Perfect.

Welcome, Emma Grace, Julie Catherine, and Rebecca Caroline!

I had a c section on the 20th (inauguration day, and my great aunt's birthday) and the girls were born at 8:35, 8:36, and 8:37 am. The OR was organized chaos! Surprisingly, we did hear the babies all cry (or at least whimper) when they were born. The NICU staff whisked them away pretty quickly - we got to see 2 of them on their way out the door.

I was in recovery for an hour or so. The actual c section, while overwhelming, wasn't bad. On my way back to the room, they took us through the NICU where we saw all of the babies, and despite all of our (and doctor's) expectations, none of the girls were doing as well as they should have been doing. It broke my heart right there. 2 were on ventilators, one was on CPAP. Rebecca, our smallest and single umbilical artery baby, was in the worst shape. Her blood pressure was frighteningly low, and the doctors suspected I had some sort of infection based on Rebecca's blood work and respiratory status. They started all 3 on antibiotics.

Everything in between now and then is a blur. They have all made dramatic progress. Rebecca had about 2 days of blood pressure medicine, and now her bp issues are resolved. She will still get a full course (10 days) of antibiotics, but Emma and Julie were taken off antibiotics after a day or two. There's really no explanation for why they had such a rough start. But everyone is now off of any breathing assistance, and we're working on starting bottle feedings with all of them.

I am still trying to recover from the surgery, and am finding myself just exhausted between the pain, breast pumping, and trips back and forth to the hospital.

There's really no way to guess yet how long they'll be in the NICU, or when they will come home.

Some pictures from when they were 5 days old...