32 weeks

Okay, admit it--I'm big right? Can you finally see it?? Everyone continues to tell me I'm small but I've been told since 25 weeks that it will be "anytime now." Somehow my clothes are hiding the bigness of my middle since viewing it myself is eye opening. It's definitely bigger then Evie's, as evident by the ton of new stretch marks around my belly and along the sides. However, God's miracle is that my back has felt better this pregnancy AND I sleep better. CRAZY!
How far along? 32 weeks ONLY 4 more (possibly) to go
I'm feeling: Same as last week. Hot and itchy. I've had several US's where the sonographer has me laying on my back but when I lay flat on my bed the belly feels SO heavy! There must be a little bit of a tilt to the table making up the difference. Sleeping on my back, which I did up until delivery with Evie, is IMPOSSIBLE!
Stretch marks?: More and more everyday!
My babies: passed their "exams" again this week. They took no measurements for size but all rated 8/8 on the biophysical US and had good accelerations on the non-stress test. Unfortunately the NST, which should only take 20 minutes, took 1 hour because 1. they used only 1 machine which can only monitor 2 babies at a time and 2. the babies are so close together that it took 20 minutes just to get 2 separate heartbeat patterns.

Pardon the slight blurriness of these pictures. I took a picture of it myself so you could enjoy them. This picture shows Baby boy C (on top) looking at you. You can actually see the lens of the eye. He is usually VERY easy to get a head/profile/face picture of.

This picture is similar to one we saw several weeks ago at our specialist appointment. Our baby girl is on the left (her face cannot be seen as she is look down towards my spine (also the bottom of the picture) and her brother boy B (in the middle) is right next to her. Neat huh?

Movement: Both boys (possibly our girl) are pushing out in the belly. It's like they think they can escape through that method. I told Baby Boy C (on top) that he couldn't get out that way, but he doesn't appear to be listening. There has been a lot of kicking/punching in the last week, which I appreciate. Also they are ALL head right now. Baby boy C apparently still has enough freedom to flip completely around.
Swelling: In my hands. I even broke down and removed my wedding ring. I have not taken it off (except for inspections, cleanings and a few resizing/repairs) since Shawn put it on my finger...so this says A LOT. It wasn't that I was worried about the c-section but I was afraid that my hands may swell to the point that it started to cut into my finger and I figured I aught to take it off now before it had to be cut off. There is no noticeable feet swelling, though it really is hard for me to see my feet much anymore.
Questions for who have had c-sections: What did you pack for the hospital?? Any recommendations for after surgery??
Labor Signs: I think (operative word being "think") that I may have had 1 or 2 the NST showed no contractions.
What we've been up to: The visit with my friends Sara and Mike ALMOST didn't happen. There have been some terrible storms here the last 3 weeks and we were under tornado warnings several evenings. The night before their visit we not only spent some time with our friends Kyle, Rachel and Abi in their basement but we also lost power for over 12 hours. It's a REALLY good thing that it was a cool night otherwise I might have gone crazy. Evie was scared (which is an nice word for it-more like petrified) to go to sleep in the dark without her sound machine, which has a little light on it too. She couldn't understand, of course, why the lights were "boke." At approximately 1 a.m. she woke up and I'm sure was terrified by the quiet and tried to get out of bed. I'm sure it didn't help that it took us longer to hear her crying so I was 2/3 of the way to her room when there were 2 thumps and then a scream. You can imagine that this was her falling out of bed. A first. Scary as that was she wouldn't go back to bed in her room so her and I spent the night in my room and Shawn was delegated to her twin. Luckily, the lights came back on the next morning, which appeared as a miracle to Evie. Anyhow, the visit with Sara and Mike went GREAT and we had a lovely time! The picnic with my multiples group went great. I was able to talk to a couple of mother's who had quads, which was really great. Evie really enjoyed the park and the games they had for kids. Other then this there were a few things I crossed off of my "do before the babies come" list. One was that our crib had a recall on it because of the drop down side. I called for the "repair" kit, which basically immobilizes the drop side. We went shopping today and I got all of my nursing bras and a few after birth shirts (ie ones that hopefully will hide my jiggly, still big belly). I also ordered the handprint/footprint kit for our baby girl, which they were no longer carrying at Target. Oddly enough, the one thing I'm proudest of accomplishing was finishing the first page of a billion for the triplets scrapbooks. This was for Baby Boy B but his brother and sister will also have one similar made for them (on different paper). It is a copy of one I did for Evie and if you don't recognize what it is or the purpose: when I was growing up my mother (the first scrapbooker in the family) took pieces of the wrapping paper from our birthday and Christmas paper and used it to make things like Christmas trees and for our birthdays our age for our scrapbooks. I have followed in my mother's tradition and LOVE the results. It is neat for me to see the wrapping paper used in the 1970's/1980's and I hope that the kids will enjoy it too. The paper on this page is from the baby shower's that were thrown for the triplets and the design is a baby rattle.

Coming up: We will be having another specialty appointment on Tuesday and will have an US and then tour the NICU and talk to one of the neonatologists who may be working on the triplets. There will be two in the OR during the c-section. We will be able to ask all of our questions, find out what we should expect and also talk about what we DON'T want to happen. This will also be the day we schedule our c-section. Next I need to figure out what and when to pack for the hospital. I'm hoping that they will have a check list or something for expecting mothers but more likely I will be doing a lot of posting on triplet forums and doing website searches. I've had one birth obviously but the two could not be more different! So I have no idea what to expect outside of what I've seen on t.v. And if that is not "real life" I don't know what is. We FINALLY received our stroller. I am so excited to see it put together and Shawn will be working on it this weekend. It smells really bad, like rubber tires, so it will have to be put outside to air for a while before I will allow it in the van. That kind of chemical smell could give me a migraine. The house is way too small to store it in here.

Finally, here is our sunshine mimicking something she has seen me do a thousand times. Can you guess??
Yep, she's putting lotion on her "baby" belly just like mommy! This is the next page I will be working on for her scrapbook. Can she BE more adorable?? She has started to "get it" this week too after seeing Baby Boy C moving, that there really are babies in mommy's belly. She has been watching the belly more and even talked to them. It makes my heart melt!! One part of triplets arrival that I'm especially EXCITED about...watching Evie become a big sister!