On Wednesday of this past week, Alvin & I made our way to the hospital for one of our regular ultrasounds that are done every two weeks.  I was 26 weeks and 6 days pregnant.  All the babies looked good but when they got to doing measurements and estimating the size of each baby, the doctor became a bit concerned.  All babies had grown and gained about 4-5 oz. in the past 2 weeks but they all dropped in their percentiles and the two smaller ones were now in the 9th and 10th percentiles in size.  Typically anything under the 10th percentile is considered Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR).  The size alone was nothing to panic over because they are triplets and a lot of times measure a bit smaller than one baby would but this caused the doctor to examine the blood flow in each baby’s umbilical cord to make sure there weren’t any problems causing growth restrictions.  After all, all 3 baby’s umbilical cords are pulling oxygen and nutrients from one placenta.

Baby A, estimated to be about 1 lb 14.2 oz and in the 20th percentile, had perfect blood flow.  Baby B, estimated to be about 1 lb 10.2 oz and in the 9th percentile, also had perfect blood flow.  Baby C, estimated to be about 1 lb 10.8 oz and in the 10th percentile, had intermittent absence of diastolic flow in the umbilical cord (AEDF).  When the baby’s heart beats, it pushes the blood through the cord.  Normally, in between beats, blood continues to flow forward but slowly.  Baby C’s flow is continuing to move forward between some heartbeats but between others the flow is absent or stops.  If between beats, the blood starts to flow backwards slowly, that means it’s become reverse flow and the babies would need to be delivered.

They brought me to Labor & Delivery and I was admitted for monitoring.  They gave me two Betamethasone (steroid) shots 24 hours apart as a precaution.  The steroid shots help the baby’s lungs to develop faster in case they end up needing to deliver early.  I am now 27 weeks 2 days pregnant and have been in the hospital 3 nights.  They’ve been doing dopplers to monitor each baby’s cord flow daily.  Baby C’s status remains the same which is stable.  All 3 babies including C are doing great on their non stress tests (NST) which are performed twice daily.  That’s great news for all the babies but especially C because it shows that she’s doing fine in there.  She’s moving, practice breathing, and her heart rate is going up and down just like it should depending on how active she is.  One nurse said the babies are performing as well as they would expect 32 week babies to at only 27 weeks.  We’re still waiting to hear if I’ll be going home or if I’ll be here until we deliver the babies.  From what most of the doctors and nurses are saying, it sounds like they’ll want to be cautious and keep a close eye on C and they’re basically telling us to get comfortable because we might be here a while.

All of the doctors and nurses have been so nice and accommodating and are making us feel right at home (as much as a hospital can feel like home).  Alvin stays with me every night and does his best not the leave me at all.   If he has to leave, he makes sure I’m not alone.  All of the doctors and nurses love him and keep talking about what a great dad he’ll be  We got to take a tour of the NICU yesterday and get a lot of questions answered about what to expect and how a family with 3 babies will be accommodated.  That was good and made us feel very comfortable moving forward.

I’ll post an update if anything changes but for now babies are stable and still cooking and I’m staying put.

Thank you for all the prayers!!  God is in control and taking good care of us