Here is the my recollection of the conversation:
DR: “You’re having the babies TODAY!”
ME: “Are you sure?”
DR: Looking at me squarely in the eyes “You’re ready. You’re ready.”
ME: “Really? Wouldn’t it be better (and easier) for me to just keep them in there a while longer?”
DR: (blank stare) “Where’s Jeff?”
ME: “Really?”
DR: (blank stare) “Where’s Jeff?”
Side Note: Jeff and my doctor learned early on that I only partially listen. I would have to repeat what the doctor was saying (and spin it of course…my version) and then he would look at Jeff and smile and ask him what he heard (which was exactly what the doctor had said)
Anyway, here’s the rest of the conversation…
ME: “At a meeting. When? How much time do I have?”
DR: “Now!”
ME: “Seriously? Jeff’s at a meeting.”
DR: “Call Jeff. Get him here now or we’ll start without him.”
ME: “Really??”
The next few minutes, I had a ton of people in my room, someone was giving me something that tasted like liquid SweetTarts, someone was helping me get in another gown, someone was shaving me, someone was asking me questions…all of this craziness while I was trying to find Jeff!
When Jeff has a meeting, he’ll usually turn his cell phone on vibrate or set it to go directly to voicemail. Out of habit, even though I was in the hospital, Jeff’s phone went straight to voicemail. OMG…he wasn’t there “when it happened, when I first found out, and now he’s going to miss this too!” (OMG) I called his office to see if someone could find out who he was meeting with and if they had a phone number for that client. No go. Jeff was meeting the client on an empty site…no house meant no land-line either!! I called his cell phone again and left a message…something along the lines of “Having the babies NOW. Wish you were here!”
At some point during his meeting with his clients, Jeff remembered his phone going directly to voicemail. When he looked at it, he recalled my room number at the hospital and put two and two together. Amongst the poison ivy, Jeff stood there and informed his potential clients that we were expecting triplets that weekend and that was the hospital calling…which meant only that “things have changed.” I remember Jeff getting to my room just as they were wheeling me out and he asked the Dr. if he had time to take a shower. SHOWER??? Alright, in his defense, Jeff was only thinking about me and my extreme sensitivity to the PI, however, at first, I thought “Are you KIDDING me??” I'm sure my delivery doctor was also thinking "Are you KIDDING me?"
The delivery room was filled with many nurses, NICU nurses, doctors, specialists, the anesthesiologist, and of course, Dr. Brillhart and his delivery team. Outside of Jeff and myself, there were about 15 sets of trained staff to help us deliver our team of three incredibly beautiful babies!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
(Part Two in a Series)
Two weeks later, I had another beer ready for Jeff when I proudly pronounced that the little one “caught up” in size and that we were definitely pregnant with three! It was a very easy pregnancy until I was placed on home bedrest at about 27 weeks. The next four weeks were incredibly hard as I’m not one for just laying around. I pushed the envelope as much as I could and the doctors knew it. Hindsight is always 20/20…I could have probably carried further if I were to have really stayed horizontal for 90% of my waking hours…no sitting up, just completely horizontal. In my defense, though, I must say that if a patient is placed on bedrest, then the doctors shouldn’t have you going to either the OB’s office or the high-risk doctor’s office every three-five days…oh yeah, then there are the trips to the hospital for those non-stress tests!
It was the morning of Friday, June 16th. I was at 31weeks and 4days. I told Jeff over breakfast that I had a rotten night’s sleep and that something just “feels off”. I had my 5th non-stress test (NST) scheduled at the hospital for later that morning so I decided to take off after breakfast and see if they could get me in a little sooner. By the end of my very first NST, I knew to bring my own pillow for subsequent NSTs. So there I was on June 16th, standing with my pillow in tow and I told the lady at the check-in that I was a little early and that I didn’t want to complain but that something felt “off.” Well, before they even hooked me up to the monitor, they took my blood pressure and it was sky high…198 /(something)…close to seizing, they said. I politely informed them that if they’d kindly turn the TV on, that the U.S. Open was on and that watching golf on TV always lowered my blood pressure. My OB and my high-risk specialist found my request very amusing.
After I got settled in a room, I called Jeff and told him that I’d be there a while so he came to the hospital and we ate Subway (pregnant with three…always eating!) and watched a bit of the U.S. Open. There was some question of whether or not I was having the babies that day or if it would be sometime before the weekend was over. They gave me MagSulfate and that still didn’t settle “the shakes” down. Anyway, when one of the nurses came back to say “its not going to be today,” Jeff and I discussed and agreed that he should keep a meeting that he had later that afternoon with a very important potential client. At some point when Jeff was gone, the HR Doctor came in and we visited. She looked at some numbers and asked me how I was doing. By that point, they found some medicine that was helping my blood pressure get back down to a normal count and I told her that I was fine and would like to hold off having these babies as long as I could (because I just knew I could carry longer!) I think I remember her saying “OK” but that decision was later overridden when she and my OB talked together on the phone. Dr. Brillhart came in my room and looked over some recent numbers and then we had a funny conversation. I'll share the conversation in my next blog.
It was the morning of Friday, June 16th. I was at 31weeks and 4days. I told Jeff over breakfast that I had a rotten night’s sleep and that something just “feels off”. I had my 5th non-stress test (NST) scheduled at the hospital for later that morning so I decided to take off after breakfast and see if they could get me in a little sooner. By the end of my very first NST, I knew to bring my own pillow for subsequent NSTs. So there I was on June 16th, standing with my pillow in tow and I told the lady at the check-in that I was a little early and that I didn’t want to complain but that something felt “off.” Well, before they even hooked me up to the monitor, they took my blood pressure and it was sky high…198 /(something)…close to seizing, they said. I politely informed them that if they’d kindly turn the TV on, that the U.S. Open was on and that watching golf on TV always lowered my blood pressure. My OB and my high-risk specialist found my request very amusing.
After I got settled in a room, I called Jeff and told him that I’d be there a while so he came to the hospital and we ate Subway (pregnant with three…always eating!) and watched a bit of the U.S. Open. There was some question of whether or not I was having the babies that day or if it would be sometime before the weekend was over. They gave me MagSulfate and that still didn’t settle “the shakes” down. Anyway, when one of the nurses came back to say “its not going to be today,” Jeff and I discussed and agreed that he should keep a meeting that he had later that afternoon with a very important potential client. At some point when Jeff was gone, the HR Doctor came in and we visited. She looked at some numbers and asked me how I was doing. By that point, they found some medicine that was helping my blood pressure get back down to a normal count and I told her that I was fine and would like to hold off having these babies as long as I could (because I just knew I could carry longer!) I think I remember her saying “OK” but that decision was later overridden when she and my OB talked together on the phone. Dr. Brillhart came in my room and looked over some recent numbers and then we had a funny conversation. I'll share the conversation in my next blog.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
One...two....or could there be three?
Blogging is a great way of writing down those little things that happen that are so funny and sweet at the time but that fade in the day to day living. Over the next few weeks I hope to write a post on each of our wonderful children (and the silly things they've done). They are all a blessing and (at times) I cannot get enough of them. This post is the first (in a series) about our incredible journey to parenthood.
I’m going to take you back farther then you probably want to go. For some reason, I always had this inner feeling that it was going to be hard to get pregnant. When Jeff and I made the decision to start trying to have a family, it wasn’t too long before my suspicions were confirmed. We tried for quite some time and then enlisted the help of several doctors. After many long years of heartbreaking ups and downs, good news finally came. The nurse just completed my umpteenth ultrasound and then she got up and said that she would be right back. I found myself sitting alone on the table in my paper gown when I heard someone down the hall shout “She’s having triplets!!” If I'm being honest, I will tell you that I remember sitting there in self pity wishing that the walls weren't so paper-thin so I couldn't hear that some other patient was having triplets...good for them, but what about ME?? Low and behold several seconds later in comes Dr. Cline with a huge smile on his face. ME?? REALLY???? (Oh boy, how do I explain this one to Jeff???) What came next was the doctor telling me not to get too excited. He explained that two embryos looked good (size wise) but that the third was only half the size of the other two and probably wouldn’t survive. I went to work later that morning and found myself avoiding Jeff's calls. I didn't want to tell him over the phone that we were pregnant and yet, I didn't know how I could steer the conversation away from the "How did the Doctor's appointment go?" question. When we finally did speak on the phone, I said that we needed to talk when I got home. Naturally, Jeff probably thought that it was bad news again and so he didn’t push for answers. I beat Jeff home that evening and when he arrived, I had a Heineken and the ultrasound pics ready for him. It didn’t take him long to see the three images nor did it take him long to finish that beer!
I’m going to take you back farther then you probably want to go. For some reason, I always had this inner feeling that it was going to be hard to get pregnant. When Jeff and I made the decision to start trying to have a family, it wasn’t too long before my suspicions were confirmed. We tried for quite some time and then enlisted the help of several doctors. After many long years of heartbreaking ups and downs, good news finally came. The nurse just completed my umpteenth ultrasound and then she got up and said that she would be right back. I found myself sitting alone on the table in my paper gown when I heard someone down the hall shout “She’s having triplets!!” If I'm being honest, I will tell you that I remember sitting there in self pity wishing that the walls weren't so paper-thin so I couldn't hear that some other patient was having triplets...good for them, but what about ME?? Low and behold several seconds later in comes Dr. Cline with a huge smile on his face. ME?? REALLY???? (Oh boy, how do I explain this one to Jeff???) What came next was the doctor telling me not to get too excited. He explained that two embryos looked good (size wise) but that the third was only half the size of the other two and probably wouldn’t survive. I went to work later that morning and found myself avoiding Jeff's calls. I didn't want to tell him over the phone that we were pregnant and yet, I didn't know how I could steer the conversation away from the "How did the Doctor's appointment go?" question. When we finally did speak on the phone, I said that we needed to talk when I got home. Naturally, Jeff probably thought that it was bad news again and so he didn’t push for answers. I beat Jeff home that evening and when he arrived, I had a Heineken and the ultrasound pics ready for him. It didn’t take him long to see the three images nor did it take him long to finish that beer!
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