Four Months of Freedom In Shreveport, LA

 Most people celebrate the First of May in the “Camelot” fashion seeing it as the whole, “It’s May! It’s May! That lusty month of May…That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray” concept. 

In my household, however, the first of May is a day I celebrate by loading up my trio and going out. Where, might you ask? It really doesn’t matter to us where we go, just that we do!

You have to understand, that my trio was born six week early and that was as far as I was allowed to carry them. 

So for us, they were “Full term triplets” but to the rest of the world and medically they received a very large “Preemie” label.

Now, being a preemie means a lot of things, but being a “Multiple Preemie” means ever so much more.

First of all, being born six weeks early means that my babies were about 4 pounds each (Vivie @ 3lbs 15 oz. ,Kian & Kai each at 4 pounds 15oz) actually large considering that the trio shared a very cramped space for a very long time.

Although they were large to me, their tiny body’s still were just not developed as much as a full-termed singleton baby would be. 

This meant that they are more susceptible to catching colds or even worse diseases really easily. 

I was given explicit instructions on keeping them AWAY from large crowds and to keep prying hands away from them. 

This was to be much easier said than done, as I was soon to find out!

Being that my trio was born in March, they received their RSV shots in the hospital prior to discharge. 

I was under strict orders to avoid places like the mall and grocery store if at all possible. Yes this included daycare as well. 

They remain at risk for this disease that can land them back in the NICU until after they turn two. 

Lucky for me, RSV season lasts from September through April and the kids were discharged from the NICU right after Easter last year.

As I don’t really have anybody who can go shopping for me, so I had to be very careful whenever I went out! 

This was easy during the summer months because my twelve year old would sit in the car with the air conditioning on while I would run in & buy what we needed or I could just go at night after the kids were in bed.

The problem began when RSV season hit in September. It was really interesting to find out from my doctor’s office that the risk for this disease is so great that I actually qualified for a home health nurse that would come to my home to administer the vaccines for the babies each month starting in September and lasting through April. 

The insurance covers this because in theory it keeps us from having to sit in the waiting room at the doctor’s office just to have the shots administered, thus exposing the kids to goodness knows what types of diseases.

Oddly enough, I found that once September rolled around, the trio became suddenly very popular whenever we went out in public. 

People would seem enthralled by them and for some reason were compelled to TOUCH them- or at least attempt it- I would intervene as much as humanly possible, trying desperately not to be rude in the interim….

Alas, somebody always seemed upset over my “Please don’t touch the babies-they were born very small and get sick really easily” speech.

Adults did it, children did it, and they really were offended that I couldn’t have their kids touching and crowding around mine for fear of getting sick. 

Scarier still, some kids actually were so rambunctious and crowding that they frightened my babies into crying. 

Did my kids really get sick? You bet they did. We couldn’t even go over to visit my own father without picking up a case of the seemingly never-ending sniffles. 

But thanks to our wonderful home-health nurse, we were lucky enough to avoid getting seriously sick and never did get diagnosed with RSV.

So I quickly learned that outings were a thing of the past and would just have to resume May first, the magic day that marks the beginning of our “Free season” where we can go to the park and go shopping at the grocery store and maybe even check out the Boardwalk finally.

Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

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