Gestation: 17 weeks 0 days
Weight: I weighed in on our scale today at 181.7 lb. But I was kind of tilting to see the number and my docs scale had me heavier last week. Of course, they weigh me at the end of my day and I weigh myself at the beginning when I just wake up.
Appearance: Big boobs (for me)....belly is big. Kind of freaks me out when I look at it. No stretch marks although I think I see two on my boobs. Keep forgetting to get that cream from my sister although I'm convinced I'm doomed by genetics.
Symptoms: Mild bouts of nausea. Food tastes strange to me. I'm struggling to find food I can eat because some of my consistent faves have distinctly strange tastes to me. Big turn-off. I'm peeing a lot...my bladder already feels like something is pressing on it. Arthritis of the hips, when I am lying down for a while, it hurts to turn over or get up and start walking. And still a big of motion sickness if I walk too fast. And I'm waddling already.
Countdown: 11 weeks to viability. (Babies have a 95% survival rate at 28 weeks). Actually since Baby A is almost a week behind, let's say 12 weeks to viability.
So. I haven't blogged in two weeks. Last week was crazy. The hubby was gone for almost two weeks, I was having trouble sleeping and I ended up getting sick. At first, the cold didn't seem too bad and I was so thankful since I can't take medicine...but the cold just wouldn't go away and every day was just a struggle. Then my sister had a crazy clot and I had to take her to the hospital. I had to burn a sick day (which we know is so precious at this point) because of the lack of sleep and sickness. Thank God, my sister is home and she seems to be slowly regaining her coordination back. And Scott is home (well, for a week) before he leaves for yet another stupid trip. Pbbbt. I'm still coughing occasionally but I'm finally regaining use of both nostrils. Amen.
My stomach has definitely swelled and everything just feels tight. I had an episode where I think my uterus was contracting a lot...I had to start counting. I had 2 in the span of 20 minutes and the next forty minutes were the longest ever...since I read that you have to go to the hospital immediately if you get 4 contractions in an hour, even if they don't hurt. I read that online. I think a lot of the discomfort is just from everything expanding so quickly, my stomach muscles feel so stretched. At first, I was scared to stretch it out. I haven't had any contractions in a few days so I'm gingerly stretching.
Today was our ultrasound with the specialist. Dr. O. The first thing out of his mouth was "Have you been leaking amniotic fluid?" I immediately said "Oh, I might be, I noticed a lot of discharge this past week but I thought it was incontinence." So embarrasing, but I've always had a problem with my bladder and some leakage when I exercise or just out of nowhere. At work, I noticed my underwear had these huge wet spots and it was way more than ever. I figured, my bladder was just getting weaker. He asked if I wear a pad, and I said ,No, I just have wet underwear. So, it seems that the new issue (there's always something different at each visit) is that the amniotic levels for the identicals are lower. Not dangerously low, but lower. So, new thing to pray about. Today I felt pretty good because I was dry and hopefully it has passed, but just now a trip to the bathroom has revealed another wet spot. Please, Lord, no more. Keep it all in. I took a quad screen test last week but my doc laughed and said that it's invalid for triplets. Oh, boy, I have a big fat bruise on my arm from the blood draw for nothing then.
Now for the good news. The triplets are all growing steadily, even small little baby A.
Baby A: (smallest identical twin)
16 w 3 d (so four days behind gestational age)
5 oz
everything looks good so far
Baby B: (biggest identical twin)
17 w 2 d (2 days ahead)
7 oz (ooh fattie)
everything also looks really good
Baby C: (fraternal twin)
17 w 2 d (2 days ahead)
6 oz (doc says that Baby B and Baby C are pretty much the same size)
she's our star. lots of amniotic fluid. saw her moving around. lots of room and everything looks really great.
the identical twins were squished again as they are bigger and they have lost some amniotic fluid. I'm going to have to go in every two weeks now especially since we have to monitor their amniotic levels. That's fine with me. Three weeks is just too long for me to go without seeing that they're okay. i still get nervous when he starts scanning. I wish he could just verify that their heart are beating and they're alive. I guess he doesn't know that I worry about that and I may have to get over my pride and just ask him to do that for me. The great great news. Baby A is still chugging along, still a week behind the other two but the gap isn't growing so that seems to indicate that her growth is steady. Their bladders and blood flow are good so no indication of TTTS (twin to twin transfusion yet). Woo. Best news, he tried to find that growth on the bottom of Baby A's spine and he couldn't even find it. True, Baby B's big head kept getting in the way but he tried and tried. At the end, he said he saw a glimpse of something but it was so tiny that he thinks it was probably a skin tag. Hallelujah!!! We'll keep praying that the growth is completely gone and never comes back.
And he confirmed...all girls. hee hee. Scott and I just shake our head. He showed us the crotch shots and even I could see there's no peepees anywhere. I'm getting a little better at recognizing things on the ultrasound, plus, they're a little bigger so things are much more defined.
I'm officially halfway through and today's visit...seriously the best I've felt about this pregnancy. Scott and I agreed that this was the best news visit we've had the whole time. I hope it continues this trend but I'll enjoy the moment now no matter what. It's starting to feel a little more real. I'm still shocked each time I go in and they're all still alive and they're all still growing. I'm starting to gain confidence that come this fall, we're going to have three little girls in our arms. So, I brought up the pains and aches because I've been wondering about the babies moving. Apparently, you can feel it as early as 16 weeks but most newbies can't recognize it and won't know it until 18-20 weeks when it becomes to obvious to ignore. Stupid websites refer to it as a feeling of gas bubbles or butterflies. Um, only time I feel gas bubbles is when I have painful doubled over cramps. And I can't for the life of me recall what it feels to have butterflies. I do feel occasional swishes but I'm telling you, my abdomen is a field of strange new feelings. So, I'm just being patient because it's only a few more weeks and then there will be no question.
Praises Recap:
Babies alive
Babies healthy
Baby A keeping up
Baby A lost that weird spinal thing
Baby B showing all normal measurements despite that high nuchal fold
Prayer Request:
No more amniotic loss
Keep growing, we go back in two weeks
That spinal thing be gone FOREVER
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
15w1d Prayers needed
Timeline: 15w1d
Weight: 179 lb (6 lb down from pre-pregnancy weight)
Symptoms: Weird arthritis of the hips, spider veins in the BB, insomnia, motion sickness.
When I start to walk after lying down or sleeping, I'm an old woman. Weird pains and aches in the hips and joints. Must be those hormones causing everything to relax. I actually think I'm more flexible. I hate my job and switching sleep schedules...I've been sleeping 4-6 hours every day and then maybe taking an hour nap on the cold, hard floor in my office at work. I'm exhausted. I'm so tired I feel sick, so I've been gagging whenever I start to move. Walking, driving. Last night, I was trying to drive to get food and I realized that I was going to throw up. I was at an intersection and stuck at a red light. I gagged and swallowed and drove to McDonalds where I had to pull into a stall, lean out the door, and vomit water and my zofran pill all over the parking lot. Oh, goodness. Thank god, Scott has napkins in his glove compartment.
Yesterday was my 15w ultrasound with the specialist. I couldn't believe it but the appointment coincided with Scott having to be at the airport to leave for a work trip. I was so bummed that he couldn't be with me, he was very bummed as well. I got my older sis to come with me and we promised to text him before he got on the plane. We've really been hoping and praying that we get some good news this time around, every time, the doctor seems to just say "only thing we can do is wait and watch." I want him to say, yes, this looks promising. Just once.
Baby A
measuring 14w3d (4 days behind gestationally)
weighs 3 oz
Baby B
measuring 15w5d (5 days ahead gestationally)
weighs 5 oz (!!!!)
They really are right on top of each other so the doc was having a wild time trying to zero in on each one to get measurements of the head, brain, heart, and bones. He kept muttering "your children are being very difficult." Wow, to hear "your children" is mind-blowing. My sister and I both pestered him with "Hey, if you can see the gender, we would LOVE to know." the babies looked to squished and it was a hard angle but he finally said "I have a feeling these identicals are girls." YAH!!! we were hoping they were girls. I asked "What do mean, you have a feeling? Like you feel it in your heart." He said "No, I just don't see anything sticking out down there."
Cassan texted Scott that they were girls and healthy right before he got on the plane.
Then we moved on to the fraternal twin
Baby C
15w2d (2 days ahead gestationally)
4 oz
Baby C looks great. And then the doc said "Hmmm, I think this one is also a girl." My sister just started laughing. My sister with the five girls. My sister who I teased endlessly when she was pregnant with fraternal twins only to find out that they were both girls. WHAT!!! 3 girls. I don't even have one girl name that I like, now I have to come up with three. I think girls are so much harder to name than boys. Well, everyone we know has girls and we've already got tons of baby girl clothing hand-me-downs. I did say "The doc can be wrong." Sometimes things hide themselves...but I have the feeling we're having girls.
He went back to the identicals...he said their bladders and amniotic fluid look good. That's a relief, I know those are big indicators of Twin to Twin Trans.fusion. But then he was scanning and we all saw something. He was looking at baby A, the smallest baby, and you could the skeleton and ribs. And there was something waving at the tip of the spine. I thought it was at the top near the head but the doc told me later that I was backwards and it was at the tail end. But it was something just waving away. What was that? Is that a hand? What the heck? The doc tried zooming in but he said the baby was too small to get a decent enough look. So, he said "well, it can be a number of things." I asked "Like?" He brought up two options
Spin.al bif.ida= where the spinal column doesn't close properly. He says that the location is good, if it was further up the spine, it would be more harmful. Where it is now, the baby has a good chance of being able to walk normally.
A tumor. As if I couldn't hear anything worse than the first option. I think the doc sensed it, because his nurse jumped in and said that it was more common than you know...that they just had a baby last week with a tumor. My sister says that she thinks here husband had to have one removed. I asked what this meant. The doc says that it would just have to be removed once the baby was born.
He admitted that our triplets are having an above average number of complications, he brought up Baby B's thick neck measurement last time and now this abnormality on Baby A's spine...the huge discrepency in size. I asked him what our odds were and he said that you don't count on odds. He said because the size difference has been from so early on, it's more serious than if it started to develop later in development. Sigh. My sister was so positive, she seemed totally sure that everything is going to be fine. I'm starting to worry if I'm coming home with three babies and what that life will be like.
The hardest part was having to wait all night while Scott was on the plane so I could update him when he finally called. The last thing he heard was that it was girls and that they were healthy. I hated having to tell him yet another development. We're only at 15 weeks, we have a whole other half of pregnancy to go. He's such a rock, he just takes it in stride. Somehow, I feel like this is my fault. It's half of my DNA, they're in my body. I still think that as much as Scott really wanted kids, I wanted them more. I got us to where we are today, going through IVF, choosing to put in 2 embryos and not just one. I can't help but feel responsible.
We go back in two weeks, Scott will be back by then, which is a blessing. I miss him so much and it's a tough time. I really wish he was here.
Weight: 179 lb (6 lb down from pre-pregnancy weight)
Symptoms: Weird arthritis of the hips, spider veins in the BB, insomnia, motion sickness.
When I start to walk after lying down or sleeping, I'm an old woman. Weird pains and aches in the hips and joints. Must be those hormones causing everything to relax. I actually think I'm more flexible. I hate my job and switching sleep schedules...I've been sleeping 4-6 hours every day and then maybe taking an hour nap on the cold, hard floor in my office at work. I'm exhausted. I'm so tired I feel sick, so I've been gagging whenever I start to move. Walking, driving. Last night, I was trying to drive to get food and I realized that I was going to throw up. I was at an intersection and stuck at a red light. I gagged and swallowed and drove to McDonalds where I had to pull into a stall, lean out the door, and vomit water and my zofran pill all over the parking lot. Oh, goodness. Thank god, Scott has napkins in his glove compartment.
Yesterday was my 15w ultrasound with the specialist. I couldn't believe it but the appointment coincided with Scott having to be at the airport to leave for a work trip. I was so bummed that he couldn't be with me, he was very bummed as well. I got my older sis to come with me and we promised to text him before he got on the plane. We've really been hoping and praying that we get some good news this time around, every time, the doctor seems to just say "only thing we can do is wait and watch." I want him to say, yes, this looks promising. Just once.
Baby A
measuring 14w3d (4 days behind gestationally)
weighs 3 oz
Baby B
measuring 15w5d (5 days ahead gestationally)
weighs 5 oz (!!!!)
They really are right on top of each other so the doc was having a wild time trying to zero in on each one to get measurements of the head, brain, heart, and bones. He kept muttering "your children are being very difficult." Wow, to hear "your children" is mind-blowing. My sister and I both pestered him with "Hey, if you can see the gender, we would LOVE to know." the babies looked to squished and it was a hard angle but he finally said "I have a feeling these identicals are girls." YAH!!! we were hoping they were girls. I asked "What do mean, you have a feeling? Like you feel it in your heart." He said "No, I just don't see anything sticking out down there."
Cassan texted Scott that they were girls and healthy right before he got on the plane.
Then we moved on to the fraternal twin
Baby C
15w2d (2 days ahead gestationally)
4 oz
Baby C looks great. And then the doc said "Hmmm, I think this one is also a girl." My sister just started laughing. My sister with the five girls. My sister who I teased endlessly when she was pregnant with fraternal twins only to find out that they were both girls. WHAT!!! 3 girls. I don't even have one girl name that I like, now I have to come up with three. I think girls are so much harder to name than boys. Well, everyone we know has girls and we've already got tons of baby girl clothing hand-me-downs. I did say "The doc can be wrong." Sometimes things hide themselves...but I have the feeling we're having girls.
He went back to the identicals...he said their bladders and amniotic fluid look good. That's a relief, I know those are big indicators of Twin to Twin Trans.fusion. But then he was scanning and we all saw something. He was looking at baby A, the smallest baby, and you could the skeleton and ribs. And there was something waving at the tip of the spine. I thought it was at the top near the head but the doc told me later that I was backwards and it was at the tail end. But it was something just waving away. What was that? Is that a hand? What the heck? The doc tried zooming in but he said the baby was too small to get a decent enough look. So, he said "well, it can be a number of things." I asked "Like?" He brought up two options
Spin.al bif.ida= where the spinal column doesn't close properly. He says that the location is good, if it was further up the spine, it would be more harmful. Where it is now, the baby has a good chance of being able to walk normally.
A tumor. As if I couldn't hear anything worse than the first option. I think the doc sensed it, because his nurse jumped in and said that it was more common than you know...that they just had a baby last week with a tumor. My sister says that she thinks here husband had to have one removed. I asked what this meant. The doc says that it would just have to be removed once the baby was born.
He admitted that our triplets are having an above average number of complications, he brought up Baby B's thick neck measurement last time and now this abnormality on Baby A's spine...the huge discrepency in size. I asked him what our odds were and he said that you don't count on odds. He said because the size difference has been from so early on, it's more serious than if it started to develop later in development. Sigh. My sister was so positive, she seemed totally sure that everything is going to be fine. I'm starting to worry if I'm coming home with three babies and what that life will be like.
The hardest part was having to wait all night while Scott was on the plane so I could update him when he finally called. The last thing he heard was that it was girls and that they were healthy. I hated having to tell him yet another development. We're only at 15 weeks, we have a whole other half of pregnancy to go. He's such a rock, he just takes it in stride. Somehow, I feel like this is my fault. It's half of my DNA, they're in my body. I still think that as much as Scott really wanted kids, I wanted them more. I got us to where we are today, going through IVF, choosing to put in 2 embryos and not just one. I can't help but feel responsible.
We go back in two weeks, Scott will be back by then, which is a blessing. I miss him so much and it's a tough time. I really wish he was here.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
14w3d It's getting better=)
Thursday 14w3d
Weight=178 lb (original pre-pregnancy weight=185 lb)
Symptoms: fatigue, getting tuckered out easily, mild nausea depending on the time of day, sensitive chest, headaches daily (also a side effect of medicine)
Well, week 14 has actually brought improvement. The nausea got better if I kept eating...then that stopped working and it got way worse. Then, this past week I've noticed a huge difference. I get bouts of nausea but a majority of the day, I'm feeling okay. Still not hungry and I still have to put into thought into what I can eat, a lot of food aversions still...but I'm actually eating now. Not a lot but a moderate amount.
The belly is pooching out, I bought two new maternity jeans with these lovely elastic waistbands. They're so comfortable...oh my goodness, I want to keep wearing them even after I'm not pregnant anymore. One of them seems to fit but I wore it to work last night and I think it's a little too early. As soon as I start to walk or put stuff in my pocket, the jeans start to pull down and the elastic band is creeping down my butt=).
We have already gotten baby stuff, a lot of hand-me-down baby clothes...we don't know the gender so hoping to find out soon so we can figure out if we're keeping anything or giving anything back. This is the first week I haven't had a doctor's appointment and it's killing me. I just start to think that maybe something is wrong and I have this insane fear that the next ultrasound will show that we lost a baby. I want an appt every week.
I'm super fatigued still. Which is weird because I've been having trouble sleeping. I wake up every three hours to pee and I am pretty much wide awake by 6 in the morning. There's so much I want to do around the house but after doing a few things, I'm tuckered out and I am back to lying down. At my count, I only have about 6 weeks of work left. I'm trying to get everything in at work, that's my sole focus. I'm also trying to find out about leave...there version of maternity leave is family leave-UNPAID!!! I have to burn all my sick leave, vacation, and comp time, and that will get me to right before the birth. I called Finance and asked about TDI but the lady said I had to have less than 15 days sick leave to qualify. She said she would find out and call me back but she hasn't yet.Oh boy, everything is overwhelming.
I'm at work. I'm eating chicken spaghetti. It's weird how my tastes have changed. Now I like it heavy on the noodles and light on the meat. I wish I knew that when I was packing lunch. I don't have enough noodles. I think I can't eat anything mildly sweet, especially in the morning. I tried cereal but that didn't go so well, it might have been the milk may have been expired. I tried a blueberry muffin this morning, nope. Nothing sweet in the morning from now on.
Weight=178 lb (original pre-pregnancy weight=185 lb)
Symptoms: fatigue, getting tuckered out easily, mild nausea depending on the time of day, sensitive chest, headaches daily (also a side effect of medicine)
Well, week 14 has actually brought improvement. The nausea got better if I kept eating...then that stopped working and it got way worse. Then, this past week I've noticed a huge difference. I get bouts of nausea but a majority of the day, I'm feeling okay. Still not hungry and I still have to put into thought into what I can eat, a lot of food aversions still...but I'm actually eating now. Not a lot but a moderate amount.
The belly is pooching out, I bought two new maternity jeans with these lovely elastic waistbands. They're so comfortable...oh my goodness, I want to keep wearing them even after I'm not pregnant anymore. One of them seems to fit but I wore it to work last night and I think it's a little too early. As soon as I start to walk or put stuff in my pocket, the jeans start to pull down and the elastic band is creeping down my butt=).
We have already gotten baby stuff, a lot of hand-me-down baby clothes...we don't know the gender so hoping to find out soon so we can figure out if we're keeping anything or giving anything back. This is the first week I haven't had a doctor's appointment and it's killing me. I just start to think that maybe something is wrong and I have this insane fear that the next ultrasound will show that we lost a baby. I want an appt every week.
I'm super fatigued still. Which is weird because I've been having trouble sleeping. I wake up every three hours to pee and I am pretty much wide awake by 6 in the morning. There's so much I want to do around the house but after doing a few things, I'm tuckered out and I am back to lying down. At my count, I only have about 6 weeks of work left. I'm trying to get everything in at work, that's my sole focus. I'm also trying to find out about leave...there version of maternity leave is family leave-UNPAID!!! I have to burn all my sick leave, vacation, and comp time, and that will get me to right before the birth. I called Finance and asked about TDI but the lady said I had to have less than 15 days sick leave to qualify. She said she would find out and call me back but she hasn't yet.Oh boy, everything is overwhelming.
I'm at work. I'm eating chicken spaghetti. It's weird how my tastes have changed. Now I like it heavy on the noodles and light on the meat. I wish I knew that when I was packing lunch. I don't have enough noodles. I think I can't eat anything mildly sweet, especially in the morning. I tried cereal but that didn't go so well, it might have been the milk may have been expired. I tried a blueberry muffin this morning, nope. Nothing sweet in the morning from now on.
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