A little history lesson for you all- years ago, my perinatologist started a multidisciplinary group of support services for moms of multiples to help them achieve healthier, safer pregnancies. The FREE services include an exercise therapist, a dietician, massage therapy, lactation consultant... to name just a few!
I met with the exercise therapist for 90 minutes on Tuesday. She was very impressed with my activity level and did tell me that I'm the most active triplet mommy she's ever met. It was a little bit of a proud/weird moment for me when I heard that. On the one hand, yeah for me still getting to be active! On the other, it just seems natural to me to still be working full-time and still be going occasionally to the gym- is that not normal? :)
I also met with the dietician on Wednesday. I was worried that she'd tell me to cut back on the calories because honestly, I've been eating like a hog. :) But imagine our surprise when she told us that for a triplet mommy, it's almost physically impossible to ingest enough calories every day. Instead of telling me I need to eat less, she told me I need to eat more- MUCH more. No more low-fat milk and eating my vegetables first. Hello whole milk, butter and dips on everything, and eating the meat and carbs off of my plate before I touch my veggies. Hello more frequent snacking and eating a last meal at 10pm at night.
I've always been a bigger girl even prior to pregnancy, so it is a total mind shift for me to adopt this kind of thinking. Basically my new dietician-recommended eating plan is this: take whatever healthy eating habits you've ever been told and ignore them. My focus is now on getting in as many calories daily as I can as they've found that for moms of multiples, higher caloric intake seems to correlate with a decreased incidence of premature labor. Now this doesn't mean I'll be hitting up the McDonald's drive-thru for every meal, but it does mean I need to start really packing the food in.
I picked them up from the airport on Tuesday and since they haven't seen my belly in person for almost two months, let's just say they were quite shocked. I didn't hear any expletives come out of their mouths, but I'm sure they were thinking them. After all, the belly seems to grow on a daily basis- it's almost unreal. My belly looks like my sister's did at the end of her pregnancy and I'm only 24 weeks along.
24 weeks
Since they arrived in town, we've been working our butts off on getting the nursery ready. It's been amazing to see the transitions happening in such a short amount of time! We now have a room that actually looks like a real nursery! Three cribs have been assembled, a new dresser from Ikea is ready to have its drawers filled, the closet has been painted and suitable shelving installed... there's even a cute rug on the floor now!! My mother has washed, folded, and sorted enough baby clothes/blankets/towels/etc. in the last 48 hours to keep all three munchkins from going naked for the next year.
Building the first crib with Jason, Mom, and Dad
Master carpenters at work
Giving the crib a test drive with the only
currently available baby in our house :)
Assembling the dresser
Starting the laundry process
Yeah- my mom's a brave woman to tackle this task.
She's a tiny lady- we may have lost her a few times
in the sheer volume of donated clothes... :)
And that's not all they've done. Mom and Dad helped us make the living room furniture arrangement more aesthetically pleasing since we've transitioned so many things out of the old office. Mom scrubbed (!!) one of my rugs from top to bottom. Dad cleaned and organized our wine racks (probably the closest I've been to that thing in months!). Mom and Dad cleaned up the patio and patio furniture for me since I can't handle being out in the heat at all. Everywhere I turn there's another cupboard or shelf that Mom has thoughtfully organized and cleaned for me. And Dad has given my coffee maker a thorough proper cleaning (who knew I was supposed to occasionally clean out the thing?).
Scrubbing the rug in the driveway
Our munchkins each have places to lay down their sweet heads!
Hana and Coltrane helped out the cause by
staying out of the way as much as possible...
Time to start filling the shelves
First clothes in the dresser!
And they've been doing all of this while making sure that I stay off of my feet and rest. It's been very hard for me to not jump in and help lift the cribs into place or carry boxes out to the car. Even though in my mind I know it's for the best for the babies that I don't, it's still hard for me emotionally to not be helping more. I am so blessed to have such giving parents that are so willing to be supportive of Jason, the munchkins, and me. They totally should have disowned me during my teenage years... but instead they just love me more. As much as parents can frustrate their children sometimes (something I need to remember in the future!), I would not trade my parents for anything...
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