And the magic number is...

28! We had our weekly doctors visit this morning (Friday) with Dr. Zaretsky. Katie is now 27.5 weeks along and he told us this morning that once triplet pregnancies reach 28 weeks the statistics show that the there is a 95% survivability rate for the babies! We're almost there!


The babies looked great, the heartbeats were the just the same as last week, the fluid in the placenta's looked just fine and the cord blood flow on all of the babies was still very good. The doctors words were "I am very reassured." If he's reassured, we're reassured!! I'll tell you that! We didn't do measurements or the all so important cervix check today, just heartbeats, fluid and cord flow.


During part of the exam we were able to see Baby A (girl) yawn, open her mouth and see her tongue, really amazing! We were also checking for the mimicing of breathing, which the Dr. said that he has been before during our visits but just never said anything. Its important to see this in the womb, that means that the babies are getting ready to breathe on their own outside the womb. It is really just complete craziness in there, before I used to be able to keep track of what we were looking at on the ultrasounds, but now I think we are looking at heads when its really an abdomen, etc.! Oh well!




The picture above is of Baby C, good little look at his face in the 4D image. We're going to get measurements again in about 2.5 weeks, our Doc is going on vacation and we are going to wait till he gets back to do it again. Katie is doing great, she is just eating her brains out and resting during day trying to take it easy. She is starting to get a bit uncomfortable and finding a good sitting position is getting to be a challenge. I am so proud of her, she is doing so great taking the iron supplements and all the other vitamins and stuff she is taking on top of everything else going on! Taking the time off work has been a good thing as well, a quick errand that anyone else would think routine, just zaps her energy and she's done.


We took the plunge today (Saturday) and bought the cribs for the babies and the mattresses. We worked over Babies R Us like a bad habit! Long story but in the end we were able to get a 35% discount off everything we bought! We saved a TON of money by buying a bunch of stuff at once and being smart with coupons and multiples discounts, etc.

We picked out this crib for our little girl, http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3012845&isTopSellingItem=true

The boys are getting this crib, http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3012755

I am pretty sure that they will love them! :) We are going to set up one crib in our room so they can sleep all together in the same crib till they get too antsy, then they will go upstairs to their own crib in the upstairs nursery. It's starting to come together!


I can't remember where it was or in what context I heard it, but in the last week I heard someone mention how fortunate and how powerful it is to know that you are on the receiving end of prayers from so many people. I thought to myself, "Holy cow, isn't that the truth!" it is so humbling and overwhelming honestly. I knew EXACTLY how that person felt and I feel it everyday. Katie and I both know that these three little twerps are going to be a handful and a ton of work for both of us, but we feel so blessed to have the opportunity to bring them into the world and our lives. Other folks are not so lucky, unfortunately. I mention this because we want everyone to know how much we appreciate their thoughts and prayers and that we (all 5 of us!) feel them in our hearts everyday... Thank you again.


We hope this note finds everyone safe, happy and well!


Love,


Todd & Katie

Quick post blog update!

Quick little update...

Our OBGYN just called (Saturday afternoon at 12:30pm) and she just got the report from yesterday from Dr. Zaretsky, she was calling to check up as she is going on vacation this week and wanted to give us contact info, etc. She was very supportive and reassuring, letting us know that increased visits is not major cause for concern and that keeping an eye on the cord flow is a good thing. It was very good for Katie to hear from her and get some positive feedback and reassurance that everything is going to be OK.

Katie did her gestational diabetes (sp?) test last week on Thursday and it came back "perfect" with a number of 106. No gestational diabetes! One less thing to worry about. Her iron levels in her blood had also gone up since her last blood test, she is one double iron supplements and has been for about a month now since Katie's iron was showing up low previously.

Good news is great to hear! Katie has really been putting down the groceries since yesterday afternoon that is for sure! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Love,

Todd and Katie

Things get a bit interesting...

Hello, hope all is well with everyone!  This morning Katie and I had our appointment with our High Risk OBGYN or Periantologist, overall and we both believe that things will be fine in the long run, but we had a bit of a curve ball.  During these visits they take all these measurements of the babies, brain, skull, abdomen, femur, arm bones, etc. and they plug them into the ultrasound machine and the computer generates estimated sizes and weights based on the measurements.  They do this for all three babies, then at the end of the visit we look and see how they are doing.

During today's visit after all the measurements, the Girl, Baby A is showing growth that is behind where she should be at this point and she is smaller than the two other boys.  That is the not so good news.  The good news is that the heartbeats are still great, about 145bpm for all babies, the fluid in all the placentas is great and there is very good cord flow from each of the babies to their placenta.  Baby A's cord flow is still very good, her heartbeat is fine and the placenta is holding up great as well, so we just have a little growth issue nothing else real medically going on, which is great.

Katie is doing great, her blood pressure was 120/78 and her cervix is still at 38cm which again is cementing her crown as the Cervix Queen!  She has only gained 5 pounds so far and we need to get some weight on her and get some more caloric intake.  That may help Baby A grow a little bit and get bigger, so we are concentrating on getting as much food and as many calories as we can in her to put on some weight, the babies are just taking it all out of her!  Katie is working on getting 3-4 Carnation Instant Breakfasts in her routine each day to increase the calorie intake.  She can do it!

The doctor was a bit concerned and cautious, but not yet to the worried stage.  We have been going back to him every three weeks, that is now going to once a week at his office to look at the cord flow and the fluid.  If the cord flow in Baby A drops it could lead to a hospitalization situation, then Katie would be checked and measured on a daily basis instead of weekly.  Right now the flow is good, no problems but hospitalization could occur down the road.  We're shooting to get these kids to 34-36 weeks which would be the middle of July so we have a little ways to go.

On another subject, the progress in the nursery has increased substantially!  The painting is complete, the changing table is assembled, the ceiling fan is hung, the quilt is on the wall and Katie's chair and ottoman has arrived and is in place!  Paul helped me a ton this week when he and Judy were in town. Never underestimate the delight of Judy Branches homemade beef and chicken enchiladas! WOW!  They really have no idea how much their assistance helped us out, we are both very grateful.  Here are some pictures of the nursery in its current form, Katie is in charge of getting stuff on the walls.  We are considering some shelving on a wall somewhere to hold and keep stuff organized.

Please continue to keep Katie and the babies in your thoughts and prayers!  We are in for some ups and downs before and after the babies are born and we are working on getting prepared for those.   We hope this note finds everyone well!  Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!

Love,

Todd and Katie

Busy week!

We've made it into Week 25, time is really starting to FLY by! Katie is now off of work completely, last Thursday was her last day, so this week was her first full week at home. She is resting as much as she can, only taking short errand trips out of the house.

We went to the doctor this week on Thursday, we had a baby shower at my office this afternoon so we moved the appointment to Thursday. The doctors appt. went fine. Katies blood pressure was just perfect 110/70 and the babies looked great with their heartbeats all between 145 and 150, which is just fine. We go to our High Risk OBGYN next week Friday for another look and another round of measurements and weights on the babies.

The downstairs nursery is finally painted. It really about killed me! The second coat of paint was not mixed properly and when I went over the first coat with the second gallon of paint it was a shade lighter than the first. That meant that coat number three had to be done! Melinda Thornton our neighbor came over on Tuesday and we both got it knocked out in an hour or so, it looks great! We are getting new and better carpet in the nursery on Monday morning, the carpet in there now was screwed up by our dogs, don't ask. I've got the new changing table assembled, that was a thrill, next comes the hutch that goes on top. I bought a ceiling fan, I need to that up there too. It's coming along, I'll post some pics when I get it done.

We had a real nice baby shower at my office this afternoon, it was great for Katie to see everyone again. We are both blessed to have wonderful, generous and caring co-workers!

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers. Katie and I are sometimes just overwhelmed at the amazing gift that we have been blessed with, we are both getting so excited. We hope that this note finds everyone safe, healthy and well! Till next week!!

Todd and Katie

The Countdown Continues! 24 Weeks!

Hello, friends and family! We are in the middle of week 24 and things are still going very well!

Katie's last day at work was yesterday! After our visit to the Dr. last week she really was in favor of her winding things down at work. The commute to and from work and the stress at work along with being pregnant, it was just getting to be too much. Her principal and school staff were very supportive and she is now just taking it easy at home. No bed rest or anything like that yet but "modified recliner rest" is certainly in order!

We had a doctors visit with our regular OBGYN this afternoon. We got a good look at the babies, the heartbeats were great and they were just all mixed up in there! They all had just shifted around up and down from just last week! Katies blood pressure was awesome as well at 110/70. It wouldn't be a complete update if we didn't mention the CERVIX! As last week, it is holding up great and there are no signs of any weakening which is fantastic! Dr. Limo was very impressed and just real happy with the visit. We go back to her next Thursday for another check up.

After our visit today, the Dr. walked us over to the NICU unit at Lewisville Medical Center. We first checked out the labor and delivery unit and the rooms, etc. Pretty nice, huge rooms, WiFi, etc. the TV in there was like a 13 inch, how lame! We then went over to the NICU and checked that out. We had to do the FULL wash and scrub up before going in, the place looked very well organized and was very interesting. There were two babies in there that were 26 weeks old. WOW, wow... Just amazing how small those babies are. Quite humbling. They looked to be doing real well actually but they were just so tiny and it really hit home how important it is to keep the babies inside Katie as long as possible! The NICU was set up real well and was very organized and was well staffed with nurses, those folks were real nice. We were both real glad we had a chance to check it out and see the stuff behind the scenes.

We are so blessed and thankful for the wonderful gift that we have been entrusted with. Katie and the babies are doing so well. I am so proud of her! I am climbing the ladder tomorrow to paint the downstairs nursery, I'll post some pictures when I get it done. Thank you for the continued prayers, thoughts and support, we appreciate them all! Till next week!

Love,

Todd and Katie

Cervix of Steel!!

Hello! I am sure everyone is familiar with legs of steel, back of steel and even perhaps buns of steel but Katie has officially earned the distinction of having a CERVIX OF STEEL!! We had two doctors appointments yesterday, it was a busy day to say the least! The picture above is of Baby A, the girl, it is the first decent shot we have been able to get of her face. She is low and right next to Katie's cervix, often times with her back to us. Yesterday she was in there breech with her butt pressing against Katie's cervix.

We went to our first appointment in the morning with Dr. Limoscenero, we were a tad concerned because Katie had lost 5 pounds in the past two weeks. The doctor wasn't too worried though. Since we were going in the afternoon for measurements and stuff on the babies, we did not do a sonogram, we essentially just took vitals and visited about her pregnancy. Katie's blood pressure has remained EXCELLENT throughout the pregnancy, her blood pressure yesterday was 110/70, which is important because high blood pressure can lead to complications, early delivery, etc. We also discussed her work and personal schedule, the doctor is concerned about getting her off her feet and eating more each day and eating healthy meals. I was surprised when she told us that at 23 weeks with triplets, Katie already has the uteran mass of a woman pregnant 40 weeks and full term, wow! We were going to go on a tour of the NICU but the Dr. had a flight to catch and she asked if we could postpone it till next week.

In the afternoon we went to see Dr. Zaretsky, we told him about the weight loss and he wasn't concerned either. He just stressed eating healthy meals on a consistant basis to keep her weight up. He checked out all the babies and they looked really great! Baby A (girl) is 1lb 1oz, Baby B 1lb 6oz and Baby C is 1lb 2oz. Heartbeats were 144, 144 and 153. The normal range is between 100 and 160, so all the hearts are doing great. The key thing that he was looking for yesterday was cord blood flow, all three babies had VERY strong cord flow, which meant that they were getting ample nutrients and the blood was flowing great to and from each placenta. The doctor was very pleased with everything he saw, this guy is such a straight shooter and very, very cool if there were anything to worry about he would put it right out there. Actually, he told us yesterday that if there were going to be major complications with the pregnancy it would be very likely that we would already be seeing some signs of that happening and we're not, so that is great. All three babies were very active in there too, actually more active than he normally sees, which is great!

During the cervical exam, he was very, very happy with they way her cervix is holding up. There are NO signs of "funneling" or weakening of the cervix. He pushed down on her stomach and her cervix just stayed just as it was, no weakness! If there is weakness in the cervix that can lead to pre-term labor, etc. not good. The doctor said, "Wow, you have the cervix of steel"! I thought, "Brilliant! That is going to be the title of our blog this week!" Ta da!



This image is of Baby C, with his little arm and hand up to his head. He was just ALL OVER THE PLACE in there yesterday and it was real hard just to get this image. The doctor takes these pictures "real time" so you have to catch them just at the right moment in order to get a good view. There was too much craziness going on in front of Baby B yesterday so we could get any good shots of him.

I am going to paint the downstairs nursery next weekend, Katie picked out a real nice light blue-ish color. We got a nice changing table and hutch last week and we are on a hunt for glider for the room. We're going to get a new ceiling fan in there and also hang an old quilt that Katie got from her old Voca/Mason days. I keep promising her that I'll have everything set and ready! No problem!

We are doing great and getting real excited. We continue to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers! They are obviously working! We both hope that everyone is doing well, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Todd and Katie