Thursday Threes: The Triplets NICU Stay

  When I first realized I was pregnant with triplets, my number one goal was to educate myself about my unique pregnancy and ultimately what would happen during delivery.  I quickly found out that the average length of pregnancy for triplets is 32 weeks (as opposed to the singleton 40 weeks).  The longest amount of time that any doctor will allow a triplet pregnancy to advance is 34 weeks, so I knew that my babies would not escape some length of Neonatal  Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay.  With this in mind, I researched and prepared myself for this difficult period of time.  I decided which hospital had the best level three NICU (level three is the highest level care that a hospital can provide and is usually only available at large hospitals).  If the babies were to come before 32 weeks, a level 2 NICU would not be able to provide the amount of care my kids would need and if I delivered at a hospital that did not have a level 3 NICU, the babies would have been transported to a different hospital while I stayed at the hospital I delivered.  I did not want that to happen.  The hospital I choose not only had a great NICU, but also provided a 'nesting room' for the parents of NICU patients.  These are rooms located on the maternity floor in which the parents can stay free of charge while their little one is treated.  This was quintessential for me since we lived forty minutes away from the hospital (and that's without traffic).  Once I found my hospital I toured both the NICU and the maternity floor.  I made sure I had as much information as possible before the big day came.  The other big thing I did to prepare was read a book called "The Preemie Primer".  Not only was this book written by an OB/GYN, but she also went through the NICU system when she had triplets.  It really helped me to prepare for my stay and it was a great resource for when the kids were in the NICU.
  I was grateful for the preparation when the triplets arrived after only 29 weeks and 5 days of being pregnant.  They were, of course, tiny, but they were actually relatively good weights for being so premature.  Charli Kate weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces, Adrik weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces, and Tali weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces.  They hadn't developed the ability to suck, so they had feeding tubes and they needed help breathing, so they were on a machine called a C-pap.  They were never given oxygen, but only given room air through the C-pap.  Later, when they had developed more, they were given nasal canulas.  They were in incubators and they had all of their vitals monitored.  Sometimes, especially with Tali, the monitors would go off, mainly for a drop in heart rate (which is called brady cardia or brady for short).  For the first week or so, they did have an IV and they were under lamps for jaundice.  The hardest part, was that I couldn't hold them for the first week (I couldn't even see them for around 26 hours after they were born because I was on magnesium).  Slowly, they started developing the skills that they needed to survive.  First they were taken out of the incubators, then the breathing machines were gone, after that they came to a point were they didn't have any brady episodes, and very slowly, they learned to eat from a bottle.  Once these things were accomplished, they were ready to come home.  Charli Kate was the first home on May 30th, and then Tali was next on June 6th, and finally Adrik on June 8th. They roughly spent about two months in the NICU.
  So what did I do when they were in hospital?  I was right by their side, everyday, all day.  I fell into a three hour repeated routine:  I would take Charli Kate's temperature, change her diaper, and then either hold her (kangaroo care or skin to skin) or attempt to feed her (when she was old enough).  Next I would do the same for Adrik and then for Tali.  After all of that was done, I would pump breast milk for 30 minutes.  Then go clean my breast pump and after all that I would have about 30 minutes of down time before I would start it all over again.
  It was a long two months, but I definitely felt like I had prepared myself well.