Did I Get Them All?!

For those of you who have been reading along in the blog...or for those of you who know anything about my "luck" at work at all....it will not come as a great surprise to know that my calls here have not been easy.  There have been several poor outcomes, difficult patient situations and some very long nights.

Today, I received a bit of encuragement in the form of what I hope will be a good outcome - actually four of them - when I got to deliver a mom who was spontaneously pregnant with quadruplets.

Baby A - The Impatient and Out Numbered Boy

She has been on the ward for about 3 days, after her bag of water broke prematurely at 29 weeks.  She received steroids to help with the babies' lungs.  Today, she went into labor.  Baby A actually slipped out, delivering before I could get to the hospital.  Baby B was a footling breech, so a C section was in order for the remaining babies.  We were able to get the mom to the operating room, get spinal anesthesia in place and voila! 3 sisters joined their impatient brother in the world. 

The four babies are amazingly concordant in weight - all about 1000 gms or 2 lbs each.  They are doing well for now; tucked into the warmers of our nursery with some oxygen by nasal cannula.  The babies have a long way to go - they must gain weight, learn to feed and not develop any of the dangerous lung/gut diseases that sometimes afflict premature babies.  I would like to think that I will see the day when these four are discharged home.....but for now it is enough that they were brought safely into the world. 

Thanks to the research of my partner - OtherDoc - I learned that the incidence of spontanous quads is 1: 571,787 so the existence of these babies is a rarity and miracle in itself.  Please remember these babies, and the many others in our nursery, who need your prayers.  We are very limited here in terms of what we can do for them medically, so each healthy discharge home is truly a blessing.



My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Cor 12:9