Hey everyone! Lots going on, but not a lot of energy to write about it. We have reached another huge milestone, 32 weeks. Triplets are typically born sometime between 32 and 34 weeks, so we're in the window...could be anytime! Triplets born after 32 weeks typcially do quite well and everyone including the doctors and nurses are pretty relaxed at this point, reassuring us that all is well. And, as of our last check up on Monday, the babies are doing AWESOME. Baby B and C are both approximately 4 lbs 7 oz (can you believe it???). Baby A was tucked a bit behind Baby C in the ultrasound, thus we couldn't get one of the measurements needed to estimate its weight, but the doctor thinks it's pretty close to the weights of the others. They'll continue to put on about 1/2 a pound a week until they're born, so we could have some 5 pounders on our hands! Despite being packed in there, they find a way to move around quite a bit, and at this point it feels more like squirming than kicking. Just 4 more days until my regular doctors return from vacation, which will be a huge relief.
We managed to remove another big thing from our To Do list, and that was finding a nanny/childcare. We found a very sweet woman named Paulette, an empty-nester in her early 60s with three grown daughters and several grandchildren including two twin grandsons. We felt comfortable with her right away, and she's excited as can be about the job. She'll be with us 4 days a week, at least for the first several months. We also found some night nurses to help us out in the very beginning, referred to me by another mom in my triplet group. They are two Neonatal ICU nurses at a local hospital who do this work on the side, and they split up the work based on their schedule at the hospital. We're going to have one of them here 2 nights a week for the first few months, until the babies can go 5 or 6 hours at a time with their sleeping. They will usually come on the nights Jeff travels, so that he can get back to a somewhat normal work schedule as quickly as possible, but allowing me some sleep while he's gone. We have been so blessed to find this help! I can't believe it finally came together.
We're also making tons of progress on the nursery, getting organized around the house and so on. My mom is here for a few days this week to help us out even more. Seems like it is all finally coming together. Still have to get the carseats installed and a few other important things, but if these guys can hold on just another week or so, we'll pretty much be ready for 'em!
As far as mommy and daddy, we're doing pretty well. Jeff's working hard these days in preparation for time off and a sporadic schedule in the coming weeks, and trying to do all the manual labor around here that I can't do, AND put up with my wild, hormonal mood swings that appear at the oddest moments. I'm trying to make each day productive, but get the rest I need as well. I am still amazed at how fortunate we've been that I haven't been forced to go on bedrest. However I have to admit that physically it's gotten very challenging the last few weeks. I think I've mentioned this before, but just moving around can be a difficult whether it's getting in/out of bed or a chair, or the car. Believe it or not, I still drive! If I position the seat right, there's room for all of us behind that steering wheel, and I get around for a few errands, but mostly doctor's appointments. At this point I have only a few clothing items that still fit - and even fewer that are actually comfortable, but what's the point of shopping at this point? And I'm still wearing the very unattractive support hose that help with my circulation - improves blood flow for the babies and reduces swelling - no "cankles" - phew! For those that don't know, cankles appear when you swell so much that your calf and ankle become one...not attractive. I think I'm most surprised that as of now, I have NO stretch marks!!! Is that a miracle or what? I've been good with the cocoa butter lotion, but not religious about it, so I think it's mostly luck.
Enjoy the pics I've attached. One simply demonstrates how huge the belly is (and mostly straight out!). The other is a picture I had the nurse snap the other day during my monitoring session, when they track the babies' heartbeat as well as my contractions for about 30-40 minutes at each appointments. With the babies, they look for a pattern of a baseline heartrate and periods of accerlations, which evidently indicates active, strong, healthy babies.
Hope you all are doing well, and we'll try to keep everyone posted as the "big" event draws near. If we're lucky enough to make it another week or two, the C-section will be scheduled most likely for the last week of August sometime.
Hey everyone! Lots going on, but not a lot of energy to write about it. We have reached another huge milestone, 32 weeks. Triplets are typically born sometime between 32 and 34 weeks, so we're in the window...could be anytime! Triplets born after 32 weeks typcially do quite well and everyone including the doctors and nurses are pretty relaxed at this point, reassuring us that all is well. And, as of our last check up on Monday, the babies are doing AWESOME. Baby B and C are both approximately 4 lbs 7 oz (can you believe it???). Baby A was tucked a bit behind Baby C in the ultrasound, thus we couldn't get one of the measurements needed to estimate its weight, but the doctor thinks it's pretty close to the weights of the others. They'll continue to put on about 1/2 a pound a week until they're born, so we could have some 5 pounders on our hands! Despite being packed in there, they find a way to move around quite a bit, and at this point it feels more like squirming than kicking. Just 4 more days until my regular doctors return from vacation, which will be a huge relief.
We managed to remove another big thing from our To Do list, and that was finding a nanny/childcare. We found a very sweet woman named Paulette, an empty-nester in her early 60s with three grown daughters and several grandchildren including two twin grandsons. We felt comfortable with her right away, and she's excited as can be about the job. She'll be with us 4 days a week, at least for the first several months. We also found some night nurses to help us out in the very beginning, referred to me by another mom in my triplet group. They are two Neonatal ICU nurses at a local hospital who do this work on the side, and they split up the work based on their schedule at the hospital. We're going to have one of them here 2 nights a week for the first few months, until the babies can go 5 or 6 hours at a time with their sleeping. They will usually come on the nights Jeff travels, so that he can get back to a somewhat normal work schedule as quickly as possible, but allowing me some sleep while he's gone. We have been so blessed to find this help! I can't believe it finally came together.
We're also making tons of progress on the nursery, getting organized around the house and so on. My mom is here for a few days this week to help us out even more. Seems like it is all finally coming together. Still have to get the carseats installed and a few other important things, but if these guys can hold on just another week or so, we'll pretty much be ready for 'em!
As far as mommy and daddy, we're doing pretty well. Jeff's working hard these days in preparation for time off and a sporadic schedule in the coming weeks, and trying to do all the manual labor around here that I can't do, AND put up with my wild, hormonal mood swings that appear at the oddest moments. I'm trying to make each day productive, but get the rest I need as well. I am still amazed at how fortunate we've been that I haven't been forced to go on bedrest. However I have to admit that physically it's gotten very challenging the last few weeks. I think I've mentioned this before, but just moving around can be a difficult whether it's getting in/out of bed or a chair, or the car. Believe it or not, I still drive! If I position the seat right, there's room for all of us behind that steering wheel, and I get around for a few errands, but mostly doctor's appointments. At this point I have only a few clothing items that still fit - and even fewer that are actually comfortable, but what's the point of shopping at this point? And I'm still wearing the very unattractive support hose that help with my circulation - improves blood flow for the babies and reduces swelling - no "cankles" - phew! For those that don't know, cankles appear when you swell so much that your calf and ankle become one...not attractive. I think I'm most surprised that as of now, I have NO stretch marks!!! Is that a miracle or what? I've been good with the cocoa butter lotion, but not religious about it, so I think it's mostly luck.
Enjoy the pics I've attached. One simply demonstrates how huge the belly is (and mostly straight out!). The other is a picture I had the nurse snap the other day during my monitoring session, when they track the babies' heartbeat as well as my contractions for about 30-40 minutes at each appointments. With the babies, they look for a pattern of a baseline heartrate and periods of accerlations, which evidently indicates active, strong, healthy babies.
Hope you all are doing well, and we'll try to keep everyone posted as the "big" event draws near. If we're lucky enough to make it another week or two, the C-section will be scheduled most likely for the last week of August sometime.
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