This Crazy Thing Called Life: And then there were six...

*This may be a bit graphic at times, read with caution*

1st grade. 24 years ago. That is when I met my best friend, Stephanie. She was new to my school and when she got dropped off, she started crying and went running after her mom. Maybe I felt sad for her. Maybe it was her red hair. Whatever it was, we became best friends that day and never looked back. We've been thru so much together, she was there for the birth of Marley. She had her own precious baby boy this past March (5 days before my birthday). I would say I hit the jackpot when it comes to best friends. And she knew, before even I did, that I was in labor. It was a Sunday evening and we decided to go to Red Lobster. I had less than 2 weeks until I was set to deliver the triplets so we knew this would be one of our last dinners together for awhile. We didn't know it would be mere hours before my babies would be here. While we were at dinner, I felt very uncomfortable. That was nothing new during this pregnancy though, so I really didn't give it much thought. It was so bad I couldn't even eat and about halfway thru dinner she said, "Jen, I think you are having contractions!" I blew her off, no way. I had a natural delivery with Marley and knew what contractions felt like, this wasn't them. She even went so far as to get her phone out as she had downloaded a contraction timer app when she was still pregnant and told me to tell her everytime I got uncomfortable and she was going to time it. It was nothing steady so I boxed up my dinner and we went home. When I got home, I told Mike that I couldn't do it anymore. My body hurt too bad and from then until I delivered the babies, I was doing as little as possible because my body was telling me it was about strained to its limit. I was even going to ask my mom to pick Marley up from daycare and that was hard for me because I loved picking her up and hearing all about her day from her teachers. So, I spent the rest of that evening laying down and then Mike went to bed and my pains were getting stronger and I couldn't sleep. I went out to my living room, hoping that sitting up on the couch may help. It was about 3am by now and I decided that maybe, just maybe, Steph was right and these were contractions. I started timing when I felt pain and it was roughly every 11 minutes. I debated on waking Mike up to tell him. I knew he would say we need to go to the hospital. This meant I'd have to call my mom in the middle of the night and ask her to come sit with Marley and I felt like I should just wait. After all, it's not like the pain was every 5 minutes. Finally around 5am I went to bed and slept for about 2 hours. At 8am Mike was about to take Marley to school and then go to work. I must have looked different that morning because when he came out of the bedroom and saw me sitting on the couch he immediately asked what was wrong. I said, "Well, I think maybe I'm having contractions, but probably not. It feels really different than it did with Marley so it's probably not." See, my house was a mess since I had no energy to clean and I thought that they would go off to work and school, then I'd clean my house, take a shower and at that point if I was still having pains, I'd call Mike and let him take me to the doctor. Mike said to me, "I'm not leaving for work until you call the doctor." At this point I suddenly felt very naseous which was nothing out of the ordinary, so I told him to give me a second while I went to the bathroom. Apparently God became tired of me ignoring the subtle signs and felt I needed a real wake-up call. I made it to the bathroom and started throwing up, and while I was doing this, I began losing blood. I instantly felt panic and called Mike in. I told him very calmly, "You need to call my mom. She is going to have to take Marley to school. I am bleeding, we need to get to the hospital." He grabbed his phone and told my mom to hurry and get there (luckily she only lives 3 miles away) and we began grabbing things we needed as I was sure I would be having these babies today. My mom got there very quickly and we threw our stuff into the van, kissed Marley bye and told my mom we'd call her. The drive to the hospital felt like it took forever. I was so mad at myself for ignoring the pain and not listening to my body. My biggest fear was that something had happened to one of the babies for me to be bleeding like that. We finally make it to the hospital and we weren't sure where to go. One of the valet attendants comes up to the car and sees me and says, "Are you going to have a baby?" I said, "No, I am going to have three babies!" She said, "Oh my!! Drive up to the emergency entrance and they'll direct you where to go." So, we drive over to that entrance, grab a wheelchair and head up. We were both staying surprisingly calm during all of this. We go into triage where they put three monitors on me and I instantly heard three heartbeats. This made me relax some, all of my babies were safe. Then, in walks the one and only doctor I saw over that entire time that I liked. I felt instant relief. She would be the one to deliver my babies! At this point it was roughly 9:30am. She said she was going to check to see if I was dilated any. While she is checking, she looked at me and said, "Honey, you are having your babies today, you are in active labor and 4 centimeters dilated, get ready." I am not exaggerating when I say that within 3 minutes of her saying this, the entire hallway was lined up with doctors and nurses just waiting for me. We then have a nurse come in and tell me that they will have to put me to sleep during delivery and Mike would not be able to be in the room. We both became very upset by this, as it was something that was never mentioned, and they told us it was best for me and the babies. They then tell us of everything that could go wrong and that upset us even more. My grandma, aunt and uncle walk in at that point and we tell them what's going on and they assure us that everything will be okay, but they also look worried. They then begin wheeling me off and the nurse comes running up and says, "Somebody must like you. We got your labs back, we don't have to put you to sleep after all." I felt very relieved about this and was so happy now that Mike could be in the delivery room. So, they wheel me in where atleast 30 people waited for me and I knew this was it. The anesthesiologist numbs me, they send Mike in and make the incision! On May 16, 2011 at 10:53am, Marissa Marie Boucher came into the world weighing in at 4 pounds 5 ounces, followed by brother Jackson Joseph Boucher at 10:55am weighing 5 pounds 4 ounces and last but not least, Makayla Grace Boucher at 10:56am weighing 3 pounds 14 ounces. My babies were here!!!! Everytime one was pulled out, the entire room said, "Awww!" I did not get to hold them or even really see them. They did bring Makayla to my face for about 5 seconds, and then they were all immediately put in their "home" for the next several days, their warm and cozy incubators. I was wheeled into recovery where I had brief visits from Mike and my mom, but they wanted to see those babies! After about two hours they were wheeling me to my room and I was wishing somebody was there so I wouldn't be alone. We round the corner and when the nurse opens the doors to go down the hallway to my room, who is standing there waiting, but my best friend, Steph.