Last year, while I was in hospital after having the triplets, I continued writing my pregnancy journal. I left Week 34 as a cliffhanger. I fully expected to finish the story in the following weeks. How wrong I was. I had expected to write the story while the babies were in the special care nursery, but they were so healthy they got out so much sooner than expected. So here is the beginning of the tale, better late than never.
The Triplet’s Birth Day – 7th October, 2011
I woke from a nice deep sleep at around 2:00 am on the 7th of October. I had been given some sleeping tablets, but had been told that I wouldn’t sleep through labour with them, I’d wake if anything started getting more intense. Once I woke up, I realised that the contractions had gotten stronger, so I rang for the midwife, like I’d been instructed. Turned out the midwife couldn’t come to me because she was literally in the middle of delivering another baby. A few messages were run back and forth between rooms, and then I was left alone. I wasn’t concerned, because nothing was too painful. It was a very busy time in the maternity ward that month apparently. In the two days that I was admitted, including my babies, 18 babies were delivered, which made the October quota of babies born at St. Vincent’s 32, for the month. (A lot for the private hospital in our city.) The midwives theory was that it was exactly 9 months after the floods. They said that their ward always got busy after natural disasters or extended periods of blackouts. We had experienced both in our community 9 months prior. (Not that either were responsible for our triplets birth!)
I slept on and off until Dr. Mac visited me around 7:00 am. He basically said that I was very close to delivering, but we didn’t know whether it was a matter of hours or a matter of days. His advice was to monitor the dilation of the cervix, and to act immediately if it started to advance beyond 3cm. He then noted that he was going to take the rest of the day (Friday) off, and that he also was not rostered on over the weekend, so he would hand me over to the care of Dr. K. I was starting to feel like this was patient pass the parcel.
Dr. K came to visit me about an hour later. He didn’t seem to be as confident as Dr. Mac that the labour would last days, but he was still leaving the decision up to us as to whether we would choose to have a Caesar straight away, or take our chances waiting.
About another hour later, after a shift change, a new midwife came to check on me. She sat on the side of my bed with her hands placed gently on my stomach, just feeling. She was surprised by the amount and frequency of the contractions. Her advice was to have the babies during the day, since the weekend was about to begin and it would be more difficult to muster up an operating team required for an emergency Caesar for triplets.
We agreed. I had delivered T-Star in around 2 hours from the start of the first contraction. And with J Boy, once my waters broke, I delivered him also in under two hours. So it was safe to say that Alex and I were already nervous that once this labour progressed into anything serious, we may not have time to assemble a team before babies started dropping out, (in the case of Triplet 1, who was head down and right at the exit ready to go) and the others getting stuck and distressed (Triplet 2 was breach and Triplet 3 transverse).
Another phone call and we all agreed to schedule a Caesar for that day. 1:00 was booked and a crew was quickly assembled. Everyone seemed to be on standby as it was. They had been expecting me for quite some time in the maternity ward. Nobody had expected that I would avoid hospital for as long as I did. When I appeared on Thursday night, everyone was on high alert.
There wasn’t too much more to do than wait. The time went very quickly. We took some last pregnancy snaps, got dressed in my very becoming hospital attire and become extremely nervous.
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| About an hour before the triplets were born. I have to say, this dress is very flattering. It doesn’t seem to reflect how large my stomach really was. To gain perspective, look at how I’m positioned in the doorway. Admittedly though, I didn’t get as large as I thought I may. Pregnant triplet ladies – take heart, it may not be as bad as you think. |
Lordy! Did I get nervous! I think by midday I was ready to push all three out whichever way they were facing! I have to admit, I stayed nervous throughout the whole procedure, and I wouldn’t call it entirely pleasant, it was all rather surreal. However, I don’t mind one bit that I had the Caesar, especially when I look at the angelic faces of my three little miracles. And of course I’m very grateful that I didn’t go with my ir
rationality and damage all four of us trying to bypass the surgical option!
Finally after incubating three little people for 239 days it was time for them to make their appearance in this world. Their life had started at conception 34 weeks and 1 day ago, now it was time for them to leave the mother ship and begin living their own existence.
Read Part 2
Read Part 2
3 Comments
We are so blessed that you didn’t have time for your story to be written till now! I’d prefer healthy babies every time!
It’s just amazing. I love your story.
Wonderful story so far……:)