Another Pregnancy! With Triplets!

I tell you, I’ve never experienced anything so brain numbing as hearing a doctor declare there is a third baby present in your womb during a routine ultra-sound! You should try it sometime. Although, I can’t give you any tips on making it happen, because that, I certainly did not plan!

We had decided that we would like to try for a third child. For awhile, I wasn’t so sure, I mean, I’m not ancient or anything, but I am getting on the older end of parenting newborns, two kids were already keeping me pretty busy but it wasn’t insane. I would like to have a little girl, but I didn’t think it was worthwhile getting pregnant for that reason alone, because there is no way of guaranteeing we would add the fairer sex to our household.

The more I prayed about it though, the more I felt we should at least try for another child. I realised that if we didn’t try, I would always wonder if we had completed our family, because somehow for me it didn’t feel quite ‘complete’. Little did I know…

So, back to the doctor’s office for us. That’s the way to make babies, right? We had only fertilised one egg with Trent, but we had frozen 17 unfertilised eggs. Because of ethical, moral and religious reasons, we had decided that whatever eggs we fertilised, (ie. became embryos) we would use. So when we heard that we could store unfertilised eggs, even though it was ‘new’ technology in Australia, we quickly decided that was the best option for us. That way we could make our mind up about future children when we were ready, rather then being already committed.

Doing IVF for a frozen cycle was less complicated than doing it ‘from scratch’. For starters all the daily needles weren’t needed – Hurrah! There was still plenty of meds to be consumed, plenty of doctor’s appointments and other unpleasantaries. All of course worthwhile for the end product, of course.

Although the end product wasn’t at all what we were expecting! Because I am over 35 years of age, (as in, I am 35 years of age), and my fertility rates are officially in decline, we had the option of placing two embryo’s in the womb instead of one. (In Australia, you cannot legally use two embryo’s until you are over 35. That’s why we don’t have octo-mum’s.) We weren’t going to, but with a failed IVF cycle, and the scientists advising us that our chances with frozen embryo’s were less then with the fresh eggs, and knowing our funds were limited, we eventually decided to place two.

One month before becoming pregnant with the triplets. The morning the day this photo was taken I had an IVF embryo transferral. It turned out to be a failed cycle – compared to the next cycle which would produce triplets!

One of those embryo’s decided to split, becoming two humans!

So that is how I am 14 weeks pregnant with triplets. 2 identical and 1 fraternal. My brain isn’t numb anymore, (unless I think about if for too long…) It took a good 1 1/2 weeks to get used to the idea. It’s amazing how you just transfer into planning mode. I’ve given up trying to work out how I’ll do everything and have reached the conclusion that I’ll make it up as I go along. (You know, kind of like parenting any child…)

And if you need proof, here’s a pretty cool little video of all three from my ultrasound at 12 weeks and 4 days.