Urgent Prayer Request for Jennifer's two surviving triplets

Dear all,

I just received the following email from my friend Jennifer's husband Tony. My heart is breaking for them. Please pray hard for their two surviving children Alex and Emily. Please also pray for the entire family as I know just how difficult this road is. I am in awe of God -- that He put Jennifer and I together on WebMD way back when I started using WebMD to chart my cycles and now our stories are so similar. That I was able to walk this road a little ahead of them so that I could be here for them now. We all have to go through tough, tough times in our journey on this earth but God always provides.

I am glad that Rachel was there to welcome Christopher to heaven. I know they are in the arms of Jesus being completely covered with His Love. I would also like to think they are having fun playing with each other, both having sacrificed for their siblings (Christopher also PROM'ed although it was a slower leak than Rachel's PROM).

Dear Sonia,

We have some good and bad news. Over the weekend, Jennifer started contractions. She became tender around her belly and tests showed an elevated white blood cell count. She also had a bladder infection and started bleeding again; this time there were some clots. The doctors (One of the good ones!) advised us on July 31st that he believed that there was an infection around one of the babies (probably Christopher), and since they couldn't treat infections in utero, the best chance for them would be an emergency C-section. The triplets were born at 11:08 AM, 11:09 AM, and 11:10 AM.

Christopher was our first born, but he was badly squished from the lack of fluid combined with the weight of Alexander and Emily on top of him. The doctors tried to insert a breathing tube, but his lungs were too small for even ther smallest tube. We did get to hold him his last few minutes. As you know, babies at 24 weeks haven't opened their eyes yet, but Christopher had both eyes open, and we know from the ultrasound that he had lenses in each eye. We like to think that he at least got a glimpse of mom and dad before he passed on. We were able to get a priest to do what the Catholic Church calls a 'conditional baptism' on him, which essentially means that even though there wasn't any sign of life by the time the priest arrive, we acknowledge that God's conception of life does not necessarily correspond to ours, and that in baptising him we are giving him to God. I was thinking about Mark10:13-16 while this was happening, and the though of Jesus blessing the children gave us great comfort. We also thanked him for being so strong and brave and holding on for four weeks to give his brother and sister a fighting chance. We will tell them all about their brave older brother when they get older.

Alexander and Emily are, according to the doctors, 'pink and lively'. According to the nurses, this means that Alexander kicked the doctors after the got oxygen in him and them peed all over them. As they were being wheeled out, I saw Emily struggling with the doctor; apparently she didn't like her breathing tube and was trying to pull it out already. Alexander has been doing excellent since they brought him out. He looks nice and pink and all of his vitals have been stable since birth. Last night they moved him into an incubator. (He was under a Saran-Wrap blanket to keep him from drying out while they were working on him.) He grabs our fingers in his little hands when offered, and gives the nurses trouble because he kicks them whenever they need to change his fluids or take samples. Other than that, they say that he's a good boy and doing well.

Emily had some trouble the first night. Here lungs don't appear to be as mature as Alex's are. Her blood oxygen levels were too low, so they tried a puffer, which gives her 360 breathes per minute. She's trying to breathe on her own, but this was interfering with the ventilator so they had to sedate her. (The doctors say they almost never have to sedate 24-weekers.) She started doing better, but around 3 AM on August 1at, a doctor told us that her breathing and heart rate had crashed and she didn't think Emily would survive, but that they weren't going to give up yet. They added NO gas to her mixture, and two hours later, she had good oxygen levels in her blood. Her heart rate was a little high, but every time we see her she looks a little better. Right now she's on a 30-40% oxygen mixture and is looking much pinker. She had some problems with her lower legs, which looked like there wasn't good gas exchange, but they've gone from purple to dark red to red to almost pink now. Her heart rate has also come down. Yesterday, they struggled with her blood pressure, but gave her some dopamine and have been gradually weaning her off so they can give her some morphine to lower her heart rate a little. The good news is that she has been stable for the past day or so.

The doctor says that both of them have plenty of fight in them and that they are very vigorous, almost too vigorous!

I almost forgot - the babies have been peeing and pooping, so things seem to be working there. Making messes already!

Jennifer got your orchid yesterday. She didn't know who it was from, but I knew that you were sending her something. (I never told her this because I didn't want to spoil the surprise.) She was overhelmed when she saw that it was an orchid and that it came from you and Jong. She started crying because it reminded her of Rachel and Christopher, and thought it was wonderful that it came the day after the triplets were born.

We continue to pray for you, Jong, and Isaac. Please pray for Alexander Edward and Emily Anne.

God Bless You All,

Tony and Jennifer