A Year Ago Today...

I checked into the hospital a year ago today to spend my 5.5 weeks prior to the babies being delivered. I will never forget it because it was the first night I had spent away from Ella in her whole life... all 17 months of it. I knew when I went to the doctor that day there was a chance that I'd end up going to the hospital, but I assumed it would be for monitoring and I'd soon be sent home on total bed rest. That turned out not to be the case. Instead, I was there to stay for over a month.

Besides the obvious people whom I missed terribly, I also missed being connected to the outside world, having good food to eat, having a sense of control, and generally being in charge of what I did and where I went. Thankfully Mom and Ella visited almost daily, Scott visited every chance he got on weekends, and tons of other people called and visited as well. My sweet friend Suzanne helped me to get through lots of the hospital time by popping in when she was on call just to see how I was "really" doing. While I did have lots of friends and family bringing in snacks and meals, it was frustrating to feel like my only job was to grow babies and what I mainly had to eat was yucky hospital food. I know that any number of people would have brought me anything I asked for, but I just could not think of a thing that I wanted. I think that the hardest part of bed rest was the isolation I felt. I wasn't home with Ella and Scott where I belonged. Waiting to see if it would be the cleaning crew knocking on my door or someone coming for a visit may seem trivial, but it was actually a source of stress. I really enjoyed making friends with lots of my nurses, but I remember feeling guilty for wanting to have them stay and chat... like I was trying to keep them from doing their jobs or something. In the days when we first brought the girls home, what I would not have given for a few nights back in the hospital to just get some sleep! Of course, when I was there I had 15+ lbs of baby in my belly and sleep was often hard to come by then as well.

Now I have a new friend who is also expecting triplet girls with a due date in early October (just like me) who is on bed rest at the same hospital I was in. I called to check on her today, and it sounds like she is in great spirits! It really does bring back all those memories for me to chat with her.... I remember knowing that even though I missed Ella terribly, I was in the best place I could possibly be for my babies. It was a little scary to be more than 30 minutes away from the hospital already dilated and unsure if I was having contractions. Jen agrees, and being an hour away from the hospital for her will likely mean she'll be there until her little beauties make their debut as well. Until then, I'll keep checking on her and praying for her because I'm sure that the prayers of others are the reason I was able to keep a smile on my face and those babies in my belly until they were ready!