11/30/07

Just had an ultrasound to check the babies’ growth. Man, that was hellish. Remind me never to ask for another ultrasound again. That’s what I get for asking every doctor who came in here when I’d get another growth scan.

Laying on your back with 13+ pounds of baby…painful.

But at least the babies still look good.

A: 3 lbs, 11 oz
B: 4 lbs, 11 oz
C: 4 lbs, 3 oz

The discrepancy between A and B has always been there, so it doesn’t worry the doctors, though it does seem pretty extreme to me.

In other news, I’m supposed to be getting a new bed today. Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s supposed to be a big old double bed with a comfy air mattress or something. Cross your fingers I get it today. I’m sick of not sleeping! I think it’ll really help with sleep. Ambien’s okay but it really only works for a few hours, then I’m wide awake.

George and I got a video camera as a gift, so yay, we’ll have a video of the birth! Not the gory parts, ew. Let’s just hope George can keep his hand steady enough to actually kind of see what’s going on.

Day 4 in the hospital

Am trying my hardest to post every day…what else do I have to do, after all? But for real, the days go by much faster than I could have imagined. I was supposed to call the phone company days ago, but I just can’t seem to find five minutes in my brutal schedule of TV, naps, checking my email, eating, and getting my blood pressure taken. What can I say? I’m a busy woman. Heh.

Yesterday was particularly busy, I had a slew of visitors. It really made the day fly by. Janice and Kelly came by to bring me clothes from home, Lindsay stopped by with fancy dessert, my in-laws came by with chocolate, my friend Brandi came by with her teeny tiny 8 week old son, Ethan, then my mom came with a friend of hers, and THEN George came by and THEN Barry and THEN Stephanie and Mary Catherine. It was just a fun day.

I got all sorts of treats and fun stuff, too. Mostly food related (Mary Catherine, like the good southern girl she is, brought homemade cake, even though she’s 8 months pregnant herself) but also a poinsettia from my mom (that I can’t kill) and various goodies from George.

Best part of the day, though, had to be taking the wheelchair down with George, Barry, MC, and Steph down to the atrium. Just getting out of the room was exciting! But to do so with friends was even better.

Talked to my doctor, they’re going to do a growth scan of the babies sometime soon, hopefully this week. It’s been two and a half weeks since the last one and I’m curious to know how big the babies are. Plus, it’s got to be the most-asked question I get from my visitors, so it’d be nice to have an answer.

So, that’s about it for now. Just got my blood drawn again (mmm, fun) and today we’re doing another 24 urine collection. Oh, the joys!

Day 3, done!

Not a hugely eventful day, but every day down is a day that the babies will be healthier when they’re born. So I’ll take uneventful days anytime right now.

Not to say it didn’t have it’s fun and exciting parts. Lisa (my cousin) came to visit in the morning and she brought me a huge stack of magazines. A woman after my own heart! I mean, good stuff, too – Martha Stewart, Real Simple, Oprah (I may not watch her show but I love her magazine), two issues of People, US, Domino…good stuff!

She hung out for a while, and then a little while later my old co-workers from Delta Queen, Janice and Kelly, came by. They work here now, which is awesome. And Janice lives down the street from us, so she can bring me things from home if George can’t come visit one day.

Then there was the monitoring – a truly NOT fun part of the day. Of course it’s comforting to hear the babies’ heartbeats, but it’s hard – so hard – to keep them all on at the same time, and after 45 minutes of sitting in one position to get 20 minutes of heart rates, my back starts to hurt. So I shift positions slightly, and…no, still painful. And now the sensors have moved and we have to find the babies again. Gaah!

All for the best, though.

The rest of the day was spent napping, working, talking on the phone, and getting this GORGEOUS plant. Oh, please let me not kill it, it’s so beautiful! In case you can’t tell, it’s a white hydrangea from Kristina, Mike, Anne and Bill. I carried white hydrangeas as my wedding bouquet – that’s how much I love them.

Today should be v exciting. I have lots of fun visitors coming, and someone is going to take me down to the atrium in a wheelchair. First time I’ve left the room since I checked in on Sunday!

Day 2, done!

So yesterday was my first full day in the hospital, and it went pretty well. Slowly, as you might imagine, but not too bad. My friend Laurie came to visit, which was awesome.

I also met several doctors who came to introduce themselves to me. The anesthesiologist, who of course will be my BFF at some point, plus a neonatologist (for preemies) who I hope will not be my BFF, but if he is, it’ll be okay. Because he’s nice. A physical therapist also came by to show me some exercises to do in bed to keep me from turning into an even bigger pile of mush. Now the key is to, you know, do them.

George came by after work, bearing McDonald’s since the hospital dinner was not something I was going to be eating. So I let George eat it, and even he said it was gross (ice-cold spaghetti with meat sauce? mmm!) Today I should be getting a menu so I can choose my meals, and if not, at lunchtime yesterday (you don’t want to know what yesterday’s lunch was, I’m still having nightmares about it) I discovered you can always get ham and cheeese sandwiches. Whew!

This morning I was woken by a doctor who was v perky and cheerful. She said my labs came back showing I’m definitely developing pre-eclampsia, so I’ll definitely be here until the babies are born. Sounds pretty long-term, which is good – they’re not anticipating that I’ll have them, you know, tomorrow, but pre-e can change quickly, so we’ll see. In any case, it was advise that I get some Christmas decorations in here. 🙂

Day One in the hospital

Not a full day, granted, but I want to keep track of what goes on in here, especially since I hope to be here for a nice, long while. At least two weeks. Before the babies are born, that is.

So we checked in around 11 (I mean, I was admitted – it’s not a hotel, after all) and my doctor came in to say hello shortly thereafter. The nurse who brought me in showed me around and I got changed into a gown while George set up the computer for internet access (priorities!)

I had my first session of attempting to monitor all three babies’ heartbeats at the same time. Not easy. Hardly even possible. So after about an hour, the nurses gave up. My blood pressure was also checked during this time. It wasn’t great, but not horribly high, either.

A little while later, a resident came in and checked to see how I was feeling. Everyone here is really nice, I have to say. Later, because we weren’t able to get the heartrates for 20 minutes total, she brought in an u/s machine and checked them out. Babies are fine. Always good to hear. 🙂

The rest of the day included such highlights as lunch (ick), dinner (better), a salad from Whole Foods brought by George (best) and some chocolate (heaven!) Teresa and Jon and Gareth also stopped by. Tee brought me some goodies in my new favorite scent from Bath & Body Works which was v sweet.

Oh yeah, turns out I have the best room on the floor! It’s private (whew), pretty big, and even has a little foyer. Tee hee! Good stuff. I’m also loving this hospital bed. I need one at home. So handy that you can sit up and read and not need a gajillion pillows. It was v hot in here, but the windows open a bit, and we brought a fan. So now I’m even a tad chilly.

Tomorrow the highlight of my day will be the end of 24 hours of urine collection (heh) and finding out the results of that, and bloodwork. Woot!

Eep!

Well, now it’s time for some excitement!

Went to the doctor yesterday, and based on several factors, he is admitting me tomorrow for the duration. Hopefully that duration is at least two weeks, but we’ll see. My blood pressure is starting to creep up, my ankles are just getting more and more swollen, and (here’s the fun one) I gained 17 lbs in 11 days. So, yeah, it’s time.

As soon as he walked in the room after reviewing my bp, weight gain, etc, George and I both knew what he was going to say. You could just tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t giving me great news. But really, I don’t consider it bad news. I’m happy to do whatever to make this pregnancy last as long as possible. It definitely sucks not to be at home, but it’s a small price. Goodness knows I’ve had it very easy compared to most of the stories I read about triplet pregnancies.

So today, some friends are coming over to visit, I need to pack, and George and I will spend some time together alone. (Mostly I will just make him scratch my back for several hours to make up for all of the scratch-free nights I have ahead of me.)

Thank goodness the hospital has wireless access, so I will still be posting and all that. Woo!

PS Funny – the doc measured my belly, and if I were having just one, I’d be 47 weeks pregnant! tee hee! Silly.

Thanksgiving

Can you believe it’s Thanksgiving week already? Can you believe I’m 31 weeks pregnant? I only have THREE TO FIVE weeks left! That’s twenty-one to thirty-five days, people! (Actually, since it’s Monday, it’s really 20-34 days.) No sooner than 20 days, though. No way.

Tomorrow I’m going into the office for a bit to do some work and then it’s the office Thanksgiving. Yum! I’m bringing a premade apple pie. Hope no one minds. At least it was fresh at the grocery store, not a frozen one.

And then Emily’s coming to visit, along with Jenny and Rob too. And at some point this week I’ll get to see Kristie…and Renny…and baby Chloe…and Maura…so fun!

Thursday we’re actually having Thanksgiving dinner at our house. And we’re doing the turkey. But don’t worry. I’m not doing anything except telling George what to do. I will not be lifting a 14 lb turkey! Mom and Jenny et al are bringing the rest of the food. Mmmm….

Have a doctor’s appointment on Friday. Uh oh. Day after a big feast. Thank goodness I’m supposed to be gaining weight!

Now it’s time for a bitch session!
– hands are numb and swollen. Be thankful for this post, it’s dang hard to type now.
– heartburn is evil. And nothing seems to help. Except Tums, but only briefly.
– restless legs are v annoying.
– I barely fit behind the wheel of my car. Ha!
– Knees are killing me.
– George laughs at me every time I try to get off the couch. Okay, I’m sure it is a comical sight, but hmmmmmph!

On the other hand, George is being so incredibly helpful and he won’t let me do anything, so I will let him get away with the laughing. 🙂

Now, for fun, I got around to posting the video from our first ultrasound on YouTube. It’s quite entertaining. 😀

Woo!

Woo hoo! Found out last night that I do not have Gestational Diabetes! If you know me, you know this is a big deal – I honestly don’t know how I’d survive without sugar. Clearly, my years of training by being a sugar fiend have paid off! Heh. My doctor even said I passed the glucose tolerance test “with flying colors”! Woo!

In a complete topic change, I just want to alert those out there who will be visiting and helping out with the babies – please get a flu shot. I’m letting you know now so that you have time to get it before they come. I’ll write a longer post about it later, but it’s just one of the ways we are going to have to try to prevent the babies from contracting RSV, a very dangerous disease in preemies.

If you want to read more about it, here are some websites:

RSVprotection.com
RSVinfo.com
RSV at the March of Dimes website

So, you get the point…it’s dangerous for teeny babies. Flu shots are easy! Two seconds!

And in yet other news, Emily’s coming in tonight!!! Yaaaay!

Nursery pics

Nursery is almost done! Thank you Kristina for helping so much this past week. I think she’s in the wrong line of work. Professional organizing would be much more her speed.

Going from left to right, from the doorway:

Nursery

Nursery!

Changing table

The third crib

And more random shots:
Crib 1

Cribs 1 and 2

The new chair!
New chair

And the bathroom is now chock full o’ storage (and bath stuff)
Organized bathroom!

Bathroom organization

11/13/07

Sorry I haven’t been posting much. Kristina is in town and between work and hanging out with her, I haven’t had much time for anything. But we’ve got the house in a state of high organization. It’s v exciting.

Today is our 2nd anniversary! Yay! We didnt’ do anything since we went out to eat last week, so it’s kind of anticlimactic. But still. Yay us! Hee.

I also had an appointment with the MFM. Dare I say it was slightly…boring? But only in the best way.

Took the glucose test (don’t know the results yet, dear god I hope I passed!) and then went in to see my doctor. Babies look good (didn’t get their weights, I forgot to ask, but he didn’t mention them, so that’s good), my cervix is “a role model cervix”, nice, long, and closed (sorry to the squeamish, but this is a big deal), my blood pressure was fine, etc, etc, etc.

Babies are so cute – we got some great face shots. All babies are head-down (which makes not a whit of difference in my circumstances, just saying) but some of them have their feet by their heads. Silly kids. 🙂 I will have George scan the pics we got later so you can see. We saw hair on Baby B, which doesn’t surprise me at all – George and I are both pretty hairy, after all. Heh.

I guess that’s about it…I go back a week from Friday, but just for a checkup. I won’t see them again on u/s until December 10 – if I make it that long. That’s 34 weeks! Yow! I hope I make it that long!

Soooo…yeah. Good appointment!

11/7/07

Oh yummmmmmmy. George and I just got back from our anniversary dinner, even though the actual date isn’t until Monday. We’re celebrating early since Kristina is coming tomorrow for a week (wahoo!)

We went to a restaurant called Clancy’s, and the service was great and the food was great and the atmosphere was…great. (Need new adjectives.) Let me describe my delicious meal…

First, I had a salad of lump crabmeat (a TON of it) over a bed of mixed greens, and a creole mustard-caper dressing. Oh holy cow. I mean, there was a TON of crabmeat. Almost literally. I swear. It was so good. Then for my entree, I had scallops in a butter sauce with mashed potatoes and vegetables. They were fancy mashed potatoes, of course. I think she mentioned truffle oil, but I don’t know about that. Anyway, the scallops were huge and amazing. I loooove scallops. For dessert, we split their house specialty dessert, a lemon icebox pie. It was sooo good.

George had a white bean and andouille sausage soup and an amazing pork tenderloin with mashed sweet potatoes and vegetables. Holy crap, that pork was good. I don’t order it in restaurants, but that dish would have changed my mind. Sooo good.

The waitress was nice enough to have the bartender make me a faux Cosmopolitan, so I even felt somewhat normal for a bit. Torturously, they sat us in the “wine room”, which is lined in wine bottles. Sigh. So tempting.

After dinner, we met some friends out at a neighborhood bar, where I had a rare glass of wine. On top of so much food, I didn’t feel guilty for a bit. It was so good (and probably crap wine, even.)

So tomorrow night Kristina’s coming in. Yay! I am v v v excited. Woo!