Official Minivan Family!

Well with 4 kids that will be in carseats we knew we'd needed something to seat 6! I drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee limited, fully loaded, and Doug drove a Mazda 6. We traded in his Mazda 6 and got a 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Touring today! Doug will be driving the Jeep for the most part. My dad works for the dealership, so we got a "deal". I like it already! And it'll be fine for 4 carseats! It was just getting too hard putting Vaughn in the back of the Mazda with how big and uncomfortable I'm getting, so this will be MUCH easier!

23 week ultrasound

Had my 23 week ultrasound yesterday and things could not have looked better!!

All of the boys are measuring about a week ahead!! They are big (little) boys! Babies A & C are 1lb 7oz, and B is 1lb 3oz. They have plenty of fluid in their sacs and are developing normally! My cervix is still very long, at almost 6cm (they said they like to see them at at least 3cm)!

The doctor, nurse, and ultrasound tech were all very suprised at how well me and the babies were doing, as well as how small I am carrying for triplets, and that all 3 are big. The doctor was actually shocked how well everything was going! He said "whatever you're doing, keep doing it." I said "I don't do anything." He said, "Keep doing nothing then." haha!

The doctor said that he wants me to get past 28 weeks, then after that anything is extra. Of course the thinks with my long, closed cervix I'll make it to 36 or even 37 weeks (depending on how the placenta's look). He mentioned if I get to 34 or 35 weeks and am completely miserable they would do an *amnio* of the largest baby and if everything looks good we could deliver then. We'll see. I must admit that I am starting to get pretty uncomfortable at this point. Although I'm not carrying large, it is a lot of my bodies creating these 3 boys. And the thought of going another 13-14 weeks does not sound fun. 11-12 more sounds much better. But I want to do what is best for the babies, and am not rushing anything. If the doctor believes at 34 or so weeks that the babies look great and would do well outside the womb, then I'll trust his medical expertise and do it, but if not, I'll just be miserable and let them cook longer!

*amnio* - Amniocentesis is a procedure in which a small amount of amniotic fluid, which contains fetal tissues, is extracted from the amnion or amniotic sac surrounding a developing fetus, and the fetal DNA is examined for genetic abnormalities.

So, that is all for now. My next regular checkup is in about 2 weeks. It was VERY reassuring to know how well the boys were all doing! Weird to know I'm already carrying around over 4lbs of baby. When they all reach 4lbs I'll be carrying around 12! We'll see how my body handles that!

Weird dreams.....

I don't even remember if I had weird dreams with Vaughn. If I did I didn't document them in my pregnancy journal with her. But man, this last week or so I have had some REAL doozies!!

A few nights ago I dreamed I lost one of the babies. Not a good dream at all. I have only had one dream about the babies this entire pregnancy, and that was that they were all boys, and that came true. So this dream kind of freaked me out. Then the next night I dreamed that I was bleeding.... But I have felt all 3 babies move since these 2, so am not worried. And tomorrow I have a big ultrasound to check growth, so I'll be able to be reassured that they are all good and well.

2 nights ago I dreamed I was heavily kissing Taylor Lautner. Hahaha. I RARELY have dreams in which I'm having sex or making out. This one was just VERY intense heavy kissing, but I was a very enjoyable, realistic dream. Now, mind you, my husband has been deployed now for 4 months. So, this dream was as close as I have gotten to fantasy. Then I woke up having to pee. Darn bladder ruined my dream!! And yes, I KNOW he's only 17 (he'll be 18 in a few days), and I am not a pedophile, but he's one good looking 17 year old! lol!

Then the night after that I dreamed my 13 year old niece was at my house just being a little witchy snot. She is NEVER like that to me, she is always super perfect to me. It was very realistic. So it was just strange because I know she'd never behave to me in the way she did in the dream. She may do it to her parents :) But not me!

I don't remember much of last nights dream. My niece was in it again though. I don't mind the strange realistic dreams, I just hope the bad ones about bad things happening to the babies stop!

I'm 23 weeks today!! Only 1 week away from my first milestone of 24 weeks! For those unaware 24 weeks is a good first milestone for people with multiples, because at 24 weeks the babies have a chance of surviving outside of the womb. Really a good milestone for any pregnant woman. But with multiples our number one complication and risk is premature labor.

I can't believe I still have another 13 weeks to go. UGH! I am starting to get pretty uncomfortable now. Daily backaches, and problems sleeping. I will probably ask the doctor for something for my back, it's only getting worse and more frequent. And I am just big already, it is going to be really crazy to see how big I get when all is said and done!

Doctors Appointment

Well I finally was able to be seen by a Perinatologist here. I HATED HATED HATED mine in VA, luckily I only had to see him 3 times, and only tolerated him because I knew I'd be coming to MN and getting a new one.

(A Perinatologist for those who don't know is a high risk OB). Due to triplets I cannot be seen by a regular OB. Even one who has delivered twins, triplets are an entirely different ballgame!

There are actually 14 Peri's where I go to. They said chances are I'll see about 3 different ones. I LOVED the nurses, and LOVED the doctor. Amazing. They actually listened, gave me appropriate medication for my near-daily headaches, and severe reflux. My doc in VA basically told me to suck it up and take Excedrin. WTF. All in all the appointment went great! The babies all looked great, at quick glance. He was very happy with my overall health. They basically told me there is NO way they will even consider doing a vaginal delivery :( I know the high risks involved, and I had made up my mind early on that I would go with whatever the doctor thought was safest for the babies. The doc I saw is a percentages type of guy, or numbers type I suppose, as he quoted me about 7 different percentages for things :) He said 9 times out of 10 an attempted vaginal delivery of triplets ends in emergency C-Section. I thought maybe there was a tiny chance I could do it vaginally, especially since a baby A is head down, but oh well. He was also very pleased with my cervix length! whoohoo!! LONG cervix. He had asked about my delivery with Vaughn and I explained how it was about 66 hours, and she was evicted at almost 41 weeks, and that it took 3 days of induction to even get to 1cm. Looks like my cervix of steel is continuing for this pregnancy. He even said "wow, you may just make it to 36 weeks, with how long your cervix is." whoohoo!

(36 weeks is considered full term for triplets due to the rapid ageing of placentas, and 91% of triplets are born preterm).

I am scheduled for a 2 hour ultrasound in 1 week from today. I am supposed to have an extensive one every month, to check on the babies growth. At every visit I'll have a "quicky" ultrasound, but nothing major. My next appointment after that is 2 weeks from then :) Can't wait to get another good look at my boys next week.

In other news, my doctor in all his statistical and percentagal (not a real word), knowledge said that with triplets the heart, and lungs work about 40% harder than normal. Compared to a single pregnancy inwhich they work 15% harder. And WOWZA can I TELL!! I went bowling today. Adjusted my form, so I didn't fall over, or hurt myself. And OMG, I was SO exhausted afterwards!! My back has been hurting a lot lately, and today, even worse. Guess I overdid it by bowling two games. Oh how I love my ICY HOT right now. I am UNBELIEVEABLY winded even after just walking up stairs. It is getting pretty ridiculous. Makes me feel REALLY lazy, but I know there's a reason for this. Carrying around triplets, my gigantor boobies, and Vaughn all day are exhausting, physically, apart from trying to do ANYTHING else. Showers even, tire me out. My mom put a chair in my bathroom for me so I could sit down after my showers and do my hair and makeup, because I'm always SO tired after showering.

Hoping for good rest tonight, gonna take it easy tomorrow, even though I don't want to.

Whoohoo. 1 full name decided upon.... I think

We already have our first names nailed down (pretty much). Vale, Brooks, and Pierce. I proposed a couple of middle names to Doug today and he actually liked one! So Brooks shall be Brooks Truman Hyatt. (subject to change of course). My and Doug were both stationed onboard the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), back in my Navy days, and that is where we met and fell in love nearly 6 years ago. And Brooks Harry Hyatt just doesn't sound as good :)

If anyone would like to help with our middle name search, I welcome suggestions. But the requirements are:

1) nothing traditional
2) must be either 2 or more syllables long (Doug is really weird with the syllable thing)
3) must not be girly, at ALL.

Not that we're particular or anything :)

How to annoy the pregnant lady!

Let me start by saying, for those who don't know. I'm currently living in my moms finished basement, and am displaced from our home in VA, because my hubby is deployed. So, it is me, and my 3 birds downstairs, and Vaughn, (until I cut the cord and put V up in "her" room and crib upstairs.)

I am at the point now where I can't sleep very well. I wake up frequently due to peeing, or reflux, or thoughts running through my head. I am lucky to fall asleep by 1am or so. Well last night it was 2am, and typically Vaughn and me wake up around 9am. I also woke up and layed there awake from about 4am-6:30am. Vaughn had a lot of activity last night so I thought she may even make it to 9:30 this morning - what a treat that would have been!

Flash to 8:30 am and I am asleep like a dead person and my mom's phone rings upstairs. THE loudest phone ever. Yay. It's my older sister. Ugh. Well, I figure I can probably fall asleep for another 1/2 hour (which would be heaven). But first to pee. By the time I'm back into bed my birds decide to chirp, sing, whistle, and Max, my codependant bird actually begins crawling off of her cage towards my bed. Errr. Max's antics wake up Vaughn for the day.

Not a super fun start to the day, but I'll get over it.

GOOD NEWS! Got a doctor's appointment up here, finally! Whoohoo! It has been 3 weeks since my last, and I'm not supposed to go more than 2 weeks. I feel okay, but that doesn't mean that the babies are okay. So tomorrow I go to see my new doctors, hope they are better than the worst Perinatologist I had EVER in VA.

21 1/2 weeks

Well I haven't updated this since my first post. I suppose I didn't want to jinx anything. We were shocked and afraid when we found out we were having triplets. But soon it turned into joy, and fear we would lose one or more of the babies, just because of the high likelyhood of that happening.

Well, here we are well into our 2nd trimester. All of the babies are doing fantastic!! All are BOYS!! Big shock there!! What is weird, and true I swear, is that sometime around 13 weeks I had a dream they were all boys. In fact I even had put it on my facebook, joking that I had a NIGHTMARE they were all boys. lol. But they all definitely have penis' and are for sure boys. :) We would have a preferred a mix of genders, I will not lie, but we are THRILLED. We wanted a baby(or babies), and honestly if we really had not wanted boys, we could have sent Doug's sperm off to have it separated so they would have only inserted female sperm. But we decided to leave it to fate. I have my 1 and only princess already anways. :)

I'm in Minnesota now and staying with my mom until after these babies are born, because Doug is deployed, and there is such a likelyhood that I could get put on bedrest I will need the help. I feel good most days, just tired. I get worn out just walking up the stairs, so being here is very helpful already, even though I have had no complications so far. One good thing about Doug being deployed is that we are making a lot of extra money, so I'm in a situation where I can take a semester off of school, and we can get by without the money paid to me for that. We're for sure going to have to stash some of that money away, becuase after the babies are here I won't get any more money until the fall when I return to school. And we can't really live off of his paycheck alone.

I'm going to try to be better about updating this. Even though I have no readers :) It's not really for anyone but me and my babies' anyhow. Crossing my fingers and toes to make it to my first milestone of 24 weeks. It's coming soon!

Here's a picture of me from a few days ago. With my crappy cell phone camera. I am maybe just a tad smaller than I was when I delivered Vaughn at 41 weeks :)