Queen of the Juggle

We don’t have a doctor appointment until July 16, so no photos of the boys this time. Chip has been really busy putting together pack ‘n plays and we’ve been washing all the new gifts from the shower. We also received a glider rocker so Chip has that on his agenda to put together this week as well.

I am still working full time at home and sleeping less and less at night. I must say I’m not making life very fun for the rest of the folks in the house. Despite being VERY excited for these babies, my whole body just really hurts, especially the underside of my stomach. Chip gets to enjoy me tossing and turning throughout the night. He always asks what he can do, but there’s not really much. The end result is that I am crabby sometimes and everyone feels it. I just keep apologizing. Both of the girls have stepped up so much and are doing a lot more around the house. Chip is a champ too and does all the running for the girls as well as taking good care of me.

I’m still working, just working exclusively at home. I’m putting my plan for leave together and need to get it to my boss by Friday. It’s hard to leave my little work babies too, but will be one less thing to worry about. I’m torn about how long to work. It keeps my mind busy, which is very good, but it wears me out some days. I’m going to keep going as long as I can, not sure how long that will be.

I’ll post new ultrasound photos as well as new information that we learn at the next appointment.

Chris and Daniel are headed over this weekend to paint the nursery and next week Chip’s sister Bunny is coming out to visit from Florida and help us get ready with more painting and organizing. Our list of items to be done is everything from changing faucets in our upstairs bath to repainting Gillian’s old room which has become out guest/help bedroom. Right now it’s very pink and I hope to tone that down a bit. We’d also like to get the upstairs bathroom painted as well. We’ll need to put another crib together and pick up a third. Still so much to do, not sure how much time we have to do it before these boys show up.

We learned we will be delivering across town in Summerlin and I am trying to get a tour of the NICU, but apparently it’s a popular place. July is already full and August isn’t open yet. I’d like to take a look before there are wires and machines all over the boys (hopefully that won’t be needed) and we are freaking out because we don’t know what anything is.

I’m still at a weight gain of only 20 lbs. but feel huge. I’ll have Chip take some more belly pictures and post those soon. All of us are enjoying the baby kicks all day long too. The babies are more and more active. It’s just amazing that I can feel so much.

We’ll post again soon.

Went to the doctor today and babies are doing great! The photo is of all 3 babies. My cervix length is back to 3 cm, which is very good. Who knew it could contract and expand??? Dr. Bohman says we need to keep doing what we’re doing and that means not much for me. Our doc is optimistic that we can make it to 33 weeks. WOO HOO!!! That will be a projected delivery date of around September 6. It makes me so happy that we are doing the things we need to do to ensure these little monkeys are born as late as possible. Dr. Bohman indicated that we’ll go as long as we can unless someone (either me or one of them) gets distressed or becomes ill. Chip and I also learned today that we will be delivering most likely at Summerlin Hospital, which has the best level III NICU in Las Vegas. It’s 45 minutes away from here, but they need that care and can get it up there. I’ve heard great things about the hospital facility, so that makes me feel good too.

I also weighed in today. I’ve gained approximately 20 pounds. According to the books and advice we’ve been given, this isn’t nearly enough. Ideally, I would have gained 40 pounds by now. Babies are growing great, so the doctor told us not to worry. So now at 20 pounds with the pregnancy, at almost 6 months, I weigh and am as big as when I delivered Kaitlyn at full term. Amazing! My belly is so rock hard sometimes, I wonder how they have room in there! We are both so grateful that everyone is so healthy and doing so well, but I wonder what this body of mine will look like after we’re all done. That’s a problem I’m fine with having!

This was the visit prior to our “LAST VACATION” to Hawaii. I thought it would be quite an extensive appointment, but it was about the same as any other. We learned that we are having 3 BOYS!!! We are so excited that all seems to be good. 10 fingers and toes each, the head and abdominal measures look great. When they told us the first 2 were boys I was so excited. When the 3rd one turned out to be a boy too I just stunned! Wow…3 boys. I think it will be great. Since we have Kaitlyn and Gillian, I am happy that the sexes are different. No competition between 2 sets of girls. That works for me. I’m also happy to have a change of pace with Legos and GI Joe, rather than gathering more girlie stuff. The girls really enjoy the makeup and glitter. I’m looking forward to dirt, trucks and sports equipment. The girls are really excited about their brothers on the way. So with the happy news, we hopped a jet to Oahu and then the big Island 2 days later. It was a fabulous vacation, full of great food and beautiful scenery. Everything was really great until our return to the mainland. We had an 11 p.m. flight from Kona to Las Vegas via LAX…never do this if you don’t have to. We started our journey home with me being seriously tired. The last few days of the vacation I learned that my belly was growing and that it is time to slow down. I had had some belly pain if I walked a lot. It had been somewhat intermittent depending on if I had walked a lot or sat in one position for a time. Anyway, we got on the plane and sat right behind a very sick gentleman who vomited repeatedly for the 5 hour trip. So with the noise and full, hot plane, we did not enjoy our trip home, nor did we get any sleep. We thought our last trip to the islands was bad, well…this trip positively blew it away. Then we arrived at LAX and found we needed to change terminals and that meant leaving security and shuttling over. My belly ached from being on the plane and it became more intense with every step at LAX. I was almost in tears from being in pain and tired. So as soon as we touched down in Vegas we called Dr. Bohman and talked to him about the pain. We had an appointment to see them that same day anyway, so they told us to go home and rest and come back for our appointment. The appointment was quick, but I was really weepy and tired. Dr. Bohman thinks my pain is coming from muscle stretching that will not change, but get worse with time. I’m frustrated by this news, but try to keep in mind that it’s for a good cause.

We also successfully came up with 3 names that we like…..drum roll please…..the names for the boys so far will be: Gary Charles in honor of our dads, Benjamin Isaac, and Ryan Thomas. The last 2 names are ones we came up with based on Chip’s opinion and talking to friends and family. I like the names, but am not crazy about Benjamin. I really like Ben much more. Time will tell.

This is the end of the our road with Nevada Fertility Cares (NFC). Dr. Littman who helped us initially who left on maternity leave saw us for our last appointment. There was some inkling that maybe we could see boy parts, but no firm confirmation….Wayyyy too early. Babies look great, growing well.

It has been an incredible journey with the NFC. We came to them in August of 2006, after a very negative experience at the Sher Institute of Reproductive Medicine with Dr. Fisch. The difference between the offices was like night and day. With Sher we felt like we were in a people mill, and everyone was treated exactly the same. It was pure timing and medication as far as they were concerned. In fact, we missed one cycle because the doctor was in Europe. No one else could ever do an ultrasound for us if the doctor wasn’t in. We wasted almost a year there and Chip and I both wondered why it would be acceptable to be treated as an object and have only 5 to 10 minutes with a specialty doctor that most people are paying cash for. It’s sad really. So we turned to Nevada Fertility cares, who has been a breath of fresh air. People knew us by name almost immediately. They really listened to what our experiences had been and offered far less expensive options that we could try. They also introduced us to to Dave Tiemann who is a holistic medicine specialist. We began to incorporate Qi Gong and other lifestyle changes like eating all organic, taking vitamin supplements and focusing on life balance. At Sher, there was no mention of lifestyle impact. One small example…we’d go to Sher for the insemination and then head to Starbucks for some coffee. We learned from Dave that caffeine can cause miscarriage in early pregnancy. Not only did Dave help us in our general everyday lives, but he helped us learn more about environmental impacts from food and chemicals in the home to stress. While we did have initial failures, both Chip and I feel that Dave really helped us focus on the whole picture so we could be well prepared for IVF as well as just improve our lives. So not only did we achieve some great lifestyle advice, we also came away with baby success via the IVF process. The best part was that unlike most, all of our treatment was covered under my Cigna insurance.

We will be moving on to Dr. Bohman at Desert Perinatology. We met him on April 6. We also met Lori who is a genetic specialist. She spoke to us first about what our numbers look like for having babies with down syndrome or other chromosomal defects. She also spoke to us about various tests that we could do to see what the outcomes would be. Neither Chip nor I thought we would do any of them.

Then we met Dr. Bohman at Desert Perinatology, who is fantastic. We decided Dr. Bohman would be our primary caregiver during the remainder of the pregnancy. It is a relief, since the blood work that I did at Dr. Torres couldn’t make it 5 miles up the road to Dr. Bohman’s office. I got to do that fun again. At least the pap smear results were finally sent over. I told Dr. Bohman that I just wouldn’t do that again. Once a year is enough! So we worked out those details. The first bit of news we learned was that Dr. Bohman wanted us to go for a cerclage, which is a purse string/draw string stitch in the cervix to keep it closed to keep these 3 babies inside as long as possible. The doctor gave us an target delivery of 34 to 36 weeks for delivery, which would be about September 13. The date sounded promising for babies to not be in the NICU too long. I am a big scaredy cat about medical procedures, so I wasn’t very excited to hear about this upcoming procedure that would need to be done between 12 and 14 weeks. We scheduled it at Siena Hospital on April 23. That gave me 3 weeks to bite all my nails down to nubs and fret about what the experience would be like.