Holy Huge Belly Batman!

A picture is worth a thousand words.....

27 weeks

**27 weeks**

Today's appointment was a VERY good one. Dr. W. was there. Aaron went. The babies are AWESOME. My cervix is AWESOMER! Measuring at 4.0! 5 stars for my cervix! And...even better? NO CHANGE under pressure! That's right, NO CHANGE! Whoo Hoo!!!!! Why, you ask? Well, I think it's a combo of a few things, and the Dr. agreed with my theory. Although sometimes I think he agrees just to keep me happy :) Now THAT is a good Dr. lol.

Anyway, my theory is that 1) I've been resting. Alot. Limiting my stair climbing to twice a day. 2) I did take the meds that Dr. C prescribed 3 times. (Although Dr. W. wasn't happy with those meds being prescribed since it messes with your blood pressure so much, he doesn't like it used casually at home. I told him no worries, Aaron had to FORCE me to take it, I HATE taking medication, especially something that will get to my babies). 3) Baby C, Emilia, finally decided to move her head out of my pelvic area. She has been wedged, head down for about a month. Now her butt is down there. I have noticed ALOT less pressure and that must be why. Dr. W. also said that now that the babies are bigger, their weights are more evenly distributed throughout instead of all being focused down. He even went so far as to say that cervical measurements aren't as important now. Yay!

As for the meds. The conversation with the Dr. was funny. My face was flushed because I was hot. One of the side effects of the Nephedrine is a flushed face. This is the med that Dr. C. prescribed

Dr. W: I see your taking the Nephedrine?

Me: I did. Twice, no sorry, 3 pills total.

Dr. W: When was the last time you took it?

Me: Saturday night and only because he (pointing at Aaron) made me.

Dr. W: Oh, then your just warm?

Me: yes, but speaking of meds, what about Vistaril? A friend (thanks Carrie!) told me about it.

Dr. W : Oh, Vistaril is GREAT. It's basically a strong Benadryl. Relaxes you and help with the contractions. I highly recommend it. It helps for anxiety. Are you anxious at all? (while saying this, he looks at Aaron and smiles)

Aaron: laughs, then says Um, yeah, we need some of that for her.

Dr.W : Maybe some for you too? laughing again

Aaron: Oh yeah. smiling

Me : Funny you two, ok so the Vistaril is safe? (notice I don't let them off track at all, TO THE POINT PEOPLE, ME! lol)

Dr. W : Yes, very safe. As a matter of fact, safer than the Nephedrine at this point. Your cervix isn't changing, your really don't need such an aggressive medication yet. Plus it messes with your blood pressure and I don't like people to take it at home unmonitored.

Me : Fabulous. I'm glad I only took 3.

See why I love Dr. W? He's relaxed to the "just right" point. Not over medicating (like another Dr.) But still cautious. He seems to have faith in ME and my body and my babies. I just love him. Really. He's made such a difference in my outlook. I can now see the light at the end. We are really having triplets. 3 babies. I will have 3 babies to take home with me. 3 amazing little girls. I'm starting to get so excited. Washing clothes, counting diapers and clearing out room for all their stuff.

All my life I wanted twins and I like to think that God gave me one extra baby for being a good person, a good mom and a good wife. :)

The babies are nice and big. Growing, and Dr. W. said growing really fast. He is amazed at how well the babies and I are doing.

Rosalie is 2#3 oz

Gwendolen is 2#4 oz

Emilia is 2#7 oz.

In case you don't know, those again, are above average weights for a single baby at this gestation. These babies ROCK!

Saturday is my baby shower. My sister and MIL are throwing it for me. I'm SO excited! I can't wait to post all about it!

Oh, and a great pic of Emilia. She was the only one cooperating today. To get these 3D shots, the babies have to be showing a profile and Rosalie and Gwendolen were sound asleep, face down, so no pics of them today.

That's ok, today will be Mia's day in the spotlight. :) I think she is just adorable, and I'm thinking she's looking like Madeline. :)

Emilia Jane

Another Belly Shot

Rebecca came over to do another "official" belly shot. This is 26 weeks, 4 days. I am definitely larger than I was 3 weeks ago. It's fun to look at these and see the difference, not only in the belly, but my face, arms and boobs. lol. It seems I am gaining weight all the way 'round. :)
And here's the collage of all three shots so far. Growing much? :)

Random Whine....

11 more day until 28 weeks. That's literally all I can think about. I'm useless if you ask me anything. All that will come out of my mouth is "11 more day until 28 weeks". I'm obsessed. I'm grumpy. I'm weepy. I even think about crying and I can. I'd be a great actress right about now. Driving to Walmart yesterday, the song "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling came on the radio. It's the song that we played at my Grama's funeral. Fabulous site I was, driving down I-5, crying and singing. It was great.

I had a Dr. appointment today. It wasn't great. Cervix is at about a 3.9 (yes, I know that's longer than Tuesday) but it goes down to about 3.2 under pressure. Not good. The Dr. showed me comparison shots from 2 weeks ago to now, and my cervix is definitely shorter. I'm kinda freaking out, even though the Dr. isn't. He did prescribe meds for the contractions. Those are getting more and more frequent. I need to take some now but I don't want to take anything that I haven't taken before unless Aaron is home so I'm laying on the couch now and I am scared to move. If I could hang upside down for the next 11 days, I would. I think I need a drink, or something. Anti-anxiety medication maybe? Heck, I'd even be up for some calming illegal drugs right now. Ok, I am honestly kidding but seriously, I need to RELAX. Feel free to throw me some ideas on how to accomplish that.

26 Weeks & "My Wall"

Here we are. 26 weeks! Yippee! Only 14 more days until the magical 28 weeks. This 14 days is going to ddrraagggggggg on, I can tell. It doesn't help that I've hit what I call "My Wall". I'm officially miserable. I can't get comfortable. I don't sleep well. I'm constantly tired. I can't even give my little girls a bath because it's too painful to bend over to wash their hair. So much now is on Aaron's shoulders. Grocery shopping, transporting kids, bathing the little girls, cleaning the house and making dinner on the weekends. I'm glad his shoulders are so strong. Have I told the world lately how very much I love this man? I need to shout it out daily. He never ceases to amaze me. He seems to be able to do everything lately. I remind myself daily that it's only temporary and it's necessary to get these babies here safe and strong. So I guess, misery is my company for the next 10 weeks. What a joyful update huh?

The other day these wee girlies kicked me for 14 hours straight. I swear they planned it. It was a tag team thing. One would sleep while the others would play, and when that one went to sleep, the others awoke. For 14 HOURS. Gwendolen and Rosalie seem to be on the same wavelength. When one starts, the other does too. Emilia seem to be more content to do her own thing. Peer pressure does not get to her. Maybe she will be my sweet, docile, content one? God know, I'm going to need at least one of those.

The Dr. went ok today. My cervix is shorter. MUCH shorter, in my opinion, but Dr. W. wasn't concerned at all. It was 4.0 on Friday. Its 3.6 today. The Dr. says it's just .4mm. Which, if you look at it, is nothing but it sounds HUGE. I dropped into the 3's. I wanted to stay in the 4's. Until delivery. Not too much to ask right? Logically, it makes sense. The girls are growing and gaining weight. If you squish/push down on something it gets smaller/shorter. So if the girls are growing, it makes total sense that the pressure and gravity would make my cervix shorter. Makes sense and I can say it and it is logical to me, I just don't LIKE it. I was happy that there was absolutely zero funneling. That is a very big deal. It means that my cervix isn't opening all, Just getting a tad shorter. He still doesn't want to do another fFN. Not unless my cervix drops to about a 3.0. IF it even does, were his exact words. He's so confidant that I will deliver past 34 weeks. I try so hard to listen to him.

The babies are perfect. HB's are 147, 147 and 160. I have a growth scan next Tuesday when I get to get 4D pics! I LOVE those! I'll be sure to post them when I get them, but for now, the only pics I have is of my growing belly. :)

26 weeks (and I do believe I spy a stretch mark developing. Oh joy!)

My New Toy!

Isn't it just awesome! And I mean that literally. Not slang. The dictionary says that awesome is an adjective. It means expressive of awe. That is how I feel about this contraption. In awe. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to thread the dang thing. I've tried about 6 times. It's extremely intimidating. Aaron bought it for me because I want to make diapers for the babies. Serged diapers are much easier than turned and tucked. Easier, that is, if you can thread your serger. So, hopefully, after my darling Aunt comes to help me thread it, I'll have some great pics to post of cute little newborn diapers. So, until Aunt Lori gets here to help, I'll be knitting. :)

"Twenty-Five Weeks"

Another week down and we are still here. Hanging out. Doing great. I'm grateful that we are still at home. Alot of triplet Mama's are either on bedrest or in the hospital by now. I'm pretty sure my family would have a really hard time on their own for too long. My Dr. appointment went well, again. Cervix is 4.2m and 4.1m under pressure. All the girls are doing fabulous. They didn't do another Ffn test because the Dr said that my cervix was doing so well, that he's using it as the main indicator of labor. I wish they would have done it but oh well. I'll ask for it next week just to ease my mind more. I'm still going in twice weekly, although the Dr. said it's really not necessary, it makes me feel better. I'm much more relaxed knowing that we get the babies (and my cervix) looked at just before the weekend. Makes my weekend better.

I'm tired. Very, very tired. Noah asked today if I would just keep getting more and more tired. "Yep, looks that way, and probably for the next year at least" :). Sleeping is hard and walking is even harder. I avoid the stairs like the plague. They set off contractions that actually HURT. I may move my bedroom down to the couch. (Kidding, I won't, but it is tempting). My waddle isn't even cute. It just looks (and feels) painful. I grow daily. Poor Aaron walks through the door and is almost afraid to look at the progress I've made in a mere 18 hours since he saw me last. He laughs when he sees me. It's even funnier when he tries to hug me, he has to scoot me to the side. Picture that one. Nice huh?

Annie is finally getting it that there are babies in my belly. She always wants to feel them move and is greatly disappointed when I tell her that they are sleeping. Lilah does point at my belly and say "baby" but you gotta wonder what's going through her little head. She's has to wonder what the heck we're talking about when she knows what a baby looks like, it does not look like a belly. lol.

Well, since there's not much to report on the triplet front..(Except for my whining alot in my post, I'm sure I'll whine alot more as time goes on, I'm just easing ya'll into it) Here's my XL belly shot...(excuse the camera shadows on my belly, the lighting was weird today)

Country Girls

My Mom and Gary moved onto some property and they now have a ton of animals. Ok, not a ton, but more than we are used to. The people they are renting from keep their animals on the property so my Mom and Gary tend to them. The girls love to help! They have 3 horses, a cow, alot of chickens, 2 dogs, and a cat. Joseph is spending every weekend there helping them get it all in order, yardwork, tearing down old treehouses, tearing down old chicken coops, building rock gardens and alot of landscaping. The kid loves the hard labor. (He's also earning working to buy Gary's Ford so that is huge motivation for him)

Here's some cute pics of our little country girls.

Annabel loved to feed the horses......

And Lilah has a thing for the chickens. You would think they would scare her but, NOPE. She just loved to walk around with them, trying to touch them. Amazingly, they are too fast for her. Finally, something that can outrun her.

The First Day Of School....

It went better than I thought it would. It's been really nice having all the kids home this summer and I must say for selfish reasons. They have been a HUGE help with the house and the little girls. The girls have been very reliant on them for just about everything. I was dreading the moment when Annie and Lilah asked for "their kids". They did, but accepted my answer nicely, although about 2pm, they are sitting at the window waiting for them to come home. Thank God for earlier middle school release!

All the kids are happy with their teachers and schedules. Mady doesn't start Clark until the 21st so the verdict is still out on her but I'm sure she'll love it. Juliette is taking band this year and playing the Baritone. That child always has to try everything once. We should probably be worried come the teen years. Yikes. Noah is still in band and very good at it. He loves it. We have our very own Band Geek. But he's a pretty good-looking band geek so it's ok. Besides, haven't you seen "American Pie, Band Camp" ? AH! Kidding! :) (If you haven't seen it, you'll understand my kidding disclaimer once you do) Joseph is happy with all his classes too. He starts Driver's Ed tomorrow. Watch out on the road! Kidding there too, he's a really good driver. Must take after me. :)


So, now the obligatory "First Day Of School" pictures. As you can see, the kids just love me when I do this to them every year. But once I threaten them with taking the camera to the bus stop, they smile happily and pose away.

Madeline & Joseph. Joseph is officially taller than Madeline now. She's not thrilled.

Noah & Juliette. Juliette is almost taller than Noah. Aren't they CUTE?!?!

Baby Pictures

We got some cute shots yesterday. The girls were very active so alot of angles. Here are our adorable baby girls at 24 weeks. Aren't they cute?

Rosalie's profile

Gwendolen trying to suck her thumb/hand, as usual. lol.

Emilia was being shy. She's laying on her side with her face tucked into her hand. You can't see her face at all, but look at those muscles!

24,24,24,24,24,24,24,24,24,

Can you tell we are beyond thrilled to be at this point? Yep, TWENTY FOUR WEEKS! It's the first of a few major milestone. About half of all babies born at this gestation survive. Thank God for medical science huh? Of course, 24 isn't quite good enough for me. I mean, I thank God that we are here, but now its time to move on to the next milestone. Week 28. Week 28 is H.U.G.E. Week 28 brings us to 90% viability. Week 28 brings us a sense of relief. Well, I think it will anyway. It should. I'm anticipating it. A mere 28 days.

Today's appointment went fantabulous. Couldn't ask for better. I got to see my absolute favorite Dr., Dr W. Aaron went with me today. The babies were perfect today. My cervix is being an absolute champ! Does it get any better? I think not.

Cervical measurement is at 4.1 with almost no funneling. Yay! The Dr.'s exact words were that it looked "Spectacular!" :)

Babies are measuring the same as a singelton would be at this point. They are HUGE. For those who don't see me alot, that translates into I AM HUGE. But it's all good, because if I grow, the baby girls grow. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our children. lol.

Rosalie: 1# 5oz

Gwendolen: 1# 6oz

Emilia:1#6oz

Me: Yeah, right. I'm not posting that, I'm not vain but it does not need to be general public knowledge.

And, we asked Dr. W about the chances of the girls being identical (Aaron is a bit disappointed that we were told by the US tech that they were not ID since they had their own sacs and placentas) just out of curiosity. We were pleasantly surprised when he told us that they very well could be, separate sacs and placentas didn't mean for sure that they are fraternal. WHAT?! We both just smiled. It would be fun to have them ID. Anyway, the Dr. said that if the egg splits within the first 72 hours, then they would have their own sacs and placentas. We've been thinking all along that I released 3 eggs and thus we created 3 babies. That might be the case still, but it might not. It could be that either all of them are ID, 2 of them are ID or none of them are. If we had a penis in there, then that of course, would be obvious, but since we don't, the Dr suggested genetic testing after they get a little older, if it's not obvious by then. If they look totally different then they obviously aren't ID. He agreed with Aaron when he said that most all babies look alike anyway so it would be a waste of money before they get older. I don't agree with the whole babies look alike thing, so I guess we will see after they are born. See, surprises every single day!

24 Week Belly. I did it in black & white this time. Since it's a special occasion and all. :)

Action Shots!

Well, good news! She loves them! She couldn't stop petting them! I think they look GREAT! :) I can't wait for her to wear them this Winter.

Crazy Proud...

of my knitting.....Shamelessly, to be honest. I'm kind of not minding this resting stuff when I can create things like this:

I can't believe I've only been knitting about 8 months. This is my "Official" 5th pair of knit pants. I'll add action shots of Lilah in them when it's not so hot out. :)

23 Weeks

Only 7 days until Week 24, but who's counting? ME! Today's appointment went so good. Babies are perfect. Cervix is measuring at 4.3 relaxed and 4.0 under pressure. Still minor funneling but no change since Friday in the funneling so that is good news! The Dr. said the activity restrictions must be working so I'm going to keep up with that for sure.

Remember, when I mentioned the fFn test awhile back? It's a test that they do to determine whether or not you will go into labor in the next 10-14 days. ( http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1149.asp) It doesn't determine cervical changes, just whether or not labor will/may/could start. A negative test is good. A positive test means you have a 15-20% chance of going into labor in the next 2 weeks. With multiples, a negative test is awesome. A positive test means strict bedrest, meds, and lots of monitoring. Welllllllll, long story short, I had my first fFN test done today. It was a BIG, FAT, NEGATIVE! Yay! They will test me every 2 weeks or so. Today's test means we get to 25 weeks!

The girls were super active today so it was hard to get a good reading on fluid levels but the tech was pretty sure she got an ok reading, all coming in at a 4x6 area which is great. They have a ton of room to grow. Rosalie and Gwendolen are super active, kicking and moving like crazy, and Emilia is kind of relaxed and laid back. It will be interesting to see how their personalities are at birth.

Only 35 more days until 28 weeks! Only 49 days until 30 weeks! And only 91 days until 36 weeks which is delivery day!

23 Week Belly Shot... Growing, Growing Babies! (and growing growing mama!)