Taylor Plus Triplets

Finally Home!

Written by Jessica on Friday, May 09, 2008

Categories: birthday, born, Triplets are here

I'm finally home after 3 long weeks in the hospital. I went for a regular dr visit on April 18 and was admitted to the hospital for another round of magnesium sulfate to stop labor. I had dialated to a 2. We scheduled a c-section for May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), but the boys had another date in mind. After 2 weeks of hospital bedrest, I went into labor again this time I was 50% effaced, dialated to a 5 and the babies were +1 (dropping down). So, an emergency c-section was our only option.

On May 3rd, 2008 at 9:30pm, 9:31pm, and 9:33pm, we welcomed little Carter Edward, Brayden Michael, and Tucker Martin into the world.

The boys weighed in at:

Carter - 4lbs 14.3oz, 17 3/4 inches

Brayden - 5lbs 5.6oz, 18 inches

Tucker - 4lbs 13.6oz, 18 1/2 inches

That's 15lbs 1.5oz of baby!

Here are a few pictures:

Big brother Taylor with Carter, a couple hours old

Brayden getting help breathing, a couple hours old

Tucker, a couple hours old

Carter, 5 1/2 days old

Brayden, 5 1/2 days old

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New Hair Cut

Written by Jessica on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

I guess it's an 8th month tradition...I cut 10 1/2 inches off yesterday and I think I'll soon go even shorter. I did this when I was pregnant with Taylor, but the haircut was a lot worse then...

As far as baby news, they are all doing good. Sometimes it looks like they are going to pop out of my stomach when all three get to moving in different directions. I'm 32 weeks tomorrow and still going strong. The doctors are all impressed with the babies and my progress. I'm extremely happy with how everything has gone so far as well. I'm guessing the babies may be close to 4 pounds now, which would mean bar any complications, the babies at this point could come home after only a week of observation. 34 weeks is our goal, however, 32 is a huge milestone. The doctor has now said I can go up to 36 weeks if they keep growing and all is well with me. So, we may have May babies... Either way, at this point we'll have babies within 4 weeks. YIKES!

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Not so funny April Fools

Written by Jessica on Friday, April 04, 2008

I'm finally back at home today, Friday April 4, after being in the hospital since Tuesday. Apparently some sort of kidney/bladder/UTI infection caused me to go into preterm labor. They were able to stop everything with magnesium sulfate, nubane, fluids for hydration, and lots of IV antibiotics. I was also given the steroid injections to help the babies lungs develop more rapidly. While I'm still having fairly uncomfortable contractions that will continue until the babies are born, the doctor feels confident as long as there are no other labor factors that all is well. He said the easy thing for him to do at this point is to keep me at the hospital, however, it's not the easiest on me! So we agreed that I live close enough to the hospital that should anything happen I could get there and we also agreed that I would be on complete and total bed rest. And let me tell you, when someone makes you stay in bed, you want nothing more than to get out of it! Here's a picture my photographer husband snapped of me soon after I found out I was about to get to go home. They are monitoring 3 heartbeats and contractions with the things strapped to my stomach...

Unfortunately though, I am at the point where it is too painful to get up and walk to the bathroom, let alone do the other things I'm not supposed to do, so, bed rest it is for me. Poor Wade is getting orders left and right to do everything that I want to do. Right now I'm wanting to work in the yard and get it looking lively again, so hopefully if the weather cooperates I can get him out there working this weekend! Speaking of the yard, here's the most lively thing in the front yard right now. It will soon be fading though, it's confederate jasmine and blooms once in the early spring and then again in the late fall for about a month at a time. The great thing is that it needs no water, no attention or maintenance of any sort and it gets bigger and better every year.

Because we will be bringing three premature babies home, we have to get all the pet dander out of the house, which means giving up our year old kitty, Alex the Lion. He's neutered and has been declawed, therefore he must stay indoors. If you know anyone that would like to help us with Alex, please let me know. Here's a picture of him sleeping; he looks like this about 20 hours of the 24 hour day. The other 4 hours he's bee/bird watching from the window, or eating.

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10+ pounds of baby

Written by Jessica on Tuesday, April 01, 2008

The boys are all doing very well. We met with the Maternal Fetal Medicine Doctor today and he took a detailed look at all the boys' internal and external parts and gave them a clean bill of health. Much to our delight, they weigh a little more than we expected. The weights come from measurements of their heads, bodies, arm and leg bone lengths, and a few other factors that complete the formula. Each of their parts are then converted from a GA to a AUA. That is, a Gestational Age to an Adjusted Ultrasound Age. Their AUA's were all in the range of 30 weeks to 35 weeks. Their belly's were all measuring large at 35 weeks... they must get that from their daddy!! Their true gestational age is 29 weeks and 6 days (I'll be 30 weeks tomorrow). The weights are accurate +/- 2 oz:

Baby A: 3lbs 5oz

Baby B: 3lbs 9oz

Baby C: 3lbs 5oz

Yes, that's 10lbs 3oz of baby in there already! No wonder I can't roll over or hardly get myself up off the couch! I just thought Taylor was big at 8lbs 10oz, what a wimp I was back then!

It's nearly impossible for them to get pictures of the babies now. They've gotten too big. When one of the babies does cooperate and look up, it never fails that one of his brothers throws a foot or hand or something up to block the picture. Here's the best one we were able to get last week.

Baby A - 29 weeks

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Picture 50lbs heavier

Written by Jessica on Monday, March 17, 2008

After my last post stating I had gained 50lbs it seems my friends and family that haven't seen me in a while want to know what I look like with 50 additional pounds... So, here it is ya'll:

Notice anyone hiding in the jungle of cribs??

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He'll make millions oneday!

Written by Jessica on Saturday, March 15, 2008

We've just enrolled Taylor in the spring program at The First Tee. He's doing really well. He seems to listen to his instructor there a lot better than he listens to his Daddy or I. He'll go through some lessons and then get some course play time with tournament type play towards the end. He hasn't put his clubs down for one day since he started this program. Here are some pictures of our big golfer.

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27 weeks fat...um, pregnant that is.

Written by Jessica on Wednesday, March 12, 2008

I'm 27 weeks today, and 50 pounds heavier than I was just 27 short weeks ago. Roughly 7 pounds of that is baby though I might add! The boys are all doing great. They're showing signs that they are practicing breathing, they have great movement and tone, and lots of fluid in there. So they're good. I'm doing okay. Hurting a good bit, very uncomfortable, fatter than ever, and having contractions. I was admitted to the hospital Friday and given medication to stop the contractions. It hasn't stopped them completely, but it has made them more irregular, which is good. We need to keep the boys in there a little longer. I'm going to the doctor 3 times a week now for monitoring. That's enough doctor for me. I can't imagine being stuck in the hospital!

Here's a 3-d picture of baby C again, the good child. He has a lot more fat around his face than he did in the last 3-d picture. This was at 25 weeks. He's about 2 pounds here.