I have pictures but have decided not to post them. We had an ultrasound yesterday, at 16 weeks. It was just a follow up ultrasound to ensure that my little ones are growing and doing well. I asked, in a pleading tone, if we could find out the genders. The tech said it was still early but she would try.
All three babies are measuring between 15weeks 4 days and 15 weeks 6 days. They said not to worry because they are still growing. The estimate that all three babies are about 5 ounces each. According to what I have read, babies at 16 weeks are closer to 3.5 ounces. Not to much to brag about but I am excited that they are thriving because this week I have had a hard time eating. I am not hungry at all during the day, but get hungry for dinner. I eat a regular size meal for dinner (I call this the "pregnancy gourge") and then feel sick for a couple of hours. Wake in the middle of the night starving for a breakfast bar or a peanut butter cracker sandwich thing and then I am not hungry. I have been trying to supplement with the smoothies and V8, but I can promise you I am not eating anywhere near the "4000 calorie diet" recommended for triplet mothers. So hearing that they are bigger than the average makes me happy. All heartbeats were strong, it is so amazing to watch your little ones heartbeating on the monitor. Amazing! We also were able to see, more definatively a membrane separating BABY A and B. This news made me so happy, because now we don't have to worry about babies getting tangled in each others umbilical cord. Yeah for something that is truly a blessing!
Then the tech took some time and tried to find genders for us. Baby C had something, but nothing giving us a for sure sign of a boy part. But we did see something, so for now Baby C is a boy. Brian thinks it looks like an umbilical cord, but who knows. Baby B clearly and without a doubt has a penis. She got a great shot of a "little button." Baby A we never saw anything and couldn't find anything either. Baby B kept photo-bombing the shot and wouldn't move his little head out of the way. But by educated deduction of Baby A and B being identical twins, Baby A is a boy as well. These results were not very encouraging for those of you who have wanted a girl this time (myself included) but nothing is set in stone until the end of April, when we have the official ultrasound for genders. I will say this though, I am ecstatic at my babies. I am so thrilled to be pregnant with triplets and to have them,seemingly, thriving and growing and being healthy babies. Boys/Girls, I don't care as much as I do for healthy, strong babies that require no NICU. That is my desire and goal. I am aware that it may be odd and not realistic to NOT have the babies spend ANY time in NICU but, at this point, MY GOAL is to do all I can to ensure that they go full term and come home with me from the hospital.
Current names for the boys.
Gavin Michael
Talon Jeffrey
We are in need of a third (if the ultrasound proves correct). We like the idea of keeping with our unofficial theme of how the first names end. First we have AidAN, then GavIN, the TalON. The third name we would like to end in "en", "un" or "yn." Any suggestions would be splendid. We are avoiding sounding alike names. For example, it would be easy to pick Braiden, Braidyn, Cayden, Jayden, Hayden, Madden, etc. But that would be a mouthful later on in life when I am yelling at my boys to clean their rooms. "Jayden, clean your room!" and Aidan replies "Mom I already did it!" Confusing! :)
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The triplets first pictures
Today we had an ultrasound and a consultation with the newest member of our "healthy baby team" Dr. Silver from the U of U. Lucky for us we didn't have to go down to the U, he came to see us (and others I suppose) and Davis Hospital, a whopping four minutes from our house!
It took the ultrasound tech about 20 minutes to get all the good shots of our babies. She had to take three times the pictures of the heartbeat, the head size, the tummy size, the femur size and the portrait pictures, not to mention the together pictures of the babies (the best she could do). It was so excited to see my babies on the screen. One plus to having multiples is lots and lots of ultrasounds.
Dr. Silver gave us a run down of lots of possibilities and potential problems that we need to be prepared for during this pregnancy. Because we have an amazing doctor and we have been reading lots of information on the internet and in good books, nothing he said came as a surprise and we had already talked and discussed many scenarios. Brian and I have weird pillow talk. :) He told us to be mindful of hospitalization bedrest, bedrest, gestastional diabetes, toxemia, preterm labor, early labor and a c-section. He also reiterated the necesacity to basically ignore our due date and pay attention to my body and what it and the babies are telling me to do. He also mentioned that he could not tell for sure if they were identical twins or not but not to rule out identical triplets...not sure how that works but WOW!!
He said that ALL the babies looked good. All the babies were measuring at 14 weeks 1 day, which is right on schedule seeing as to how I am currently 14 weeks 1 day pregnant. :) Heartbeats were all strong and one baby, BABY C was very chill and relaxed in its own little sac. Just sprawled out and enjoying the scenery. BABY A and BABY B were kicking and punching each other, which is what I would expect.
Sweet BABY A, aka Ironman (thanks to Aidan).
Side view of head and body.
Sweet BABY B (Spiderman).
A looking down on view of head and body.
BABY C (Wolverine)
The relaxed, hand behind the head shot.
The picture of the twins,
looking down at their heads.
A picture of BABY A and BABY C.
They are in two different sacs.
BABY C is the top of the head,
BABY A is a side view.
It took the ultrasound tech about 20 minutes to get all the good shots of our babies. She had to take three times the pictures of the heartbeat, the head size, the tummy size, the femur size and the portrait pictures, not to mention the together pictures of the babies (the best she could do). It was so excited to see my babies on the screen. One plus to having multiples is lots and lots of ultrasounds.
Dr. Silver gave us a run down of lots of possibilities and potential problems that we need to be prepared for during this pregnancy. Because we have an amazing doctor and we have been reading lots of information on the internet and in good books, nothing he said came as a surprise and we had already talked and discussed many scenarios. Brian and I have weird pillow talk. :) He told us to be mindful of hospitalization bedrest, bedrest, gestastional diabetes, toxemia, preterm labor, early labor and a c-section. He also reiterated the necesacity to basically ignore our due date and pay attention to my body and what it and the babies are telling me to do. He also mentioned that he could not tell for sure if they were identical twins or not but not to rule out identical triplets...not sure how that works but WOW!!
He said that ALL the babies looked good. All the babies were measuring at 14 weeks 1 day, which is right on schedule seeing as to how I am currently 14 weeks 1 day pregnant. :) Heartbeats were all strong and one baby, BABY C was very chill and relaxed in its own little sac. Just sprawled out and enjoying the scenery. BABY A and BABY B were kicking and punching each other, which is what I would expect.
Sweet BABY A, aka Ironman (thanks to Aidan).
Side view of head and body.
Sweet BABY B (Spiderman).
A looking down on view of head and body.
BABY C (Wolverine)The relaxed, hand behind the head shot.
The picture of the twins,
looking down at their heads.
A picture of BABY A and BABY C.
They are in two different sacs.
BABY C is the top of the head,
BABY A is a side view.
I am so excited to meet my babies. I was hoping to find out the genders, but Dr. Silver said that they are not only too little, there isn't a lot of space for them to be showing off their goods. :)
We have another ultrasound in two weeks and another in five weeks. Hopefully one of these two additional ultrasounds will tell us the genders. Fingers crossed.
We have another ultrasound in two weeks and another in five weeks. Hopefully one of these two additional ultrasounds will tell us the genders. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Fun times in St. George: Trip to the park
Last weekend Brian and I decided to have a spur of the moment trip to sunny St. George. It was actually a crazy thing. Apparently back in December, Brian requested off Thursday-Saturday of last weekend. This weekend was the NASCAR race in Vegas and we normally head down. But this year we decided not to buy tickets on the off chance Brian got another job out of state. Well as time went on we decided just not to go to the races and go down the third weekend of March with our good friends, the McFaddens.
On Thursday Brian arrived at work to the amazement of his co-workers. They assumed he was going on vacation. About half way through his shift someone decided to ask him about it. Brian completely forgot. He then called me to tell me his funny story. I mentioned that if we could afford it, I am always willing to head south to visit my parents and brothers. He said he didn't think we could afford such a spontaneous trip. Boo Hoo.
Well at about 5PM (he gets off at 730), he called and said he was leaving work in a half hour and we were going to St. George. It would be a cheap quick trip but let's get out of dodge anyway. Once he came home we quickly and rapidly packed our bags and headed south. We finally left northern Utah about 8 PM.
At 10PM, we stopped in Santaquin. As a pregnant woman my needs to stop, stretch my legs and use the facilities are frequent. As we were readying to get back into the car we noticed the snow falling. No big deal, its just snow. As we got onto the freeway we got nervous. Extreme whiteout conditions. Brian was driving 25 mph on the freeway and barely able to see the lines on the road. We traveled that way, anxiously and nervously, until we hit Nephi. Once we hit Nephi we were out of the snow and just had some wet roads. We stopped again in Fillmore, pregnancy reasons. LOL! At this point some concerned women were talking with Brian about the horrible and scary conditions through Beaver and the other passes headed south. They saw many spin offs and pile ups and were terrified for us (the young family with a pregnant wife). Brian then pulled out his phone and started researching weather conditions. Apparently the passes in southern Utah were hit bad but were fine now. With Brian's confidence we continued forth, grateful for new tires and suspension on the car--Christmas 2010. The passes were beat up but nothing as scary as the whiteout. We finally arrived in St. George at 2AM. That is the longest it has ever taken me to make it down. Average time, with a toddler, 4 hours 45 minutes maximum.
We didn't do much during our stay in St. George. Just visited and relaxed. Aidan enjoyed playing with Ezra, they are best cousins. We tried to contact Harrison and family to no avail. Jacob took us all out to dinner on Friday for some yummy Chinese (I did give him some promptings). Saturday was by far Aidan's favorite day. We went to the park and had pizza (thanks again Uncle Jake!), fed some ducks, did some fishing, and played at a jungle gym. Here are some pictures. I miss delightful St. George weather already. *sigh*
Aidan and Brian loving the pizza as well.
These ducks were eager and good eaters.
Aidan loved feeding them balls of bread.
And the ducks loved him back.
Ezra enjoying some fun time on the grass.
On Thursday Brian arrived at work to the amazement of his co-workers. They assumed he was going on vacation. About half way through his shift someone decided to ask him about it. Brian completely forgot. He then called me to tell me his funny story. I mentioned that if we could afford it, I am always willing to head south to visit my parents and brothers. He said he didn't think we could afford such a spontaneous trip. Boo Hoo.
Well at about 5PM (he gets off at 730), he called and said he was leaving work in a half hour and we were going to St. George. It would be a cheap quick trip but let's get out of dodge anyway. Once he came home we quickly and rapidly packed our bags and headed south. We finally left northern Utah about 8 PM.
At 10PM, we stopped in Santaquin. As a pregnant woman my needs to stop, stretch my legs and use the facilities are frequent. As we were readying to get back into the car we noticed the snow falling. No big deal, its just snow. As we got onto the freeway we got nervous. Extreme whiteout conditions. Brian was driving 25 mph on the freeway and barely able to see the lines on the road. We traveled that way, anxiously and nervously, until we hit Nephi. Once we hit Nephi we were out of the snow and just had some wet roads. We stopped again in Fillmore, pregnancy reasons. LOL! At this point some concerned women were talking with Brian about the horrible and scary conditions through Beaver and the other passes headed south. They saw many spin offs and pile ups and were terrified for us (the young family with a pregnant wife). Brian then pulled out his phone and started researching weather conditions. Apparently the passes in southern Utah were hit bad but were fine now. With Brian's confidence we continued forth, grateful for new tires and suspension on the car--Christmas 2010. The passes were beat up but nothing as scary as the whiteout. We finally arrived in St. George at 2AM. That is the longest it has ever taken me to make it down. Average time, with a toddler, 4 hours 45 minutes maximum.
We didn't do much during our stay in St. George. Just visited and relaxed. Aidan enjoyed playing with Ezra, they are best cousins. We tried to contact Harrison and family to no avail. Jacob took us all out to dinner on Friday for some yummy Chinese (I did give him some promptings). Saturday was by far Aidan's favorite day. We went to the park and had pizza (thanks again Uncle Jake!), fed some ducks, did some fishing, and played at a jungle gym. Here are some pictures. I miss delightful St. George weather already. *sigh*
Grandma and Grandpa enjoying some pizza.
Aidan and Brian loving the pizza as well.
These ducks were eager and good eaters.
Aidan loved feeding them balls of bread.
And the ducks loved him back.
Ezra enjoying some fun time on the grass.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Aidan's and the triplets
Aidan already loves his baby siblings.
-Every night he likes to kiss my belly three times and say good night.
-He likes to rub my tummy and sing songs to the babies. Nothing coherent, but words in a la-la-la tune.
-He already had names for the babies. The twins are Spiderman and Ironman. And the singleton is Wolverine.
-If you ask him how many babies are in my tummy he happily and eagerly replies "5!"
-He keeps asking to go to the store to buy the babies some toys. That way they have toys of their own.
-We are trying to potty train so that if I get put on bed rest it will be one less thing to worry about. Aidan likes to tell me, whilst on the toilet, that he will help change baby diapers because "changing diapers isn't as hard as going on the toilet Mom."
-Every night he likes to kiss my belly three times and say good night.
-He likes to rub my tummy and sing songs to the babies. Nothing coherent, but words in a la-la-la tune.
-He already had names for the babies. The twins are Spiderman and Ironman. And the singleton is Wolverine.
-If you ask him how many babies are in my tummy he happily and eagerly replies "5!"
-He keeps asking to go to the store to buy the babies some toys. That way they have toys of their own.
-We are trying to potty train so that if I get put on bed rest it will be one less thing to worry about. Aidan likes to tell me, whilst on the toilet, that he will help change baby diapers because "changing diapers isn't as hard as going on the toilet Mom."
Brian has some good news
Brian still hasn't heard from Virgina about that job....
But on the off chance that falls through Brian recently did interview for another position at his current place of employment. It is for a CTFS position (I don't know what that means). But what I do know is that is it is the same basic job that he interviewed for in Virginia. The good news for us is that it guarantees him a position if everyone else gets outsourced to India, a raise and a new schedule. Yippie! We don't know what the raise is, but any little bit will help at this point. His new schedule is 11-730PM (same hours) but now he his Monday-Friday like most normal people. Yippie!
But on the off chance that falls through Brian recently did interview for another position at his current place of employment. It is for a CTFS position (I don't know what that means). But what I do know is that is it is the same basic job that he interviewed for in Virginia. The good news for us is that it guarantees him a position if everyone else gets outsourced to India, a raise and a new schedule. Yippie! We don't know what the raise is, but any little bit will help at this point. His new schedule is 11-730PM (same hours) but now he his Monday-Friday like most normal people. Yippie!
One heartbeat will suffice...
So today we had our fourth doctor's office visit since February 7. Crazy! I feel like I live there. But one perk is that the receptionist is aware of who we are when we walk into the office and asks "how are you today? has anything changed in your contact information? have a seat."
Today's doctor's appointment was incredibly quick and probably not worth the hassle, but I know nothing and if the doctor says its important then so be it. They took my blood pressure and weight. My blood pressure was 112/79, a little high for me but it in the okay range. My weight has gone down by another pound according to their scale. But compared to what I saw on our scale last Wednesday I have gained two pounds. Still a loss in the doctor's eyes are far more important. I also peed in a cup. All my levels are fine. What they check for I still don't know. But if it is good, great.
Once we saw the doctor he quickly checked for heartbeats. He only found one today but it was 174, good and strong. I keep asking if I need to be worried. He says no. I feel like if I have three babies inside me, we should check all three heartbeats to ensure healthy babies. He says it is nearly impossible. "Don't worry Katie. I will tell you when you need to be concerned or scared or stressed. Do you have any reason to believe something happened to the other babies?" Well no. "Then your fine!" I love that my doctor can see right into my head and say exactly what I need to hear.
Next week we meet with a Dr. Silver. He is a peranatologist specializing in multiple births out of the U of U. Dr. Hughes, our OB, has mentioned that he will do a pretty in depth get to know me and the babies visit/ultrasound. I am excited. We haven't seen the babies in four weeks and never got any pictures, so pictures would be fabulous. I also have this hope that he will be able to tell us what some of the genders are on the babies. Doubtful I know, especially since we will only be 14 weeks along, but a girl can hope right?
A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for coming with me to my visit. Brian had to go to a training shift for a new position available at his work. Grandma came in and heard the baby with me and grandpa played with Aidan in the waiting room. I have pretty amazing grandparents. I have know idea what I would do with out them...good think I don't have to imagine!
Today's doctor's appointment was incredibly quick and probably not worth the hassle, but I know nothing and if the doctor says its important then so be it. They took my blood pressure and weight. My blood pressure was 112/79, a little high for me but it in the okay range. My weight has gone down by another pound according to their scale. But compared to what I saw on our scale last Wednesday I have gained two pounds. Still a loss in the doctor's eyes are far more important. I also peed in a cup. All my levels are fine. What they check for I still don't know. But if it is good, great.
Once we saw the doctor he quickly checked for heartbeats. He only found one today but it was 174, good and strong. I keep asking if I need to be worried. He says no. I feel like if I have three babies inside me, we should check all three heartbeats to ensure healthy babies. He says it is nearly impossible. "Don't worry Katie. I will tell you when you need to be concerned or scared or stressed. Do you have any reason to believe something happened to the other babies?" Well no. "Then your fine!" I love that my doctor can see right into my head and say exactly what I need to hear.
Next week we meet with a Dr. Silver. He is a peranatologist specializing in multiple births out of the U of U. Dr. Hughes, our OB, has mentioned that he will do a pretty in depth get to know me and the babies visit/ultrasound. I am excited. We haven't seen the babies in four weeks and never got any pictures, so pictures would be fabulous. I also have this hope that he will be able to tell us what some of the genders are on the babies. Doubtful I know, especially since we will only be 14 weeks along, but a girl can hope right?
A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for coming with me to my visit. Brian had to go to a training shift for a new position available at his work. Grandma came in and heard the baby with me and grandpa played with Aidan in the waiting room. I have pretty amazing grandparents. I have know idea what I would do with out them...good think I don't have to imagine!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Secrets out! Everyone get excited!
So we announced earlier than expected our surprise to Facebook. I choose to do this earlier because my life was surrounded by this secret and it was driving me crazy. I don't usually need to talk about things in my life, like with girlfriends and the like, but this secret was big and I needed to talk about it. I needed to be able to express my sentiments and ask questions. I am mean really, how many people do you know who have had triplets? I am beyond ecstatic but also very consumed with many, many other emotions. And those emotions change from one moment to the next. I am guessing these emotions are because of three times the pregnancy hormones going on inside my body.
And now comes the boring part of this post. I wanted to share my story, mostly for the journaling aspect of this blog.
The first part of January I was feeling blah. So I took it as a sign that my weight was depressing me so I decided to get serious about burning some calories. I am in love with Dance Central for the Kinect. We played everyday for like three weeks (beginning in December). But as I was dancing my heart out one day my stomach began to hurt. Keep in mind that I had been feeling blah and I thought it was just a weight issue. But on January 10th my stomach hurt. Almost like I was pulling muscles in my stomach. Dance Central isn't that crazy, so I stopped for a couple of days to try and make the pain in my stomach, and then my back go away. On January 12th I decided to take a pregnancy test. I was about a week late. Test kind of had a positive line, but not really so we decided to take it as a NO. Three days later still nothing had changed with my body so I was getting frustrated. Then on Saturday January 15, 2011 I freaked out. I began to weep, sob, get hysterical what happened you ask. Nothing. Aidan was watching Transformers (with Shia LaBeouf) and I lost it. I scared Aidan. He asked that I call daddy. My three year old realized mom was a freak and requested she call for help. I then regrouped and decided that I was way too emotional and took another test. EXTERMELY and QUICKLY positive. Then I did as Aidan requested but only after I sent Brian a picture. He was shocked too.
All that weekend I sobbed. Mainly because I am always able to find out early, super early that I am pregnant. With my last pregnancy (lost pregnancy) we found out at 2 weeks pregnant. Had an appointment at 4 weeks and had no heart beat, just a sac. Then we went back at 6 weeks and had a heart beat and then began losing the baby at 6 weeks 4 days. I was so scared of the next few weeks. We kept our pregnancy secret for about a week. And then many close to us started asking what was wrong. Nothing wrong, just trying to be cautious and keep the scary emotions to ourselves. At that point we realized it would be best if some family knew our secret. That way prayers could be offered up for this new development. I know I sound crazy but I really was. :) We made a doctors appointment for February 7. Aidan's 3rd birthday. We went to the doctor and he confirmed our pregnancy and then he decided that since the last pregnancy was not successful he just wanted a ultrasound to check on the baby. We got an appointment for the next day. Now things get interesting.
The next day we go and begin to get our ultrasound, the basic doppler. The tech put the microphone thing on my tummy and instantly I saw something crazy but I really don't know what I am looking at so I kept my mouth shut. She had it on my stomach for about 3-5 seconds when she said "I think it would be best if we do this vaginally." Okay. Now I am starting to get concerned. With the last pregnancy they need to go in vaginally too.
She then begins again and I hear Brian gasp, the tech is mumbling to herself and I am looking on the screen. Truly unsure if I am seeing two sacs. Brian gasps again and the tech asks me what I see. I told her I was unsure. Brian says "I see two sacs, two babies. Twins?" She says nope. Then she looks at me and says "I see triplets. Two sacs, three babies." I instantly go into shock quietly sobbing. I was delighted to see my babies, but scared. I was scared thinking about trying to keep one incubated and thriving, now there are THREE!!!
The tech then begins giving us a detailed explanation of what we are looking at. Two sacs. One sac has two babies...identical twins. The second sac, a "singleton". She then calculates my due date as being on September 12. That put us at 9 weeks pregnant. Sounds correct. She measures my babies. All three are measuring at 7 weeks 5 days, plus or minus a day. She said for triplets that is FANTASTIC, she is excited. Then she let us listen to the heartbeats. Each baby had a very strong, good rthym. She then beings to tell us all the things that will be now expected of us during this new pregnancy. Bi-weekly visits, visits with a prenatal specialist, lots of ultrasounds, preterm labor, etc etc. In all the commotion we left and forgot to get a picture of our babies.
Then we went to make an appointment with our doctor. The receptionist ask me when we want to see him, the reason, etc. I begin crying again only this time hysterically. I can't say anything. Brian talks to her. He tells her triplets. She gets a big smile. "Congrats! How long have you been on treatments?" Brian and I look at each other and respond "no treatments, natural." She then gets a concerned look on her face, looks at me, touches my hand and says "its just shock. You will be fine. You babies will be fine.Congrats!" That makes me cry a little more and realize that it is shock and that I need to calm down, for my BABIES!
We left the doctors office I looked at Brian and said "I love you honey...but I need my mommy, now!"He smiled his amazingly understanding smile and agreed. I immediately called my mom.
Brian and I had originally planned to keep it a huge secret but we decided lots of prayers were an absolute must now. My mom was concerned (mainly because I was hysterically crying and she couldn't understand me) and then excited. She asked if she could tell one person. Yes mom, go ahead. Side note when I called her later that day she said "please don't be mad, but once I got off the phone I jumped up and said triplets really loud and now everyone in my office knows." :) She is so cute. We had many fun experiences that day telling everyone of our news. It was fun to hear everyone's response and reactions.
Since then we have seen our doctor twice. Once as a follow up to the first discovery ultrasound and the second was a check up. He could only find two heartbeats but he assured us that finding two was good because they are so hard to seperate with the audio doppler. He tracked two heartbeats one was 185 hbpm and another one was 165 hbpm. He said that was awesome! We have since made an appointment to see him again and the prenatal specialist. Things are going quickly but slowly at the same time.
I am currently 12 weeks along, nearly through with my first trimester. I already have grown out of my big levi's and some sweats. I am currently wearing some of my maternity clothes from when I had Aidan. Some of these clothes I only wore the last two weeks, because I didn't need them.
Facts about triplets that we have learned:
-My due date is Sept 12. Most women with triplets deliver at 28-32 weeks. Almost no one goes full term. On average twins are born at 36 weeks and triplets at 30 weeks. 30 weeks puts us at the middle of July. What! So soon!
-Identical babies must be identical in everything. Meaning what their gender is. We are hoping for one of each.
-Women pregnant with triplets grow three times faster than women pregnant with one baby, or a singleton as the lingo describes. Barely three months and full term maternity clothes already. Okay sounds normal.
-It is rare that triplets don't spend any time in the NICU. My doctor is convinced that with my stature (height and weight and general way my body is) that he thinks I should be able to go a long time and avoid preterm labor. For the first time in my life my fatness might be a good thing.
-He also believes that I may just be on the best weight loss program ever! He doesn't imagine I will gain a terrible amount of weight. Women on average need to gain 50-80 pounds to ensure healthy triplets.
-And last but not least, I am convinced that the Lord has chosen to bless us with triplets because he must be trying to evacuate heaven. Otherwise why give one family so many blessings at once?
As I learn and experience new things in the pregnancy I will share with you all. Now I can be open and forthright, no more secrets.
And now comes the boring part of this post. I wanted to share my story, mostly for the journaling aspect of this blog.
The first part of January I was feeling blah. So I took it as a sign that my weight was depressing me so I decided to get serious about burning some calories. I am in love with Dance Central for the Kinect. We played everyday for like three weeks (beginning in December). But as I was dancing my heart out one day my stomach began to hurt. Keep in mind that I had been feeling blah and I thought it was just a weight issue. But on January 10th my stomach hurt. Almost like I was pulling muscles in my stomach. Dance Central isn't that crazy, so I stopped for a couple of days to try and make the pain in my stomach, and then my back go away. On January 12th I decided to take a pregnancy test. I was about a week late. Test kind of had a positive line, but not really so we decided to take it as a NO. Three days later still nothing had changed with my body so I was getting frustrated. Then on Saturday January 15, 2011 I freaked out. I began to weep, sob, get hysterical what happened you ask. Nothing. Aidan was watching Transformers (with Shia LaBeouf) and I lost it. I scared Aidan. He asked that I call daddy. My three year old realized mom was a freak and requested she call for help. I then regrouped and decided that I was way too emotional and took another test. EXTERMELY and QUICKLY positive. Then I did as Aidan requested but only after I sent Brian a picture. He was shocked too.
All that weekend I sobbed. Mainly because I am always able to find out early, super early that I am pregnant. With my last pregnancy (lost pregnancy) we found out at 2 weeks pregnant. Had an appointment at 4 weeks and had no heart beat, just a sac. Then we went back at 6 weeks and had a heart beat and then began losing the baby at 6 weeks 4 days. I was so scared of the next few weeks. We kept our pregnancy secret for about a week. And then many close to us started asking what was wrong. Nothing wrong, just trying to be cautious and keep the scary emotions to ourselves. At that point we realized it would be best if some family knew our secret. That way prayers could be offered up for this new development. I know I sound crazy but I really was. :) We made a doctors appointment for February 7. Aidan's 3rd birthday. We went to the doctor and he confirmed our pregnancy and then he decided that since the last pregnancy was not successful he just wanted a ultrasound to check on the baby. We got an appointment for the next day. Now things get interesting.
The next day we go and begin to get our ultrasound, the basic doppler. The tech put the microphone thing on my tummy and instantly I saw something crazy but I really don't know what I am looking at so I kept my mouth shut. She had it on my stomach for about 3-5 seconds when she said "I think it would be best if we do this vaginally." Okay. Now I am starting to get concerned. With the last pregnancy they need to go in vaginally too.
She then begins again and I hear Brian gasp, the tech is mumbling to herself and I am looking on the screen. Truly unsure if I am seeing two sacs. Brian gasps again and the tech asks me what I see. I told her I was unsure. Brian says "I see two sacs, two babies. Twins?" She says nope. Then she looks at me and says "I see triplets. Two sacs, three babies." I instantly go into shock quietly sobbing. I was delighted to see my babies, but scared. I was scared thinking about trying to keep one incubated and thriving, now there are THREE!!!
The tech then begins giving us a detailed explanation of what we are looking at. Two sacs. One sac has two babies...identical twins. The second sac, a "singleton". She then calculates my due date as being on September 12. That put us at 9 weeks pregnant. Sounds correct. She measures my babies. All three are measuring at 7 weeks 5 days, plus or minus a day. She said for triplets that is FANTASTIC, she is excited. Then she let us listen to the heartbeats. Each baby had a very strong, good rthym. She then beings to tell us all the things that will be now expected of us during this new pregnancy. Bi-weekly visits, visits with a prenatal specialist, lots of ultrasounds, preterm labor, etc etc. In all the commotion we left and forgot to get a picture of our babies.
Then we went to make an appointment with our doctor. The receptionist ask me when we want to see him, the reason, etc. I begin crying again only this time hysterically. I can't say anything. Brian talks to her. He tells her triplets. She gets a big smile. "Congrats! How long have you been on treatments?" Brian and I look at each other and respond "no treatments, natural." She then gets a concerned look on her face, looks at me, touches my hand and says "its just shock. You will be fine. You babies will be fine.Congrats!" That makes me cry a little more and realize that it is shock and that I need to calm down, for my BABIES!
We left the doctors office I looked at Brian and said "I love you honey...but I need my mommy, now!"He smiled his amazingly understanding smile and agreed. I immediately called my mom.
Brian and I had originally planned to keep it a huge secret but we decided lots of prayers were an absolute must now. My mom was concerned (mainly because I was hysterically crying and she couldn't understand me) and then excited. She asked if she could tell one person. Yes mom, go ahead. Side note when I called her later that day she said "please don't be mad, but once I got off the phone I jumped up and said triplets really loud and now everyone in my office knows." :) She is so cute. We had many fun experiences that day telling everyone of our news. It was fun to hear everyone's response and reactions.
Since then we have seen our doctor twice. Once as a follow up to the first discovery ultrasound and the second was a check up. He could only find two heartbeats but he assured us that finding two was good because they are so hard to seperate with the audio doppler. He tracked two heartbeats one was 185 hbpm and another one was 165 hbpm. He said that was awesome! We have since made an appointment to see him again and the prenatal specialist. Things are going quickly but slowly at the same time.
I am currently 12 weeks along, nearly through with my first trimester. I already have grown out of my big levi's and some sweats. I am currently wearing some of my maternity clothes from when I had Aidan. Some of these clothes I only wore the last two weeks, because I didn't need them.
Facts about triplets that we have learned:
-My due date is Sept 12. Most women with triplets deliver at 28-32 weeks. Almost no one goes full term. On average twins are born at 36 weeks and triplets at 30 weeks. 30 weeks puts us at the middle of July. What! So soon!
-Identical babies must be identical in everything. Meaning what their gender is. We are hoping for one of each.
-Women pregnant with triplets grow three times faster than women pregnant with one baby, or a singleton as the lingo describes. Barely three months and full term maternity clothes already. Okay sounds normal.
-It is rare that triplets don't spend any time in the NICU. My doctor is convinced that with my stature (height and weight and general way my body is) that he thinks I should be able to go a long time and avoid preterm labor. For the first time in my life my fatness might be a good thing.
-He also believes that I may just be on the best weight loss program ever! He doesn't imagine I will gain a terrible amount of weight. Women on average need to gain 50-80 pounds to ensure healthy triplets.
-And last but not least, I am convinced that the Lord has chosen to bless us with triplets because he must be trying to evacuate heaven. Otherwise why give one family so many blessings at once?
As I learn and experience new things in the pregnancy I will share with you all. Now I can be open and forthright, no more secrets.
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