"Welcome to the world of high risk!"

These are the nice encouraging words from my high risk doctor.

Wednesday was a little overwhelming but I think we are starting to settle down a little. It is still really scary that I'm only 22 weeks, way to early for preterm labor! Right now we are praying that we make it to 28 weeks. At 28 weeks there is a 96% chance of survival and it is very likely that they will be healthy without long term problems. Once we get to 28 weeks we will start to pray that we make it longer but right now it is just one step at a time. We saw my OB yesterday but she was not real reassuring. She is hoping that gravity is our main problem and thinks only time will tell. Right now I am not dilated but I am effaced(not sure how much). I was given a progesterone shot yesterday which is supposed to help with miscarriages and I will receive at least one shot of that each week. I will see my OB again next week and the following week I will see my high risk doctors again.

Some of you are probably worried about Steven too! He is really nervous and scared but is calming down knowing that we are doing everything we can. He is doing a great job of making sure I'm staying horizontal and have everything I need. Please keep us all in your prayers and we will keep you posted.

Good News/Bad News

We saw the high risk doctor today and thought we would confirm that our girl was a girl and get a report that things are going smoothly but so much for that! The good news is our girl is definitely a girl and all of the babies are doing good. The doctor said they are almost doing too good and he would like for them to slow down a bit but that is out of our control.
Baby A is 1lb 2oz (girl)
Baby B is 1lb 2oz (boy)
Baby C is 1lb 1oz (boy)
The bad news is he put me on strict bed rest from now on. He wants to see me in about 10 days and I should come with my bags packed ready to be admitted into the hospital. Not the news we were expecting to hear today but we will do what he says to get the babies here and healthy!

First Baby Shower

Thursday the teachers at school had a baby shower for me and another teacher that is expecting twins. This year at my school there are a total of 5 pregnant teachers expecting a total of 8 babies, obviously something is in the water there! Anyway, back to the shower. We had a great time and ate lots of food. We got a lot of cute clothes, diapers, and other baby stuff. This weekend Steven painted the babies room and I've started putting stuff from the shower in the room. It's going to be fun organizing everything!

20 Weeks

Thursday we saw my OB in College Station and she was please with our progress. The only thing she questioned was that our girl maybe a boy??? :( She really wasn't sure but told us to have the high risk doctor check again! Keep in mind a month ago she thought that baby A was a girl. If you've read any of my previous blogs you know how I feel about her ultrasound equipment so I think she is wrong. She also admitted that it was hard to tell with so many babies. If you see the ultrasounds from the high risk there is a definite difference between the girl "parts" and the two boys "parts" so we are keeping our fingers crossed. I guess we will find out for sure in two weeks.

Other than that I am growing really fast and the babies are moving more. Friday night Steven got to feel a kick for the first time. It was great to see the excitement in his face as he felt the baby or babies move. I am so thankful that he is such a wonderful husband and has such a love for our babies already!

It's a..........

It's a BOY, BOY, GIRL! Our appointment Friday went well and we were very excited to find out the sex of the babies. It was pretty obvious on the ultrasound the boys vs. the girl so I feel pretty confident they have it right. The ultrasound lasted about 2 hours which was not as long as we thought it would and we got a good indication of their personalities. The boys are already fighting, baby B kicked baby C in the head and the girl just refused to do what the ultrasound tech wanted despite the pushing on my stomach. We also discovered all of our children are going to be very stubborn(they must get that from their dad)! The poor ultrasound tech would get the image she needed and before she could push the button they would move or turn around. She had to go back and forth between babies several times and she still didn't get one or two images she needed. All of their measurements put them at 19 weeks which is right on track with my due date so everything looks healthy and good so far. After the ultrasound my doctors wife (a nurse at Texas Children's NICU) took us on a tour of St. Luke's labor and deliver and TCH NICU. More than likely this will be where we deliver so we wanted to check it out. It is definitely an amazing place that we're sure to get lost in a time or two until we get the color codes of the elevators figured out!

No news is good news!

Besides the fact that I'm growing very quickly we have no new news. We are very excited about our appointment this week (Friday) with the high risk doctor. This is the appointment that we will hopefully find out the sex of the babies :) It will be a 3 hour ultrasound to measure each baby's organs, etc. so I'm not looking forward to the long appointment. But the bright side is it will give us time if one baby is not showing us their business hopefully they will move around enough to get an accurate indication of who they are!!!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and your sweety treated you extra special! My sweet husband surprised me, we usually don't do gifts but he picked out three little stuffed teddy bears each one from a different baby. He said he knew that the babies would want to get me something. The fact that he thought of this on his own made it even more special. That night we went out to eat on a group date and had a great time.


To:Mom From:Baby A, Baby B, & Baby C

We survived the week!

We are celebrating! This was the first week I made it without going to the doctor. Although I do have to say I miss it a little not knowing that everything is going okay but I don't miss the drive.

I am officially in maternity clothes now. As you can see by the photo my belly is beginning to expand quickly! And I do have to say its not very comfortable when your belly is expanding 3x's faster than it normally would. Steven thinks I shouldn't complain after hearing about the octuplets but I don't think my back and belly would agree.