Maldonado Triplets

ISAAC

JEREMIAH

What a busy couple weeks it's been for this pregnancy. On November 8th we had another scare. I went back into Labor and Delivery for more bleeding and contractions. I received a shot to stop the contractions but on a good note the babies all looked good. So it looks like any small outings that I would partake in are not an option anymore. My low lying placenta of the identicals are causing the bleeding so the doctor prescribed me to stay off my feet as much as possible.

All had been ok since then until Friday November 20th when I went back to specialist for a routine check-up. The babies once again looked great. They checked their fluids and that looked good as well. They are now weighing in at Baby A- 3 lb 8 oz, Baby B- 3 lb, and Baby C- 3 lb 5 oz. So I now have 9 lbs 13 oz of just baby. Now the bad news is that my blood pressure was high enough for the doctor to be concerned. He had me go back into Labor and Deliver on Saturday the 21st to have it checked and have some blood work done. On Saturday my blood pressure was still high and the blood work showed my platelets were low. Since I already had an appointment scheduled for today they decided to check it again. I am now being seen 2 times a week for a non-stress test. The NST checks the babies heartbeats to ensure they are not in any type of stress. They of course checked my blood pressure again today and it appears to have gone up. I was sent back to do the blood work again and as of the end of day today I have to go back to do blood work again tomorrow. The doctor fears that I am developing HELLP Syndrome. HELLP stands for Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzyme levels and a Low Platelet count. These are problems that can occur in women with this syndrome. Women with HELLP syndrome may have bleeding problems, liver problems and blood pressure problems that can hurt both the mother and the baby. The only thing that usually corrects this is to deliver the babies. So I may be having our babies sooner than we wanted. We are praying that we receive some good news tomorrow and that I can carry the babies for a few more weeks. I will keep you posted and please pray.

So it's been a while since I posted an update so I thought it was time. The biggest news is that I am past 28 weeks which is awesome! What this means that if the babies come after this time the survival rate goes up to about 90% with minimal long term complications. Yea!!! There was a time I wasn't sure if I would make it this far. My stomach is pretty big and heavy at this point and although I hear I look small for having triplets, I don't feel small. I think everyone expected me to get huge all over and so far it seems to have mostly gone to my stomach. I use the word mostly very loosely in this example. I am at 30 lbs gained so far. Yikes!

We went to the doctors on Monday to see the babies and get their measurements. Baby A is 2 lbs 11 oz, Baby B is 2 lbs 9 oz, and Baby C is 2 lbs 5 oz. So I currently have almost 8 lbs of just baby in me now. What an amazing journey that God has entrusted me to take. Both Baby A and B are in the 70th percentile which is great and Baby C is around the 50th percentile. The doctor did say that Baby C may actually be bigger but because of the angle of where he or she is, it is hard to get a good measurement. He or she has taken up residence under my right ribs. Of course the doctor did look to see if she could see the gender of Baby C, which of course again she couldn't see anything. The doctor is calling the baby the elusive Baby C. At this point they are just getting too big to see between the legs. I definitely think we will be waiting until their birth day to finally see what Baby C is. Some more good news... Since I am now past 28 weeks the threat of the Twin Transfer Syndrome between my identical boys is also gone so the specialist said instead of seeing me in 2 weeks she doesn't need to see me until 3 weeks. So that would put me at 31 weeks. She also said to make sure and get everything ready because I probably wont go further than another month to month in a half longer. I can't believe the time is coming near to meet the other half of our family. We will be going from 3 to 6. The other day it suddenly hit me that we are going to have 3 infants. That may sound odd but with a triplet pregnancy there are so many things that can go wrong that you really don't believe they are really coming until the time gets closer. Well the time is coming closer and we can't wait to meet them. They are pretty active now and at times keep me up at nights. I guess I should get use to this. Please continue to pray as we head down the final weeks of this part of our journey. There is still an uphill battle for my little ones since they will probably be at least 6 weeks early.

On a funny note I was contacted through my triplet mom's group about a nationally televised cable program that is looking to do stories on triplets. Not for us but thought it was funny just the same.

Well today I had an Echo done for the babies. This is when the perinatal doctor goes in and checks very dilligently the hearts of all 3 babies, chamber by chamber. It was awesome to see them and the doctor even did a 3D ultrasound. It was so cool. Well we got another surprise today! No we are not having 4. Well we have been told that we are having 2 identical boys and a girl. Well our Baby C is looking more like a boy than a girl. I wish I could say that the doctor was for sure one way or another but he wasn't. So Baby C is still in question but leaning towards boy now. I just laughed. I always felt that maybe I was destined to be a mom of boys. Can you imagine 4 boys! I am so happy either way, when you wait this long to be blessed with more children you don't question what God has blessed you with. If Baby C turns out to be another boy then God must think I can handle it. He never gives us more than we can handle, right? LOL! Well the best news is that their hearts are text book great! Which is awesome news! We are so truly blessed.

Well its been a while since I posted. Not much going on here with the babies except they are really starting to kick now. I have been feeling them since about 16 weeks, you know the fluttering. I think I was able to recognize it right away because I already had a baby and all mothers know, even though it's been 10 years for me, you don't forget that feeling. It's wonderful! They move randomly throughout the day but really get moving around 6 pm but calm down by the time I am going to sleep, I hope that's a good sign for future sleeping patterns. For all those mom's who ask me do I feel them all over. Yes, it feels like I have a full term baby in there and he or she is kicking me and then punching me and that's why I feel it in different spots. However we all know that's not the case. I go in for another ultra-sound on Friday and hope to report great progress. I feel like I am always eating so I hope it shows in their weights because it's not showing in mine. I've never been the kind of person to have problems gaining weight before but I am having a hard time now. Go figure! If that's not irony for you, I don't know what is.

Ok this is completely off the baby topic but as I am typing I received a call that said unknown name, which I didn't answer because I figured it was a sales call. Then a minute later the Rancho police called and said that 911 was called from my number and if we made a call. I said no. He asked if I maybe was dialing a 951 number my mistake and I said no. He said he would stop by just in case, I said no problem. Well I began to think and realized I did call my husband Vic to see if he was on his way home from work, his number starts 921. So the police came, they were very nice. I felt like an idiot and apologized for wasting their time. They told me that dispatch called me but it went to voicemail, oh I said that was the unknown name and number. He asked me what did it say when he called for me to pick-up. I told him it said private name/private number which I told him half our family comes up as private so I answered. I again apologized and he was very nice about it. So Vic just called me and I told him what happened, he said how sad that I am resorting to 911 calls to get some excitement in my life. He cracks me up! Well just a warning to everyone becareful when you dial.

Ok back to the update... I have my 1st Baby Shower coming up and am starting to get excited. It has been hard to really enjoy this pregnancy like I should with all the complications. The first 14 weeks I was so sick and nautious then I had about a week of non-complications between the nausea ending and when the complications began. So these last 3 weeks of rest and relaxation have kept the complications away and I think I am just now getting a chance to enjoy this pregnancy. It's also hard to get excited about the babies when you are so worried about their survival but I am staying positive, praying, and leaving this in the Lords hands. Only he knows what plans he has for us. I can't wait for my 24 weeks because that's when they consider the pregnancy viable and chance of survival if delivered after that is possible. So a few more weeks to reach that major milestone. Well must go eat some more it's been a couple hours since I've had a meal and that's too long. Must feed and nourish my babies!

So this was the follow-up appointment with my OB, who seemed slightly relieved to know that they had seen full placenta previa because it at least explains the bleeding. The exam he gave me was good and I was immediatly put off work and disability paperwork submitted. So of course moderate bedrest continues.

So the 3 weeks leading up to this date had been much better. I was now working 2 days a week from home to help with gettting more rest. However on this day that all changed.

I woke up around 1 am to more blood. Lots more. Of course all I could do was pray and know that it is out of my hands and give over this journey to God. Whatever our path is he would have to help us through this because it was more than I could handle on my own. I look back at that night and was actually pretty calm, believe it or not. I knew I couldn't freak out or cry because then I would really lose it. Vic and I were headed to Labor and Delivery. Once there they hooked me up to monitors and since I was over 18 weeks I didn't have to go to the emergency. After they monitored me for a while they told us that I was also having contractions. I was given 3 shots to stop them and an exam was performed. Now the good news was that I wasn't dilated or anything crazy like that, so labor had not begun. I was put on bedrest for another week and told to follow up with my doctor. I was also prescribed meds by my doctor, since they were in contact with him, that I would have to take every 6 hours for contractions.

I did have one more visit to Labor and Delivery on August 31st but all was ok.

Well we went back in to see the Perinatal doctor. All looked well. At this point we knew our identical twins were boys. There was no disputing that. Let's just say I have many ultra-sound pictures of winkies. Now Baby C and my smallest baby has been a little more modest. The last 3 ultra-sounds Baby C's legs have been crossed or he/she was hiding under my ribs. So at this ultra-sound we wanted to know. The nurse came in first and was not able to tell, Baby C still had their legs crossed. At the end of our appointment we asked the doctor to see if she could see anything. It took her a while but before long she showed us 3 lines. So of course Vic asked what are 3 lines, the doctor stated her vagina. We had to laugh, we were not use to seeing 3 lines. Winkies we know. So we found out we were having 2 boys and a girl. That night we bought them their first outfit. They were very cute 3-piece outfits and were reasonably priced at $14.99. Well it's not bad to buy 1 outfit but to buy 3, by the time we were done we paid $45 dollars for 1 outfit for the 3 of them. We had to laugh again, how crazy is that. This is going to be very interesting.

Well easy streak is over. This day I started to bleed. Not a good sign. Since I was not 18 weeks yet, labor and delivery would not see me. I had to be looked by the ER. Being pregnant and bleeding at any stage of your pregnancy is a terrifying experience and all you can do is pray. Well the babies were fine and all looked ok and they weren't really sure why I was bleeding but they were concerned. They did a thorough check on the placenta to make sure there wasn't a tear or something else that would have caused the bleeding. All looked ok.

During this time things were going along well. We got to see the babies every couple weeks and were going to 2 doctor's now. My OB and the Perinatal Doctor, this is the high risk pregnancy doctor that would be monitoring the babies throughout the pregnancy. We also hit the 12 week mark during this time so that was the first milestone that we crossed. We would learn later with triplets there are many milestones and every week of pregnancy you make is another sigh of relief.

During our first perinatal appointment we were given the speech. All multiple moms knows the speech and knows that it's coming. I have a support group on-line of mom's of triplets so I knew what to expect. With any pregnancy there are risks. We all know this. With multiples it's like taking those risks and multiplying them. They tell you all about what can happen and how reducing the pregnancy to two babies may be safer for the babies and give them a better chance of survival. This was the selective reduction speech. Also since I have a set of identicals, there is another risk. Something call Twin Transfer Syndrome-TTS. With TTS, since the babies share a placenta the nutrients can be distributed more to one baby than the other causing the other twin to not grow or get the nutrients it needs. This obviously can be fatal for one or both twins. As you can imagine these are all things that one would never think unless you went through it. I knew all of this before going in that day and thanked the doctor for the information and that she did not tell us anything that we were unaware of however for us and our family this was not a choice.

We went back to the doctor's to check the babies and found out that Baby C (our girl) was a fighter. She was still a week behing in growth but her heartrate went from 121 to 167. She was doing well. We were relieved! Thank you Lord!

I went in for this ultra-sound alone. It was Vic's last day of work and he couldn't miss. I told him it is just a follow-up and hopefully not too eventful. I can see the irony in this now. So I'm sitting there waiting for the doctor to come in and perform my ultra-sound and the only thing I can think to do is pray. I pray the Lord's Prayer when I get nervous and need his strength. I prayed to him that all was ok and that they would be able to hear the heartbeats. All they we had gone through to get to this point.

Well at this time I am thinking we are having fraternal twins- 2 separate eggs and sperm to produce 2 babies.

So the doctor begins to do the ultra-sound and says oh your having identical twins. I told him, no I'm not. I'm having fraternal twins. He said nope your egg split and you have yourself a set of identicals, he then scanned to the left and said yup there's the other egg with 1 baby. So you have 3 babies. I looked at him and said triplets? He said yup and the nurse gasped and put her hands over her mouth. I looked up to the heavens and chuckled and told God boy does he have a crazy sense of humor.

Baby A and B- as they are called looked great. Their heartbeats were 171 and 176. However my baby that was all by itself-Baby C was smaller and only had a heartbeat of 121. The doctor said that we have to be realistic since it was still early in the pregnancy and that Baby C might not make it. This was alot to take in by myself and I must have sat in the parking lot for over an hour after.

So I called Vic to tell him all about my uneventful ultra-sound. I told him that the babies looked great and that I heard their heartbeats. However Baby C didn't look as good and may not make it. He said Baby C? I told him yup! The egg split and we have a set of identicals and a fraternal twin so we are having triplets. I then began crying. He asked me are you crying because 1 is not doing well or because we are having triplets. I told him both. It was a huge shock to say the least. I posted their 1st photo together. It was taken this day.

We went in for our 1st ultra-sound. The babies were still too little to really see anything but they wanted to check implantation. They told us that both egss had implanted and that we were having twins. We were so excited! Twins, can you believe it! Wow we thought, after all these years and now we are going from 1 child to 3. This was going to be a big change. We couldn't wait.

This was the longest 12 days of my life. Shots continued, however they changed to estrogen and estrodial shots. Yuk! So only 1 shot a day and on every 3rd day 2 shots. Now these shots really hurt. Of course it was worth it but lets just say my rear end is still numb.

Went in the doctor's for blood work on Tuesday morning May 19th. I had been feeling nauseous for 2 days already. I was saying that I was either getting sick, pregnant or crazy. Vic told me that he already knew that I was crazy. Thanks love.

I received the call that afternoon. We were pregnant. It was a strong result which was great. Little did we know why it was so strong.

It was the day of National Prayer and you can believe that I was praying. It was the day they were going to put 2 fertilized eggs in and hope that at least 1 would implant. As we were told based on our age and test results we had about a 65% chance that 1 would inplant. Of that 65% there was a 30% chance of twins and as far as triplets, well that won't happen. I went on 5 days of bedrest after in order to get the rest my body needed and help the chances of implantation. Our friends and family were praying very very hard as well.

Acupuncture continues and the shots begin. Three shots a day to be exact. Also various doctor's apts to ensure I'm not over or underproducing eggs. On April 30th I was given a shot that would release the eggs for retrieval exactly 2 days later. The shot was time exact.