I've been meaning to start this blog for weeks now, but as anybody who has ever been pregnant, multiples or not, will tell you - I've been too exhausted! And it's not that today is any different really, on the contrary - my kids woke me up an hour early this morning - but I've decided I have to stop putting this off because this journey is too important and memorable to waste one more day not documenting it for myself and my posterity, and anybody else who feels like reading!
I am in my 11th week of pregnancy. I've known for four weeks now that I am pregnant with triplets. I still have trouble believing it at times!
Oh, where to start? Well, first a little background on me: I was diagnosed about 8 years ago with a condition called PCOS. It's becoming an increasingly common condition, but it is a frustrating and difficult one all the same. My husband and I were married for two years when we decided to start trying for a family. It took us another 5 years, a PCOS diagnosis, several rounds of metformin and clomid, and finally a fertility specialist to be able to have our first child, a daughter. We got very "lucky" in that we got pregnant on a combination of metformin and clomid the same month we were supposed to start artificial insemination. I am very grateful we didn't have to go down that road. Our second child, a son, was born 2 1/2 years later, again using the same combination of metformin and clomid.
When our second child turned one, we decided to start trying for #3. A very long two years lay ahead of us. I won't go into all the details here, but the short version includes what should have been a routine trip to the doctor to get my metformin and clomid prescriptions turned into an ultrasound, a uterine biopsy to check for possible hyperplasia or cancer, and a rapid descent into terrible anxiety that did not dissipate even when the tests came back clean. That anxiety led to medication, a possible fibromyalgia diagnosis (though I don't consider myself as having fibromyalgia), and two long years of ins and outs, a long-suffering husband, and my doing only what it takes to survive and do my best to hide from the fear that comes along with anxiety. I finally got on a medicine that helped me to start feeling more like "myself", and by January of 2013, I realized I was feeling pretty good. We had been trying off and on with clomid throughout the previous year. I would do a couple of months on fertility meds, and then a month or two off, simply because I couldn't take it emotionally or physically.
So in January 2013, I decided to give it another go, since I was feeling better for the most part. And lucky us! A few weeks later, the day after a dear friend told me "I have a feeling it won't be much longer for you", I bought a pregnancy test and it was positive! I couldn't believe my eyes, so I went and bought more pregnancy tests. I took a total of three - all were positive. I was so excited! I immediately started weaning off the anxiety medication, and I am happy to say it has been a smooth transition. I think all of the pregnancy hormones have helped get my body in order so that whatever was out of balance to cause the anxiety is back where it should be!
Around this same time, we decided to move and downsize. We found a great rental that we felt we could grow into for a few years before we wanted to buy again. It's much smaller than our last house, but had everything we needed, plenty of room for another baby, and we were excited about it. The day before "moving day", March 8th, we went in for the usual early ultrasound to check for a heartbeat. I was nervous that she wouldn't find any, so for the first several minutes of the ultrasound I stared at the ceiling. Finally, she told me "Look at the screen! What do you see?" I looked, and saw two black holes. I said, "Does that mean it's twins?" And she said yes. I have to say, I was not surprised at this, because from the very beginning I could tell something was different. Ovulation was more intense, I was more exhausted, nauseous, etc. I had told my husband a week or two before that, "I think we may be having twins." So when she said it was twins, I was excited - but not surprised.
Then she got really quiet. She looked around for a few more minutes and finally, in a low, slightly nervous, voice, said "Actually...there are three babies in there."
NOW I was surprised.
Shocked is more like it! My husband muttered something like, "I need a second job. Bigger car." and that is pretty much all he said for the next 30 minutes. We were both astounded and nearly speechless!
You should have seen the commotion in the doctors' office when we left that exam room! News travels fast! There was a lady, probably in her early 60s, standing next to me as I was checking out, and she exclaimed, "Triplets?!?! I had better move away from you! I don't want to catch whatever you have!"
And to think we had just downsized! Things are going to be tight now!
It was so fun to leave the doctors' office, go to our car, and call family and friends. Every single one was shocked and their reactions were hilarious. I called my mom first and said, "Well, how do you feel about having grandchild number 7, 8....AND 9?!?!" We sat in our car for 30 minutes before we were finally able to gather our wits enough to start driving.
The interesting part was when we picked up our daughter from kindergarten. She knew we were going to the doctor to see the heartbeat, but the first question she asked us was, "So, how many heartbeats were there?" I thought it was so interesting that she phrased it that way.
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| The triplets at 10 weeks |
The next few weeks were a blur of moving, exhaustion, food aversions, nausea, jokes from friends and total strangers, and doctors' visits. I met with a perinatologist at week 10. He was wonderful and I feel very good about putting our babies in his hands.
It's going to be a fun and interesting journey!
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| Baby A at 10 weeks |
