Baby Jack 'O Lantern

Okay… I guess that’s what I get for trying to wear a different outfit from the 4 or 5 I’ve worn all summer! “You look like a pumpkin!!” Sheesh – I realize I’m huge now, but really!! Okay, so after Brandon made the jack 'o lantern pieces, I guess I really do look like a pumpkin.


Oh well, I guess at 31 ½ weeks, pregnant with triplets, no mom is going to like the pictures taken of her. So, here’s more. The first one is about 29 weeks and the second one is 31 weeks.


Just 5 more weeks to go (or longer, but at least 5)! That will put us at 36 weeks and that’s the marker for when the doctors can deliver here in Bloomington. So far the boys are behaving themselves. I can only assume they are growing since my belly grows about 1-2 inches each week! This weekend they let Brandon, and my mom and dad to feel them kick. Typically, they quit kicking as soon as I say to someone “come feel, they’re kicking”. This weekend, they weren’t quite as shy. It could have had something to do with all the sugar I had this weekend too! Whatever works!

Our next doctor appointment in Peoria, where they’ll measure the boys again, is next week. Until then, not much more to report. We’re just hanging out around here taking it easy. All of the babies like to move around during the night, when they all start to attack each other. Gotta love sibling rivalry this early!!

Well, next week I should have a better update for you (hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday by the time I type it up). Until then, hope everyone is doing well!

Stay tuned… more to come!

Trap Door Still Closed

Can you believe it?! 2 posts in one day - bringing this blog up to date!!!

August 29th, 2007:
Today we had another doctor appointment with Maternal Fetal over in Peoria. It was supposed to be a quick cervix measurement, but they ended up measuring the babies too. Last week my cervix was showing signs of shortening. The shorter it is, the closer we are to delivering the babies. That’s not a good thing at this point. The longer the babies can stay inside, the better. I’ve been having weekly appointments to get my cervix measured. The Peoria docs had said once it goes below a certain threshold, they wanted to see me sooner than whenever my next appointment was. Well, my next appointment was supposed to be next week (September), so they scheduled another appointment for today – again, it was supposed to just measure the “trap door” as Adam calls it.

Well, when we got there, they went ahead and measured everybody. She started out trying to get 3D images of the babies’ faces. Baby B was participating quite nicely, but not so much for A and C. We did get some 2D pictures of them. The 3D imaging is awesome, but for triplets, it’s a little too good. It renders so much that we’d see one baby’s face and another one’s foot (in his brother’s face), so it was hard to get good pictures. That seemed to be the theme of today… Too many body parts and not enough room. Even when we could see Baby B’s face, Baby A’s foot was right there above it. Or Baby A and Baby C’s heads were always so close, it was hard to get good measurements. For example, the mustache (or pig nose as Adam calls it) on Baby B is really part of his umbilical cord shadow.

The good news… the boys are growing just right. They all weighed in at 3 lbs 1 oz or 3 lbs 2 ozs. That’s over 9 lbs of baby!!! They’ve all gained about a pound in 3 weeks. That’s a good sign. The bigger they are, the less chances for problems later!

Even mom measured well today! The cervix measurement was back up to where they like to see it. Although, the funny part of getting that measurement is while they were watching the cervix to make sure it didn’t change, Baby A literally punched at the cervix. They thought it was so funny that they took pictures. Unfortunately we didn’t get that one, but I guess they really are “knocking at the door” to get out. Just wait until October boys!! The doctor today even seemed positive that if we keep up like we are, we might make it to the point that we can deliver here in Bloomington. That would be awesome if the babies didn’t need special NICU care. We have to double check with our pediatrician (which we’re still picking) to see how far along we need to be before they’ll agree to deliver here in town.

Other than that, they said to keep up the bed rest. That gets easier each day. The bigger they get the more energy it takes to do the simple things. Even eating a meal tuckers me out! How sad is that?! Otherwise, I can’t complain too much. If I stand for too long, my back starts to hurt, but it could be so much worse! I can’t see my belly button (or toes) and getting out of comfy chairs takes a little longer, but again, 9 lbs of baby – and growing!!!

July and August 2007

On July 1st, we had our second baby shower in Decatur. My mom and sister hosted it (with set-up help from my brother and dad) – talk about a great family!! Oh, but I can’t forget Sydney (my niece). She was also a big help! Mom bought a new tent to put over the drive way (it looks like something you might rent for a wedding) and it sounds like Sydney enjoyed helping put it up and taking it down. We also used the onesies my friends made for me at work as part of the decorations.

We had a great turn out from family and friends, probably about 25-30 people all together. It was a lot of fun. As usual at a shower, we played some games. This time, I totally kicked butt!! You had to name the children of the TV show (or movie) listed. Seems all those hours watching TV pays off sometimes! There was also great food (thanks Barb for all your fancy dishes!) and cake – always cake. There were actually two cakes, one we ate, and one mom and Angela made out of diapers. Very cute!


Again, there were tons of great gifts. Mattie, Chloe and Sydney were all a big help moving the gifts for me. Sydney even liked one of the toys so much, she carried it around the rest of the party (and wasn’t very happy about giving it back, but eventually we convenced her to share with her cousins).

Mom even got some practice holding two babies – Sydney and Eric.
Once it was all done, the gifts were loaded into the new mini-van. Here’s Sydney taking one back (and still holding onto the giraffe).
Thanks again to everyone who was able to come to the shower and for all the great gifts. And of course a big thanks to Mom, Angela, Dad, Brandon and Barb for all the help planning and preparing!

Now that the party is over, bed rest begins. My first week of bed rest started the day after the shower. Now it’s been two months and I still don’t know what I do every day to fill the day up (Adam can’t figure it out either!). Some days are more productive than others. I’ve had a few visitors, and that helps pass the days along. Brandon came up and brought his PlayStation 2. Now it seems I’m addicted to Lego Star Wars. We tried playing one of the other games, but it stressed me out too much! Video games are not my specialty, especially if they are more complicated. I like the ones with only a few buttons/controls! Of course, before we could start playing the games, we went out and got a new TV. Adam and I had been talking about getting a bigger TV ever since we got a new entertainment center last year. Now we have a new 42-inch LCD TV. Very nice for movies and games, but just reminds us that we don’t have digital cable yet. Jennifer and Derek came over one weekend for a visit. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for the first time, the guys won the game! I still think the babies were sabotaging the girl’s team. Although we did come back from over half way behind on the board to within one space before the end!! Another weekend, Lauren, Brian, John and Amy came by and we played Killer Bunnies. Sounds like an odd game, and maybe it is a little odd, but it’s really fun. Thanks to everyone who’s kept me company!

On July 12th, we had another dr. appointment and another baby class, both in Peoria. Everything with the doctor appointment went well. They reconfirmed that they were all boys and they each weighted 1 lb 3 ozs. The class we attended that evening was specifically for multiples. Everyone there (about 5 other couples) was expecting twins. The class was taught by two moms that had twins, so we got their perspective on how to handle the multiples, from coping with extended time in the NICU to dealing with two (or more) babies at home. We also got a tour of the nurseries and NICU. Each husband got to push around his pregnant wife in a wheelchair – a caravan through the hospital and of course the elevators were fun. It’s amazing how many wheelchairs you can fit in them at once! We got to see the little babies in the NICU through the windows, and believe me when I say little – they were tiny!! It’s kinda scary to see them so small and hooked up to so many machines. They also showed us the delivery rooms, although we didn’t see the surgical suite which is where they’ll do the C-section. No big – I can wait to see that!

August 8th we had another appointment with the Maternal Fetal group to measure the babies, but this time here in Bloomington. Seems once a month they have a “clinic” here in Bloomington. Sounded great since we wouldn’t have to drive all the way to Peoria. Problem was, the machine was definitely a portable machine. It was about the size of my laptop. We weren’t able to see the screen while she was looking at the babies and it couldn’t print out pictures either. The good news is that the boys are still growing like they should. Baby A and Baby C were about 1 lb 13 ozs and Baby B was 2 lbs 1 oz. Yeah, that’s 6 lbs of baby!! No wonder I look so huge!!! Adam needs longer arms :)

The following week, at my weekly appointment here in Bloomington, they did get a couple of quick pics of the babies. Baby C wasn’t participating very well for a face pic, but we did get one of all three heads in one frame (the first picture).




Mid-August, Adam took his annual trip to Gen Con over in Indianapolis. For the past few years I have been going with him to the gaming convention (“The Best Four Days In Gaming” is their motto). Unfortunately, I couldn’t go with him this year so we were both kinda bummed. But he seemed to have a good time and brought the boys back some toys! While he was out of town, I went to an ice cream/dessert party thrown by some friends from the Minonk VillageAires – Donna and Dick Leonard. They have had the party each year for a while now out on their awesome deck, but this year they threw in a twist. They invited everyone to bring diapers, etc for the boys! I was blown away by the generosity of the group! Again, the boys are way too spoiled and they’re not even out yet. Thanks Donna and Dick for thinking of us and thanks to everyone who brought something. We are fortunate to be blessed with such great people in our lives!

Well, that’s about it for July and August. Being on bed rest isn’t too exciting, but at least we go out once a week for dinner or a movie or something. Adam has been awesome taking care of the 4 of us. I know it’s frustrating for me to not be able to lift things or do as much, but it is worse for Adam… He’s the one that has to do it all! Love you honey!!

We just went to the doctor again today and they measured the babies. I’ll type that up now and post it soon. I’ll let you get through this entry first. Besides, if I start posting in real time, you all might get your hopes up that it will continue that way! Stay tuned… more to come!

June 2007

I know! It’s been ages since I updated the blog. Sorry about that. No excuses, just me being lazy! But here goes…

June 2007:
Talk about a busy month. We had our first baby shower, painted the room, had more doctor appointments in Peoria (and learned the sexes of the babies) and built our first crib!

On June 6th, my wonderful friends from work threw me a baby shower. There were about 12 people from work there and both grandmas-to-be and my aunt Denna. It was held at the Avanti’s in East Peoria in a nice and private banquet room. We played a few games including “Guess what’s in the bag”, “Guess the baby food” and a match game, matching animals to the names of their offspring (ex. a dog has puppies).

That's Jennifer and Lauren - the hostesses of the party. Thanks again ladies!!!

We also played a version of Bingo while I opened gifts. Participants filled out a bingo card with items they thought I would open. The gifts were wonderful. It definitely started the babies off in style!

And then there was cake… you can’t forget the cake!

Thanks again to everyone who was able to come and for all the awesome loot!!!

When Adam got back from Denver (where he presented a session at Special Libraries Association’s annual conference on Knowledge Management and Corporate Libraries), we began to prep the babies’ room. We found a border we liked with moons and stars, and of course the picture in the catalog looked so nice, we tried to replicate it. We painted the top half of the room blue and the bottom half pale yellow with the border in the middle separating the colors. I also got the crib set and valances to match.

Now all we needed was furniture. The first crib arrived about a week later and we put it together (group projects are fun). Some of you may know this about me, but when I get warm/hot, I get, well… a bit pissy (or as Adam might say, the bitch-craft is turned to eleven). Let’s just say the room got a little hot while we were building. I realize it isn’t the screw’s fault for not being in the right slot, but that didn’t make me any happier at the time. Thankfully, the crib went together without too much problem (and Adam brought a fan in to cool me off). Now the nursery is ready for 3 little babies to come home to. They will all stay in the same crib for the first few months. Eventually we’ll add the other two cribs, but for now the room has one crib, a glider/rocking chair and a changing table/dresser. Hopefully that will get us by for the first 6-9 months!


June 11th - Peoria doctor appointment: More baby scans in Peoria. This time we remembered to bring a video tape but without the narration of the sono tech, it’s hard to tell what we’re seeing! All babies measured right at 18 wks (which is where we expected them to be). They were about 8 ounces and had heart rates in the 130s. They were all being very active, but they were able to tell the sexes… ALL BOYS!! Both mom and babies were doing well on all measurements. We also met with a pre-term labor nurse who gave us all types of information about how to identify pre-term labor and what to do if I started to feel contractions. She also mentioned I should be drinking at least a gallon of water a day. No wonder I have to pee all the time!! Two weeks and we’d have another sono and bed rest would begin.

The Friday before Adam’s birthday, we both took a half day and got massages. It was Adam’s first time and I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it. I got the pre-natal massage (where I lay primarily on my sides since I can’t lay on my stomach). I don’t know what it is about pre-natal massages, but it makes the masseuse very talkative. I just wanted it to be quiet and relaxing, but no such luck. But, a massage is still a massage, which is nice. We followed our massages with a happy hour with friends to celebrate Adam’s birthday and new position in the library. The next day we celebrated Adam’s birthday, Audrey & David’s Anniversary and Father’s Day with family at our house.

We also checked out a couple of local day care centers. Both of the ones we looked at were very nice (but very pricy). Basically, we’ll spend more each year on day care than we did on the new van we bought. We ended up buying a 2007 Toyota Sienna. Not quite the sports car, but a nice ride (that fits 3 car seats). Now we can get the babies home from the hospital!

We had our 20 week doctor appointment over in Peoria – ½ way there!!! This time we went to the offices at OSF St. Francis, the hospital we will most likely deliver at. They scanned all the babies, but they did not do actual measurements. They said that their machines have a variance factor so if they measure to close together, they may not get an accurate picture. For example, it may look like the babies are shrinking. Again, all babies looked good with healthy heart rates and good fluid levels (something they’ll watch, especially on the twins). As she was scanning baby B, it felt like my stomach was growling, only the feeling was right under her scanning tool (B is on my left side). I was actually feeling the baby move for the first time (or at least I was able to identify that is what I was feeling). Over the next few days, I felt the grumbling/rumbling more often and for all the babies.

As my time at work got shorter, my friends and co-workers took me out for “going away” lunches. Again, more cool gifts for the boys (they are already so spoiled and they aren’t even out yet!). One awesome thing my friends did was decorate some onesies. It seems the reserved a conference room one day over lunch and had a little art session. The onesies were so cool that we used them as decorations at the shower the following weekend in Decatur (more pictures of that in the next blog entry). I have such great friends and co-workers. I’m very lucky!! I’m going to miss them all when I go on bed rest!

See – I told you June was a busy month! Check back soon for more updates! I promise to be timelier!!!

More of the Story

Continued…
Okay, now where was I… Well, we found out we’re having triplets and started telling our family and friends.

On May 7th we had our first doctor appointment over in Peoria with the specialists. They started with another sono. It was awesome to see the babies moving around in there. They were bouncing and kicking. One of them was even sucking his/her thumb. Another one looked like he/she was kicking his/her brother/sister in the head (and so it begins!).

After she took a number of photos of the babies, Dr. Leonardi came in and looked at the sonos. They started talking in soft voices saying a lot of medical techno jargon. They finally said everything was looking good and that he’d talk to us shortly after the sono was over. We asked if they could video tape the sono and she said yes. We’ll definitely bring a tape with us next time!

They moved us to a little conference room and we waited to talk with the doctor. He came in and said the babies looked good. He also said that two of them are identical twins! They were able to tell because they are sharing a placenta. More medical jargon – Monochorionic Diamniotic Twins. Basically, they have their own amniotic sacs but they share the placenta. (After doing some internet research, it sounds like approximately 70% of identical twins are in this category). He spent the next 15 minutes or so scaring the crap out of us with all the possible bad things that could happen. In the end, he said the best bet is to be cautious and take a look at the babies often. He suggested sonos every two weeks, especially after 16 weeks and then every 3 weeks beginning around 24-26 weeks. Also, no more travel after 16 weeks and no more going to work at 20. He also suggested I pack my hospital bag early and bring it with me from now on to all of my doctor appointments – just in case.

Unless you’re pregnant or recently been pregnant or have a friend that’s pregnant, the weeks thing is just strange. In a typical pregnancy, they mark 40 weeks from the beginning of your last period to the due date of the baby. 20 weeks would be half way through. That’s about 5 months of bed rest for me (assuming we go full term). Whatever is best for the babies… that’s what I keep telling myself! Tons of scary information from the doctor, but the part we keep hanging on to is that the babies are all growing well and have healthy heart rates. The rest is a wait and see thing.
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Well, we’re down to 2 months that I can still go out and get prepared for the babies. We sat down and tried to figure out how much we can get done in that short period of time. We started looking for a new vehicle (because I don’t think we can fit 3 car seats in Adam’s 2 door Mitsubishi Eclipse – heck, I’m not sure we can fit them in my Camry either!). Unfortunately, the sports car has to go and get replaced with a mini-van! We also started our baby gift registries. The first stop was Target here in town. Our Target isn’t very big, but it gave us some initial ideas. Adam enjoyed using the scanner to select items. And use it we did… almost everything – quantity = 3!

May 19th, Mom, Brandon and I went up to Chicago to see Wicked (The Darnells also joined us at the play. Such an awesome show – I highly recommend it!!!). Before the play, we stopped at the Babies ‘R’ Us in Schaumburg. They have a huge store with tons of options and things you’d never think about needing. While we were there, mom and Brandon befriended a couple that had twins and highly recommended the Graco Duo-Glider stroller. It was nice to see someone using it with two carriers in it. We had been looking at the stroller in the store, but we weren’t sure it would fit two infants. It does!

Adam and I also went down to the Decatur Target to look at their baby selection. Much more than the Bloomington store, so we loaded up the registry even more. It’s hard to pick neutral colors when we don’t know if they’re all boys, all girls or a mix. I’m not big on pink anyway, so most of the colors are more blues and greens and yellows. Jennifer K. and I also checked out the Peoria and Springfield stores. After all that, and some additional online validation and research, I think I’m confident in saying all that is done! On to the next task…

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May 21st/23rd – Our doctor appointment in Bloomington with Dr. Dudley went well. We saw her on Monday for a routine check-up. It was the first time we were going to listen to the heart beats (although the machine in Peoria picked them up at our last sono). At this point in the pregnancy, they typically use a little microphone machine to pick up the heart beats. She could easily find mine, and then a baby’s. The differences between the two are drastic. My heart rate is probably around 70 and the baby’s was about 148! Problem was, she couldn’t tell if she was getting different babies or the same baby as she moved the microphone around. Ended up, she sent us in to get a sono. All the heart rates were good (and about the same). We came back on Wednesday to get the official measurement sonos. Again, everyone looked good, measuring in at 15 weeks. They were each .3 pounds. But, they seemed to be a bit shy because they didn’t want us to know if they were boys or girls. Guess it’s a good thing we’re getting so many sonos. Maybe eventually we’ll find out the sexes!

Okay, well that’s all for tonight. I’ll post more tomorrow (hopefully). I have updates about our first baby shower, painting the room, another doctor appointment (and the sexes of the babies) and our first crib building! Check back soon for more updates!

Baby Blog – Part 1 – The Beginning

They say change is good for the soul, that it’s inevitable, a part of life, right? Well, that is definitely true in our case! Sorry this first entry is long, but it’s been a busy couple of months (and I’ve been too lazy to start). Anyway… here goes the beginning of our story…

Back in early March, Adam and I found out we were pregnant – great news! We decided to share our news with our parents and siblings while we were in Jamaica (in April). May not have been the most direct method, but how often do you get a postcard from Jamaica announcing a new grandchild? Now our parents can say they have! I may have been a little vague with the wording, and didn’t mention when we were due, but the picture was much better than any words.

I had been having morning sickness off and on for about a month. The sickness was better while we were in Jamaica, but traveling on the Jamaican roadways was horrible. I usually don’t get car sick, but I definitely did down there! The 1 ½ hour trip to the airport was especially rough. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one in the van that needed to pull over!

The Monday after our trip, we had our first doctor appointment and sonogram. I still wasn’t feeling very good, probably dehydrated (yes Adam, you told me to drink more water). I was also extra emotional, which seemed to be the trend in the mornings. We met with Dr. Dudley and she began the sonogram. She found the baby and a good heartbeat. Good sign! Then she found a second baby. Did I mention I was already emotional? I started crying. Adam was much better and very excited. Again, everything looked great and a good heartbeat. She sent us back to the sono tech to get some better measurements of the twins. The initial machine is good for quick looks but not as advanced as their other machine.

We got back to the other room and Amy started taking measurements. She was excited because they were testing out a new machine and it has a software package to specifically measure twins. Since they hadn’t had the opportunity to use it, she was more than happy to try it out. She began taking measurements, and taking more measurements, and more measurements, and more... you get my point. Adam was sitting where he could see the screen, but I couldn’t see anything of what she was doing. FINALLY, she turned the screen and started showing us the babies. She showed us baby A, pointed out the head, heartbeat, etc – all good. Then she showed us baby B noting that with multiples they each get their own alpha notation. And then she showed us baby C. Yeah, that makes three. Again, I started bawling. And again, Adam did much better! Amy mentioned that she didn’t tell us earlier because she needed me to lay still so she could get the measurements. It seems when I bawl, I shake too much.

Okay, so that’s it… Three babies. Needless to say we were shocked and excited and happy and all that. But basically, shocked. I know I had more questions for Dr. Dudley, but they all left my head when I heard 3 babies. Because of the higher risk, they set us up with an appointment over in Peoria with Maternal-Fetal specialists. And so begins our many doctor appointments.

I called in sick that Monday. I really was sick (I came home and slept all afternoon). The next question (besides, how are we going to do this?): How do we tell our families and friends?! It’s not something you just pick up the phone and say – Hey mom and dad, we’re having a litter. Thankfully, that Friday was Mom’s birthday so we would already be going to Decatur. Done, we’ll tell them in person then. Also, I was singing with the VillageAires, a choir in Minonk. We had practice on Thursday so Adam decided to come up with me, have dinner with his folks, and announce our new news. He started by showing them pictures, announcing baby A, and then baby B, and then baby C. It’s amazing the interesting looks on a person's face as it dawns on them we mean there are really three babies in there. They were, of course, excited and surprised. Judy mentioned that she’d been lighting candles and saying prayers that we’d have another baby. Seems she lit a LOT of candles :)

Okay, one announcement down, one to go. Friday was mom’s birthday, her 50th to be exact. I figured this was a one time opportunity to see her reaction to our news. I called Brandon and asked him to tape mom’s reaction when we gave her our birthday gift. He of course wanted to know what it was, but I was evil and didn’t tell him. He tried to guess and one guess was close (a sono picture with twins). Still evil, I simply said he’d have to wait. So, I took our sono pics and printed them out and put them in a frame. (Check out dad’s blog spot to see the final product.) We walked into the restaurant and immediately gave mom her gift and said open it. Brandon started rolling tape. The footage is priceless. Check it out.

So, mom announced it to everyone else in the room and to everyone as they came in and to some people on the phone if they couldn’t make it. I have a big family, but news travels fast!

Okay, I’m going to have to finish this later, but at least I got ya started on our story. I’ll post more soon (I promise) with the rest of the story up to the present. Stay tuned… there’s more to come!