30 is the New....40?

Today is a day of CELEBRATION! I have reached the big 3-0!!!  Most people who see me think I am 40 weeks or more. The other day, I shuffled into a store to try and find my daughter shoes, and as I walked in a husband looked at me, turned to his wife and started whispering, keeping one eye on me as I walked by. I can only imagine what he was thinking! But I am happy to be here, despite the stares and whispers! The pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel has grown to the size of a small animal and it is quickly growing larger by the second....kind of like my belly, shown here with only a mere 11 days difference between the two shots (for comparison, check out the bottom of my shirt in the two pics):

No wonder my belly has been aching non-stop!

And for more comparisons, here is a pic of me the day I delivered my just-shy-of-9-pounds daughter at 38.5 weeks. Yes, same shirt. This shirt was the best $20 I ever spent. It lasted me through three pregnancies. Thank you, Target.

Years ago, I thought this was the biggest I could look.

I had a growth ultrasound/BPP combo yesterday. Babies A and B passed, Baby C wouldn't practice his breathing again. But he looked great in every other way.  Baby A is going to be my easy child. He is the quickest to pass every single time.

Here are their current weights:

Asher: 4 pounds, 4 ounces. He actually weighed in first at 4 pounds, 10 ounces, so we decided to take measurements again because that seemed way too large, and his second reading came in at 4,4. I think that's probably a lot more accurate.

Brooks: 3 pounds, 15 ounces - just barely shy of 4!

Caden: 2 pounds, 6 ounces. Hey, I'll take it! I was hoping for 2 lbs 8 oz but knew that was a long shot. I am just happy he's solidly in the twos. Here's hoping he'll be near 3 by the next growth scan.

TOTAL:  10 pounds, 9 ounces of baby!

They all had fat tummies and fat cheeks. We could only get pictures of Caden, and he was being oh so cute - puckering up his lips, opening and closing his mouth, bringing his hand to his mouth, and even faced us and smiled.  The other boys are getting way too big to get good pictures.

For a bit it looked as though they were going to send me to the hospital because of C failing the breathing again, but my Peri said I didn't have to. I was very relieved because I did not want to cancel piano lessons!!!  I am really hoping to make it all the way through August. My Peri was visibly surprised when I told him I didn't have time to go to the hospital because I needed to teach and he said, "You are 30 weeks pregnant with triplets and you are still teaching?" I assured him it was actually a life saver for me - it gives me something to do every day, a reason to think, to move. When I don't teach I feel like I've completely wasted time all day. Teaching saves my sanity and gives me a challenge that I find myself desperately needing at this point. It seems it is one of the only things I can still do to make myself productive and to provide for my family, now that I haven't cooked or cleaned in months - which as much as I enjoy NOT doing that, there is a definite sense of guilt and helplessness that comes with it.  I assured him that if it became too much I would stop, but so far the only difference between modified bed rest in my recliner and teaching lessons from my comfy office chair is that I get to actively use my brain and have meaningful conversations about something I am passionate about. And I figure I am making my babies smarter with every lesson since I am sure they hear it too! Though today my student playing Khachaturian's Toccata is coming and that may scare them more  than help....haha!

My Peri said that I am "doing a great job" and "looking fantastic", and in two weeks at the next scan he would like to sit down with me, his partner, and my OB and have a "pow wow" about where to go next. It sounds like this is getting very real and very close!  I am stuck in limbo between wanting this pregnancy to be over (I can't wait to wake up in the morning without that "Just hit by a truck" feeling, can't wait to walk - not waddle - again, can't wait to be able to be on my feet for more than a minute without my legs burning and being out of breath!) and being terribly apprehensive of what life will be like when I have three babies outside of my tummy (forget waking up feeling awful - will I even be waking up at all since I will likely be awake all night? and forget about walking around when I will be rotating three babies between eating and sleeping all day).  But I think the joys of having three special little babies around will outweigh the difficulties.

My kids can't wait to meet them.  They talk to them all the time and love to rub my belly, feel their hiccups, etc. I know they are a going to be a great big sister and brother. This morning, my little boy came in my room after I got his sister off to school, and he climbed up on the arm of my recliner and cuddled in to me and fell asleep for the next two hours. At one point he opened his eyes, smiled at me, patted my arm with his little hand, and fell back asleep. I am trying to savor every little bit of these moments with my kids because I know that pretty soon we simply won't have the time to have long, two hour cuddles.

Last night, the kids were being crazy, running around and making lots of noise. We asked them to go in the other room for a while and when they left, my husband paused the TV and we just listened to the silence for a few seconds and breathed a big sigh of relief as our ears decompressed. Then my husband started laughing hysterically as he chuckled "Another two weeks and our lives won't be quiet like this again for a LONG time!" and then I started laughing as I realized he was exactly right.  Might need to invest in a good set of earplugs.

Loud or quiet - a house full of love is a blessing, right?

29 weeks

Just a quick update on how this week has been!

I had two biophysical profile scans this week. I will have two a week from here on out because they are watching very closely for any signs of distress in the babies, especially C. BPPs are ultrasounds that check the babies' fluid, movement, heart rate, and breathing.  All 3 babies scored 100% on Monday's BPP, although we had to sit and watch and wait for B and C to finally breathe, which took about 10-15 minutes of waiting.  At today's scan, A and B got a perfect score but C only scored 6 out of 8 - he wouldn't breathe for us. Not too worrisome at this point, especially since B and C were busy fighting while we watched and waited. That was pretty cute.


I don't normally blog here about my two other awesome kids but I have to include a little tidbit just in case I don't get around to writing this in my personal journal. My baby girl started 1st grade this week and boy has that been tough for me, though she is loving it! It's so lonely without her at home. She has been such an amazing helper all summer. She cleans (if this pregnancy hadn't happened, I doubt I would have ever known that 5/6 year olds are capable of doing the laundry!), takes care of her brother (and me too), and keeps me entertained. :o) I miss her personality and her imagination. I don't miss her torturing her little brother, however. It has been blissfully quiet during the day. I guess I should enjoy that while I can!

It's also tough waking up early and having to immediately get moving. It's been an exhausting couple of days. I have two wonderful friends who pick her up and take her home every day. I don't know what I would do without them. It's hard for me not being able to be there for my girl but I know she is in good hands all day long. 

She seems to be starting a habit of having eventful 1st days of school, however. On the first day of Kindergarten I got a phone call from her teacher after school to tell me that my daughter had yelled at her in class. Luckily, after a week, she was used to having to listen to somebody besides Mom and Dad and she had high behavior marks the rest of the year.

No phone call home came with the first day of 1st grade, thank goodness. Only a note from the nurses' office that she had suffered a minor head injury. My goodness! Apparently she fell off of the monkey bars and slammed her head. Luckily, the nurse is a friend of mine, so when I got the note that she had been hurt, I knew that she had been in good hands. I don't want to know what the first day of 2nd grade will bring, though!

Next Tuesday marks 30 weeks. My doctor said today that because of C, he's hoping I make it to 36 weeks. And then he apologized and said if I made it that far I would be truly miserable. He also said that C is really the one calling the shots, however, and that I should be prepared to be sent to the hospital at a moments' notice should the doctors decide it's time. He told me they (my OB and my Peri) talk about me all the time. I'm not used to that kind of attention but it also makes me feel very secure.  It will be interesting to see how this all plays out!

Attention Family and Friends!

OK, so I beg your forgiveness in advance, but I am going to get into 5 Star General Mom mode now. If you are a relative or a friend that hopes to visit the babies, either in the NICU or at home before they are 5-6 months old, this is a VIP (Very Important Post) for you.

I have never been one of those germaphobe moms in the past. I never required that people spritz their hands with sanitizer or not breathe in my house if they had been recently sick. Then I had a baby taken by ambulance to the hospital at just 2 months old with a bad case of RSV, and my thinking on being a germ freak started to change a little bit.

Now that I will have not one, not two, but THREE preemie babies, I have decided that I would be an irresponsible mom if I didn't get into Mama Bear mode with their health!  Plus,  now my doctors, the NICU, and my friend who just had triplets 2 months ago have urged me to make sure that our friends and family members abide by a few guidelines:

 1. Everybody needs to have had a whooping cough/pertussis booster shot in the year 2013.  This shot needs to be administered at least 2-4 weeks before you see the babies. So those of you planning on visiting the NICU, that means get the shot ASAP because this could happen any day now!

Why? Adults can carry the virus without even being aware of it, and can easily spread this virus unknowingly to babies. Preemies are especially susceptible for several months after birth, into their toddler years.

But I had my booster shot in 2011 and they told me they were good for x # of years. That's what I thought too. I just had mine in April 2012 and they told me I need another one. I did some research, and basically, in the 1990s people started having reactions to the vaccine that was in use then - nothing serious, just a lot of uncomfortable side effects like sick stomachs, etc - so researchers made a new vaccine that successfully eliminated the side effects. Everybody was happy until a few years ago when they noticed that the number of whooping cough cases had been steadily on the rise. 2012 was the WORST year for whooping cough cases since 1955. What researchers have found (and this is really recent info, as in the past 1-2 years) is that changing the vaccine in the 1990s caused it to have a shortened lifespan. Within one year after the vaccine is administered, it loses HALF of its effectiveness.

So please, if you haven't had a booster in the calendar year 2013, please get one. This is incredibly important to JJ and I. If you don't wish to get the vaccine, that is your choice and I respect that, but please don't put us in the difficult situation of having to tell you that you can't come see the babies. I am a softie and I would feel just awful having to turn somebody away. But it is my babies' health and I will do it if I have to.

It is a super easy, painless shot (just make sure to massage your arm afterward so it doesn't hurt the next day), and you can get it in ten minutes at your primary care office, or even at Walgreens.

2. Get a flu shot.

3. If you have been sick, please wait at least 7-10 days after the sickness has completely passed to come and visit.

4. And of course, hand sanitizer will be required, and it would be nice if clean clothes that haven't been around children or people who are sick (teacher/nurse friends) were worn when you visit. With Jace, I was very careful to change my clothes after I finished teaching piano lessons before I touched him. And he still ended up back in the hospital :o(  We may also employ the use of masks, depending on the babies' health and strength. I know that nothing is 100% certain to prevent illness, but I am going to give my 3 preemies every chance to stay healthy.  It is especially important to protect their lungs, since even after being outside the womb for several months, their lungs are not nearly as developed as full term babies. I saw diagrams. It was scary. They can look totally normal on the outside, like any baby or toddler, yet inside, their lungs are vastly underdeveloped.

So please, don't be offended by these simple requests that we will abide by until the babies are deemed strong and healthy. Please don't feel like you are the only one we are asking to do this - or the exception. And please don't be offended when you ask if you can come visit and we ask if you have had your shots or have been sick recently. Just remember these guidelines are coming straight from a high risk doctor, a triplet mom who knows and the NICU.  And I am not trying to be mean, just trying to protect my babies. :)

Thank you!!