So you want to know the story???

OK...here it goes...

Monday morning about 1AM I started feeling contractions. They were about 20-30 minutes apart and just annoying more than anything. By 4AM I was panicking (really???) and had the nurses do an NST. The babies were good and the contractions were there, but not a big deal. 2 doctors came by and didn't seem to worried, but did mention that as I had made it to 31 weeks, they wouldn't do anything to officially stop my labor.

Around 11 AM it seemed my contractions had stopped. So I did what any girl would do, take a shower and tried to take a nap. At about noon it all changed. I was having contractions every 4-5 minutes and they were way more than annoying. I called my nurse and she told me not to eat lunch and to call Dave. By 12:30 Dave was on his way down to MGH and I was on my way up to L&D.

When I got up to L&D they had to do a cervix check. Not fun, but even more not fun was because Ben had broked his sack I couldn't have a manual (less painful) exam, I needed to have a sterile speculum exam (YAY!!!). No change at that point. Yikes! The dr. told me that this may not be true labor unless my cervix started to change. She also said that she'd be back to check me at 3:15.

Dave arrived at 1:40 and by 2:45 I was ready to see the dr. again. Another super fun speculum cervix check showed no progress (YIPPEE!!!). I managed to get some morphine b/c I thought I might lose my mind from the pain. The contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 40-50 second. They never really went away and seemed to be coming right on top of each other. The morphine took a bit, but kicked in and made things much nicer. My dr. ran off to do a c-section and told me she'd check in after she was done.

When she came back, she saw that the contractions were steady and long and so she decided to check my cervix again. FINALLY, I was 2 cm dialated! I was so conflicted b/c I wanted the boys to cook as long as possible but I was in so much pain that I needed something to be done. Well, it was then decided, off to surgery I was headed.

At around 5:30 I was prepped, groomed, and cathed (so much fun!). There was a rush of people coming in for me to sign consent forms...anesthesia, NICU, everybody. At 6 PM, I was brought to the OR. Dave was left to get his fun blue suit on and I was headed to spinal land. For me, the spinal part was not the most fun. I was uncomfortable sitting up and contracting while hunched over a nurse with an O2 mask on. The spinal itself wasn't terrible, it was the time it took to get prepped & all set that was bad. I was complaining about wanting to lay down, being too hot, and take off the mask. They switched my mask for the nasal cannula kind, got wet facecloths and cooled me off and finally layed me down.

Everybody kept telling me I was doing great but I felt like I was being a total pain in the butt! Once I was laying down, the drape went up. It was too close to my face and they moved it for me. They put the arm things on the table. There were probably a million people in the room, but I could only see 5 or 6. I was all numb and tingly and things started to roll...one problem...Dave wasn't there yet! Oops! One of the drs. ran down to get him. While he was gone, I threw up 4 times. I have to say, I felt so much better. It was like things were clear and all of my anxiety was gone and I was ready to rock!

Dave showed up and I was bragging about throwing up and he was not amused by my story or about being forgotten. Now things were under way! I was totally expecting my dr. to give me the play-by-play. Nope! Luckily the anesthesiologist (sp?) told me when the babies were out. Baby A Benjamin came out first at 6:47, Baby B Nathaniel was next at 6:47, and Baby C was last at 6:48. I could see the little bun warmers for A & B and saw them put all the boys together for a group shot. I freaked out because Ben wasn't crying. I heard the other boys though and then finally Ben chimed in. Their Apgar scores (1 min/5 min): Ben 4/9, Nate 6/9, and Sam 8/9.

They all got whisked away and then I got closed up and headed off to recovery. What I couldn't believe was how long it took to close up the insicions. I guess it's good though so I should heal nicely. I think that's it! I'm sure I missed something so let me know if you have any questions!!!