Roller Coasters

A dear, sweet friend of mine delivered triplet girls last week! I am so excited for her as she is now a full-fledged member of this special sorority. Like me, she has an older child who also had some NICU time. We are not unfamiliar with the heart break that comes from delivering a baby only to leave the hospital, days later, empty handed. However, having done this before does not mean that we are immune to that heart break the second time around. It is still just as hard.

This made me think of roller coasters. Life with triplets is like riding a large roller coaster. There is the initial climbing high of finding out you are pregnant with triplets followed by the first plummeting low of the scariness of triplet pregnancies. From here on out, you are on the smaller ups and downs with a few twists and larger hills built in. Here is our roller coaster thus far:

1. HIGH = seeing THREE BABIES on our 7 week ultrasound. In case you missed it, we were quite surprised with our trio.
2. LOW = triplet pregnancy reality. Things were great until I hit the 22 week mark. It went downhill from there finally ending in 2 months of hospitalized bed rest with a constant drip of magnesium to stop contractions.
3. HIGH = April 24, 2013 our trio were delivered, healthy, into this world. After all our hard work, we finally had babies to hold in our arms!
4. LOW = April 24-25, 2013 we had babies we wanted to hold but could barely touch them. Seeing your 3 pound infant with all kinds of tubes and wires is a tough sight for even the strongest mom and dad.

Daniel

Faith

5. HIGH = April 26, 2013 got to hold our babies for the first time!

6. LOW = Leaving the hospital with out them

This list goes on and on with everything from having them all home together (finally!) to last week when both boys had the flu, I had bronchitis, Gracie had a stomach bug and Dad was getting sick too. The only one not sick was Faith :)

The triplet lane is not for the faint of heart. It is not for people who like stability and predictability in their lives. It is not for anyone without a sense of humor. And it is certainly not for those who are squeamish with bodily fluids (spit up, drool, or anything wet that comes out of the body).

The triplet lane is designed for people who love family, know that the only way to do this is to rely on God and whose sense of humor is not only well intact, but can be pretty sick at times :)

Life, itself, is a roller coaster. I think having triplets just moves you from the tried and true coaster to the super-deluxe, hold on for your dear life coaster.

For someone who doesn't like roller coasters, I'm sure enjoying this one!