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After many requests, and approval from the mother, the father is posting what I call the "Belly-o-Meter". It's a weekly measurement of belly growth. Of course this growth is created by growth of the babies. It gives us a rough estimate of how much the babies are growing. We didn't start taking measurements until week 15. I wish we had started earlier because the mother started "showing" very early and was in maternity clothes much earlier than a woman with a single baby. It's amazing to (externally) see the babies grow. You can see that some weeks only produced minimal growth, but other weeks were big jumps. We'll try to keep this updated each week and we'll provide a link to the "Belly-o-Meter" on the right side of the page.
The "Belly-o-Meter"
I can't seem to get comfortable anymore and sleep. If I try either side, the babies seem to slide down in my belly and cause pain. I can't lie on my back because this decreases bloodflow. If I try a semi-sitting/leaning position, I think I'm still affecting the bloodflow because my hands start to tingle. I can't seem to find anything that works and no matter how many pillows I try, nothing seems comfortable. This problem led me to the following thought. Okay, here's a moneymaking idea for someone. Why not develop a sleep study for pregnant women? A nurse/sleep consultant/doctor could watch the positions that a pregnant women sleeps in and try and help them find the most comfortable positions that cause no problems for the mother or the babies. I think it would be a very lucrative career for someone. It would be worth paying to find a comfortable sleep position, if one exists.
This week is my last week at work. I teach at a university and all the exams I give will be completed by the weekend. It's such a good feeling to know that I've made it to the end. I'm so thankful for that. Now it's time to sit back, rest more and just wait for the babies to arrive.
Some people have emailed us and asked if they could get a gift for the babies. Well, the registry is available online, but we aren't going to advertise the link. If you are interested, just email us and we'll send you the link.
Today's post has more to do with maternity clothes than it does the triplets. Although I can say the babies are growing so much that my belly is almost too big for many of my maternity pants. When I wear my maternity pants, most of them have waistbands that come over my belly and create a line across my belly and under my shirts. It creates what I call the "line belly". I don't like this at all. I prefer to roll the waistband down some so it's under my belly, therefore creating what I call the "smooth belly". In my opinion, it's a much nicer look under my shirts. Do you have a preference?
This weekend, I had my first round of unusual swelling. I had noticed some slight puffiness in my feet before, but nothing like this. I was sitting and talking on the phone when I noticed that my right calf, ankle and foot were swollen. I was concerned because it was only one leg and not the other. I called the doctor's office and they were concerned too because swelling in one leg only can possibly indicate a blood clot. I was advised to elevate my foot above my heart and watch the leg closely. If it didn't go down in a couple of hours or started turning red, I was to call the doctor again. After the two hour window, the calf, ankle and foot had reduced in size and were back to normal. I'm very thankful for that. If it's possible, I don't want to have to go back to the hospital again until it's time to deliver the babies.
We've tried to start babyproofing. We're doing the usual stuff - covers on electrical outlets, moving the cleaning supplies, etc. All this may be in vain. According to "Raising Multiple Birth Children: A Parents' Survival Guide", multiples learn how to climb on each other and get on top of furniture and other things. According to a story we read in the book, the father stepped out of room for a few minutes and when he came back, one of his triplets was on top of the buffet and the other two were standing there looking at her. He said you could see their minds working, trying to figure our how they could get up there. This should be fun.
It's funny how my thoughts have started changing now that the babies are almost here. I guess you could say I've started thinking like a parent. I'm beginning to have thoughts like the following - Will the children be scared of dogs because the neighbor's dog barks at everyone?What clothes detergent should I use to keep the babies from having skin rashes?Will their allergies be as bad as ours?Will they have the same allergies?What activities will the children like as they get older?Will they be musically talented like we are?I can't wait until we can all get ice cream together for the first time.Yes, I guess my mind is preparing me to be a parent.
Yesterday was the first baby shower for the triplets. (Would flood be more appropriate to use instead of shower because there are three babies?) Now some of you may be thinking "What? I didn't get invited to the shower?". No need to worry. This was a shower thrown at the church I attended until I got married. There will be another shower at the church that I'm currently a member of. I just want to say thank you to everyone that helped plan, prepare, set-up, worked at and cleaned up at the shower. I also want to say thank you to everyone that brought a gift to the shower. We certainly appreciate it. And I had a great time too!!! Now it's time to start writing those thank you cards.
We have 2 baby carriers we're excited about trying out. They are the MaxiMom carriers. According to the website, it's the only carrier designed to carry 2 babies at a time. You can actually carry 3 at a time if you want to. I can't imagine the weight of the babies if you do that. These should come in handy when we get out and take walks and go to the store. There are so many possibilities. I can carry one, push one in a stroller and the father can carry one. The father can carry two and I can push one in the stroller. I think we'll stick with that plan. They should definitely make splitting up in a store easier and less distracting than the triple stroller.
I sit around and just love feeling the babies move. Whether it's smaller moves that only I can feel internally or larger kicks and movements that both of us can feel by putting our hands on my belly. It's amazing. I guess it could be easy to get used to feeling the babies move and maybe even start to ignore it. Something like driving by a beautiful scene each morning on the way to work. You know it's there, but you get used to it and eventually you ignore it. I hope that never happens with feeling the babies move. I want to enjoy and remember each time. It's just such a miracle.
It seems like every night when I try to go to sleep, the babies want to start moving around and playing. It's like they are on a schedule that's the opposite of mine. Last night when I got into bed, the boy and the girl that is across from him started some type of rhythm in my belly. One would move around and then the other and then the other and then...I think they might have been playing patty cake.
In case anyone was unfamiliar with the shirt logo, it's a take-off on the long running milk ad campaign - "got milk?"
After last Friday at the hospital with the mother, it seemed like we needed something to distract us from the problems that had occurred. My idea - a funny shirt to wear during the pregnancy. I decided to get one that's large enough for the mother to wear now and for me to wear after the babies are born. Wondering what shirt could be funny to wear? Here's the logo from the shirt - 
Yesterday was an unusual day. I spent about half of the day at the hospital. Thankfully there was no harm to the babies or me, but it was an usual day. It all started around 3:30 am with extreme dizziness that led to a couple rounds of nausea and vomiting. After talking to the doctor, I spent most of the early morning awake dealing with the dizziness. The problem continued until the doctor's office opened. I called them and they suggested I go to the Ob/Gyn unit at the hospital for observation and to be checked for what could be causing the problem. After staying there for half of the day and enduring an IV and blood tests, they were unable to determine exactly what was causing the problem. While I was at the hospital, the dizziness eventually went away and I haven't had any problems since then. I hope it doesn't occur again.I kept wondering the whole time if the babies were feeling the same dizziness. If so, they were probably thinking "Whoa, Mama! What's going on in here?"
A few people have been emailing and asking about the restrictions that the doctor placed on me at week 20. Here's a list of them.No more grocery shopping. This is not allowed because of the amount of walking it takes. We used to grocery shop together at Walmart, but now the husband takes care of that. I did try out the motorized carts they have available, but they are too slow. In the time it takes to go two aisles, my husband was halfway across the store. Using one of those things would make grocery shopping a day long adventure. Limited walking. As mentioned above. This covers lots of things I used to normally do. When I go out now, I have to park closer and walk less. A lot less. Limited stair use. We live in a 2 story house. I'm allowed one time down and one time up in a day. That's all. I try not to climb stairs anywhere else either.Limited amount of time standing. I try to sit or lay down as much as possible. I teach part-time at a university and most of my lectures are now given from a chair. No more water aerobics. I used to teach water aerobics at the YMCA. I can't teach now and I probably miss that the most.Lots of rest. Most of the time I try to sit or lay on the couch. It sounds like fun, but it really isn't.All of these changes took a bit of time to get used to, although I can say I'm probably still not used to them. It's all worth it though to try and limit anything that could potentially cause preterm labor.
In a posting a few days ago, we mentioned that the babies were about 12 inches in length. We've received emails from people wondering if that was really true. We did some more checking on pregnancy sites because they were unable to give us an exact measurement at the doctor visit. Their reply was that the babies would be about the same size now as a single baby. After checking different websites, we've discovered that the babies could be anywhere between 10.9 and 12 inches. So yes, folks, that measurement is correct.
If nothing else, we're certainly going to be educated parents. We've started taking another class. This one is on breastfeeding. Yes, believe it or not, you can breastfeed triplets.Here are some links - Is Three a Crowd? Breastfeeding Triplets!A Triple Play!It might be a bit more difficult because the babies will probably be premature, but we're going to give it a try. Those little babies will need all the benefits that only breast milk can provide.
It was back to the doctor yesterday for a check. Everything was good. The babies had some measurements made so they could estimate the size of them. Based on the measurements, the babies are growing nicely. All three are approximately one pound each. At this point, they are the size of a normal single baby - around 12 inches in length. From this point on, they will probably not keep up with the size of a single baby due to three sharing the space of one. I guess it will be a bit like this -
You usually hear about different food cravings women have when they are pregnant. I thought I was exempt from that until recently. I've been cravings two things and they are at completely different ends of the food spectrum. One item is eggplant parmesan from a local Italian restaurant. That's the only place I want it from. The other item I've been craving is Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies. I guess the perfect meal would be to start with the eggplant parmesan and finish with an oatmeal pie for dessert.
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