
Today was our first visit to our new doctor, that would be caring for us during this unusual pregnancy. It started out with an ultrasound. Unfortunately, we found out then that one of the babies passed away. As sad as we were, we accepted that this was God's will and that He knows best. In looking back, He prepared us for this by allowing Amanda to feel the babies move already, but she only felt 3 of them. We also had joy at seeing our other 3 babies doing so well. One waved hi at us and another one did a flip.
We were struck by the difference in this office, versus a regular OB. It's like we graduated to the big leagues! They didn't even worry yet about the usual stuff like taking blood pressure and weighing in. There would be plenty of time for that later. We asked the doctor about special diet needs and he said we knew how to eat healthy. The recommendations were to eat about 4000 calories a day, which is almost impossible unless you eat non-stop (or really unhealthy). So he took the pressure off Amanda to do the best that she could. (Although, she had already indulged in some KFC cravings by that point!) They would carefully monitor for any growth problems along the way using ultrasound, so that would pick up any issues.
We also talked at length about the cerclage surgery. We were given two choices, one was riskier but had a lower failure rate. The other option was a less invasive surgery, but it did have a higher failure rate. What was certain was that we did need the surgery, as Amanda's body was already showing signs of strain from the extra weight, even for someone pregnant with triplets. So we had a big decision to make over the weekend. The sooner the surgery was done, the better.
It was scary stuff to be talking about. But as our doctor went through the usual complications and issues with a triplet pregnancy, the nice thing about the cerclage was that, in a sense, we could take one of those issues off the table.
We liked meeting our new doctor very much. He had a good sense of humor definitely knew his stuff. We were also glad to see his nurse practitioner again. She is an old friend from church that we hadn't seen in a while. It was so reassuring that they would be there with us through this scary journey. It was very comforting to know that they had gone on this journey many times before and could tell us what to expect.
We were struck by the difference in this office, versus a regular OB. It's like we graduated to the big leagues! They didn't even worry yet about the usual stuff like taking blood pressure and weighing in. There would be plenty of time for that later. We asked the doctor about special diet needs and he said we knew how to eat healthy. The recommendations were to eat about 4000 calories a day, which is almost impossible unless you eat non-stop (or really unhealthy). So he took the pressure off Amanda to do the best that she could. (Although, she had already indulged in some KFC cravings by that point!) They would carefully monitor for any growth problems along the way using ultrasound, so that would pick up any issues.
We also talked at length about the cerclage surgery. We were given two choices, one was riskier but had a lower failure rate. The other option was a less invasive surgery, but it did have a higher failure rate. What was certain was that we did need the surgery, as Amanda's body was already showing signs of strain from the extra weight, even for someone pregnant with triplets. So we had a big decision to make over the weekend. The sooner the surgery was done, the better.
It was scary stuff to be talking about. But as our doctor went through the usual complications and issues with a triplet pregnancy, the nice thing about the cerclage was that, in a sense, we could take one of those issues off the table.
We liked meeting our new doctor very much. He had a good sense of humor definitely knew his stuff. We were also glad to see his nurse practitioner again. She is an old friend from church that we hadn't seen in a while. It was so reassuring that they would be there with us through this scary journey. It was very comforting to know that they had gone on this journey many times before and could tell us what to expect.
This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.
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