Nausea is back & the nursery is almost done!

Well, who would have thought that I would have to go through "morning sickness" again in the 3rd trimester? Seriously, I was so relieved to get back to normal after the 1st 14 weeks of pregnancy & now I am facing the same demon. BLAH!

Let me explain a bit better. The babies are getting big, I don't care what those measurements said last week, they are bigger! My belly is bigger & the kiddos are moving around more. I can tell more body parts so to hell w/ the measurements! B/c they are growing, they are pushing my other stuff (organs & what ever else is in the torso region) up. That includes the tummy. I went from being able to eat a full meal 2 weeks ago to barely being able to eat anything. I'm not joking...yesterday all I was able to eat AND keep down was my protein shake & cereal from the morning & a grilled cheese sandwich that I ate at 9:15pm. Yep, everything else was eaten but came right back up. Not like I ate much to begin with that could come up but it did.

I have figured out that ice cream isn't good to eat anymore. The same thing happened in the 1st trimester, no ice cream for me. It made me sick then & it is making me sick now. I am going to chalk it up to my digestion slowing down quite a bit which is also very normal at this stage in a multiple gestation pregnancy. I can eat my cereal & protein shake in the morning & be fine for a good 4 hrs before my tummy really is "empty" again. Mind you, that isn't a whole lot to eat...1 cup of cereal (not a whole bowl, a measured out cup) and a glass of milk w/ the protein powder mixed in w/ it. Before, I would eat that & be hungry 2 hrs later.

Also, it isn't about eating something delicious, it is about not having an appetite. Yeah...that has disappeared too. There isn't much that is appealing to me anymore. If I don't eat something, it isn't b/c I don't like it or don't appreciate the food, it is b/c there is something in my head that won't let me eat it. Very weird. I have come full circle w/ all this eating...I went from being a very healthy eater before pregnancy, to eating everything in sight to not being able to eat much at all. Fine by me b/c then the weight will come off quicker after I have this trio!

Ok, enough about my darn eating patterns, lol! I have some great nursery pics to update you with. The funiture looks beautiful in the room. We still have 1 crib left to put together so there are only 2 in there right now. Also, the floor lamp & the black chair will not be part of the decor. For your viewing pleasure...







It is great! Julie is coming over tomorrow to help put the finishing touches in the nursery & help me organize things in there since I can't do it. Jesse did a beautiful job doing all the dots. Todd has been fantastic putting everything back together & keeping the house in order. He does an even better job of taking care of me every day. The crew is working hard! Now, the babies need to arrive & I can get out of bed!

To all reading, thank you for the prayers & support. We dearly appreciate it!

Our latest peri appt...

Ah, thes appts are going to be closer & closer together now days. We went yesterday. As always, there is good & bad news. Go figure!

The good news...I only gained 2 lbs since the last visit 10 days prior to this visit which is good b/c it shows that I am not retaining water. Believe it or not, I have yet to pass the 50 lb mark. Thank God! To date, I have gained a total of 48 lbs. On the other hand, I know that I haven't been eating enough. It is hard now days to really eat a full meal. If I do manage to get most of a meal down, it takes a good 6-8 hrs for me to get hungry again!

My BP was 122/84 which is borderline but it is still w/i normal range. That means my body is holding up well. Also, there are only trace amounts of protein in my urine. WOOT! So I am all good and well. They even let me lay down this time b/c we literally had to wait 1 1/2 hrs to see the peri! I'm sure that helped w/ the BP.

Now for the not so good news which I would like to preface w/ the fact that my peri was in a HUGE RUSH b/c her pager was going off due to a women getting ready to deliver. I can understand that. So, she comes in & says she is going to try to get this done so we don't have to wait for her to come back. She very quickly got all the measurements. Normally, she double measures, sometimes triple measures but she didn't have the chance this time. With all that said, we are not putting a whole lot of stock in to these meausurements. The reason why I say this is b/c our babies didn't grow much, if at all this last time. The stats are...

Sofia ~ 2lbs, 4oz loss in 10 days
Gabi ~ 2lb 4oz, no gain/no loss
Ian ~ 2lb 7oz

We didn't get the chance to talk to the peri about this so I called & left a message w/ the nurse. She called back after talking to the peri about the results & basically told us that sometimes this happens. It isn't a concern until it becomes a "trend". Basically this means that the next appt will tell us what will happen next. If the babies have not shown much growth, then I will most likely get the steroid shots that will help develop their lungs & then deliver them. I will be right around 30 1/2 weeks. If there is growth, then we keep on baking babies.

With all this going on, the nursery very close to being completed. We have only 1 crib left to put together. Todd has cleaned out the closet, painted the trim & is ready to move in the furniture. It is amazing! I can't wait to post pictures of the room after it is all done!

I think that is it for now. The babies are still very active, making their presence known so that is always reassuring. Please keep the prayers coming for us. God Bless!

Nursery Pictures :)

Even though it isn't done, I have to say everything is coming together beautifully. My parents are coming for a visit this evening & will be putting another crib together. My mom is also going to make her WONDERFUL pizza! I'm excited!!!

I just wanted to share some pictures with you of our 1st crib, dressers, & how the nursery has progressed in the past few days.


This is the bedding that each will have. The bumper is reversible so the middle crib will have the polka dots showing.


I love this dresser & it can grow w/ the girls since there is enough drawers & it will match their beds.


Jesse & Todd worked so hard to get this stripe on the 3 yellow walls. You can also see the start of the dots being painted on the walls.


This is the dresser/changing table. I didn't see any point in getting a changing table & then not using for anything later on.

I'm going to have to get more pictures as they put the furniture up in the room tonight. I'm so excited!

The body is tired!

Yes, the body is getting tired. I didn't quite believe that my body could get tired while laying in bed but I guess the pregnancy is taking its toll on me physically. I have heard stories from the other triplet moms I know & well, it's not that I didn't believe them, I just thought I would be SPW ~ Super Pregnant Woman! Well, I have been proven wrong.

It all started around last Wednesday where I just felt completely exhausted at about 3pm. I mean I was so tired that I didn't want to even get on the computer which doesn't take much energy at all! It was like all the wind had been let out of my sails. I hadn't felt like that in a long time. I'm a mover & a shaker so the bed rest thing is really all a mental game for me. Thankfully my mind is strong but fighting a tired body is a whole new game. It doesn't help the time pass when all you can do is lay in bed. So, it seems that every day, I get this big lull. I still can't bring myself to nap so I just have to sit there & deal w/ the tiredness. From what I understand, this is normal. I'm getting to the end of the pregnancy. I'm carrying 7+ pounds of baby already! That is like 1 singleton baby!!!

Another area that I am experiencing changes in is my appetite. My tummy can no longer take a full meal. My peri said that this would start happening around the 20th week but lucky for me, it didn't hit til last week so I got an extra 7 weeks of good eating in. I've noticed that now I can eat a rather small meal & it will keep me full for 6-8 hrs. I know I should eat more & thankfully, that is what protein shakes are for. I can't bring myself to eat more when I am still feeling really full. Not only that the acid reflux has gotten unbearable at night. It hurts so bad that it makes me nauseous. I also heard this can happen from the other mommies out there. BLAH! It is no fun fighting nausea that also burns like HELL! I am constantly burping too. I guess the tummy just doesn't have the room that it had before. Those precious kids of mine are taking it all!

On a positive note, my MIL, Donna, & her friend Mary along w/ Mary's daughters, threw me a beautiful shower on Saturday. It was very nice & I actually sat up the whole time. My body didn't like that much though b/c by the time I made it back to bed, my feet were sooooo swollen! I put them up immediately & they went back to normal w/i 30 minutes. I received some very beautiful gifts & also some very practical ones such as our temporal thermometer. The company was wonderful. I really appreciated everyone that came out to spend the afternoon w/ us. I also have to say that Donna did a beautiful job of cleaning our house, decorating, & then cleaning up afterwards. She is a blessing!

While we were having the shower, Todd was upstairs cleaning out the room that will be the nursery. What fun! He managed to get it all clean & ready for painting. Good thing his close friend Julie was at the shower b/c she ended up staying & lighting a fire under his ass! YOU GO GIRL! At 8pm, in the middle of a horrendous storm, she got him to Home Depot to buy the paint. By 3am, the 4 walls had been painted. WOOT! I was sooooo happy! The colors are beautiful!





My parents have also helped by putting together our other dresser & 1 of the cribs. They are coming tomorrow to put another crib together & then start moving the furniture in. I'm getting so excited! Jesse is also painting the polka dots on the wall which you can see in the pictures. They look fantastic. What a wonderful support group that we have! Praise God!

Well, that was a long update! I promise to not wait so long! As soon as the furniture starts being put in the room, we will take more pictures & I will post again.

Much love to everyone that attended the shower & that has been helping put the nursery together. God Bless!

Yet another peri appointment & passed the 27 week mark!

I know I haven't posted in just over a week but there wasn't much going on that was worthy of posting about. I was in the same old holding pattern, you know...laying around. Yesterday I went to the peri so here is what happened.

My dad & I made it to see the peri right on time. This was also the visit that I had to get the RhoGam shot since I am RH-. For those of you that don't know about being RH-, this is the rundown. Basically, if you have a baby w/ an RH+ person, there is a chance that your body can begin to reject the baby creating antibodies to fight it. In order for this not to happen, one needs to get this shot several times to prevent the antibodies from developing. They only start to develop if the babies blood crosses into the mother's which is normally during child birth but can also happen in the 3rd trimester. So, now that I am officially in the last stretch of the journey, we had the shot yesterday. This is actually my 2nd one in the pregnancy b/c I also had one after the cerclage was put in at 18w 4d.

Then it was time to get weighed...7 lbs in 15 days. Not so good. My blood pressure was also taken & it was 130/60. I thought that was ok but apparently they considered this a little elevated. That is fine. My bottom # is still low & that is good.

Finally we get in w/ the peri & the ultrasound begins. My cervix is still holding strong although a little shorter than the last time. There is no funneling though. Sofi's head is also acting like a "cork" being that her head is directly pressing on my cervix not allowing anything to go between her head. She is our gate keeper!

The babies are doing fantastic. They are all measuring the exact same weight which is 2lb 4oz. The peri was amazed that they are so equal. Now, the conversion from grams made this possible b/c they are actually only a couple of grams different in weight. Really cool! They are doing exactly what their daddy has been telling them to do, SHARE! Now, Gabi's gall bladder was a bit enlarged BUT the peri said that it does not signify anything at all. She actually said, "It is really need from a dr's perspective to see the gall bladder this early. WOW!" So, it being enlarged is not a sign at all that there is anything wrong. Whew!

Then the urine results came in. I have trace amounts of protein present. Combine this w/ the slightly elevated BP & the 7lb weight gain in 15 days & there is some concern. Many reading this blog may have never heard of a condition called Preeclampsia but this is what I have, or at least I am in the very early stages of this. Basically, pre-e is when the mother's body stops working efficiently based on the stress put on her body b/c of the pregnancy. Normally, in a singleton pregnancy, this does not happen until around 35 weeks. With higher order multiples, it is common to start showing symptoms around 30 weeks. My peri is pretty thorough so I am not sure if we are just catching it way early OR if I am actually showing signs earlier than normal.

What does all this mean? Well, the end result is that the babies are going to come earlier than what we wanted. It also means that my body will be taxed & I will be going to the hospital probably in the next 2 weeks for observation b/c this is a rapidly progressing condition. The average length is about 4 weeks from the time of diagnosis. If I am lucky, we can push it to 5 weeks but that is unlikely. There is not much in the way of treatment that they can do to stop this. I am already dong what they would normally suggest, laying on my left side, drinking only water, eating little salt (ok...something I have to work on), & bed rest. I know the symptoms to look for so I should be ok for now.

So, rather than thinking I had about 5-7 weeks before these babies made their way in to the world, we now have to prepare for a bit earlier entrance. This means a longer NICU stay which we were trying to avoid by getting th 34 weeks but I also knowt hat my babies are BIG & HEALTHY so there is a good chance that they will still be very healthy when born. If that is the case, they will be feeders & growers which is fine. It will give me some time at home to get things done that I haven't been able to b/c of being on bed rest. It will also give me time to recuperate from the c-section.

Other than that, we have passed the 27 week mark & are only a few days away from hitting 28 weeks which is our 2nd goal. I have a shower on Saturday that I am looking forward to. OHHHH...I also have sitting/reclining privledges! I can recline a couple of hours a day. WOOT! That is such a relief! I am also going to be able to sit for my shower. WAAHOO!

That about wraps it up. I really appreciate all your thoughts & prayers. Please keep them coming. God Bless!

Fun but exhausting weekend!

WOW! I had no idea one big shower would exhaust me for a full 36 hours! I haven't slept that good for 2 days in a row in ages! Now that I have rested up, I am ready to sort through all the wonderful things I got. That is going to be just as fun!

It all started Saturday morning. My mommy came over at about 10am & we started working on getting the house ready. Ok...she & Todd started working on the house while I was working on some necklaces for a game. Even that is more than what I am use to doing so I'm sure that also contributed to my exhaustion.

At about 3pm, I hopped in the shower & let me tell you how much of an ordeal that is now days! Can you believe just taking a shower, sitting down, renders me breathless? Seriously, it is crazy! I can barely towel myself off & forget my legs, if Todd isn't around, they air dry! I literally have to lay down after the shower to relax myself & catch my breath. It sucks!

At about 4pm, the guests began to arrive. Let me tell you that this was also a wine party, lol! Funny thing is it didn't bother me that they were drinking. I thought it was fun to see everyone have a great time! Also, there were quite a few men there. See, in Argentina, there are no baby showers so this was a new thing for my parents & since we are not traditional anyway, why not have men around? Todd was even there. My brother & dad were there too! Of course, the men stayed outside most of the time but it was still great to have my dad come in every now & again to rub the belly & talk to the kids. I can't wait to see him hold them!

The presents were fantastic! I can officially say that I don't need anymore NEWBORN clothes! I have enough! What I need now is most definitely the rest of the 1st year's worth of clothes. I don't have much after they grow out of the newborn stuff. We did get a bunch of diapers, of course. We even got some preemie diapers which we hadn't gotten so far. Thank God someone thought to buy them! We also finally got some toys. We haven't gotten any of the big stuff though. No swings or bouncy chairs. EKE! Hopefully someone will be purchasing those for us. If not, I'll turn to my wonderful triplet mommy group here in the city & get some used ones.

The shower finally wrapped up at around 8:30pm. See what happens when wine is involved? It was great! I really appreciate all the gifts I received! It is wonderful to have so many people care about us.

The babies continue to do well. They are getting stronger & stronger by the day. I have to say that their personalities are beginning to develop. My Gabi is the big girl & can kick like a professional soccer player! Ian is a mover & a shaker so I think he will be our anxious one. It seems like he can never get too comfy or something like that. Sofi is our strong, silent child. She is at the bottom & guarding the cervix. She moves around but not nearly like her siblings. That could be b/c she is at the bottom & b/c she is already head down so when she does move, I'm not always sure that it is her or if it is Ian or Gabi. I'll be curious to see if their personalities really end up like that.

We have made it to 26 weeks today! Another blessing from God! Please keep all the prayers coming! We appreciate it all!

God Bless!