For Pictures Please See...

It's annoying to post pictures a thousand places. Perhaps someday in the distant future I will have time to email myself some pictures and then save them to this computer and then post them here. For now, please visit my facebook page- Jennifer Garner Silverstein (jlg830@gmail.com) or our YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/jlg830?feature=mhum.

I Did Like Them After All

The period following the water breakage was even more boring than the period before and frankly, a lot more painful. Also, I was constantly leaking like leaky faucet. Gross. The feti wouldn't let me lay in more than one position without pushing in places that should never, never be pushed. Never. Also I started to itch like crazy, especially on my hands and feet but really just about everywhere. Some doc that I saw about once a week sent away for a blood test. He didn't even tell me what he was looking for and apparently didn't tell anyone else that he had ordered the test. Add to that the twice daily NSTs (go back and read up on that one) and you have a recipe for annoyance. I couldn't even crochet anymore because it hurt too much. Every day closer to 34 was exciting because I was sure that since I had made it this far I would keep limping along.

I went to bed on February 17th but couldn't sleep. I wasn't feeling more pain or more contractions or anything more than normal except that I had to poo like 5 times. I was up til 4am because I was just generally uncomfortable. Considering I was in pretty much a constant state of discomfort this wasn't exactly something to write home about. I had spent other sleepless nights and been able to sleep it off throughout the next day. Well, at about 5:15am, an hour or so after I had FINALLY fallen asleep, I woke up SOAKING wet. Like the entire bed was soaked. I got up cause what the heck else do you do. Just as I stood up the Nurse's Assistant came in. As I stand up there is TONS of fluid just rushing out of me. It sounded like someone was running a hose all over the ground. The Nursing Assistant says,

"Good Morning, how... What is leaking?"

I look at her with a sort of deer in the headlights look and said, "ME."

She told me to take a seat but I had to pee really bad so I told her I had to go to the bathroom. She went and got the nurse who, ironically, was Floater again. I had never had her before my first broken water night and then the next time I had her was this night. Ha. I went to the bathroom. Took everything off and put on a new gown cause seriously, you do NOT want to be hanging out in fluid-soaked clothes. It's so disgusting. At this point I still wasn't feeling any contractions or extra anything. Like the last time I got a rush of four or five nurses doing all kinds of who knows what in all parts of my body from shoulders to toes and EVERYTHING in between. It was clear that this water break was much more serious than the last one but I still didn't know what was going to happen so I called Eric. I'm pretty sure he was learning to love late night/early morning phone calls to come to the hospital immediately. The doc came in about 15 minutes later and examined me. I wasn't dilated, there were no baby heads popping out, things were good. As they are strapping me to the stretcher I started feeling some contractions. Mildly painful. The nurse asked if I felt a lot of pressure, like I had to poo. I said no more than normal. About 3 minutes after I said that I said, "Floater, you know that pressure you were asking about? I'm feeling it." In the 15 minute transport upstairs the contractions got worse and fast. We were back upstairs (my fave place) and already on all the monitors by 6:15. By this time I was bawling with every contraction. The nurse, who is still trying to set me up asked if the pain was worse than when Doctor 1 examined me. I told her yes, like 100 times worse as I started to be certain I was dying. She called the doctor and reported that "Mrs. Silverstein is very uncomfortable and reports that her contractions are ten times more painful than they were downstairs." Doctor 2 came in and examined me (the same doc who was surprised I kept eking along). Now, only about 30 minutes had elapsed between the exams. During the first exam I was not in labor. Not any more dilated, not having real contractions. Remember that. Also remember that usually labor is like hours long. Hours. I'm sure you know that many women are given drugs to help their labor get going because it takes SO long. Well, at exam 2, a mere 30 minutes after exam 1, I was significantly more dilated (I honestly don't remember how much, it didn't really matter at this point) and the top of a baby head was starting to come out of my vag. Doc immediately got on her little phone. "Hi. This is Lalalala. We have to deliver the triplets. Right now." Then a whole bunch of people came in and took Eric somewhere and wheeled me into an operating room where lots more people showed up. A very nice anesthesia tech told me everything that was happening and told me exactly what to do. (Remember how I wasn't allowed to take the tour because I was in the hospital? Well, this guy was a lifesaver). They tipped me over and shoved a needle in my spine. They lied and said I wouldn't feel pain, only pressure. Bull. That is so untrue. It hurt. I cried a little. That nice man held me. That is when all the pain went away. The contractions stopped, well I stopped feeling them anyway, and I just felt heavy. It was kindof lovely. Of course, as is my habit apparently, I was shaking like crazy so the nice man put an air filled warming blanket over my arms and shoulders. Don't worry, I was still cracking jokes and being sarcastic, which the asian man who replaced the nice man did NOT get at all. Anyway, the blanket made it hard to itch, which I had to do incessantly because of the medicine and my liver enzymes. Oh yeah, so you know that blood test they did 2 days before? Yeah, turns out my liver enzymes were like off the chart and making me itch like mad. Since that doctor hadn't told anyone that he ordered the test they didn't even realize that I had these crazy levels until they were preparing my info for the c-section. Awkward. Apparently, if you are just out on the street this is very dangerous for the fetus but since I was in the hospital and had only been itchy for a couple of days we were just fine.

Once they were ready to cut they let Eric in and had him sit by my head. I didn't feel anything but pulling and pressure and honestly with every baby they pulled out it was like a wave of relief on my body. It felt lighter and I could breathe better. I also heard all of them cry but the doctors wouldn't show them to me which made me angry.

So my water broke around 5:15 and by 7:17 and 7:18 they were all out. It was quite speedy.

After they put me back together again, which took longer than I expected, though it makes sense, I was wheeled to recovery. They kept telling me I'd be there an hour or two but four hours passed before I was allowed to even go look at my babies and then go down to post-partum. Baby A, Eloise Aideh who weighed 3 pounds 5 ounces, got wheeled past me in her isolette on her way to NICU while I was still in recovery. They let me look at her through the glass for like less than a minute. It wasn't exactly an ideal experience. After that long four hour stretch where the kept telling me to sleep but I just kept asking when I could see my babies, they wheeled me in a stretcher to the transitional nursery where baby B, Marie-Pierre Garner who weighed 3 pounds 7 ounces, and baby C, Annecy Campbell who weighed 3 pounds 5 ounces, were waiting for beds to open up in NICU. Happily, a very nice nurse took each of them off their CPAP (weird breathing tube that pushes air into their lungs to expand them) for about 4 or 5 minutes each so I could hold them. It was like awesome. I was literally astouded by how much I liked them. I am usually pretty reticent about liking people right off the bat but man, I took to these ladies quickly.

Pop! Goes The Weasel, No, The Water

In my ever thrilling stay at NYP, as the homies call it, I have had basically nothing happen. Well, that changed. Starting on February 15th I was leakin' some clear stuff outta "down there." It was not a ton but was way more stuff coming out than was normal. The doc had a look and was absolutely certain it was not amniotic fluid. In his defense he did a swab and it was negative. However, given certain creepy and gross events to be detailed momentarily, I can tell you without a doubt that it was absolutely amniotic fluid. There is a lot of stuff people don't mention about pregnancy and birth. Weird stuff constantly running out of every orifice is one of those things. So here is the creepy and gross part. At about 3am on the morning of February 17th I awoke to find my pad, underwear and pants soaked through with this mystery fluid. I called the nurse who was a floater from labor and delivery.

"Hey Floater [names have been changed to protect the innocent] um, do you think you could come here for just a sec?"

"Sure"

Click.

I went into the bathroom and changed my pad and undies and took off my pants. I made sure to leave it all on the sink for the nurse. You know nurses, it makes them feel special when you leave them little gifts like that. Crazy girls. I then sat on the side of my bed kindof in shock. Floater came in.

"Hey. So, a lot of fluid just came out of me and soaked through my pad and pants and stuff. It's on the sink"

"I'll be right back. We will put you on the monitor."

She came back with a swab and swabbed the pad. I watched. Its sort of a weird situation. I mean, yeah, I'm socially awkward but I don't think even the suavest of ladies would have known the appropriate thing to do.

"Okay. It is amniotic fluid. Let's get you on the monitors. Go lay down."

That's when the drama hit. Before I even got to the bed there were four or five nurses in there undressing me, putting IVs in, poking and prodding, getting a stretcher, calling the doctor, etc. This is when I got the shakes. Partly because I was naked (for a few minutes) and freezing and partly because it was a bit dramatic. I wasn't freaking out, not my style, and thankfully was still cracking jokes keepin those nurses laughing. I was shaking uncontrollably. It was seriously ridiculous.

This is where you need a little setting. To get into this section of the hospital you have to buzz or have a keycard to get through a locked security door because there are babies in there and apparently they keep those under tight lock and key. They don't want just anyone to walk out with one of those. The entire time I was there they were constantly having issues with the door not working and this night was no exception. One of the babies had messed with their lo jack and set off the alarm. Even though the lo jack had been fixed the alarm wouldn't stop, making it so that no one, not even security could open the door. Well, on the other side of that door was the doctor who needed to examine me. Typical. Excellent. Finally, after the nurses have me strapped to the millions of monitors, a new gown on and an iv in the doc is able to get in. She props me up for a super fun cervical exam and thankfully I wasn't dilated. Since they still don't know for sure whether labor is about to begin and some baby in there has broken water they rush me up on the stretcher (talk about an awkward way to see strangers in an elevator) to the high risk section of l&d. This is where the really fun stuff always happens. Remember that awesome night I had on mag? There was a an incident with a catheter you may recall? No? Well, go do some review. This is that place and guess what... I won the prize! Another 12 hour stint on mag! I know, I am still getting over the jubilation. It wasn't nearly as bad this time because the doctor was there a couple of the times I had to pee and so I was allowed to use the real toilet and all the other times my amazing nurse would just turn off the mag and let me go myself since I wasn't dizzy or weak. Glorious. I was NOT however, very good company for poor Eric. I literally slept the entire time. Even when they wheeled me (on a stretcher of course because I find that so comfortable) up to ultrasound and left me in the hall, I just slept. I was zonked. I was only allowed chicken broth and water. Most people are also allowed apple juice but, of course, I still had the GD (gestational diabetes).

At some point a doctor came in and said "Hi, I'm Doctor Lalalalalala. I met you when you first came in. God, you just keep eking this pregnancy along don't you?!" Yes. Yes I do.

Now when the water first popped I thought that meant we had to deliver. Apparently not. You can go for weeks and weeks with popped water because the baby just pees out more for itself. It is dangerous though because there is a high risk of infection. If your membrane is ruptured (read water broke) you have to be in the hospital until delivery. Also, if you are more than 34 weeks they will deliver immediately because the risk of infection outweighs the risk of prematurity at that point. Now we can all sing the little jingle from The More You Know.

So here I am with a ruptured membrane at 31 weeks, my cervix is still dilated and now basically completely effaced. The doctors had a big discussion and disagreement about whether they should just deliver me at 32 weeks or let me hold out for 34. Since my attending gets the final say I was told that I could hold on to 34 if and only if none of about 400 things happened. There could be no infection, no sign of infection, no labor, no empty sacs, no decels (decelerated heart rates) during any of my twice daily NSTs, and a list of about 394 other things. With all this they sent me back downstairs to wait it out. Things were different. I wasn't allowed to get up as much, wasn't wearing my own clothes (gowns only) and had to wear these weird hospital undies. They are mesh. No, I'm serious, like real mesh. I felt like a proud gay man. I was determined to go to 34 and keep these things cookin. Well... didn't quite happen.