32 weeks

Yahoo!  Ok, that's false enthusiasm.  At one point, 32 weeks sounded like a major goal, but quite frankly, now that we're here and everything is still blessedly uneventful, it's just another day.  That's a good thing, right?  That's not to lose sight of the fact that it really is amazing that 32 weeks into a triplet pregnancy, everything is still routine and boring.  We are lucky for sure.

Giving myself a generous .8 lb. round up, I've now gained 60 lbs.  Check it out:

Ten pounds away from doubling what I gained in each of my three singleton pregnancies, and at this rate, there's a good chance I'll hit that number before I deliver (I almost typed "before I graduate" there-- I suppose it's a graduation of sorts).  I am not a super overachiever in the weight gain department, but I'm definitely in range.

In related news, I measure my fundal height at 47 cm, which would translate to being 47 weeks pregnant, and my "waist" at 47.5".  So I'm basically 4 feet around.  Attractive!

Even though I'm not feeling the babycenter updates anymore, here's this week's, just for giggles:

How your baby's growing:

By now, your baby weighs 3 3/4 pounds (about the size of a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-32-weeks_1121.bc

And the reason I actually went over there was to grab their picture of twins at 32 weeks:

Just throw in another baby on top and that's what I'm looking like from the inside out.  Look at those beautiful head-down babies.  Let me repeat that for Baby A's benefit, since he may have been distracted: LOOK AT THOSE BEAUTIFUL HEAD-DOWN BABIES. 

On that front, I have been doing everything I can think of to convince A to flip for me.  I'm spending a minimum of 30 minutes per day, split into 2-3 sessions, laying on the decline bench I bought last weekend.  Any other time, I try to be very conscious of my posture, and I spend a lot of time on my hands and knees.  I've talked to the baby, I've visualized him being head-down.  I'm continuing to go to the amazing Dr. Long (chiropractor) once a week and she is doing everything she can.  This week, I tried Pulsatilla (a homeopathic remedy), using the instructions on the spinningbabies website.  I'll swim again this weekend.  I think the only standard advice not yet in my arsenal is moxibustion and acupuncture, and it's a little early for either of those.  We are throwing the book at this.  This week in a multiples group on facebook, several people shared their stories of Baby A turning as late as 36 weeks.  So that is encouraging.

We will get to check in today and see where the happy crew is currently making themselves comfortable.  Appointment with Dr. Carpenter at 4:00.  Main purpose of this appointment is to check on Baby A's growth and make sure the readings last time were a fluke (I feel sure they were).  Before that, we have a tour of the Women's Pavillion at Texas Children's Hospital, which is where they will be born.  Also touring the NICU, though it is still absolutely my goal and intention to never have these three darken those doors.  Fat, healthy 5 pound babies.  That's what we're going for.

Aside from our loss last fall, I've never had a baby in the hospital, so this is all new territory for me.  I've been to two hospital births (one vaginal, one ultimately a c-section), so I know what it looks like from a not-in-the-spotlight perspective.  I do believe all the raves about TCH and think there couldn't be a better option for us, so that's good.

I'll update on the appointment probably tomorrow and post a belly pic then too.  Until then, just gestatin'.

Meditate on this

I've posted that picture before (24 week triplets), but now let's all meditate on that presenting baby's position, ok?  Baby A, this goes out to you.  Look how cool it is to be head down.  Flip, kiddo!

Sundays stink

Saying goodbye to my family does not get easier. Bleh. It's so nice to have them here, and I feel a little wimpy being sad when I'll see them again in a week, but there it is. What can I say?  They're good people. There's a reason I choose to be around them so much. :)

I tried to take a "big" belly pic for M, who claims my pictures aren't big enough. Not sure this does it, but it's the best I could pull off. 

31 weeks

Quick update, since I'm on my phone and hate typing on it. And there's not much to say (in a good way!).

I had an appointment with Dr. Carpenter today. All three babies look good. He checked breathing and movement on each. Baby C was most cooperative and showed his stuff immediately. A and B both needed some encouragement to keep breathing- they were breathing intermittently, but he had to jiggle them to have them keep it up and move more. Give 'em a couple more weeks and they'll have it down, no problem. 

Oh- and positions were all still the same. A breech. B cephalic. C breech/transverse across the top. 

Rick and the girls are on their way down for a visit right now. Two nights- yay!  Unfortunately, M, N, and A are out of town for a medical appointment, so they won't be here. That just means I get my family all to myself. :)

Forgot to weigh in this morning, so that exciting update will have to wait until tomorrow. [Saturday update: 215, which is 56 total.]

That's it for now!

Hump day bump day

Today's belly:

And this past weekend, used as a movie-watching pillow:

Check out the bonus kid there- Andie's piano lesson was canceled, so I got the whole Denson clan. And I get them all again this weekend. Hooray, hooray!

30 week growth scan

The growth scan with Dr. Carpenter went well.  Turns out M, N, and A were all able to go, so we had quite the crowd in that little room.  Blood pressure was good (112/68, I think), fundal height was 42.5 cm, urine dip was clean, weight was fine.

The measurements on the babies are a little confusing to me-- in part just because everything is just slightly different than what Dr. Haeri's office did.

Here's the information I have printed out:

Fetus 1, Lowest Male, "AA"
Age based on measurements: 29.8 weeks
Presentation: breech; L.S.T.
No abnormalities
Heartrate 167 bpm
Amniotic fluid pocket 31 mm
Anterior Placenta

Fetus 2, Upper Left Female, "BB"
Age based on measurements: 30.9 weeks
Presentation: cephalic, L.O.T.
No abnormalities
Amniotic fluid pocket 38 mm
Posterior Placenta

Fetus 3, Upper Right Male, "CC"
Age based on measurements: 30.6 weeks
Presentation: breech; R.S.T.
No abnormalities
Heartrate 147 bpm
Amniotic fluid pocket 78 mm
Posterior Placenta

And what I remember Dr. Carpenter telling us was that A was 3 lbs., B was 3 lbs. 8 oz., and C was 3 lbs. 4 oz.

So what's strange about that is that A has *always* been our biggest baby.  Our 67%er.  And B has always been the smallest-- our <40%er.  So how have they suddenly switched sizes?  That seems off to me.  Dr. C said he saw testicles on Baby A (but no penis, due to position), so I have no real reason to think they've switched positions, but gosh, it's still hard not to think that.

In any case, because A's abdominal circumference fell off his normal growth curve, Dr. C will scan him again in two weeks to see what's going on.  Intuitively, I think it's nothing.  A discrepancy due to the "art" in scanning.  But it's good to have another look (and I'll be there anyway!).

So the other thing that makes this all confusing is the second page of printed results, that gives graphs of projected sizes.  For each baby, it lists a projected 38-week birth weight (not that we'd get that far):

Fetus 1: 6 lbs., 9 oz.
Fetus 2: 6 lbs., 1 oz.
Fetus 3: 6 lbs., 2 oz.

So it's strange to me that A is still projected to be the largest baby, when according to this week's scan, he's the smallest.  I guess it's based on the overall growth curve, rather than one week's measurement.  I just really think that measurement was off.

M asked Dr. Carpenter when he thought the babies would be 5 lbs.  Dr. Carpenter said he'd never really thought about it that way, but when he looked at the growth curves, he thought at about 33 weeks.  That seems early to me.  If they have 3 lbs. to gain in 8 weeks, that's .375 lbs./week on a straight line curve-- which would make them 5 pounds at about 34-35 weeks.  That feels more reasonable to me.  But hey, if they want to be monster babies at 33 weeks, that's OK by me.

Anyway, I will be back in this week for a quick checkup, and then again the week after for the scan of Baby A.  Until then, I'll just be hanging out with these 10-pounds-ish of baby.  Eep!

30 weeks

 

30 weeks!  This was a big milestone week for us, though now that it's here, it feels kind-of uneventful.  But hey-- here we are!  In the decade of delivery.

 

This was me on Wednesday:

 

 

So still not hugely huge.  I mean, I'm big for sure and I'm acquiring the stretch marks to vouch for that, but I am thankful I am tall and broad and have room for this litter of babies.

 

Per the not-so-accurate bathroom scale, I was only up .8 lbs. from last week.  I think that was probably an inflation of last week's weight more than anything, but in any case, 53-ish pounds gained at 30 weeks.  That may not be a gold medal performance on weight gain, but by golly, I do eat everything I'm supposed to at least in terms of protein/calcium/green veggies, so I think these babies are doing fine.  We should find out in about an hour, when we have the growth scan with Dr. Carpenter.

 

Just had another adjustment with Dr. Long.  I was more "off" this time (which I could feel too), but she says that, generally speaking, I'm one of the healthiest and most well-adjusted pregnant patients she has.  And you know how I love superlatives.

 

When I left the appointment, I got weaseled into a ten minute conversation by some woman that was passing by and then had a million questions about triplets and surrogacy and genetics and how the world works.  She was just completely overwhelmed and kept saying "I just have one more question-- is that ok?"  40 questions later, I got into my car.  Ha!  But I'm happy to spread positive surrogacy stories when I have an interested audience.  Why not?

 

My guess is that the babies are in the same positions, despite my best flipping efforts.  A breech, B cephalic, C transverse.  I think they have flipped, but flipped back.  At least they still have room.  I'm being patient.  Kind-of.

 

I went on a date by myself last night to see "Book of Mormon," which was great (of course).  I felt conspicuously single until I realized that, technically, I was my own party of four.  I can never be lonely!

 

Rick and Mariela will visit this weekend.  Looking forward to seeing them!

 

That's all for now.  I'll update again after my appointment.  Hoping to see some 3 lb.-ish babies in there.