24 weeks

Twenty-four weeks and holding strong. Dr. Awesome told me at my last appointment that if my cervix hasn't budged by now, it probably isn't going to open prematurely and took me off the weekly monitoring schedule. Or, as he puts it, the "million dollar ultrasound machine" schedule. Now when I go in every two to three weeks, he checks the babies for movement and heartbeats using the "hundred thousand dollar machine." I don't get to have any more million dollar scans until the babies are big enough to weigh and they start doing the biophysical profiles. While I know this is the best possible news, I'm going to miss those high resolution scans and weekly confirmation that the babes are alive and kicking.

Fortunately, they now let me know on a regular basis that they are alive by kicking the heck out of me. Baby number 3 is the most active (or perhaps just has the most room); her territory is the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. In fact, she is pounding out a little rhythm as I am typing this. I also feel babies 1 & 2, but as they are both on the left side and kind of overlapping, it's harder to distinguish who is responsible for the movement unless it occurs at the very top or bottom of my belly. I've been able to see and feel them from the outside but so far my husband has missed the show.

I had the follow-up appointment with my new cardiologist and my heart is fine, so that's a relief. The new cardiologist was quite the character. I told her that they are all girls and she turned to my husband and said "poor you" to which my husband replied "as long as they all love their daddy." Without missing a beat, she turned to me and said, "oh, they always love the daddy; it's the mommy that they hate." She had a couple of other good lines, we quite liked her. In other pregnancy fun, I'm retaining a fair amount of water and having a lot of swelling in my legs and feet. Still dealing with mild nausea and now reflux and figuring at this point that it's not going away until after the babies are born.

We're still working on setting a price with our contractor so we can get a few improvements done on our house, hopefully they'll be starting work in a week or two. I ordered fabrics for the girls' room and have started to look at baby gear but haven't bought anything yet. I figure that as long as I have it all picked out, we'll have plenty of time to buy things as the time they will be needed draws nearer.

22 weeks

Finally, a belly shot to prove that I am indeed pregnant:

Phew, I'm tired. I just returned from a trip to the west coast to see my family. The babies went crazy on the flights there, kicking and squirming like I had never felt before, must have been the changes in pressure. It was a good trip, but a little more difficult to travel at this stage in pregnancy than I had anticipated (see photo). Airplane seats were uncomfortable, walking through airports dragging my bag was tiring and having to fit into all sorts of unfamiliar compact cars was a challenge. Despite the minor inconveniences, it was fun to show off my bump and I was always mindful that this would be my last solo trip for some time to come, so I tried to get as much quality time as I could with family and friends.

My mom and I took a trip to the most wonderful wool shop where she treated me to gorgeous wool to make sweaters, hats and booties for the babes. She did not, however, approve of my choice of deep plum, mauve and sage green as she is still firmly of the opinion that appropriate colors for babies are white, cream, pale pink and pale blue. Ahem.

Although I somehow managed to gain four pounds this week (!) I am still dealing with background nausea and threw up twice. It's more irritating that incapacitating, but it would be nice to just feel "normal" again. My monitoring appointment on Wednesday turned out to be another fetal survey which was very difficult to get through as I can't lay on my back for more than five minutes without feeling like I'm going to pass out. I had to keep rolling from side to side and sitting up during the exam and wasn't really able to concentrate on watching the babies on the screen because I was so uncomfortable. They all look fantastic and are starting to look pretty darn cute, if I say so myself. Cervix is still holding strong and Dr. Awesome told me everything was looking perfect and that I didn't have to come back for another two weeks.

I did get some sad news: my cardiologist died this week very unexpectedly. It was quite upsetting, even though we'd only met him once, both my husband and I had enjoyed talking to him and felt very comfortable having me in his care. And his poor family, losing him right before the holidays, so very difficult. It was a sobering reminder of how short life is and how precious these three new little lives inside of me truly are.

20 weeks

I just returned from my weekly monitoring appointment. My cervix is still holding strong and all three babes are looking good. I was catching up on some other triplet blogs and realize how different the management of triplet pregnancies is depending on the doctor and the hospital. So many women seem to be put on mandatory bed rest, or are told how much weight to gain or otherwise terrorized into very conservative behaviour without any indications that it is necessary. My doctor, who delivers ~30 sets of triplets per year, has fully informed me of the possible complications of this pregnancy, and monitors me accordingly, but has put no restrictions on my activities. I really appreciate this sort of approach; I know I'm in a high risk category of pregnancy and I feel well taken care of, but no on is trying to instill unnecessary fear in me. Good thing, too, because I am a total worrier and prone to assume the worst.

For example, last Friday I came home from a busy day/week of work and noticed that my ankles were so swollen that I couldn't see my ankle bones. I freaked out, assuming that I was developing congestive heart failure (I am being following by a cardiologist, after all) or pre-eclampsia and was going to die, lose the babies or both. Seriously, I was sobbing uncontrollably. My bewildered but ever rational husband consulted Dr. Google and informed me that this sort of swelling was normal for any pregnancy and managed to calm me down. At my appointment today, I asked Dr. Awesome about it and informed me I had possible courses of action: (1) to ignore it, or (2) to put my feet up and that whichever option I chose, the swelling was only going to get worse as the pregnancy progressed. Can you see why I love Dr. Awesome so much?

Everything else pregnancy-related is going well, I still have loads of energy, good appetite despite the mild lingering nausea and am occaisonally feeling the top two babies move, although it's a lot more pinching and sharp poking than the delightful tickles that most people seem to experience at this point. Still no food cravings (I'm being to think that this cravings business is a convenient excuse to eat a lot of junk food :) although I do enjoy my daily ration of the extruded chick pea snacks that we get at the local Indian grocery.

19 weeks

Still feeling great with the exception of the occaisonal mild GI upset and a strange taste in my mouth that will not go away. I'm in full time maternity clothes now and loving every inch of my baby bump: my husband says it grows bigger every day and is just as enamoured with it as I am. He loves to say hello to his girls and we've spent many an early morning talking about potential names and wondering just who these babies are. Friday night I was knitting on the sofa and definitely felt baby #3 (top right) move and called him in, but of course it's still too early to feel anything from the outside. It was pretty amazing; it felt just like I was being lightly tickled from the inside. There have been a few other times I thought I felt some movement, but wasn't sure until this most recent occaison. I was told I would feel movement later than usual becasue the positions of all three placentas are on the anterior of my uterus, providing an extra layer of insulation between me and the babes. Yup, they are already locked in their rooms with the doors closed :)

It was a beautiful weekend here. Sunday we went for breakfast at our favorite diner and then managed to get out later in the day for a walk in the woods. It was much harder than the last hike we did, but I just took it slow and accepted a little help up the steeper parts from my husband. We came across a family with two little girls and my husband commented that he couldn't wait to hear his three calling "Daddy, Daddy." So sweet.

Hopefully I'll be able to make a trip out to see my family in the next couple of weeks, but I would really like to get an H1N1 vaccination before I travel. Unfortunately, due to the limited supply, I haven't yet reached the top of the priority list at my doctor's office. I'm torn, I really don't think I'm in any greater danger getting on an airplane that I am going about my daily life at home, but my husband is feeling very protective and doesn't want me to take any chances. We'll see what they say when I go in for my weekly ultrasound tomorrow.

Care to join the sorority?

There are currently four members, though I'm the only one who seems to have any actual responsibility, you could call me the house mother. For the other three it's just party, party, party and non-stop skinny-dipping. No alcohol allowed and we haven't finalized our name, though ABC is what we're going with for now. My husband is feeling a wee bit left out and really, who can blame him? It's not like he took to his bed in despair (it was just a short nap) or expressed any misgivings about missing out on the full experience of parenthood (?) or suggested there might be a fourth child in our future (when Hell freezes over) or anything like that. He's already rising to the occasion; calling out "where are my girls?" whenever he enters the room and banning cheerleading in favor of soccer and music lessons.

Three perfect baby girls, can you believe it?

18 weeks

It's hard to believe I have summitted the half-way mark in this pregnancy. I just stopped feeling horrible all the time, my bump has only been getting attention from strangers for a couple of weeks, how can I been on the downward slope already? It reminds me of one of my friends who had her second son at 30 weeks lamenting "I was barely pregnant." At least in my situation, I know the numbers going in and have some time to prepare for our three little premies. And nesting I am. We have a call in to a contractor to have a few long-standing items on our wish list taken care of. Upgrading our basement bathroom to accomodate my MIL when she comes for an extended stay to help with the babies, stuff like that. Nothing that absolutely has to happen, but things that will make life more comfortable with a house full of people.

Overall, I've been feeling great. Lots of energy, good appetite and the desire to plan meals and cook again. Still some lingering nausea (Saturday was bad) but I'm definitely having more good days than bad. There was an incident last night involving too much tofu eggplant stir-fry (the stuff is crack to me) that I am still paying for, but I can't blame pregnancy for that one. I went to yoga last week for the first time in many moons and it was hilarious. So much harder to negotiate poses with an unyielding baby bump, I must have looked ridiculous. Regardless, it felt so good to stretch that I'm heading back this week for more.

I've submitted to maternity pants even though they don't quite stay up yet because my regular pants are just too uncomfortable. Underwear was a challenge until I discovered the GAP hipsters and they are just right. It was horrifying to discover how many truly ugly and ill-fitting maternity undies are out there, and how much they cost. And I'm not even talking about the maternity thongs which, in my opinion, are just plain ridiculous.

Tomorrow is our first fetal survey; the ultrasound where they will take a look at all the organs and see how our little babes are developing. I say first fetal survey because, at my monitoring appointment last week, the ultrasound technician was of the opinion that the babies would still be too small to see everything this week. Fingers crossed that we'll at least learn the sexes; the suspense is killing me. Plus, people are offering us all sorts of baby items and I don't want to accept a bag full of pink frilly clothes if we are having all boys. I don't have any sort of feeling about who is hanging out in there, but I was at a "Ladies Night Out" event last week and had a tarot reading in which the psychic told me I was having two boys and a girl. We shall see (and soon, I hope).

17 weeks

Our first monitoring appointment last Wednesday went perfectly. The babies looked great, they are all measuring the same and keeping pace with their gestational age. The ultrasound technician tried to determine their sexes, but 2/3 were non-compliant and the technician only took a quick peek at the third so I'm waiting for further confirmation before I'll believe it. My cervix hasn't changed and all of my vitals were normal so I was in and out of the office in short order. I also had my cardiologist appointment where baseline data were collected, again all normal. I'll go back for follow-up in a couple of months and have an echo-cardiogram done. The number of ultrasounds that I'll have accumulated of my various body parts by the time the babies get here is quite astounding. Still having more good days with less nausea and I've regained my nearly normal pre-pregnancy appetite. My beacon of hope through these past 11 weeks of feeling craptastic has been the knowledge that I would once again be interested in eating lobster (my absolute favorite treat) and I think I'm nearly lobster ready, so progress is definitely being made.

We celebrated our friends' son's third birthday on Saturday which was lots of fun. They are expecting their second son in three weeks and the mom looks and feels fantastic, which was encouraging. Also at the party were a couple with a 5 1/2 week old baby boy who I was able to snuggle with for a good long time (I may have monopolized him just a little). He was so tiny and still at that floppy newborn stage but starting to make eye contact and smile. He is a very relaxed baby, hopefully some of his easy-going vibes made their way to my little ones when I was holding him. I had a bit of a shock when I realized that at 9.5 pounds, he was twice as big as our babies will be when they are born - yikes.

I'm starting to buy a few maternity items and went out to try on a few things yesterday but I'm still at that intermediate stage with the maternity stuff is way too big but I need the longer shirts and lower waists to accommodate my bump. On the home front, we're discussing which room to turn into the nursery. My husband has already turned into super-protective dad and is adamant that the babies are going to sleep in our room because "anything can happen with babies" and he's convinced he won't be able to sleep if they're not right next to us. He's very sweet, but really, it's not like they're going to spontaneously combust.