24.5 Week Update

We had another great check up on the triplets yesterday. All 3 are growing and getting bigger and bigger, which is great news to hear. Baby Boy A is now weighing in at 1lb 12oz, Baby Girl B is now at 1lb 7 oz, and Baby Boy C is at 1lb 13oz. We are extremely happy with our new doctors and nurses, and look forward to meeting more of them! They all seem very impressed with how well Beth is doing carrying the triplets and they told her whatever she is doing, to keep doing it because it is working! Her cervix is still holding up like a champ, so December babies might be in our future! It was crazy to hear that as we get closer to our 34 week goal, that we might even get to pick the date to schedule the c-section! We don’t have our next appointment for 3 weeks, but we are going to have it down at Abbot at the hospital where we will be delivering the babies. The appointment is going to take about 4-5 hours, as they are going to do an in-depth ultrasound on each baby getting all the measurements, and then also doing a stress test on each of them to see how they are handling being in there with each other. After the appointment and some lunch, we also have a tour of the NICU at Children’s Hospital set up in the chance that the babies need to spend some time there or the special care nursery.

Speaking of nursery, our nursery for the babies is almost complete! We are just waiting on a few more things to get done, hopefully in the next couple of days, and we will have some pictures to share. It truly makes it seem more real when you see those 3 cribs set up waiting for the arrival of the babies. Poor Kita though, he won’t come in the room and the one time he did he got put in the crib (minus the mattress) to try it out. Needless to say, he was not a happy dog =) We have also decided on 2 of the 3 babies names, but you will have to wait for them to arrive as we are keeping it a surprise. Our little girl had her name first, and then we picked out one of the boy names, but we both have what we want for the 2^nd boy and neither one of us are budging on what we want it to be. Maybe after we get to meet them and see what they look like, we will be able to decide.

We look forward to updating you all in 3 weeks after our next appointment. Again thank you so much to everyone for all the thoughts, prayers, gifts and everything in between. It is so amazing how generous people have been to us, and we appreciate it more than you will ever know!!! It’s so great to be surrounded by such amazing family and friends. We love you all!

S&B+3

22.5 Week Appt Update

Another great check up yesterday for Beth and the triplets. Her cervix is still holding strong and steady, which is great news to keep these babies in and keep them growing big and strong. Baby A is turning out to be our chubby one, he weighs in at 1lb 5 oz, Baby girl B is our little peanut weighing in at just 15 oz, and Baby C is right in the middle at 1lb 1oz. They are all very healthy and had good strong heartbeats, and the blood flow through the umbilical cord came back as normal on all 3, so that was great to hear. Beth also passed her gestational diabetes test, which was great news as when you are having multiples with a family history of diabetes, you are more prone to get it, but she is proving to make it seem like she was made to carry multiples! Bed rest is looking further and further away, which is a huge relief!

We also made a very hard choice at this last appointment, as we will now be moving all our care for Beth and the triplets over to Abbott, so that we are able to deliver down at Abbott Northwest Hospital, which is right across the street and connected to Children’s Hospital. We have been going to multiples birthing classes there, and have loved every second that we have been there. Next week we are going to be touring the Children’s Hospital and the NICU where or little peanuts will be spending some time growing strong. We made this decision not only to help us out, but more to make sure our babies are getting the best care possible, as it is not about us, but them. We are looking forward to our next appointment with our new set of doctor’s hopefully in the next week or so, and getting to know them better.

We have also started working on the nursery for the babies, as well as the room across the hall that will be our rocking/changing room for the babies. We will post after pictures once the rooms are finished, but here are some before pictures for now.

Thank you again so much for everything and we look forward to continue to update everyone with the great news!

Love,

S&B+3

Rocking/Changing Room Before

Nursery/Crib Room Before

Baby B and Baby C update

All 3 of the babies heads in a row

Baby Boy C being calm for a second

Had a quick check-up this morning to check on the blood flow through the cord for Baby B and Baby C. Baby B came back as normal, which was great to hear. Baby C would measure normal and then his flow would be low, and then it would measure normal again, and then low. The doctor said that she is sure everything with Baby C is just fine, he is just really, really active so it’s hard to get a good reading from him. I also found out the source of the pain I have been feeling under my right rib cage these past couple weeks as well, Baby C is kicking them so much he is bruising my ribs! Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done to get him to move, as there isn’t much more room for him to go, but hopefully some day he will be a famous soccer player or something to make up for it =) Our doctor also informed me that we will be reaching our first goal of 23 weeks next Friday, which means that if they were to be born after next Friday the 23^rd, they would definitely be able to make it, but with a lot of medical help and a very long hospital stay. My goal is still to make it to December 1^st, but we will see if these babies think otherwise! I have another long appt next Weds, with more measurements of the babies and the dreaded diabetes testing. Fingers crossed we pass the first one, as I definitely do not want to have to sit there an extra 3 hours if we don’t pass!

Shawn and I had our first multiples birthing class last night, which turned out to be very interesting. Out of the 11 couples that were there, only 2 of us are having triplets while the rest are having twins. It just shows that having triplets truly is a one of a kind experience, and a blessing that we can’t be happier to be having! The babies are all definitely kicking more and more. You can see it a lot more as well as feel it, so it will be interesting to see what my belly looks like in the next month or so after they are bigger and moving around a lot more.

We had a great shower up north with the Roy family at the cabin this Labor Day Wknd. It is truly amazing how wonderful and generous everyone has been in helping us get ready for these babies to come! They are very spoiled that’s for sure! I am hoping to start working on the nursery rooms these next couple of weeks, as we got a call last Friday to inform us that the cribs are in, so I went and got the paint and am ready to get these rooms organized!

Thank you again so much for everyone’s prayers and well wishes! We appreciate them more than you will ever know!

Love,

B+3



Aug. 31st Appt

Yesterday we had another check up to see how the little peanuts are doing and how Beth is doing carrying them. Again, the dr. was very impressed with how her cervix is holding up. It was like she was made to carry multiples! That was great news to hear! As for weight gain, she is right on track to meeting the goal of gaining 60 lbs. So far she has gained 30 in the last 20 weeks, so hopefully she will be able to put on the last 30 in the next 10-15 weeks. Who would have thought it would be so hard to gain 60 (healthy) pounds! But don’t worry, Ben and Jerry are definitely helping out in that department, her new favorite is the Fro-Yo Cherry Garcia! =)

As for the babies, Baby A is doing great, such a trooper down at the bottom holding up his sister and brother. We sometimes worry that he is getting squished, but he has enough protection to keep him safe. Baby B and Baby C are giving us some worry this week, the dr. said that the blood flow going from the placenta’s to each of them through the umbilical cord was measuring slower than they like, so we will need to go back in again next week to double check it. They said there are usually 2 main causes of this, 1) mom’s blood pressure and 2) just that they are being overly active during the ultrasound so it’s hard to get a good reading. After checking Beth’s blood pressure which came back perfectly normal, they are just hoping it was a fluke and will double check it again next week. It’s hard to have to wait even just a week, but we will just take it day by day, and try our very hardest not to think or worry about it, but if you know Beth, it is on her mind constantly! The dr. did say they would be a little bit more worried about it if all 3 babies hadn’t measured all the same like they did 2 weeks ago, but since they all seemed to be growing at the same pace then, it should be ok. We would greatly appreciate the extra prayers that these 2 little one’s are perfectly fine, and all they really wanted to do was show us their tricks!

They had a hard time getting some good pictures of the babies since they were so wild, so we will have to wait until next time to hopefully have some good ones.

On Friday August 19^th, Beth was in a meeting  at work and felt the babies kick for the first time on the outside. Up until now, she has only been feeling them on the inside, since July 10^th. It scared her at first, but once she realized what it was she was so excited! A lot of her co-workers have had the opportunity to feel them as well as some other friends in family. It is one of the greatest feelings ever!

We will keep everyone updated next week right after the appointment. We appreciate all the extra prayers until then.

Love,

Shawn, Beth and Triplets