Queen of the Juggle

We arrived at 6 a.m. at Labor and Delivery at Summerlin hospital. The staff there asked us to wait until 6:30. So we sat in the waiting room and watched TV and joked a little bit. At 6:30 we were directed to triage to find the babies on the monitor and start my IV and asked tons of questions. I was tired because I hadn’t slept much the night before because I was both excited and fearful. Excited the boys would be here, but scared of having a c-section. So right away, I learned that I had “done it wrong” because I had 3 sips of water and did not know that it’s not a good idea to eat or drink anything 8 hours before major surgery. The nurse asked me “haven’t you ever had surgery before?”. Nope, never. So I was shaken up because the anesthesiologist ultimately made the decision and opted for an epidural instead of a spinal block for the c-section. So my first nurse encounter wasn’t very fun and I began to cry. Then nurses Nina and Stephanie came in and took great care of me. Dr. Biscoff is also my hero for putting in a great epidural and talking me through so much. It really made things easier. Also, Dr. Bohman, my favorite doc stopped by and and eased my fears before cutting me open. My parents had come in from Winnemucca the night before, so it was very meaningful to have them there. They came up to the hospital at 8 a.m. and we were rolling into the O/R about 45 minutes later. Mom and Dad stayed in the waiting room, but I’m sure it wasn’t very long.

Very soon I was in the O/R and nice and numb. Chip was at my head and was doing a great job being supportive. I was having a bit of a difficult time keeping my emotional composure, but was so ready for the boys to be brought into the world. Chip said they were starting and I didn’t even know it! The next thing I knew, I heard Dr. Bohman say “10 seconds until first baby” and then I heard a beautiful cry. I started to cry too. Then more crying came from both me and the babies as each baby came out. There were 17 people in the delivery room when the boys were born, including Dr. Litner, the head of Pediatrics for Valley Hospitals as well as several nurse practitioners and nurses. It seemed like forever before I saw a doctor and or nurse come over to show me the babies. They were beautiful! WOW! It was all over in 15 minutes. I’m fairly certain that it took much longer to sew me up. Dr. Bohman did a fantastic job.

Chip, now a proud papa, and mom and dad went off with the boys to the Level III NICU. Soon they were back with me in recovery before heading to my room. Several people were in and out of the room and it was nice to see so many friendly faces. I really wanted to go to the NICU that night, but just didn’t have the strength until much later.

Chip did a fantastic job with the videos and pictures. How he supported me, watched the boys, and took pictures and videos. Mom took a ton of great pics too! Once in my room, I was tired and slept some. Mom and Chip called family. There was a nice hum of activity. It was so good to hear all the kind words and congratulations to our family. We never realized we had so many that cared about us! It was amazing. Both photos and movies with instructions on how to download them can be found via the links below:
Here is the main photo link:
http://www.metaforge.net/personal/publish/1%20McVey%20Babies%20Due%2010-25-07/BIRTHDAY/

And here is a link to a page that gives some info about the movies:
http://www.metaforge.net/personal/publish/1%20McVey%20Babies%20Due%2010-25-07/BIRTHDAY/1%20-%20README.html

The movies are very large. Please use the .avi files to watch smaller and quicker videos.

My nurse for the first 2 days was Andi, who was really laid back and helped manage the pain. I didn’t realize that it would be a longer stay than I wanted, but I tried to just take it all in and sleep. I wanted to sleep, but with all the excitement I just couldn’t. Also, the pain had set in. The doctor had prescribed Percocet and I had a terrible reaction. After changing to Loratab, things were much better.

I spoke to lots of friends and family and hope I was coherent because I genuinely thought I was really with it.

Chip and I finally talked that night and it was a conversation I’ll never forget. His smile was so bright with happiness and pride. Both of us had tears in our eyes, knowing that this is what we’ve been wanting for 3 long years. It had not always been an easy road and we were so close to giving up. His love for his sons very clear and apparent. We agreed that it was one of the most amazing moments we’ve ever shared. That we have this family of seven now that we are so proud of. The overwhelming emotion of love for these new little lives almost didn’t need words. We are so happy and feel so fortunate to have been blessed with these babies.

Daddy Chip bedded down next to me on a rollaway bed provided by the hospital. I’m sure it was uncomfortable. Despite his feet hanging over the end and being pretty uncomfortable, he stayed every night with me which was great because the nights are the hardest and the staff is the worst at night, except for Nurse Mona who was fabulous.

Overall, hospitals are no fun. Bad food and even worse service! If Chip wasn’t there to help me to the bathroom and take care of me DAILY, I think it would have been 100 times worse! I must say the whole healthcare industry really scares me. I ended up staying at the hospital for 5 days and needed a blood transfusion – they gave me 2 units of blood. I was severely anemic and when they tested my hemoglobin, it was 6.2. The average persons hemoglobin is about 14. I felt like crap, but thought it was just the fact that they cut me open. My doctor said I didn’t lose a lot of blood, but somehow became anemic. They said I could go home after the transfusion, which took like 6 hours. I thought I would never get out of there. I was done at around 5 a.m. and Chip and I left as soon as we could after that! We arrived at our house about 6:30 a.m. Mom had put the couch bed out, so we dropped there and got some sleep.

Well, it’s labor day weekend and here we are….not laboring, but still on the sofa with babies in the belly. Very good for them, very old for me, so that’s the same story. We are still monitoring twice a week and it looks “beautiful” according to my perinatologist. No contractions, heartbeats are strong and consistent and there is plenty of water (needs to be 2 cm or more) around each baby. Baby A is laying along the bottom, still has his head in my pelvic bone on the right side. Baby B is our flip flopper, but is vertex (up and down) on the right and baby C is like a crescent on the upper left side. They now roll a lot verses kicking. Each appointment I get scanned with ultrasound, but they don’t measure or give us pictures anymore since the goal is to see fluid and movement. My blood pressure has been slowing increasing from the 120’s to the 130’s, but no one is concerned about it at this point. Yesterday’s was 135/64. This seems to be in the normal range, so the buns continue to bake in the oven. I’m still having a lot of trouble sleeping and up a lot in the bathroom, but that’s every pregnant woman. So, pretty much no new news other than my back hurts and my feet/hands continue to swell, which are hard to stand on. I did have the same issues when I was pregnant with the girls, so it’s no surprise. I think I wore slippers the last month or so. The good news is that if we can stretch to 34 or 35 weeks we can deliver closer to home at San Martin (maybe) hospital or Siena, which would be nice. The other great thing is that every day the boys are inside saves them about 2 in the NICU, which is why I hang on for more time despite the daily difficulties I have. I am hovering at gaining anywhere from 33 to 36 pounds and apparently it’s fattening up the babies which is all good. I step on the scale every day. One day it’s more, one day it’s less.

We received some beautiful afghans from the Harrah’s Reno hotel crew as well as some really nice blankets made with lots ‘o love from Celia and Fred Colvin in Alaska. In addition, we received the “duo” stroller (we are going with 2 of them since we usually have more than one of us going somewhere at a time) that Bunny and Bill had ordered for us. Laura Besiada also gave us 2 dressers that will save few bucks. I’m sorry to see her move to Florida, but appreciate that we don’t have to buy more furniture. I think we’ll change the drawer pulls to something boy and we’ll be good to go. So the nursery is coming together and we’ve taken a true inventory of the things we have which is now posted in the “Updated list of baby items” right behind this post. The only things we didn’t account for are some used clothing I bought for both newborn and preemie on ebay. There’s just too many of one of this and that it would take forever to list. Thank you to everyone for your generosity and kindness. We cannot find the words to express just how much it means to us to not have to do it alone.

We are continuing to put our budget together and figure that we will use 1 can of formula and 20 or so preemie diapers per day, which is $27.00 per DAY for babies, not counting anything else. Hopefully when they get a little bigger we can buy larger diapers at Costco for much less. So….life is going to change for us big time in a financial way. I think Chip worries the most about that. Both of us are looking at it from every angle often to ensure we are accounting for everything. 3 kids at once along with 2 others is VERY scary.

The girls are back in school this week. Kaitlyn started 6th grade at the middle school which is a whole new experience and makes me feel old! She’s loving all the options and new things. Her biggest thing has been no more uniforms. This year she picked her own clothes. I carried the checkbook and the girls pushed me in a wheelchair at the mall. Totally uncool, but that’s what it took to school shop this year. Gillian began 3rd grade and now has the elementary school to herself. She’s still in uniforms and had fun picking new clothes too. The girls are also both busy with gymnastics, girl scouts and Gillian started fall soccer in the last couple of weeks. Don’t even ask how we’re going to do all the running when the boys come. Their dad has been really helpful, so hopefully that will continue. Both girls are really excited…we all are excited. We are seeing the girls become more independent and helping us around the house. I can’t believe how big they are, but it makes me proud that they can pitch in where needed. Today they are going to help Chip put the duo stroller together. They have all the pieces laid out and ready to go as soon as Chip is done watching the Michigan game (first of the season, against Appalachian State). They’ve helped me keep count of the baby stuff too and were awesome at putting the nursery stuff together from Abby (THANK YOU ABBY).

Happy 26th Anniversary to my mom and dad on August 31, can’t believe it’s been a year since the big party. 🙂

IF WE GO INTO LABOR….the plan right now is to call one person from each side of the family and then have them get information out. If my mom isn’t here already, we’ll call her, but if she’s here, we’ll plan to call Kristy on my side and Bunny on Chip’s side to pass the word on. I’m putting together a list of people to call/email when the big event happens. If you want us to add you to our email list, please let me know via email at sherri@metaforge.net

I’ll try to post on Tuesday, but if not, I’ll post on Thursday, which will be 33 weeks….WOO HOO!

I can’t really believe it, but we almost at 30 weeks. We had a very lengthy doctor’s appointment today. The girls went with us and hung in there so well. They did an extensive ultrasound to measure each baby and look at the fluid around each baby to ensure all was ok. Each baby weighs about 3 lbs. and is about 15 inches. We are still in the same range as a singleton baby, which is great! Especially since I have gained just 27 lbs. The goal was between 40 and 60 pounds and it’s not for lack of trying. They know me at Krispy Kreme and Jack In The Box, as we are there at least once a week, sometimes more. Gotta love cheeseburgers and doughnuts. I’m so trying! What a cruel joke….I can only laugh. Never in a million years did I think that someone would be telling me to gain more weight!

The ultrasound also showed plenty of fluid around the babies. They look for 2 centimeters or more and we are well over 3 per baby. All the heads and bellies look good too. We could even see The doctor said we are doing very well and maybe could go past September 1. I’m hopeful we can, but as I said in my last post, my body is pretty tired and I don’t know where I have room to expand.

We then went on to monitor the babies. They put monitors on to look at heart rate of each baby along with measuring any contractions. Still no contractions, which is more good news and the heart rates are right where they need to be at between 140 and 160 beats per minute. They also drew my blood to check my thyroid. There won’t be any news on that until Thursday. So now I go twice a week to monitor heart rates and contractions. We’ll be at the doctor on Mondays and Thursdays now.

The girls are getting so excited too. They rub the belly and talk to the tummy. Gillian has been carrying her doll in the new stroller for the boys. It’s great!

These days at home are off and on. If I can get a good night’s sleep all is good, but if not, it’s a rough day. I have a lot of lower belly pain and when they move sometimes it’s painful. Chip has been so good about rubbing my feet and back almost every day. Sleeping is a real challenge. Chip told me last week that I sounded like I was 90 years old. Some days I feel like it! Getting out of bed is rough! I try to roll over and it’s painful. I’ll be sitting on the sofa and all of a sudden I will just get a painful cramp. That’s when I know they are moving around. It hurts underneath the ribs. I also have 3 times the blood volume of a not pregnant woman, so my veins stick out and I get weird rashes from my blood vessels pumping so much blood. These are things that aren’t fun, but I am so grateful that the babies are doing well and that we are getting this miracle. I’m truly excited to see these boys.

In the pictures above you can see where they showed us that one baby has hair. It’s amazing! Check out the bottom pic for baby b. The babies are so big now we can see neat stuff, but never more than 1 baby at a time. On the picture on the right, you can see a fisted hand next to the side view. It hurts my back to sit for the ultrasound, but I love seeing all the parts from hair to the blood flow to the heart. It is always reassuring to hear the heartbeats too. That part never gets old. We started our second video tape since we have so much ultrasound on video. It will be a great for them to watch later. Maybe I’m just being sentimental.

I also have an updated list of baby items we have/need, which will be posted in both the past post of “updated list of items needed and received” as well as after this post. Thank you again to everyone who has helped us, supported us and who continues to keep in touch. We can’t wait to call of you on the big day.

We had our doctors appointment on 7/16/07 and it was a long one. I did the one hour glucose test first, which wasn’t fun, but wasn’t too bad either. Then we had our ultrasound, which showed that the babies were laying across the bottom of my belly, stacked one on top of the other like a triple decker bus. All heads are laying on the right side and feet were to the left. No wonder I get kicked the most on the left side. Babies A and C are about 2 lbs. and baby B is about 1.5 lbs. and sandwiched in the middle. They are about 14 inches from head to toe. Then we went on to our first monitoring session for contractions. We will be monitoring weekly now for a month. There were no contractions the first session. My cervix has shortened by 1 centimeter and is now at 2 cm. The doctor said this was normal. We looked at the cerclage stitches and it seems to be the ONLY thing holding everything in. Wow, just amazing to see on the screen. Since it was a very lengthy ultrasound, we saw all the hearts, brains, kidneys and blood flow to both the placenta and through the umbilical cord. Very interesting to watch. The doctor thinks we’ll go into the low 30’s for delivery. I’m still shooting for 33 or 34 weeks, but Dr. Bohman will be happy if we make to 31 weeks. We will definitely need to go to Summerlin to deliver.

Tuesday, 7/17/07 we met our new pediatrician, one that is very well known in the Vegas Valley, Ralph Conti. It was good to see his new office and talk face to face about how he manages multiples. I had taken the girls to him 8 or 9 years ago, but his old office was so crowded and the waits were very long. We discussed how we couldn’t bear to do that again, so he really eased our fears and was very good about offering support by providing us a beeper number and a cell number, which is an extreme rarity and we certainly appreciate that he’s making himself available. We’ll see what happens.

Tuesday night Bunny came in and it’s so great to see her! She made 3 baby quilts that are absolutely beautiful! They are so colorful and will be awesome in the nursery and using them on the floor for tummy time for the boys. Bunny, Bill, Jamie and Danny also ordered strollers for the boys and we’ve received one of them. My mom bought the infant seats and we picked those up on Wednesday. Thursday morning I received a call from the doctors office and my glucose test results are high. My blood sugar was 168 and norm is under 135. So Monday I will take a 3 hour glucose and get stuck for blood 4 times. The fun never ends!

Today is Saturday and it was a rough morning for me. Contractions I think. I woke up at 5 a.m. with so much belly pain and back pain. Finally after about an hour or so, I was able to go to sleep again and then at 8 a.m. the pain was back again. I called my doctor, but haven’t received a call back, which is highly irritating to me, but the pain has also subsided. So, I’m not sure what has been going on. It always makes me scared because it’s too early to deliver. Not sure, but maybe he’ll send me to the hospital for monitoring, which I don’t want to do. The last place I want to be is in the hospital.

Also today, Daniel and Christopher are here after coming over last weekend to show us some paint colors. Today all the work is being done. Bunny, Chip, Christopher and Daniel has been working like crazy since about 11 a.m. The girls are here this weekend too and have pitched in to help. We changed our configuration of the upstairs and nursery for the babies. Chip and Bunny primed Gillian’s old pink room, which was very pink! Now it’s the new nursery. The guest room will be our “spare” room which is also getting painted today. I’m so excited! Since I can only go up and down the stairs once a day I haven’t seen the action, but Chip has taken a few pictures, which I’ll post. It looks good from what I’ve seen.

I’ll post whatever pictures I can very soon. We finally replaced our digital camera, which met it’s maker in Hawaii after 5 good years. I’ll have Chip take a belly pic or two and we’ll post those too.

Thank you to everyone who has commented that they read the blog. I am enjoying writing and keeping a good journal of this incredible journey. My body hurts and is tired and my mind isn’t as sharp these days. I need a place to keep all my thoughts in order. Thank you to everyone for their support and help with this endeavor. It has meant the world to us and from the bottom of our hearts we can’t thank everyone enough.