Do you remember where you were exactly four years ago today? I do!

I was on the third floor, in the birthing center of Waukesha Memorial Hospital, pregnant with three babies. I was going on my second week of being there. When the doctor found out I was 3 cm dilated I bought myself a one way ticket to a hospital stay. I was not showing signs of active labor … I was becoming a permanent fixture.

This particular night four years ago (11-9-10) Doug and Jaden had left from their nightly visits and Rachael, my sister, was hanging out for a while longer, for “girl time.” She brought mud masks. Here I am with a belly that hung lower than most girls wear their skirts these days, sitting on a couch in my room, painting my face with mud. We laughed and laughed and laughed. My sister always knows just the kind of mood medicine I need!

It was a Tuesday night. Why do I remember this? Because the results show for Dancing with the Stars was on. They were recapping a dance to a Pussycat Dolls song. I came out of the bathroom trying to reinact the dance singing “loosen up my buttons baby.” I learned three things:

1. It is not attractive or easy to dance when carrying three 5 lbs babies in your belly
2. It’s HILARIOUS to try and sexy dance with three 5 lbs babies in your belly
3. The real words to the song are not “loosen up my buttons baby”

Good thing my nurses didn’t see that little dance …. but there is a video of it somewhere …

It was time for my nightly fetal monitoring which required two machines, three belly bands and four hands hold them all in place. We noticed that the heartbeats were a little flat (not showing the little accelerations which is a healthy sign in babies in utero). After watching for a bit, the heartbeats perked up and we were no longer concerned. Nurse Amy asked me if I was feeling contractions. “Nope, I feel great!” “hmmm You are having contractions every 5 minutes.” This wasn’t abnormal, I was having contractions on and off for the past two weeks – my uterus was seriously ticked off being stretched that large. She decided to call the doc on call who was on the floor to check if I had dilated any farther. My nurse for the night, Jessie, said, “Ugh if you go into labor, I’m not your nurse anymore … I don’t do labor.” Ummm I’m on the labor and delivery floor of a hospital, what does that mean you don’t do labor? Turns out she was an OBGYN nurse and only certified to care for OB patients or bed rest patients … not women in labor kind of patients.

Doc on call comes in and says I’m still 5 cm dilated – no active labor here. I got my four glasses of water filled (the gestational diabetes had me drinking gallons of water a day) and tried to get some sleep. My coworkers from Kohl’s were going to come and have lunch with me the next day – had to get some good rest.

I had the best night of sleep in a long time!

Nurse Jessie woke me up for my morning fetal monitoring. “Are you feeling those contractions?” “Nope, I feel great!” “Well they are now three minutes apart and the heartbeats are a little higher than we like. I think we should call your doctor and see what she thinks.” We decided to wait until 7 a.m. when a nurse had already checked me would be coming into work. She would be the best to know if I had dilated anymore. So we waited the ten minutes. She came into the room, still buttoning up her scrubs. Well looky there – I was 7 almost 8 cm dilated – WE WERE HAVING BABIES! It was only then that I admitted to sexy dancing the night before. Yep I was the bed rest patient who tried to reenact ballroom dancing moves. #bestpatientEVER

No sudden movements … changed out of my yoga pants and got into a flattering hospital gown. Called Doug. I could hear Jaden in the background yelling “ooo weee we’re having babies!” I called my mom, dad, brother and sister. Calling in the troops!

We had 16 people, between my doctors and two nurses for each baby, in the OR for the triplet’s birth. Go big or go home. I wanted to know who brought the ChexMix for this party! By 9:21 a.m. (only an hour and 21 minutes after finding out I was 8 cm dilated) Logan was born, then Owen and then Weston. I was only able to see Weston in the OR – the others were taken to get oxygen and the care that they needed. To most moms this would have been terrifying, but for us, this was part of the birthing plan. We knew they would be born early and would need to stay in the NICU. Their cries were the most beautiful sound and let me know they were just fine.

Doug left me in the OR and went with the boys – he was so proud and I loved him for it. That left me in the OR with the remaining 9 or 10 people, including my three doctors. It also left me to make all kinds of nervous jokes …

After I was all sewn up and had spent an hour in recovery, they wheeled my hospital bed thru the NICU so I could see my sweet little men in their incubators. First was Weston – he was perfect. Then, oh gosh, I started to not feel well … yep I barfed in the NICU. Awesome. I guess meeting Owen and Logan would have to wait a bit. They rolled me back to my room where I slept. When I woke up, only my sister was left. The rest of the family had gone home and would be back in the morning to visit. She helped me write the email to my coworkers, introducing my three little men. I was so glad she was there to help.

Later that night I got to walk down to the NICU to try and meet my babies again. I met all of them this time, but threw up again. I was making a great first impression on the nurses who would be caring for my children for the next 2-3 weeks. Time to go back to my room … I could visit them any hour of the night.

I don’t totally remember the details after this … I know that Doug was incredibly attentive. The next three nights, we layed in my hospital bed together watching shows after our visitors had gone home. It was a whirlwind of information, heart monitors and baby’s first bath. We loved the nurses. I would pump in the mother’s room and remember Doug knocking on the door to check if I was alright – I had fallen asleep. Whoops!

This morning is much different than four years ago. There aren’t any oxygen masks, only funfetti waffles. Although I’m still not very well rested – boys had me up at 5 a.m. signing cute made up songs. Hard to be mad at that … although I was still annoyed – it WAS 5 a.m. Would have been much cuter at 7 a.m.

Happy 4th Birthday Logan and Weston! Happy birthday Owen! Mama loves all her boys very much!

Love, Mel