Another Week!

18 WEEKS!!!! ! Yay! I am huge. The Dr. says I am about the size of a 28 weeker. Wowsa. We had our full anatomy scan today. It went well. All 3 babies are growing right on target, and they all weigh 7 oz.! It's so nice to have an almost poundage weight! The only "issue" was that Baby B (Gwendolen) only has a 2 vessel cord. I, of course, am nervous as can be and started googling the second I got home. I was making myself crazy so I finally just called the Dr. and he reassured me that she was fine, we just have to monitor her for growth, which we are doing anyways. A 2 vessel cord is also a soft marker for heart defects and an very very soft marker for Downs Syndrome. They checked her heart today and it looked great, but they will be doing an echogenic heart scan on her in 4 weeks just to be absolutely sure. As for the DS, he said that he is certain she is fine. Her femur length was fine, which, if its short, could be an indicator of Downs, and her nucheal scan was perfect too. (The measurement of the folds of her neck).

My weight is good. My cervix is perfect. Still measuring 4.4. And only down to 4.3 under pressure. Yay! Im feeling pretty good. Tired and sometimes crampy but overall, good.

And here's a few great pictures of Lil' Miss Gwendolen. Isn't she cute? :)

Lincoln City, Oregon

Saturday we decided to escape the heat and head to the beach. Boy, are we glad we did! It was so nice there. 75* and not too sunny. (although a few of us got burned because we forgot the sunscreen) Annabel had a blast digging and kite flying. Delilah amazed us all, when the child is afraid of a lake, but wanted everything to do with the ocean. She just begged her brothers and sisters to walk her down to the waves all day long. Noah, Joseph, and Juliette spent the day digging tunnels and playing soccer with Aaron. Madeline did her teenage thing and texted friends on the beach. Overall. it was a great relaxing weekend.

We Have A Winner!

That was fast. I should've known that my sister, The Google Queen, would figure it out. Her motto is "Just Google It". lol. So anyways, she figured it out completely. 100%. Wow. She never ceaes to amaze me. Go Tiffany!

They are all famous English Novelists. Tiffany figured that out plus their last names and what they wrote. :)

Rosalie Charlotte : Charlotte is after Charlotte Bronte. She wrote numerous poetry plus Jane Eyre.

Gwendolen Lucy : Lucy is after Lucy Maud Montgomery. She wrote the Anne Of Green Gables Series. She went by L.M. Montgomery, but is known by Lucy too.

Emilia Jane : Jane is after, who else, but Jane Austen of course. One of the best writers ever. Pride and Predjudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion and many others.

Another Name Announcement.

Ok. I stayed up late working on this last night because I wanted it to be all done. I feel so good that they have their names. So, I got the middle names down finally. :) There is a "theme" of sorts. Since they are triplets, I wanted them to have something in common that we gave them (well, besides life I guess) Not necessarily an obvious theme though so you might have to really use your brains. Feel free to call me, post it on the comments or text me if you think you know. It will be kinda fun. Like a game. And for those of you that thought you knew, as you can see, I changed it up a bit so maybe it's not the same theme, maybe it is :). And you need to figure it out completely, not just the subject. :) And no, you don't win anything. Well, ok, maybe you can hold the babies first if you guess it right. Completely. :). And just to clarify, ONLY the middles are themed.

Rosalie Charlotte

Gwendolen Lucy

Emilia Jane

An Official Introduction

I know, 2 posts in the same day! Wow! But I just realized that nobody has actually been officially introduced to these baby girls. They have been Baby A, Baby B and Baby C for 11 weeks now. I think it's about time that everyone be introduced properly. ;).

Baby A. She is the little girl at the bottom of the pile. She's holding down the fort in there. Nobody is getting past her. (I talk to her alot. I'm making sure she's very familiar with DECEMBER) If you notice, in her picture, her feet are up. They always are. She's got them up above, on her sisters, holding them up. Making sure they stay put. Good girl!

Rosalie (Rose or Rosie)

Baby B. She's the most active little one. Always kicking and waving. She's postioned on my right as I see her. I think she has the most room. I'm not sure why I think that, it just seems if she can move so much, she must have.

Gwendolen (Gwenna or Gwen)

Baby C. She's the quiet one. Everytime we have had an untrasound, she's asleep. Today though, she woke up long enough to wave. Twice. It was so cute, it was almost like she was saying "Hey ya'll, I'm here, I'm ok. Just tired. I'll catch ya later".

Emilia (Mia or Emmie)
We do have middle names picked, I just can't decide where they sound best quite yet. I was so excited to announce their names that I just couldn't wait to post firsts and middles all togther. I'll post them as soon as I know, plus, they have a "theme" of sorts so it will be fun to see who can guess it (besides those of you who already know, Shhhhh. Don't tell!)

Oh, and a small reminder. Please remember my plea for silence, happiness and/or acceptance on our name choices. (If you need to, refer to post on July 11th) We love them and that is all that matters. ;). We spent alot of time and energy with our whole family deciding on them. To us, they are perfect.

Thank you.

**17 Weeks**

Seventeen Weeks. I feel like it's almost a milestone, yet it really isn't. The babies are beyond perfect. Baby A is on the bottom of the stack so she always looks squished, although the Dr. assures me that she isn't. Everytime we see her she's got her legs all curled up. I think she's holding up the fort in there. She's measuring 16 weeks 3 days. Baby B is her usual active self. She's measuring in at 16 weeks 3 days also. Baby C is her usual calm sleeping self, although today she waved at us a few times. It was so dang cute. She's measuring in at 16 weeks 5 days. She is the largest of the 3 so far. They are all about 6" long at this point. Getting so big. :).

I had a miscommunication with the Dr's. Apparently 26 weeks is when WE no longer have the choice in life saving measures should they decide to arrive early. Between the weeks of 23-26, Aaron and I have to decide what measures we want the Dr's to take should they come early. Do we want all resuscitation efforts or just comfort care? It's alot to think about. At 26 weeks and beyond, the Dr's will do everything possible to keep them alive. BUT, it's a a moot point, because as I told the Dr's, I am determined to get me my December babies, so to just go ahead and schedule the C-Section for December 2nd. So, that is when the babies will be here, in case

you need a date. December 2nd, 2009. I'm determined. Y'all wait and see. :)

Oh yes, I almost forgot the most important part of the appointment. The cervical measurement. Wanna take a guess? It's still GOOD. 4.4! Yippee! The Dr. seemed surprised. He guessed 3.8, I TOLD him it was 4.4. I'm telling ya, these are December babies, dangit!

River Rats...

Yes, my kiddos are River Rats. They LOVE the river. Which is actually very good since it's totally free entertainment. I was joking to Aaron that it's a good thing that they love it since with 9 kids, this will be our vacation every year. Kidding. Kind of. ;). So, here are some pictures. They had a blast while Mom found some nice soft rocks to lay on. No pics of Madeline, she was our photographer for the day.

Names Again.

We are down to 4! Yes, FOUR! Yay! I'm going to announce them in a few days. Middle names are set, but I'm not going to announced those just yet. When I have them all together. Is the suspense killing you yet? ;)

16 Weeks

16 weeks. Only 10 more weeks to "V" Day. Only 70 days. "V" Day is a biggie to us. "V" Day means Viability Day. This is the day that our hospital deems the babies capable of surviving in the outside world. Most hospitals around the U.S are 24 weeks, so I'm not sure why our hospital says 26 but it does.

I have seen 3 different Dr's in this Perinatology practice thus far. The first one I loved. Then I saw another one. I was convinced that I loved him more. Today I saw yet another one. Did I say that I thought I loved the first two? Well, I LOVE this one. He was perfect! He was just the right mix of funny, yet confident, but not too confident. His credentials are great. He's delivered 5 sets of triplets at our new hospital, and none before 32 weeks! He looked over my history (before he walked into my room, which is a HUGE plus to me) and said that he was certain that I could go to 35 weeks with probably zero to limited hospital stay! (Of course, I informed him that I intend to go to the full 36 ;) I want my December babies! ;) Aaron's birthday is in December and our anniverisay is in December. It would be so perfect to have our last babies come into this world in the month that we commited ourselves to each other forever. Ok, sappy I know, but still perfect. Right? ) Aaron says I love him so much because he said what I wanted to hear but it's more than that. It was a feeling. His whole being just felt right. Like THIS is MY Dr. I will probably continue to see the others periodically, since it's a practice, but I'm going to try to schedule all my visits with this one.

My cervix is measuring 4.7 today. That is amazing news. Even better, is that it measured 4.2 under pressure. What that means is that the US Tech, while measuring the cervix with a transvaginal ultrasound probe, pushed on the uterus for a second, waits a minute to see if the uterus will contract. Whether it contracts or not, they measure it after pressure. Mine measured 4.2! It barely went down at all! So so good! Not actually surprising to me since my super strong cervix managed to hold Delilah in, as I was dilated to 6 cm, for almost 2 whole weeks! lol.

And yes, for all those penis wishers, the babies have not grown any yet. They are all still girls. :)And I'm beyond thrilled. Can you just imagine 3 little baby girls in Hanna Andersson opposite stripes sets? Oh my word. That will be just cuteness beyond all cute.

Oh , The Belly Shot. And It doesn't look much bigger, but it must be. I've officially started waddling. Yes, waddling. You know, how you usually start to walk at about, oh, 8 MONTHS? lol.

16 Weeks Belly Shot ;)

Baby Names!

We are working on these early. I hate calling the babies A, B & C. It drives me crazy. So we are working on names now. Totally unlike my usual of wanting to meet the baby first. I want the babies to start to have their individuality now. Especially now since they don't even get their own uterus! We have a final list of 5. I'm pretty proud that we got so far so soon. We are usually deciding when the baby is like 3 days old and the birth certificate registrar lady is standing at the foot of my bed with all her papers tapping her foot. I am an admitted Name Nerd and this process, while fun and exciting, is also very stressful for me. (Aaron totally does not get it, he either likes a name or he doesn't but its all good, we work it out ) In my opinion, It's the first thing I give my child when they enter this world and what their name is, is extremely important to me, and will be to them as they grow up, and hopefully they will love the name that we have chosen.

I'll announce them as soon as we decide, I just have one favor. If you like them, I'm happy to know. If you love them, even happier. If you hate them, keep it to yourself please. Learn to like them, love them or just accept them. All will be names that we love so I think that the old phrase that your mom taught you, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all", should be applied here. Not trying to be a bitch, just trying to tactfully say, Respect Our Decisions.

Thank You :)

Bleh...

Lilah is sick. Ick. It's not pretty. Poor thing. Good thing she's very verbal about the fact that she's about to vomit so I can get something under her. It's going to be a very very long day. A pukey (and another not mentionable predicament) toddler on about 2.5 hours sleep. Fun.

Vacation Notes...

Finally. I've had so much to say that I forgot to post vacation photos. We had alot of fun. Kids all loved it, as usual. The only surprise was that Annie LOVED the water (she even went tubeing!) and Lilah was literally scared to death of it. Wouldn't even go past the grass line at the cabin. Needless to say, it was nice not having to worry about her.

And, my favorite:

Fifteen Weeks....

Not much to say but.... Here we grow again! Babies are perfect. I'm growing, thus the babies are growing. Not even gonna complain.

It's Official....Well, Pretty Much

As official as it gets without them actually being born.

We are having....

THREE..... BEAUTIFUL......BABY........

GIRLS!

I'm actually relieved. I'm so glad that they are all the same gender. It makes them seem much more like triplets that way. The only think I would change if I could is to make them all boys. Not gonna happen. I think that God has a very interesting sense of humor (I call it interesting, you can call it what you want) but seriously. Try for A BOY. Get THREE GIRLS. Yup, that is interesting humor to me. ;). The best thing about this is that these babies will be born by 36 weeks which technically makes them preemies no matter which way you look at it. Girl preemies do much better than boys. I'm not sure why but they do. Another good thing is clothing. I have a TON of girl clothes already. I saved most all of Delilah's stuff. (except for the really tiny stuff) And bedrooms. They can all share a bedroom, forever now, if they have too. I say it's all good. They are all growing and HEALTHY, what more could we ask for?

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIETTE**

TEN WHOLE YEARS! I can't believe it. Or, "Double Digits" as Juliette and Aaron call it. She's so excited to be "double digits". lol. Poor sweet girl had to spend her whole birthday in the car driving home from the lake, but I think she was ok. We had a small'ish party for her at the lake before we headed home and we stopped at the restaurant of her choice (Subway, my kids are so easy) for dinner. All in all, I think her day was a Happy one. Next week is her Tie-Dye-Water-Balloon-Friend Party, and we are going to try to squeeze in a family party this weekend in between 3 kids soccer tournaments. (I swear, Aaron is developing Adult ADD, he loves to just go go go to soccer stuff with the kids)

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet, special girl. I can't believe your TEN whole years already. You're growing up into such an amazing little person. Your sweet, kind, empathetic and most likely the best big sister Annie, Lilah and these 3 little ones could ever ask for. Your quite the little sister too. ;) I thank God for you every day. I can't believe that I am lucky enough to be your Mom.

I Love You Sweet Girl. I hope your day was fabulous.

A New Picture....

I went it today for another quickie check. Just to measure cervical length (its great!) and to check babies before our vacation. This US Tech was really nice. She got a good picture of all 3 babies and TRIED to guess genders. She thinks A & B are girls. C was doing it's usual sleeping and thumb sucking so it was hard to get a good look, but she's thinking girl too. Why am I not surprised? 3 baby girls will be nice. Why change now after 12 years? ;). BUT, she said not to call it yet. Not until next Tuesday. THEN we will know for sure. IF Baby C will wake up and move around a bit. Nice quiet lazy little thing. Hm. Kinda sounds like a boy to me. ;)