Another Step in the Right Direction

We're back in DC today, just a few days removed from having, hopefully, what will turn out to be life-saving surgery for our triplet girls.  It's still amazing when I actually stop, take a breath, and reflect on all that has happened since Thursday afternoon.  Just a few days ago, we had our hearts ripped out with the possibility of losing our girls, only to have it restored a day later by what I will forever refer to as miracle surgery.  On Saturday morning, we had our first post-surgery ultrasound to determine whether or not babies A and B could survive without their shared connection.  As I wrote previously, they did.

Today would be another stepping stone of many to come in getting these girls to a viable age.  Now that we're back home and we're classified by our doc as a VIP pregnancy, we'll have more appointments than you can possibly imagine.  Thank you BCBS!  Even though we weren't scheduled to see Dr. Gallagher until Friday for our 20 week check-up, he made time to squeeze us in between rounds this morning with his residents and an early morning surgery.  I'm not sure if we'll ever find another one like him, as we'll be starting with a new MFM and new OB next week when we finally get to Naperville, IL.

In order to make this appointment, we had to start our day off pretty early.  Meg decided that she would use her cell phone as an alarm clock for us in the morning and left it plugged in all night, by the bed, to recharge.  On the nightstand, she also had her nightly glass of water.  Well, at 5:00am, in a way that only she could wake us up, she reached over to grab her phone (still plugged into the wall), with a full glass of water sitting on the power cord, pulled it over to herself on the bed, and catapulted the water into the air, landing all over EVERYTHING!  While I'd normally laugh at something like this, when you're expecting to sleep another 30 minutes and you're awoken to, "Honey, get some towels fast!" it's really hard to appreciate the comedic value of the situation at the time.

Maybe it was the gross overestimation of the time required to get to the other side of town on her part which added to some early morning frustration, but things got better as the morning progressed.  We actually arrived at the doctor's office early.  So early in fact that there was no one there for at least another 30 minutes, so we ended up sitting in the hallway outside the doctor's office like we were camping out for Jimmy Buffett tickets.  We're sitting on the floor, because there are no chairs in the hallway, and I spot a big window that seemed to be providing a good amount of soft light to the area.   You know what happens when you have a beautiful model, soft light, and a camera.  "What time is it?  It's picture time."  I can only imagine how much my wife can't wait for me to have three little subjects to chase after instead of always having to be my primary photographic subject.  Yes, I had a camera with me.  Doesn't everyone carry a camera with them at all times?  If you don't, how do you expect to capture something like this?



or these two?





or a classic like this?



 I do have a couple pieces of advice for photographing pregnant women:

a) Make sure they're well fed or else you'll get this... (shared with her permission)



b) Also, make sure they're well rested, or you'll never catch them with their eyes open...



Someone recently told me after looking at these photos of my wife that I definitely "married up." I would tend to agree.

As you've probably surmised by now, by the lack of complete focus on the ultrasound, all three heartbeats are still beating strong.  Without going in to each and every measurement, we're starting to see improvements in a few of the areas that were causing concern before the surgery.  On Wednesday, we'll be going to the Children's Hospital to have a fetal cardiologist look at their hearts and then back to Dr. Gallagher on Friday.  Meg is still feeling great, though she is starting to see a bit more swelling in her ankles and feet if she's up and about for too long.  It doesn't have anything to do with the surgery.  It's just that she's 19 weeks and 3 days pregnant and happens to be carrying an extra 30 pounds of weight on her little legs.

Also, over the next week, in addition to sharing updates from the upcoming doctor appointments, I plan on sharing some of the lighter side of recent events surrounding this pregnancy.  Things were so serious for a few days, for good reason obviously, that I want to share some examples of how fun this pregnancy has been. 

Lastly, I have one more request for our prayer warriors.  I was recently catching up on a couple of my favorite triplet blogs and read a series of posts from a fellow triplet dad who recently lost all of his babies when his wife went into pre-term labor at 22 weeks.  If you remember, 24 weeks is the minimum age for viability and survival in the NICU.  Obviously, every day extra inside the womb is better than outside the womb, but it served as a stark reminder of how much of a risk that pre-term labor really is, especially for high-risk triplet pregnancies like ours.  Please pray for the Bear family and their three angels and please pray that we can avoid pre-term labor and, at a minimum, will have the ability to recognize when or if it's happening and get to the hospital in time.