Best Laid Plans

When it takes awhile to achieve pregnancy, you've been dreaming of what it will be like for a long time and whether you've actually put it all in writing or not, you've been planning. I can guarantee, when I saw that positive test for the first time there was a plan in action. It started with simple things like eating clean and making sure I wasn't using products that I didn't trust on or around my body. One of the things you learn as you face reproductive challenges is a lot of the chemicals in our world today have been linked to such problems and the last thing you want to start your baby off with is the same challenges you've just overcome. Then it was gearing up to see MY obstetrician/gynecologist (the one I've known for years and trust). Then we found out there were three and this is where it started to get a little muddy and I realized that the plan is probably not going to go flawlessly just because I've been devising it for years.

MY OB doesn't do triplets because the hospital she delivers at doesn't have a Level III NICU.....wait a second, my babies are going to taken to NICU?, I might not get to hold them and cuddle them and take care of them from the start? This was a hard realization, this pregnancy was not going to be normal, this pregnancy was quite likely not going to go according to my plan and the delivery was certainly not going to be what I expected.  After my second visit with the high risk docs (perinatologists) today, I have learned that whether or not my plans are in action, I'm in good hands because they've helped revise the plans of hundreds of women whose plot has taken a serious twist.  We are excited for our three babies to enter this world, but the journey to get them here safe is a little bit more of a climb that what we had planned for.

Plot twists to date:

• I planned a nice all natural pregnancy. I've already gotten loaded up on painkillers while neglecting my prenatals during my little stint in the hospital. (This part of the plan is back on track!)
• I planned to waddle my way through my classroom right up until the day my water broke, every minute of that maternity leave I'd saved up was there for me to spend with my babies. I will probably be done working by 30 weeks if not 24 (earlier than that is even possible, but I just can't face that yet.)
• I planned to have a Natural Unmedicated Birth. I will be having a Cesarean birth to quote one of my docs "You do realize these babies are coming out up above not down below, right?" in response to my question about the possibility of at least having a vaginal delivery. 
• I planned to start breast feeding immediately following delivery. I will be lucky if I get to see my babes before they are whisked away from me and there's a good chance I'll have a very close relationship with the hospital breast pump while I wait for the babies to be ready to be part of the process. 
• I planned to  exclusively breast feed. I'm pretty sure that there aren't enough hours in the day to keep all three babies fully fed without a little help from some formula supplements and someone else's arms. 

So the plans are changing and we're rolling with the punches, because the most important plan is in action: Our babies are growing and healthy with perfect heartbeats that tell me right now they're in charge of the plan, not me.