Week 30

Most recent belly pic, end of March with Gayle. Notice my wide-leg stance to hold myself up- YIKES!

On the left is a diaper for a 1+lb baby, the one on the right is a preemie

Hooray for another mini-touchdown! 30 weeks along and no official bed rest. I have hit the stage where things are really wonderful or really bad with my mood/energy. Some days I just can't function and others I'm having to stop myself from doing too much. This is a pretty big adjustment for me, I really HATE the low energy days. Today just happens to be wonderful, I feel like Super Woman. I had an appointment for monitoring and mini ultrasound yesterday. The ultrasound was just to see where the girls were positioned and to check the fluid around them. Baby A pretty much has no choice of where she goes or how she is positioned- she will remain the gatekeeper. Baby B has done a somersault and is now positioned with her head down- right by Baby A's feet, I sense a payback time!!! Baby C is relatively in the same position with her feet near Baby A's head. The monitoring went well and the tech was about the nicest person in the world, come to think of it- all the nurses I came in contact with yesterday seemed to be on Disney Drugs- all smiles and encouraging words. She said the skin on my belly looked good- I think it's absolutely horrifying! She said she see lots of big bellies and mine looks pretty good, especially for 3 babies. She is my best friend.

Dave and I toured the NICU area of St. John's last night. It was a very daunting venture for me. I had cried thinking about it for 2 days and I actually held it together for about 10 minutes of the tour before breaking down. It's very hard to imagine a baby on all that support- any baby! All in all it proved to be a wonderful experience, calming my fears. It was a very positive place with lots of happy nurses. The NICU is divided into 2 places- the North which is where all preemie babies go after delivery to be fully evaluated and the NICU South which is private rooms for the babies as the continue to grow once they are stable enough. When our all of our girls are ready we will have our own room and they are really quite nice. We saw lots of different sizes of babies- anywhere from 1.7lbs to full term babies that needed assistance. We did see a little guy that is 2.6lbs- the same size as Baby A 2 weeks ago. That was a strange sight for us and really put it into perspective on accepting that if they are born now all will be OK and also it's an incentive to continue to eat to help my girls get as far past that as possible. The nurses were all extremely positive and encouraging about my progress to 30 weeks with no official bedrest. They seem to think there is quite the good possibility that our girls will have limited time in the North area before heading to their own private room in the South area. All of that encouragement from people who see these preemies everyday was a real boost for me.

I just began having contractions which are normal at this stage of a triplet pregnancy but still a wee bit alarming. I think it bothers Dave more than it bothers me. He asked me very sternly to stop it- I wish!!! I have had about a maximum of 4 during a 1 hour time period. If I have a 5th one in one hour it's time to call the doctor and most likely be admitted to the hospital for monitored bedrest and drugs to stop the pre-term labor. I have not found a pattern in my contractions, like time of day or activity so I really don't know how to avoid them. A lady told me to drink 2oz of wine to make them stop. No one will get me any and I generally have a real hard time hauling myself off the sofa so I'll just deal with it all.

The contractions did make a difference in the urgency to get things done around the house. The bathrooms are still being screwed up... I mean worked on. It seems that every time they do something they do it wrong and have to come back again to fix it. I have had about 5 full weeks of workers in my house- even on the weekends. I offered to speak to the main guy about the progress but Dave handled it, probably assuming I'll scare them off completely with my impatience and anger. The house is FULL of drywall dust and will need a professional cleaning before setting up the main floor nursery. There is a chance that one or more of our girls could come home with respiratory problems so this place needs to be completely free of dust. I KNOW I will be very happy when it's all said and done but for now I'm just plain aggravated with the whole thing. I will post pics when things get cleaned up- I can't wait for the nursery to be put together and I hope I'm still home to see it happen.

Here are my list of most recent complaints about the pregnancy: my knees ache like I'm 90 years old when I try to get up; I don't sleep well or for very long; I look "a little thick" around the middle; when I tan outside, only the front of me looks good; and the worst: I am the most boring wife in the world. I lay around all day, reading crap because I can't concentrate well or reading baby books, worrying about what to do when the girls go to kindergarten and there are only 2 classes and one girl gets left out, how to be room mom if the girls are in separate rooms, and watching Desperate Housewives which is on for 3 hours each weekday. What man wants to come home to all that nonsense!!!! When he asks me how my day was, my responses go from what happened on Desperate Housewives to the most recent thing I read about that we NEED and how I found it on Craigslist. All this could be the reason he is happy to sit outside every night and BBQ me dinner. By the way, he has no complaints about any of this and constantly appreciates the work I'm doing to grow some babies for him. I just think I'm boring and fairly substance-less. In a matter of a few weeks or so, I'll be too tired and busy to worry if I'm interesting.

I will have another appointment on Tuesday for a full ultrasound and the girls will be measured for their weight then. I will try to post as soon as possible after that appointment with some side-view belly pics.

Week 28- Another Touchdown!

Hooray! I have made it to 7 months with no bed rest! I'm sure my family thinks I'm on bed rest since they only see me laying around when they are home. I have about 2 good hours in the middle of the day where I pretend that all of this is not effecting me and that I feel fine. That whole process wears me out and then I'm on the sofa the rest of the day. I do generally feel fine but my energy is really low and I can't imagine it will get better anytime soon. I also try to get fully dressed, hair and make up, each day but the carpal tunnel effects my hands to where I have a hard time holding the hair dryer or make up brushes. Today feels like a slob day- no hair, no make up. The general public can just deal with it and get out of the fat, fussy lady's way.


I have been eating a TON of steak lately- most likely my body is craving iron and I should take my iron pill but the steak is soooo good! I also am trying to down some protein shakes but feel so full and gross afterward that I am dreading them. I do a chocolate Ensure with peanut butter and banana or a no sugar added vanilla ice cream with a vanilla whey protein. I still don't crave much and if it's not steak my body just won't make room for it.

All that eating is paying off for the girls, they are each the same weight as a single pregnancy at 28 weeks. I find that amazing. The doctor said it will start to decrease due to space constraints but they are ahead of the game so far.

Baby A: 2.6lbs, up 14oz from 3 weeks ago
Baby B: 2.4lbs, up 8oz from 3 weeks ago
Baby C: 2.5lbs, up 11oz from 3 weeks ago

There are no new pictures of the girls, there space is cramped and it's hard to get those cute shots anymore. But the ultrasound did show me where each one is located and it what position. Baby A is now the gate keeper, she is laying sideways at the bottom- no one gets out until she moves. Baby B and C are vertical with their heads up by my lungs, which puts their feet on Baby A. We did see Baby C kicking Baby A in the head in the last ultrasound. I have a feeling that Baby A will want to be as far away as possible from the other two after they are born. Most of the movement I feel is from Baby B and the sonogram tech told me she has the most fluid around her, the biggest swimming pool to play in. B and C move the most and finally Baby A fought back yesterday- my whole body was moved by them! We were so proud of her for fighting back- you go girl!

The only other thing going on in my life is I have nothing to wear. I think I'm down to the few dresses that I have- I actually had to cut away the elastic from my pants on Monday at the ultrasound. It was so tight that it was cutting off circulation to my legs and I just went in the bathroom and started cutting the band- oh the relief. I still hear that I look tiny for having 3 babies but when you are cutting your clothes off in a bathroom you can't help but think people just feel sorry for you and are being nice. Or, they are like Dave and just plain scared of me. As far as I can tell, I have not yet hit that angry pregnant woman stage- you would have to ask Dave and Elle. The doctor said at about 30 weeks he likes to conduct exams from the hallway since the multiple moms are just DONE and ANGRY that the kids aren't out yet. Looks like I have about 2 more weeks of playing nice and then I'll take that free pass and start whining.

I have heard from several people that our family is on their churches prayer chain and I'm thrilled. This is the time to really kick in the prayers that the four of us, me and the girls, make it about 6 or more weeks. I think the girls will actually be fine but I'm starting to feel "done" with it all so I will need the support to deal with the discomfort. The more time they are in the belly the less time in the NICU.

Another ultrasound and my first monitoring session (for contractions which are common and no worry) in 2 weeks.