26 Weeks!

We're moving right along! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel slowly starting to get bigger!

I am doing fine. Definitely uncomfortable but I can handle it. I miss my bed and the horizontal sleeping position. I also miss my brain. I seem to be getting dumber by the day!  I can't seem to form coherent sentences anymore, and where I once used to enjoy using large and obscure words in my daily conversation, now I use words that are equally as obscure, but only because I made them up for lack of being able to remember the actual word!  For example: the other night I needed more ice in my water that had become too warm for my liking. I said to my husband, "Can you please go out to the kitchen and....uh....mmmm....RE-COLD this for me?" Seriously, how hard is it to say "put more ice in my cup?"  But for the life of me I could not come up with those words!

The ultrasound today went well, for the babies anyway. They were all having a party in there. Here we are, in alphabetical order:

Baby A: Asher is weighing 2 pounds, 4 ounces, well above average. He was comfy and cozy, down low in my belly. He's getting so big now that we can't see more than just a section of him on the screen at a time. They couldn't get a measurement of my cervix because he's too big, so they had to also do an internal ultrasound. The last time I had an internal, we could see all three babies and it looked like this:

This time, we could see my cervix and then, along the entire left side of the screen, we could see just a portion of Asher's tummy.  It really made it hit home just how small they were at 7 weeks and how big they've gotten!  Cervix is still looking good, thank goodness. According to my sonographer,  my cervix is "strong as steel". Yeah baby! My cervix is Superman!!!

We couldn't get a very good shot of Baby B. He basically is standing on his head right now. I almost had to stand on MY head just so the sonographer could get a shot of him. OK not really but I did have to take a very uncomfortable side position and just when I thought I couldn't take it any longer, she finished. Phew.  Brooks is a GIANT, weighing 2 pounds, 6 ounces.

In other Brooks developments - he LOVES music. When my students start playing the piano, or he hears his Daddy singing, he starts to go crazy. I love it.

 

And on to Baby C. Ah, Caden. GROW child, GROW! PLEASE!  He only weighed in at 1 pound, 8 ounces today. Still moving like crazy, and looks great other than being really small. My Grandma told me yesterday that she dreamed he grew up to be a professional basketball player. So far he's not off to a good start! 

I've been nervous about Caden this week because I just don't feel him move very often. Every ultrasound shows he's practically doing somersaults in there but I rarely feel him. It was reassuring to see him having fun today.  I am grateful for weekly doctors' appointments that tell me he's okay. The last few days before every appointment are the days I start to freak out a little bit if I can't feel him move. A couple of nights ago I sat in one place for probably 2-3 hours with my hand on the left side of my belly (Caden's place of residence) just trying to feel any little movement at all, and repeated this several times over the next couple of days. Luckily, yesterday and this morning he gave me a few strong kicks that kept me from going over the edge. I hope he will get bigger soon so I can feel him a little more.

It appears that those worrisome last few days before each appointment are about to disappear, however. Starting in 2 weeks I will be going in for bio-physical scans twice a week. They will still only measure growth every other week, but will check other things like breathing, fluid, etc. twice a week to make sure they are all healthy and happy.

As far as delivery dates: last week at my 25 week appt., my OB again mentioned that they will take the babies at 32 weeks. This concerned me for two reasons: 1) My instinct is telling me that's too early - though where I get said "instinct" is a mystery since I have no expertise in multiples (though my high risk dr. today said I know them better than anybody). And 2) to have them before 33 weeks would cost me an extra $4500 because my new insurance won't kick in until then. So they MUST stay in there until September 1st. Of course my body may decide otherwise.  Hopefully I have trained my body better than to make such an expensive decision.

Anyway, I told Dr. P how much this concerned me and he agreed with me completely. In fact, he called my OB during our consult to discuss a more realistic due date (among other things, like steroid shots - getting my first one next week). They decided I should carry them til 34 weeks if I can make it, and if things are looking good, keep them in there until 35.  He apologized that this was going to be a long road for me, that I would have to be going in for so much testing for so long, but he promised me it will all be worth it and I know he's right. Besides, as uncomfortable as this pregnancy is, it just HAS to be easier having three babies on the inside than on the outside, right?!?

Today was the last time that my husband will be able to go to my appointments with me. It makes me sad! I love having him there, but he has to go back to work.

Also coming up this week: Pertussis booster (even though I had it a year ago, they are not taking chances. In fact, everybody that wants to have any contact with the babies for their first several months has to have one that is very recent - the more recent the better. More detail on that later) and my GLUCOSE TOLERANCE TEST. Yay. My favorite.  My sonographer told me today that she is pretty sure I will fail it because Baby B's tummy is big and he has a lot of fluid around him, both indicators of gestational diabetes.  We'll see how it goes!