January 31st, 2008 - Announcing...

Announcing The Huber Triplets!
Born on 1/31/08 at 30 weeks and 4 days gestation

Michael John Huber II
10:23am
3 pound 1 ounce
15.5 inches

Konrad Thomas Huber
10:24am
3 pound 1 ounce
15.5 inches

Zachary Edward Huber
10:24am
3 pound 2 ounces
13.5 inches


Our Birth Story

We have been in the hospital for 7 days so far and on both Sunday and Tuesday we came very close to having to have an emergency c-section to deliver the boys for various reasons. It is very hard to have the doctors come in and tell you that you might have to deliver today, to prepare yourself for the delivery, for major surgery, and the ups and downs of having your babies born so early and then to have the doctors come in and say that we will continue to wait and see again. On the one hand I am so thankful for every day that my babies can stay inside and cook a little longer, on the other hand after 7 days of preterm labor and preeclampsia scares and loads of medications and medical procedures, my body and mind are getting pretty tired. By Wednesday, I was at my breaking point. I was so tired of not knowing what was going to happen, if I was going to go home again or deliver soon, what is wrong with my body, why do I have this horrible headache and why am I seeing spots and dizzy, am I preeclamptic or aren't I, am I in preterm labor or can we stop it, which drugs shall we try today and what will they do to me. I found myself praying to God to just take all of the decisions out of my hands. I have been trying to stay positive and do whatever is necessary for my boys for so long and just the last two days or so my self preservation is starting to rear its ugly head and start to ask how much more of this I can take. I am so very tired both emotionally and physically that I finally truly understand what it means to give it up to God because there is nothing else that I can do. Maybe the doctors feel the same way because last night, on Wednesday evening, they decided to turn off everything. I mean everything. They stopped the terbutaline, the magnesium, the IV fluids, the procardia; they took out my catheter and said I could walk to the bathroon, they turned off the heart monitors and the blood pressure cuffs and the contraction monitors and they told me to get some sleep. They decided to just wait and see what the morning would bring and as a result I got my first good night's sleep in a week, months really.
As the hours passed, the terbutaline wore off and my hands stopped shaking and my heart rate slowed down from 130 to 90 beats per minute, the procardia wore off and my headache lessened and my dizzyness stopped a my blood pressure got back up to normal, the magnesium wore off next and my mouth and eyes stopped burning and the fog in my head began to clear, and gradually I could feel my body and mind relax. That night I had very few contractions and I had some peace.
This morning, Thursday, I woke up a new woman. I had energy and my positive attitude back. That one night off of drugs and machines did more for my spirit and emotional sanity than anything else I could have imagined. Mike had to get up for work at 6am this morning and I was awake and talking his ear off. I felt good, really good. In my mind I had it all planned out, I was going to get dressed in real clothes, hang out and read, maybe take a wheelchair ride around the hospital, maybe even try to convince the doctors to send me home. I wasn't having contractions or anything and now that all the medications side effects had worn off mt head was clear and I thought maybe I was actually gonna make it for a few more weeks before the babies came. Mike left for work. My nurse came in and we laughed about how good of a night I had in comparison to Tuesday night and she told me that she would see me in a few days and I was hopeful that I would be able to hang in there. I drank an instant breakfast and decided to get up for the day and get dressed and see what I could see. I got up out of bed, folded Mike's blankets and organized the pillows and went to the fridge for some water. All of a sudden my legs felt wet and I looked down and noticed something dripping. I just stood there at first , I thought, "no way, this cannot be happening, I was going to go home and get dressed and..." then I called my nurse and walked over to the bed and my water really broke at 6:45 in the morning. There is a heck of a lot more water then you might think too. The babies were going crazy in my belly, squirming and kicking and obviously freaking out too. Each time they moved more water moved, and I was like "calm down babies, calm down" because ugh, gross.
The nurse quickly got me back into bed and made me lay down and I grabbed my phone and called Mike. He had just pulled into a parking spot at work and I said, "umm honey you have to come back now, my water broke" and he said "do I at least have time for coffee?" and I said "yes I think so but hurry". Then the doctors came in with their lights and scopes and checked me and indeed my water had broken. Nurses came in and they strapped on heart monitors for the babies, contraction monitors, blood pressure cuff and heart monitor for me, replaced my catheter. The flurry of activity continued all around me as the anesthesiologists and neonatologists and surgeons flew in and out and asked questions and poked and prodded me in preparation. In between I called my mom and dad told them that today was the day! My doctor was out of town for the week for a conference so all morning there was some debate as to who would be performing my c-section. Finally at 9am Dr. Dombrowski came into the room and said that if I keep contracting, we will go for my c-section in an hour. Mike's parents arrived and we sent Mike down stairs to get some food so that he ate something before the surgery. I called my parents and they were on their way and everything seemed like it was falling into place. I was extremely nervous, the babies were still flitting around in there trying to figure out what the heck was happening. At 9:20 am , Dr. Dombrowski and Dr. Mason walked in and told me that they would be "tag teaming" the surgery and that the OR was ready and that it was time to go now. Mike was still downstairs getting food, my mom wasn't there yet and I was suddenly petrified. I was like "wait, what , now? what happened to an hour? can we at least wait for my husband?" I quickly called Mike and he had to run back upstairs. They bundled me into a wheel chair and were taking me to the OR as he ran into the room with his hands full of his uneaten breakfast and we were wheeled down to the OR with my parents still not there and his parents trailing behind us. They took me into the OR as I got one last look at Mike and then the chaos of the OR preparation started. I was really, really scared and still in shock that things had moved so fast.
The Dr. said to me "OK now here is the part where we swarm on you like locusts" and they did. There was probably 20 people in two OR rooms either working on me or waiting for the babies. The experience became incredibly surreal and almost out of body as all around me they talked through which team would get what baby, how they would be handed off and where they would take them to stabilize them. They discussed where they would make the cuts, which surgeon would grab which baby and who would perform each part of the surgery. During all this talk they got me up on the table, placed my spinal block, started a new IV, strapped me down, put on some oxygen and before I new enough to be really terrified they had started the operation.
They hurried Mike in and he told me that I was doing okay and looked into my eyes held my hand as we heard the cry of our first little baby brought into the world with the announcement of "its a boy" and 10:23am as the time. Mike looked over the curtain to see our next two boys brought crying into the world a minute later and Dr. Mason flashed me a glimpse of Zachary before he was whisked away to the other room to be stabilized with his two brothers. The doctors continued to work on me and the neonatal team brought our babies in for Mike to hold. Each little baby was handed to him and then we had three babies all together in their little hats and blankies and Mike didn't know where to put his hands or who to hold and we looked at each other and our babies and cried and laughed and then they took them away to the neonatal ICU where they would be staying. They finished up my surgery and moved me to a stretcher and wheeled me back to my room to recover. I finally saw my mom and dad in the hallway and told them that they were grandparents and then I got wheeled away to recovery. As the hour passed it began to sink in that the babies were out, I lived through the surgery, they lived through the surgery, they cried and they breathed and for now anyway everything was okay.