Sleeping...

I used to be the best sleeper. Anyone can tell you, I could fall asleep anywhere at any time and be able to sleep through the entire night. All of that has changed. Sleeping has become more of a frustration for me than something I look forward to. Here's a little peek into what my evenings are like now that I am pregnant with triplets...

9:30 or 10:00 pm - Start getting ready for bed, take Sudafed so I can breathe while I sleep
10:15 or 10:30 pm- Get in bed, line pillows up on my right, arrange body pillow on my left
10:45 pm - Brent is asleep, quietly snoring next to me...jealous
10:45 pm - I roll to my left, arrange body pillow, check clock
11:00 pm - Uncomfortable, roll to my back, slowly over to my right, arrange pillows between my legs and under my arm
11:30 pm - Right leg is twitching...Restless Leg Syndrome? What To Expect While You Are Expecting says this can happen in pregnancy
12:00 am - Try to get my mind to stop racing, try to visualize an empty sky and count
12:30 am - Roll to my back, slowly over to my left, arrange body pillow...still wide awake, leg twitching, check clock
12:45 am - Check clock, get out of bed, take pillow to living room, arrange myself on the couch and read a little out of my Kindle
1:45 am - Decide to try to get back in bed, maybe I am exhausted by now
1:55 am - Use the bathroom so I don't have to get up again in an hour, haul myself back in bed, arrange pillows, prop my head up on two pillows, try to relax
2:15 am - Uncomfortable again, leg twitching, counting...28, 29, 30...
2:45 am - Check clock, roll to my back, slowly over to my right, arrange pillows, try to relax
Finally fall asleep sometime in the AM
4:20 am - Wake to painful need to use the bathroom, on the way back to bed, blow my nose...can't breathe again
4:25 am - Haul myself back into bed, arrange pillows, relax, fall back asleep
6:25 am - Brent wakes me with a kiss goodbye, he's off to work, fall back asleep
8:00 am - Wake to my alarm, time to get my computer set up, get some breakfast ready and start work for the day from my bed

Some nights are better than others...some nights are worse. All of the pregnancy books like to say that sleeping problems during pregnancy are just Mother Nature's way of getting you ready to be up all night with the new baby (in our case, babies). True as that may be, it doesn't make me like it.
Maybe someday, in 5 or 6 years, I will gain my lovely sleep back...maybe someday.

Schedule of Appointments

I thought it might help to keep my schedule of appointments on the blog so everyone (especially the mom's :) will know when our appointments will take place and where.

July 1st - Ultrasound - Temple S&W - Dr. Allen - 3:00 pm
July 13th - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Beaird - 1:30 pm
July 22nd - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Beaird - 10:30 am
July 27th - Ultrasound - Temple S&W - Dr. Allen - 1:30 pm
July 29th - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Dunn - 4:15 pm *NEW*
August 4th - Hillcrest Private Tour of NICU and Labor & Delivery - 3:30 pm *NEW*
August 6th - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Beaird - 2:30 pm *NEW*
August 12th - Ultrasound - Temple S&W - Dr. Allen - 2:30 pm
August 13th - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Beaird - 3:00 pm *NEW*
August 18th - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Beaird - 3:30 pm *NEW*
August 24th - Regular Appt. - Waco S&W - Dr. Beaird - 4:15 pm *NEW*
September 3rd - Ultrasound - Temple S&W - Dr. Allen - 10:30 am
September 23rd - Ultrasound - Temple S&W - Dr. Allen - 1:30 pm

I will update the schedule when we have new appointments with Dr. Beaird scheduled. Right now we are seeing him about every week.

Appointment Today!

We had another doctor's appointment this morning. All is well! We didn't get to see Dr. Beaird, our regular doctor, because he is on vacation this week. :( So instead, we got to meet Dr. Dunn and we liked him a lot as well. My weight gain is on track and my blood pressure is just right. My belly is measuring at 35 weeks, and I will be 21 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Dr. Dunn informed us that I will start experiencing the symptoms of a 40 week singleton pregnancy (tell me something I don't already know.) Currently, I am having a hard time breathing and sleeping. I can't get comfortable in any position. I find myself taking deep breaths every once and a while...plus I am congested all the time so that makes things even worse. Dr. Dunn told us that I may have to start sleeping propped up on pillows or even in a recliner (thank goodness we have that comfy recliner on order honey, I am thinking I am going to need it.)
Our next appointment is with our High Risk Doctor, Dr. Allen, in Temple on July 1st. In this next appointment, we will see the babies in detail and get to check on their growth and progress since our last appointment. So stayed tuned for that update.

Happy Father's Day!

This is Brent's last Father's Day before he becomes a daddy to three sweet little daddy's girls. Brent is going to be the best daddy and here are a few reasons why I think so.
1. He is the most self-less person I have ever met - He is willing to help anyone with anything at any time. He is constantly asking me if I need anything, even before I was pregnant. If I ever asked him to, he would wake up in the middle of the night and drive 30 miles to get me a milkshake, if I ever asked him to. I know his number one priority in life will be me and our three little girls.
2. He is so smart - When our girls are in the stage where they are asking "What is that?" or "Why, Daddy?" he will always have an answer that they can believe in.
3. He is a fierce protector - Dating...I can't wait to see how he reacts to our girls going on dates or having an interest in boys.
4. He can build or fix anything - If we buy a 1,000 part dollhouse for Christmas, he can have it assembled in one evening and ready for Christmas morning. If something breaks, he is on it. Tree house? Piece of cake.
5. He will be just as much of a caretaker as I will be - If I am up in the middle of the night, he will be too. If a diaper needs to be changed, or two, or three, he will change them with a smile on his face. He will be an equal participant in all things baby and be happy to do it.
6. He is the best listener - Even when I think he isn't listening to me I will ask, "Are you paying attention?" His response is always, "Yes, honey." My reply is always, "What did I just say?" and he will repeat everything I just said verbatim. Our girls will always know that their Daddy will be there to listen to anything they have to say.

Happy Not-Yet-A-Father's-Day honey! We love you!

How We Got Here

Brent and I have always wanted to have children. How many children? He would always say 4...I would always say 2. So I guess, in the end, God forced us to compromise.

Brent and I, like many, many other couples out there, did not have an easy road to get pregnant. After a year and a half of trying to concieve, we decided we needed to get help. After many doctor's appointments with my regular OB GYN we weren't getting anywhere. I made the call to the Scott & White fertility clinic to see a specialist. We were sheduled with Dr. Wincek in October of 2008.

Dr. Wincek is a wonderful doctor. We just loved his nature and no BS attitude. He started me on Clomid and scheduled us for our first IUI (Intra-uterine insemination) in November of 2008. When this IUI failed, we tried again in December. I was crushed at first, but still hopeful that we had options. When our second IUI failed (I began my cycle on New Years Eve of 2009), we decided we needed to try the next step.

IVF (In Vitro Fertilization). IVF is much more involved, much more expensive and would require alot of drugs...alot of shots. Dr. Wincek allowed us to move forward with IVF even though we had only had two failed IUIs. Most clinics require you to go through 3-6 cycles of IUI before moving on to IVF. IVF has to be scheduled to the nth degree. We were anxiously awaiting our turn in the line of couples waiting for IVF. In February 2009, we got the call. We started our drug regimine each day. Some days I would take as many as 4 pills and have as many as 4 shots. Brent gave me my shots each morning or evening, whatever was required. He became a pro at mixing my medications and at giving semi-painless shots.

















The drugs given in IVF are meant to cause your body to create many viable eggs for extraction. When my eggs had developed to a certain point, they put me under anesthesia and extracted as many eggs as they could from both of my ovaries. They then pick the best looking eggs and insert the best looking sperm and wait to see what happens. I had 10 great eggs extracted. Out of those 10, only 7 fertilized and divided. Out of those 7, we had 1 really great egg reach the ideal stage for implantation and we had 2 others that were one stage below ideal.

Our embryologist came in to speak to us on the day we were to have the eggs implanted in my uterus. Brent and I had decided before we got there that we would only implant 2, only 2. When the doctor came in, he showed us pictures of our eggs and described the stages and gave us his recommendation to give us the greatest chance for a pregnancy...3 eggs.


I looked at Brent with wide eyes when the embryologist broke this to us. We talked over the risks and options for a long time and finally decided to give it the best shot and implant all 3. We were told there would be a 2% chance of us actually having triplets. We had the eggs implanted and waited.



2 weeks after the implantation I was scheduled to go in and have blood drawn for a pregnancy test. Who can wait two weeks?! We were dying to know if we had more roadblocks in front of us or if we could celebrate. A week and a half after the eggs were implanted I rushed home from work to take a home pregnancy test. I had taken so many pregnancy tests in the past that were always negative that I sat there chanting over and over in my mind, "pregnant, pregnant, pregnant..."



Finally, the test registed the result "PREGNANT!" I was so excited but I was home all by myself. I had to wait another 20 minutes for Brent to get home to share the news. We just couldn't believe that it worked.



I went in for my blood test as scheduled and later that evening our nurse e-mailed me with the positive result. It was completely confirmed...we were expecting!



At about 6 weeks of pregnancy, the "morning" sickness began. I was nausiated all the time, even the smell of Cheese-It crackers would set me off.



We were schedule for our 8 week appointment with Dr. Wincek for an ultrasound. We would find out at this appointment how many we were expecting. Brent and I were always thinking, probably 1 or 2 babies, we never really acknolwedged the possibility of 3 because there was such a slim chance.



Dr. Wincek and our nurse, Kimberly, started the ultrasound and had the screen pointed away from Brent and me. There was complete silence in the room for about 5-7 minutes...some rumblings between Dr. Wincek and Kimberly but they didn't say anything directly to us. Finally, Dr. Wincek turned the screen toward us and said, "Well, here is what we have. Two of the eggs implanted...and one of those eggs split. So you have a set of identicals and a third fraternal triplet." (So even if we had only implanted 2, we may have ended up with 3 in the end...isn't God funny!)



I was elated...initially. Brent was pacing in the examining room. Dr. Wincek and Kimberly left us alone for a minute to set us up with an OB at Waco Scott & White who would be willing to take us on since we were high risk with triplets. When we were alone, we just sat there looking at each other like, "oh my goodness...ready or not, here we go."



We left the clinic and immediately called Mom (our entire family was waiting anxiously to find out what happened during our appointment). Mom was driving home at the time, so Brent advised her to pull over. When Mom was off the road, I finally said "Well, are you ready for 6 grandchildren?" and she said, "FROM YOU?!" (My sister has three boys already.) Brent and I laughed and said, "No, in total...we are having triplets!" She was so excited...our entire family couldn't believe it.



After the inital elation wore off, I was freaked out. I couldn't talk about the triplets, I couldn't talk about car seats and getting a different car and cribs and decorating. I was in a haze for about 2 weeks. I let Brent handle the arrangements for getting a new, triplet friendly car. My vehicle at the time had bucket seats in the back and would only fit two car seats.



I was also getting more and more sick as the days passed by. I couldn't keep any food or liquid down other than water. All of my pregnancy books said that "morning" sickness would be worse with a multiple pregnancy. After a few weeks of suffering and a few days of not being able to eat at all, my doctor put me on some medication that allows me to eat and keep it down.



From that point on, the pregnancy has been relatively normal. One thing I wasn't expecting was for my doctor to put me on bed rest at 16 weeks. He saw some changes in me that can be early predictors of pre-term labor. That is something we really do not want. So bed rest it was. The bed rest really helped; everything went back to normal after a few weeks so we are doing well.



Long road and everything considered, we couldn't be happier to welcome three precious little girls into the world.