It's All Good - Fingers Crossed for Opening Day

Today we had an appointment with the multiples doctor to see how my cervix is progressing. Thankfully, my "dimple" has disappeared, and I was cleared to return to work.

To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn....

Well, apparently it's the season for sitting in our house. Today, we had another trip to the multiples doctor. Last week, I felt kind of tired and in need of my signature location on the couch - since it was spring break, it worked out well. This week, I've been much more active and have been feeling better, so I was pretty sure the doctor was going to tell us that we were still doing great. For the most part, we are. After measuring all the boys, we found out that the kids are really growing. They are all over a pound, which makes me feel a little better about the weight I've gained in the last couple of weeks - at least SOME of it was actual baby weight and not just too many french fries and milkshakes. While examining Baby C, Dr. Payne found a cyst on his brain which is one of the indicators of Downs Syndrome. Statistically, we have a 99.5% chance of him being completely healthy and without a trace of Downs, but it did kind of take us a minute to wrap our heads around the possibilities. We decided to skip the amnio and avoid the risks since we have no plans to terminate our little C-monkey. Bob and I are confident that Baby C is fine, but any extra prayers would be greatly appreciated. In addition to checking the babies, Dr. Payne is the checker of my cervix. Apparently in triplet pregnancies, the cervix length is very important as well as any movement along it. While my cervix is still measuring around 4 cm, apparently it has a dimple (a cervix dimple is not as cute as one on your face), so instead of going back to the multiples doctor in two weeks like usual, we have a return trip on Tuesday to check on my cervix and doctor's instructions to go home and put my feet up. It's not bed rest, but it's definitely a wake up call for me. Bob has been harping on me to sit down and quit doing so much. I thought I had, but I guess that I need to limit my movements a little more. It does make me feel bad for poor Bob who has turned into the chief cook, dishwasher, house cleaner, and fetcher of all things not located on the couch. He is for many reasons including these, definitely the king of my castle.

I'm Starting to Freak Myself Out

We are now at 20 1/2 weeks of what we hope is a 34 week journey. We keep getting told that the average gestation with triplets is 32 weeks but our goal is 34 with a max of 35. (Single pregnancies are 40).

We are getting closer and I'm starting to freak out a bit, uhm, a little bit, uhm, a whole lot. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the boys to be born but that's not what has me worried these days. What has me worried is that we make our goal and that we do everything possible to make sure that happens.

I keep reading on the triplet connection about how a lot of moms pregnant with triplets are on bed rest at this point, some even on hospital bed rest. They talk about how quickly their pregnancy went from all's well to holy crap you are going into the hospital for 3 months. Take it easy is probably the most typed phrase in those threads.

Last week our doctor told us everything was great and there is no need to worry. I wish it was that easy.

Angela bends over to pick a shoe up and I freak out. Go sit down! I have no problem doing housework, now I'm not very good at a lot of it but I don't mind doing it. Well, Angela does mind me doing it for several reasons, one she feels good enough that she thinks she should be contributing and 2 she is the female version of Adrian Monk. When I fold clothes the shirts aren't exactly to her liking, when I vacuum, I don't hit the corners quite like I should. That stuff drives her nuts.



This past week was her spring break so she was at home resting for the most part. She gets real tired and moving around has become more of an issue lately. It's tough for her to get up, roll over and things like that.



I'm worried about her going back to work on Monday, making the 1 hour drive each way and teaching high school 5 days a week. I think I should drive her to and from work but I can't quite figure out how me driving will help her too much.

I announced this week that I am about to become the world's #1 jerk where this is concerned and I am going to get angry at her for overdoing it. My first edict was to ban after school activities like shopping. She must come home after school and rest.

I was asked a few weeks ago about why we didn't want Angela to go on bed rest. One of the threads on the triplet connection is about how people who have never had triplets don't quite understand the severity of bed rest. There are stories on there about how people say, well, let's go out for an hour, your doctor doesn't need to know.

I completely understand that bed rest doesn't mean that the world is ending but it does mean that there are some serious concerns about whether or not the babies will cook as much as they need to. Not to mention the fact that her paychecks will stop or that Angela will go insane if she isn't allowed to do anything for a few months.

Angela calls me a nazi in how strict I'm starting to be on her but I just can't justify in my mind how walking upstairs to change the sheets on the guest bed is worth going on bed rest starting at our appointment next week.

As a professional worrier, I think I set an all time high when I woke up yesterday. I was a mess. Then I got word that 2 of my best friends, whom I've known for 20 years lost their father overnight. As I tried in vain to figure out how to help them anyway I could I realized they have real worries. Concerns that they have to deal with right now. I would think that in the coming days they will re-think events of the past few months and wonder if things could have been done differently. I think they both did everything they could but I would imagine the questions will be there.

I don't want that to happen to Angela and I.

Last night Angela's teacher friends had a get together that I was nervous about. It was to be held outside near a pond in the backyard of one of her teacher friends. The terrain was a bit rough and I was concerned Angela might fall or just spend too much time on her feet, helping in the kitchen, that type of thing.

It didn't take me too long to realize that I might be the head Nazi but there were several others who could use the title as well. They were constantly telling her to take it easy. It made me relax a bit. Angela understands that she has to take it easy. Her body is telling her that much more than she'd like.

I just need to take a breath and trust that we will hit our goal. Easier typed than done but I am going to give it my best shot. But if you happen to see Angela in the next few weeks and she seems to be active, if you'd throw a "go sit down" her way, it would make me very happy.

The Snoogle!

Last week Angela was having a tough time sleeping because her stomach is getting to the point where it just isn't comfortable anymore, carrying 3 kids and all. My parents were in town and we decided one day at lunch to get her a tummy pillow.

Angela had given me explicit instructions to only get the little wedge thing they had for $10 at Babies R Us. I told the guy at the store that and when I told him we were having triplets he said, she'll crush that little thing. It will do her no good.

So, he showed me the Snoogle which I knew the second I saw the price tag that I would get yelled at for it. I didn't hesitate for a second, I'll take the griping at me as long as she can sleep. I told my Dad as we left, you watch, I'm going to get hollered at for spending this much money. He said, why would she yell at you for trying to make her comfortable. I looked at him and laughed, silly wabbit.

Sure enough, I got hollered at but it took about 5 minutes that night for her to begin to expound the greatness of this pillow that went under her legs, stomach and her head.

The thing I liked and took me all of about 10 seconds to discover was that I can grab that thing from the top and drag her all around the bed since it has her locked in. It's great fun.

The thing is so huge I can even get up close to her and kinda share some of it. It's pretty comfy. Plus it's a lot of fun to play with when she gets out of bed. I've come up with about 25 different things to use it as, including but not limited to:

Elephant Trunk
the snake around Britney Spears' neck in the Slave video
an elephant trunk for the nether regions
a hook to yank Angela off the stage
a two pronged whack a mole mallet to knock Angela around from both sides
a jump rope

It's worth every penny, I tell ya.

This has been a paid advertisement from Leachco Snoogle Products (psst, Snoogle, we are still waiting for your check!)

Week 19 Checkup

We made our 2nd trip to the multiples specialist today. I am starting to get a bit nervous because we've hit the part of our journey where Angela can get benched at any visit. This is where things can get hairy and the doctors have told us they will bed rest her sooner rather than later.

We both went into the appointment hoping to keep our streak of good news alive and walked out with just that.

The doctor we had labeled Debbie Downer last time wasn't so bad this time. He told us on the last visit that he was 100% sure we had 2 boys and pretty sure we had a 3rd one as well. Today he confirmed that all 3 are boys.

He even went as far to say that everything was going great. The boys are 13 ounces, 12 ounces and 11 ounces. I asked if the one that is 11 ounces is ok and he said "it's do-able".

When he checked out Angela's cervex he said it was at 4 cm. I asked him when we need to start worrying about that getting too small and he said "When I tell you to be worried".

That made us laugh - had he given us a number, we may have started to freak out.

We go back in 2 weeks and then it looks like we'll be going to a doctor every week after that.

Three Vehicular Traumas and a Wedding

So this weekend, the entire Newhouse family (soon-to-be Grandparents & Parents) made the journey to Tyler, Texas to attend Bob's sister Sue's wedding. It seems like the entire weekend was just a comedy of errors. Our trip started with me forgetting my pants & having to turn around and go back for them (pregnancy pants are not quite so easy to come by). Once we were finally on the road, we had to travel through downtown Dallas during rush hour in hopes of making it to the church in Palestine by 7 pm. We finally rolled into the church around 8 pm, and my pregnancy squeezed bladder was about to burst. I'm pretty sure I haven't run that fast since before my waistline began expanding with our triple blessing. (I blew past Sue's future in-laws like the flash yelling out apologies as I searched frantically for the bathroom).

Bob, Jim, and Kathy helped to rearrange the furniture in the "parlor" to be more wedding friendly as I sat by and watched the heavy lifting. Sue made a list of what needed to be taken care of while her fiance waited in the hospital to see if his pneumonia had progressed to the point that they had to admit him. Luckily, they gave John (the groom) a shot and a CAT-scan of his lungs and sent him back home to rest up for the wedding, and the Newhouses proceeded from the church to the Fairfield Inn in Tyler.

Saturday started with an early morning wake up call and a request to fill John's prescription at Wal-Mart. After a free continental breakfast at the hotel (why is it that expensive hotels charge you $20 for breakfast while the cheap ones throw out all the Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits you can eat for free?), Bob and Kathy headed out to take the prescription in. Even though they got to the Wal-Mart right as the pharmacy opened, they were told it would be an hour and a half wait. They decided to return to the hotel to wait and get cleaned up. After the hour and a half wait, the prescription was still not ready and Kathy decided to go over to Sue's house in order to help her get ready for the big event. About three miles from the hotel, our new vehicle blew a tire, and Bob had to wait for AAA to come and rescue him (since the car was so new to us, we couldn't find the jack and had not put any tools into the car yet). An hour later, John & Sue had come to pick up Kathy, and "Larry the Cable Guy" had arrived to get us mobile again. Apparently, our suburban has expensive rims, and the tow truck guy was unable to change the tire, so he loaded the suburban on the flatbed and took Bob to the tire place.

All of this activity and inactivity gave Jim & I plenty of time to enjoy the fact that we got left behind at the hotel. I was able to really put the Chi iron I got for Christmas to great use, and my hair turned out fantastic. I guess even I can clean up good if given enough time. A couple hundred dollars later, Bob was able to return to the hotel and pick us up and head to the church. We knew that we were going to be pretty late, but John and Sue held the wedding for us so that Jim could walk Sue down the aisle. Once we made it to the church, about twenty minutes late, things went off without a hitch. John managed to struggle past the pneumonia and didn't pass out during the vows despite his profuse sweating (which could have been due to the fact that the air in the church was not working) and swaying. It was a very nice ceremony, and the BBQ at the reception was great (especially since we skipped our lunchtime snack). Bob gave a very nice toast, although he had to follow John's sister who through out a Bible verse in her toast. Then it was time for cake!!! As all larger ladies who are single for a large portion of their childbearing years, I have served many a cake at many a wedding, and I stepped up to do the task again at Sue's wedding with Kathy passing out the plates to the guests. The cake was excellent - even the cake nazi, my lovely husband, enjoyed a piece.



Following the reception, we loaded up the cars and headed for the newlyweds' house to deliver the leftovers and the gifts. John was pretty sick, so we stayed for a bit to get them settled into the "in sickness" part of their vows. Our party headed out to grab some dinner at Johnny Carino's which was fantastic, the went back to the hotel for cocktails and diet 7 up. Upon arriving at our rooms, Jim & Kathy couldn't get into theirs for about an hour - the lock had freaked out and they could only get in with the help of the front desk. Finally, we decided to call it a night and put ourselves to bed.

This morning, we were supposed to have brunch with the new Mr. & Mrs. Murray, but we decided to make it a take-out lunch at their house so that John didn't have to get out of bed. To kill some time, Bob & I stopped by Babies R Us to register. I think we put some useful items on our registry, but who knows. I tend to get a little overwhelmed when I think of all the stuff we need and have to decide what exactly we want. Regardless, Bob had a GREAT time scanning Cookie Monster & sports toys. It was pretty fun to watch him get excited about all of the fun toys that we want for the boys.

Upon arrival at John & Sue's, after stopping for the "World's Best Hamburgers" at the end of their street, we arrived to find Sue in the front yard freaking out because her car (my former beloved Jeep) would not start. Since I forgot to put our emergency roadside kit in the new car and they didn't have any jumper cables, the Newhouse men decided this was a job for AAA. In the midst of our lunch, John called the doctor and decided that it was time to go back to the hospital, so we volunteered to stay behind and wait for AAA while Sue took her new husband to the hospital.

As luck would have it, the same tow truck guy showed up at Sue's house and helped us get her car started again, and after letting the battery charge up for 45 minutes, we finally got on the road to get back home. Once we recovered from the trauma of the day, we decided it was time for take out pizza for dinner, and as Bob left the house to pick it up, our Camry came into contact with the car whose foolish owner parks it at the end of our driveway. Luckily, there was no damage to either car, and it all worked out, but I hope that we are done with vehicular trauma for a while. To cap off the evening, as Bob arrived at Mr. Jim's to pick up our pizza, the pizza was delivered to our door. I must say that the boys and I are ready for this weekend to be over. I'm not sure I've ever been so happy to see a weekend end!