Halloween "scare"

We had sort of a scare Thursday evening. I say sort of because I think it was mostly me who was scared and it wasn't that dramatic. In my defense, I must remind you that I have never been pregnant before, much less with three. Even the women I know who have children can't usually offer me too much help when I feel weird things as they also do not know what is "normal" when you have three babies swimming and growing inside of you.

So, our scare. Basically, I was feeling pain just below my chest. Not bad pain. It sort of made me feel nauseous all day, so keeping up with my calories was a chore (and probably not met). What you might not know is that below my chest are most of my internal organs. Everything is squished up in that area now in order to make room for babies, so it was a weird sort of pain to say the least. Later, I started getting sharp pains in my lower back. I understand that I will feel back pain. I have had back pain (upper actually, not lower) for quite a while. But this felt like I was being jabbed by an ice pick and it would hurt for about 5 seconds and then go away, but then come back just a few minutes later. I sat still in bed for about 15 minutes before going to "tell" Troy (OK, I cried trying to tell him). He told me to call the doctor just to make sure things were fine. I sort of have this issue with calling the doctor because I feel like crazy, paranoid pregnant lady. But everyone keeps reminding me.....THREE BABIES.....CALL.

The answering service said they would have someone call me back right away and Dr. Howard did call back within just a few minutes. He was very kind and patient with me on the phone. He explained what contractions would probably feel like (my belly would feel like my knee cap or my forehead) and said to come to the hospital if anything like that happened. Otherwise, he wanted to see me on Friday to be sure things were OK. I stayed in bed for the rest of the night and the "ice pick" pains seemed to go away after laying on my side as he had suggested.

Friday morning brought a little wait at the doctor's office, but they were eventually able to get us into a room to check my cervix (still looks beautiful at 5cm) and then we got to see the babies and they checked their heartbeats. The babies appeared to be happy as clams in there, bumping into each other, etc. It is still amazing that we can see little leg bones and their spines and all of that. It's also quite confusing to figure out who is who as they get all mixed up as the ultrasound thing passes over my belly. We got a few pics of their "halloween faces" - if you don't know what I mean, this is when they get a view of the baby's face from the front, which can look pretty scary at this point. Oh yeah, Baby A is a girl. That was a little questionable before, but seemed much more obvious yesterday.

Our buddy, Stephanie, also came in to talk with us and reminded us that our goal is to keep them in there as long as possible, so they are fine if I call everyday if I need to. She also talked a little about our upcoming goals. The timeline goes like this: 24 weeks is actually a point where they are viable, WAY too early, but still have a chance. 28 weeks is the next goal as they have a MUCH better chance of surviving if they are born then, although it would mean a lengthy stay in the NICU (intensive care unit for babies) as well. 32 weeks is even better as their lungs will be more developed and the NICU stay would be much shorter, etc. MY goal is 34 weeks. From what I've read, many triplets have even gone home with mom, or within a week of their birth when they can make it to 34 weeks. Sort of a "lofty" goal, but what can I say, I want to avoid the NICU if possible. I'd take anything between 32-34 weeks, but I'm hoping for 34 weeks.

In light of those "goals", I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask for anyone interested to specifically pray that we get past 24 weeks for right now. OK, maybe be specific and ask for 28 weeks, at least. We've gotten this far and we intend to get as far as we can. We really do appreciate your prayers and all of the support we have received from family and friends during our journey so far....and the fun is just beginning. :)