Baby Kicks & Home Monitoring

In my 6th month (23rd week), I can confidently say that I am feeling the babies move and kick now. Even Dennis has been able to feel them. It is hard to tell which baby it is but I seem to feel baby "B" the most often. It is a really cool feeling and makes it seem all the more real. I had an ultrasound on Monday but it was just a quick one where they checked my cervix and the baby’s heartbeats all of which looked great. It won't be for 2 more weeks until they weigh them again. My weight is now up by 26 pounds which is better. The nurse/dietician said that the goal would be for me to now gain 3 pounds a week so that by 32 weeks I would be up to 50 pounds. They want you to have gained between 50-60 pounds by delivery. So, even though I had a slow start I feel pretty confident that I can get to the 50. As you will see from the pictures I am about to download, I am getting quite big!

They started me on what is called "Home Uterine Activity Monitoring" over a week ago. There is a belt that I put around my stomach for an hour (in the morning and at night) that monitors for contractions and then it hooks into a wireless device that transmits to the 24 hour nursing center (Matria). They then call back within 30 minutes to let me know how many contractions I had if any. They want it to be under 4 within the hour. Well, the first time we did it, we were in Binghamton at my parent’s house and they called me back concerned because I had 8 contractions. I had no idea! They said to lie on my left side, drink 2 8 oz. glasses of water and then monitor for another hour. This seemed to work because the contractions went down to 5. They still had to call my doctor to inform him and see what he wanted me to do. Luckily, he said to just continue drinking water and lying down and no need to go to the hospital. Ever since then I've had no more than 3 contractions (most days 0-1), so it seems to be fine. I also take my blood pressure every day which they have me report to them when they call and that has been good each time. When they call, they also ask about the babies and how I am feeling and make sure that I am feeling the babies move. Insurance only covers this for high-risk/multiple pregnancies as it is used to identify pre-term labor early enough so that it can be effectively treated. Although we do have a $6/day co-pay, it is worth every penny for the reassurance it provides. The nurses are fantastic...so nice and professional and informative, etc.

We were able to get away for a night last weekend. We had booked a room at the Inn at Mystic (CT) awhile back. I knew I couldn't travel anymore, so this was something we could do that was close enough but still "away". It was a great place, very cozy, relaxing and romantic. It was perfect for me because it wouldn't have been fun to be somewhere that had a lot to do (since it would just be a tease), so this was simply just relaxing in a different room other than my living room. The room looked out onto the water and had a working fireplace in it. There was a really nice restaurant at the Inn so we could just go right there for dinner without any effort....very nice atmosphere with amazing food. Here are some pregnancy pictures from that little trip.

Shower Plans

I'm looking forward to our shower on Sat. March 8th in Binghamton and am really hoping I am in good shape for it. It was hard picking a date because you don't want to do it too early but you also want to make sure it is not too late where you would risk not being able to go to it due to having to be in the hospital or whatever. We thought about having it after the babies were born but that seemed too difficult because we don't know how long the babies will need to stay in the hospital and I wanted to have things prepared and set ahead of time. My doctor had suggested waiting until after 24 weeks, so I will be just about 26 weeks by the time of the shower. I am so excited that Carolynn and Moira had offered to throw this for us. We have the best sisters! I guess Jack & Jill showers (for weddings or babies) are not popular in Binghamton, so I think we've thrown some of the guys for a loop. This will probably be the first for many. But, we wanted it to be more like a party and Jack & Jill showers are fun, so now you can all experience this trend that has been going on.

I registered at BabiesRUs over Christmas thanks to Mary (Ducey) Vaughan's help and time. It is quite an overwhelming experience because there is just so much to think about and so much stuff! Since Mary has 3 kids she really knows what you need and what you don't and was able to guide me through the process. If it was just Dennis and I, it would have taken days and we would have been lost wondering "do we need this? what is this for?". Now we'll just need someone to show us how everything works.

21 Weeks and 3's

We are now in week 21 and things look very promising. At the ultrasound yesterday they checked the weight of the babies and they are all 14 oz's each. This is great news because to have them all be at the same size and be right on track is a great sign for things to go smoothly. They also checked my cervix to make sure there are no changes there and the doctor said that looked great too. My efforts with eating more calories over the last week must have helped because I gained 7 pounds and am now up to a total gain of 20 pounds. My doctor really does not seem to care about diet/weight gain at all, so I guess it just depends on the doctor. So, I am going to relax about this from now on. I asked him how many weeks he thinks I would go and he said he can't see me going past 34 weeks and thinks it will be right around 32 weeks due to my frame. So, it seems like the babies will most likely be born in April sometime or possibly the first week of May at the latest. But, it is all very hard to predict.

This past weekend we met with another triplet family here in Hoboken...the Kelly's. They have 2 girls and a boy who are now 4 years old. They had us over to meet the kids and see how life is for them with triplets in Hoboken and to chat about the whole thing. They were the nicest people and the kids were so cute and outgoing. They played with their toys together while we talked and they were so well behaved and you could tell how close they were. The parents were probably in their 30's as well and were very positive and seemed really happy. It was a lot of fun and made us even more excited to have our triplets here soon.

My mom started noticing a lot of coincidences with the number 3 lately and now we've noticed more and more. The number 3 just seems to be popping up everywhere. Here are some examples:

I will be turning 33 in February
We will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary this year on August 13th
Dennis' birthday is also on the 13th of July
My mom's locker number at the Y is #3
I grew up on 3 Millard Ave.
The Giants just won their 3rd Superbowl by 3 points on February 3rd
The trolley from our wedding was the "Triple" Cities Trolley