Jason's mom, Susan, and her husband, Jim, were in town visiting for nine days. If I wasn't at work, we were hanging out with them. It was helpful to have them help us start the process of sorting through donated baby clothes (huge thanks to my sister-in-law Lara and friend Stephanie for sharing these adorable things with us!!). Jim was a big help in moving office furniture out of the nursery. I never realized before how much work it is to prepare for a baby! It would probably help if I wasn't working full time still and so exhausted all the time, but at least we're making progress!
Here's the belly so far- 20 weeks!
Susan was my date for last week's ultrasound and we had a good time as always. The babies are still growing like weeds, so that was good to see. Plus they were waving at us! Heartbeats are good, amniotic fluid amounts are great, and the peanuts are moving their little arms and legs all over. We met a third doctor in my perinatology group- Dr. Veille. He's a lovely French gentleman and I instantly adored him. He was very positive and very affirming about how our pregnancy is progressing so far.
A shot of all three munchkins in the same frame! From left to right,
those "ball shapes" are a belly, another belly, and a head!
He was a little shocked to hear that I'm still working my full time 12 hour shifts at the hospital, but was glad to hear that I'm wearing my compression stockings (to prevent fluids from building up in my legs), an abdominal binder (to help support the weight of my belly while I'm on my feet all day), and taking my full complement of dietary supplements. I reassured him that my coworkers are making sure that I am taking frequent breaks during my shifts as well! Of course, after taking a look at my cervix during the ultrasound, he declared that I have "a titanium cervix". Both Susan and I got a good laugh out of that. And I also said a little prayer of thanks- he meant that my cervix is staying good and closed so that the babies are staying safe in my tummy and not falling out!
Baby A and Baby B seem to like to hang out together a lot on the
right side of my tummy, which helps to explain why the
shape of my tummy is actually a little lopsided!
Dr. Veille also shared the results of my glucose tolerance test. The great news is that I don't currently have gestational diabetes!!! I was relieved to hear that as it would have meant even more risk for the babies and this pregnancy. Since I am carrying triplets and have three placentas, however, I will need to repeat the glucose tolerance test when I hit the 28-week mark. My risk for developing gestational diabetes will continue to be high because of the multiple placentas, so I'll continue to make as healthy of food choices as I can. While I would prefer to eat cookie dough ice cream all day, I guess I'll sacrifice for the sake of the munchkins and snack on veggies instead!
Sweet baby!
Sweet Dr. Veille did start me on an iron supplement as a precautionary measure as well. Many pregnant women have to deal with anemia. I am not currently showing any signs of anemia, nor did my lab work show it either. But it never hurts to be cautious and proactive. So I am now a regular pill popper. I sit down at some point during the day and take my 8-10 pills!
Lots of supplements to take to grow our healthy babies!
We've been putting a lot of effort lately into getting the nursery ready for the munchkins. I'll be ordering three cribs in the next week or so now that we've gotten the room cleared out of everything else. This is a huge milestone for us- I was starting to get super anxious last week looking at the nursery (aka "old office with lots of the office crap still in it") and all of the half-finished/half-started projects in the house. All I could see was messes and work that needed to be done and it was sending me over the emotional edge.
It may not seem like much to you, but it took hours to get the clothes
sorted into their respective sizes. My mom will get the lovely
task of washing them all when she's here in August!
So I did what any logical/hormonal girl would do-- I called one of my most organized, Type A buddies to come over and help me dig my way out of the madness. She must have sensed the panic in my voice and was at the house in a blink. Brandi was an absolute blessing for me that day. We got all of the donated baby clothes and goodies sorted and organized into bins by size. Brandi organized all of the stuff from my desk and helped get the last things emptied out of the office, now to be known officially as the nursery! AND she even decided that I had worked hard enough to merit a Dairy Queen blizzard...
Brandi at work sorting and organizing baby clothes- it's amazing to
think that we'll soon have 3 little peanuts to put into all those outfits!
I went to bed that night thoroughly exhausted, but I felt more at peace than I've felt in a couple of weeks. There's still so much to be done to prepare for these munchkins. I've started selecting our baby registries, which I've found to not be quite as much fun as I'd hoped. Apparently I thought it would be as much fun as a weeklong trip to Disneyland with Jason, but it's more like the equivalent of a fun weekend in town with Jason. :)
I keep looking at the thousands of choices and worry that I'm not picking the right things for our peanuts. I worry that I'll somehow make the wrong choice and it will result in my babes not being adequately cared for or provided for. I think I'm being a little overdramatic with a splash of neurosis thrown in for good measure. I'm going to chalk a lot of this up to hormones- raging, unexplainable, irritating hormones.
But I guess this is also a glimpse into what it's like to be a parent. You worry about the choices that you make for your children and the impact that they will have. Right now, it's relatively simple choices like what kind of sheets to use in their cribs and which brand of butt cream we'll put on their sensitive skin. But someday it will be far more important, potentially life-changing things such as which elementary school to send them to and how we will pass on our values and manners to them. I better start getting more comfortable making these simple decisions so that I'm ready for the big ones...
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