Not looking like today will be their birthday! (whew!)

I know some of our readers are compulsively checking the blog and probably hitting refresh to see if there are new updates so here you go. Michelle got all hooked up to the monitors here in Danville and the babies still look great.  Baby B was being her usual Houdini self and playing hide and seek a bit, but eventually cooperated.  Michelle's contractions were back and pretty frequent and painful.  She again said "I thought with a planned C-section that I wasn't going to have to deal with this labor business!"  Oh and then there's the incredibly painful exam which makes her cry every time...also not fun.  In addition to the contraction pain she still has a headache which is annoying and of course, gets worse when she cries.  And top it all off, Baby C kept getting up into Michelle's ribs, especially with the contractions, so Michelle was literally trying to push her down and away.

If I'd have written this post an hour ago it would have been a pretty negative sounding post, but in the last hour or so things have been looking up.  The resident did her exam and said she didn't think Michelle's cervix had progressed so that was good.  She did, however, think Michelle might have a yeast infection. (which it turns out she does & they're treating that with meds).  Not sure, but something one of the nurses said made us think the yeast infection might be to blame for getting all this started.  (I'm annoyed about that because Michelle has mentioned symptoms to two docs and had an exam today and no one caught it....but I digress)  Michelle was given a choice about how to deal with the headache and contraction pain; a) take something for the headache (furistat, or something like that) and get off the monitors or b) take pain meds for the contractions and stay on the monitors (it's a little more heavy duty so they have to keep an eye on the babies).  She went with option a because she was so uncomfortable in the bed and just wanted to be able to move.  Michelle definitely made the right choice.  I really can't even describe to you the difference it has made for her to get off the monitors and be able to sit up and move around.  Her contraction pain is now almost non existent which is so great.  She looks so much better.

When I asked for some idea of what the plan will be, the resident said she is definitely here overnight.  The resident also said unless something really changes, they will do everything they can to wait until tomorrow to deliver so we officially hit 34 weeks.  There is also still a chance that everything will settle back down and we may be able to wait longer...who knows how long...but I'm guessing that going home again isn't too likely. Michelle's mom, Denise, left Chicago around 2pm to come here and hopefully make it in time for the birth.  Sounds like that shouldn't be a problem now which is great.  Unless Michelle's cervix has changed a lot at the next check, which should be any time now, Denise will just stop in State College and spend the night at our house and then come over in the morning. 

I'll update you if anything changes after the next check...otherwise you can assume we're still just waiting!  Thanks for all your support!

33 weeks...and now 3 visits a week

With as many "3's" as we've had popping up on our lives this year Michelle and I both said we wouldn't be surprised if these babies decided to come at 33 weeks. Yesterday was 33 weeks, 3 days and no sign of babies!  We both had moments yesterday where everything kind of hit us. At breakfast, I looked at her giant belly with a sense of awe and just said, "wow! In 18 days we're going to have triplets!" (And was appropriately terrified!). And on our way home from running errands Michelle said, "sometimes it still doesn't feel real to me that I actually have three babies in my belly...I mean, I know I do, but sometimes I still don't believe it!"

We are feeling bummed that we don't have a Danville appointment this week because we're both anxious to find out how big they all are now. Our next visit isn't scheduled until the 7th...bummer dude. That's not to say we don't have appointments this week! With twice weekly non-stress tests and one regular OB visit, we're looking at around five hours a week of baby checking visits. Oy! That'll certainly cut into our productivity!  

We did our first routine non-stress test on Friday. We have to go to labor and delivery at Mt. Nittany hospital to do them because the local OB only has a single monitor.  And because we require two monitors we have to call every time before we plan to go to make sure they have a bed for Michelle and two available monitors. Friday we planned to go at 11:30, but they didn't have a bed so had to go at 2:30 instead. 

In order to "pass" the non-stress test they need 20 minutes of continuous monitoring of each baby. This is no easy task and for a good chunk of the time Friday there were two nurses holding monitors on Michelle's belly.  It took over two hours for all three to pass! This time it was baby C who was being the most difficult and not staying on the monitor at all. Baby B was a little tricky to find,as usual, but once they found her, she was pretty cooperative about staying on. Baby A definitely won the easiest baby award Friday and had already passed before they got B hooked up.  Michelle continues to have low level contractions that show upon the monitor, but that she doesn't feel.

We were quite the celebrities with the nurses! I think five or six different nurses came in just to meet us. They don't see triplet moms very often there. One nurse said she'd worked L&D for 14 years and had only seen one other triplet mom!  Everyone was very nice, which helped, but two hours in one position is no picnic for Michelle, so she is really not looking forward to having to do this twice a week now. But, at the most, it will only be six visits I think, and I'm hoping we can get out of one early next week since we'll have our big ultrasound at Danville on the 7th, but we'll see...