What a Weekend!

I am so glad to have this weekend behind me. First of all my sweet dalmation baby Madison was put to sleep on Saturday. I've had her since I was eighteen years old, and I'm just devasted. She was the best dog and has lived everywhere with me. I even drug her to Tampa and back and she was sucj a trooper. Her health has been failing for quite some time now, and it wasn't fair to let her continue to suffer. It was such a sad moment.
Then.......if that weren't enough drama in one day, I started having contractions and some really bad back pain. So I called the doctor and he wanted to come to the hospital. Exactly what I didn't want to do. The good news was that I wasn't in labor...yet. But....the contractions kept on coming. I got my steriod shots early and they put me on a medication to try to slow down my contraction. At first, it wasn't really doing the trick, but the the Lord, late last night they subsided. They checked me again this morning and I was still dialated to 1/2 cm and 30% thinned out.
So it looks like bed rest for me :( I can go into work for short periods to do payroll, taxes, etc., but for the most part it's rest, rest. rest. As hard as it's going to be to stay off my feet and do NOTHING, I've got to keep these little angels in for 4 more weeks, hopefully. I really am thankful that I've made it this far with no complications. We have been very blessed.
I go back to the doctor on Friday for a checkup, so I'll update then.

Update and Pregnancy Pics

I went to the fetal specialist on Monday and got another great report. Thank you Lord! The babies are doing remarkably well. They are growing by leaps and bounds. Here are their current weights:

Gabe: 2lb 8oz (what a big boy)

Isabella: 2lb 5oz

Jack: 2lb 3oz

I can't believe I have that much baby in me! Poor babies are so squished.

Dr. Rosemond recommended that I go ahead with steriod shots to help their little lungs along just in case they decide to come any day now. I have been having more contractions than usual, and Monday was the first day that they were coming consistantly at 20 minutes apart. Thank God they have subsided somewhat, but I think he wants to be on the safer side. So the plan is for me to go Tuesday and Wednesday for the first rounds of steriods, then I will get one more dose when I go into labor.

So only 4 1/2 weeks til my goal of 32 weeks! Still no bedrest....WOOOHOOO!!!!!

Now, on to pregnancy pics. My sister-n-law Candice took them last weekend and did an amazing job. They are exactly what I wanted. She is an amazing photographer and has a great eye. Check out her website at http://www.candiceholcomb.com/

Not only is she good with pregnant ladies, she's great with brides and kiddos too!
I love all of them, but here are just a few of them that we picked out. Hope you like them!

Thanks Candice! What a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful photgrapher in the family! Can't wait to see what she does with my little munchkins when they get here!

I'm Gonna Miss This

Last night I was looking at some of my maternity pictures that my sister in law did, and it hit me. This is it.....this is the last time I will be pregnant. Big tears came up in my eyes and I was so sad all the sudden. I only have about six more weeks of being pregnant. I need to remember everything....every flutter, every kick, everything. Thank goodness I've been fortunate enough to have an ultrasound every two weeks, so I have a lot of pictures.

Jackson have discussed getting my tubes tied or him having the big "V", but it just seems so final. I know it seems practical for us to do that, but I would hate to regret it one day. Who knows....we may want another one in a couple of years. I don't think we would go through fertility treatment again, but who knows, I could get have a baby without it.

I have to remember, no matter how uncomfortable I am or how huge I get, I have to cherish every moment of this amazing experience and not take one day for granted.

By the way....I'll post some maternity pics soon. Candice did an amazing job!!!

My Growing Babies

I went to the doctor on Tuesday and got a great report. I'm just amazed at how these babies are growing!

Gabe is a whopping 1lb 11oz

Isabella is 1lb 9oz

Jack is 1lb 5oz

Big Boy Gabe

Miss Priss Isabella

My sweet baby Jack is getting squished on the bottom. Poor baby didn't even want his picture made, so I only have pics of Gabe and Isabella. It may have been because Isabella was actually sitting on Jack's head, so he was a little embarrassed and didn't want to show his precious face:)

How We Got Here

My last day at Dr. Slayden's(My fertility specialist)

Jackson & I knew we wanted to start a family as soon as we got married. It's not that we had trouble getting pregnant....Jackson could look at me and I would get pregnant. I just had a hard time holding on to the pregnancy. I miscarried three times in less than a year. The first two were after the babies heartbeats were detected. Unless you've gone through the loss of a pregnancy, it's hard to understand what it feels like, and it's hard for me to put it into words. I don't know how I could have gotten through it without strong faith in The Lord, my husband and my family and friends. After my third miscarriage, my doctor refered me to a fertility specialist. After extensive testing, my fertility specialist decided that fertility drugs were my best options. He wanted my body, with the help of the drugs, to produce multiple eggs in one cycle in hopes that one of the eggs would be a "good egg", and I would carry it to term. The first month of treatment, we tried Clomid. My body didn't respond the way the doctor wanted it to. I actually ovulated before any of the eggs were mature enough to be fertilized. Then, the next month, they found a cyst of one of my overies and had to postpone treatment. Ugghhh! Then, the doctor decided we should try injectables(Menopur). So here we go, a shot in my stomach every night. I didn't care..... I would do anything to get pregnant and stay that way.

Ok... the injectables did what they were supposed to do, and my eggs were ready. We decided to do IUI(intrauterine insemenation). Since I do get pregnant so easy, we wanted to try that before we resorted to in vitro.

Two and half weeks after the IUI, I got a positive pregnancy test! I was excited and scared to death. Would it work this time? I had eight eggs that were mature enough to be fertilized, surely one of them will be good. The doctor told me that he thought I would carry one, maybe two. Two loooong weeks went by, and it was finally time for our first ultrasound. How many would there be? Would this really work?

The sonographer started the ultrasound and it seemed like forever before she spoke. TRIPLETS!!!! What??? We knew there was a chance we could have multiples, but you're never really prepared for someone to tell you that your having three babies at once! All the blood had drained from Jackson's face, and tears began to fall down my face. We frantically began asking questions.....Do they all look ok? Are they measuring like they are supposed to? Are their little heartbeats strong? YES! YES! YES! More tears. The sonographer asked if I was ok. I said "It's just that, we've lost three." And she said "Well Honey...you just found 'em."
So that's it in a nut shell. That's how I got pregnant with my little miracles. Isn't amazing how God works. I lost three babies, and he gave them back to me. I was meant to be a mom of triplets.

24 weeks with triplets!

Yipeeee! The triplets are viable today! Whew! What a relief. Today I can breath a little easier because the babies can survive on their own if they decide to come early. When Dr. Leach told me we had to make it to week 24, I thought it would take forever, but it actually has gone by pretty fast. Thank you God for these three precious babies.

I've got so much to blog about, but I'm still trying to figure this thing out. I promise to keep it interesting and post lots of pictures.