And We're Viable!

I am 24 weeks pregnant today and that means we have made it through 2 huge hurdles. We were told that triplet pregnancies miscarry 20% of the time before 24 weeks. Praise God they are all still in there and that did not happen to us.

The second hurdle is the fact that the babies are now viable. All that means is that if they were born now they would make an effort to save them and the babies would have a chance to survive. Of course, it's still really early for any guarentee of survival and we certainly want them to be in there for many more weeks to come! We are praying for at least 9 more weeks.

I have realized as I look back that I have hardly any pictures of Caleb so I wanted to include one now since I think he's so cute. Unfortunately he knows it and will even tell Kirk after his bath that he wants to go see mommy because I will tell him that he is handsome :) In this picture he's in my huge bed rest chair on loan to me from Corey and Kristy for the duration of my bed rest. Unfortunately, Caleb loves it just a bit too much!

5 Months (23 Weeks)

"Research shows that triplets require 200 hours of work a week. That's 30 hours more than there are in a week." Direct quote from Discovery Health's show Baby Baby. Oh great, as if I didn't already think we were in enough trouble!!

I am now officially 5 months pregnant. I guess that's a good thing :) The girls are kicking quite a bit but not all the time. They definitely have their active periods which is kind of neat. I'm exhausted but not as exhausted as I will be when they're actually here.

Caleb enjoys talking to his sisters. Well, today he was yelling at them :) One of them was pushing up and he was telling her to get back in there! I have a feeling he'll share the same sentiment when they come out.

Bed rest is awful. TV gets old believe it or not. I feel like I'm just hanging around waiting for something to happen and it's only just begun. All your prayers are appreciated.

22 Weeks

We are 2 weeks from viable! Lord willing we will go much farther than that but it's exciting to know that we're getting close to the point where all the babies could survive. Keep praying with us that they stay in longer no matter how much I complain about it!

We still have no middle names for Julianna and Abigail. We're still working on it and we'll let you know when we have made a decision :) Of course, baby names are always subject to change until those birth certificates are signed. I mean one of them could still be a boy right? :)

I've spent the last week trying to be on bed rest and it's a huge pain in the neck. Literally. It's harder and more painful than I would have expected. I thought it would be fun for a week or so to just have to relax but my belly keeps getting in the way. Kaitlyn and Caleb are a little confused about the whole thing - esepcially the fact that I can't go up and down the stairs anymore but they're doing well. Allyson and Julia come over and keep them occupied during the day. The four of them together get along really well and are doing great! They are constantly playing silly pretend games but it's adorable.

Right now I'm watching a Discovery Health Channel show (yes, I do like that channel!) on triplets. Three couples having triplets. Seems the average time in the hospital for these couples is just about 2 weeks which isn't too bad. We can pray for that! An interesting statistic that only about 10 to 20% of triplets gets beyond the 34 to 35 week mark - that would put us at very early November. And don't forget - Caleb's 3rd birthday on November 10th - marks my 35th week. It will be fun to find out whether or not he'll be 3 or not when his sisters are born.

Thanks again to everyone for your prayer and support. We look forward to sharing all these girls with you!

And the sonographer was...

Correct :) We are having 3 girls. The sonographer we saw today has been doing these scans for something like 15 years and she has promised us that there are no boy parts in there. Oh well, I kind of hoped that maybe they were wrong about one of them but we are still excited to have 3 new baby girls!

We'd like to introduce:

Baby A: Julianna

Baby B: Abigail

Baby C: Rachel Gabrielle


Sorry there's not a clearer picture of Rachel, but she wasn't as "cooperative" as her sisters. Could she already be developing a personality?

Names are subject to change especially since I'm so picky and worry if I've picked the right one up until the last moment! We have no middle names for Julianna or Abigail but hopefully we will soon.

All the babies look good. Baby C did not seem to have any signs of Down Syndrome, however, baby B had a slight enlargement of the fluid in one of her kidneys which increases her risk for Down Syndrome. Her previous testing showed a very, very slight chance (1 in 494 to be exact) so this just make it a tad more likely but really not much. Our only option would be an amnio and we'd rather not do that so we'll just pray that they are all healthy unless the Lord wills otherwise and we will praise Him for what we have received!

The doctor I saw today said I should be on bed rest now but her version didn't seem quite as strict. Hard to tell. I guess I'll just ease myself into it but I really need to rest more which is hard! I imagine the larger I get the more I'll stay put in bed myself :)

My next appt. is August 30th and we'll have more scans to monitor the babies growth. They'll also be watching Baby B's kidneys to see if there's any more reason for concern.