26 Week Appointment and Thoughts

Today we had another appointment. It went well. They all are still growing well and their fluid levels are still normal! Baby A was measuring a whopping 2 pounds 3 ounces! Baby B was measuring 1 pound 15 ounces (so close!) and Baby C was also 2 pounds 1 ounce! It is really awesome how big they all are still for their gestational age. So I guess it makes sense that I am now officially measuring 40+ weeks!

My cervix was checked again and it has shortened slightly but only 1 mm again to 3.4 cm. This is still in the normal range so we aren't worried yet. At this rate it won't be below the normal range until 31 weeks! And that would be awesome. Our goal is to still get to 34 weeks and it is still a very good possibility if not much changes! I also still don't need to be on bedrest which I am so thankful for!

This week has been tough on me physically. My body is definitely feeling it. I can't really be on my feet more than about 10 minutes before I start to get tired and hurt. I have to be really careful now to watch what i'm doing. Patrick has been awesome and is doing all the housework and most of the cooking. He would do all of it but I like to cook too much to give it all up. He also offers to do all the shopping but I can't let that go either. He does the grocery shopping but all baby and house shopping I still want to do with him. It has been really nice to have the handicap placard because this past weekend parking was crazy and I don't think I could have walked. i seriously would have gotten in a cart like a 2 year old and asked to be pushed. haha.

Sleep has gotten progressively harder and i'm just not used to it. I used to sleep like a rock. To be honest at the beginning of this pregnancy I was seriously worried that i would sleep through the babies crying. Everyone tells you that you won't be able to no matter how hard you sleep.

I get up every hour it seems. I either really have to pee, the babies are going nuts, or i'm just uncomfortable and need to flip. So far I can go back to sleep fairly easily but i'm just not used to broken sleep.

It's REALLY hard to think that I want to go 8 more weeks but I know it's best for the babies. We have a few things that i am looking forward to that are keeping me going like the baby shower this weekend and meeting and holding baby Riley has been awesome.

One of my really good friends is getting married in May and I really want to go. I may or may not attend in a wheelchair. Be prepared Julie. Haha.

But even though im listing all my complaints, I really am loving it!! I would do anything for them and love them all so much already.

I think my favorite thing is feeling them move. They all love to kick and are all very crazy. They definitely go off on each other and I'm sure they are running out of room and squishing each other. All their movements are pretty visible from the outside now, so Patrick and I have fun just watching my belly move. We've been trying to catch it on film but every time we try they stop. All three of them had hiccups yesterday and it was so funny and weird feeling. We can really tell they are growing.

Pregnancy Update: 26 Weeks!

And my view today...

I feel like I've grown a LOT in the last week.

How far along: 26 weeks!

Size of babies: Heads of Lettuce! 

Total weight gain/loss: 36 pounds as of 4/22/13. Who knows now!

Gender: Yes we know! 2 boys and a girl! Owen, Declan, and Evelyn!

Maternity clothes: When I get dressed. haha These days it's mostly t-shirts and sweat pants or yoga pants. Some dresses.

Stretch marks: Not yet! (I can't believe this!)

Belly Button: It is starting to kinda just go flat. I dont know if it will pop.

Sleep: Ok. I've had to get up a lot to pee which isn't fun and its getting a lot harder to get comfortable.

Symptoms: Braxton Hicks, lots of pee breaks, VERY tired, and im getting some back pains when im on my feet too much.

What I miss: I miss my energy level the most.

Cravings: Lots of sweets this week. So it hasn't been the healthiest. Oh well.

Aversions: Nothing! Thankfully that stopped after the first 2-3 months.

Best Moment: Meeting our nephew Riley! He is soooo cute and it makes me so excited for our trio's arrival!

What im looking forward to: My (our) Baby Shower!! It's on Saturday and I can't wait! 

Introducing...

Our New Nephew and Godson!

He was born 3 weeks early on April 26th at 1:10 am! He was 6 pounds 3 ounces and 20 inches long. He is just perfect! They are already home enjoying their new baby! Congrats to Patrick's Sister Sarah, her husband Luke and big sister Keira!

Riley James

(Sorry for the bad quality picture, it's just from my phone)

Isn't his going home outfit so cute!! I could just cuddle him all day! It makes me even more excited for our little one's to get here. They did not find out the gender, so when they announced it was a boy everyone was so excited! There are a lot of girl's on that side and just 1 other boy!

More Babies!!!

Well earlier tonight we got a call from Patrick's Sister and her husband saying that she is in labor! We are so excited!! It was quite unexpected, her due date isn't for another 3 weeks, and her first baby was a week late! But we can't wait! Hopefully the baby (they don't know the gender) will be here soon! We got to the hospital about an hour ago and things are getting close! I can't wait to meet our little niece or nephew and Godchild!

Also, we found out yesterday that my brother and his wife are expecting their first child! Another baby will be coming in November! It is so awesome that so many babies are being born this year! Our trio will have so many playmates! We also have another one coming in September! I love it! I swear babies always seem to come in waves!

What I Ate Wednesday!

Im linking up again for What I ate Wednesday!

Breakfast 7:30am: I made scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, spinach, and leftover steak from the night before. And a glass of milk.

Second breakfast: 9:30am: I had a Fage with honey yogurt.

Snack 11am: I had some watermelon! So glad that is back in season.

Lunch 12:30pm: I made a pita sandwich with hummus, turkey, lettuce, tomato, and jack cheese. I also had a fuji apple and a glass of milk.

Snack 2:30pm: I had some trail mix with almonds, sesame sticks, walnuts, raisins, peanuts, and dark chocolate chips.

Snack 4:30pm: I was hungry again lol so I had some carrots and bell pepper to tide me over to dinner.

Dinner 6pm: Homemade Rice Pilaf, broccoli, and breaded filet of Sole with a garlic lemon caper aeoli (i think, patrick made it and i dont remember all the ingredients...)

Dessert 8pm: Ice cream! We had mint chocolate chip Yum! 

Finding Out

I thought I would write a post about how we found out we were pregnant starting from the very beginning. Patrick and I got married in July 2012. We went on our honeymoon for 2 weeks and then moved into our house. Once we got settled, it was September. We had talked many times about kids and that we wanted them. We both wanted big families too. Our niece turned 1 at the very end of September, and after her party was when we started talking about when a good time to start a family would be. We decided that we were financially stable enough, and were ready to be parents. We figured it would take at least a few months or longer. So, I went off the pill. That is the extent of our "trying." We didn't do anything else and just went about our newlywed life. This was mid-October.

Around Thanksgiving, (just 1 month later) I started having early signs but I thought nothing of them. It was actually Patrick that went out and bought a pregnancy test after I had thrown up 2 days in a row. He made me take it, while I still didn't think I was pregnant, on Dec. 3rd. I realized I had missed my period but only a couple days and I had just gotten off birth control so i didn't think anything of it. We had just gotten our Christmas tree put up and I reluctantly went to take it. All I kept saying was that it was a waste of money. I brought it out and handed it to him. I saw the look on his face and said, "What? I told you not to get your hopes up!" He just looked at me with his moth wide open. There was 2 very clear lines. I just screamed! And he started laughing. I couldn't believe how quickly it changed. I kept saying how could this happen! We just talked about it a few weeks ago! We were in shock (Ha! Joke was on us!) We were so excited though! The rest of the night we just talked about the baby and what it was going to be like.

We made an appointment for the following week to confirm. We went in and were excited and sure enough we were expecting! We did all of the routine stuff and got to hear the heartbeat! (little did we know that would change)

We set up another appointment for about 4 weeks later for official dating and our first ultrasound! On January 15th we went in ready to see our little bean and found 2! We saw two babies and heard two healthy heartbeats! We were very shocked!! (haha again!) We found out we were 11 weeks and Due the beginning of August! Everything looked great so we decided to start letting family know. We couldn't keep this a secret! We planned a family dinner for Friday night. Our families get together a lot so no one suspected anything! We didn't do anything to unique, when everyone sat down to eat we got up to thank everyone for coming, and said "because we're Pregnant!" Everyone was so happy and when things calmed down we said, 'Oh, and one more thing, it's twins!!" Thats when things got really crazy! haha. I had pretty bad morning (all-day) sickness but soon after we announced it went away.

We were enjoying being pregnant and I was growing fast! Our next appointment was for 14 weeks. We walked in ready to see the twins again and see how much they had grown. My OB did the ultrasound and as we were talking he goes, "Ok, here's A...., here's B.... and..." Before he can say anything I say, "Um, why and...? and he just says "C!!" Then I say "WHAT?! Does that mean THREE babies?!" He goes "Yep, You're having Triplets!" looks at my husband who looks like he's about to pass out and says "You've got some good little swimmers!" lol. So at this point we are really freaking out! In a good way though. We couldn't believe it. We went through all the stats and he referred my to a perinatologist that I would see as well as him. I don't think it sunk in for another week or so.

We called everyone right away and said, "we have to show you our newest pictures!" So my parents had us all over for dinner the next night. Thats when they all found out about the triplets. We did the same thing as my doctor pretty much. We pointed, "here's 1 baby..., here's another..., and here's the third! Its triplets!" They all freaked! It was so fun.

We went back at 16 weeks and there were still 3 healthy babies! Then later that week we had our peri appointment to find out genders. They all cooperated and when we knew it was 2 identical boys and a girl, I think that is when it really hit us. We were having three kids... at the same time!

Now at 25 weeks its still hard to believe but we can't wait! In less than a year (most likely) we will have gone from newlyweds to a family of 5!

Revealing our Triplets' Names!

We have had the names picked out for about 3 weeks now. We thought about it from the time we found out we were having triplets and seriously started thinking wen we found out the genders at a little over 16 weeks. We spent several weeks trying to decide on names and I think we thought of every name possible.

We are both 100% Irish and our heritage is very important to us so we wanted to use Irish names. So that narrows it down a bit but there were still tons of options! Both of our names are pretty popular and we like that they are easy to say, spell, and remember. But, we did not want our kids to have the same name as 4 of their classmates. So we were in search of slightly unique but common names. If that makes any sense. We also knew that we wanted the middle names to be more traditional and hold some meaning to us. We thought about using my maiden name but decided against it. For about a week we had 5 boys names and 2 girls. We couldn't make any decisions so we moved on to middles. Those were easier to pick because we only really thought of family names. Once they were picked, the first name kind of fell into place. They sounded the best together and were really the ones we loved the most.

So why have we not announced? Because we then had to decide whose name was whose. Obviously our girl was named but we still had to pick which name was for A and which was for B. This took a while and we kept going back and forth at ultrasounds and when one would do something. After our scare last week and seeing the babies again today we have finally decided! Without further ado...

Baby A (boy).... OWEN TADHG O'CONNOR (We will call him Owie, Big O, or O-man)

Baby B (boy).... DECLAN SEAMUS O'CONNOR (We will call him Dec or Dex)

Baby C (girl).... EVELYN AOIFE O'CONNOR ( We will call her Evie or Ev)

(For some reason the awesome ultrasound pictures that we got of them today will not upload to blogger so I will try to figure that out and post them soon!)

Now to explain, for all of their first names we used the anglicized versions of the gaelic names: Eoghan, Deaglan, and Aibhlin. We absolutely love the names and feel they honor our heritage and family perfectly. As for the middle names, they are all family names. Tadhg (pronounced Tige. Like the animal tiger without the -er sound) was my great-grandfathers name and Patrick's grandfather's and father's middle names. Seamus (Shay-mus) is my dad's name and Patrick's Grandfather's name. Aoife (EE-fa) is both of our great-grandmother's names and numerus relatives' on both sides middle names.

We are so excited to let you all know! Now we can finally start calling them by name and its already feeling that much more real!

(And also, we did not really go off of rankings or anything so some may seem more popular, but in SF we do not hear any of the names very often or at all!)

Thanks For Your Prayers!

I don't know what to say. We are so thankful to everyone that kept us and the babies in their thoughts and prayers. We got so many messages and it was so comforting knowing that people were thinking of us. As i said in this post we got some scary news last week about possible TTTS with our identical boys. It was hard to wait until today for any update and google wasn't helping.

Today we had an appointment with our perinatologist, and I am so happy to say that everything is looking ok!!! We still need to keep an eye on them but there were no other signs and they are both still growing great! The first thing we looked at were the amniotic fluid levels. If they were still in normal ranges that would be the first step. They were both fine and actually very similar levels. Then it was on to measure the babies growth. If Baby B dropped any more, there could be a big problem. Baby A measured 1 pound 14 ounces and Baby B measured 1 pound 10 ounces! So B actually grew an ounce more than A this week! And they are both big for their gestation which is great. Baby C measured 1 pound 13 ounces. So for now we are in the clear and if they keep growing on their own paths everything should be fine!

I also had my cervix checked again because if it shortens too much I will need to go on bedrest and risk the babies coming too early. It has shortened 1 mm, from 3.6 cm to 3.5 cm. So still in the normal range but this is the  first week it has shortened since they started weekly checks. I will not need bedrest yet but if it goes below 3 cm I will. For now he says I just need to take it easy and rest in bed or on the couch for at least two 2 hour periods. I think I can handle that! He also says that I can get a temporary handicap placard for when we go out because he doesn't want me walking too much unnecessarily. That should be coming in the next couple of days.

Pregnancy Update: 25 Weeks!

How far along: 25 weeks

Size of babies: Cauliflowers! 

Total weight gain/loss: 35 pounds as of 4/15/13. But I think i've had a growth spurt this week!

Gender: Yes we know! 2 boys and a girl! (I will do a names post soon!)

Maternity clothes: Yes! But also lots of Patricks t-shirts and yoga pants. I don't dress up much anymore unless I am going out. Too much effort haha. 

Stretch marks: Not yet! (I can't believe this!)

Belly Button: Still an innie! (Can't believe this either! It is coming to the surface but looks more like its flattening than popping out though.)

Sleep: Not so great this week. I've been waking up a lot to pee and shift sides. I don't know if its because i'm uncomfortable of just have a lot on my mind.

Symptoms: Lots of braxton hicks. Nothing to worry about though. I've also had to pee a lot more and my back starts to hurt if i'm on my feet too much.

What I miss: Still sleeping on my stomach as usual. Also I just miss being able to do everyday things. Everything is much harder now.

Cravings: Hummus. I love hummus this week. Also pickles.

Aversions: Nothing! Thankfully that stopped after the first 2-3 months.

Best Moment: Seeing Patrick with our niece Claire, he is going to be such a good dad!

What im looking forward to: Finishing the nursery! Also going to my appointment tomorrow and hopefully hearing nothing is wrong. 

Babies Update

I have been wanting to write a little more about the triplets. We have had a very easy pregnancy so far. I don't like to complain about anything really because I have not even had as many symptoms as a lot of singletons. But this week has been hard. I can't deny it. I was so relaxed after our trip and coming home to hitting the big milestone, especially when expecting multiples, of 24 weeks. It was really exciting to make it there and takes quite a load off. Because although it would be a huge struggle for them to come this early, you can't help but feel a lot better about getting over the first big hump. Patrick and I were feeling great going into our appointment and didn't really have anything to worry about. It has been textbook.

We knew from the beginning the risk of TTTS. Simply put, it is a syndrome that effects identical twins who share a placenta where blood flow is disproportionate and one twin is a donar to the other. They pay close attention to signs of it early and much of the time it is suspected by 20 weeks. There were no signs at all and our boys were actually almost identical in weight and length for this entire pregnancy. It was always in the back of our minds but as perfect week after perfect week went by, it went farther and farther to the back. Maybe we were on cloud 10 after Hawaii and making it to 24 weeks, and maybe just the fact that we are naturally pregnant with triplets and still in shock, but we were not ready for Monday.

We walked into the office excited to see our doctor again, tell him about our trip, and get some more ultrasound pictures of our babes. We were used to the measurements routine and rolled through the motions getting all eager to see them. When they measured the boys fluid, they were pretty similar. So that is a very good thing. But, when they measured weights, Baby A was 1 pound 11 ounces and Baby B was 1 pound 6 ounces. That means that B has only grown 2 ounces and A has grown 6. Again, its not a big difference but it causes slight concern because of how closely they previously have measured. Baby C also grew almost 5 ounces this week and is now 1 pound 10 ounces.

So, we had to talk about what it could mean. So we had to hear worst case scenarios  More than likely nothing is wrong and at this point as long as fluid levels stay the same and they continue to grow on their own path everything will be fine. Next week we will see our perinatologist. In that appointment we will really look at the boys with a higher level ultrasound and measure them again as well as fluid. If there is any more changes, especially in fluid, we will have to have some serious talks. At this point there is still nothing to worry about but it makes it all more real. We are a little on edge this week and I have been doing probably the worst thing for it, googling. I wont go into detail because I don't want to freak anyone else out.

This post has gone a different way than I thought. By no means are we, or should we for that matter, be worried about anything serious happening. But, im still going to ask for your prayers! Or just to keep us in your thoughts. We have finally turned into the crazy first-time worrywart parents. Hopefully this is just a fluke and next week we will have more answers.

Also, on a positive note, i'm hoping to get some good pictures of them next week and we will announce names!

What I Ate Wednesday!

Today I am also linking up with Jenn for What I Ate Wednesday! I have been wanting to do another post on food since I have really been trying to monitor it so these babies come out big and healthy! So here is what I ate (on tuesday)!

Breakfast 7:30am: I got really lucky and Patrick made pancakes and sausage! So I had 2 big pancake and 3 breakfast sausage as well as fruit salad! And of course a glass of milk! (calories: about 600)

Snack 10:30 am: I had a Fage yogurt with honey (calories: 170)

Lunch 12:30pm: I had a pita bread sandwich with turkey, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, hummus, and olive spread. Then I also had a organic fuji apple. Yum! (calories: about 450)

Snack 2:30pm: I had some homemade trail mix with peanuts, almonds, sesame sticks (my fave!), dried cranberries, dries cherries, and dark chocolate chips. (calories: about 200)

Snack 4:30pm: I had some cheddar cheese and Kashi TLC crackers. (calories: 250)

Dinner 7pm: We had Patrick's Brother and his wife and daughter (she's 18 months) over for dinner Patrick made his famous beer-can chicken! Served with mashed potatoes and a big salad with lots of veggies. And of course a glass of milk and water. (calories: about 600)

Dessert 8pm: Since we had company I made a chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecake! It was awesome if  I do say so myself! (calories: 300?)

So that is about 2,600 calories give or take. I usually dont eat as big of a breakfast and will have something small first thing and then around 9 have something else. But it was awesome to have patrick make something! I try to stay over 2500 calories at least and get as close to 3000 as I can. So far it is working and i'm definitely gaining! I also try to get at least 100 grams of protein and I have been doing that well.
Sorry for no pictures, I'll try to take them for next time!

SO WHAT! Wednesday

Im linking up with Shannon for So What Wednesday!

This week im saying So WHAT if...

• I am still pretending im on vacation after we got back from Hawaii.
• I have indulged in way too much junk food this week and blamed in on the babies.
• I have shown too many people that really dont care my ultrasounds.
• We still havent finished the nursery and the babies could be here in less than a month!
• I've taken a nap every afternoon and said its to prepare for nap time with babies.
• I have ordered too much stuff for the babies before our shower.
• I just called Patrick to ask if he would bring me a sandwich from our favorite place (across town) when he comes home for lunch because I'm craving one.

The Triplets Nursery: Part 2

If you haven't see it yet, here's Part 1!

We had originally painted the nursery a pale yellow but when we changed the theme (more like picked a theme) I decided I wanted a different color. We have settled on a underwater/whale theme. Patrick and I love scuba diving and anything about the ocean and I think it is a great theme for multiples. The color we picked is a turquoise color from Benjamin Moore called caribbean cool. Here is a sample:

I love it and it works really well with everything we are going to tie into the room. Then it was on to the bedding. I decided once we found out the genders that I wanted them to have gender specific things. I did not just want to make the room neutral. So my dilemma was trying to find matching bedding for boys and girls. We decided the easiest way would be to design our own. I found a site, carousel designs where you could pick from tons of fabrics. We knew we wanted to do bright colors in their room and not as much with pattern. With three cribs and three times the baby things we thought this was the best route to go. I also love the thought of lots of solid bright colors and then little things to bring out the theme. We decided to pick the colors light blue and lime green for the boys because we didn't want too much blue with the walls. Then we picked orange and a coral pink for our girl. The colors really work with an underwater theme. Here is the picture from the website, the color on the walls is pretty much the actual wall color and our cribs and floor are those colors as well. We brought in the one pattern, chevron, because i just love it for nurseries and have found a few other things with it.

We are still picking out other things for their room so the rest of the decor will come in part 3!

Our Babymoon

Patrick surprised me a few weeks ago after having a busy week with a case and having to be at work late a lot with this trip! A week long trip on the Hawaiian island Maui! He came home one night with a brochure and explained that it was all booked. I couldn't believe it. He had cleared it with the doctors and moved any conflicting appointments too. We had been doing lots of work getting ready for the babies and I was just stopping work so it was the perfect time. 

We left Saturday morning the 6th and got back Saturday the 13th. It was absolutely amazing and just what we needed. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Kapalua on the west side of Maui. It was gorgeous, had its own private beach and lots of things to do. Here are a couple pictures of the hotel and a map of maui with some of the locations we were. (You can click it to make it larger)

 The pools and cabanas

The location and beaches

It looks even better in person. I couldn't believe it when we got there. We flew out Saturday morning and because they are a few hours behind we had the whole day. We were both pretty tired from traveling so we spent the day relaxing by the pools and beach and just checking out all the hotel had to offer.

Sunday we slept in and then went to the big brunch that the hotel has every Sunday. The food was awesome and as you know i have craved fruit almost this entire pregnancy so I was in heaven. They had everything. Then we spent some more time at the beach and did a sunset cruise out on the ocean. It was beautiful.

On Monday we got up relatively early and drove to a couple different beaches including Maui's famous Kaanapali Beach. We did a lot of snorkeling and enjoying the sun.

On Tuesday I was treated to breakfast in bed! One of the awesome perks that came with our package. Patrick got up early to play golf at one of their famous courses and I just gor to relax. When he got back we hung out at the pools and then went on a Helicopter tour! We saw a lot of the coastline and volcanoes and mountains. It was beautiful. 

Wednesday we did a big drive to the other side of the Island and did the famous Road to Hana. It was hard to decide if we should do it because of the long drive but we figured we needed to do it and who knows when we will be back! It was amazing and it was not as crowded as we had anticipated. We stopped a few places along the way and saw all of the bridges and waterfalls. It was stunning and so much more amazing than I could imagine. It was a long day but so so so worth it. We did the entire loop because we figured it was the best time to see that side of the island. It took about 12 hours with all the stops and when we got back we were exhausted. We did not do all the stops because we didn't want to rush through, but there is always next time!

Thursday we were still exhausted so we spent much of the time on the beach and enjoying the relaxing vacation. We got a lot of time just with us and it was great. We had our couple massage scheduled for that afternoon as well. These also came with our package and it was my first prenatal massage. It was heavenly and just what we needed. After that we drove about 20 minutes into Lahaina for the famous Old Lahaina Luau. We had heard that this was the best one and it was great. When making reservations you can choose to sit in the front the traditional way with short tables and pillows on the ground or behind those with real tables and chairs. We chose the chairs mainly because I didn't think I could handle sitting on the ground while pregnant. We will have to do that next time. The food was amazing and had everything you could think of. All of the entertainment was great and we had a blast.

Friday we went to a few more places known for snorkeling and saw all of the marine life. Patrick and I love to scuba dive so it was kinda sad to go to a location like this and not be able to, but we saw so much while snorkeling it made up for it.

We ate lunch at different places on the island pretty much everyday but when we weren't traveling we had dinners at the popular restaurants at the hotel. They had such good food and amazing views. Im pretty sure I gained so much weight from all of the awesome food.

Saturday we hung out in the morning and then did some shopping before we had to fly back home. It was an amazing trip and I can't wait to go back some day. I highly recommend this trip to everyone.

I still need to go through all of my pictures so those will come later. 

Also, an update on the babies, they are doing great!! Still measuring a little big for their gestational age and I am now measuring at 36 (!!) weeks (cm) and have gained a whopping 35 pounds. But, as you know the boys are identical and share a placenta. They have been measuring the same weights with only an ounce or two of difference up until now, but today Baby B was 5 ounces smaller than Baby A. This is still not a big gap and they aren't too worried yet but please say a little prayer he doesn't drop more. There is always a risk of TTTS (twin to twin transfusion syndrome) when babies share a placenta and we are hoping this does not happen. My cervix has still not shortened so no bed rest yet! At this point, my doctors are saying that if it shortens at all I will be going on bed rest. So lets keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't yet! 

Pregnancy Update: 24 Weeks!

This is a big week! 24 weeks is when "viability" is officially claimed by most. Some hospitals will revive before then but this is huge! My next big milestone is 28 weeks. Survival rates go up drastically at 28 weeks. So now we are just working to get there. After we reach it we will set new ones.

(Not the greatest but I've forgotten a few times and I'm a lot bigger!)

How far along: 24 weeks

Size of babies: Corn!

Total weight gain/loss: 32 pounds as of 4/4/13. I will be weighed again tomorrow! My guess is around 35 pounds now.

Gender: Yes we know! 2 boys and a girl! (I will do a names post soon!)

Maternity clothes: Yes im pretty much in all maternity clothes if im not wearing sweats or yoga pants and t-shirts. But, I did wear a lot of Maxi dresses this week!

Stretch marks: Not yet!

Belly Button: Still an innie! It is starting to come to the surface a bit but I think it will be a few more weeks before it sticks out.

Sleep: This week has been great. The first night in the hotel was a little hard because I was in a new place but then the rest of the nights were awesome! We were so busy and I was tired!

Symptoms: I am tired a lot quicker and can't be on my feet too long. I've also started to have a few ramdom Braxton Hicks. Nothing too bad  and my doctor is not worried about it since i have not shortened. I am measuring almost full term for a singleton so that explains it!

What I miss: Still sleeping on my stomach and being active. I also mis being able to put anything on. The last few weeks I have grown a lot and some maternity clothes don't even fit anymore.

Cravings: Ice cream and also any fruit. Oh and french fries. My healthy eating obviously doesn't keep out the bad stuff! These cravings don't stop! Its a good thing Patrick is such a good husband and goes out to get me things!

Aversions: Nothing! Thankfully that stopped after the first 2-3 months.

Best Moment: I can't pick just one. This whole week has been great. Ill do a post on it soon!

What im looking forward to: Finishing the nursery!! The paint looks amazing and they did such a good job. Ill do a post on that soon too!

Pregnancy Update: 23 Weeks!

How far along: 23 weeks 1 days

Size of babies: Grapefruits!

Total weight gain/loss: 32 pounds as of 4/4/13

Gender: Yes we know! 2 boys and a girl! (I will do a names post soon!)

Maternity clothes: Yes im pretty much in all maternity clothes if im not wearing sweats or yoga pants and t-shirts.

Stretch marks: Not yet!

Belly Button: Still an innie! It is starting to come to the surface a bit but I think it will be a few more weeks before it sticks out.

Sleep: This week I have been sleeping amazing! It takes me a while to fall asleep mainly because the babies go wild whenever i lay down, but I have not woken up much throughout the night!

Symptoms: I am definitely starting to feel tired a lot. I've also started to have a few ramdom Braxton Hicks. Nothing too bad  and my doctor is not worried about it since i have not shortened. 

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach is still a big one but I also miss being active. Im not used to being tired and not able to do things, but i guess its getting me prepared!

Cravings: I've been craving watermelon like no other! Also ice cream and olives. (not together) Weird.

Aversions: Nothing! Thankfully that stopped after the first 2-3 months.

Best Moment: Arriving here in Hawaii!! Our Hotel is amazing and it is going to be so much fun!

What im looking forward to: Enjoying this trip! Im really looking forward to my massage and spending time with Patrick away from work and busy schedules. Also im looking forward to hitting the big 24 week milestone next week and seeing the nursery painted when we get back!

This Weeks Appointments

So This week I have had 2 appointments. One with my regular OB and one with my perinatologist. Because triplets is considered high risk, I have more appointments than a normal pregnancy. I normally meet with my OB every 2 weeks and my peri every 3. After 24 weeks though that will change and ill see one or the other every week. But, since we are going on our Baby moon this coming week, my appointments needed to be moved around. So, its been a busy week! We got to see the babies a lot which is awesome and we feel so spoiled. When we have (get blessed with) another baby and its just a singleton, we are going to be so bummed with how little pictures we get! The boys are definitely still boys and our little girl is still a girl! They are getting pretty cramped in here so the ultrasounds are getting pretty hilarious. We all have to take a second to figure out whose arm is whose. My cervix was measured again and it still has not shortened which is awesome! They also measured my fundal height and im measuring right around 35 weeks. And im certainly feeling like it! Also, i have gained about 32 pounds. They recommend for triplet pregnancies to gain 1.5 pounds a week so im pretty close to following that.

This week the babies have been moving A LOT! Every time I lay down they start kicking and wrestling. Before they would move around a lot but now that there is less room we pretty much know where each baby is. And it is so funny because the boys are on my right side and they will wrestle each other. after a few minutes our little girl starts pushing on my ribs and right side like she's trying to get out! Also, Patrick has started to be able to keel them when he touches my belly! He cant really feel full on kicks but he can definitely feel movement. I can't imagine what it's going to be like in a few weeks.

In other news, we are leaving tomorrow morning for Hawaii!! I can't wait!!

How We Came To Be: Love and Marriage link up

A few of the bloggers I follow have started a blog series called Love and Marriage that will run the month of April. I thought I would join in and write our story!

In High School I was a very sporty girl and did not really pay much attention to boys. It wasn't that I didn't want a boyfriend, I just focused on other things. Needless to say, I was a tomboy. I had a lot of guy friends but none of them thought of me as girlfriend material. Patrick and I had tried a few dates towards the end of senior year, but nothing really worked and we didn't want to mess anything up. That was until college started. Patrick was one of my best friends from home and we kept in contact the most once moving away. I went off to UC Santa Barbara to play soccer and he went to UC Berkeley for Football. After that first semester (quarter for me), coming home was what changed everything. Once we were able to see each other again I think we both realized what we really felt. After about a week of spending every waking hour together it seemed, Patrick asked if we wanted to get ice cream. (Is it bad that I remember this day like it was yesterday and cant seem to remember what I was thinking 5 minutes ago?!) We had done things like this before but when we started to walk over, he grabbed my hand. He says he was so scared to ruin our friendship but after he did that I knew we felt the same way and started to give him hints. On our way back we kissed. It was amazing and I can say right there that I knew I was going to marry him.

After a couple weeks of awesome we had to part ways again. It was really hard, and since we both were on teams it was even harder to plan trips to see each other. Skype was our best friend. Once summer rolled around it was like we hadn't left. During the next few years we broke up a few times but never lasted for more that a month because we missed each other too much. We both graduated in 2008 and moved back to San Francisco. Once home we I started my own business (a bakery and cafe) and he went off to law school. After 3 more years of dating and after graduating law school he proposed. It was amazing and I was so happy. We were engaged for about 8 months and got married on July 21st 2012.

So there you have it! We have been together for almost 9 years and married for almost 7 months! I can honestly say we are soul mates and I don't know what I would do without him. I can't wait to see what life holds for us and to spend the rest of it with him.

The Triplets Nursery

This has been a big dilemma for us (mainly me). When we moved into our house last year we didn't take the master because we did not need that big of a room and we wanted it to be a kids room or playroom. Our house is 4 bedrooms 3.5 bathrooms with 3 upstairs and 1 down (the guest room). We took one of the rooms in the back of the house because it would be quieter too and its still plenty big! So the triplets will have the front room and we are very happy we have that option because its big enough for the three of them. They have a big walk-in closet and a huge attached bathroom. They also have big windows in the front. The room is about 20x18. Here is an outline from when i was playing around with furniture placement. (the door on the same wall as the closet is to the bathroom).

So you can see its huge! And as for furniture we went with Munire. It is a great company and the cribs are really well made and sturdy. They also convert all the way up to twin beds. Here is the set we got. (Thanks grandparents for helping make that possible!) Obviously 3 cribs and 1 of the others. We also have a changing table and we bought a glider and ottoman last week.

So the dilemma comes with the theme. The three will be in the same room for at least a few years so we wanted to do a theme that works for all three. But, I didn't want to just do something gender neutral. I wanted to have boy-specific and girl-specific elements tied into the same theme. Thats where it became hard. There are not many matching bedding sets for each gender. So now we are going to design our own bedding but the overall theme is still not decided completely.

Last week I was looking at options and something dawned on me: Water, Ocean. Patrick and I both scuba dive and love the water and I have found some very cute things! So for now here is what im thinking. We are getting the room painted when we are on our trip a turquoise color. (Thanks brother!) I love it! From there I have been looking a lot at Etsy and found some awesome under the sea things. We have decided to put whales above each of their cribs with their names. 2 blue for the boys and 1 pink for our girl. We are going to paint a underwater looking mural on the ceiling as well. From there we aren't sure and I have no idea on the bedding yet but I will keep you all posted! Let me know if you have any ideas!

Pregnancy Update: 22 Weeks

How far along: 22 weeks 2 days

Size of babies: papayas!

Total weight gain/loss: 30 pounds but have another appointment. tomorrow!

Gender: Yes we know! 2 boys and a girl!

Maternity clothes: Yes im pretty much in all maternity clothes if im not wearing sweats or yoga pants and t-shirts.

Stretch marks: Not yet!

Belly Button: Still an innie! It is starting to come to the surface a bit but I think it will be a few more weeks before it sticks out.

Sleep: It is still pretty good. Before being pregnant I would sleep like  a rock and nothing would wake me. But now I wake up a few times needing to shift positions or what not but that is the norms for most non pregnant people so i can’t complain.

Symptoms: I am just starting to slow down a bit but nothing too much yet.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach! And being able to work out everyday at a pretty high level. Also being able  to cook and bake, I am stopping work this week and i will miss it. 

Cravings: Fresh fruit as always and chips! Im on a salty fix.

Aversions: Nothing! Thankfully that stopped after the first 2-3 months.

Best Moment: More shopping for the babies and catching up with old friends! They are very excited about the babies! Also Easter was amazing.

What im looking forward to: Our trip to Hawaii! Patrick surprised me with a baby moon trip and got it all approved and we leave this weekend! Its at a resort with a specific baby moon package and I cant wait to get some relaxing in!