Peace Out, First Trimester

Tomorrow = 14 weeks! I'm ready for that blessed second trimester everyone keeps telling me about, although I have a sneaky suspicion it might not find me feeling as glorious as it would if there were just one little peanut in there. Still, after a couple of days of severe discomfort (from way too many hours sitting in the car would be my guess) and many, many nights of poor sleep (from extreme nasal congestion), I'm feeling pretty chipper and very excited about the next stage of pregnancy. I've discovered the joys of the Neil Med Sinus Rinse, which while terrifying at first (it involves shooting salt water up your nose until it comes out the other side, and briefly reminded me of the horror of my childhood swimming lessons) has quickly become my favorite invention of all time. I figure that at 14 weeks, I'm halfway to the point where - though not the ideal situation - the babies would have a pretty good chance of survival if born. Twenty-eight weeks will be near the end of April. I'm praying that we make it to at least early May.

Here's my latest belly pic, taken this morning by my favorite photographer. You'll have to look past the scary no-makeup look. I'm practicing for when the babies come.



Christmas '09 was wonderful! We managed to make it to see both of our families. I wouldn't want to do the driving part again anytime soon, but we had a great time eating, relaxing, and celebrating with everyone. Special thanks to the Parkers who threw us our first baby shower! We brought home so many wonderful gifts that we couldn't see out the back window of the Jeep on the ride home. Cousin Spencer and his wife Ada were generous enough to give us their little girl Sofie's crib, as she is now in her first big girl bed. We're so blessed! Can't wait to see Kevin try to put it together. Hope it goes better than our Ikea table, which had the legs on backward for about two years before I had the heart to say anything to him about it.

During one sleepless night at my mom's, I started reading through the many Christmas cards she'd received. I was amazed and touched by the number of people - some of whom I don't even know personally - who wrote that they were praying for me and the babies. It's really humbling, and it's much appreciated to know that people think so much of my family and are rooting for us all. Please keep the prayers coming! I do have days where my positive thoughts are a little harder to come by, and I get a bit overwhelmed with worries about the future. I feel daunted by the thought of getting through the winter months ahead; I have a hard time with winter anyway. Hopefully the time will pass quickly. I tell myself to stop imagining the worst and start expecting the best, and I keep visualizing us with three healthy babies at home with us in 2010.

Happy New Year!

Round Ligament Pain, Insomnia, Oh My!

I've hit the three month mark!! Whoo-hoo! I'm finally at the point where many people say it's safe to start telling people I'm pregnant - oops! I mean, really. After all this, how was I NOT going to tell everyone right away?? I tell strangers on the street! I actually went out of my way to walk by the guy giving out wine samples at Kroger so he could offer me some and I could decline by saying, "Oh no, I'm pregnant, I can't." (Hey, I've waited four years for this. I can be as crazy as I want.) Twelve weeks feels like a milestone, although I'm not sure that the second trimester officially starts until 13 or 14 weeks. I'll ask my doctor at my next appointment (this Tuesday), but I'm not sure it matters for me since I'm not going the full 40 weeks anyway. I mean, at 12 weeks, I'm pretty sure I'm a third of the way there.

My nausea has come back a little, but I'm still able to eat a lot better than I was. I'm still having trouble getting enough meat, though, and I worry that I'm not getting all the protein I'm supposed to. Someone suggested protein shakes, but is that safe? Another question for the doc next week. I felt a little rushed at my last appointment, and I refuse to let that happen this time. I have tons of new questions and I'm not leaving that office until I get them all answered, no matter how ridiculous they are. (I mean, I know it's probably safe to use a laptop when you're pregnant, but it doesn't hurt to just double check, right?)

I'm still as tired as ever - maybe more - but for some reason, I keep waking up in the middle of the night feeling wide awake. Of course, this could be because I actually go to sleep around 8:00 sometimes, but I can't help it. Growing three people is exhausting. I also wake up hungry (!) and thirsty, so for better or worse I seem to be forming a habit of getting up for a drink and/or snack. My other nighttime ailment is round ligament pain. Essentially, every muscle from my midsection to my knees is stretching, and it hurts. Every time I roll over. I have a feeling that a couple of months from now, when I've doubled in size yet again, I'll be finding out what insomnia is really like. I may look back on these nights and wonder what I was complaining about. Oh well, after these babies get here, sleep will be a distant memory anyway. Might as well start preparing now.

Only two more days of work until a ten-day break! I'm so excited, but all I want is to make it to my family, and I'm afraid we won't get to go, since they are currently buried under two feet of snow...with another front possibly moving in on Christmas Eve. Like so many other things, this is out of my hands, though. I just know that soon my traveling will be limited, and I really wanted to have Christmas with my fam. Hoping and praying for the best! (My new motto.) Cheers!

11-Week Bump

OK, so it's small, but it IS a bump. It's not just holiday weight, promise! Though if you saw me on the street and didn't know I was pregnant, you'd probably think I'm just hefty. Anyway, it's a good place to start recording the growth of my expanding belly.



The most recent ultrasound pics will have to wait, because I'm going to have to scan them in manually. And it's Monday night and I'm tired. So that's not gonna happen right now.

11 Weeks Tomorrow!

We had a great ultrasound appointment yesterday. Whoa - these babies have grown! So has my stomach! I swear it doubled in size overnight. The nurse practitioner said that my uterus is the size of a 16 week single pregnancy, and it shows.

Seeing the babies again was wonderful! Because they're still too small right now for me to feel them, it's easy to find myself wondering sometimes if they're really in there. I love having ultrasounds because they reassure me...there are definitely three babies in there! They were certainly hamming it up for the camera yesterday. They were jumping around and wiggling - one of them even "waved" at us! Babies A and B were really close together, and Baby C was more off to one side. I wonder if that one will take after me and be our shy, introverted one? All three had strong heart rates - a fact that made me give a physical sigh of relief. Of course, we still got the friendly reminder that up until 24 weeks there's still a 20% chance that we could spontaneously lose one. I for one could have done without hearing that little statistic at the end of an otherwise perfect appointment, but what can you do? I just flip it around and tell myself there's an 80% chance that WON'T happen...and considering there was a only 1% chance of triplets in the first place, I'm not sure that numbers mean that much to me anyway.

The doctor has suggested we schedule a time to take a tour of the hospital. They want me to be familiar with where we'll go when the time comes, check out labor and delivery, and of course see both the regular nursery and the NICU. They want me to see triplets, full term babies, and preemies so I won't be too shocked if my babies are surrounded by lots of wires and tubes in the beginning. I'm hoping we can set this up in the next couple of weeks. I like knowing what to expect, so this will be good for me.

I'm happy to report that my nausea seems to be gone for the most part (knock on wood). Instead, my appetite has taken over in a big way! Bring on the Christmas feasting! I've actually got an excuse to wear elastic pants this year. People joke about eating for four, but hey - don't knock it till you've tried it. I'm finally able to eat more meat and veggies, which is a relief. It seemed like all I could stomach for a while was junk. Thank goodness for prenatal vitamins.

I've started telling the kids in my class at school that there are "three babies in my belly." This has been met with a lot of "How did they get in there?" and "How will they get out?" to which I've consistently responded, "Go home and ask your mommy, she'll tell you." A couple of my older girls love to ask me about the babies every day. In other work-related news, it's getting increasingly tiring being on my feet all morning, and it's hard to get relief because I have two equally uncomfortable choices when it comes to sitting down: the floor, or extremely hard little-people chairs. I'm keeping a pillow in the classroom and thinking about taking a folding camping chair too. People ask me how long I'm going to work, and I honestly don't know. I'm afraid it might get harder than I think earlier than I'm expecting.

Next appointment is in two weeks. We'll be busy with lots of Christmas-y stuff between now and then so hopefully it will go by quickly. Belly pics (and maybe ultrasound pics) coming soon!

One Day Closer

God bless my husband. He has been so supportive, encouraging, and helpful. I rarely lift a finger around the house these days; he pretty much does it all, in addition to working overtime so that we can start saving all the money we can for the future. Mostly, though, he's just there for me. He listens to me complain about my nausea, aches and pains. He brings me ginger ale when I need it; he rubs my back. He makes special trips to get me milkshakes. He never takes it personally when the hormones are raging and I take it out on him. He lets me verbalize my fears - even the crazy ones - and he lets me cry for no reason at all.

Yesterday was just a hard day all around. It was my first day back at work after a five-day break for Thanksgiving, and being on my feet so much again was a bit of a shock to the system. Everything hurt by the time I got home, especially my head, which was throbbing. On top of that, my emotions were even more out of control than usual. All these unfounded worries came out of nowhere. I was feeling sorry for myself, and then I felt guilty for feeling sorry for myself, because I WANT this so badly and I know this pregnancy is a blessing, one I've waited so long to have. It's just, well, hard. Being pregnant - and with triplets - is just plain hard. It's uncomfortable physically, but it can also be challenging mentally and emotionally despite the joy that it brings. It feels like all I do is wait. I wait for the next appointment, the next ultrasound. I wait for the first trimester to be over. (Just a few more weeks!) I wait to find out what's going to happen, and that's the hardest part of all: not knowing. Will my babies be OK? Will I? Will we bring them all home, and if we do, will they all be healthy? What if, God forbid, I don't bring any of them home? Sometimes this uncertainty - and knowing that we have to wait MONTHS to learn the outcome of this pregnancy - gets the best of me.

Luckily for me, on the nights when I'm on the verge of a meltdown, Kevin is there. He reminds me that this isn't forever, and that every day, no matter how long or difficult, is one day closer - closer, we hope and pray, to seeing and holding our babies.