Tuesday 28 February 2012

Not your average cucumber

26 weeks today. The babies are, apparently, the size of hothouse cucumbers. Very specific isn't it? Not your average cucumber - oh no! The babies are supposed to be 14 inches long. I have just measured that out and that's big! Especially if you have 3 in there.

Survival rates are up to 78% now and our risk of disability has halved from 40% last week to 20%. 2 more weeks and all the risks become pretty tiny. No signs yet that they are likely to come any time soon.

The babies must be pretty excited about all this because they were kicking up a storm this morning. I have an app (the one obsessed with vegatables) that lets you count kicks. You aim to get 10 kicks in a 2 hour period. This morning I could've hit that in about a minute!

And here, especially for Lynn, is a picture of me at 23 weeks. I'll get another taken soon. I'm a bit bigger now...

Monday 20 February 2012

What on earth is rutabaga?

I'm a lady of leisure now I've finished work. I've managed to fill the first week up quite successfully, with people coming to quote on paving so we can park our giant car when we get it, St Lukes coming to pick up books and bric a brac plus a coffee with the other multiples mummies from our hospital course.

I have become obsessed with dust. Well I have started to notice it which is obsessed as far as I am concerned! I have a feeling I'd better crack on with organising things because soon I may be unable to move about much. Matt continues to tell me to rest and I continue to try despite thinking 'Oh I'll just do that...'

Today we had another scan and the babies are doing really well.
Girl baby - 1lb 6
Littlest boy - 1lb 3
Biggest boy - 1lb 9
The girl and little boy have put on 4 oz in 2 weeks and the bigger boy has put on 6!

Consultant is very happy with how things are going and is now talking about aiming delivery for 34 weeks rather than the 30 weeks he was saying before. 34 weeks would be great as the babies should (hopefully) only need to stay in hospital a few weeks. 34 weeks puts us to nearly the end of April - that's a LOT of belly growing for me. More reason to crack on with the sorting.

My blood pressure is still staying super low, which is great, especially as parking around the hospital is a nightmare! Next appointment is the 7th March and the week after I have to repeat the lovely gestational diabetes test. In between I will rest whilst sorting out the babies room.

Tomorrow is 25 weeks and according to the latest UK figures (that I could find) survival rates go up from 45% last week to 67%. The vegetable representation of our babies size is now rutabaga. I am now off to google rutabaga.

Oh its a swede/turnip!

Tuesday 14 February 2012

24 Weeks

Today we hit 24 weeks. This means that if the babies come today they'd have a 45% chance of survival. This is up from 15% last week!

It keeps going up week by week now up to 90% by 28 weeks. So that's the next big target.

It also happens to be Valentine's Day so Matt and I have a lovely evening planned - rib eye steak and chips then hopefully one of the babies will be good and kick daddy again.

I have a pregnancy app that every week compares the size of the babies to a fruit or vegetable. Last week each baby was a large mango. This week corn on the cob! I'm presuming they mean length rather than width.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Shopping!

We agreed not to start shopping until I hit 24 weeks (viability). However I found a bargain.

There are 3 options for triplet buggy.
1) They are all next to each other - doesn't go through doors
2) They are in front of each other - doesn't corner well
3) There are 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top

We decided no.3 was the best option but unfortunately this type is only made in New Zealand and costs £1000 new. Luckily I managed to find one secondhand for £350. As you can see it is quite large.

I might take the top seat off and carry one in a sling for a while - just so I can see what's coming! Matt loves that it is in camoflage fabric whereas I think it is ugly as hell - but hey its saved us loads!

Early Feb we had another scan. Still no sign of twin to twin so the doc thinks we have dodged that bullet. They also estimated the weights.

Baby girl - 1lb 2
Twin 1 - 1lb 3
Twin 2 - 15oz

The first two babies are average size for single babies! Twin 2 is smaller and we need to keep an eye on him. Doc says as long as the size difference doesn't get worse its fine.

We also got a better pic of the girl baby.

As the pics get clearer and we get closer to 24 weeks it really starts to look like this might actually happen - these babies wriggling in my belly we might get to cuddle one day.

January

Just after Christmas we went for another scan and got pics of the babies. Still no signs of twin to twin.

Early January we went to Oxford for a posh weekend away - we figured we probably won't be doing that for a while. We stayed at the 5* Hotel - The Randolph.

At our evening meal we discussed and agreed names. We still didn't know what gender the bonus baby was.

The hospital organised two Saturdays of training for parents expecting multiples. We found it really useful. The first covered delivery options (no options for us - it'll be a caeserean) and a tour of the special baby care unit. We know our babies will end up in there so it was good to see what it was like.

I thought it'd be like ER with doctor running around everywhere, lots of beeping and lights flashing. As usual I was being far too imaginative and actually it was very quiet and chilled. I feel a lot better about them being in there now.

The second week was about feeding and caring for your babies. Matt got 10/10 for baby dressing - I was so proud! And I got to play with a knitted boob and try to figure out how to feed more than 1 baby.


How weird is that? Anyway everyone was else was JUST having twins so we are the freaks even in the freak show! I am getting used to this.
 
Then at the end of January we had our 20 week scan - it took ages as they had to do a structural scan of each baby and its quite a tangle in there. Mr Johki told us our bonus baby was 'A girl - or a very disappointed boy.' Hurrah!

15 weeks scan

So it was with some trepidation we approached the next scan in December, wondering what we would see. Turned out this time the nucal fold was fine on all babies. Doc suggested amnio to rule out any genetic abnomalities.

They say amnio is just like getting a blood test. They lie! It's more like a massive needle going into your belly and because the twins were wiggling they had to do it twice! Matt held my hand and stopped me looking at the needle. Apparently it was huge!

Afterwards I had a fluid leak, possibly amniotic fluid, and was told to rest for a few days. I barely moved and eventually they rang with the results. I got to ring Matt on his Christmas Do (he'd stayed sober in case he had to come home) 'Twins are fine! You can drink.' I told him, 'And you are having twin sons!' We were both pretty choked up with happiness.

We had another scan and this time there was no doom or gloom. The babies were all looking well and there was no sign of Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome.

We had a great Christmas!

NHS Scan - 11 Weeks

So finally we could put our cheque book away and let the NHS take the strain. It was a relief as apparently babies can cost a bit so we figured we might need to save.

Our consultant at Jessops is Mr Jokhi. He's really nice, if a little doom ladened. First scan with him he saw that there was a membrane between the twins - phew! That was a great relief. He then told us the next thing to worry about was Twin to Twin Tranfusion Syndrome - where the flow of blood from the placenta can be too much to one twin and too little to another. 'If you get to 24 weeks without that we can rule that out' he said. More waiting.

Bad news was that he checked the babies nucal folds (a sign of Downs) and one twin had a thicker than normal fold. As the other twin didn't he thought it might be that one wasn't growing right - structural issues.

7 week scan

The next week we went back for another scan. I was still feeling utterly exhausted and sick. I was actually only sick twice - once when I had far too many chips and once when we went to see Othello at the Crucible - it was no comment on the acting!

The scan showed them all growing well. The consultant was still worried about the twins being monoamniotic so he referred us to the NHS.

In the meantime Matt ran the Great Yorkshire Run 10k with his friend Bex. Being a hormonal sort I got teary just watching him run past! As my Mum said 'Fancy someone in our family running!'

6 week scan

At 6 weeks pregnant we paid for a private scan to see what was going on. Matt kept joking that I was having a 'litter.' He was convinced there were 8 babies in there.

The consultant started the scan and immediately this appeared.
It was quite clear that there was more than 1 sac. Hmmm...was Matt right? The consultant said 'The left hand sac is larger but I think there's only one in there. I can clearly see an embryo in the right hand one. Oh hang on! There's 2 in the left. It's triplets.'

Oh my god! To say it was a shock is an understatement. The consultant was sure that they wouldn't all last and was also worried that the identical twins in one sac didn't have a membrane between them (monozygotic monoamniotic) - this was bad as once they grow they can tangle in each others umbilical cord. We were told that we wouldn't find out for sure until later.

Positive!

It was on the way home from Marbella that I thought maybe something was going on. I felt very dizzy and tired - something that was going to last for quite a long time! Matt was great, carrying all the bags and checking I was ok.

A week or so later we had a HCG pregnancy test. The consultant told us that anything over 25 you were pregnant, under 85 they wanted another test to ensure it had taken ok. He rang me at work and I stood in someone elses office as he told me that my result was 172! 'It might be multiples' he said...

A New Hope

So hello and welcome to our new blog. The idea behind it is that lots of people are interested in the forthcoming triplets and this way we can keep everyone up to date whilst still having time to do all that baby stuff people keep warning me about.

The first few posts will just catch you up with what's been going on.

So Matt and I were trying for kids for ages. It was getting quite annoying and expensive. I discovered that IVF in Spain costed less than in the UK, had better success rates and involved a holiday. We were both sold on this idea - our last try - and in September 2011 flew off to Marbella.

Marbella - A lot nicer than we thought it'd be!
Marbella was not what I expected at all. I thought it'd be all chavs and english chip shops. Instead its quite posh and chilled. We got a flat overlooking the beach, played a lot of Scrabble and Matt sunbathed. I remember doing yoga that first morning, listening to the waves on the shore and I got this overwhelming feeling 'This is going to completely change your life.' How right that was!