Triplet Pregnancy Journal: Week 18 & 19

Week 18
I’m starting to get a little bit more tired and uncomfortable now. I’m still doing stuff all through the day, but I’m even more exhausted by the end of the day and realising that I need to start slowing down a little more. I’ve had a little sleep twice while J Boy is at kindy and Toddler T is asleep. It’s very unlike me to sleep during the daytime.
My belly button has started to pop. Both boys find it fascinating. J Boy came in while I was getting dressed and stared at it, absolutely enthralled. After explaining what a belly button is, he obviously only connected the word “baby” with it, because he leaned in and started using it as a microphone to talk to the babies. “Hello” he said, “This is your big brother speaking. Do you want to come out of there and come and meet us?” I was very hasty to explain that we didn’t want the triplets on the outside yet, they certainly have more growing to do first!
Toddler T was equally fascinated. His intrigue first started when he was sitting beside me and noticed how big my stomach is getting. He patted it, and then lifted up my t-shirt. After giving the stomach a thorough examination, he pulled the t-shirt back. It must have been somewhat enthralling though, as he repeated the process another ten times or so. Suddenly he noticed my belly button. He stared at it, patted it, and without a word closed one eye, and brought the other one towards the belly button and had a look in. Once he established it wasn’t a peep hole, he covered my tummy back up and wandered away. He makes no connection when I say “babies” and point to my stomach. (Why would it make sense to a one year old?) I might have had a chance of educating him had my belly button contained a telescopic lense. Alas, he’s going to have to meet them all in person before reality hits.
Week 19
For some reason I seemed to have more energy this week than last week. Haven’t needed to indulge in Nana naps. It could be that I have had something to do every day of the week so my busyness has masked my tiredness. I am certainly pooped by the end of the day and collapse into our comfy recliner mindlessly watching TV!

At the end of this week my mother, the boys and I drove to Sunnybank, Brisbane for a 20 week morphology scan. (It was the day before I officially hit 20 weeks, so close enough!)
The scan took 2 ½ hours. Quite a marathon! You would think that lying down for that amount of time would not be so taxing, but I was quite exhausted by the end. Lying in the one position for so long was getting quite uncomfortable.
The scanographer, Dr. L systematically looked at each triplet and checked each one of their hearts, kidneys, head, face and lips, arms, legs, fingers and toes. All were given a clean bill of health at this stage. It feels fantastic that they are all doing so well. The triplets are now officially named, “Triplet 1”, “Triplet 2” (Identicals, located left and right in my lower abdomen, and “Triplet 3”, sitting up nice and high. They should stay in these positions now until they are delivered. Dr. L also took measurements and weights. Triplets 2 and 3 have exactly the same weights, about 352g. Triplet 1 is a little bit smaller at 287g. All are within the healthy weight range for their age.

The genders were also confirmed. Dr. G’s speculation from Week 16 was correct. I’m very excited with our family compilation. I know that it is God who has determined what is best for our family, so the distribution of gender(s?) is far more perfect than what I could ever wish for! 
One of my favourite moments during the scan was seeing Triplets 2 and 3 interact. It seemed that Triplet 3 was so far away from the other two, but all of a sudden, in wiggles Triplet 2, and before you know it the little rascal is kicking T3 in the face! Then T2 wiggles a bit further and snuggles its bottom into T3’s face, who valiantly struggling to escape, moving it’s head away from the offending body part!

During the scan, Triplet 1 moved all the right ways so the sonographer could see everything when needed. Triplet 2 was not obliging at all and seemed to deliberately turn onto it’s stomach so we couldn’t see the face at all. I now only have one photo of Triplet 2 on the DVD they gave me of all the best shots. But it’s like T2 was deliberately trying to be unphotogenic! Triplet 3 wouldn’t show the left hand. By the end we got a quick glimpse and the sonographer was pretty sure 5 fingers were counted! While scanning Triplets 1 & 2, the sonographer had to keep flicking between them, just to make sure she hadn’t accidentally drifted over to the wrong triplet.

 At the end, the senior sonographer came in Dr. C. Wow! What a guy! I have never met such a sanguine doctor before! He came in with his big booming voice, chattering away. You instantly felt like you were friends with him! Before long he had uncovered that my father was a farmer, and the friendship went up a notch as he owns some cattle on a farm outside of Noosa. He was a little disgruntled that I said his hands were soft, (I didn’t know he fancied himself a farmer at that stage. What was I to say, he asked me to feel his hands, an

d then asked what I thought?), however he got over it quick enough to talk about his beloved cows and pepper me with questions about my farming heritage.

He was equally enthusiastic about the triplets, declaring them fine looking babies. (I couldn’t agree more) He also went into ecstatics and told me to pass onto Dr. G how I had made his day. Apparantly the identicals have both a thick and thin membrane separating them. Apparantly this is not common, normally it’s one or the other and it is an indication of when the egg split. Also the fluids that surround each individual is different. Also unusual for two babies in the one placenta. I can’t say it excited me, but it was pretty cool to see this funny old doctor going ga-ga over it. He assured me that this is nothing for concern, but everything to be fascinated about, so I was happy to leave the oddities within my uterus to his viewing pleasure.
After Dr. C had an enthusiastic chat to my mother about farming and talked to my son about Thomas the Tank Engine, (how many doctors do you know who will sit down in the waiting room and have a detailed conversation with a four year old about steamies vs. diesels?), we were on our way home. Via the shops of course! Now that I knew the sex of the babies, of course I had to buy them a little outfit each. Such fun!

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7 Comments

  1. This is dead-set the most interesting blog I’ve read for a while – and not because everyone else is boring (they’re not!). It’s just because nobody else I know is gestating 3 humans! Sorry everyone else, you all lose (for the moment at least.)

  2. J told me about these photos of your babies and wow, they are amazing! Congratulations to you all. I don’t even really know you and I’m SO excited for your family. All the best 🙂

  3. The shopping was fun but tiring! It was a long day all up! Totally worth it to meet my 3 newest grandchildren though!

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