Happy Birthday!!!

Although this is a later than April 29, 2011, I can’t believe that the triplets are already one month old. I know time goes by fast but I think it goes by faster when they’re in the hospital.

Dorothy Mae

Benjamin David

Charlie Patrick

HE IS RISEN!

He is Risen Indeed! Each year Easter gets more and more exciting because not only does William get older and get to hunt for Easter eggs, but we get to share the true meaning of Easter with him. This year we started out going to church in Chowchilla. I love that Will likes to shake hands with every person at the door and tell everyone Good morning. After church William got to open his Easter basket from Mom and Dad.

Then we traveled to Clovis for Lunch with more family and William got another Easter basket from his grandparents.

Then the hunt was on. To my surprise Adam loved hiding the eggs but I think he loved even more helping William find each one.

Lastly we stopped by the hospital to check on the babies and yes they each got their own Easter basket. The boys had SF Giants onesies and pacifiers and Dorothy’s had an Easter dress and hair bows. Easter was very busy this year but I can’t wait until next year when all the kids are home and they all are looking for eggs.

William loves to paint

Since the baby’s decided to make their arrival much earlier than expected Adam and I had not gotten anything done in their nursery. Last week we decided to start. This is just the beginning but Daddy painted the room with a little help from William. More pictures to come when the room is finished.

Co-Bedding the Boys

I can’t believe that the time has finally come but the doctor has decided to co-bed the boys. They are so cute in the isolate together. We soon found out that while they love to be right next to each other they still like to fight and like to try to hit each other and say, “hey move over, I need more space.” I guess this is the beginning of brotherly love. I can’t wait to see how they grow up together.

Dorothy update

On Saturday April 16^th all the babies were to get their picc lines out. This was supposed to a big step for them because it meant they didn’t need any more antibiotics. I would have thought that the nurse would have checked out the kids before she pulled them but apparently she didn’t. About 2 minutes after Dorothy had hers pulled Mommy found a large growth or bump right underneath Dorothy’s left cheek. This has been a scary turn of events for Dorothy who has been a rock up until this point. We know God is in control and that this is just a part of giving birth to premature babies. The doctor drained and took out the lump over the next couple of days. Even with this new bump she still is eating, sleeping, and breathing very well. Her body temperature and heart rate have been right where they need to be. We can tell she is a fighter. She was immediately put on antibiotics to help treat whatever it was. We soon found out that Dorothy had a staff infection better known as MRSA. We ask that everyone prays for her healing and that she can get right back on track where she was before.

Will gets to meet the babies

The flu season was finally lifted at the hospital and William was finally allowed to come and see his new brothers and sister for the first time. He was incredible and kept saying, “take home, take home” and “Hi baby, hi baby!” It was beautiful seeing him touch them for the first time and also a little sad as he realized we couldn’t take them home with us. He also seemed a little confused by the isolates and wanted to get inside with them. Overall it was great visit and I know he was so excited to meet them and even more excited about the fact that he is going to be a big brother.

Hi sissy, can you come out to play please?

NICU

Right after the babies were born they were taken to a stabilization room right across the hall from the operating room. There the babies were intubated and hooked up to every monitor and tube you could think of. The room is best described as being controlled chaos as people were working very quickly and loudly but with purpose and team work.

The babies stayed in the stabilization room for about an hour before they were taken upstairs to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit.) Adam was allowed to go with the doctors and nurses as they went upstairs. As the babies would arrive the nurses would ask for the names, “Baby A Daddy? Charlie! Baby B? Dorothy! Baby C? No clue.” One of the nurses taking care of the eventual Benjamin was not very happy that he didn’t have a name so she and the other nurses took a paper towel and made a makeshift chart of their favorite names. Two nights later that same nurse was at the front security door and wouldn’t let us in until we gave her a name. She was happy to hear we finally chose Benjamin David.

The nurses quickly told us that we needed to prepare for a bumpy road where two days the babies would be doing great and the next there would be some complications.

By the time I was able to see the babies the next day the babies were hooked up to a large, bulky nasal cannula called a Bubble C PAP which helped to keep the lungs open and moist. They were no longer being intubated about 2 hours after birth and were breathing the same air as the rest of us. Each baby had to get “pick lines” put in shortly after and this was easy for both Dorothy and Charlie but Benjamin struggled with this for a few days and we were very relieved when the pick line finally took. We would find that this would be a common theme for Benjamin and would have to fight a lot more than the others in many different circumstances. The pick lines basically just delivered medication and lipids into their body.

A couple days after their birth we were allowed to take Dorothy out of her isolate and hold her for about 20 -30 minutes. The following days we were able to hold them doing Kangaroo Care (skin to skin) where I would stuff them in my shirt and cleavage while Adam would have to take his shirt off and cover them in blankets. This started to make everything feel so much better.

After about a week the babies were taken off the Bubble C PAP’s one day after the other and put on high flow nasal cannulas which allowed us to see much more of their faces. That was a wonderful day and we were able to start seeing resemblances in William and them.

Happy Birthday

The morning of Tuesday, March 29, started out similar to all the other mornings in the hospital. Around lunch time I decided to try to take a shower (which was the highlight of most of my days). I noticed afterward that I was feeling a little different so I let the nurse know and she began checking on me more regularly. I started having more and more contractions; but for some reason I didn’t put together that I was in labor and should call Adam. As the day went on, my contractions became very close together. Around 7:00p.m Adam had just gotten to the hospital from work and brought Will to say “hi” to mommy. My parents and Adam’s parents were also there to just visit. The next part went very fast and seems like a blur to me.

My doctor came in around 7:30p.m, checked me, and then said, “OK, I want to have these babies out in 30 min.” “Wait, what did he just say?” This ran through my mind and I freaked out. Adam who is the best husband calmed me down the best he could and we were ready to go. I had a C-section and at 8:03 I heard the first cry of our first little baby boy Charlie Patrick weighing in at 2lbs 11 oz. and 15 ¾” long. At 8:04 we heard our little girl Dorothy Mae weighing in at 2lb. 14 oz. and 15 ¾” long. And lastly at 8:05 we heard our last little boy Benjamin David weighing in at 2lbs. 12oz. and 15” long.

God is truly amazing! In that short period he had given us 3 healthy new babies and a team of doctors who were waiting and ready to go. All three babies were breathing on their own and they seemed to be very healthy. With more updates to come I will post about how our family is doing and post some pictures for you guys to see.

Hospital Stay

On Wednesday March 23, 2011 I had my weekly doctor’s appointment to check on the pregnancy and babies. Earlier that morning Adam and I were talking about what and how to tell the doctor that I had been feeling uncomfortable the past few days and explain it so that he wouldn’t check me into labor and delivery. (This had happened before, and I had a lot of errands to run that day) That morning I did the usual--attended BSF, got lunch with my parents and Will, and did a little shopping before my appointment.

When the time came, I told my doctor about how I was feeling and he told me I was in labor and needed to go straight to Labor and Delivery to get checked in. After I told him multiple times that I was not in labor he said, “Well if your not and I’m wrong, then at least I’ll feel better about knowing for sure, so just go get checked out for an hour.” Feeling a little discouraged my mom and I headed over to the hospital. After about 2 hours, I was told that I was dilated 1cm and that Dr. Helm wanted me officially admitted to the hospital. This was very hard news for me to take in because I had been doing so great throughout the pregnancy.

After many tears and a long afternoon, labor really did set in. I was contracting every 2-4 min and had dilated to 3cm. This started to make me very nervous because William’s delivery had happened so fast and I was not ready that day. Adam showed up right away at the hospital, and I was given magnesium sulfate to try to stop labor. At this point I felt like everyone was in the room getting ready for a delivery that I was not ready for. NICU doctors were in talking to us about what to expect with 28-week babies. People were talking about c-sections and what other drugs I should be taking to help stop everything. I was feeling beyond overwhelmed!

After a long night, they were able to stop labor but I knew that this was just the beginning. I was put on bed rest, and was hooked up to continuous monitoring of the babies. This means I had four different monitors on my belly and every time I moved or they moved, they would need to be readjusted. I had I.V.’s in my arm, a permanent blood pressure machine that would go off about every hour, as well has many other wires that gave other information. All of this lasted about three days and nights before I broke down and asked for some it to be removed. Over the next few days my labor slowed and I was just trying to be the best incubator for my little babies. I was still continuing to have contractions but they were about every 20-30 min. The doctors told me that this would be normal until the babies arrived. I was, however, still on Magnesium Sulfate, and I would stay on it for the remainder of the time as well. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the worst. It comes with severe side effects of dizziness, nausea, headaches, weakness, hot flashes, and extreme overheating. As hard as this all was I knew that I could and would go through whatever God gave me so that he could give me the opportunity to be a mommy to 3 healthy babies.

Zoo Date

Adam and I decided that before the triplets arrive we wanted to do some activities with just William and we decided to take him to the zoo. It was a beautiful day and with my back brace on I was ready for walking.

We started out at the petting zoo and let's just say Will was a little afraid of the sheep and goats. Good thing Daddy was their to protect him.

Next we were on to the tropical rainforest. This was actually really cool and Will loved the waterfalls and all the ducks running around.

After seeing a few more animals we decided to head to the giraffes. I was so excited that we could feed them and that I thought, "who wouldn't want to do this." I soon found out they were much bigger in person and their tongues were about 2 feet long. Will was not thrilled at all about this but he loved to look at them from a distance. It was also neat because the last time we took Will to the zoo it was the first day they let the baby giraffe out in public so we got to see him again.

Overall the day was great. I was glad to see the sting rays although we didn't get to feed them. Adam was upset that we had to pay an extra 3 dollars to see the sting rays. It's always nice to see the zoo through a child's eyes.

Kris Kross

William is becoming more and more independent and this day he decided to put his pants on himself. With a throw back to the early 90's and Kris Kross, he was so proud.

All jeans to Will are called "cowboy pants". So what's next after getting dressed, going for a ride on your horse.

Santa Cruz Vacation

For the past few years Adam and I have enjoyed going to Santa Cruz for vacations. We stay at one our friend's great beach condos where it is very relaxing. We decided to leave William and the dog with the grandparents in Clovis and just take a relaxing vacation before the babies come. The weekend was so great even though it rained most of the time except for Sunday when we were leaving. We battled once again putt-putting in Neptune's Kingdom and had some of the best slices of pizza in SC. We also took in a movie, "Just Go With It" and finished the rainy night off with a late dinner.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at one of the more popular surf breaks in Santa Cruz. The weather was great.

It's tradition to take our picture at this same spot every year. Like almost 3 years ago my belly takes up most of the picture.

The condo we stay at across from the beach.

Hot Tub Time Machine

Will loves to go swimming so we decided that we would let him get in the hot tub with daddy and play around a bit.

He has great aim.

DRAW!

23 week update

At 23 weeks the baby's are doing great. They are still the size of a papaya, kicking and moving more every day and making mommy a little more tired. I guess if you talk to my doctor we did have a little scare. Adam and I attended a dinner/comedy night at our church and it lasted about 3 hours. I sat the whole time but according to my doctor I did too much. So because of my back pain that night I was sent to labor a delivery the next morning for about an hour to monitor contractions. I only had 1 but that's because the babies all decided to move around at the same time. Everything turned out great and I was sent home.

While taking our weekly pictures it was such a nice day that we all enjoyed being outside in the back yard.

Like Father Like Son

William loves hats and while digging through our closet he found his favorite for the day.

21 & 22 weeks

So as some of you know this past week has been extremely busy at the Sherwood's home. Adam celebrated his 30th birthday and we had our 6th annual Super Bowl party at our house this past weekend. So I must apologize for not updating the blog sooner. Week 21 and 22 of pregnancy has gone by pretty good. I have felt great, had more energy, and started to eat a lot more. Last week I had another ultrasound and all the babies are doing great. All of the spinal fluid is out of Baby B, our little girls, brain but baby C still has some left. The doctor's don't seem to be worried so I'm just going to pray and let God take care of our babies. They also are all just under 1 lb. so hopefully next week we will hit that milestone. During week 21 our babies were the size of a banana.

During week 22 they became a papaya

I can't believe how fast these babies are growing and how fast this pregnancy is coming along. I am so excited to start planning everything we need to do to get ready for our little babies to come home.

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C (not really wanting his profile taken so this is the best we got.)

3 Cantaloupes

I can't believe that I'm already 20 weeks pregnant with triplets. Sometimes the time flies by and other times it's moving as slow as a snail. This week the babies are the size of cantaloupes. When I saw this it sounded so good so I went to the store to get cantaloupes along with pineapples and strawberries to make a fruit salad. It was delicious. I feel like this week I've been wanting more and more fruit than normal, I guess it's better than the milky ways I wanted last week.

My doctors appointment also went great. He said that he feels great that I show no signs of pre-term labor. This made me feel great because I really just need to get through next weeks festivities (Adam's 30th birthday and Super Bowl) before I can really relax. But I am also excited because next week I get to see the babies again for another ultrasound. More pics to come then.

College Friends

It's so nice for a few of my college friends to get together. We try to do this every year and it's really fun and I love seeing all our kids play together. I almost can't wait till next year since we will be adding 5 more kids to the mix.

Bath time Friday night.

Saturday after the fog cleared we all went to the park.

Later that night we baked and decorated sugar cookies.

Will's a great little chef.

All the kids had so much fun. Jersey and Ruby loved to eat the icing and cookies and Will liked to mostly decorate.

After a long weekend the kids woke up Sunday ate breakfast and then watched cartoons while the mommies cleaned.