Weight obsessing

So I've had this goal number of 36 lbs. by 24 weeks floating in my head, but I couldn't remember where it came from.  When I googled, Dr. Barbara Luke's book When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads came up.  On one hand, that book is something of a bible for multiple pregnancy.  Lots of good information.  On the other, Dr. Haeri told me not to read it, because it would drive me crazy.  Too late, because I read it three years ago.  But I haven't picked it up since.

Anyway, here's the section that mentions the 36 by 24 stat, which is apparently from a study, judging by the indication of a footnote (but I am lazy and not looking it up):

Ok, I'm convinced.  And I think if I eat like a crazy woman between now and then, I might make it.  I do need to amp it up, though-- I'm more on track to get to 30 lbs. by 24 weeks right now.

But then I read on.  The study talked about 36 lbs. by 24 weeks, but that's not Dr. Luke's suggestion.  Oh no, that would be too easy!  Here's her optimal weight chart:

Yeah, 35. lbs by 20 weeks isn't happening.  I love the trio, I love their family, I will do everything I can to grow them big and strong, but the likelihood of me gaining 24 pounds in the next three and a half weeks is approximately zero.

A little later in the book, she also says the 24 week goal for triplets is 45 pounds.  That seems more attainable than the 20-week goal, but still a huge stretch!

All the interest in weight gain came from my numbers-obsessed project of making an excel spreadsheet and scatter line graph of my gains so far.  Still a long way to go...

Movement

This morning, I thought about posting that I'm pretty sure I've now felt babies A and B, but not C.  I figured that C is the smallest and in the most awkward position for ultrasound, so maybe he'd take a while for me to feel.  But just now, I got a whole string of little flutters from the tip-top of my uterus, right where C hangs out.  So I think I've now officially felt all three.  Woohoo!

The movements are still not consistent at all, and I have to be still to notice, but I do love having little check-ins from my womb-mates.  I really can't imagine what it will be like when they're all kicking and rolling. 

Otherwise, all is well.  I feel like I've graduated from "is she pregnant?" to "she's pregnant!"  In other words: I'm big!  Way bigger than I've ever been at this stage of the game.

Visited the Capitol nurse this morning to double check my blood pressure.  When they checked it on Friday it was something like 122/76, which is normal, but high for me.  Just felt inaccurate.  And sure enough, when Tim checked today, it was 98/60.  I am a low blood pressure kind of gal.

16 weeks

So I already posted a spoiler, I suppose, by putting up all the ultrasound pictures.  The appointment went really well.  Yes, it really does take forever to measure every imaginable body part on three babies (about an hour and a half, I think).  Phew!  But at least I sat up and stretched between each one. 

They are all perfect and beautiful, per Dr. Haeri.  No concerns at all.  And they are definitely boy-girl-boy (A-B-C).

 

Baby A is breech at the moment.  He is in the 62nd growth percentile.

 

Baby B is cephalic (head down).  She is in the 55th percentile, I think?  Mid fifties for sure.

 

Baby C is cephalic.  He is in the 48th growth percentile.  He was the most active of the three-- it was hard to get the measurements on his extremities, because he was punching and kicking so much!

 

Dr. Haeri says that every time I come in, the two primary things they'll be looking for (now that we know everybody is completely formed correctly-- so all they need to do is grow) are (1) whether the babies' growth is concordant-- in other words, whether they're sharing resources nicely and all growing at the same rate and (2) what my cervical length is and if there have been any changes.

 

So this time, on point 1, they're looking super.  All in the same size range, all playing nicely.  He says this bodes well for the future, because usually when there is a major size discordance down the road, you can look back at the early ultrasounds and see that there were issues from the beginning.

 

On point 2, everything is also looking super.  My cervix was 4.57 cm (he wanted it over 2.5 cm), which he said meant it has a padlock on it.  Nothin's getting out of there.  He said that meant I should not cut my activity at all-- keep up full, normal activity.

 

He told me I should start taking 1500 mg in extra calcium, which is to counteract the negative effects on my bone density from being on Lovenox.  He recommends getting that by eating three Tums per day.  Tums kind-of freak me out (they look so chalky), but I will give it a college try, just for Dr. Haeri.  I'm already taking a calcium supplement and I eat a huge amount of dairy, so I think my bones are going to be super strong.

 

And that's about it from the appointment.  All good news.  That's how we like 'em.

 

So, as a general 16-week update...

 

I weighed 169.1 lbs. this morning.  I need to just decide where I'm measuring the weight gain from (starting weight 162ish, lowest weight 158ish), so I'm going to go for easy math and say 160.  I know I've probably debated this before in here, but this is my final answer.  So, 9.1 lbs. up at 16 weeks. 

 

I'm feeling good in general, though the summer heat is rough.  By the time I get home at night, I feel just... heavy.  Kind-of rundown, but not really sleepy.  It's better if I manage not to get too hot, but, well... that's getting more difficult, since it's June in Texas!  But really, overall, no complaints.  I feel like I'm doing pretty well at this point.

 

Here's what babycenter says about 16 weekers: 

How your baby's growing:

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

And here's what they say twins would look like at this stage (just picture an extra head-down baby in the middle there):

I guess that's it.  Fun day today-- glad the trio is looking so good.  Keep growing, guys (and girl)!  From here on out, I'll be getting cervical checks with Dr. Haeri every 2 weeks, and growth scans every 4, in addition to the who-knows-how-often OB appointments.  Nobody will accuse us of having not thoroughly monitored this pregnancy!

 

Oh, and someone on facebook posted a picture of their kid with her feet in one of these:

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Foot-Baths-heated-foot-bath/dp/B000CMDS32/ref=pd_sbs_hg_7

 

That's pretty much a pregnancy essential, right?  For the swollen, tired feet?  Think I can convince Rick?  I think the triplets need one.

 

16 week ultrasound pics

Just a whole bunch of pics without any text.  I think they're all labeled, so hopefully pretty self-explanatory.  I'll come back and update in a bit-- short version: everything looks great!

And yeah, I was going to go edit out my full name and birthdate, but quite honestly, that information is a google search away anyway.  Have fun stalking me.  It's just too easy to upload all of these straight from the CD to worry about identity theft.

Hello!

Baby A just tapped me twice.  And wiggled a bit after that.  First movement I've felt!

B and C should follow soon-- I think A was bound to be first, because my waistband puts a little pressure on him, so it's easier to decipher what's going on.

Oh, I love this part.  Yay!

Delivery dream

I think it was Saturday night that I had a dream about delivering the babies.  Here it is:

I was already in the hospital, checked in for some kind of monitoring or something.  Two nurses came into the room.  One was still being trained and they asked me if it was ok for her to check me-- and of course, I was fine with that.  It was an internal exam, checking for dilation or something, and when she got started, her eyes opened really wide and she made some kind of surprised face.  The other nurse said something like "You've never felt triplets before, have you?"

So then I got distracted for a minute, figuring they were busy measuring or whatever, but next thing I know, Novice Nurse is handing babies over to the other nurse.  Just like that!  No labor, no pushing, they were just waiting there, ready to be handed out.  They were fully dressed (at birth) and about the size of guinea pigs.

I said something like "But I'm not even 30 weeks!"  The babies were completely fine and healthy, nobody seemed worried at all.  They handed me all three of them and left the room.

I thought I should call M and N, so I was trying to wrangle all three babies and somehow make the call at the same time.  Might have been possible, except the babies were super-squirmy and rolling all over the place-- I could hardly keep them in my arms.  Then I realized I didn't even know who was who.  I had two in my left arm and one in the right, and I looked to the right and said "you must be the girl" and she smiled at me with a full set of big, white, adult teeth.  And then the boys smiled at me too, also with big ol' teeth.  I thought they were all very cute.

And then I woke up.  Why are dreams so weird??

In any case, looking forward to Friday.  Rick got stuck on jury duty this week, so I don't know that he'll have the chance to come to the appointment after all-- bummer.  But I think the girls are coming with me in any case, so I'll have company for the loooooong ultrasound.  Eager to see the trio up close and personal. 

Belly progression

10 vs. 15 weeks

You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

So yeah-- thicker.  There's about 6-7 lbs. difference between these two pics and it's all in that mid area.  Organs squished upward, babies pushed outward.  Still lots of room to grow!