28 Weeks!!

We have now reached 28 weeks. This is a big milestone due to the babies now producing surfactant. If they were to be born now, they would have much less pulmonary distress than before. 90% of triplets are born on or before 32 weeks, so that is our next milestone.

Last Wed we got to see the boys at our bi-monthly peri appointment. The identicals are still making it nearly impossible to measure them. The tech didn't even pick up the wand. I think she's still scarred from our last visit. Doc adopted a confused and mildly perturbed face from the moment they popped on screen. She just kept mumbling and grumbling under her breath. At different points I heard her say "Who's foot is that?" and "Is that a hand?" It was finally decided that Baby A (who I firmly believe used to be Baby B, but whatever...) is feet down at a diagonal and baby B is hands down and transverse. Baby C behaved like always and stayed out of the wrestling match. The official weights were 2lbs7oz, 2lbs5oz and 2lbs3oz. All measuring ahead for singletons. Somehow our fraternal is our little guy. Just our trio's style to go against the norm. Our tech reminds us that our boys are going to be a handful at every appointment. I believe her whole heartedly.

What's worse than being 27 weeks pregnant with triplets? Being pregnant with triplets...in Texas...in August...with NO a/c! That was us for 2 weeks. Well, some of 2 weeks anyway. It did work sporadically. After 2 weeks, 4 visits, 5 nights in a hotel, 40 million calls from my wife to the a/c repair place and many many tears our a/c is good as new. What a pain. The stress was causing Trina to have a lot of contractions. It was really begining to scare me. She went from having 0-3 contractions an hour to 5-7 contractions an hour. Now that all is well with the homestead, they've calmed back down. Now she's back to only having to deal with constant pain (back, hands, feet, legs, you name it), swelling extremities and acid reflux. Sounds like heaven, right? :)

27 Weeks Belly, 45.5", +40lbs

28 Week Belly, 45.5", +38

The one good shot from this week's appointment. Baby A, or so I've been told. :)

Grrr...

Our 26th week has been a real bitch. Trina is fine, the babies are perfect. I'll go into detail next post. I'm off to meet my lovely wife at the nice, cool, air conditioned hotel room since our house is at 94' right now...

I'll leave you with a photo. She wanted me to make sure you all knew those are NOT stretch marks. They're bed wrinkles and are the result of her being horizontal as much as humanly possible this week. :)

26Week Belly, 45.5", +36lbs

Spoiled Babies

We had our second shower last Sunday and let me tell you, the gifts were bountiful. Once again everyone was so amazing to us and our growing family. We now have 2096 diapers! Doesn't that sound like a lifetime's worth??? Can you believe it's only about a 2 months supply for a set of triplets? Craziness. We have 3 bouncers, 3 boppys, 3 carseats, a highchair (and gift cards to cover the other 2), 2 diaper bags, a twin breast feeding pillow, pacifiers, bottles, a breast pump, bath stuff, the most awesome triple stoller that ever graced this earth, tons of clothes... The list goes on and on! We could literally bring 3 babies into this house today and be just fine for a while. That thought both comforts me and blows my mind.

Trina is somewhere between "feeling uncomfortable" and "in complete misery" 24/7 now. She has to stay horizontal for nearly every moment of the day. If she sits up for too long, she starts feeling light headed and her legs go numb. Doc says it's caused her super heavy uterus putting pressure on her inferior vena cava. Standing and walking cause terrible foot, back and leg pain, not to mention wears her out no time flat. The boys are taking up all of her organ room. She feels like she can't take full breaths. She gets winded just walking down the hall. If her bladder is even a little full, they kick it. She is also having trouble eating. After a few bites, she feels full or even nauseous. This week she's actually lost some weight. Eating is now a chore and she tries to make every bite count by monitoring it's nutritional value. To add insult to injury, her first stretch marks are sliding across the bottom of her belly. This realization brought a few tears to her eyes. She was apparently holding on to some crazy hope that she wouldn't get them...with triplets. Yeah...

At Wednesday's u/s appointment we were lucky to get our favorite tech who runs the bigger better u/s machine. We asked if she could try to get us some nice pics for our stash and she happily agreed...until the wand touched Trina's belly. Her look of confusion scared me a bit, but I tried to stay calm. She zoomed in and out and even stood up while looking at the screen. I couldn't discern heads or tales of what I was looking at on the monitor so I just kept watching her expression. She finally said she was pretty sure we were not going to get any good pics because the boys were a tangled mess. Apparently Baby A and Baby B are fighting for position. One of their heads is in position A, but the other one's body is in position A. She was having a very hard time deciding which body parts belonged to which baby and who was who in relation to the last u/s. Baby C was a little removed from the train wreck his brothers were causing, but he was also playing shy with the camera. Ah well, I'm sure this isn't the last time they're going to make picture day a nightmare. At the end of the appointment, they declared that Baby A is 1lbs15oz, Baby B is 1lbs11oz and Baby C is 1lbs12oz. I'm not overly convinced that A & B had precise measurements taken due to their wonky positioning, but on average, they're all doing great. I can't believe they're already almost 2lbs. My wife is baking strapping young men.

25 Week Belly, 45.5", +35lbs

Major Milestone

This was a big week for us. Trina hit the ever so important milestone of 24 weeks. If the boys are born now, they have a chance of surviving. Our next big milestone is 28 weeks. Their lungs are much better equipped for the outside world at that point. The longer they can bake, the shorter their stay in the NICU will be. Poor Trina is now measuring full term and has all of the symptoms that come with it. Her back, legs and feet ache all the time. Her belly is uncomfortably heavy. Her hands and feet now swell daily. One of the boys routinely sits on her bladder so she has to pee every 5 minutes. Someone actually kicked her in the bladder the other day. If it hadn't been empty, she would've wet her pants. As it was, it stopped her in her tracks and doubled her over. The boys' kicks are becoming much stronger. They actually wake her up at night with their karate moves. Not like she was getting much sleep between trying to get comfortable, getting up to pee, drinking water, adjusting the pillows, snoring so loud she wakes herself up, then starting all over again... :)

Sunday we had our first baby shower. Our amazing friends Kasey and Jenn threw us a great party with family, friends and food. We played games and got more gifts than I would have ever imagined. We received a baby food maker, pacifiers, teethers, diapers, blankets, clothes, socks, shoes, bouncers, a boppy, toys, a homemade brag book & baby book (sans "dad" pages), bath items and several gift cards to put in our diaper fund. It took 2 cars to get everything back to our house! We are SO fortunate to have such generous, loving people in our lives. Because of each of them, our boys will be living the good life.

Last week our friend Amy had us over to her house for a pregnancy photo shoot. She got some really good shots. Not only did she give us the CD with all of the pictures on it, but she also had the best 2 pictures printed on foam board for us to display. Trina looks so beautiful in them. Amy really captured her pregnancy glow.

24 Weeks Belly, 45", +34lbs

Opening shower gifts while the boys were kicking Trina. :)

A few pics from the photo shoot.

Kicky Boys & Baby Names

Wednesday's doctor appointment was quick and uneventful. I asked the tech if we could get some take home pics since we didn't get any 2 weeks ago. She proceeded to snap the crappiest fuzziest pics ever. Three are face shots, and I use that term pretty loosely. One was a pretty good hand shot and the last was another gratuitous penis shot. Ah well, maybe next time we'll have the other tech. She's much nicer and always gets us good pictures. The boys are now weighing in at 1lbs6oz, 1lbs7oz and 1lbs7oz. I can't believe they're nearly a pound and a half a piece. That's so awesome!

As of about 5 minutes ago, I have officially felt all 3 of the boys kick. I feel baby C most often, which is funny because Trina feels him the least. I've felt Baby B on 2 separate occasions, but Baby A has been holding out on me...until now! :) Trina feels A & B most because when she lays down, whichever one is next to the bed kicks. When she monitors for contractions, the sensor sits either to the left or right of her bellybutton and whose ever side it's on kicks and kicks it. They're very interactive these days. The funniest thing is that we've started seeing a correlation between food Trina likes and Baby C's activity. Several times now Trina has said "Ooooh, cake" or "Mmmm, pizza!" and C has started kicking like mad. He's going to be our fat boy. :)

Before we started thinking of names or even knew genders, I asked Trina if we were going to name the actual babies in utero (Baby A is Bob, Baby B is Steve, etc), wait til they were born to figure out which of our chosen names fits each baby's personality best or just say "These are the names in birth order." I've known people with multiples who have done it each way. She said we should wait until they came out to "dub" them. I didn't really have a preference, so I agreed. Then other morning this conversation went down.

Trina: "Ooh, *L* is kicking hard!" :)

Me: -confused- "Who is *L*?"

Trina: "Uh, your son" -looking at me like I'm dumb-

Me: "I meant which one? I was under the impression you wanted to name them later"

Trina: "Well since Baby B is either *P* or *S* I figured Baby A should be *L* and Baby C should be *D*. Why? Did you want *L* to be a different one?"

I didn't really follow her "logic", but I don't have a reason to change the order. So there you have it. Our boys have names. Well, mostly. We have Baby A's first name set, Baby B is narrowed down to 2 possible names and Baby C is fully named. Depending on what Baby B's first name ends up, his and Baby A's middle names are already picked. Did anyone follow that? :) I keep hearing things like "It must be SO much easier to pick out 3 names, you don't have to narrow it down as much" This is a load of crap. We had Baby C's name picked out in a flash. If we only needed one name, that would be it and we'd be done. Coming up with 3 names simultaneously is hard. I feel a coin toss decision coming up pretty soon...

23 Week Belly, 44", +31lbs

"Hi Mommies!"

Contractions & Baby Junk

Trina started contracting again on Thurs night. She wasn't overly concerned because they weren't painful or radiating, but I was freaked out. I couldn't sleep at all. Every time she moved or rolled or adjusted (which is constantly) I'd ask her if she was ok. Then I nodded off. I woke with a start when she got up to pee, which is also constantly. I closed my eyes again until I noticed the bathroom light come on. My stomach dropped. My mind raced "Why does she need light to pee? Is there blood? Bloody show? Amniotic fluid leak?? What is she looking at???" When she walked back in and saw my eyes wide open she laughed and told me "Everything is fine. Now you should really get some sleep. I feel sorry for your coworkers tomorrow. You're going to be SO cranky" "But you turned the light on." "I ALWAYS turn the light on. That way if I have a bad dream I can think to myself, I just checked and everything was fine" I didn't know she did that. That totally makes sense, though. She's had several miscarriage and bleeding dreams. It was a terrible night for me, but Trina was a champ.

The next morning she called our nurse. They upped her albuter0l to every 4 hours and sent over 2 home health nurses to set up an at home contraction monitor and give her a semiautomatic blood pressure cuff. Now she has to weigh herself, take her blood pressure and pulse once a day and monitor for an hour twice a day. After she monitors she transmits the results to the nurse who calls her back within 10 minutes and they tell her how many contractions she had. If she has too many, she "fails" and has to drink water, possibly take an extra pill and remonitor for another hour. If she fails again, they call our doc for further instructions. Luckily she's only failed the first monitor once. Every day the nurses send our doctor's office a report. She likes having the constant feedback and knowing that our doctor is paying such close attention to detail, but she HATES monitoring. She has trouble staying still for 5 minutes, let alone an hour. She's constantly pushing the pause button so she can toss and turn and scratch and shift. She says it makes her want to pull her hair out. :)

Yesterday she started feeling like she wasn't able to empty her bladder all the way. She couldn't tell if a baby was sitting on it, if she really just had to pee every 5 minutes or if she was getting a UTI. She called the nurse again this morning who told her to come in for a urinalysis and an ultrasound. It seemed a little like overkill, but apparently our doc doesn't take ANY chances with triplet moms. I was so sad that I was at work and had to miss it. It is the first appointment I haven't gone to. Luckily one of our good friends was able to go with her to keep her company.

When she got there, she was taken right back, no waiting at all. She gave them a urine sample and they did a full ultrasound. Her bladder looked good and empty, no obstructions. The doc went on to take all of the measurements on all 3 babies. This woman really doesn't mess around. I like that about her. She moved quickly and didn't give Trina or Megan much of a chance to see any "cute" views of the boys, but who can be choosy with an impromptu u/s and no appointment? At one point Trina saw some boy junk pop onto the screen and she said "Ooh look, a penis" Doc immediately printed the shot and handed it to her. It's the only picture she was given. Nice. :)

After the u/s she was sent to the lab to give a second urine sample. It had to be a "clean catch" so she was given VERY specific instructions to follow. Wipe a certain way, hold your who-ha open, don't let the cup touch your who-ha, pee a little into the bowl, then catch some urine, then pee the rest in the bowl. She looked at the tiny sterile cup and said "Is this some kind of a sick joke? I haven't been able to see my vagina in months and you want me to pee in THIS without touching anything??" Apparently the lab techs laughed and told her yes, it was important. She peed a little then missed the cup, and luckily her hand, the first time she aimed for it. Then peed a tiny bit in the cup and the rest in the bowl. She had just gone at the doctor's office and they didn't want the "end" of the pee in the cup so there wasn't much to work with. Thankfully it was just enough. We won't get the urinalysis results until Monday, but they put her on antibiotics in the meantime just in case.

22 Week Belly, 43", +29lbs

Baby Boy Junk :)

My Wife is Leaking

We got to see the boys yesterday. They were all moving and dancing around, but I didn't see any overt violence. That's good. I'd hate to have to start disciplining them this early. :) They are getting SO big. Their estimated weights are 14oz, 15oz and 15oz. That puts them 1 day, 3 days and 3 days ahead respectively. Unfortunately our doc didn't send us off with any pictures. :( Usually our tech does most of the measuring and snaps us the good shots, but this time the doc came right in and did everything. Ah well, I know we should be grateful for the stack we have. I know most folks don't get that luxury.

This week has been a big one in the mile stones department. Trina's nipples have begun leaking a clear fluid. Out of nowhere she'll have wet spots on her shirt. It's kind of funny. :) Then last night while standing in line to rent some movies, her eyes got really big and she looked down. I was worried until the smile spread across her face. She always has her hands on her belly and she felt the first tiny kick from the outside. I had my hands on her belly all night and nothing. Then tonight she felt another kick, then another. I put my hand there and sure enough I felt one tiny bump and then one big thump. It was amazing! It was pretty high so I'm assuming it was Baby C. As I'm typing this she's been feeling some kicks low and to the right. I'm not sure if that's Baby A or B. I think it's B, but I guess I'll have to find out the seating order for sure at the next appointment. Wow. Our boys are interacting with us, what a rush.

21 Week Belly, 43", +27lbs