Reactions

We have been sharing the news about our babies with more family members over the holidays. Billy called his uncle Franny in Philadelphia yesterday to tell him the news, and he was so excited when Billy told him I was pregnant. Then, when he added the "with triplets" part, his uncle said, "You have got to be shittin' me!" When Billy told his grandmother, she said, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!"

When I told Alice about the triplets after the ultrasound, she just laughed hysterically for about 2 minutes. Once she calmed down, she said, "Good luck with that." She said she needed to start practicing how she was going to hold all three babies at once.

When I talked to my dad, I said, "I have a number for you." He asked if he could guess, and I told him to go ahead. He guessed 2, and I said, "a little higher." He said, "NO! You are kidding me. You are kidding me, right?" I think he's still recovering from the news.

My cousin, Cuqui, who lives in Miami could hardly believe it. Alice told her about it, and she said, "Oh, Alice, I know how you like to kid. You are just pulling my leg right?" She had to call me to verify the story because she wasn't buying what Alice was telling her.

Liane told Cooper about the babies in my belly, and he is very confused by it all. When they were in town, he said he wanted to play with Wasie's babies, so he came over and lifted up my shirt to see where they were. Well, when there were no babies to be seen, he started complaining that Wasie's babies were mean because they didn't want to come out and play with Coopie. Whenever the bring up Wasie's babies with him he says that they are hiding and won't come out.

As for me, I'm still getting used to all this. It's really difficult to go from struggling to ever get pregnant and have just one child to being pregnant with 3 tiny babies. I'm just trying to enjoy this stage and be happy that we are finally going to start (and finish) our family. Billy, however, is getting very caught up in all of the little things. He's stressing out a lot how we are going to be able to deal with 3 children-physically, emotionally, and financially. I admit, it will be difficult, but we will figure it out, and I'm sure we are going to have tons of help.

My nausea is continuing. It tends to get worse at night, which is strange, since I thought it was more "morning sickness." I try to get a bunch of stuff done in the morning when I feel okay because I know that by 6 or 7, I will be on the couch in nausea agony. Fortunately, I got some Zofran, which is an anti-nausea medicine, and I think it helped. I picked it up yesterday, and I took it for the first time last night and was able to get down a little dinner without too much trouble.

When I went to the pharmacy to get the Zofran, my doctor's office had already called it in. I know my pharmacist pretty well...not because I'm always on drugs, but because he is a runner, and we sometimes do the same races and talk about them. Whenever I stop in at CVS for anything, I stop by the medicine counter to chat with Sam. Anyway, he knows we've been dealing with all of this infertility stuff for years, since he fills all of my prescriptions. When I walked up to his counter today, he said, "Well, what's up?" He had a big grin on his face. He knew what the Zofran was for. I told him I was finally pregnant, and he was so excited for me. Then, I said it was triplets, and he started to laugh, thinking I was kidding. I told him it was no joke, and he said, "When you go, you go big!" He told me his wife ran a marathon 9 months after having their daughter. I don't think I'll be quite ready for that...maybe a 10K.

The sexes revealed

We had dinner with Mems for her birthday tonight and surprised her with the sexes of our babies. Kate, great idea in the comments to get her different colored bibs. That's just what I did as you can see from the picture. She was so excited! We gave her the 2 pink bibs first, and just when she was getting worried we were going to have a house full of drama with 3 girls, she opened the last bib, which was blue. It was a great surprise for her. She had us take this picture because she had so many friends and family members calling and e-mailing her begging to know the sexes. She is going to send the picture out to everyone.

At dinner at Scalini's, I ate more than I have in a week. I had 2 pieces of bread, a bit of salad, several bites of spaghetti with marinara, and just a couple bites of my chicken and eggplant. It's a good start. I felt stuffed beyond belief after that, but I figure every little bit counts.

It's already 10:15 so I must head off to dreamland. I just wanted you all to know the information since it's now public knowledge. In my next entry, I'll have to write about how each person we talked to about the triplets reacted when they heard the news. Some of the old Cuban ladies in my family have been hilarious!

Baby pics

Take a look at babies "a," "b," and "c." They are making me very ill, but I still love them. Vivian said that at her first ultrasound, she almost threw up looking at Rose. She was so sick and freaked out by it all. When Paul sent out the ultrasound picture, he superimposed a monster over the spot where Rose was. You opened up the picture thinking you were going to see something like this picture, and instead, there was this green monster inside the dark sac. It was really funny. Paul still wants another baby, and I think he may try to kidnap one of our triplets.

Baby "a" is the biggest measuring a whooping .58 cm. Baby "b" is .46 cm, and Baby "c" is the runt at only .41 cm. These measurements are roughly the size of a grain of rice. Isn't that crazy? I couldn't believe that they could pick up a heartbeat off a grain of rice!

In the picture, there's one more little black spot between babies "a" and "b." Don't worry, we don't have a baby "d." It's just some fluid there. The ultrasound lady had to tell us that because she knew I was looking at that little dark spot wondering how in the world we would have ended up with another one in there.

I had a little more bleeding today, but it was very minor, and it was dark brown in color, which the nurse assured me meant it was old blood and nothing to worry about. She said I should only be concerned when it is bright red in color and heavy, along with severe cramping. I don't have any other symptoms so I guess I'm clear.

Tomorrow is the big day that we will surprise Mems with the sex or sexes of the babies! I'll post them after that so that you will all know. Stay tuned, if you don't know already!

I'm off to spend some time on the couch in between my next dry heaving episodes. Morning sickness times three equals feeling yucky all the time! Oh well.

Breaking news!

Mems wasn't cool with waiting until Saturday so we went ahead and gave her the news today. You all benefit from this because it means that you can also know our "baby count."

When we walked into the room to have the ultrasound done, the ultrasound technician asked us how far along I was, and I told her 6 weeks. She asked how many embryos had been replaced, and I said 3. Then, she asked me how I was feeling. I told her I had been very nauseous for the past few days. She said, "Well, let's see what we have going on in there." The screen was turned away from me so I couldn't see what was going on, but she said, "Now I see why you are so sick. Looks like you've got 3 babies in there!" Can you believe it? TRIPLETS!

We were able to hear all 3 heartbeats, which was amazing. Then, all of the little ones were measured. Their sizes correlated with being 6 weeks 1 day, 6 weeks 2 days, and 6 weeks 3 days, respectively. They were all right on schedule! The nurse said the bigger one was the food hog.

We are shocked, excited, scared, and so happy! We still run a risk of losing one or even two of them. We have another ultrasound in 2 weeks, and they will see how things are progressing at that point. For now, we will just enjoy being the soon-to-be-parents of triplets. I wish I didn't feel so sick so that I could actually enjoy eating for 4!

I'll post pictures of the little buggers in a while. Billy is going to scan them in the computer. By the way, from the genetic testing, we know the sexes, but we are keeping that a secret until Saturday. We decided we would surprise Mems with that information for her birthday. She needs to start buying outfits and decorating the nursery she's going to have in her house.

What's your guess?

I added a poll on the left side of this blog to have everyone vote on how many babies they think are growing inside of me. Please cast your vote!

Okay, you are all going to be mad at me because I'm thinking of keeping the number a secret until Saturday. Mems, Billy's mom, has a birthday on Saturday, and we wanted to surprise her with our baby count as part of her birthday present. I've told a few friends about this idea, and they are saying they are going to hunt me down and beat the answer out of me after my appointment tomorrow. Even my neighbors are all abuzz with the upcoming news. This morning, I ran into two ladies who live nearby and have dogs that play with Winnie, and they were both wanting to know what time my appointment is tomorrow, and if they could come by in the evening to find out what is going on. I know everyone is dying to know. I have to decide what I'm going to do about this little dilemma. Any ideas? Post them in the comments.

By the way, I'm still very ill. Today, I had 6 saltine crackers, 1 ginger ale, and 1 container of jello. I just choked down some mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs for lunch, and I'm feeling a bit better. Yes, mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs are a weird combination, but whatever, it worked.

Careful what you wish for

In one of my blogs before I knew I was pregnant, I wrote that I wished that I would just wake up one day and barf so that I would know I was pregnant. Well, looks like all of my wishes are coming through. My friend, Jamie, warned me to be careful what I wished for!

Last night, I came home from Billy's office holiday party early because I was exhausted. It was 11:30, and I've gotten used to going to bed by 9:30 these days. Billy stayed behind and didn't come home until 3:30 a.m. It woke me up when he got back because Winnie went crazy barking and growling. She's quite the guard dog. Anyway, I woke up nauseated beyond belief. Billy tried to kiss me good-night with his nasty liquor breath, and I thought I was going to throw up in his mouth. Then, I couldn't go back to sleep until 5 a.m. I felt awful. I woke up around 10 a.m. again and got up to brush my teeth, wash my face, etc. I proceeded to dry heave at that point.

I've heard from other women who are or have been pregnant that if you eat something, it's very helpful with the nausea. Therefore, I went ahead and ate breakfast, but it wasn't really getting any better.

We went to the 11:30 service at church, and I almost lost it when we had to sit two people deep in the pew. I needed to have quick access to the aisle to make an escape if a barfing episode snuck up on me. Thankfully, I did not have to run out, but I felt like death the whole time.

In the car on the way home from church, Billy farted, and that was it. I could feel my breakfast making it's way up. If you have smelled his farts, you know what I mean. They could make you barf even if you weren't the slightest bit sick. I rolled down all of the windows, even though it was freezing cold, and once the air cleared, the worst of my nausea passed.

I got home and laid down on the couch and basically remained there all day in and out of sleep. I have not vomited, but I think it's only a matter of time. I'm not going to complain, though, because this is a good sign. It makes me feel like everything is going the way it is supposed to.

A little scare

This morning when I woke up, I went the bathroom for my morning pee-pee. Well, I looked down at the toilet and noticed that my urine had a reddish tint. I wiped and saw blood on the toilet paper. Of course, I went into freak out mode. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should wake up Billy, call the doctor, and/or start crying. I opted to wake up Billy and call the doctor's office. It was before regular business hours so I had to use the paging service, and they called me right back.

The nurse who called said that if anything was going wrong with the pregnancy there was nothing they could really do about it at this stage. That wasn't very comforting. She told me to call back my nurse at 8:30 and check to see if she wanted me to repeat my blood work. Well, I called my nurse, and she told me to come back into the office, and they would check my HCG today, instead of Friday so that's what I did.

As the day progressed, I didn't have any more bleeding, and I didn't have any cramps so I started feeling better about the situation. My nurse called me around 2:30 with the results of my blood work, and my HCG was up to 21,169, which meant everything was fine. She went ahead and scheduled my ultrasound for next Wednesday! We'll get to see what is going on in there then. I can hardly wait!

Billy said this morning that this is probably the first of many little scares that we are going to experience throughout the pregnancy. I think he's right, but I hope he's not. I wish the rest of the time would go by without any scares. I want things to be just perfect. That's probably too much to hope for right now.