We're All Home!!!

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been a bit busy the past few days. I'm sure you understand!

The wonderful news is that we ALL were discharged from the hospital at the same time on Sunday afternoon! The babies were perfectly healthy, and the doctors said they didn't need to stay. So we only stayed as long as the typical mom and baby after a c-section - 72 hours. I am still amazed at how well we all did and am so thankful that I was able to make it to 35 weeks.

Here's a quick recap of the delivery and hospital stay:

On Wednesday evening, we were told that we might have to delay the delivery by one day because the NICU was full and they wanted to be able to guarantee that 3 beds would be available. Talk about disappointing!! We called at 6am Thursday and were told they still weren't sure if we could deliver that day. argh. We got up and got ready to go anyway - who could go back to sleep at that point?? Finally at 7:30am they called us and said that we could come in. We were there by 8am!

After they got me all prepped and gave Jason his cute scrubs to wear, I walked to the OR (side note - on an episode of A Baby Story, a triplet mom gave birth at 35 weeks and walked to the OR and I thought there was no way I'd be able to do that. I'm so proud!) There was a total of 30 people in the delivery room that day - a team for each baby, plus surgical and anesthesiology teams for me. I'll spare you the details of the c-section, except to say that it is very bizarre to be awake while being operated on. I'm glad I couldn't feel anything, of course, but it's weird to be paralyzed and know that you are being cut open! The most important thing to say about the delivery is that it was the most wonderful thing in the world to hear their first cries! All of them were healthy, vigorous cries, and they all earned high APGAR scores. Jason got a little teary, but I had already done all my crying earlier that morning so I was just smiling.

After delivery, Jason was eventually able to go see each baby at the warmer. The OR was so crowded that Abigail had to be moved to an adjacent OR. Lucas had a little bit of breathing trouble at first - his breathing was too labored. However, he didn't need any special interventions and was able to go straight to the newborn nursery with his sisters. Zoey was the only baby I could see from my limited vantage point. Eventually the nurses brought Abigail and Zoey over for me to see and kiss. They were so tiny and cute!

The surgery started just before 10, the babies were born at 10:05, 10:06, and 10:07, and I was back in recovery by 11. I spent about an hour in recovery, and at some point Jason went to visit the babies in the nursery while I called my parents.

I was eventually wheeled to my room, and the babies were brought for us to see not long after. They roomed with us the entire time, except when they had to leave for exams, and when we sent them to the nursery so we could get some sleep. We did almost all their feedings ourselves - it was great to have the practice while we could call for help anytime. My parents came to visit for a few hours each day, which was great.

The most annoying thing about the hospital stay was all the interruptions from doctors and nurses and everyone else in the hospital. We were sort of popular there, given the rarity of newborn triplets being in the regular nursery. All the residents and other trainees were so excited to be able to get to see such a unique little family. So we were really happy when we got to go home to our peaceful little house!

I will post pictures of our going home parade in a separate post - we got a new camera and are having trouble figuring out how to upload pictures efficiently.

Thanks so much for your phone calls and emails - we will return them when we can!!