First Trimester Review

So, N. or you-know-who, has been after me about posting.  Honestly I've been a little afraid.  I mean really, it's sort of like talking to yourself, isn't it?  Anyway, she-who-will-not-be-denied, oh wait, that's my role....  It was suggested that I do a kind of synopsis of the first trimester, since we are now past that, by a whole week. And I thought it was a good idea.  So here goes:
We finally got pregnant for the second time in 15 months of trying.  I did not get excited. (I don't get excited about vacation until I'm on the plane.  I just prepare.)  Knowing the first trimester is the biggest hurtle to actually having a live birth, I waited.  (FYI: Most first trimester miscarriages are due to chromosomal anomalies, assuming the mother isn't doing drugs, etc.)  I did not get excited.  I had already miscarried once. I let you-know-who be excited. Then after a few ultrasounds, the doctor said we could tell people.  That happened to be the same day we found out there were not 2 sacs but 3. All fraternal, the best type of triplet gestation.  Everyone gets their own food source i.e., placenta.  I felt assured, especially since from the get go I said we were having triplets.  People thought I was joking....  Careful what you wish for.  So triplets it is.  Then I bled a little, bright red blood.  Not a good omen.  But it was such a small quantity I almost felt guilty calling it in.  I even said to the doctor on the phone, "I'm calling because it says I should on the list." It was maybe a table spoon. So I went in for an ultrasound.  Nothing was found. Then a week later, it happened again, but this time it was brownish old blood.  This time they found a pocket of blood in the uterus.  They watched it.  They watched the fetuses.  Nothing adverse happened.  It didn't get bigger.  They said 'hunh.' and that was the end of it.  During this time I was ravenously hungry, had to eat every 2-3 hours.  In fact it wasn't like I was 'hhmmm, getting a little hungry, should eat soon'  it was 'I have NEVER been this hungry in all my life and I will kill you if you get in my way'.  But I got the hang of it.  I started keeping chopped steak in a Ziploc in my pocket.  More than once I found myself, under certain eating-inappropriate situations, excusing myself to the rest room to eat steak out of a baggy. I asked my doctor, 'so how many calories should I eat'?  I could not get an answer to that.  'Just eat right' he said.  And everyone who knew remotely anything about pregnancy, that I complained to, said it was good advice.  Just so you know, at 15 weeks and 3 days, I am the heaviest I have ever been in my life.  But the past 2 weeks I haven't gained anything.  Know what the doctor said?  The doctor said, 'I don't care if you gain 5 lbs or 50 lbs or even lose weight, just eat right and eat when you're hungry.'  Wouldn't that just be a prego's ideal dream, to have 3 healthy children who sucked the fat right off the butt and thigh areas, so you came out weighing less?  I can only hope, I won't get excited.  So what else about the body changes...  I burp, A LOT, first thing in the morning, like I just chugged a soda.  I am sure you-know-who thinks it's part of the alarm ringing on my phone.  And can we talk about flatus...also known as gas, toots, farts....  FYI:  the three little parasites cause the gastrointestinal tract to increase absorption of nutrients (isn't that cute) by releasing hormones that slow down peristalsis i.e., they slow the gut down.  This slowing causes more water to be absorbed (think constipation) and it lets things ferment/rot for longer.  What smells worse? Things that are a little rotten or things that have been rotten for quite sometime?  You do your own experiments.  All I can tell you is that I could barely tolerate myself with the fan on in the bathroom.  Now, I eat LOTS of fiber.  And people thought I was vegetable girl before.  Serious fruits and veggies people.  In fact, today has consisted of yogurt with berries, a tangerine, and kiwi.  Oatmeal with a banana. A sweet potato, an apple, some grapes, another 2 tangerines, steamed cabbage, a bratwurst.  Four carrots, half a cucumber, and 3 pieces of cheese.  And an Eddies fruitful blueberry popsicle. I am contemplating some Annie's cheddar bunnies (organic goldfish) but you-know-who will be home soon and we can contemplate dinner together.  I digress.  Back to the story.  So, here we have almost insatiable hunger, coupled with a slowed gut, where does the food go? Enter: morning sickness.  The food comes right back out.  Now it wasn't like some horror stories you hear, but I will say it is quite something, as an adult to experience projectile vomiting.  It immediately made me feel like I was 6 years old.  Probably because that was the last time I experienced uncontrolled emesis. And yes, I was hungry afterwards. (Eeeww.)  My morning sickness was mostly in the evenings.  The other funny thing that happened was my gag reflex was suddenly at the level of my molars.  That made brushing my teeth entertaining.  Let me warn you now, yogurt and fruit vomit doesn't just rinse off the dirty shower wall, you have to get the scrubby sponge out. Imagine, a 6 year old sick girl in the shower and you make her scrub it out too....  Do you see the pouty lip?  I did discover the best time to brush was after throwing up.  And yes there were a few days that minty sugar free gum had to suffice.  Sometimes all I could brush was the front 2/3rds of my teeth.  But I did brush at least once a day.  Some things that I did not know when having triplets, amniocentesis is not recommended. So how do you find out about Down Syndrome, especially when yours truly is 40 yrs old?  You look at nuchal translucency and nasal bone length.  What about that blood test they usually do in conjunction with the nuchal translucency?  It cannot be done with triplets, too unreliable.  Plus everyone looks good according to the nuchal translucency and nasal bone measurements.  However, this past week baby C showed an "isolated echogenic cardiac focus" (fancy-dancy). Which just means there was a bright white spot on the heart when they did the ultrasound and there is a one percent chance it could mean Down Syndrome.  It's 'isolated' because there are no other indicators of Downs.  Translation: 99% chance it's nothing, 1% it's something.  I will not get excited about it.  In fact, I am really not worried about much concerning this pregnancy.  The cankles (what you get when there is no differentiation between the calf and ankle) are visually disturbing but not physically.  My doctor assured me they would get worse.  And what about fatigue, you ask?  The second 3 weeks of pregnancy I had to take naps, but then I started sleeping 9 hours a night.  Haphazardly I will pass out earlier than normal bedtime, but for the most part, naps are over.  I am also having eye problems.  I have to wear my glasses all the time now.  I think my astigmatism has gotten worse.  I have an eye appointment next week.  Another lament I have is sleeping.  I am a back only sleeper, but recently I find myself waking on my side and its killing my neck.  Only muscle stiffness, but still.
  So what does all this mean?  My body has been taken over, literally.  It is now controlled by the placentas.  My doctor, the specialist, says they don't know which one is the leader, or how it is that multiples with their own placentas interact to control the mother's body in a cooperative way.  I do know that they are all the same size and therefore no one is being short-handed on nutrients.
 I have to go eat now.

Can you fit 3 car seats across in a Toyota Yaris?

Why, yes!  Yes, you can.  Great cheers were heard at our house yesterday and a huge sigh of relief.  We do not have to buy a new car this year to accommodate our triplets.  I'm sure there's a mini-van somewhere in our future but at least it doesn't have to be this year.  It's a tight fit.  The top of the car seats (rear-facing) touch the back of the driver and passenger seats.  At 5'8" and 5'2" we do not need to set the seats as far back as someone 6'.  As it is with the seats positioned where we need them for driving and riding, there is no more room if one of us were taller.  The car seats fit 3 across with a bit of room to spare!  The doors do not touch the seats when they are closed.  We will be checking with our local fire department to assure proper installation and that the tight fit does not pose any safety risks for any of us.

We have a 2009 Toyota Yaris 4-door with trunk.  The car seats are the amazing Diono Radian RXT convertible car seats.  Amazing because they fit 3 across in our compact car.  That said there are some down sides to these car seats.  I recommend reading the entire instruction booklet before attempting installation, especially if you are not familiar with car seat jargon, e.g., latch installation, harness adjuster, etc.  These seats are not designed to snap in and out of an attached base like the Graco seats.  Once in the car they stay in the car so there's no easy portable baby carrier.  They weigh 24 lbs each.  They fold up and are designed to be carried (to use them in a bus or an airplane).  They come with a carrying strap and can be carried on one shoulder or like a backpack.  They are expensive, $288 on Amazon.  But they have a 10 year warranty, are designed for kids 5-120 lbs, and convert from rear-facing to forward facing.  Much cheaper than buying a new car and probably the only seat we will have to buy, so a one-time purchase.  We won't have to buy another one for front-facing or as a booster.

We began with a quick fit test.  We took the Radians out of their boxes and seatbelted them into the back seat of the car.  It took two of us to get them in, positioned and seatbelts threaded through each seat.  If you have larger hands, you might want to find someone with smaller hands.  The path to feed the seatbelt through is similar to the Graco, though very smooth with no rough edges, roomier but still tight.  Once we knew they were going to fit we brought them back in one at a time, J attending to adjusting them for newborn infant size and me carting them in and out.  This is where the reading through the entire instruction booklet would have come in handy.  We're both pretty mechanically inclined but the jargon in the instructions had each of us with a booklet in hand trying to figure out what exactly they were talking about.  It really wasn't that complicated after we got the manual for the car out of the glove box to better understand what kind of car restraint system we have and once we got the first carseat adjustments done.  I was able to get them strapped back into the car by myself.  Our only difficulty with this was the seatbelt attachment can fall out of the path, so I recommend sticking it through as far as possible with one hand and then grasping it with your other and not letting go before you click it into place.  Though this means strategically leaning against the ever moving receding seatbelt (I used my knee) while feeding the seatbelt through.  There's a nice video on YouTube showing how to install one of the seats into a vehicle.  The best part is the suggestion about where to put pressure on the seat while snugging it down.

Here are pictures of the seats in our car.

13 weeks 2 days

The ultrasound was extra long today because the doctor was trying to get specific pictures.  Amazing that we could sit and watch the babies moving all around.  Good views of their little brains, spines, ribs, arms and legs.  One of them even opened and closed his/her mouth.  It's all truly miraculous.

Ultrasound 13 weeks 2 days

Not the best pic of the babies but nice to see all three again in one shot.  That's the back of Baby C.  They've really grown since the first pic of all three.  They are all almost 3 inches, crown to rump measurement.  If you look along the top of Baby C and Baby B it's a great pic of two of the placentas.

Baby A, 13 weeks 2 days

You can see the umbilical cord for Baby A just above the tummy.

Baby B, 13 weeks 2 days

Waving.

Baby C, 13 weeks 2 days

Baby B and Baby C were especially active today during the ultrasound.  This was the best shot of Baby C.  You can see some of his/her little fingers just below the chin.

Baby A, 13 weeks 2 days

Since Baby A was not moving as much at the beginning of the ultrasound there are several really nice pics of A.  We call this one 'Levitating' since Baby A looks suspended in space.

Triplet Discovery January 3, 2012

Ultrasound - 7 weeks 3 days

Thought we were having twins.  Baby A and Baby B were alive and well and we were delighted.  And then...

Ultrasound - 7 weeks 3 days

Baby C!

OMG, TRIPLETS.  Ok, I was a little unnerved, delighted, but unnerved. 

J was ecstatic.

Ultrasound - 9 weeks 2 days