Back in the Hospital Again

Over the weekend, Amanda had a couple more episodes of cramping, but they went away. But by Sunday afternoon, she was getting contractions that were stronger and more frequent. After playing "should we call the doctor or not?" we finally did. He sent us to the hospital right away to get checked out.

When we walked up to the hospital, our friend from our multiples class, Monique, was out front. She walked in with us and helped Amanda get into a wheelchair. While Dave was getting Amanda registered, Monique decided to wheel Amanda up to the second floor. They didn't hear the registration lady and Dave say "Wait, Come back!" Getting off the elevator it must have been quite a site for the nurses. Down the hall came Amanda in a wheelchair with her belly full of triplets and Monique pushing her, with her belly of twins (almost ready to be born). The teacher from our multiples class was on duty and asked Monique if she called all her friends from class to come visit her or something. (Monique had been there for a week and was bored while "trapped" at the hospital.)

They took Amanda to her room and started monitoring for contractions. Amanda was afraid this might be a bunch of hype for nothing. But they soon saw that she was having a lot contractions, some of them 3 minutes apart. The resident checked her out and agreed they were pretty strong and would contact her doctor.
Soon we heard those dreaded words we hoped never to hear, "Let's put her on the Mag." This referred to Magnesium Sulfate, a drug that is only given by IV in the hospital. It relaxes all of the smooth muscles in the body (sometimes even those in the eyes). It can have some really bad side effects, so they closely monitor everything while you are on it. Because of the muscle weakness, they don't let you out of bed except for restroom breaks. They started with a booster dose (bolus) right away. Amanda felt like fire was going through her veins, far worse than any fever. Fortunately, this was only for about 20 minutes, then they dropped down to a dose 3 times lower. Amanda did experience the weak muscles and being hot she was told about. She felt like she was in a deep fog, but was surviving OK on the medicines. Luckily, her eyes were spared and she could see fine.

The good news is that the contractions stopped almost immediately after the Mag was started. If labor couldn't be stopped and the babies would have been born at this point, they wouldn't have survived. It was a scary time, to say the least. The doctor had a couple of options to treat Amanda, but decided to use the "big gun" in case the other option wasn't strong enough. Amanda was also given a second medicine, Indomethacine to also help stop the contractions (she was given this after her cerclage, also). She was prescribed 7 doses of the Indo and 72 hours on the Mag. The first night, Amanda had to sleep with a blood pressure cuff on one arm, which took measurements every hour. On the other arm, she had both IVs running in and a pulse oximeter on her finger (this measures pulse and oxygen levels; it makes you look like ET with its red light on the end). Somehow she managed to get a little sleep with being this wired but not much.

As stressful as this all sounds, God really gave us His peace that everything was going to be ok. This was further reinforced when many of our neighbors, friends and Amanda's parents were able to quickly clear their schedules to watch Alyssa. This freed Dave up to be at the hospital as much as possible to be an advocate for Amanda. When you are in the hospital, you really need someone there for you!

This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.

Ch...Ch...Ch...Cha...Changes

Today is Dave's first day off work. We were so blessed that his school let him take extended leave so that he could take care of the other 5! It will be good for him to go from 2 full-time jobs down to 1. His girls love having him home, too. His school has been incredibly supportive of our family during this time. They threw a wonderful surprise baby shower for him before his last day, too. We are so thankful for them and humbled by their generosity!!!

We also want to send out a huge thanks to all the friends and our parents who helped us with watching Alyssa for the last 2 1/2 weeks. We don't know what we would have done if you hadn't been there for us. You went beyond the call of duty to help us out so much with everything from meals and laundry to little touches to make Amanda more comfortable during bedrest and checking in to see how we were doing. Please know how much we appreciate all that you have done for us!

Another change is that last weekend we became minivan owners. Our conversion to being suburban yuppies is now complete. This was another huge blessing and gift from God for us. It's kind of scary to see now where our 4 kids will sit. It makes it that much more real. It's also much nicer of a van than we had ever dreamed of owning. A million thanks to some very precious people that helped make this happen for us.

Dave is also working on painting Alyssa's room, so that she can move up to a "big girl bed". (Dave is giving up his beloved Notre Dame room for his little girl.) Then the real fun of setting up two nurseries will begin. We are so thankful for the many generous friends who have donated boy clothes and other baby gear to help us get started. God provides again!

This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.

Checkup (Almost 21 Weeks)

This checkup went very smoothly. They did another full scan where they measured the babies' heads, abdomens and femurs (leg bone). The measurements were all right where they should be. The girl (Baby A) was laying on her back with her arms over her head. One boy (Baby C) was sucking on his fist. The other boy (Baby B) was laying tummy down for a while. If you could stretch the babies out at this stage, they would measure around 10-12 inches head-to-toe.
Increasing Amanda's medicine seemed to help a lot, and all her other checks were good. They told her she didn't have to come back for 2 weeks. She was also relieved to have the nurse tell her that if she had to go under general anesthesia (like with the surgery in Feb) during the delivery, that they would get her in a wheelchair somehow to go see the babies in the NICU. Amanda was worried that she might miss the delivery and not see the babies for a while.

This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.

20 Week Checkup

This week's checkup went pretty well. The babies all looked good, and they assured us that the girl is doing fine. Amanda always worries about her since she is underneath her brothers and doesn't seems to have as much room (and she can't feel her move as often). They increased her medicine a little more to take away the discomfort in the evenings. They thought Amanda looked tired, too, so they said to come every week now. At 20 weeks, Amanda measures like she was 28 weeks (for one baby).

Amanda has noticed that she has been a lot more hungry and tired lately. The babies are really growing now. Dave was glad, he was a little worried she looked too small for someone carrying 3 babies.
Only 4 more weeks and the babies at least have a chance of survival if born early!

This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysitess.

Go Directly to Jail

Despite feeling badly the night before, Amanda woke up in the morning feeling pretty good. But as she got up to get breakfast, the cramping pains started up again. But again, after laying down for a while and drinking some water, they went away. She decided to cancel her activities for the day and rested just to be safe.
By the evening, when she got up to get dinner, though, the cramping was much worse. After resting for a while, they still weren't getting any better. She debated whether to call the doctor or not (what if he was getting ready to watch the NCAA Men's BB semifinals)!? But then she remembered the nurse saying "always call". The doctor was very gracious about her interrupting his son's surprise 30th birthday party. He told her to stay laying down and he was going to call in a prescription for her. If it wasn't better the next day (Sunday), she was to call him back. The medicine is actually for blood pressure, but as a calcium channel blocker, it is also helpful in relaxing muscle contractions.
Being all alone made it very difficult for Amanda to get a prescription. Fortunately, Amanda's mom was home and didn't hesitate to drop everything and race over to the pharmacy before it closed. The medicine definitely helped, but took a while to kick in (so she was glad she had called the doctor after all). Thus began Amanda's first day of bedrest. The doctor had guessed that Amanda might start bedrest around this time, so we were just a little early. It turned out to be God's perfect timing, as Dave was off on Spring Break, and we had a week to line up help to take care of Alyssa.

This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.