Bennington Babies are born!!!!

Friday, May 15th, 2009 started out like the previous 36 days in the hospital. We expected and hoped for another quiet day of rest and the occasional barage of nurses, doctors, and visitors. Holly had experienced some intense contractions the night before, but with several forms of medication her doctor was able to get the contractions to stop. At 27 weeks of gestation our babies were a lot better off than when we came into the hospital at 22 weeks, but we hoped we could keep them in Holly for several more weeks (normal gestation for single babies is 40 weeks, for triplets it is about 32 weeks). That was not God's plan though. Very quickly Holly's contraction returned full force and her cervix started to rapidly dilate. Dr Carlson (Holly's OB) alerted the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) staff of the situation and began prepartion for her C-section. At 3:00 in the afternoon Holly was wheeled into the operating room in front of what seemed like the entire medical staff for the hospital (about 30 people). Her C-section went smoothly and as each baby came out they were quickly handed off to a team of about 6 doctors and nurses. Each baby had their own team working on them so the operating room was a buz of activity. The first baby to come out was our daugther Audrey. At 2.7 pounds she was the largest of the three, but also our most fragile. After about a minute of chest compression her team of doctors was able to get her to start breathing. The second to come out was our son Oliver (2.6 pounds) who was able to breath right away. The last to come out was our little angel, Grace. At a whopping 1.9 pounds she was (amazingly) the strongest out of the three.

I left the OR to follow Audrey to the NICU (while Holly, Oliver, and Grace were still being worked on in the operating room). The NICU is an overwhelming place, especially right after the babies are born. There are so many different sounds coming from so many different machines. What seems like hundreds of people are racing around calling out orders and inserting all kinds of tube and wires all over our babies. Slowly Oliver and his team of doctors and nurses made their way to the NICU, followed by Grace and her team. Each baby with their team was put into a different room where they worked diligently for the next 4 hours. I stood there watching helplessly as these people I had never met worked to save my three babies. All three were stablized by the evening and the mass of people that had arrived with my children to the NICU slowly started to disappear. The evening crew of nurses arrived and were updated by the day staff on the status of Audrey, Oliver, and Grace.

As I write this our babies are approaching 48 hours since their first breath. Each is stable and progressing nicely. Grace has been completely removed from breathing support and doing great. Oliver is still needed some support, but has progessed very nicely. He has a heart murmur that is causing some concern and the doctors are watching him closely. Audrey has had the most complications so far. Because of the chest compressions she had right after birth, she is most at risk for bleeding in her brain. Her doctor plans to do an ultrasound of her head on Monday.

Momma Holly is doing much better today. She lost a lot of blood during her surgery and because she has been on bed rest for the last 5 weeks she is still very week. It took about 30 hours for her to gain enough strength to sit in a wheel chair to see her babies. The stress of seeing her babies hooked up to so many tubes and wires combined with her already weak state caused her to faint in the NICU giving her husband and the NICU nurses quite the scare.

She is doing much better today and is now able to walk to the bathroom on her own. The nurses expect to beable to discharge her either Monday or Tuesday.

Audrey, Oliver, and Grace need your prayers. They have a long road a head of them as well as their parents. The nurses said today they expect us to celebrate 4th of July with them. In other words, they expect all three to still be in the NICU into July. We appreciate all the support we have been getting from our family and friends. Please keep the Bennington family in your prayers as well as their grandparents. This is very emotional for us all.

Last photos together with babies in the belly before surgery on Friday.

Holly's team doing the C-Section (Holly is on the table).

Dad watching over mom during the C-section.

Oliver's team.

Audrey September Bennington

Oliver William Bennington

Grace Maria Bennington