Thursday, January 11, 2007

Our Road To Triplets (Part 5)

So after the Holiday season we went into the new clinic for another ultra sound. We were told at this ultra sound that there were three heart beats. The fourth baby's heart had stopped. I have never expressed a lot of emotion about this because at the time I was so overwhelmed. However, I can now safely say that there are times when I think about that fourth baby and wonder about what our life would be like if it had made it. Would it have been a boy or a girl what would it look like, etc.. It is funny because at the time when they told us there were four heartbeats, Jon said to me "what's one more?" Shortly after the babies were born and we were still trying to adjust to life at home with three newborn babies I said to Jon one night during our 3 am feeding...do you remember when you said "what's one more?" he smiled and I said..."now you know!"
Anyway, back to the story. The doctor was pleased with how all three babies were progressing and baby c had caught up to babies A & B so there was really no concern for baby c anymore. We were relived that Babies A, B, & C looked good.
Our next appointment was with a genetic counselor at the clinic. We both left this appointment feeling very confused and uncomfortable. This woman asked us all of these questions about our family history. Then she told us the risks that we could run into with one or all of the babies have problems and what our options would be. Both Jon and I declared that if any of our babies had issues that was what God wanted for us and we would handle that when the time came. We were blessed in the end to have three healthy children so this was not even an issue anyway.
The next appointment I had was with the dietitian. I will never forget this appointment because I could no believe the amount of food I was to be consuming on a daily basis! WOW! A snack consisted of a bowl of cereal and a banana, this blew me away because that was what I usually ate for breakfast! I LOVE food so I was thrilled that I was supposed to eat, however, I think it is comical that even though I love food so much I just never felt like eating. This must be God's sense of humor! I did manage to strike up a good relationship with Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey so good that I am surprised that one of the babies did not come out a monkey!
During all of this time I continued to work. It got to the point where Jon would drop me at the door and come back and pick me up at night as he did not want me to be taking the bus or walking the distance from the parking lot to the building. Work was very flexible and at twenty weeks they allowed me to work from home two days a week and in the office the other three. At 22 weeks the doctors told me that it was probably time to stop working and start relaxing more at home. I probably could have kept working from home but at this point I had decided that I wanted to rest and start mentally preparing for the babies. I had a great routine down of sleeping in when I could, getting up and watching movies, tivo, surfing the net and just plain old sitting around growing babies. As I have mentioned before I am the type that runs 500 mph most of the time so I got very bored on bed rest after about the 2nd day!
My mom would rescue me from my boredom and pick me up and take me on outings. Of course we had a wheel chair or I would take the riding carts at the store. I am sure it was quite the site to see.
I remember that I really looked forward to my doctors appointments every two weeks as it was an outing and they did an ultra sound at every appointment. It was so much fun to see the babies moving around. At our 20 week appointment they did a level 2 ultra sound. We had decided to find out the sexes of our babies. The technician was very nice as she asked us if we wanted to know the sexes first before she dove into all the measurements and pictures she needed to take (this takes almost 2 hours). She first went to baby A and she announced that it was a girl. I remember I was so shocked as I really thought that I was having all boys. Then she went to baby b after a minute she said it was another girl. At this point I looked over at Jon who was shuffling in his chair a little uncomfortable. Then she went to baby c after a few seconds she announced oh this is definitely a boy! We were so excited that we were having two girls and a boy. I think we would have been happy with any combination! I never thought I would have a daughter so it took me a little while to get used to the idea of two girls and a boy. Of course now I could not imagine it any other way. That ultra sound also showed us that all of the babies looked healthy! We were thrilled!
Around this time my girlfriends threw a shower for me and I will never forget how my family and friends blessed us with so many gifts. It was incredible and such a blessing. Work had a shower for me as well. It was fun to have more outings.
I continued to grow those babies and have ultra sounds every few weeks. Everything was going along great....then we hit week 29! To be continued...

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