Week 24 - V-Day (Viability)

Fetal Viability is described as "The potential of the fetus to survive outside the uterus after birth, natural or induced. Fetal viability depends largely on the fetal organ maturity, and environmental conditions." They say that at 24 weeks, the babies have a 50% chance of survival which is increased to 95% at 28 weeks.  This is just to show how important each week is that the babies remain in my belly.  I talked to the specialist this week about this 24 week milestone I thought I had reached and she said that yes, 24 weeks is a good milestone to reach... if you were carrying a singleton baby.  She said she won't breathe easy until we hit 28 weeks! (4 more weeks!!) She would love to see me go to at least 33 weeks which would bring me to November 30th.  So fingers crossed everyone and keep that date in your thoughts for me!!  

The babies are all doing well, the average for a singleton baby at week 24 is about 1 lb 5oz and at 23 weeks and 3 days baby A & C were at 1lb 3oz and baby B, my big boy, was at 1 lb 5 oz.  So they are growing really well, keeping up with the growth rate of singleton babies!  At my next appointment, I expect them to be over a pound and a half, so we'll see!!! GROW BABIES GROW!!!  

They are, as always, kicking and letting me know they're there all the time.  So very soon my husband, family and friends will be able to join me in this wonderful feeling.  They seem to be more active in the evening and in the middle of the night when I'm trying to sleep... Speaking of night time... my poor hubby is not getting the sleep he needs due to my apparently loud SNORING!!! WHAT?  Yep, these extra 55 lbs are making me into a snore machine, which means we may need to separate our marital bed so that he can get some sleep!  I've gotten used to HIS snoring but he just can't get used to mine, boo hoo... haha... No really, I feel bad! It's a good thing we have a newly renovated (by moi and maman) guest bedroom all ready to go with a brand new bed, maybe he'll get some sleep there.  It might be hard for me to sleep though because I don't sleep very well if he's not in bed with me, I guess Roxy might have to take his place!  

I've been told, yet again, to be in resting mode most of my days.  Doc says that she doesn't believe in complete bedrest until the need be because she says the more you're laid down and not using your muscles, the higher the risk of developing blood clots. Since my cervix is, in her words, looking beautiful and curvaceous (to which I of course replied "like my body"...lol), she's not prescribing bed rest just yet.  I do what I can, I go to my appointments, maybe make a trip to Wal-Mart, Shoppers, breakfast with my mom, etc. and then back to the couch I go.  I spent most of my morning yesterday in a lawn chair enjoying the sunshine watching the boys put shingles on our shed roof.  This will enable us to finally move Gab's tools out from the house, who needs that many tools!!! This also means we will be able to start organizing our house for the babies soon; I can't wait to see it all come together!  

We were treated to a gift certificate from The Keg for our wedding and I wanted to go before I really couldn't move, so we decided to go last night.  It was nice to be out and feel like a real person but I was dead on my feet when we got home.  I'm glad we went last night because my outings are going to become more and more limited.  I got to spend a wonderful night with some Moncton Multiple Moms on Thursday night, including my amazing friend Mel, and they had so many insights and reassurances... it's nice to feel I'm not alone in my scary thoughts and feelings.  Thanks ladies!!

Alright.... so if you have 6 minutes to kill, you need to watch this video about how we might live outings with my trio once they're here... it's funny/scary/makes me never want to leave my house/might want to punch a few people in the throat (as my cousin Sara would say...haha):

A few pics of the week:

Date Night @ The Keg - No steak for me :(  what's the point of eating a well done steak?? Yuck!!!! 

All I need on my couch:  Stuff to do my nails, Roxy, iPad, Kobo, TV remote, computer... all within reach :) 

Belly difference from 22 weeks to 24... there's a little difference I think? 

23 weeks ~ Thoughts

When you have so much time on your hands, you find yourself thinking about a lot of different things... This week I thought a lot about my future babies and how we would be able to handle it all, the busyness of it all, the finances, our relationship... Like it or not, even just one child changes the dynamics of a relationship and although I know Gabe and I are a really good team and we're really good at communicating, it'll be tough to communicate properly with all the commotion that will be in the house.  We are both stubborn people who always think our way is the best way and never having raised a child before, I just don't know how we're going to deal with raising three.  We are going to have a lot of support from our families, but even that will be difficult to add to our duo.  The way my mother thinks will be different than the way his mother thinks and vice versa, and the way I'll want to do things, after talking with friends, may not be the way it was done in the days when I was a baby.  Trust me, we are going to love, appreciate and crave all the support we're going to have, I just foresee a lot of eye rolling and "whatevers" and "fine, do it your way" from anyone who comes to help.  I'm no expert on child rearing, we are first time parents, and it won't matter how many books and blogs I read or how many conversations I have with other mothers, I just won't know how to do it until I meet my boys and get a feel for what they need.  There are so many methods now, so many "don't do's", so many things that are now requirements that weren't the same just 5 or 10 years before that I feel like no one really knows anything... Look at how many of us survived the "OMG, I can't believe people use to do this with their babies!" methods, our mothers just did what they felt they needed to do, not what some book told them to do... I'm not saying I won't read the books and I won't watch the videos, I'm sure they're going to help me out and help me figure things out and make my life simpler as many of those methods have been tried and obviously have been successful, I'm just saying that I have to make sure that I take it all in and then do what's best for our kids.  Now that I feel them move all the time, it's becoming a reality that I never really accepted until now.  There are three little ones in my belly that are going to turn our lives upside down within the next three months, creating a whole new universe filled with poop, puke, milk, sleep deprivation but also SO MUCH LOVE and laughter and endless adventures.  Day by day is what we'll have to keep telling ourselves.

I also thought about people's curiosity this week... We still have the same old question almost every time we meet someone new: "are they natural?".  I understand and realize that with them being triplets, a very rare thing, it's hard not to wonder.  I would wonder too.  I watched a video this week that made me realize why I'm so bothered every time I hear that question, I guess I feel like they are really asking us "Did you struggle with infertility?".  This always takes me back to the struggle Gabe and I had trying to get pregnant and how miserable I felt every month when I wasn't pregnant.  Gabe telling me he just wants me to be happy and for over a year, I never truly felt happy because I so wanted us to have a baby that it's all I could focus on.  It's a wonder our relationship survived... I won't go into details because they are, for obvious reasons,  very personal, but that year + of struggle helped me know for certain that if our relationship can make it through that, we can survive anything.  There are a lot of people out there who struggled with infertility and were blessed with one child, and they don't get asked that question, so just try and be respectful of people.  There are many things I'm curious about when I see people, like when someone has lost a limb, I really want to know what happened, but I'm not about to go up to that person and say "How did you lose your leg?".  I know it's not the same thing AT ALL and I'm not trying to compare the loss of a limb to my triplet pregnancy... I don't know, I just feel that there are personal boundaries that people just shouldn't cross and you never know how a simple question can bring up a lot of painful memories...

On a happier note, I was busy this week and I got to see and spend time with a lot of people I love.  I had an ice cream & pizza date (yes, in that order) with my girlfriends from work who I miss like crazy.  I went to see the first quarter of our school's spirit football game, where we kicked major a** I must say, GO ROYALS!  I went shopping with a friend for her wedding dress, she was gorgeous in all that she tried on!  I spent a nice evening with my mother, step-dad, Gabe and my nieces, who are just crazy amazing little girls and I had a nice lunch with friends yesterday.  After being cooped up all the time, it's nice to get out as I know I won't be doing too much of that soon!  We also got to shop early at the Moncton Multiple Sale, which was great! The organizers let us in at 7:15 and since I can't walk to far or for too long nowadays, we were able to borrow a wheelchair and Gabe pushed me around while we looked at all sorts of baby stuff.  We took home a good haul!  I felt silly being pushed around but everyone in there (we shopped with the volunteers) seemed to know that the girl in the wheelchair was the girl with the triplets... and you know what, not once were we asked if our babies were natural!! haha...

The babies this week are the size of large grapefruits...  I heard their heartbeats and they are all between 140 and 160 which is great.  I get to see them again on Tuesday and I can't wait to see how much they've grown!

It looks a little pointy this week... maybe that's why my super innie belly button is starting to show it's weird little face... 

22 weeks ~ Debbie Downer Week

There are so many joys to being pregnant, I feel my boys move more and more and it's just crazy to think that there are three little babies growing in my body.  It's a real miracle and I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that this is happening, my body is helping make this happen and within 3 months, we will have three little human beings in our lives.

And now for the poor poor pitiful pregnant me... #tripletmomproblems

It's no wonder my body is taking a beating.  My pelvis feels like it's going to rip apart almost every time I get up after being down for a while, and I walk like a little old lady for the first 30 seconds before I feel normal again.  My fingers tips on my right hand are numb 90% of the time due to the swelling and we all know how my feet look every day.  I had to purchase, in the last two weeks, a belly band that is supposed to help support my heavy belly and protect my back, a wrist guard to try and help my carpel tunnel and last but not least, compression socks to try and help my swelled up feet.  I'm not sure any of it is working... My compression socks are a b**tch to put on and when I take them off, I feel more swollen everywhere else. So I had to go for an appointment to learn how to put the compression socks on and since I can't physically put them on myself, I had to take a video of the lady doing this.  I tried to upload it here but it's not letting me. Anyways, Gabriel has to put them on with with rubber gloves and it's quite a process.  The process is also a lot of fun to take them off.  Then I have to wash them in specifically GAIN detergent every night. It's all just annoying really.  My wrist guard is not really helping my hand, but it might be worse if I didn't have it so who knows and the belly band seemed to hurt my lower back more than anything today. I just haven't had a good week adjusting to this ever changing body.  I did have to talk to myself and say that it's not going to be for much longer and the longer I can stand it, the better off my boys will be.  There are people who are worse off than me and have to put up with these types of pains their whole lives so I had to tell myself to suck it up buttercup and enjoy it as much as I can.

I just have to keep getting closer and closer to the Kardashians (and stupider by the minute, hence the word stupider), take it easy, enjoy feeling them grow inside of me and realize what a gift we will receive at the end of this.

6 week difference, not too bad...

Week 21 ~ Overwhelmed by generosity

Today showed me how unbelievably generous people can be...  My friends Alicia and Sarah have spend the last few weeks gathering baby items from friends, friends of friends and colleagues without my knowledge.   Alicia invited me sometime this past week to come over on Sunday (today) and to not ask any questions.  If you know me, you know that I love when things are about me, but I'm also a very curious person and surprises that I have to wait more than a day for make me crazy.  I had NO IDEA what she was planning, but I was not ready for what awaited me in her basement...

Thank God we have a van!!!!! 

Unreal right?  I stood there, glued to my spot and had my fourth emotional breakdown... I couldn't even move I was so blown away by the amazingness that was in front of me.  I literally had my own little baby shopping mall.  Gabe said he had a feeling that it was something like this, but he too didn't expect so much. We also went to another friend's house this morning (thank Janice) and she gaves us many many things and another friend (thanks Josée) is coming over tomorrow night to give us three Stage 2 car seats that a friend of one of her spin class participant just wanted to give away... that's like... a lot of money right there!!!  This pregnancy hasn't been the easiest but it's definitely been made easier by the support system we have around us.  We are so lucky! Our babies are going to be spoiled rotten!

We had another appointment with the specialist Dr.Gaudet this week and all babies are doing great!  Baby A and B were both 13 oz and our smallest baby was baby C at about 11 oz.  They are all growing at the rate they're supposed to and are doing amazing.  They were so cooperative as the doctor was measuring them that the technician got all the measurements she needed to get in a very short amount of time, she was impressed.  I told her that my sons were, like me, rule followers so of COURSE they're going to cooperate.
Now that I'm passed week 20, my doctor has advised me to slow down even more, no bed rest yet, but just a lot of rest and relaxation.  So I'm limiting myself to one activity/outing a day, if needed.   My mother and I are going to get some storage bins tomorrow to start organizing all the stuff we've gotten.  Storage is an issue in a house that's got a basement apartment so we'll be storing a lot of our "not needed now" stuff at my parent's house and at the in-laws. Gabe is also going to be busy in the next few months building more storage shelves.  We have a lot of empty space where we can build storage, so we're going to maximize our space. Right now our house looks like a storage unit where people could come in and bid and hope to get the treasure stuff.  (They would be disappointed... HA!)

I feel like the babies are scraping my belly, they seem to be more awake when it's time for me to sleep so I hope that they won't keep me up at night (at least before they're born!!) when they start kicking more.  I also can't wait for Gabe to be able to see/feel them, it'll be crazy cool.

Week 21 belly pics... I'm going to start showing my real belly, don't judge!!!

No place for babies now... excuse the baby photo bomb!! 

Week 20 ~ We bought a van!

So yeah, we bought our first triplet essential... a Dodge Grand Caravan!  It's actually pretty awesome with its Sto N' Go seating and all.  Of course we could have found another vehicle that would fit the three car seats, but if we ever wanted other people in the van with us, we needed something big.  Also, with the stroller we're going to buy being over 4 feet long, we needed something that would fit that as well.  It was a little rough saying goodbye to my Civic as I had been driving it for the last 7 years and it never let me down (except for lately).  I think it somehow knew we were thinking of trading it in. On our way to Halifax after the wedding, the air conditioner went on the fritz and on the way back, the muffler gave out, so instead of doing all the repairs we would have needed, we bit the bullet and bought what would have been our vehicle sooner or later anyway.  It's nice that we did it now since I'm still semi-mobile and I can drive it around and get a feel for it because I wouldn't have wanted my first time to drive it be with my premature babies!

Out with the old, in with the new!! 

This week was rough on my body, I really need to stop being so stubborn and just sit the hell down more often and let people help me.  My mother has been a godsend, coming over to walk Roxy and cleaning my bathroom and etc.  Gabe has been so busy trying to fix walls in our rental apartment that he just doesn't have time to do anything else in the evening.  I went to do my registry with my friend Alicia and thank God for her too because I would have been lost in Toys R' Us without her!  We ended up scanning 101 items and I already had a bunch on there... I had no idea the amount of stuff I would need!!!  There's a Multiples Sale coming at the end of September so I'll go there and try to get the rest of the stuff I didn't put on my registry and some I did and update my registry accordingly after.  I pushed myself a little too hard that registry day though, being the person I normally am, I told myself that since I was already at the mall, I might as well do some other errands.  It was not a good idea.... By the time I got back in the van, I was almost in tears due to my feet and lower back hurting so much.  That night I had a lot of braxton hicks type cramps that freaked me out a bit, but I just think it was my body's way of telling me to slow the f down.  I'm also starting to get a lot more cramps everywhere else in my pelvic area, and my chiro said it's normal.  She told me although she normally only sees this start happening in women who are in their 7+ month of pregnancy, she's not surprised to see it happen to me already since I'm the size of a 7+ month singleton pregnancy woman.  So I've been doing lots more sitting this week, I read three books already, trying to figure out what I'm picking for my book club book for this year.

My friend Neil (registry Alicia's husband) came over and made a work of art of our nursery!

No, it is not a stick-on or a peel, this is all done by hand, amazing right?  And if you can see, he did parent child combinations, so I thought that was adorable!  I think my favourites are the trees and the birds.  It's starting to come together!

"Half-way" there! 20 weeks... although I am more than halfway for this pregnancy! Seeing that most triplet pregnancies last an average of 32 weeks.  I learned this week that for their first year of life, my triplets will have their real age and what you call their corrected age since they will most likely be a lot premature.  I guess this is all due to the developmental stage of their lives and knowing when they're ready to do what, eat solids or whatever.  I'm glad it's only for their 1st year because it would be confusing to always trying to remember their real age and their corrected age! They will only be max a few months behind but in a new born, that can affect many things.  I found a great couple of support groups on Facebook for triplets moms who already have their triplets or who are various stages of their pregnancy.  It's a great feeling knowing I'm not alone going through what I'm going through!

Until next time, check out this week's progress!

20 weeks ~ 51" round

Week 19 ~ Not much to report...

     Well it's only been 4 days since my last post so there's nothing much new to report.  We had our appointment with both the specialist and my OBGYN.  The babies are doing great, all growing at the rate they're supposed to, still so little!  Baby Boy A is missing an artery in his umbilical cord (he should have two), they say that this can sometimes (very seldom) cause issues in his kidneys, heart and growth.  He showed us all four chambers of his heart, apparently his kidneys are looking great and weighing in at about 9oz., he's our biggest boy, so the specialist is not worried, she will just keep an closer eye.  When I mentioned this to our OB, she said that in all her patients where the baby was missing an artery, she has never seen a case where this was an issue, all babies were born healthy and well, so that made me feel better.  Baby Boy B wouldn't show us all chambers in his heart, but since it was beating normally, the specialist just thinks it's because he's still so little (8oz.) so we should be able to see it next time when we go back in two weeks.  Baby Boy C is the one sitting on top of the other two and he's our most chill one so they were able to see everything.  At one point he was hiding his spine but like he knew what we needed, he did a little flip and showed us all we needed to see.  He's going to be a little rule follower like his momma.  So overall, all good news, the babies are great, my blood pressure was a little lower than last time but still good.

    My doc was amazed by the size of my feet and urged me to get my compression sock prescription filled, which I will do promptly tomorrow morning along with wrist braces to help with my carpal tunnel.  She said there's nothing much else we can do about that, it'll just go away when the babies get here.  No bed rest yet but lots of sitting down with my feet up.  We did our groceries today and that was my big trip of the day, I've been ordered by my dear hubby to sit down and do nothing while he finishes our errands. My feet are already swollen from that 1/2 hour trip... it's crazy!  My friend Neil said my feet were starting to look like The Nutty Professor... I thought that was hilarious.  We spent a good impromptu evening with our friends Neil and Alicia, it was great to catch up since they had been gone all summer and although they were our wedding photographers, there was really no time to catch up.  Our other friends came over last night to drop off a swing and a vibrating chair (thanks Mel and Julien!!) and brought their daughters (4 & 2 y/o) with them.  We were able to see what we needed to baby proof in our house!! It was an eye opening hour... I'm going to lose a lot of my decorations and my decorative rocks are going to have to go back to their natural habitat as little children like to try to eat them or try to force my dog to eat them... haha... Roxy (our dog) was really confused with these little people poking at her, but she was so good, so at least I'm thinking she won't be part of our baby proofing house cleanse.

  So all my teacher friends are going back to work tomorrow and as silly as it sounds, I envy them... I always loved the September return, meeting my new students, seeing my friends daily, and the overall normalcy of it all. I'm going to miss coaching my field hockey girls and I wish I could be there with them on the field for all their games.   I send good vibes to my friends Alicia and Mel as they go back after their maternity leave and have the hard task so say goodbye to full time motherhood.

  I'm definitely feeling my boys, not enough for Gab to be able to feel them yet, but I'm thinking soon he will be able to.  It's an amazing feeling and as hard as this pregnancy is becoming, I am growing three little miracles who are going to become my life, my loves and I can't wait to hold them in my arms and watch them grow into the people they will become.  I will enjoy these next few months as much as possible as I will never go through this again and I want to savour every pain, every gurgle and every kick as they will bring us our greatest joys...

Week 19 - Still 51" but a good 45lbs gain!!! Eeeeeek!!!!
Roxy wanted to be in this picture...

Here's a few wedding pics taken by Neil, Alicia and my brother in law Eric...

week 18 ~ Wedding!!

Well we did it, we're married!!! It was a long tough, but amazingly wonderful day.  We were surrounded by our closest 200 family and friends, and we wouldn't have had it any other way!  We are so blessed to have such a great group of people in our lives.  I was able to make it pretty much the whole night.  At one point I thought of leaving and then I saw my 82 year old grandmother still hanging around and I decided that if she could do it, I could hack it a little while longer.  The music was great, the food was great and above all, the people were great!  Just an incredible day overall!

As far as the genders, if you haven't already heard, we're having THREE BOYS!!!!!!!  My house is going to be crazy, me and my 4 boys, should be an interesting life.  We were a little sad that we didn't have a little girl in there but then I remembered that I had two amazing nieces in my life.  Besides, my sister can deal with the girl teenage-hood and I can walk away... hehe... I know three boys aren't going to be any easier, but as a high school teacher, I know that there's a lot more to do to please teenage girls than boys... haha.   I can't wait to meet my three boys!!! As far as names, we've started a list, but we're not going to share this with anyone until their birth.  My sister once told me that she didn't name her daughters until she saw their faces, just because she felt she could match them better, and I'd say she did a good job!  The names will be the last little surprise for everyone.  What we're finding tough is finding names that sounds good in both French AND English, names that go well with Arsenault, names that our immediate surrounding didn't already use, names that don't make me want to hurl (basically reminds me of a school kid! haha... some names have been permanently ruined in my mind...), and oh yeah, finding THREE!!!  We had such a long amazing list of girl names!  Maybe one won't mind being called Sophie? or Emma?  

My pregnancy is getting increasingly difficult on my body.  I'm really glad we got married when we did because my body has decided that it is no longer mine, the boys have taken over.  Firstly, my hands hurt, apparently due to swelling in my wrists causing carpel tunnel to appear.  They are almost always numb, waking me up in the middle of the night and preventing me from doing the most basic things.  I now have to ask Gab to open almost everything for me.  Secondly, my belly is now completely in the way of my bending over, requiring my new husband to have to put my shoes on for me quite often and making putting on pants very hard.  Speaking of shoes, my brand new shoes that were suppose to last me through this pregnancy are now starting to be too small and tight due to crazy swelling so I may have to bite the bullet and buy....I don't even want to say it.... CROCS.... yuck!  Finally, I'm definitely waddling now and walking quite slowly, which is annoying to me because I'm always the one getting annoyed with people who walk slow in front of me.  

These aren't even my new shoes, these have taken a hike a while ago,
but it's just to show how big my feet get by 11am everyday.  

I had to cut our mini Halifax honeymoon short as I just couldn't walk around anymore, I had to sit every 10 minutes to rest my feet and my back.  I knew it was time to come home when I broke down in tears in the food court at the Halifax Shopping Centre! haha... According to Gabe, this was emotional break down #3, and if you know me, you probably find that very impressive that I haven't had more!

As you can imagine, after our wedding, my house is in shambles and it's very hard for me to look around and know there's nothing I can really do.  Gabe is amazing, and he's forcing me to do NOTHING, while he does EVERYTHING.  That's tough because I'm sitting down on the couch watching him do everything around me while I have to put my feet up and feel useless.  He keeps telling me that my job is to grow our healthy babies.  Let me tell you, his first week as husband has been pretty stellar so far!  GO HUSBAND!!! 

I think I'm starting to feel little flutters, so that's really cool.  I'm not sure if that's what they are, but I'll pretend!   We have our next appointment tomorrow, they are going to start measuring all their limbs and making sure all is well, so that's exciting.  At 4 1/2 months, this week has shown me that this pregnancy is going to be anything but easy, but I know it'll be worth it in the end! 

18 weeks ~ 51 inches