July 4th was ALMOST the birth date of our sweet baby boys. Instead, it was the last day James and I spent together as a family of two. This year our July 4th was spent in the hospital. I was on my 35th day of hospital bed rest and feeling absolutely miserable. Most of my hospital stay was tolerable, but that whole last week was awful. My blood pressure was sky high and my nurse was concerned. She ordered some labs and they said it looked like I might be suffering from preeclampsia. The plan was to repeat the labs first thing the next morning. If things didn't look any better, that would be "the day". If the lab results were better, than we would go another week and deliver on July 11th as originally planned.
James came to spend the evening with me since it was our anniversary...and since he always did. He brought Kahlua up to help lift my spirits. It was a Thursday, which marked my 33 week point of pregnancy. I was so ready to be done. As James took my weekly belly shot, I was pretty confident it would be last one. When I posted it on Facebook, the caption read: "I have the feeling this may be my last weekly photo: 33 weeks gestation, fundal height measuring at 50 weeks, total weight gain of 51 pounds. Mama's ready to meet these boys!" That night James and I watched fireworks from an empty hospital room down the hall from my room. We had a perfect view. Afterwards, he left. It was around 11:00. I took an Ambien so I could hopefully get a nap in before going on the monitor at midnight.
I vaguely remember my nurse coming in to hook me up to the monitor, but quickly fell back to sleep. The next thing I knew, it was almost 3:00 AM...and I was still on the monitor. My sessions were supposed to last an hour, but it wasn't uncommon to go longer if babies didn't cooperate. When my nurse came back in, I asked her what was going on. She calmly told me that Baby A was having heart decelerations. This had happened before, so I didn't think it was that big of a deal. She then said she thought we might have to deliver and that she was going to call the on-call doctor and see what to do. She came back shortly and told me it was GO TIME! I called James and told him to head to the hospital. I then called my mom and told her what was going on so she and my dad could start the trek from Marion where they were camping for the weekend to Overland Park.
Things went really quickly from that point. A couple nurses came in and prepped me for surgery. I remember asking if I could go to the bathroom and they said we didn't have time. Before I knew it, I was being wheeled down to the operating room so they could begin putting in the spinal block. James still wasn't there and I was starting to get a little nervous that he wasn't going to make it in time. He ended up getting there right as they were finishing up the spinal block...just minutes before they opened me up. It all happened so fast. I was told at 3:15 that I would be delivering that day. By 4:08, all three babies were out. So crazy to think how much your life can change in under an hour.
I distinctly remember:
- The feeling of relief as we heard each of our sweet babies cry as they were being brought into the world.
- Dr. Nichols telling us that Baby B peed on his way out.
- All the people in that room (almost 20 of them) working hard to make sure our boys were okay.
- Getting to see each baby briefly (and even getting to hold Baby C) before them being whisked away to the NICU.
Afterwards, James went up to the NICU with the babies as I was being stitched back up. They then took me to recovery. I figured I would have slept during that recovery time, but I was on an adrenaline rush and all I wanted was to go see my babies. They told me I would have to wait a couple hours before I could go up. In the meantime, James came back down and showed me pictures of the boys and updated me with their heights and weights. I sent texts out to everyone, not caring that it was early in the morning. My parents arrived shortly afterwards. Around 7:00, I was able to go up in my hospital bed and meet my boys. At that point they had been named (James did the honors when he went up with them the first time).
Baby A - Oliver James Asher - 4 lbs 1 oz, 17 inches long
Baby B - Nolan Michael Asher - 4 lbs 3 oz, 16.25 inches long
Baby C - Lucas McRae Asher - 3 lbs 15 oz, 16.5 inches long
Nolan and Lucas were both on oxygen so we weren't able to hold them, but they let us hold Oliver. I'll never forget that feeling of holding him in my arms for the first time...and for that moment, knowing that my three boys were finally here and healthy.
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