Everything was going beyond well. I was sailing through the pregnancy. I could see no reason why I wouldn’t make it
to week 24 (first chance at viability).
And then….
Friday, May 4th started out a
good day. I attended the Budgeting For
Baby class and then stopped to grab a burger at McDonald’s on base. I had been feeling crampy during the class and
thought to myself that it was different than anything I had felt before and
maybe some food and water would help.
The cramps continued throughout the afternoon. Our ice maker was scheduled to get worked on
that day so I returned home to meet the repairman. Karre’ came home from work early that day to
deal with the fridge and I decided I should go lay down in bed. When I got up at 5ish I was still cramping
and Karre’ decided that we should go to labor and delivery at Portsmouth – just
to make sure everything was ok.
It was the first time this had happened in
the pregnancy and I assumed Braxton Hicks. At my routine OB appointment earlier
in the week I had expressed my concern to the Dr that this being my first pregnancy
I was nervous that I wouldn’t know if something wasn’t normal.
The on-call Dr examined me and utilized
the contraction monitor. Every time I told him I was having cramping the
machine picked it up. The Dr that night told me that I was 1cm dilated, 50%
effaced and that my cervix was 3 and a half.
He went on to explain that what I was feeling was just uterine
irritability and that I was NOT in pre term labor - he also informed us that I
had bacterial vaginosis (BV) and that he was going to give me an oral
antibiotic to take. He explained that the uterine irritability was likely from
the BV. We questioned the dilation and the effacement and he said that people
go whole pregnancies dilated and that unless the cramping got worse I was fine.
I asked him repeatedly if I should just go on bed rest at this point and he
told me - no -that I was doing fine and I could continue regular living. I should
mention that the current policy at Portsmouth is that there is no bed rest
unless you show a clinical need (because of the increased risk for blood
clots). They don't do cerclage for multiples anymore either - said studies show
there is no proof they help multiples. At our regular appointment that week I
had told my Dr that I had only been working half days for the last month and
half and that on Monday the 7th I was putting myself on house arrest (looking
back I think I did a lot of self doctoring). On Friday night we returned home –
with a sigh of relief – everything was going to be ok.
On Saturday, May 5th Karre' and I attended
the Tidewater Mothers of Multiples Consignment sale – we had been looking
forward to it for weeks and I was not feeling any worse. I continued to have cramping – but it continued
to remain the same so Karre' and I drove to the Outer Banks for the night
knowing that this was our last outing of the pregnancy (I was huge by this
point). We checked into the hotel around 1100 and took a 2 hour nap. We ventured out for lunch and spent about an
hour checking out a few shops. Looking
back I realize that the fact I had a hard time sitting up at lunch time without
intense pressure was a sign something just wasn’t right. It was the first really hot weekend and I was
spent after the hour of window shopping so we returned to the hotel around 3. The rest of the afternoon we watched junky tv
and fell in and out of sleep. That
evening we ordered pizza in and Karre’ had run out to get me some medicine to
help me sleep. At around 1130pm I
started to not feel good and thought that maybe I just needed to go to the
bathroom. For the next 2 hours it just got worse, I paced between the bed and
the bathroom, I started to panic and was drenched in sweat when I finally woke
Karre’ at 130am and told her something
just wasn't right and that something was bulging "down there".
She called 911.
My water broke on the gurney leaving the
hotel, Isaac Keith Saunders Glover was born a few minutes later in the
ambulance at 0203. Isaac was 11 inches
and weighed 1 pound .4 ounces. Because
they were only 22 weeks the decision was made in the ambulance that we would
not life flight out to a hospital with a NICU. I laid on the gurney, physically feeling
numb. Isaac was at the bottom of the
gurney having attempts made to keep him stable until we reached the hospital –
a measure that I was sure was just procedure because we weren’t driving to meet
a helicopter that would rush us somewhere he could have long term life sustaining
treatment. When we got to the hospital
they handed me Isaac and told me that he was gone. I knew that wasn’t the case because I could
see and feel his heart beating and he continued to slowly wiggle. Karre' joined us in the room. Autumn joined us somewhere in the early hours
of the morning. The Dr gave me medicine
to attempt to stop the contractions in hope that we could keep the others
inside.
Two hours passed by and we really thought that maybe just maybe the labor had stopped - I had
not had any contractions since Isaac had joined us. At 0412, while the nurse began to change out
the tubing for my IV, I had one HUGE contraction and my water broke for the
second time and out flew Maggie Rozena Saunders Glover. Maggie was 10 ½ inches and weighed 13.5 ounces.
We knew it was just a matter of time before our third child
entered the world. An ultrasound showed
that he was feet down and headed toward the opening. While we were waiting for his arrival we held
Isaac and Maggie and tried to tell them how much we loved them and how sorry we
were. I tried holding Isaac and Maggie
but soon after I would take them I would start to have contractions and I was scared
to hurt them if the third baby came as suddenly as Maggie had.
The contractions grew closer and closer together and at 0833
Elijah Carter Saunders Glover entered this world. Elijah was 10 ½ inches and weighed 14
ounces. We now had all three of our
children with us and they were beautiful.
The Dr on Friday had been wrong. I was obviously in preterm labor and he
missed it. We will never know what would
have happened if he would have told us to return Saturday morning to ensure the
cervix had not shortened or that I had not dilated anymore during the
night. We don’t know what would have happened
if he had errored on the side of caution (with this being a triplet pregnancy)
and kept us overnight. There are so many
what ifs and what could have beens.
Isaac lived with us 3hrs 47min, Maggie 3hrs 41min and Elijah
1hr 52min. Saying goodbye to them has
been the hardest goodbye of my life and I wanted so badly to join them. We miss them so much.
