They're heeee-rre. . .

My body is preparing me to not sleep for the next 20 years or so.  I haven't really slept at all the last two nights for some reason. . . It's probably similar to Axel being too tired to sleep sometimes, except that we handle it differently.  He throws a fit; I lie awake staring at the ceiling, thinking about the magnitude of the last couple of days and thanking God for both the man on the pull-out bed next to me and the blessings of four incredible sons.  I may feel differently in a few years when I'm cleaning up the pee on the bathroom floor, but we'll worry about that when it comes.

Word travels fast, and surely most of you who are reading this have heard that we've welcomed our triplets into the world and are on the road to living under one roof, the six of us.  We had scheduled the operation for Wednesday morning at 8:00.  The specialist we'd been seeing really wanted to be a part of the procedure, and that was the first day she suggested.  I was ready to meet these little monsters, so that became the day.

Things couldn't have gone better in the operating room - the doctors were thankful to be able to perform the surgery in a controlled environment, with staff in place and no chaos.  There were 18 people in the room including Jesse and myself (21 if you count the babies); they'd turned down a few calls from medical students and other hospital staffers who thought it would be interesting to observe triplets being born.  Even in a big city hospital that deals in high risk pregnancies regularly, delivering three babies at once is a big deal apparently.

I was wheeled in to the surgery at 8:00, and was back in my room recovering before 9:00.  Jesse put on his blue paper clothes and was escorted in as they were beginning the surgery. At 8:23 we had our first boy, and within that same minute Jesse stood up and was able to tell me himself we had another boy.  Baby C was tucked up in there pretty high, but two minutes later, at 8:25, the whole room laughed in disbelief as they announced the third, a boy.  We were all pretty sure there was at least one girl in there - Jesse and I each have a brother who thought we were having three boys, and I know a few of you out there voted that way (voting is closed, FYI!), but it seemed unlikely to us to have three of a kind.  However, it is also unlikely to have three babies at one time, so we ignored statistics again. 

As for their names, we were not entirely prepared for three boys (or three girls)!  We had a few of each that we had talked about, and really settled on two of each, figuring that would be safe.  In the end, we landed on Scandinavian first names and used our grandpas' names as middles.  Eero (sounds like 'arrow') seems to raise the most eyebrows, so let me tell you where we got that.  I am an architecture and design nerd, and one of my favorite designers is Eero Saarinen.  You are all familiar with his work and probably have no idea - seen the arch in St. Louis?  JFK Airport?  The art museum on the lakefront in Milwaukee?  These are all his works!  And so we have Eero Winston, from Mr. Saarinen and my grandpa Winston.

I actually had a great uncle named Rex, who I can't say I ever met, but Jesse thought that was an excellent name and liked that it also had an X in it (like Axel) - then so is named our Rex Herbert, after Jesse's grandpa Herb.

Magnus is one we had discussed when Axel was being named, and honestly I don't know if we thought we could get away with naming a kid Magnus.  The name Axel surprised a lot of people but those who know him know what an Axel he is, and we figured the same could work for our youngest and smallest boy.  It's a big name for a little guy, but he is a fighter and will absolutely grow into it.  Magnus Arthur, as we each have an Arthur in our family trees.

I'm quite often too enamored with my little dollies in the isolettes to really hear what the neonatal staff is telling us - thank God Jesse is listening.  For the sole purpose of not giving you the wrong information, I'm going to say only that each one is doing well and will be joining us at home in a few weeks.  Eero, born 4 lbs 0 oz and 17 3/4 inches long, has not needed much assistance of any kind.  Rex, 4 lbs 2 oz and 16 1/4 inches long, and Magnus, 2 lbs 14 oz and 15 3/4 inches long, each had some assistance keeping their airways open but have graduated from that, and are spending some time under the blue lights for the jaundice stuff.  Magnus had an issue with his cord implantation inside the womb and that is why he was so much smaller, but he's just as strong as his brothers.

I've accurately predicted that Baby A (Eero) would be calm and cooperative; Baby B (Rex) is the naughty one (the staff has said to us as we enter the nursery that he's the feisty one), and Baby C (Magnus) is the fighter. 

I'm going to stop writing now, just because I think I could fall asleep and should take advantage of that, and because I've been working on this posting for a couple hours and am tired of holding the computer in my lap! Also I'm realizing that this is maybe not the most well-organized writing, but again, my brain is scattered.  We will update again when I am more educated about the actual medical status of our babes, and have settled in a little bit to being parents of four!  Tried to attach some pictures down here - see if it works.  We held them for the first time today, and as I expected, it's hard to put them down because we can only take them out once a day for about 15 minutes.  Precious time!  This is turning us into very sappy people.

 Eero

 Rex

Magnus

Thanks for reading, everyone, and for the prayers and well wishes - we couldn't be happier!

Welcome, winter?

It's another day to appreciate being stuck inside. . . Axel is here with us now - he spent the week with Grandma Mary and she brought him to the hospital yesterday to stay and then he was to go home with Grandpa and Grandma Nelson today.  Looks like he'll be with us another day, because the blizzard has already landed in western Minnesota!  He was pretty wound up yesterday, missing his nap and coming off a week at Grandma's, but he's in much better shape today.  His stories and babblings have been the highlight of the day since he started talking, and he had a pretty good one this morning.  Told us his ear was itchy, and there was a "wack" in it.  I said, Oh, you have some wax in your ear?  No, he said, it's just one wack.

Yesterday we took a wheelchair ride to the cafeteria for lunch - Axel likes to ride, too, so Jesse pushes the five of us.  It's good for him.  I decided after a stroll around the place that I would just have a piece of pizza, and wanted to put some crushed red pepper on it.  Well some wise guy unscrewed the cover, and so as soon as I tipped it over to shake the flakes there was a pepper mountain on my plate.  We dumped it off as best we could, but I didn't really taste that piece of pizza.  I thought that kind of thing only happened in school cafeterias, not hospital cafeterias.

Friday we had another biophysical, and all the babies are doing well.  They don't have much room to move around anymore, so they're getting easier to find and monitor.  I continue to have contractions occasionally - not enough to alarm anyone or do anything about, just enough to be bothersome to me.  Now I am almost 44 weeks pregnant, size-wise, so this is still quite normal. 

My forearms are pretty beat up from all the IV switching.  I'm starting to look like my Grandpa Ray without the natural turquoise watch.  The IV people always like to comment on how much arm hair I have (not after all the bandage-ripping-off), another self-esteem boosting element to my stay here.  And I love having visitors, which I've had a few of this week, but everyone always looks so cute and I can't help but remember I've been wearing stretchy pants and oversized t-shirts sitting in bed for over four weeks.  Bleh.

It gets really busy in the labor and delivery wing here - one evening there were seven babies born.  We would have no idea about this in our quiet little corner, except that occasionally we hear a woman screaming in agony, and the nurses disappear for awhile.  Sometimes I don't see them for hours and have to call and ask if they plan on bringing me my medication.  That's a little irritating at times, because I shouldn't be in charge of my own care.  I could be doing that at home.

Yesterday they sent in the nurse I detest - the one who was here with my last round of bleeding and didn't bother to monitor Baby C.  They promised me I wouldn't have to see her anymore, so that kind of ruined my day.  She came in to my room full of visitors and said, Hi, remember me?  I was here when you had all that bleeding last time.  You're not going to do that again, right?  Well, I don't know, Smarty, I'll try not to make you work during your shift.  I had to remind her that I need my blood pressure taken before I'm given a certain medication, because if it's too low I can't have it.  Then she came later and made me put the cuffs on my legs that inflate and reduce swelling/blood clots.  I said to her that I've worn those like three times since I got here, and she said she was going to put them on anyway.  When I speak to this woman she must hear Wah Wah Wah like the adults on Charlie Brown.

If you've been counting, this week is 32 weeks.  I think I mentioned before that this will not go past 32 weeks, and that is true.  That's all I'm going to say about that - we've got to have some mystery here! - but keep your ears open if you're interested.  The Nelson family will be doubling in size this week.

Puffed up for Valentine's Day

Happy happy Valentine's Day everybody.  Hope you are all able to celebrate as you like - I know some people really go to town with gifts and outings.  Luckily, we are not those people.  The last couple years we had a little family celebration, making a homemade heart-shaped pizza and heart cookies, brownies, etc.  Axel's big on helping in the kitchen, and putting on pizza toppings or sprinkles brings him as much happiness as anything else.  We'll be missing out on that this year, but it's definitely something we can do when we get home.

Jesse moved in on Thursday and with him a lot of stuff.  Our room is definitely "lived in."  This will be another testament to the strength of our marriage, I believe . . . for those of you who are married, imagine sitting next to each other in the same room for days on end and sharing the remote for a limited number of channels.  We are doing well, but I can see that it has the potential to be rather stressful on a relationship!  Axel went to stay with Grandma Mary again, and is keeping her very busy, of course.  When I call to check on them, she sighs and says he's on the move all the time and into everything.  Yes, Mom, this is not brand new information.  I live with him, remember?

Saturday we had some family visitors, which breaks up the day for sure.  They were all enjoying the nice weather outside, but didn't really rub it in.  Thanks guys!  I'm sure by the time we're done here it will be cold again.  When Axel was born it was about two degrees, so it probably won't be that bad, but who knows - it is Minnesota.  Sunday I sent Jesse to McDonald's for supper, sort of against his will . . . partly because he doesn't really like McDonald's and partly because I made him go at 4:45.  I'm on the hospital / early bird meal schedule, so I (the four of us) get hungry earlier than most people.

Now for the babies (you probably thought I was never going to get to them).  Saturday evening I started having pretty regular contractions, more than they thought I should be having, but a pill later they had subsided.  The doctor said my body is definitely preparing to deliver the babies, that's why the contractions.  When a person is carrying three babies, her uterus is 12 weeks bigger than a person carrying one baby - that means right now, I am almost 43 weeks pregnant.  Feels like it.  Cousin Gabe and his wife Katie had brought us some cookies and hoped they wouldn't make me go into labor, so we kind of chuckled after I ate one and started having contractions.  I ate one yesterday, too, and nothing happened, so that was just a coincidence.

It was a good day to have those distractions. . . Saturday marked four years since my dad passed away.  I have to say a little while trying not to make myself sob, I do miss him every day and especially at times like this when something happens that he would have been a big part of.  To never have him meet my kids, or have them meet him, is heartbreaking!  But some of his best advice was "God won't give us anything we can't handle," and he keeps finding ways to prove that to me, e.g. carrying triplets and being hospitalized for a month.  I get it, Dad!  I'm ready to have these kids any day, but I really hoped it wouldn't be that day, because it'd be hard to commemorate the worst day of my life and one of the best at the same time.


This morning we finally got to have an ultrasound to check the growth of these little monsters.  The news was pretty good - Baby A is 3 lbs 11 oz, Baby B is 3 lbs 13 oz, and C (the runt) is 2 lbs 10 oz.  Add it up, that's over ten pounds of baby. Ugh.  Everyone is still functioning well and the doctors are ecstatic that we've almost made it to 31 weeks (tomorrow). 

Whenever the babies are ready to come out, I, too, am ready.  The nurses told me the other day my face looks puffy (which means fatter in my book), and today the doctor did what he called a finger test on my leg.  He pushed three fingers into the top of my ankle and held them there for a few seconds, and when he removed his fingers the indents were still there.  Cute.  Any day now, kids.  The compression socks are getting old.

Okay, well I guess I'm done now. Hope your Valentine's Day is full of love. 

Let's get on the same page here.

30 weeks!  Yesterday we made it to 30 weeks.  This is big doings in the triplet world, apparently, and now the doctors are confident that everyone will do well when out.  When that will be seems to vary based on who I talk to, but the timeline has been shortened, and here's the story on that.

Jesse and Axel had been here for the weekend; Axel left with Grandpa and Grandma on Saturday - a 3 year old can spend only so much time in a hospital room before we've exhausted all forms of entertainment for him.  Jesse decided he'd spend Sunday night here, too, and go back Monday morning.  We watched the Super Bowl on the 30" TV in my hospital room, and not the 60" plasma at home (sniff, sniff).  Did you see the Volkswagen commercial with little Darth Vadar?  That cracked me up, because it is so something my own dad would have done to us when we were growing up.  Here's the link to see it on YouTube if you missed it, and even if you saw it and knew my dad, it may be worth watching again just to imagine him doing that.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

I decided to use the bathroom one more time before bed, and again with the bleeding.  Called in the nurse, who I had just met that night and instantly disliked, and she came to check out the situation.  The monitors got hooked up again to see if everyone was okay, but this joker decided that it was too much of a pain to find Baby C, so she just monitored A and B.  I was pretty anxious at this point, which is not usually my style, and thought even if I don't like her I should not be telling her how to do her job (the next day the specialist I see often was appalled that Baby C was not monitored after a bleed, so she may have gotten in trouble, heh heh).

You may remember me saying last time that if I bleed anymore they will take the babies out, which is probably why I was suddenly anxious at 11:00 Sunday night, and so was Jesse.  His teeth were even chattering, and he, too, is not a nervous person.  The doctor on call thought if I was fine and the babies were fine they weren't going to do anything about it that night.  Let's get on the same page here, people.  That's not what the other doctor said on Friday.  Jesse pointed out that if it was not 11:00 at night they might have thought harder about it, which leaves me wondering if it is only okay to have a medical emergency during regular business hours.  Isn't that why I'm living in the hospital? 

The next morning I had a biophysical; babies are still in good shape, and a blood test showed that my hemoglobin was actually higher than before.  If it had dropped below a certain point they were going to take the babies out Monday morning, so Jesse stuck around for the test results, but when they determined it was not immediately necessary they told him he could go home.  The specialist who checks on me regularly came later to say that this will now not go on past 32 weeks.  That is about average for triplets, she said, and given that there seems to be a pattern of bleeding now it's not necessary to drag that out for any longer.  So, less than two weeks now!  If I make it that long, I will have been here for five weeks, which is long enough.

In the last couple days I've started having stronger contractions, so that's another factor that could contribute to the arrival of the babies.  Every night they ask me if I want to take something to help me sleep, and I never need it, but last night thought maybe that'd be okay because my stomach was hurting on a regular basis and perhaps I could sleep through it then.  So I got my drugs and turned out the lights about ten, and woke up later from a contraction.  It was 11:00.  So no, I did not sleep better.  I woke up every hour with a horrible cramping stomach.  This makes me sound like a whiner, but I just want to get a good night's sleep!

 The nurse and doctor told me this morning that I looked tired, so I thought maybe I'd take a nap this afternoon.  I told my nurse and she told me she'd tell people I was sleeping and not to come in.  Apparently they didn't all get the message, because a little later a different nurse came in.  Wow, it's so quiet in here, she says.  Yeah, and maybe you noticed I'd fully reclined my bed and had my eyes shut.  Do you want some Jell-O? she asks.  That's why she came.  To see if I wanted Jell-O.  Another nurse saw the door open so she came in, too, asking if the ice cream she brought me on Sunday caused the bleeding.  If it did, I said, then bring me more ice cream and let's end this!

Jesse is coming back tomorrow and waiting this out with me.  If / when something does happen, he'd never make it here in time, and since they've put it under two weeks he's decided to move in and play it safe.  Hopefully it's not too long!  Everyone here, us and the staff (and probably many of you) are so excited to see what we've got in here.

PS, thanks for the mail - the address works!

Just when I think I've got it figured out . . .

Let's call this the worst 24 hours since I arrived here.  For starters, I'm fine and so are the babies, right now anyway.  After a very quiet Monday and Tuesday, and a Wednesday full of visitors and laughing, I awoke Thursday morning to more ridiculous bleeding.  I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet.  The nurses came and cranked up the bright lights (thanks for the warning, by the way) and hooked up all the monitors.  The babies were in good shape, and the doctor on call came to do a quick ultrasound scan determining they all had an appropriate amount of fluid and placentas were in place.  But I had to stay hooked up to the machines all day, which is very constricting.  It's annoying to have to ask someone if I can go to the bathroom.  Finally at 4:00, after no more bleeding, they let me take a shower.  Hallelujah.

Things were pretty calm the rest of the evening, and I had big plans to go to bed early having went to bed late the night before and been woken up with commotion that morning.  Jesse and Axel called later in the evening to check in and report on their day, which had been kind of exciting, too.  One of Jesse's dad's sheds collapsed in the snow - the one that was housing Jesse's '64 Pontiac convertible.  Doh.  It was dark when he went to look at it, but he was pretty sure one of the rafters or something landed right down the middle of it going the long way.  That car hauled around some of our wedding party, so hopefully it's able to be salvaged.  Otherwise I guess we'll have some insurance money to put toward a new family bus which we now require.

About 3:00 this morning I got up to go to the bathroom, and wouldn't you know, more bleeding.  I called my nurse (who did not barge in and turn the lights on, but she is usually my overnight nurse and is used to coming in and giving me pills in the dark - she must have night vision) and she came in and hooked up the baby monitors; everyone was still doing just as well as before.  We had to leave them on for an hour - did you know CBS news is on at that time?  Hopefully they rerun the segment about Super Bowl snacks later in the day, because I'm pretty sure no one is planning his party at 3:30 on Friday morning.

Since everyone was in good shape I could be unhooked and go back to sleep.  At 8:00 I had another biophysical, which showed all the babies with good movements, good breathing, the hiccups, and plenty of fluid and intact placentas.  Yet another doctor that I hadn't met came in to give me her opinion after the test.  She said having two bleeds in 24 hours is not a good thing.  It's not an instant emergency, but I'm now on high alert.  If I am to have any more of this they will probably take the babies at that time.  They are fine but keeping them in to see if I continue to bleed is not good.  Another day or two will not matter to them (they need weeks) but it will matter to my health.  My hemoglobin has dropped a whole point since I got here, which is apparently a lot but still normal.  It will drop a couple of points during the C-section, so they can't afford to have it too low going in, because then I get into blood transfusion territory.  It's not the end of the world, but they'd like to avoid it. 

Other than all this bleeding nonsense I still feel really good and the babies are doing well, so it's irritating to be on high alert for something that may or may not happen again.  I think this is probably all happening to remind me that there's actually nothing I can really do about it, consciously - the babies, my body, and God I suppose have their own ideas.  John Lennon sang, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  That is kind of our theme for this whole triplet business.

On another downside I seem to be getting poked with needles more often these days.  They draw blood regularly to have a current record, and I have an IV line in should I need an emergency transfusion, and it has to get changed every four days.  The labor nurses tried to do it the first night I got here but they suck at it, so they poke a few times and wiggle their needles and then say, "Oh, it didn't work.  We'll get the IV team up here."  Then they call the people who specialize in this and they have numbing stuff, plus it takes them like two seconds and they're done.  I say let these people do their jobs if that's what they're here for!  Since that first night they've just called the IV nurses right away, until Wednesday night when my nurse thought she could do it herself again.  So she poked around on the side of my wrist, which looked like bone to me, not a vein, and sure enough, it didn't work.  I think I offended her when I asked if the IV people weren't here this late at night (which they were), but good grief.  Let them do it.

I hear other women in labor in the rooms around me, and they are in pain!  One night someone was yelling like Tarzan, which I can giggle at in the privacy of my own room.  Some people need to yell, and the rest of us get an epidural, I guess.  This is long again, sorry.  Hopefully I'll have little to report next time, but who knows.  Remember John Lennon. . .

No Ensure. I'm sure.

I've heard the weather is not nice.  It looks pretty much the same out my window, which overlooks a snowy park and residential neighborhood.  There are worse times to be stuck indoors.

Yesterday I had another biophysical in the dentist chair at 8:00 in the morning.  The babies were highly cooperative for the first time ever and luckily so:  there were two patients with 8:00 appointments and I got there a little before the other one.  Turns out one of the ultrasound techs was stuck in traffic on 94 and wasn't there yet so the other patient had to wait until my test was done so my tech could also do her test.  There are advantages to living in the hospital.

The latest concern, if you'd call it that, is that I've not really gained weight since I got here.  This does not concern me, more like thrills me, but the doctor I saw today sent in an overly-friendly nutritionist to tell me to eat more.  Check.  I'm eating as much as I can, but there's just not that much room in here.  They even brought me an Ensure along with my supper, but I was so full from the piece of lasagna and breadstick I couldn't drink it.  Plus the vanilla shake drink did not appeal to me at all.  I've never tried the stuff, but my dad drank it when he had cancer and that is maybe why I will not drink it.  

Jesse came back Friday night, and Axel came back from Grandma's on Saturday and got to spend the weekend with us in this "nice hotel" - that's what he called it for the first few hours.  I went on my first real field trip - wheelchair ride off the floor, to the cafeteria to eat lunch.  This is a pretty nice place, from what I saw.  We had a hard time getting Axel to take a nap that day, and he was pretty wound up. . . finally he thought it was a good idea to take a bath in my jacuzzi tub.  That kid would take five baths a day if we let him.  He helped the nurses hook up the baby monitors and make us microwave popcorn (he likes to push buttons).  We weren't sure how he'd sleep here, but once we turned the lights off and calmed down he slept for 12 hours - hooray!  Also, Jesse missed his firemen's Christmas party Saturday night to stay here with me - that is love.  He looks forward to that party every year.

As I expected, Jesse wasn't thrilled that I put the word out for some food for him because he thought it made him sound incompetent, which he is not.  That was not the intent!  For the record, he is an excellent cook and quite a baker - you should have seen the Swedish tea ring he made for Christmas, from scratch.  It was impressive.  Anyway, people want to know what they can do for me, but I'm pretty well taken care of here.  The biggest help for me would be to help take care of my boys, since I can't.  So that's maybe more of a favor to me than to him.

Today the babies are 29 weeks - every week is a milestone and the staff here was very excited for us to get this far.  I never doubted that we would.