Happy Halloween!

Today we had another ultrasound to check on the status of our little peanuts. Both the boys are holding up like champs, but our little girl is still having the intermittent blood flow issues in her umbilical cord. We keep hoping that every time we go in they are going to say she is doing great again, but she is proving to keep us on our toes. Our next ultrasound will be on Thursday in the afternoon to check the flow again, and hopefully sometime next week we will get to check their growth again to see if she has gained any weight.
This weekend sent a lot of visitors in to come see me. One of my favorite was Kita, as I have not seen him in almost 2 weeks! It seemed like he didn't remember who I was for a little bit, but I think he was trying to figure out all the smells before he jumped up on the bed looking for snuggles and belly rubs. Also, on Saturday a mom with her twin daughters came around and gave Halloween baskets to all the moms here on bed rest. She had been in the hospital around this time when she was pregnant with her twins so they come every year to stop by and say hi. It was a great idea and some day that is something I would love to do with the triplets, since I know how hard it is to sit here day after day wondering what the next step is. It's just hard to believe I have already (or only??) been here for 2 weeks!!! We just have to keep reminding each other that every day we are here is a blessing, as it means the babies are growing stronger and stronger before they arrive, and we are being well taken care of.
Thank you again to everyone that has been able to stop by, bring food, snacks, things for me to do, you have no idea how much I appreciate it!!!!
Have fun tonight trick or treating and thanks again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!
Love, S&B+3

Kita enjoying the view from my hospital room :)

Here for the long haul...

After a couple of uneventful days, we went in to check the dopplers of all the babies again. Our little miss proved to keep us on our toes, and now we are here until the babies are delivered. Today has definitely been a rollercoaster of emotions but we are doing whatever it takes to keep these babies and Beth healthy as can be. We were prepared for Beth to be discharged today, as the doctors had informed us after how good our last doppler was that there was a chance that that she could go home today on strict bed rest if the doppler came back good again.
All the other tests on the babies have come back perfectly; they are all passing their BPP's with scores of 8 out of 8. A BPP is a bio-physical profile, where they come into our room every other day and check to make sure each baby is taking practice breaths, each baby has a good pocket of fluid in their sack, and to make sure each baby has good strong movements.
So now it is just a waiting game; waiting to make sure these babies stay in as long as possible. They for sure want us to go to 34 weeks and after that they said they will schedule the C-section for shortly after. Keep in mind, that the 34 week mark is the 1st of December, so this is going to be a long hard journey, but we have faith that God put us on this journey for a reason, and we will take it just one day at a time.
Thank you to everyone again for all the words of encouragement, visits, calls, texts and facebook messages!!!!
Love,
S&B+3

What a trooper!

Well, our little princess proved that all the extra rest mom has been getting these last couple of days really helped. We were so relieved and excited to learn that her blood flow through the umbilical cord came back normal!!! This is definitely an improvement from last week, so this has definitely been an amazing start to the week!!! We go back on Thursday morning to check to see if she has gained anymore weight and to make sure her doppler is still showing signs of normal or better. Until then, rest, rest, rest!!
Yesterday the doctors had started Beth on an IV of magnesium, which had we needed to deliver, it would have helped protect the babies brains and everything else considering their small size. After the great checkup today, Beth got to go off the IV, which was a huge relief because if you know Beth, you know how much she hates needles and anything that goes with them!
Also, 2 other mom's that are here that we actually met through a Multiples group we had joined both gave birth to their triplets yesterday. We were so happy to hear that all 6 babies are doing great and the mom's are healing up. What a crazy week it has been for all of us!
Beth is getting homesick, but with all the visitors and well wishes, it has definitely helped keep her occupied. The one little guy she misses more than ever is Kita, but the doctors did say he could come visit, so hopefully later this week she will get to see him.
We can not thank everyone enough for the prayers, snacks, flowers, calls, texts, emails, etc. We are so excited to be able to bring these triplets into a life already so full of people that love them!
Thanks again and we will keep you updated as the days go on!
S&B+3

Great news!

After some very anxiety filled days, we are happy to report that these little babies get to stay in to grow as much as they can over the next couple of days and hopefully weeks. We had our ultrasound yesterday morning to find that our little girl did not improve in her blood flow through the umbilical cord, but she also did not get worse. That being so, the doctors decided the best step was to keep Beth in the hospital to closely monitor her until the babies are ready to make their appearance. The hard part is knowing when this will be, she could be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months; the longer the better!
We have been having a lot of tests done over the past couple of days and they babies and Beth have been closely monitored. Every morning Beth is hooked up to 2 twin monitors (they don't have one for triplets) for an hour to track the babies heartbeats to make sure they are going strong. She also has to do this every night for about 20-30 minutes and so far, all babies have come back perfectly every time. Every other morning she has to have a test called a BPP, a BioPhysical Profile, where a nurse comes in with a smaller ultrasound machine to check to make sure each baby is practicing breathing and moving around. The babies have all gotten 8 out of 8 each time she has had this.
On a side note, two other mom's that are here are also pregnant with triplets. The funny part about it is we know both of them. Beth had joined a Mother's of Multiples Group up in Coon Rapids and had met both mom's through the group. They have us all 3 in a row, and the nurses keep asking us if we have any other friends that might be coming in soon with more triplets :) One of the mom's will be delivering her babies on Monday morning, and the other is in the same situation that we are, so please also keep them in your prayers!
Thank you again to everyone for everything. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such a great group of family and friends. Beth really appreciates everyone that has gotten a chance to come visit her and all the calls and everything else to help keep her occupied.
We will keep you all updated along the way. Thanks again!
Love,
Shawn, Beth and babies

So this is bed rest...

What a crazy 24 hours I have had! Yesterday morning I came down to Abbott hospital for a long day of appointments, and had you told me I would still be here 24 hours later, I thought you would have been kidding. I went in for the growth ultrasound to check on how all 3 babies had progressed in the last 3 weeks and everything with the boys came out great, bur our little princess is not doing so well. Baby A weighed in at 2 lbs, 13 ozs and baby C weighed in at 2 lbs 6. According to the doctor, if they were singletons at full term when we they were born, we would have healthy 7.5-8 lb boys. As for our little peanut, she only gained 5 ozs in the last 3 weeks, and her cord doppler is not as good as it needs to be. Her umbilical cord is not centered in the placenta, so she is only getting about 30% of the blood flow and nutrients that she needs. She is only weighing in at 1lb 11oz, only in about the 12th percentile of where she should be. That being the case, they immediately admitted me to the hospital so they can all be monitored, but mainly her to make sure that she is getting as much blood flow as possible.
I was given my first steroid shot yesterday morning to help their lungs grow and develop as fast as possible, the 2nd shot is yet to come this morning. At this point, we have been told we have 3 options that will be happening on Friday; 1) if she isn't doing better, they will need to deliver all 3 of them, 2) I will stay on hospital bed rest for another couple of weeks until either I get the ok to go home for bed rest, or the babies come, 3) I get to go home, but will be on very strict bed rest. I can basically only get out of bed right now to go to the bathroom, so this is going to be really hard for me.
Yesterday they hooked me up twice to monitors to check the babies heart beats, which all came back strong both times, but they also noticed I have been having contractions. I am not sure how long these have been going on, as each time they pointed them out I thought they were just babies moving. They said as long as I am not in pain and none of their waters have broken, we are good to go.
I can't help but wonder if there was something I could have done different to keep her safe and healthy, but as much as the doctors and nurses keep telling me there is nothing that I could do to prevent this from happening, I think as a mom to be you just feel like it is something that could have been helped. Just please keep us all in your prayers, especially our little girl and that is all that we ask. October babies are much, much to early but we are in the best care possible, and will leave this in God's hands as this was his plan for us since the day we found out we were pregnant.
Thank you again so much to everyone for the calls, texts, messages, emails; it means the world to us to know that so many of you are thinking of us!
Love,
B+3