23 weeks

By the time I was 23 weeks pregnant I was measuring 35 weeks for a single baby also known as a "singleton". I was getting bigger and bigger by the day and becoming more and more uncomfortable. I felt useless at work, I basically slept ate and went to work.

Now that I was noticeably pregnant people started to get curious.

 If you've been pregnant you know exactly what I'm talking about. People stop and ask when your baby is due and if your having a boy or girl! These questions are a given when your pregnant and most people don't have an issue answering the. Its a very special time in your life I mean your growing a human show it off!!!

Now when people would ask me these question and I would tell them I'm not due for another 4 months, when it looked like I was due in 4 weeks they would say awe twins? "actually triplets!" The look of horror and shock would turn into omg how exciting for most people. For others the horror never left there face. It was very amusing to see all the reactions!

Anyway if you have even twins you know the questions get very personal. Multiple babies are fascinating to people and I know they mean well but some of the questions and comments really catch you by surprise.

For example "are these natrual"? can I ask what's a "natural baby to you". No I didn't use any fertility meds but if I had would these babies be unnatural? Another one is "I'm so sorry your life is over"! Actually I'm only 22 so I have much more life ahead of me, now I'll just have 4 beautiful boys to enjoy it with! My all time favorite " was this planned?" Let me anewer that with a question, how can we plan three babies? Even if someone was to take fertility medication you can't plan three, your hoping for at least one.

Being pregnant with three babies was quite the experience. I met people who were over the moon for me and people who didn't really think much of it. My favorite was when ladies would talk to my belly, someone even rubbed and kissed it while I was working!!!

These are some pictures of the babies ultrasound and my belly at 23 weeks!

Boys Girls or Both?

   By now our shock had turned into excitement while we anxiously awaited the appointment! We, OK mostly I was obsessed with what the babies Genders would be. I was 17 weeks pregnant and the Dr said as long as babies cooperated we should be able to tell this appointment. Sometimes it's harder to see Genders with multiples because their squished in there. I was stressing I just had to know!           

     The weeks before my appointment I was watching gender reveals on YouTube and old wise tales, and I drove everyone crazy talking about it 24/7!!! It was killing me and the days felt like weeks passing.
   With my first I had a feeling he was a boy. I had bought boy cloths and referred to the baby as "he", I was so sure and I ended up being right!
   Now with these babies I kept going back and forth to all boys, to 2 boys and 1 girl. The day before my appointment I told people I'm 95% sure it's 2 boys and a girl. I thought baby A was a BOY baby B was a BOY and baby C was a GIRL. Baby C was so calm and always allowed the techs to get all their shots, and never wiggled off the monitors. So since that baby was so laid back and the other two never made things easy  I figured it had to be a girl!
    We headed to my Dr's office and met my parents, Gabriel's  sister rode with us and my Grammy, sister and son were going to head up and wait in the waiting room. We weren't excited at all!
    The ultrasound itself was 3 HOURS long. We were doing the anatomy of the baby's, about an hour for each. Gabriel didn't want to find out the Genders, he wanted the tech to write them down, so when we did our gender reveal we would be surprised along with our family. Not knowing was killing me, so about 2.5 hours into the appointment I cracked. WE HAVE TO KNOW NOW!!!
    I convinced Gabriel to allow the tech to tell us, this appointment we also found out Baby B and C might be identical so then I thought is it 2 girls and a boy. I was making myself go insane.
     The tech went over each baby and showed us. Baby A is a BOY!!!! Baby B is a BOY!!! Baby C is a BOY!!! OH... MY... GOD..... We're having three more boys. I was shocked excited and couldn't believe their wasn't one girl in there. I mean we had an 80% chance that we would have mixed genders and a 12% chance of them all being the same gender. I guess we just had to beat the odds once again.
    Everyone knew we were finding out the Genders but we made everyone who wasn't there wait until the next day. We filled 3 balloons with blue confetti and popped them to reveal the genders! 
    It was official we were expecting three baby boys. What kind of trouble are four boys going to get into who are just a year apart in school. Can you imagine what my grocery bill is going to be when their 16?! This is going to be a crazy adventure!
    Here's a picture of my baby bump at 17 weeks and our gender reveal picture. It's hard to see the color of the confetti but it is blue!

Selective reduction?

   My first appointment was early in the morning, it was in Portland which is about an hour away! Gabe and I didn't know what to expect from this trip, but we were pretty excited to confirm there was three humans growing in my belly. We were anxiously awaiting the ultrasound results still thinking the first Dr got it wrong!
   We were seen shortly after arriving. I had to be weighed, pee in a cup you know all the joys of pregnancy! We went into the ultrasound room I laid on the table and we started looking for babies. By now they were a lot bigger then before. I was 15 weeks by now.
   The tech pointed to each baby and we saw three heartbeats once again. We confirmed no more no less just three little humans! They checked their growth their fluid and their cord flows and everything was checking out.
    After the ultrasound we went to meet with my Dr. He was a younger guy but when he talked you could just hear how intelligent he was. Now going into this appointment I didn't know what to expect, for some reason I didn't think we were going to go over so many risk factors for this pregnancy.
    My Dr hit us with things like increased risk of low birth weights, preclampsia, gestational diabetes, placental abruption, preterm labour, losing one or more babies the list goes on and on. I knew carrying more then one baby was going to be hard but this was making it sound impossible.
   Then the Dr talked to us about slective reduction. This is brought up when your pregnant with three babies or more. I had no idea what this term ment. My Dr explained that due to all the risks and complications that can happen during this pregnancy we can choose to reduce down to a twin pregnancy or a singleton pregnancy. I was baffled when the Dr was explaining this to us. You mean we can choose to have just one baby. The Dr said yes it's a procedure done that reduces one or two babies, your body would absorb the baby and your risks for this pregnancy would be greatly lowered.
    We were speachless after the Dr was done explaining all the details. I just looked at Gabriel and he looked at the Dr and said no we're not going to reduce.  The Dr said that's fine I have until my 18 week appointment to make my decision but the sooner the  better.
    After my appointment Gabe and I talked about it more, and the more we talked about it the more assurance we had that we didn't want to reduce. I mean how can you choose what baby to keep? So this just wasn't an option for us.
   Leaving that appointment any excitement I had was gone. I was actually scared. Gabe and I had to discuss if one baby is falling behind and the other two are thriving do we deliver in hopes to save all three or do we just take our chances. Also if it comes down to it who do they save, me or our babies?  This really showed us the big picture and the next months were going to be a bumpy ride.
    A couple days after the appointment we decided to go ahead an announce that we were having triplets. I mean there was only so long I could hide my growing belly.  So we took a picture of our oldest son wearing a big brother shirt and posted it!!!