More Baby pics!

Dad and Ethan

Ami, Jen & Colton

Colton sucking on a pacifier! Hooray!

Ethan sleeping

Hunter sleeping

Mom and Baby Girl Hunter this morning

Like the babies' NICU name signs?

Gramma Bunch & Ethan

Gramma Daniels & Colton

Grampa "Sam" Daniels and his little namesake, Colton Samuel

Aunt Mary and her niece, Hunter :)

Grampa "Bradley Bunch and his namesake, Ethan Bradley

These are my anesthesiologists! The one on the right is my friend Tony! He was awesome to have in there! He kindly "dictated" what was happening to me each step of the surgery since I couldn't see anything!

Dr. Maciulla

Colton in the NICU

Hunter in the NICU

Ethan in the NICU

AT LAST!! Pictures of the babies!

Ok, so I'm all out of order...(I'm out of my usual blogging element) . Fortunately, Mary is loaning me her laptop so I can post some long awaited pictures! I uploaded them in the wrong order, but I'll go ahead and leave them...this time only! :) Then I'll get my act together!

So this is Ethan Bradley Bunch

3lbs. 15 oz....Born 3rd...at 11:42am

This is Hunter Olivia Bunch

3lbs. 2 oz.....Born 2nd at 11:41 a.m.

The little blue bundle is Colton Samuel Bunch

4 lbs. 6 oz....Born 1st....at 11:40 am

This is me getting prepped...

This is Brian getting prepped! He looks so official! He was about 1 of 45 people dressed in scrubs in our Operating Room!

Houston, we have a delivery date!!

That's right! There's an end (and a great big beginning) in sight! After years of hoping and waiting, and 33 weeks of cooking, the Bunch Babies will be making their grand entrance into the world on:

Monday, March 23, 2009

Many of you have asked how we finally arrived at a date, and at this one in particular...so here's the lowdown. Yesterday, I went in for my weekly checkup and frankly, everything was looking GREAT! (My blood pressure was a tad high, but after lying on my left side for 5 minutes, it went back to normal!) So in comes Dr. Maciulla, we do a quick ultrasound, we see three quick beating hearts and a couple of big heads (again....we thank Brian for that...) and then we sit up to chat!

Now, all the stars must have aligned just right, because the first question on Brian's and my "Things to ask" list was, 1. At what point do we commit to a date? Interestingly enough though, I didn't have to ask it, because Dr. Maciulla did first! I believe his words were, "So, how much longer do you think you can make it?" To which I, glass half full, say, "However much longer you want me to make it! "

Well, he basically said that for someone who is only 5'2" tall and started out at 99 lbs., (currently tipping the scale at 144lbs.) I have done remarkably well. He said I'd already passed every milestone he hoped I would get to in terms of babies' health and my health, PLUS I'd made it far past the # of weeks he expected me to! (Again, he was realistically thinking I'd make it to 28 weeks, hoping I'd make it to 30 weeks, and now rejoicing that I made it to a "typical triplet gestation" of 33 weeks. ) So he said rather than tempt fate and play a game of risk, it was his opinion that we shoot for a delivery sometime in the 33rd week as opposed to waiting till week 34.

It probably helped my case that I mentioned my discomfort from the night before with baby Ethan's butt literally camped out in the exact same spot RIGHT under my rib cage for about 12 hours making the simple art of taking a deep breath quite painful...He kind of chuckled and said, "You know, for most people, the uterus stops several inches below their rib cage, but in your case, your uterus literally did grow right up to your rib cage!" So this was another reason to move forward with delivery sooner rather than later!

So he looked at us and said, so what day do you want? We went back and forth and we all decided on Monday, March 23rd....(exactly one month before my birthday...April 23rd). Plus I like the numbers....3 babies in the 3rd month, at exactly 33 weeks! It just works for me...

So folks, barring any other major catastrophes that happen in the hospital (unrelated to us) that cause us to have to reschedule, we are scheduled for a C-Section at about 9:30 in the morning on Monday! That gives me just 3 full days left with babies where I can control them!! :)

After that, this is what Brian and I will be wearing....hopefully these shirts will explain the fatigue on our faces without having to actually make words come out of our mouths.... :)

And Piper was SO excited about HER new shirt that her Gramma Daniels had embroidered for her at "Doggie Duds" that she's already wearing it around the house....she's practicing how to be the "Big Sister." And doing a mighty fine job, I might add... :) I know she doesn't know exactly what's going on yet, but she's certainly smart enough to know that something is happening in that belly of mine and something is soon to be coming to that nursery we spend so much time in....I know that after a short adjustment period, she's going to be so wonderful and so protective of her three babies. :)

So for now, we wait.....Brian and I are SO excited to finally meet these three little people who've been rolling around in my belly for weeks now. I know that Monday will bring with it TONS of nerves for both of us, (more so for me because it is I who obviously has to go through the surgery part.) Luckily I'm generally Ok with surgery. I've had several now and I'm not bothered by needles or IV's and anesthesia typically works with me...which brings up another exciting note!

Barring any weird circumstances that dictate otherwise, my long time friend, Tony Lucas (many of you know him,) will be my anesthesiologist! Thank God somebody paid attention in HS Chemistry and Biology and went on to pursue a career that would benefit ME!....I can't remember if Tony and I first met through our church youth group or at Sahuaro HS...either way, it's been at least 17 - 18 years that we've been friends if you go all the way back to our freshman year of high school! He is now an anesthesiologist at UMC and is planning to be there Monday Morning with needles in hand! Woo hoo! That makes at least 3 friendly faces (Brian, Tony, Dr. M.) in a room of what I imagine will be FULL of doctors and nurses.... :)

Hopefully everyone doesn't want to throw things at me for putting this picture up here, but this is a part of our "high school group" hanging out at the Cactus Moon only a few months ago.! (Ok well, it was before I was pregnant, so I guess it was more than a few months ago...Jenny LaCoss, and I think Melanie were somewhere at the Moon this night too...I don't know why they're not in this picture!

L to R is : Leigh, Rick, Me, Heather, Tony (aka...Super Anesthesiologist) and Matt!

So anyway, for now, I guess that's all! If you had wanted to come by the hospital, please don't worry about trying to make it there on Monday....I'll be recovering for several hours, Brian will be with me and the babies will be in NICU, unable to be visited without being escorted by either Brian or me, so there's not a lot of reason to hurry out there on Monday! I'll either send out a mass text message and/or hopefully with the assistance of Mary's laptop, we can get pictures and updates about visiting and the babies on the blog as soon as I'm officially able!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for the months of support, prayers, meals, encouragement, baby clothes, coupons and positive thoughts that have gotten us this far and with never having to go on bed rest! Amazing! I can't wait for you to meet our babies! Stay tuned!

Am I seriously still pregnant??

Ok, first of all, HOORAY for 31 weeks 2 days! That is a big feat in my world...and frankly, it's kind of the push behind this next blog entry....But first, let's take a little walk down memory lane....

Finding out we were pregnant with triplets was probably the most memorable day in my life. Unfortunately, that excitement and hope were literally immediately dampened with the "suggestion" that we not attempt to carry three babies. It was too dangerous...we could lose one or all of the babies....I'm too small...we could lose me...there are too many problems that can occur...etc. "Gee! What a way to kill our spirit! I understand the need for the medical profession to offer that opinion to us, but seriously could it have waited even until the next appt.??

Anyway, after 6 more weeks of sheer agony trying to figure out what the "right" decision to make was (despite the fact that with every beat of those three tiny hearts, the decision seemed to be making itself clearer and clearer to us.) I'm telling you, it's the worst kind of battle...your head vs. your heart. Well, obviously our hearts won. Whatever risks might come along with carrying triplets were ok with us. These three babies were put in our lives for a reason and who were we to decide any differently?

Back when all three babies could fit on the same screen....how precious are they??

So we braced ourselves for every "possible complication" in the book. (And there are quite a few, let me tell ya!) And then we began living one day at a time. Setting small, attainable goals for the pregnancy.

Getting past the first trimester?... Check!
Getting to week 20?.... Check!
Getting to week 27? ....Check!
Mom gaining weight?... Check! (45 pounds to date, by the way!)
Babies gaining weight? ....Check!
Mom's blood pressure in tact and ok?.... Check!
No stretch marks?.... Check! (Sorry, I had to throw that one in!)
Passed my glucose and all other blood work tests?....Check!
Get to week 30 and watch Dr. M. do a cartwheel?...Check!
(Well, he said he'd do it...we're still waiting.)

Literally, I have been blessed with an amazing triplet pregnancy.I have had no reason to complain.

Until now. Now I want to complain. Just a little. :) I am 31 weeks and 2 days pregnant and I now, I am tired. My body is tired. At my checkup last Thursday, Dr. Maciulla looks at me with admiration at how well I'm still doing and says, "How are you still pregnant???" Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!! "BECAUSE YOU WON'T TAKE THESE BABIES OUT" I say! :) Now don't misunderstand me, I fully understand that the longer these babies can stay inside, the better off they will be. I do not want to harm them in any way. So we discuss the upcoming "delivery" whenever that shall be, and we decide that it would be a good time for me to start taking steroids....That's right, me and A-Rod! Except these steroids, he promises, will NOT make the babies or me look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Instead they will help complete the maturation process of the babies' lungs, should they be born early...(which they obviously will.) So I'm totally game for that! Whatever can be done to help those babies breathe on their own is a blessing. "So how do we do this," I ask?

"Well, unfortunately," says Dr. M. "it's a series of 4 shots in the butt." (pause, pause, pause...I think he was waiting for me to freak out.) Seriously? Just 4? Piece of cake...shots in the butt, as you'll all recall are old hat for us. The unfortunate part is that it's 4 shots, 12 hours apart, EACH.

Which meant the very next morning at 9:00, Friday, off I marched to UMC for shot #1. Then again at 9:00 that night. Again, 9:00 Saturday morning, and finally, 9:00 Saturday night. Aside from the benefits of the shot, several other good and interesting things came from these outings:

1. The first nurse to give me shot #1 ALSO has triplets (2 Boys and a girl) which she delivered at UMC, with Dr. M. at 34 weeks....coincidence? Who knows.... :) So it was fun to talk to her!

2. Brian discovered that Jimmy Johns, a local gourmet sandwich shop and some Barbecue Joint (the name is escaping me) delivers to UMC! Yahoo! Good information to know when you expect to be at the hospital for a while....

3. And weird of all weirdness...the night of shot #2, I check in and the very friendly Unit Coordinator, Abigail, runs my paperwork and hands it to the nurse in the next room..."Ok, you can go in now" she says! So in we go! The nurse hands me the paperwork and says check the label up top and make sure it's the right patient...I quickly scan the paperwork....Patient Name: BUNCH, AMY. "Yep! It looks good to me! Unless you care that my name is spelled A-M-I, not AMY" I say. "No prob says the nurse! We'll just make that change when we're done." Super! Well, good thing my trained observer of a husband was with me this time. Just as I'm getting ready to show night nurse #2 my bull tattoo, I hear Brian say, most inquisitively, "Um, should this be her birthdate?" To which the nurse replies, "Yes....is it not?" And now Brian, a little too excitedly I believe, says, "NOT EVEN CLOSE!" lol...This girl was born in 1986! Isn't he sweet? So anyway, he goes back out to try and clear things up and lo and behold, THERE IS ANOTHER AMY BUNCH in UMC, in the LABOR & DELIVERY wing right now!! Is that weird or what??

So anyhoo...just thought I'd share those coincidences! So the shots went very well....but unfortunately they make you have contractions...uugh. So to counter that, I'm also taking a medicine which stops contractions, and also lowers my blood pressure....super! And I don't think I mentioned that at the last appt. I was also encouraged to take an additional Iron Supplement to boost my red blood cell count or something. Well, Iron makes you constipated apparently, so with that I get to ALSO take a product which they disguise with a neat name called "Colase". Yeah, I now know that Colase is really a STOOL SOFTENER. ( i prefer the much more adult friendly term, Poopie softener). And TWICE a day, no less! So that brings my daily pill intake now to 7 pills a day! Yes!

L to R: Prenatal Vitamin, 2 poopie softeners, 1 Iron Supplement, 3 Nifedipine...

Well I don't know if it was a combination of all that, or just being 31 weeks pregnant, but Monday, for the first time in 31 weeks, felt like the beginning of the end for me. My ankles rivaled the great Redwood Tree Trunks...
I woke literally every hour to go pee and could not go back to sleep in between because of this, my friend the elephant, who has decided to take up residence on either my spine or my lungs when I'm trying to sleep! My belly felt like it added another 10 pounds overnight and it hurt...basically, for the first time, I felt miserable.

It was the first time I questioned whether or not I could make it to 34 weeks. So putting myself on bed rest wasn't even hard. Every ounce of my body ached and hurt and I couldn't take a deep breath....Poor Brian, god love, him practically carried me up the stairs to bed that night and the next as I cried uncontrollably trying to get comfortable....He even rearranged our living room and brought down one of the glider chairs in the hopes that maybe that would be a more comfortable place to spend the days...(and it has been). He has even unconsciously learned to push me up while in a deep slumber, when he senses my struggle in the middle of the night, trying to get get out of bed to go pee! Thank God for him...he is my knight for sure!

So let's end this on a positive note. I feel better today! A little more like my old self. I'm thinking we can make it a little farther once again...So please keep praying for me...pray that that elephant finds his way out of my bedroom and back to his own jungle! Cuz I've got babies to cook! :)

Sometimes it's good to be boring.

Ok, so we went for our 2nd appt. today at our UMC doctor! And yes, rest assured everyone, the 2nd visit was every bit as entertaining as the first! The Dr. saw us coming down the hallway, and puts both of his hands over his eyes as if to say, "Oh god, them again." To which I responded... "We're baaack!" And as he sees Brian, (he called him the bear last week, remember) he calmly and quietly says to a nurse who was sitting outside the sonogram room, "Don't turn around. It's behind you." :) Obviously all of this was in jest. How could he NOT be happy to see us and our 3 sac circus act? (Which, we are quickly realizing we are!) We checked in at the front desk and the woman said, "Oh yeah, you're the ones with the triplets! Marybeth, look, they're the ones with triplets!" But we're cool with it! After all, we were as surprised as anyone when this "turn of events" came our way!

So anyway, here's the weekly scoop! Everything looks great! The babies, though we actually did not get a measurement are CLEARLY bigger than last week. (Which was likely apparent to anyone who has seen ME in the past few days! My belly seems to have taken on a life of its own!) Their features are all more defined. You can see facial features, fingers, bones in fingers, etc. Their brain membranes look great and all three babies are movers and shakers! We were again assured, "Oh yeah, you're having 3 babies!" We're looking at a 30 week delivery, which is a little scary for me, but I am assured that they will be just fine living in the nursery for a little while. So for those who are trying to quickly do that math, 30 weeks is March 2. Quite a bit earlier than May 11, but keep in mind that that estimate/goal is only 2 weeks earlier than the average triplet delivery. (That makes it sound less scary!) But obviously, if I can keep cooking them a little longer than that, then that's what we'll do! But because of my size, that's the goal for now!

However, after about 20 minutes of looking at all the babies, over and over again, the Dr. said, "Well, I'm bored." Glad you're doing well, but I'm bored!" (Which is a great thing, don't forget, when you are having 3 babies...at the same time!) This is one time I was excited and relieved to be told I'm boring! Woo hoo!

So anyhoo, different doctor, different methods of taking pictures of babies! So I unfortunately do not have individual shots of Baby A, B and C. But I'm posting the ones I have! They're still cute as ever! Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite pictures! This is Baby B. We figure he or she is either sweet as a bug or is the trouble child! He's either sucking his thumb or putting his thumb on his nose as if to say, "Na Ne Na Ne Boo Boo!"

We're not sure which baby this is...it's kind of a jumble nowadays. There's not a lot of free space in there! If you really look closely, you can see facial features on this one!

And this is all three HEADS. (and parts of their bodies.) We wanted to make sure to show off their exceptional brain membranes! So please enjoy them! :)

We picked a doctor!!

Well, here we are....13 weeks pregnant! Seems like such a simple milestone. But not for us. Looking back at the disappointments that have plagued us the past three and a half years makes us cherish this milestone even more. Getting pregnant was never easy for us. I envied all of you who got pregnant so easily (and, as most of you know, I despised all of you briefly at some point in time). But I now understand with a much greater depth what it means to not take things for granted. All the failed pregnancy tests, the failed procedures, the disappearing embryos in our many IVFs, the devastation of a past miscarriage and the heartbreak of being told over and over again, "I'm sorry." All of these things make being 13 weeks pregnant with triplets, priceless. And as blessed as I am to have these 3 babies, I am even more blessed to have Brian to have gone through this with. I am convinced that he was put in my life for this reason. God must've known I wouldn't be able to get pregnant on my own and he picked the one person out there who is strong enough, humorous enough and stubborn enough to get me through this. Time after time, he would look at me and say, "We will be parents." And he believed it. I don't know anyone who deserves this more than he does. I'm so proud to call him the "daddy" of my 3 little babies.

But enough of the sappy stuff....WE FOUND A DOCTOR! As I mentioned in one of my last posts, we graduated from the fertility doctor and are now charged with finding someone to care for these babies for the last 6 months...(Ha ha...I'm hopelessly optimistic that this pregnancy will actually last 9 months .) Survey says...Not a chance! But that's ok...So last week we met with a Doctor at TMC (Tucson Medical Center) whom we really liked. We had planned on selecting their practice to seek treatment...until.....we were forced? Bullied? No...lovingly coerced into meeting with another doctor who comes highly recommended, especially for the care of triplets. (Yes mom, that was for you!) So we made our appointment and last Thursday, we raced across town to UMC (University Medical Center) for what may have been the most entertaining appointment of our lives.

It's hard to really capture the "essence" of this appointment in words, but just understand that this doctor could best be described as..."quirky", "entertaining", and quite possibly, "crazy". (Those were his words, not ours!) His language was, shall we say, "colorful?" But his demeanor immediately puts you at ease and makes you feel like you are a normal person going through a normal experience. Finally. He was fascinated by the sharp contrast in Brian's and my size, and made repeated comments about how freaking huge Brian is! Some of his first words after seeing me, then seeing Brian, then back to me, were "Are you crazy? What were you thinking having THREE of his kids?! They're going to be huge!" And at a later point in the conversation, after Brian made a comment about how, for his own sanity, there had better be at least one penis in the bunch, another doctor, a resident who was there learning, commented that in 3 recent sets of triplets they'd seen, ALL babies were girls. Well, upon hearing this, the Dr. looks at the resident and excitedly says, "Are you crazy? Did you not see how freaking huge he is?! Don't upset the bear!" Then, he turns back to the ultrasound monitor, pointing and says, "Um, I think I see penis, penis, penis!" (he didn't really). But my goodness was it funny! In fact, those poor babies probably thought we were going 4-wheeling down a bumpy dirt road. My belly was shaking almost the entire time and it was actually quite funny to watch them jiggling all around from my laughing!

But even more important than the humor was the confidence he instilled in us. The first time he looked at all three babies on the ultrasound, he said with all the confidence of a top doctor, "These little buggers look great! They're going to be fine. You ARE going to have 3 babies." He also mentioned that I would have to get fat, but that I was not a china doll and I can do this. Frankly, that was all we needed to hear. Someone to finally boost us up, not freak us out. Whether he was blowing smoke or not, I don't really care. He made us believe we could do this. So....we made our follow up appointment and the decision was made! So we will be delivering our babies at University Medical Center, where there is a Level 3, world renowned neonatal intensive care unit to care for our babies when they are born. Triplets typically deliver at 32 or 33 weeks, possibly a week or two sooner because I am so tiny. So they will undoubtedly spend some time there, but were are confident they will be in good hands. So folks, so much for the due date of May 11....looks more like it'll be sometime in March. Say lots of prayers that I can keep these babies in even longer than that! So below is a picture of UMC, a place we will be spending a lot of time at in the next few months! :) Hooray! We found a doctor!