Ok, well tomorrow Nathan will be SIX years old!?! How did that happen?? He is a miracle and our lives have certainly not been the same since he arrived six years ago. Most of you know his story and have heard all the details, but I wanted to write it all down in one place. So here it is, part 1. It is wordy and probably tmi, so read what you want and skip the rest! It is just for us to have some of those thoughts and memories in one place!
I met my husband, Dan, on eHarmony! I swore I would never do it and look at us now, 8 years happily married! Never say never!
We decided after a year and a half to “try” to start a family. I remember the very first pregnancy test I took, pretty early on and it was negative. I snuck out of bed super early in the morning before Dan was up and then crawled back into bed when I saw the results. I was disappointed but prayed that the Lord’s Will be done in our lives and if it wasn’t time, then so be it. Little did I know what His Will would require of us nor what I was really praying for.
A couple days and a few more pregnancy tests later, it turned out we WERE going to have a baby!
There are a few “forever” moments which stick in your mind and you never forget. The first one in our lives was on March 8, 2007. It was our very first ultrasound appointment. We were both so nervous heading to the clinic and were excited to get to see our baby. We had had family members and friends who had struggled with miscarriages so our biggest concern was that there might not be a heartbeat. We got started and within a few moments she said, “Congratulations, you are having twins!”. Dan and I looked at each other in complete shock! That was not even something we had thought about. Then the doctor turned quiet for a few moments and kept looking at the screen. She then said, “Don’t kill me but I think there are three!” Dan came back with, “That’s not possible!!” It is incredibly rare to conceive natural, identical triplets but we had done it! We left the office that day white as ghosts and realizing that our lives were never going to be the same!
In May that year, we had our first visit to Swedish to have an ultrasound to see these babies. Everything had seemed ok with the ultrasounds up here, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We knew we were going to find out what the babies were and we were excited to see them all. This was the appointment we found out that they were all boys, that Baby C was much smaller than the others and as they measured those babies, they told us they may have markers for Downs Syndrome. Again, our world was rocked by this news. Can you imagine not only expecting unexpected-triplets, but possibly expecting triplets with Downs Syndrome? We were reeling with this news. What would our lives look like? We were given the option to “terminate” these babies countless times and decided that no matter what, they were ours to have as long as we could. So, on we went, each day waiting to see what would happen. (How sad our lives would have been if we had decided to take the doctor’s advice and get rid of those babies? Our amazing son wouldn’t be here! A healthy, happy, fully functioning little boy!)
In June that same year, we lost one of our boys. Baby C, whom we later named Brandon, died sometime in early June. He was the smallest of the babies and wasn’t attached to the placenta as well as the others. I will never forget laying on that table while the technician pressed on my belly and told us she couldn’t find a heartbeat. Quiet tears streamed down my face as we waited to hear what would happen next. We assumed we would lose all the boys.
Once he died, I had to be on home bedrest while we waited to see what my body chose to do with the other babies. I spent a couple weeks stuck here at home, grieving the loss of our son and then as I went into mild labor, I was admitted to the hospital. I will write another time about all those weeks in the hospital, the poking, the prodding, the preparation for our loss, the blessings, etc, but for now the birth!
A couple weeks there on bed rest and 8 days after my water had broken, on Friday, the 13th of July, our two boys were born. Exactly three months early and in an emergency situation. My Mom was with me for the delivery. Dan came as soon as he could but he was stuck in traffic and didn’t make it to the birth. He was about an hour away and when I asked if we could wait for him I was told it was too risky…we had to move fast. It turned out that they had Twin-to-Twin Transfusion and were both in pretty bad shape.
The C-section was pretty easy on my part and both boys were out very quickly. Baby A, whom we named Matthew, came out first and never made a peep. He was the one whose water had broken and the smaller of the two boys. He weighed in at 1 lb 5 oz. Next up was Nathan, tipping the scale at 1 lb 15 oz. He squawked as they pulled him out. This long, incredibly tiny little thing squeaking as he came into the world. Finally, little Brandon was removed. I got to see him later, a perfectly formed little baby, just tiny.
Both boys were whisked off to their own tables while they sewed me up and I didn’t even get to see them. They were hustled around and up to the NICU and I went to the recovery room. All a blur, I can tell you. I had no idea when I woke up that morning that I would be meeting my sons for the first time.