Pregnant with Triplets: Minor Complications

Monday marks my goal of reaching 32 weeks pregnant with my surrogate triplets.  It has been a long and difficult road to get here, and I have to say it feels pretty amazing to have made it and surpassed it.  For triplets 32 weeks is what they consider “term”, and here I am still going strong with only minimal issues along the way.

Early on I was told by the Perinatalogist (high risk OB) to take it easy and “stop being supermom” (her exact words) as I had some bleeding and a level 2 ultrasound showed one of the placentas had pulled slightly from the uterine wall.  She insisted I do half of what I was doing on a daily basis and spend a lot of the day off my feet.  Not so easy with four children I protested.  But she was adamant that I needed more rest, and because I wanted what was best for the babies I am growing I did my best to stay off my feet.  With two kids in school and two toddlers at home this proved difficult at times as toddlers have no desire to sit still or stay in one room of the house.  Art became a favorite activity quickly for the three of us.

Something I had never experienced before in my other singleton pregnancies was the difficulty eating or keeping food down.  The doctor said it was normal for women pregnant with multiples to have this along with the random bouts on nausea I was still feeling all throughout the entire pregnancy.  I have always said you never know how good food tastes until you satisfy a pregnancy craving… but this time it was so difficult to find something I could stomach.  I turned to fresh everything, fresh veggies, fruits, smoothies; those were the things that my stomach was able to keep down.  As it turns out I had to eliminate half of them when I failed my glucose test. 

That’s right, for the first time ever I have Gestational Diabetes.  Upon meeting with the dietitian she told me all the fruit I was eating was a big no-no for women with gestational diabetes.  I couldn’t help but cry.  What was I supposed to eat now?!  So not only was I having issues eating food period but now half the foods I craved were taken away and a portion of the easy things to snack on for protein I am not able to eat.  In the beginning of the surrogacy cycle, while on the injections I came down with a horrible reaction to the shots that were in nut based oil, so the doctors told me to eliminate all things nut related to be on the safe side.  Still to this day I am having trouble eating, keeping things down and keeping nausea at bay, and am trying to stay within my limits on the food guide for gestational diabetes.

At 27 weeks pregnant I was admitted to the hospital for a two day stay as the sinus infection I had been dealing with for a few months came back full force and then some.  With my body doing its best to grow the babies there was nothing left for it to fight off infection.  I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t sleep, and was coughing so much my head felt like it was going to explode.  Because of the pregnancy there were limited options for the doctors to do, so since then I have been taking antibiotics daily.  Hopefully my body will be able to fight the infection a little better once the babies are out.

We had a few good weeks after this until the contractions started.  I was home with my two youngest and was trying to get us all dressed for the day when this intense pain started.  It felt like my stomach was just ripping apart.  I tried lying across the bed for a few minutes, but that didn’t do any good, I tried sitting up and the pain intensified.  From that point any direction I moved brought awful pain to where I was crying just trying to get some clothes on.  I called David home and with no one able to watch the girls we all four headed to Labor and Delivery.  My doctor said the pain was from the ligaments stretching, I argued I have never felt ligament pain that intense, I’ve also never been this stretched out before either she replied.  She won that conversation.  On top of the round ligament pain it turns out I was having steady contractions.  We knew we were going to be there for awhile so David took the girls back home where a friend was able to come over at watch them and headed back up to be with me.  Lots of water and a series of three brethine shots later my heart was racing, and I was shaking like a leaf, but the contractions stopped.  Phew! 

I was sent home on brethine pills to take every six hours and on orders for strict bed rest.  No more just taking it easy this time, I was told to stay in bed except if I needed to get food or use the bathroom.  Bed rest feels like torture when you hear your little ones downstairs crying for their mommy.  We had someone coming to help out for awhile but now she was coming Monday through Friday and now had to take care of the girls.  The first day was the most difficult, hearing them whine and cry for me.  Eventually I had them come upstairs and made it a lazy cartoons in bed kind of day.  They sure didn’t seem to mind as long as they were with me.  I still got up to take my youngest to her toddler bed for her naps because if anyone other than Mommy or Daddy did that she had a meltdown.  Little by little they were warming up to our helper, but still prefer Mommy taking care of them.

This past Thursday we had another day long trip to L & D as the contractions were back, stronger, and regular even while on the Brethine pills.  This time the nurse hooked me up to an IV stating dehydration could be a cause of the contractions (it wasn’t), along with another series of three shots of Brethine in the arms and finally some medication through the IV for the extreme nausea.  Once again the Brethine did its job but the dosage had been raised.  Hours later we were sent home with the same strict bed rest guidelines and a higher dosage of pills.  These pills make me so shaky I can barely hold a cup of water at times, and typing this out sure has been an adventure as well. 

So here I am, lucky to have made it to 32 weeks pregnant with the triplets and having had no major complications thus far.  I feel pretty accomplished, and can’t wait to see the little ones when they finally make their debut.  We go see the doctor on Tuesday and hope to know more information then.  Until then, in bed I stay.