Lily, Jack, and Ben Rogers

Well, yesterday was an exciting day. It started out like an average visit to the Dr.'s office. I felt pretty good, nothing out of the ordinary or anything. Brian was able to take me and was excited because we were fairly sure that they were measuring the babies. Again, just a regular old day.

Until I go into have my vitals taken and my blood pressure was sky high. I believe it was around 152/90. Not so much of a good sign. Oops. Wonder how that happened? I had been having some swelling in my hands and face at home, some light-headedness, congestion, weight-gain, and headaches at times and had chalked it up to just being pregnant. We actually have an inherited blood pressure cuff and I had checked it a few times just to make sure-and it was always fine. Of course, we inherited it because the previous owners didn't think it worked so well....guess I might agree with them now.

So we go in to the room and the sonographer comes in (a newbie) and begins the measurement process. Now I had never had her before and she looked so completely overwhelmed I felt very bad for her. To her credit she really tried to figure who and where and what everything was, but it is HARD. There are 3 moving and cramped big babies in there and it is really hard to see what is what, who is who, or even what is who's. We could clearly see she was struggling...which is always a tense situation to be in. I guess the experienced sonographer hadn't made it in yet and she got thrown into doing this... So after about 10 minutes and lots of uncomfortable silence she pushed back her chair and said that she was sorry, but she was going to go tell Dr. Tabor that she wasn't ready for triplets yet and left. We both felt really bad for her. Then I looked at Brian and said, "Should we tell Dr. Tabor that we're not ready for triplets yet either?"

So that's the funny story of the day...now onto the rest. Dr. Tabor came in and did all of the measurements himself and was really happy at how all of the babies look. They are really doing spectacular. Great weights and movements and getting so strong. This is such an amazing blessing for us as this is obviously our first concern. We want them to be healthy. There are A LOT of complications that can happen for them and we are so happy that none of them have. It is so amazing and nerve racking just to carry and have one baby so you can imagine what comfort it gives us to know how great our 3 are doing so far. We discussed the contractions and he was a bit worried and sent in Alaine the nurse practitioner to re-do the Fetal Fibronectin Test, re-do the blood pressure check, and manually (yuck) check my cervix. This is where things really begin to seemingly go wrong. Same high blood pressure and now we find out my cervix is dilated 1 cm. WHAT? No way. Not my crazy strong cervix of steel. Apparently carrying around 10 pounds of baby and all of their junk is starting to create some wear and tear. Huh. Not sure how to react to this news. So she tells me I can get dressed, that Dr. Tabor will come back in to check on me, and leave the room. I get dressed and we sit and wait. Where we were previously laughing and joking there is now silence. I have been so spoiled with nothing going wrong and am a little punch drunk after this latest news. I actually thought for sure he would stick me in the hospital right then

BUT he didn't. He came back in and explained that pregnancy induced hypertension is a common complication, for women who carry singletons and especially for those with multiples. He said he was more worried about a condition called pre-eclampsia which is basically where your body begins to become toxic. This is not the greatest thing to have so we are really praying for this to stay away! The other indicator is protein in my urine, and I did apparently have a trace amount yesterday-which may or may not be normal. However, the definitive test is a 24-hour collection. So he sent me home with a jug to keep my pee in. The funny thing is that it has to be refrigerated! He also put me on bedrest which meant Brian would have to take my pee to the refrigerator and dump it in. Does this test the bounds of love? And I pee a lot! I couldn't help but laugh...such a bad wife! The other issue addressed was contractions, especially since I was dilated to 1cm. Again-bedrest. He did say that this was not uncommon because I am carrying around so much stuff in my uterus. But the contractions were concerning and if I were to have more than 4 an hour I would have to come back up to maternal observation and be hooked up for monitoring. He gave me a little pep talk on the way out and sent us on our way home.

I had 3 strong contractions on the way home. Upon getting in bed I had 4 contractions in 40 minutes. I am now obviously VERY freaked out by contractions (even more so than before) so we loaded back up, called, and headed back up there!

Ahhh...Maternal observation, otherwise known as hell. Just kidding-it was a better experience than last time, but still not great. They HAVE to do something about those beds, they are basically just stretchers and I'm fairly sure I would have been more comfortable on the floor. At least we didn't wait for over an hour just for a room like last time. They had to hook up four monitors, one heart rate monitor for each baby and a contraction monitor. They got a really good look at my contractions, though. Some were really strong, and for a while they were coming every 3-5 minutes. Not good. AND to top it all off we found out that the fetal fibronectin test they did earlier came back positive. WHAT? Fortunately a false positive is WAY more likely to happen than a false negative, but still a little freaky especially when you are having contractions. Man, what a day, huh?

That's when we found out I was getting admitted. I must say, I was a little teary-eyed because it was so shocking. But I am so happy to be here and I cannot tell you the weight it takes off of my shoulders to have constant monitoring. It makes such a world of difference. I didn't realize how worried I had been about things until I got here and really felt a lot more relaxed because they are always here and I've already seen Tabor twice. We are SO lucky. From the time I was told I was to be admitted to the time I was in my room was only about 20 minutes. So FAST! Somebody up there knew how uncomfortable I was in that stupid bed, right? Within 5 minutes of being in my room (private, quiet, and very nice) they had my vitals taken, I was hooked up to the monitor, I already had my anti-contraction/hypertension meds, and was amazed at how nice and attentive all of the staff were.

I was told yesterday it was just for the weekend, but we will see. When Tabor came by this morning he made no mention of how long I would be here. I know it has everything to do with what my blood pressure and contractions continue to do. So far they both have been down considerably with the meds they are giving me. I have had a lot of flushing, have been hot, and had a headache last night from the meds but all completely tolerable and getting much better with each dose. In fact, I almost feel back to normal. Again-I still feel pretty good and love my adjustable hospital bed and unlimited supply of pillows! It's actually so much better than the couch or my super-tall bed at home. I'm still not that uncomfortable at all. Amazing, huh? I've got 10 pounds of baby in me and don't feel that bad. My stay also has a lot to do with the results of the urine testing, I should get that back tonight.

Brian actually got to stay with me last night and that was such a huge relief. This is the first time I have had to stay in a hospital overnight in 20 years. I had a really hard time sleeping, but I'm not sure if it was because of the new environment, all of the excitement of the day, or his snoring. AND he was out of reach so I couldn't tap him to get him to roll over! I tried my hardest to avoid taking anything, but by 2:30 and after 4 hours of staring at the clock I was getting a little restless. I tried listening to my meditation CD, but the batteries died! So I think I fell asleep around 3:00 or so and apparently woke Brian up with my snoring. Now that's not embarrassing. I think he's making it up, personally. Send your good thoughts toward Brian. I know this is hard on him and will be harder if I have to stay longer. After all, I have a full staff waiting on me hand and foot and he will have to be navigating work in Dallas and driving to Ft. Worth to see me. And let's not forget Kita...she's been a little spoiled the last 10 weeks!

Sorry for the crazy long post, but a lot has happened and this should catch everyone up to speed on what I know. Hopefully we will know more tomorrow-and hopefully it will all be good news!