A long week

I figured I would put a picture up so you could see my belly. Almost 10 weeks.

This last week was the first week back to school. It was a long week, as most first weeks are. I have found myself exhausted at the end of the day. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who is taking care of everything at the house. He forces me to go lay down when I get home and rest.

At school I find myself getting out of breath when reading a book to the kids. I also find myself standing more than I should but I am hoping as the students get into the routine of the day I won't have to as much. But its hard when you are teaching 6 year olds...I seem to always be putting out "fires".

Some coworkers have made comments about how I am starting to show...and they are right. I can barely fit into my jeans and pants anymore so I went shopping this morning at Motherhood. I got a few essentials that I will probably being wearing every week but I know that fall and "winter" are coming so I didn't want to buy too much and I figured that when I am closer to delivery I won't even be able to fit into maternity clothes.

Monday I will be 10 weeks, I can't wait to get to the 2nd trimester so my nausea will stop and I can start enjoying food again!

Working again

Last week I started back to work. I was a little worried about how I would feel and how I would get to eat when I needed to. But for the most part I felt okay, some days better than others and I really didn't get that hungry between meals. School officially stars Monday and I'm a little nervous because I will be teaching 1st grade for the first time and I am a bit nervous about how I will feel, especially being on my feet all day training 6 year olds on how to act and what to do.

I joined a multiples support group in the Austin area through www.austinmoms.org. I haven't done much w/ them yet other than look at some forums and classifieds. In October they are having a big children's resale sale which I am looking forward too. I hope to find lots of stuff for cheap! Buying 3 or everything expensive is not going to be easy.

My sister also emailed me and told me that her brother in-law that lives in Austin is friends w/ a guy who owns a baby store that just went out of business and he is trying to get rid of everything for cheap. We are going to check that out next week. Hopefully there will be some good deals.

Last week Keith saw a jogging stroller at a garage sale and he went and bought it. It was a single stroller but it was only 15 bucks and in good shape. He would really like to get a 2 or 3 seater...but that may have to wait.

We were reading a blog of another couple who has triplets and they were talking about premaking bottles. They said they would always keep three days worth in the fridge and that added up to be....90 bottles!! That is a lot of bottles! If we do that then we might need another fridge and a bottle donation day.

Monday I will be 9 weeks and on the verge of buying maternity clothes. They say w/ triplets you are 10 extra weeks bigger than a lady caring one. So I guess that means I appear as if I were 19 weeks along.

Next doctores appt Sept 7.

Baby Daddy Update

This is Keith, and I have hijacked Stephanie's blog. I may do this from time to time, especially when she is not feeling well so that we can keep the updates coming. So, here are my thoughts:

**After our first sonogram when we found out we were having triplets, Steph and I both called our parents. My folks didn't believe me, so I had to put Stephanie on the phone (I guess they trust her). When Steph told her mom, Barbara just said "You know God is not going to give ya'll more than you can handle." Steph's immediate response was "Well, He sure does think an awful lot of us." That's classic Stephanie! The truth is Stephanie is going to be a terrific mother. Since the moment I met her, I have known this. There is no doubt about it, these three babies are going to have the best mother a kid could have.

**We are fortunate that my former youth minister Lance Morrisett and his wife Jennifer recently had beautiful healthy quadruplets. (read their story here) They have already offered to help us out in a number of ways, but most importantly they have offered their prayers and advice. One of the big things Lance recommended to me was that we buy the book When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads by Dr. Barbara Luke. Steph and I have both been reading through the book, and I have to say it is absolutely fascinating. Here are a few things we have learned so far that I find really interesting:
--The male's family history has no bearing on the chances of having multiples.
--Two factors that have had an impact on the rising rate of multiples are: infertility drugs and women becoming pregnant later in life
--While only 1/3 of women of singletons experience nausea during pregnancy, more than half of mothers of multiples experience it
--Being pregnant with triplets, Steph will need to consume 4,000 calories per day to meet her nutrient requirements
--Ice cream is a perfectly okay for a pregnant mother, especially before bed (dairy products are digested more slowly so they help prevent hunger pangs during the night).
--And, this is the best--during weeks 7 and 8, the babies eyes develop and become pigmented. They also start to develop fingers, ears and toes. I get really excited when I think about this!!

Hungry

I am hungry all the time and the worst part is w/ my nasua nothing sounds good. I have to eat every few hours and even at night I wake up and have to go eat or my stomach feels like its going to eat itself.

My favorite thing to eat is turkey sandwhiches however the Doctor said I can not have deli meat. That was a bummer. But we went and bought a roast chicken and cut it up. That works just as well if not better.

My next favorite thing to eat is yogurt! I can go through a 2lb container in 2 days.

I also like Honey Nut Cheerios w/o milk. I feel like a kid eating them like that but they are good and don't hurt my tummy.

Welp, time to eat again...the wombmates are hungry.

7 week dr. visit

Tuesday we went back to the doctor to get another sonogram. This time we heard all 3 heart beats and everything look good.

We then went and talked to the nurse and then the doctor. Lots of information taken in! The doctor came in and started talking to us and I broke down and started crying. This is real and it is scary. I have to keep reminding myself that God doesn't give us more than we can handle and he will provide.

I told my principal today and broke down in her office too. She was very reassuring, encouraging, and understanding. I wasn't sure how she would take it...especially when I told her I would probably have to go on bed rest in December and they were due until late March. But she told me not to worry and we will get to that when the time comes. She made me feel a lot better!

The doctor gave me some medicine for my nausea and it seems to work but makes me VERY tired. I feel like I have slept all day and still feel pretty groggy. That won't do but neither will nausea.

Uh oh

Keith and I were pretty excited to find out we were pregnant. I didn't think I was at all. My basal temp chart was all over the place and I had no symptoms. Keith really wanted me to take a pregnancy test and I told him I would if he would go get them. It was still a few days before my period was supposed to show up and I didn't want to waste the money on them if I wasn't pregnant. However I thought it would be pretty funny for Keith to go buy a pregnancy test...just because it made him uncomfortable. Well it was positive...I took a few more through out the week to make sure.

About a week later we took a cruise to Cozumel w/ some couples from our bible study. It will probably be our last vacation for quiet a while. On the Cruise I noticed that the thought of food made me nauseous. But if you have ever been on a cruise its all you can eat. I wasn't sure if it was the cruise or me being preggo causing that. A few nights into the cruise I started spotting pretty heavily. By this time I was about 6 weeks. We scheduled a sonogram as soon as we returned.

Me and Keith were both pretty nervous...it took us along time to get pregnant and we didn't want anything to be wrong. As the lady was looking into the black and white mess she said "oh! Do you want to know how many?" My thought was "no!, I want one". Keith was crossing his fingers it wouldn't be 8. When she said 3...the blood drained out of my face and all I could think was how were we going to do this. Keith laughed, he was excited!

We have told a few people and our family and everyone is very excited! I still can't believe it. I've never really been around babies much and I don't consider myself to be a baby person but I guess I am about to learn.

Right now we are praying for:
healthy babies,
me to get over this nauseousness before school begins,
and for Keith to find a full time job w/ benefits.