the rugrats
one of our new fav books, three baby owls that I change the names to Caleb, Eli and Thomas, it's too cute : )
It's been a whole year since I started this blog. I sometimes try to think when I'll stop writing/blogging and can't seem to decide, when they turn one? No, too soon. When the boys learn to walk? No, so many more milestones. So I finally decided that I'll probably stop once life starts becoming wonderfully boring and normal. Why? Well it's the boys that are interesting and I must admit I'm pretty boring. So once the whole 'triplet' novelty wears off I'll stop. Of course I'll keep the blog around and post pictures and videos (maybe every other month or once a month?) because both grandma's would kill me if I didn't.
Phil came up with the idea and got the blog up and running for me. At the time I didn't really know what a blog was or what I was supposed to do with it. I looked back at all my old entries before the boys were born and the first few were so lacking. No details just a few words and my ultrasound pics. So I thought I'd write what should have been my first blog entry while the memories are still fresh in my mind.
April 2010
Identical Triplets?
On 3/30/10 we had an appointment scheduled for an ultrasound at 8.0 weeks pregnant. I was kind of nervous since the three home preg tests I had previously taken were all weakly positive (why was this when my HCG levels were ragingly high, I don't know?!).
In the ultrasound room we looked up at the wall mounted screen and had no idea what we were looking at even though we'd probably looked at hundreds of 8 week ultrasounds on the internet. We nervously asked the technician "do you see a heartbeat?" She paused for a moment and then said "I see three babies," slightly matter of fact and questioning her self. I said "what?!...what do you mean three babies?"
She then turned the screen she was looking at around so we could see the image more up close and pointed to the three little peanuts, each with a beautifully rhythmic beating heart. At that point it became so obvious what we were looking at. She finished up the ultrasound as we chit chatted about how we hadn't used any drugs or treatments and how you could tell if they were identical or not. She left the room and said a doctor would be in to give us more information.
Phil and I sat there for about 45minutes waiting. We looked at each other as we both said and thought "what the heck?!" The first few thoughts in my head were "this is crazy...I'm going to have to quit my job...wow this is kind of cool." Then I said to Phil "what if it's two boys and girl or two girls and a boy? I hope they are not all boys or all girls." Phil says, "I don't know but there better at least be one boy in there!"
The radiologist came in to congratulate us and to inform us that since the babies all shared one placenta that this would be an extra risky triplet pregnancy and that we should schedule an appointment with a perinatologist as soon as possible!
Geez...things just keep getting more complicated we thought. Then we asked "so that means they are identical and we are having either three boys or three girls right?" "Right!" We asked a few more questions but quite honestly we couldn't think straight.
I went to work feeling like I was having an out of body experience. Nobody even knows I'm pregnant, yet and here I am pregnant with three babies! I couldn't concentrate and since I didn't have a lot going on at work to distract my mind I left and went home early. Of course Phil goes off to work after the ultrasound and googles everything he can about triplet pregnancies, thoroughly scaring the crap out of himself. So many things can go wrong before and after the babies arrive! TTTS, preterm labor, preeclampsia, etc, etc, etc.
I on the other hand I wasn't getting too roused about anything besides the possibility of resting on the couch, I had already been experiencing major fatigue and a little bit of nausea. I was mostly thinking about practical stuff like finances and how the heck I was supposed to care for three babies ALL BY MYSELF!
When we thought there was only one on the way we had decided not to tell anyone until the second trimester just in case I miscarried. Now that we had three on the way, and were so excited we decided to tell everyone once our next ultrasound showed up fine (in two weeks). A few days went by and we both could NOT sleep! We had to tell someone. "Ok so we'll tell our parents and have them keep it a secret until the next ultrasound " we decided.
On Tuesday we found out about the triplets and on Saturday I called up my mom and told her I was pregnant. Of course she was ecstatic since this would be her first grandchild. I told her to check her email cause I had sent her a picture of the ultrasound. She opens it up and I ask her "how many babies do you see?"
I told my mom not to tell anyone except my sister and brother until the next ultrasound. That lasted all of a couple of hours. My mom cc'd me on a mass email she sent out to all the family and her friends. Oh well....Next Phil called and told his parents. Thankfully they kept it a secret.
What happened next? We were finally able to get a good nights sleep! We had passed on the burden to our parents and were much relieved. We began telling everyone after the next ultrasound checked out great. It was so fun seeing everyone's reaction when we told people we were pregnant and that that wasn't even the exciting part. "Twins?!" they would say, "nope, triplets!" So many different reactions, disbelieve, "you are just joking!," uncontrollable laughter, explosive but happy "WHAT! OMG!" followed by screaming (I think this was Lacretia and a couple other "Irvington-ites" : ).
By the time we had our first Peri appointment Phil had read almost the entire multiples pregnancy bible (see right side bar under "expecting multiples?") and had told me all about it (still too tired to be proactive). We met with our doctor which ended up being the most fantastic doctor ever, we were her 5th triplet pregnancy but we were her first identical triplets. I think she saw how happy and excited we were that she never even brought up the selective reduction/abortion topic. Later we would find out that selective reduction would not have been an option in our case. It was either all or nothing since the babies shared a single placenta. Not that it mattered, the thought never even crossed our minds.
And that's how it was!
The boys were all born with those typical grey blue eyes most babies start off with. Papi has very light blue eyes and mama has brown. I expected our children to inherit my brown eyes since it's a simple recessive vs dominant gene calculation. I secretly laughed as everyone liked to predict otherwise. Well around 4/5months, when most kids' eye color sets in, the boys developed a brown ring around their pupil. Ah ha! Their eyes will be brown as I thought. Well four months later and they haven't changed! What's going on? I've asked around and some people think they might turn hazel. I don't care what color their eyes will be, I just want closure! Why is it taking so long? I think if you click on the picture to make it bigger you'll see what I'm talking about.
Caleb quickly caught up to Thomas and is now crawling backwards, but he's the first to get up on all fours. He hasn't quite figured out that to go forward you have to put one arm out and then the other, so he's been diving head first into things : P
All the boys can sit up a little but Eli has the lead and can keep it up the longest.
Philip received a mysterious package at work. He was expecting a work related package and thought this must be a mistake until he saw that there was not one but three little jackets...too much of a coincidence! Our friend Bryan sent the boys these super cute Columbia rain jackets size 2T. They are soooooo stinking cute and I can't wait for them to sport them. They even match our Columbia diaper bag backpack. These guys are now well suited for life in the pacific northwest, they are such Oregonians : ) Thanks so much Bryan we love them!
