The Birthday Story

I thought I would go back a couple of days and recap on our newest little Crists and how they arrived.

When we went for our appt. Wed 5/14 they picked up some irregular bloodflow dopplers coming in from Madison's placenta. It's called absent-end diastolic flow and we had not seen this for the past 2.5 months. The doctor came in and felt we should deliver everyone that night or the next morning depending on how Madison did on her biophysical profile. It's where they watch her on the ultrasound for some practice breathing. Wouldn't you know it, she slept for the next 1/2 hour and didn't move. We kept poking her to finally wake up, and when she did she started showing us some good practice breathing. Whew! It allowed us to go home and get ready for a Thurs. delivery.

Aunt Carolyn came and took JP Wed night and Joe, Nana and I barely slept. I really hadn't been sleeping much for the past week, so in someway it was a relief to be delivering, but I think any mother of multiples who knows she will have to deliver prematurely always wonders if she could have held out a little longer. I was soon to find out it was definitely time.

We arrived at 9am Thurs morning and they put monitors on all the babies heartbeats as I was being asked questions and meeting doctors and nurses that would be a part of the surgery. Nana got the OK to be in the operating room. My doctor came in and said I was going 15 minutes early, so as soon as Joe and Nana changed into their scrubs, we were off.

The actual c-section went very well. I was 100% alert and able hear what was going on. Even though I could feel tugging on me and all these people around me, I just kept telling myself it would be over soon. Then one by one the babies came out. First, Ryan Patrick at 12:16, the Caitlin Ann at 12:17, followed by Madison Ann at 12:18. I couldn't believe it, but both Joe and my Mom stood up for the entire procedure and saw everything down to the last staple!

The doctor held up the 1st 2 for me to see, but Madison was immediately taken away to the corner isolette to be worked on. Her membrane sack was ruptured (we think when Caitlin came out) and also her umbilical cord was wrapped around her head. She had to be given CPR, but quickly was resuscitated, given an IV with antibiotics and taken to the Intensive Care Nursery (what they call their NICU).

Both Ryan and Caitlin were on room air right away and they were brought over for me to hold. They were then taken to the ICN also while I went into recovery. On my way to my room afterwards, they took my bed through the nursery and I was able to see all 3. Madison was "Maddi" to me as soon as I saw her and I was told she was doing much better. The other 2 were settling into their isolettes and were also doing well. I had been given morphine that was to last 15 hours, so I actually did very well that first night also!

Some interesting things about the big day:
- Both my Dad and my triplet support group Mom picked this to be the day.
- May 15th is also my perinatologist's birthday. His name is Greg Lindsay- he asked if we still needed any names as he could think of 2 good ones in his honor!
- On Wed he told us that he was going to get an a experienced OB/GYN to be in the OR also. It ended up being his wife. Joe thought this was one of the coolest things to see a husband/wife team of doctors work together. "Honey, do you think... "
- Labor & Delivery at Rose Hospital is on floor "3"
- After surgery, my recovery room is "333"