29 August 1999
30 Fingers! 30 Toes!
Happy Birthday to Katherine, Rebecca and Ian!
Katherine Grace McClure
Born: August 29, 1999 4:19am
Weight: 3 lbs 10 ounces
Apgars:
1 Minute = 9
5 Minute = 9
Rebecca Anne McClure
Born: August 29, 1999 4:20am
Weight: 3 lbs 15.8 ounces
Apgars:
1 Minute = 9
5 Minute = 9
Ian Alexander McClure
Born: August 29, 1999 4:22am
Weight: 3 lbs 14 ounces
Apgars:
1 Minute = 7
5 Minute = 9
You will note that the countdown timer is gone and the children are
now
on display. In what a new Dad can only describe as horrific and
torturous labor, Rachel delivered by c-section some of the healthiest,
happiest pre-mature babies known. While Friday was a bad day
for
Rachel and those who had to watch her labor... it was easy compared
to Saturday. In the 24 hours previous to the delivery, she endured
pain that most superheroes fear. The doctor's wanted to hold
the
babies' delivery until the last possible day so they would have the
best
chance to mature. Rachel took this plan to heart and finally
had the
doctor encouraging her to deliver the babies around 3:30am on Sunday
morning. Her contractions working their way from 12 minutes apart
on Tuesday to nearly continuous on Sunday morning.
The good news is that it was all worth it. The doctors had warned
that
delivering triplets had risks. One of these was that triplets
usually deliver
around 34 weeks which is some 6 weeks premature of a full term
pregnancy. When the babies were born, they were two days short
of
being 32 weeks. They should be small, weak and have lungs so
immature that a ventilator will breathe for them.
Well, they are small. When you compare them with a 7 pound baby
born to the average couple, they are quite small. However, they
aren't weak and everyone is breathing room air with no assistance
of any kind. The neonatologist gave us a report and what he expected
with babies born at this point. He could only point out size
as an issue
(babies have trouble maintaining body heat until about 4 lbs) and a
slight calcium deficiency brought on when you clamp the umbilical
cord. Ian did require the use of a CPAP for about four hours
until
he got the hang of taking full breaths. After that, he was just
like
everyone else and doing it all by himself. We encountered lots
of nurses from the beginning of our drama to the end. All have
been
blown away by the results.
When Rachel got to hold the babies around 9:00pm on Sunday
night, both girls had been moved from first stage ICU to intermediate
and they expect Ian to follow in the morning. They will stay
in the
intermediate stage until they build up enough body fat to keep
themselves warm. Within a week or so they'll move to final stage
which will keep them for several days (to a week) and make sure
they are breathing and eating correctly before they are released
to go home. It could very well be sometime after labor day if
everything goes well when the babies come home. That's just so
far above average that you have to assume that a McClure was
involved somehow.
More later... I need to slip into a coma now and catch up.