Week 30/31 Appt

Today we went in for our 31 week appointment, but it's a few days early. Week 31 will actually be on Thursday. We went early to see the specific doctor who will be delivering the amigos, and he was supposed to be there, but wasn't. Anyway, we also went last week for week 30 appointment, and did a growth ultrasound. This is where they measure the boys to estimate how they're growing, if they're on track and if they're similar enough to each other to not indicate any other issues. So here's what we found out: (Remember this was done at 29 weeks and 6 days)

Baby A - 29 weeks, 6 days - 3 lb. 4 oz. (this is exactly the 50th percentile for a singleton)

Baby B - 31 weeks, 2 days - 3 lb. 8 oz

Baby C - 31 weeks, 2 days - 3 lb. 15 oz. (this is around the 70th percentile for a singleton!)

So as you can see, all are healthy and Baby C is a chunker! The doctors are really happy with their sizes. There is an 18% difference in size between A and C, but that is considered normal up to 20%. No cause for concern at all. Below is a 3D pic of Baby B. It's getting really hard to get these images, because it's crowded in there! He is on the left - I think he looks like John!

Speaking of size, lots of requests for belly pics have led me to post these pics. This might be the last time I actually show the belly, simply for humility's sake. I know there's lots of interest in the dolphin too, so here it is. Oh my!

Week 29 Appointment

This Wednesday we had our 29th week appointment. Everything went really well - there were no issues at all really. We had an ultrasound to check the babies' heart rates and fluid levels, and these were all normal. Then John and I talked to one of the doctors about my symptoms and lab work, and that all was fine as well. Smooth and steady so far!

A lot of people have been asking when the amigos are going to make their debut, so I thought I'd write a little bit about that. Gestational age, or the age of the baby, is calculated from the first day of the mother's last menstrual period. The average length of gestation for a single baby is 40 weeks - many people also think of this in terms of 9 months. For triplets, the nationwide average gestation is 34 weeks. The reason this is so much shorter is that the uterus is meant to grow to a certain size, and then the body knows it's time to give birth. All sorts of hormones are released saying "It's time!" Well, if you've seen my recent pictures, you know my body must be really confused! It's thinking it's time, but nothing's happening! This is why bed rest is so important. The weight of the uterus being pulled downward by gravity can also lead your body to think it's time. So everything we're doing now is to prevent my body from going into labor, just because of the physical size of my belly!

Even if I were to start into labor, that doesn't mean I would have to deliver the babies. There are all sorts of things that the doctors can do to stop labor in most cases. This could include administering drugs called tocolytics and/or being on super strict hospital bedrest.

OK, so the average gestational length for triplets is 34 weeks. My doctor's average is 35 weeks, so that's our goal. Why is one more week so important? Well, at 34 weeks, that's when most babies have developed the ability to breathe on their own, due to the presence of surfactant, a substance that helps keep the lungs open. The babies also should have developed the sucking reflex around 32 weeks, which means they should be able to eat on their own when born. At 34 weeks, all organ systems have been developed and the babies will just be growing bigger. The bigger the babies are, the less time they will probably need to spend in the hospital after birth. So our personal goal is 35 weeks, and 4.5 lbs. per baby. That makes the magic date October 29. We haven't scheduled the borth yet, but if everything goes well for the next couple of weeks, we will schedule the C-section! It seems like it's really coming fast!

Kindness of Friends

This has been an amazing experience so far, being pregnant with triplets. One of the most noteworthy and truly unexpected aspects of it has been the way that everyone has responded to this pregnany. John and I have had so much kindness from family and friends, that it's almost hard to believe.

First, to know that there are people all over the country praying for our health is just awe inspiting. My family is in mostly in the northeast, in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland; John's is more spread out, in Connecticut, Kentucky, Georgia and here in Arizona. I know that we have prayers coming from every corner of this country and that is more comforting than any good doctor's report we receive!

We both work for Honeywell, and have received countless good wishes and gifts from the wonderful people we have been blessed to work with. Before I left work for bed rest, they had a shower for us that was so cool! Almost all of the people in my group (about 60) attended. Lots of guys said it was the first baby shower they had ever been to, which I thought was really awesome! (We didn't make them play the diaper game, thank goodness!). We received so many supplies from those guys that the boys could have come home that day and been in pretty good shape. The funny thing was that it was a surprise to me, and I had come into work on that Monday and said I was going to leave work a week earlier than planned. I had no idea the frenzy that caused, until Thursday came around and I saw what they had pulled off. Just amazing!

Then on top of that, a dear friend of mine, Erin from Denver, came to Phoenix with her beautiful daughter Karli to have a shower for friends from the neightborhood, church and work to attend. Again we were inundated with gifts, both from those attending and from family that couldn't be there. It was so special that we had my mom Robin and sister Shelby join us over the Internet through Skype. We set up a laptop right in the circle of chairs and it was almost like they were there! We ate yummy food, played one game (won by Mother Betty, for you Honeywell folks!) and ate cake. It was super fun, and I appreciated everyone that was a part of it.

Finally, we have had people delivering dinner to us every Tuesday and Thursday for a couple of months now. This was set-up by dear Lisa and Misty from our church, who thought it would take some of the pressure off of John to bring meals. It has done that, and it has the extra benefit of bringing me visitors now that I'm sequestered in the house! What an amazing thing for people to volunteer to do.

We could never thank all of you enough for your support, prayers and friendship during this awesome time of our lives. To be able to share this blessing with so many makes it even more special.

28 week Appointment

Yesterday (Wednesday) we had our 28 week appointment to check on the amigos. It was really uneventful, which is wonderful! We had an ultrasound where the technician observed each of the heartbeats, and they were all normal. She also measured the amniotic fluid level of each of the babies. Each baby is in his own amniotic sac, which is really good for the babies. Even though it seems like they must be all scrunched up in there, they have cushioning by being in their own sacs. All of the fluid levels looked good, with one level slightly elevated. There are all kinds of reasons for elevated fluid levels, and also all kinds of treatments, but there is no reason to be concerned at this point. The doctors were happy with everything they saw!

I also got another fetal fibronectin test. This is the test that predicts preterm labor for the next 2 weeks. I haven't gotten the results yet, but there are no other indications that anything is going on, so we should be fine on that account too!



We're on to weekly appointments now, which will be fun. It's always nice to see the boys in there squirming around! It's so funny to see them moving around like crazy! I don't know what they're doing, but I think it must be fun!



Oh, another interesting tidbit... I measured myself around today and it's 48.5" - just over 4 feet! Attached is the 28 week picture as well - large and in charge! In honor of the beginning of football season, GO STEELERS! The Quest for Seven begins!

First Hospital Vist

Well, we had our first hospital visit on Friday! I'll just say up front that everyone is fine, nothing to worry about now. We just had a little scare and it had to happen at the worst possible time!

For those who don't know, I talk to a nurse every morning and evening after I monitor for contractions. They go through a list of questions to make sure that everything is going well, and usually everything is. This time though, Friday night, I had to admit that I wasn't feeling the babies move as much as usual. For singleton pregnancies, it's pretty easy to check on whether the baby is doing well by counting fetal movements for an hour. You expect at least ten movements during that time. Well, it's not so easy when there are 3 babies all spread out in there! I can distinguish between the movements of at least 2, but not all 3, because of their positions. I can't then just count movements, because I can't say for sure that it's not only 2 of the babies moving. Well, over the last couple of days before Friday I was feeling much less movement than normal, but I didn't want to overreact. Finally on Friday, I told the nurse, hoping she would give me some helpful tips of ways to increase the movement and set my mind at ease. Instead, she called my doctor's office, they called me back and said to go to the hospital immediately.

It couldn't have been worse timing! John's kids (Caleb and Haley) were up for the weekend, and everyone was tired from the long drive from Tucson. AND it was John's birthday! We had a nice dinner, opened presents and had cake and ice cream. By the time this was done. I monitored much later than usual, and it was 10:30 at the time they told me to go to the hospital. So we all packed into the car and headed all the way down to Banner Good Samaritan - we couldn't even go to the local hospital, because my doctor's office always has a Perinatologist on call at BGS.

Once we got there, everything was very efficient. I got into a bed in the Obstetrics Triage area, strapped into a contraction monitor, and then a doctor did an ultrasound to check the babies' heart rates and movement. Can you believe that every baby was squirming around so much it was almost hard to read their heart rates?? I'm telling you, it's like they just had an espresso or something, and I couldn't feel a thing! The doctor said that sometimes it's just the way that they're positioned that makes it difficult to feel movements.

I felt so bad for making everyone trudge down to the hospital in the middle of the night, and everything was fine. Now that I have had some time to think about it and discuss with others, I feel like we did the right thing. It's better to know that everything is alright, and I have to be prepared for the fact that there will probably be several more of these trips. Hopefully not, but in reality, most multiple pregnancies experience these sort of things. The nurses at the hospital were amazed that this was my first trip. I had been hoping to just sail through with no problems, and in reflection, this wasn't a problem, just a precaution.

So everything is fine now. The babies have been moving (and I've been feeling them) as much as ever. It helps that John gives them strict instructions to move around a lot, so I think that's what's done the trick! Happy Labor Day!