26 weeks

Today is Monday, October, 3rd, and I am 26 weeks 4 days pregnant with these guys (and girls). Today is my first day off work and on leave. SO far, so good. I have been really concerned about boredom but its to early to tell if that will be an issue for me. I am enjoying not having to worry about getting something done and just resting whenever I want. The last two weeks have been pretty painful for me. Standing more than a minute or two is very hard because of all the pressure. My knees are very sore probably from lack of exercise. My back is killing me. My upper back just from how I am sitting and then my lower back and hips from sleeping on my side. Sleeping on my side, all the weight is on top of whatever hip I am laying on so I sleep on one side until I wake up and feel the pain and then I turn to the other side. When I lay down even on my side I start to breathe really heavy. I need to find out if this normal but I assume it is. I think pretty soon I may not be able to sleep laying down at all. I say all this not to complain, but just to document what I am experiencing. One day, I will look back and read this and laugh and who knows maybe it will help someone else having triplets know what to expect.

The worst part right now is the cramping. I get it all the time, cramping and pressure. I have still been unable to go a full two weeks without either a trip to the doctor or to the OB triage at the hospital. Two weeks ago we were at the hospital for the cramping, they monitored me for contractions and checked a few other things and all was good. Last week at the doctors office I mentioned the pain again, not because I cant take it, because I just want to be sure the babies are ok and that its normal. The doctors say go to triage twice a week if you have to, with triplets you cant be too careful, you never know when things are going to change. I told him its hard because I have never been pregnant before I don't know what is normal and whats not, and he said even if you had been pregnant before, you are having triplets and its very different from a regular pregnancy. So, as much as Tommy hates our trips to the hospital, we probably have a few more by the time the babies get here. We have been through too much and I am not risking anything when it comes to these babies.

At our last visit the babies were growing quite well. Georgia was 1 pound 12 ounces, Jolynne was 1 pound 13 ounces and Mickey was a whooping 1 pound 15 ounces. Up until this point Jolynne has always been about a week behind and smaller than the other two and now she is only a ounce different than Georgia. All of their fluid levels looked great and they were moving all over the place. Its hard to get good pictures of their faces because there are arms and legs everywhere and so many shadows. There is just not a lot of space in there. If you think about it, that appoint. was a week ago tomorrow so the babies are probably all 2 pounds at this point, that's 6 pounds of baby, plus two placentas and all the extra blood and fluids, no wonder I can barely move.

I don't remember if I blogged about our tour of the hospital but I will summarize quickly. We got to see, the recovery area for after my surgery, the waiting rooms, the rooms where you stay if you are hospitalized before the surgery and the rooms where you stay after the surgery and then we saw the NICU. We saw the sweetest, tiniest babies and even though they were hooked up to machines, they looked precious. They were all miracles. I thought I would be scared to see them, but it was so reassuring to see how these babies were there beating all the odds and they were being taken such good care of.

This past Saturday Tommy went down to Tucson for a diaper party thrown by his family (so sweet). I could not go as I am not supposed to go on long car rides, I need to have my feet up and I get nervous being to far from the hospital in case something happens. I went over to my moms for the day so I didn't have to stay home by myself and we went down the street to get mani/pedis. When I was getting up to leave, I was bending over trying to pick my purse up off the ground and struggling a bit to do so. These two ladies were staring at me and commenting how difficult normal stuff like that must be and I said "yes, it is". They asked me the due date and I told them the usual spiel, I am 26 weeks but I am having triplets, I don't know when they will be here.We are planning on November as that is the average for triplets. One lady said she just had her baby in June at 24 weeks! She is still in the NICU at Banner Desert and told me the babies name. I swear it was one of the babies we saw during the tour. she said they are there every day and how wonderful all the doctors and nurses were there. She didn't have triplets but she has been through a lot.

So, as I mentioned Tommy had a diaper party on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who brought diapers and goodies, we will for sure need them. He brought me home some cake, hes a very smart man. He said we had 3 cakes, Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate, I said I will have some of all three :-).

I was looking back at some of the pictures I have posted on this blog and boy do I look tiny in some of them. I think in every picture I thought, how could I get any bigger than this and I did. I feel humongous now, I will post more recent pictures soon. The maternity pictures were me at 22 weeks, so that was a month ago already.

So, I have set two goals now that we are getting closer. The first is to make it to 32 weeks (at least) which would be November 10th, maybe I can go longer but things are getting harder for me, so I want to be realistic. the doctors say they will be thrilled if I can get to 32 weeks with triplets. And that would be about a 4 week NICU stay for the babies on average.

The second goal is that the babies need to all be weighing over 3 pounds. I think if I get to 32 weeks, they will be but you never know. There are all kinds of issues to worry about with preemie babies, but if they are under 3 pounds, there are even more.

The good news is, I am almost 27 weeks, and at 28 weeks, survival rate for babies born that early is 90%. I think Georgia, Jolynne and Mickey are pretty comfortable for now and I don't anticipate their arrival that early, but just in case I feel better knowing that.

The nursery as you saw is coming together nicely. We got the rocker/recliner last week and sometimes I just go sit in there in the quiet. It is my new happy place. The next step is getting all the little stuff and finding a place for all of it. I hope the babies like their room. I love it. I cant stay away.

Its weird to think we have made it this far. I have to admit I certainly was not sure if we would but I am so happy and feel so blessed to be at this point. I know I am super uncomfortable and not sleeping a lot but that's ok. Only a couple more months, if that and they will be here! I cant wait to see their sweet faces!