21 Weeks!

Here we are, another week has gone by and my belly is expanding at an alarming rate! No huge news this week, other than I managed to get myself to the beauty salon and got my hair cut. Figured I better get that done before it got too late.

I think I'm starting to feel some movement in there, but nothing consistent. They say any day now. I feel my body is starting to enter a new dimension. I had my first introduction to swelling of the feet this weekend after spending the day in the car. I was so sad. I pressed my fingers into the top of my foot and the indentations stayed there. Boo hoo. Luckily, that is not a consistent thing yet and my ankles are behaving. The other unfortunate side effect is that in the last week or so, my hands have been going numb while I sleep. Usually the hand attached to the arm that I am lying on. I guess this is a sign of carpal tunnel and is pretty common with pregnancy. I got some good sleep positioning pointers from my nurse at MFM and went out and bought a 2" memory foam mattress topper. I slept like a baby last night! Poor Nathan, however, is slowing being pushed out of bed by all the pillows that I require. He's such a trooper.

Ok, so that's it from here. Below is the update. The girls are about a week ahead of schedule, as they were 3/4 pounders last week. Way to go Ladies!! Carrots this week! Oh, and the count down to 24 weeks continues... only 3 weeks to go until viability!

Oh! And some more baby news... Caroline and Will Harries welcomed Susannah Brooke Harries was born on September 12th at 1:51 am weighing in at 9 lbs 4 oz. Congrats to the new parents!!

Love, Nellie

Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and if you're having a girl, her vagina has begun to form as well.

The Marathon Ultrasound(with pics!!)

Phew! It's done. Took a little less than three hours. We had a great ultrasonographer who was very chipper and very efficient. She had the twins done in record time, but then baby C decided to be difficult for some of her measurements. The long and short of it is, everybody looks great! They looked at every organ, including brain, heart, kidneys, bladder, stomach, as well as all long bones, the spine, skull, digits on fingers, and even lips and nose! The only thing they weren't able to get was two of the five views of the heart on Baby C. The first three looked great, but she wouldn't sit still for the others. We will get those next time.

The best news is that Baby B checked out nearly perfectly. I mean, the other two did as well, but Baby C was the one we were concerned about. There was still NO evidence of any thickening of her nuchal ligament, which is where the hygroma was located back at week 11. Her heart looked perfect, as did everything else about her scan. They even got a look at the pinky finger to be sure it had all three bones in it(I guess many kids with Down's Syndrome are missing the middle bone in that finger). She and her sisters all had normal pinkies. The only abnormality for Baby B was that she only has two umbilical blood vessels instead of three. I guess that is not a rare situation and really shouldn't cause any issues, but it's something we will watch going forward.

I had a nice chat with our doctor and he is very happy with how all three of the girls look and just as happy about how well I am doing. My weight is good, blood pressure is steady at 120/64, and my cervix is still fabulous at 5.5 cm. We had a long conversation about Baby B and what the plan with her would be. The fact that today's ultrasound was such a success pretty much rules out any of the major abnormalities that we were worried about. For that reason, we decided that it is not worth taking the risk of hurting any one of the girls in order to get the amniocentesis results.

I am pretty tired, so I have to sign off now. I'll check this out tomorrow and add anything I may have forgotten. Below are the new stats for the girls and some fresh photos! Baby A is the ham of the group and had the best profile shots and Baby C "gave us the hand" when we tried to get her profile. Hope everyone is well. Love to you all...

Baby A... HR 130, femur length 31.5 mm, weight is 12 oz.


Baby B... HR 146, femur length 34.1 mm, weight is 10 oz.


Baby C... HR 153, femur length 32.4 mm, weight is 12 oz.

**Amniotic fluid was normal for all three babies.
**Remember that these are approximate measurements.

20 Weeks!!! Can you believe it?

I don't know why it seems like such a big deal, but 20 weeks just sounds like such a huge milestone. Things are still going great. I keep feeling little wiggles in my belly and wonder if it's just gas or if it's the girls letting me know they are around. I think that it's going to be much more obvious in the next few weeks. I'm definitely starting to have a little trouble sleeping. It's not just up twice a night to pee, but up 4-6 times a night, just to flip over because my hip hurts from lying on it. I'm getting used to it though. Work is still going well, although I am definitely reminded of my girth every time I try to lean over a table to examine a dog. We just put up a name suggestion box at the reception desk to see what sort of ideas we might get.

Big ultrasound tomorrow. It's going to be a long one, but I can't wait to have it under our belts. Everyone think good thoughts that all is well. We also have a pretty big goal to meet in a few weeks. At 24 weeks, the babies will be considered old enough for viability... in other words if the babies are born before 24 weeks, it is unlikely they will survive, but if born after 24 weeks, then they have a chance at life. Hard to believe that is only 4 weeks away!

Anyway, here is the babycenter update (Just a bunch of bananas!!) and some updated pics of the baby momma.

How your baby's growing: Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

One more baby addition...

Just wanted to announce one more baby arrival! Our neighbors, Erika and Shilo, welcomed their first child into the world yesterday. A baby girl named Quincy Wren Robinson, 8 lbs, 18 3/4 inches long. Congratulations Erika and Shilo!!

19 Weeks and Counting....

Hello!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. Nathan and I had a wonderful three days full of work, play, and relaxation (although not as much of that as we would have liked). Thanks to much hard work from Nathan and a little help from me when able, the nursery is cleared out, painted, cleaned, shelves finished, and crib put together and cleaned (Thanks Willy and Nan!). I can't help but to keep walking in there and it just makes me smile. I can't wait to fill it up with our three little munchkins!!

On the baby stuff front, we made good headway this weekend as well. We happened to stop at a yard sale on our way home from walking the dogs at the beach and found a jackpot of baby clothes. They were all spotless, name-brand, baby girl clothes from 0-18 months.... 5 trash bags full!! The woman couldn't have been nicer, and in fact her daughter is a playmate of the little girl who lives across the street from us. She sold us the whole bunch for $75. I will eventually have to inventory all that we have acquired so that we know what we still need and don't need, but as of right now, it looks like preemie stuff is all we will need more of, in terms of clothes. On that same front, we made the plunge and registered at Babies-R-Us. That was an interesting experience. I have never seen Nathan so trigger happy with that scanner!! We had fun, although overwhelmed. The fact that we are having three of the same gender allows decision making about certain products much easier.

On my front, I am still feeling great. Definitely starting to grow and feel my own restrictions as to what I can and can't do. Still no movement from the girls, or at least that I can feel. They are always squiggling around on the ultrasounds, but I guess that it's average that you don't feel them until at least 20 weeks. Next week is the big 3 hour ultrasound. Hopefully they will behave and show the docs all they want to see.

Oh, I wanted to bring a little attention to my two friends who have recently given birth to their first children. Two healthy baby boys. Thank goodness someone is making boys out there!! I can't wait to meet them both.

**Eliza Wilmerding gave birth to Oliver Storm Herman Wilmerding on August 20th, 2009 at 4:38 pm. He was 7lbs 15oz and 21 inches long. Congrats to Eliza and Amanda!!!

**Ellen Whitman Stoddard gave birth to Aiden Biddle Stoddard on August 28th, 2009 at 11:45 pm. He was 7lbs 12oz and 21 inches long. Congrats Ellen and Ryan!!!

Here is the babycenter.com update. I will mention again that I'm not sure how accurate these are at this point. They say the girls are 8oz this week, but they were 8-9 oz last week (which I am thrilled about). Anyway, it's fun to read regardless. That's about it from here... Have a great day!!

How your baby's growing: Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

Latest Ultrasound Results

Sorry I'm a day late, but yesterday was a marathon day and Nathan and I were in bed by 9p. So, the long and the short of it is, that everything still looks great. It just took them 90 minutes of ultrasounding to come to that conclusion.

Baby C, the singleton, has lots of space in her private room at the top of my uterus. Babies A and B, the twins, are a little more complicated. They are head to toe, Yin and Yang, and are sharing space. There is a dividing membrane between the two of them, but for the first 60 minutes of the ultrasound, the membrane was very difficult to find and it appeared as though one of the twins did not have as much fluid in her sac as the other. This would have been a concern, as a condition called Twin-Twin Transfusion, where one twin gets more of the placental blood flow than the other, can cause this unbalance of amniotic fluid. Needless to say, we were a little worried. After taking a break to check out my cervix (which is beautiful, by the way), they went back to trying to measure the amount of amniotic fluid. The ultrasonographer was about to go fetch the doctor to come in to try to see things better when she found what she was looking for. The twins had moved around enough that she was able to get a good look at the separating membrane and thus was able to accurately measure the amount of amniotic fluid for each twin. The results were that both of them have normal amounts of fluid.

Just to be safe, our doctor evaluated all the ultrasound images and did the measurements himself and concurred that all was well. PHEW! So, we are all set for another two weeks. Next time is the big tuna of ultrasounds. This is the one where they will take all the measurements of all the bones and organs, look at the structure of the heart closely, etc. With a singleton, this ultrasound usually takes between 60-90 minutes. We are scheduled for 3 hours! It will be a long day, but hopefully we will come out of it with the confidence that all is well with our three girls. As a reminder, the hygroma they saw back at 11 weeks can possibly be caused by heart defects or chromasomal abnormalities, and this ultrasound should be able to rule out many of those things. Our doctor says if we have a totally clean ultrasound next time, that our chances of having three normal babies will be quite high. We are confident that will be the case.

Without further ado, here are the new stats! Sorry, no pics. They are getting so big, that you can't fit them all on one screen. She had their 3 bellies on one screen at one point, but forgot to print it out for us. Anyway...

Baby A... HR 158, femur length is 29.5 mm, weighing in at 8 ounces!
Baby B... HR 156, femur length is 27.0 mm, weighing in at 8 ounces!
Baby C... HR 148, femur length is 27.7 mm, weighing in at 9 ounces!

Love to you all. Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend. We are gearing up for a big weekend of nursery organizing, turning the basement into a guest area, and snooping around at Babies-R-Us! Oh, how life changes.... :)

Nellie

18 Weeks!

I swear, every week when I sit down to write this, I just can't believe how fast it is all going. Here we are at 18 weeks. If I go 36 weeks (which is max for triplets) I would be 1/2 way!! Things are starting to take shape over here on the home front. Nathan has painted the nursery and is putting shelves in the closet. We have acquired a really nice selection of used items that we are so appreciative of. Thanks to everyone who has donated. :) We have an ultrasound tomorrow, so check back in for that update. Here's the 18 week update... and a few pretty impressive pictures! Do I really look like that? That growth spurt they were talking about last week was no joke!!

How your baby's growing: Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.