September 3, 2015 – 32 weeks TODAY!!!

32 weeks TODAY!!! 😀

Last night we made an emergency trip up to Kaiser Labor & Delivery in Santa Rosa. Rachel was having contractions and they were happening at frequent intervals. Following the doctor’s advice of ‘Better to be safe, than Sorry’ we decided to make the drive north. We left the house at 6:14pm (rush hour on the 101) and pulled up to Kaiser at 6:28pm. Only 14 minutes door to door, not bad! 🙂 I might have exceeded the 65mph speed limit once or twice in the commute lane, but HEY – I had the perfect alibi!!!

The Kaiser facility in Santa Rosa is pretty nice!

When we arrived, we were whisked off to the L&D department. Rachel had called ahead to let them know we were on our way, so they were expecting us. The first thing that they wanted was a urine sample. They test it for the presence of ketones, protein, low/high blood sugar and any other anomalies. Next, they took her vitals – blood pressure was good, so they had Rachel lie down and hooked her up to the fetal monitoring devices. Triplet pregnancies are fairly rare in our area, so the nurses had a little trouble finding the babies heartbeats. Most hospitals have the ability to monitor twins, but when it comes to triplets or more they have to add an additional machine which adds to the complexity of an already complex situation. They were able to get 2 pretty strong heartbeats and the resident Doctor came in to check Rachel’s cervix. Everything appeared to be fine, whew! Rachel experienced several more contractions while they were monitoring the babies. Basically, they need to monitor each baby for 20 minutes a piece to establish an adequate baseline of what is happening. They also hook up another monitor that records contractions as they happen. Another visit from the Doctor to do a quick sonogram to confirm the location of all three boys and we were ready to go!

A little over 2 hours had gone by and we were watching TV to pass the time. The nurse came back and asked us if we wanted some snacks. Considering that we missed out on a nice Rib-eye steak for dinner, this sounded like a pretty good plan!!! She brought Rachel a couple of bagels, peanut butter, jelly, cream-cheese, strawberry cake, watermelon and juice. For me, she had what the hospital labeled as ‘meatloaf’ (In TV dinner land – I had what you would call a Salisbury Steak dinner w/mashed potatoes & vegetables, plus a green salad! Hey where’s the apple pie?) See photo below – NUF said!!! 😀

Anyway, we were there for 3 1/2 hours and they completed all of their tests. One more check of her cervix to make sure that it was still closed and we could go home. We were home and in bed by 11:00pm. What a day! At least this visit qualified as our first Non Stress Test, so we don’t have to do this again tomorrow!

I took this picture on the drive up:

Next up – checkup with Dr. Spivak, 9/4/2015 (tomorrow)

Ke Akua Ho’omaika’i – God Bless…