Happy Birthday Jill

Today, one of my oldest/best friends celebrates her 32nd birthday.  She is kind, funny, genuine and always makes you feel comfortable when you are around her.  Even though we don't see each other often, when we do, we pick up right where we left off as if we didn't miss a beat. She is the Wayne to my Garth and she deserves the best that life has to offer.  I wish that we lived closer to one another so that we could spend more time together. Wishing you love, laughter and happiness in the coming year! Happy Birthday Jill E. Bean!  Love you! 

Packin' on the Pounds

Well,  I have officially gained 40 lbs! The first time I visited the Dr. I weighed in at 126 lbs and today, I weighed in at 166!  Luckily, it is all belly, but I have a feeling I am going to start packing on the pounds in the coming weeks! We visited the perinatologist on Thursday and the babies are looking good.  Baby A weighs 1 lb 8 oz., Baby B (our little peanut) weighs 1 lb 2 oz and Baby C weighs 1 lb 10 oz.  They did a test to see if I was in danger of going into preterm labor in the next two weeks and the results were negative! The Dr. would like me to take it easy the next couple of weeks.  I will return for another check-up on May 10 to see if anything has changed!  In the meantime, I will be on my couch! 

25 Weeks...

Bed Rest...Or Restless?

It's amazing how many things we take for granted when we are up walking around going through the regular rigmarole of everyday life, like getting off of the couch for example.  This small task seems trivial, but when you are carrying around 30+ extra lbs. it can become strenuous and exhausting!  My usual trick is to use the weight of my stomach to roll myself toward the side of the couch and allow gravity to pull me far enough over until I can swing my feet down to touch the floor and use one arm to help prop myself up.  It has worked thus far, so I will continue to use this method until I require the assistance of another human being! It's tough being pregnant and on bed rest! :-)

Update

Our Dr. appointment yesterday went well! There has been no change in my status (I will remain on bed rest) and the babies look good!  We got to hear their heartbeats and see them on the ultrasound monitor, which is always a wonderful experience!  We will return to the Dr. next week! 

24 Weeks Pregnant with Triplets!

At our first ultrasound, the Dr. told us that it looked like we were pregnant with twins, but the embryo was small and would probably be reabsorbed.  At our next ultrasound, the Dr. told us that there were definitely two heartbeats and it looked like one of the embryos had split, so there were three babies, but not to worry because one was small and would probably be reabsorbed.  At our third ultrasound, the Dr. confirmed that we were in fact pregnant with triplets!  Everyone has been asking what our reaction was and honestly, we were shocked, but ecstatic! 

The Dr. was concerned though because he couldn't see a membrane between the identical twins and this could mean that their cords could become tangled causing life-long problems for the babies or death.  I cried every night worrying that our babies would never make it into this world.  I did the worst thing you can do when a Dr. gives you a diagnosis and went on the internet to educate myself about mono-amniotic mono-chorionic twins.  The statistics did not appear to lean in our favor and we still had to wait three weeks before we could get in to see a perinatologist, a Dr. that specializes in high-risk pregnancies.  

In the meantime, we had traveled upstate to see my family and shared the news that we were expecting, not one, not two, but three babies!  We gave my mom, dad, sister and brother each a carefully selected children's book and on the inside wrote a message to each of them.  For example, "Dear Grandpa/Grandma- Please read this to me when I arrive in July/August."  My mom was the first to understand what was going on and she jumped for joy that she was finally going to be a grandmother! My dad, sister and brother were extremely excited that our family would be growing as well.

Finally in January, the day arrived and we attended our appt. with our new Dr.   The first thing the ultrasound technician said was "Wow, look at that beautiful membrane between the twins!"  We were so relieved the hear that there was in fact a membrane separating the girls which greatly reduced our risk of miscarriage.  But the Dr. was concerned that one of the girls appeared to be much smaller than the other two babies.  In order to find out if there was something genetically abnormal with the babies, we opted to have a CVS (Chorionic Villus Sampling).  The Dr. inserted a needle that appeared to be about a foot long into my abdomen near each of the placentas and took a sampling of cells to be sent to the lab to be tested for genetic issues. The procedure itself was surprisingly not too painful, but caused cramping in my uterus once the needle got close to the placenta.  The Dr. walked the samples down to the lab and sent us on our way, indicating that he would call us as soon as he knew the results.

Damian and I were traveling home for my cousin's wedding that day and although it was a long drive (6 hours) and I cried for a long portion of the trip, I was happy to be home with my family.  After attending the wedding and arriving at the reception, we did our best to have a great time and keep our mind off of what else was happening in our life.  Since we were at a wedding reception, my phone was in my coat and I never checked it until we left the wedding.  I had three missed calls from New Haven, CT.  I listened to the message and it was our Dr. asking that I return his call.  I couldn't believe that they had rushed the results of our tests in order to give us peace of mind.

I was extremely nervous to hear what the Dr. had to say.  When he answered he said that he had been calling all day and asked why I hadn't called him back.  He told me that all of the preliminary test results were normal and asked if I wanted to know the sex of the babies.  Of course I did!  He told me that the babies that were sharing a sac are identical twin girls and the baby in a sac of their own was a boy! I couldn't wait to share the news with Damian.  But I had to wait because he remained at the wedding reception while I went home.  

When Damian finally arrived home to my parent's house I was able to share the wonderful news that genetically everything looked great with the babies and we would be having a son and two daughters!  Afterwards, we were able to share the news with our parents who had been keeping our pregnancy a secret due to the fact that we weren't sure how everything would end up.  I also shared the news with my grandparents and shortly afterwards we told Damian's family, my family and our friends!  We feel overwhelmed with the love and support that we have received from everyone during this very special time in our lives.  


Since learning the sex of the babies and making our announcement to the world, we have attended several more Dr. appointments to keep track of the babies' progress, had more in-depth genetic testing completed (which came back normal) and I have recently been placed on bed rest.  Although lying on the couch all day without contact from the outside world is boring and sometimes exhausting, I know that it is what is best for the babies and I will do whatever is necessary to give them the best chance of arriving safely into this world.  We will attend our next Dr. appointment tomorrow.


Belly Progression: Weeks 10-24

12 weeks!

14 weeks!

15 weeks!

16 weeks!

17 weeks!

18 weeks!

19 weeks!

20 weeks!

21 weeks!

22 weeks!

23 weeks!

24 weeks!

Jumping the Infertility Hurdle

The next time you think about telling someone who is trying to get pregnant "not to worry, it will happen"...choose your words wisely! No one understands what it is like to deal with infertility until it happens to them.  I always thought that I would get pregnant quickly.  In fact, my grandmother had eight kids in nine years, my mother never struggled to get pregnant and I had been warned my whole life to be careful; it is so easy to conceive a child! So why was it so difficult for me? 

Damian and I had been together for seven years before we got engaged and were married for two years before we began trying to get pregnant.  After two and a half years of unsuccessfully trying to conceive, we finally sought the help of a fertility specialist.  They ran a series of tests and asked us several questions about our healthy history. Fortunately, they couldn't find anything wrong with either of us and we just happened to fall into the fifteen percent of people who have "unexplained fertility." We opted to try IUI before moving on to IVF and it was unsuccessful, so we decided to go ahead with IVF.  I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I had read that the medication could make you crazy and the shots were painful, but I didn't have a reaction to the medication and after I got over my fear of needles, the shots really weren't bad at all!  

My body responded very well to the medication and on the day of retrieval they were able to get twenty-four eggs, nineteen of which were mature and seventeen of them fertilized.  We decided to put two embryos in on the day of transfer.  Eight days later I found out that we were pregnant! I couldn't believe it!  I had asked the nurse to leave me a message on my cell phone with the results of the pregnancy test because I would be at work and wasn't sure how I would respond to another disappointing "not pregnant." When I listened to the message, I had to call the nurse to confirm what she had said...was I really pregnant?  How was I going to tell Damian?  I purchased a pair of baby girl shoes and baby boy shoes and put them into a gift bag.  Since Damian's birthday was just two days away, he thought it was an early birthday gift. Little did he know that it was the best gift he would ever receive!