My miracle babies

We are so truly thankful and blessed. I cannot now imagine my life without these three tiny miracles.

Ewan










Noel










Mairin

Wasn't quite ready to post this birth story...

But as most of you already know, the triplets made their early appearance at 29 weeks and 2 days of gestation.

Vitals in order of arrival:

Triplet A (boy)- Ewan Loetchai 2 lb. 5 oz; 14 inches
Triplet C (boy)- Noel Loetkiet 2 lb. 9 oz; 14 inches
Triplet B (girl)- Mairin Lilawan 2 lb. 4 oz; 14 inches

They are truly tiny miracles from God.

Here's how it went down.

I had had my normal weekly maternal-fetal medicine appt. that Wednesday the 17th of January and the babies all looked great in each of their swimming pools and my cervix was still nice and long and locked tight. I was actually joking with the Dr. telling him I was wondering if I was going to set a new world record and carry the triplets to 42 weeks or something nuts. He assured me that we would probably start seeing signs of pre-term labor change within about a month- that would have been right at my 32 week goal.

That Friday I started feeling stronger contractions (I had been having contractions for weeks which is typical) that seemed to be grouping together more. I kept drinking a ton of water and laying on my left side to see if it helped ease them away and I couldn't really tell if it did or not. I just figured that I had been a bit too active over the past couple of days.

I was still feeling them all day on Saturday and they were now accompanied by back pain and menstrual-like cramping. I decided to look at my "emergency" card the Drs. had given me to diagnose pre-term labor. I suddenly had all of the typical signs aside from leaking water or bleeding. I called my Drs. and they told me just to go in and get checked, "just in case". I felt bad having to call Eddy and tell him we needed to go in. I have been staying with my parent's since after Christmas to have them help with Quinn and Eddy's parent's have been staying at our house the past couple of weeks as Eddy and his dad are finishing off our basement (though that is another story in itself). We made the drive to the hospital and I was having contractions the entire drive that were about 6 minutes apart. They decided to check us into antepartum and hook me and the babies up to the monitors. Of course during this time the contractions seemed to be pittering out and I figured I was just nuts. Then they started picking up again and were bow about 4-5 minutes apart but not strong enough to really be doing much and they hadn't changed my cervix at all. They decided to keep me and pump me full of fluid and also started some oral meds to stop labor. These things in combination seemed to be helping and I would have to keep taking the meds every 6 hours to ward off more contractions. I also got my first of 2 doses over the next 48 hours of steroids to help the babies lungs develop. They planned to keep me until my next regular maternal-fetal med. appt. this past Wednesday and reassess me then and potentially let me go back home to keep on strict bedrest and keep taking my pills. The pills seemed to be working well and I hadn't been having any more issues with contractions. I was thrilled and kept telling myself that I would be going home on Wed. I hadn't expected them to keep me and I was upset because this was the special time I was supposed to be spending with Quinn before the babies came.

My Dr. and sonographer came over on Wednesday morning to check out the babies and my cervix. The scan of the babies was great and they were still kicking away whenever they tried to zoom in on each of them. Next they did my weekly vaginal ultrasound to check my cervix and as soon as I saw the screen I knew I wasn't going to be going home. My cervix had started funneling and also had "no appreciable" length left to it. I started bawling because I missed Quinn so much and I knew I was going to be in antepartum until the babies came. I called Eddy to let him know I was stuck and then called my mom to have her bring Quinn to visit me. That was just about the best thing ever, especially seeing as it was our last together time before the babies came (though I didn't know it then).

My contractions were still well under control all day Wednesday and I was starting to feel better about the whole situation. I was getting ready for bed at about 10:20 pm and as I was standing in the bathroom I got this horrific backache to the point where I could barely get back to my bed. I started getting strong contractions as soon as I lay back down and so I buzzed my nurse. She came in to hook me up to the monitors and the babies were still doing fine but I was now 1 cm dilated and contracting every 43-4 minutes and they were strong! The resident on-call came in and we decided to pump me full of more fluid and start some more meds for contractions. Well it turned out I couldn't take the other meds because my pulse was too high and so we tried a larger dose of the meds I had been using. They checked me again and I was now 2 cm dilated. I decided I should call Eddy as I was starting to realize that the babies had different ideas about coming out. He woke up and started freaking out and i just told him to get here because I thought we would be having the babies. This was now 1:30 am; 3 hours into full-on horrifically painful labor. It was feeling about 10 times worse than my labor with Quinn but I was in a waiting pattern to see if we were going to the OR or not. Eddy got there about 45 minutes later and upon checking me again realized I was now 4 cm dilated and there was no stopping this labor. One of my 4 OBs was on here way in to do my surgery and they were amassing all 3 teams needed for each baby. Things started to happen quickly and then triplet A's water broke and there was no turning back. I had to start accepting the fact that I wasn't going to make it to 32 weeks like I so desperately hoped.

The OR was pretty much a blur. They gave me my spinal and Eddy was whisked in just as they were making the first incision. At 3:29 triplet A was removed. 2 minutes later triplet C delivered and 2 minutes after that triplet B finished making her way into the world. I couldn't really hear any of them crying and I started to freak out but Eddy assured me that they all looked good and that the teams were working on each of them. This was all behind my drape so I was blind to everything. They whisked the babies out of the room and I didn't get to see them or kiss them goodbye. That was very upsetting to me but I realize they wanted to stabilize our brood.

I got to see them a few hours later at about 9am and all were already stable and doing really well all things considered. Within 24 hours all were taken off the vents and now past 48 hours all are on just room air. These babies are amazing troopers and really feisty. They keep improving and the neonatologists assure us that they have a long road ahead but it couldn't be going any better than it currently is. I have been pumping since they were born and the amazing nurses that work in the NICU have been feeding my colostrum and now, milk to each of the babies. They now only have a small feeding tube in their noses and they are tolerating feedings were well. They also really encourage touch and I have been doing kangaroo care with each baby a few times a day. This is where they lay skin-on-skin with you on your chest. I can think of no better feeling in the world right now. The babies love it and become amazingly calm, until you try to put them back in their isolettes and then they get really pissed off which cracks me up.

Quinn has been able to visit them and keeps asking where their mommy is. He got a horrified look on his face when my mom explained to him that I am their mommy too. Soon he will be able to boss them around and I can see him getting really into that.

I am thinking about starting a Caring Bridge site to keep everyone updated. We expect the babies to be in hospital until close to their April 10th due date so there will be lots of updating to do. We will continue to upload photos and some can currently be seen at:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcMmrRo0ctGJd
Please keep in mind that I hadn't slept very much at all for a few days and consequently look and feel like crap. Otherwise, enjoy...

Final stretch (literally and figuratively)

I made it to the magical 28 week mark! This means the babies are all viable and should do well if born tomorrow. I have been focusing on this mark since finding out we were having triplets. There is such a sense of relief for me right now; I know there are no guarantees for how things will turn out but at least I feel a little less worried. I had my weekly checkup today and as usual all babies are doing amazingly well- good fluid levels, strong HBs, kicking the mommy. My mom sat in on the u/s today and got to see some interesting movements. The sonographer always does 3D scans after measuring everything else, and today we saw triplets B&C yawning and they were all playing with their cords. We got some good 3D face shots as well as one of C yawning so hopefully I will get those scanned in sometime soon.

In the meantime, enjoy some 28 week belly shots. I feel like I might literally explode but somehow I don't have any stretch marks (yet); just freakish vampire-like veins.