We have been so blessed not only by the arrival of three beautiful and healthy (although a bit preemie) baby boys, but have felt the support and love of an absolutely incredible group of family and friends. It truly is just amazing!
As of Wednesday evening, everyone is doing good.
Dina is off of the IV pain meds and magnesium (as of last night), and is feeling a lot better today. She has had some elevated creatinine levels (which is a measurement of how well her kidneys are – or are not – functioning). They have continued to give her some IV fluids to help her kidney function, which has maintained some swelling in her extremities. Overall, she’s doing remarkably well and has been an absolute trooper in getting through all of this. The nurses and doctors in the NICU have just been amazed that she was able to carry triplets to 34 weeks and has two 5+ pound babies. As Dr. Wendel said, she is just a machine!
The babies are doing very well for 34-week preemies. The smallest, formerly known as “Baby C” – Andrew Wilson, weighed 3 lbs 13 ozs, and had Apgar scores of 9 and 9. Apgar is named after an anesthesiologist, Virginia Apgar, who devised this system for grading newborns. Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration (apgar) – which measure for: Skin Color/Complexion, Pulse rate, Reflex, Muscle tone, Breathing. The two scores are for 3 minutes after birth and 10 minutes after birth. The scale is from 0 to 10, and it is almost impossible to rate a 10. For the little guy in the group, he came out absolutely the most healthy, and was breathing air on his own with no assistance from the word go! Of course, he had been stretched out, reclining on top of his brothers for months! One of the first nurses to work with him called him her “little dynamo!” Several folks have said Andrew favors me somewhat.
Formerly known as Baby B – Joshua Lee weighed 5 lbs 6 ozs, and is the bruiser of the bunch! His apgar was 8 and 8. He had been the hardest to measure for several months and came out the biggest. Although he is not on oxygen, he does have an air helper (or an air push) to make it easier to breath in (similar to a pap machine for those snorers). He has a head full of dark brown hair and really does resemble Dina a lot.
The first born, formerly Baby A – Noah Alan weighed 5 lbs 3 ozs. When he was removed via the c-section, the cord was wrapped around his neck and he had a couple of other issues. Unfortunately, his lungs are still a little under developed. He is on oxygen, around 30%, to keep help keep his blood oxygenated. They sort of expect that condition with preemies, but are very hopeful he will straighten it out. Right now he is really having to work hard to breathe, but they think he will be fine over time.
It really has been a blur the past 48 hours, but things are going extremely good. Dina is resting and I hope to get another pretty good night’s sleep tonight also (if I quit posting and responding to emails)!
Thank you again for all the prayers and good thoughts.
God has truly blessed us, and we are incredibly thankful!
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