Move to Michigan.

Moving day: We woke up at 6am and Dan finished loading our SUV with everything we couldn't bring on the flight (we were each allowed a backpack). At this point, we still didn't know if there would be room for Dan on the plane. At 8, the social worker arranging our flight and transfer came in and told us we'd be picked up at 10 to be taken by ambulance to the airport. She still hadn't heard whether or not Dan could come. At 10, the flight crew arrived and said there would be room for Dan, WHEW!!! I was then loaded up and strapped into their "bed" and we were off for the airport. During the trip to the ambulance, I got to feel the sunshine for the first time in 6 weeks! It was 60 degrees and BEAUTIFUL in Wichita.

My private flight: The flight was rather uneventful. We made a stop in Illinois to refuel the plane and to eat lunch. We then completed the move to Ann Arbor where it was raining and 43 degrees...yuck! Dan got to sit co-pilot both in the ambulance AND on the plane.

New hospital room: The new hospital is BEAUTIFUL (see pictures via link in last blog entry). I have a private room, and there is a couch bed for Dan to sleep on the entire time I'm here. Our supper was AWESOME. The veggies were steamed just right, and everything we ordered looked and tasted great.

Our stay so far: This evening we met a lot of doctors, residents and nurses who will be involved in our care. We answered a lot of the same questions over and over, and also managed to begin settling into our room. We have a full growth sono scheduled for Monday.

The BRAND NEW hospital we'll be staying in...

Check out our new hospital!

29 weeks 1 day....and a change of scenery!

Weight: -1 pound

Waist: + 2 inches (is this less than last time? weird!)

Christmas: We had a great Christmas in the hospital (honestly, not being sarcastic). My family (parents, brother Aaron, sister-in-law Katie, and Grandpa) brought the meal for round 1, and Dans parents brought the meal for round 2. Dans grandpa Dan and his wife also joined us for round 2! We had a nice time eating and hanging out with everyone. Dan and I decided our gift to everyone would be revealing the babies names:

A: Caden Allen

B: Tarson J.

C: Laken Janelle

We were also visited by Pat and Marilyn, Elissa, Liz, Dustin, and baby Easton! What a great Christmas!

Dan's Birthday: Poor Dan spent the day in the hospital with me. On the plus side, he received many calls and cards from friends and family. He was also VERY excited to eat PF Changs for supper, and he enjoyed a massage the next day.

We had another bio-physical sono on Dan's birthday, and all babies scored perfectly!

In other news, we received a call at 3 this afternoon from our high risk doctor saying that Michigan wants us to fly there TOMORROW! Thats right, we are headed to Michigan on 12/30/11. The plan is not to deliver immediately, but to be there and ready when the time comes.

28 weeks 1 day!

Weight: - 3 pounds

Waist: + 4 inches

Next Doctors Appt: I see my doctors, their residents, AND my nurses daily at this point.

Update on babies: We had bio-physicals on Wednesday, and all babies scored perfectly! They also did a Doppler on C’s cord, and there was blood flowing at all times! My high risk doctor plans to call Michigan next Wednesday (when I’ll be 29 weeks) to see when they want me to be transferred there. It is just a waiting game at this point. Everyday I stay pregnant is a good day (and I haven’t had ANY signs of labor). We don’t have another growth sono scheduled for 2 weeks

We took some pics today...enjoy!

Dan's "sympathy" belly is there, but tiny compared to mine.

Our favorite tree in the hospital.

Where we've been living for the past 5 weeks.

Name teaser!!!

One letter from each first name...and no, they don't all start with the same letter. Happy guessing! Oh, and I'll likely repaint the pink one to fix the stripes, but wanted to give everyone a teaser and was WAY too impatient to wait for it to be fixed.

Never a dull moment...

You would think that life in the hospital would be quite boring, but with the way things have been going for us, that just couldn't be, could it?  Nope.  Dan thought he had to show me up and make a trip to the ER the other night.  He started developing a severe allergic reaction.  When it became more than he could take, we erred on the side of caution and sent him to the ER.  They were glad, because it wasn't responding to all the Benadryl he was taking.  Dan got some meds and is feeling much better today.  They believe he became allergic to the chemicals the hospital uses to clean the bed sheets and towels.  We went ahead and brought our own from home so that should no longer be an issue.

In other news, our doctors are now talking about the possibility of me staying pregnant for 34+ weeks.  While we are anxious for our new arrivals, we  know this is what is best for them.  We've had some visitors in out from different churches and other family and friends.  They still plan to send us to Michigan in January.

Good News...FINALLY!!!

26 weeks 2 days (12/9/11)

We had our measurement sono today, and it actually went really well. Baby A is 1 lb 15 oz, baby B is 1 lb 8 oz, and baby C is 13 oz. While C is still tiny, she is still growing! Growth wise, she is the size of a 21-22 week fetus.

The BEST news came when they did the doppler on Baby C's umbilical cord. Blood was flowing toward Baby C at ALL times! We would have been thrilled to discover that her condition hadn't gotten worse, instead it appears to have improved! The doctor is guessing that being on bed rest has allowed me to relax enough that her placenta was also able to relax allowing for better blood flow.

We aren't out of the red yet, as I need to stay pregnant for at least 4 more weeks. But we were thrilled to get a bit of good news for a change.

As always, thanks for all the prayers, positive thoughts, and support!

Update on Baby C

We had another biophysical profile on the babies today as well as urinalysis and blood work.  The urinalysis and blood work looked about the same as they have been.  The biophysical profiles looked good as well.  We also checked on the umbilical cord and placenta of Baby C, the girl. 

Baby C has a condition called absent diastolic flow.  This basically means that the blood flowing through the umbilical cord stops intermittently.  The condition will eventually progress to reverse diastolic flow, where blood will actually flow out of the umbilical cord instead of into it.  What this all means is that Baby C has about a 70% chance of not making it when she develops the reverse diastolic flow.  If she were to make it, she would have a very high chance of having severe mental retardation due to lack of oxygen supply.  The only thing that can be done is to deliver, but that would put the other two at risk, so all we are left with is to wait things out and see how they go.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Fundraisers!

Suzie Mai is a parent of one of my students from last year.  She is organizing all kinds of fundraising and benefits for us.  Feel free to contact her and see how you can help!

Here is her message - I ask that you donate what you can; if not money, then meals, gift cards for necessities (to Target, Wal-Mart), diapers, baby gear, childcare, etc.  One way to help is to save aluminum cans or can tabs that can be sold for recycling, and then donated to the family.  If you wish to donate money, go here http://www.gofundme.com/spontaneoustriplets.

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Jennifer Ackland, my sister-in-law, is doing a variety of fundraising for us.  She has set up donation accounts for us at York State Bank in Geneva.

Thanks for all of your support!

Thanksgiving

Yesterday Michelle received steroids to help the babies develop their lungs and a magnesium treatment to help prevent cerebral palsy. It wasn't much fun for Michelle, but we know it is what's best for the babies. The doctors have decided that we should no longer fly to Michigan next week or by ourselves because the risk is too great. They are hoping we can make it to 30-32 weeks and then would medically transport us. If we deliver before then, they can give baby B medicine to stabilize him until he reaches 30-32 weeks gestational age and they would perform his surgery then in Michigan.

We are very thankful for all of the love, prayers, and support everyone is providing for us. We can not express our appreciation enough! Happy Thanksgiving!

- Dan and Michelle

Our day was also made great by one of our doctors who wrote orders so I can leave my hospital floor 2 times a day for 20 minutes. This meant we were able to see our doggies!!

11/19/11

Michelle is feeling much better! We still have to stay in the hospital, but we will be heading to Michigan on November 29th-December 2nd to visit with the doctors and surgeons there. They may decide just to keep us in Michigan.

We want to give a HUGE thank you to the communities of Valley Center and Newton. Parents of students and former students, students, staff, etc, etc, have been busy doing all sorts of fundraisers for us, sending prayers, and helping out in so many ways. For that we are forever grateful.

Did you hear our story on B98 FM? If not, here is what was read on the air the other day -

My name is Daniel Ackland, and I am 27 years old. My wife, Michelle, is 28, and a long time listener of your station. We are both teachers. She is pregnant with triplets...without the help of medicine. A few weeks ago, we found out that two of the three babies have life threatening conditions. One is growth restricted (about 4 weeks behind), and possibly has Down's Syndrome. Another has a rare heart condition. He will need surgery immediately after birth at the University of Michigan hospital. The surgery may not be covered by insurance. To top it all off, my wife was diagnosed with pre eclampsia, a potentially life threatening condition where if it develops far enough, would require immediate delivery of the babies. Right now she is only 23 weeks pregnant, not far along enough for the babies to have a real chance at survival.

I am reaching out to you and anyone for help - whatever it may be.

Thank you for all you do for everyone. It is always amazing to listen to the station and hear of all the wonderful things you do for people.

11/16/11

Well...the 3rd time was a charm, we got a diagnosis! Mild pre-eclampsia :( This means I'm stuck in the hospital until I deliver. I wasn't even allowed to leave for an hour to write lesson plans!
The good news is that the babies seem to be doing fine considering.

11/14/11

Well...we ended up back in the hospital Sat night-Sun morning to get my nausea under control, which we did. We then spent Sun night at home, and had a follow up appointment with the OB/GYN covering for mine while she is on vacation. When she saw that I was still in pain, and heard how many Percocets I needed a day to manage it, she sent me back to the hospital where I am now.

This time, the goal is to figure out what exactly is causing the pain, and to find other ways to manage it. While they keep running a bunch of tests, everything points to round ligament pain. This is good and bad. Good because it isn't serious, bad because there isn't much that can be done. I am trying a muscle relaxer and a heating pad currently, and the combination seems to be keeping the pain under control.

In other news, the OB/GYN put me on bed rest, so I won't be teaching again until maternity leave is over. This was actually rather stressful news because my long term sub is not yet in the system, and we haven't had much of a chance to chat. Oh well, we'll get it all figured out soon enough!

11/11/11

Michelle and I spent the past 24 hours in the hospital at Wesley Medical Center.  We went because Michelle was having severe abdominal pain and vomiting.  After a bunch of scans and tests, they were not able to determine what the cause of the pain was.  Hopefully the worst has passed.

We will be heading to Michigan to meet with the doctors there on December 1st.  We plan to fly there if our doctors will still allow us.

We have had so many people step up willing to help out in so many ways and for that we both thank you tremendously.  It makes getting through all of this so much easier knowing we have the kind of support that we do.

We got updated measurements on all of the babies.  Baby A (healthy boy) is 1 pound, 1 oz., Baby B (boy with heart defect) is 1 pound, and Baby C (girl) is 9 oz.  That means they all have doubled or nearly doubled since the last full sono!

Finally, we did get a bunch of new pictures of the babies, both from a sono and an MRI that was done.

21 weeks 4 days

Weight: -3 pounds

Waist: +1/2 inch

Next doctors appointment: none this week!!  (as of now...)

Update on babies: Last Thursday (the 3rd) we met with a pediatric cardiologist to discuss a heart defect that was found in one of our babies (Baby B).  He was diagnosed with aortic stenosis.  Basically, blood is not flowing through the heart properly and once born, would shortly go into cardiac arrest.  There are two major universities in the United States that perform the surgery needed to correct this defect – University of Michigan and Boston University.  Both have successfully performed the surgery in utero!  Unfortunately, they are unwilling to perform the surgery when there are multiples.  Interestingly enough, we are the first parents in the United States to have this defect within a set of triplets.  They will have to do the surgery immediately after he is born and there could be a long series of operations.  The good news is that they have about an 88% success rate.  The bad news is that we will be going to Michigan to be seen in the next few weeks, will be giving birth there when the time comes, and could be there for several months.
Our doctors are also concerned about our girl (Baby C) who is consistently measuring much smaller than her brothers.  While it is fairly common for one baby to be smaller in multiples, she has been measuring about 4 weeks behind.
Baby A (the other boy) looks perfect so far!

3-D sono pics 11/3/11

20 weeks 4 days

Weight: -5 pounds

Waist: +1/2 inch

Next doctors appointment:  OB/GYN on Tuesday
                                             Fetal and Maternal Specialist on Thurs
                                             3-D Sono on Thursday

Feelings: I'm starting to feel the babies move which is exciting!  I also want to thank everyone who supported us by ordering tastefully simple, the "party" was a huge success!!

 While one of these is marked "girl part," it is actually one of the boys.  Oops :)