The Day We Have All Been Waiting For...

Monday morning I woke up very tired.  We were 34 weeks and six days pregnant.  One day short of 35 weeks, our scheduled delivery date.  I didn't want to do anything but lay still and sleep although I knew I needed to prepare for the big day tomorrow.  I listened to my body and just rested. Around 11:30, I started to have cramps.  I ate lunch and drank a lot of water hoping to make them stop. It didn't help. They continued to get stronger. I began calling the doctor’s office around 1:00 pm to talk to my doctor's nurse.  As soon as I gave the receptionist the message, she came back and said, “Dr. Wheeler is standing right here beside me. He said to go to labor and delivery at the hospital. He will meet you there. He's on call today." Next I had to call Derek who had a day full of appointments. He answered his phone as he was still having a conversation with a colleague and said, "Just a minute. This is Jennifer. Let me make sure everything is alright. I replied, "No, everything is not alright. I'm cramping and our doctor said to come to labor and delivery right now." Derek immediately told work “peace out” and came home as quick as he could. He loaded the car with the bags we had already packed in preparation for this event. We arrived at the hospital around 2:00 pm which was exactly 24 hours before we were scheduled to come to the hospital the next day.

After I arrived at the hospital, I was placed in a triage room around 2:30. The nurse checked me and I was 5 cm dilated. She began hooking up the heart rate monitors for all the babies and my contractions. I was having contractions every two minutes at this point, not painful, but regular. Before my doctor had called her back, she began prepping me for surgery. She also asked two other nurses to come assist her to get things in order as quickly as possible. It all was happening so fast. Derek and I remained calm, but excited. We knew this was coming. It was just a day early. We both agreed this way was better. We were not looking forward to playing the waiting game the next date. By this point, we had both called our parents to let them know. My parents were already in Chattanooga visiting my brothers before coming to Huntsville. Everyone immediately made plans head to Huntsville. By 4:00 pm, they were wheeling me into the operating room. At 4:58pm Chase Jeffery Daniel was born at 5 lbs 12 oz and 18.75 inches long. At 4:59pm, Ryan Garrett Daniel was born weighing 5 lbs and 17 inches long. At 5:00 pm, Tyler Lee was born weighing 5 lbs 7 oz and 18 inches long. Ryan had a true knot in his cord. This could have been very bad news. However it was not tight and thankfully they said all of their cords were very thick and healthy. All in all they estimated that I lost at least 30 lbs in surgery. I could feel the relief after each after each baby was born.

The sound of three babies crying in the operating room brought me overwhelming joy. After each baby was cleaned up, measured and swaddled, the nurses brought them to me one by one. It was so amazing to see each of these precious little babies I had carried for the last 8 months. Derek followed our new babies to the NICU. All the babies would stay in the NICU for the next 4 hours for an observation period. After receiving an initial report on each of the babies, Derek came to check on me and give me an update.  I was so relieved to hear that all three looked great and were breathing room air. The nurse wheeled me from the recovery room to the NICU in my hospital bed. I visited each baby's bed and was given time to see them, talk to them, and touch them. It's hard to describe the feeling of knowing you now have three new babies. In an instant our family went from three to six.  After the observation period was over, Ryan was sent to the well baby nursery and was never admitted to the NICU.  Both Chase and Tyler’s respiratory rates were a little high and they were admitted.  We enjoyed having Ryan in our room while I was recovering in the hospital.

Below is a video of most of the events that happened on this crazy and exhilarating day.  You can see the excitement of this tremendous blessing in this video.  WARNING:  This video does contain “baby gunk” and shows the beautiful birth of our triplets.  If you do not want to see this, please just start the video at the 2:20 minute mark of the video.