Well as you all know we had a scan 2 days to check the progress or our 3 little cherubs and all is still going well. They are all still measuring perfectly and getting bigger and more life like every time we see them. We also got a little glimpse at the gender and as the title suggests it looks as if we are adding 3 more boys to our collection. We were only clearly able to see Baby A's bits but we are still led to be the babies will be identical. So for now 3 boys it is unless things change again at our next scan in a little over 2 weeks time.
I wasn't as nervous this time leading up to the scan, but it did stop me from having a good nights sleep as I dreamt they found a fourth. Rest assured there are still just the 3.
I will admit though I was a little sad when I found out it was more boys. As much as I didn't mind what sex the babies are, I have only wanted my 3 little mites to arrive safe and healthy. I have no doubt in my mind that there will be no more children after the triplets are here and I would have loved to have at least 1 daughter. The saying that always comes to mind is 'a daughter is for life, and sons until they find a wife'.
Please don't take it the wrong way I am incredibly blessed to have been given these amazing blessings and wouldn't change it for the world. There are lots of wonderful things about having 4 sons like I will never need to change a light bulb, kill a spider, mow the lawn, lift pretty much anything and I am sure they will be amazing.
I have warned Mr TAN though that as the boys get a bit older he will need to take them on lots of fishing/ camping trips so I can unwind and have lots of girly time.
The modifications we are needing to make at home are happening very slowly but I am sure we will get there just in the nick of time, with a few working bees and help of family and friends.
On a final note this picture was taken a few days ago at 16weeks and 4 days. It feels like it is growing by the minute and I can feel my skin stretching already. People are already beginning to ask when the baby is due.
One thing that I have really had to work hard on changing is my standards and ideals that I have of myself.
One example is the standards I have of myself as a mother. Our son is watching a lot more television than I have ever let him before, but it keeps him happy and it means I can put my feet up. I also have been neglecting his fun activities like trips to the park and fun outings to play cafes. I am not able to chase him around these places anymore not climb the steps and go down the slides. What I have been able to do is go and visit various friends with children so he can play there and is happy for a while, so I can put my feet up and have a cup of tea. Where I have been lacking, thankfully we have lots of help from very willing grandparents who are able to do more of the fun things.
Another standard that I have really had to let slide is the housework. I am managing the bare minimum but thankfully my lovely in laws have offered to pay for a cleaner to come in once a week for 2 hours. She is an absolute angel and that little bit of help is going along way. I try to visit friends for the start when she arrives and then when the noisy stuff is all done, Oliver and I return home and have a sleep. By the time we wake up the cleaning fairy has done her magic and everything is shiny and smelling clean.
All of my other slack is being picked up by poor Mr TAN even though he already has so much on his plate. Today he spent the day emptying out our large walk in pantry (which I think has a better range than most supermarkets) so we could knock out a door as part of our make room for all the babies plan. So know we need to find homes for all the food that is covering our bench tops, floors and kitchen table.
But one thing I am slowly trying to improve on is my organisational skills. Since we found out we are going to be welcoming 3 new babies into this world and supermarkets do not have the facilities to take 3 infants shopping I have started to menu plan. It is working surprisingly well. I have always put it off due to me being a vegetarian and everyone else being the complete opposite but so far so good. I do believe though, at least in the early days that I will be relying on on line grocery shopping or some willing baby sitters to get any shopping done.
Well not much has been happening here but I thought it was time for a little update...
We are now just over 15 weeks and for once haven't had any appointments or scans. Our next scan is next Friday where they are checking on the placentas to make sure they are still a ways apart and to check on the babies. The placentas they like to check to make sure they aren't starting to fuse together, but apparently ours should be okay as one is posterior, one is anterior and the third one is to the left. We are also expecting to find out if we are having little boys or little girls.
Also in the past week I have begun to feel the very early little flutters of babies moving around. At the moment I can feel two of them occasionally and the third one I imagine I will start to feel in the coming weeks this one is just a bit more cushioned with the anterior placenta.
We have also started to prepare our son for the arrival of the triplets. Our darling boy who has had mummy, daddy and all the relatives to himself for the past 2 and a half years is now going to need to share us with 3 new siblings. So I don't think any amount of preparation will fully prepare him but we are trying.
A very dear friend has a little boy called Noah, whom Ollie just adores. So we have told him that there are 3 Noah's in mummy's tummy and have started to teach him how to count to 3. So at the moment he counts to 3 on my tummy and gives it 3 kisses so all the Noah's get a kiss. He also understands that the Noah's make mummy very tired so he insists that I lie down on the couch and he will tuck me in while we watch Peppa Pig.
Also on a final note, I got shown this video on You Tube the other day and it really gave me a giggle. I also spent far too long looking at the other videos in the series which all made me laugh. To watch click here.
So thank you everyone for reading, I have received a lot of positive feedback so far which is just incredible as I mainly started this blog as a journal for my on records so you are all wonderful!
Are they natural? This is a question I have been asked so many times in the last few weeks, and I am sure one that will continue to be asked of me many more times in the months and years ahead.
Yes we did have to use IVF to conceive our children however I do not see how this is relevant. At this stage we are led to believe that our triplets will be identical which means the one little embryo split into 3, so nothing to do with the fertility treatment.
In some countries they will transfer more that one embryo sometimes even 3 or 4, just think of Octomum. So people quite often end up with triplets or quads, or the other scenario is if people have 2 embryos transferred and 1 of those splits into 2 then you also have triplets.
People would not normally ask complete strangers how they conceived their children, and I am not sure why people think it is there business. I don't believe that a mother pregnant with one child would be asked this question, so isn't it a bit rude to ask a mother of multiples? As I am sure mothers who did conceive their multiples naturally get tired of people asking them the same question too. Sometimes I do just say no, they are natural as people seem more excited and it is easier to answer all the questions.
We are honest with friends and family in the hope that one day if perhaps someone is struggling on their journey to conceive a child maybe it will help them. But for now strangers will get a rude answer to a rude question, perhaps I will just tell them it was S.E.X or a very big dick! What do you think your reply would be?
Meanwhile here is a picture of my rapidly growing bump at 14 weeks.
Well today has finally arrived and 2.30 took forever to get here. We had been warned that today's scan would take at least 2 hours to do all the measurements. The killer is the litre of water I was told to drink an hour beforehand.
I was such a bundle of nerves the closer we got to the sonography place. My heart was racing and I was shaking like a leaf by the time we actually got in to the room to lie down.
As soon as I saw the 3 little dears though I relaxed and the relief and happy tears set in. All 3 babies are doing brilliantly and came back as all having a low risk for Downs Syndrome. I nearly left out the best part. The scan only took an hour as all 3 babies were on their best behaviour and were in perfect positions. Hopefully a sign of things to come?
This weekend we are off on a family get away to the beach which will be so lovely and relaxing. We are staying in a beach house with Mr Tans family, luckily we are all close and get along well too. So it definitely won't be a drag.
I already look about 6 months pregnant and have been needing to wear maternity clothes for the past 2 weeks. I will take a picture to show you all soon. But for now are some happy snaps from today.
Ok so I can't work out how to get the pictures in the right order but the first pic os of Triplets A and C
The second is a group shot and last but not least is Triplet B
I have finally caught up in filling you all in on the events of the past few months.
Well we have made it to 12 weeks and so far so good. I woke yesterday with an awful cramp along the left side of my bump like I had been doing too many sit ups or something. But after a quick phone call to my obstetrician and resting with a heat pack it has disappeared. I assume it has something to do with how quickly my bump and the babies are growing at the moment.
I can't help but panic every time something doesn't feel right, especially with all these risks we have been told about. It was at this stage in our last pregnancy that we lost the baby which was one of the most traumatic experiences we have ever faced. We had seen a healthy baby with a heartbeat just 2 weeks prior and had been told everything was fine. It took us a long time to recover emotionally from that experience.
So sorry for all that to be a bit of a downer. In other news last week I had to see a physio and get fitted for like a large elastic bandage type thing to wear over my bump. I made a silly decision to google what tummy's look like after a pregnancy with triplets and it's not pretty.
Another little snipet that I wanted to share with you is this link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23471625/ns/health-health_care/t/woman-gives-birth-identical-triplets/ I found. It is the only other incidence that I have found of a lady having triplets after a single embryo transfer
So for now the count down is on for our scan on Thursday to check on all 3 babies. Two weeks seems like such a long time between scans so it will be lovely to see my trio again. Only 2 more sleeps....
I had another obstetrician appointment and my mum came along with me. I have been banned from going to any of these appointments by myself now, especially after that first time finding out with only a 2 year old for company. So at the moment the plan is I will be doing shared care between my obstetrician and the Maternal Foetal Health Specialists at the hospital. So my normal ob will be checking blood pressure quick scans etc and the major scans will be done at the hospital. This suits me as my doctor is about 20 minutes closer and parking is much easier too.
All is still going swimmingly. We had another peek in on the little ones today and it is incredible the difference 2 weeks has made. We can now see all 12 little arms and legs dancing around and they look like babies now instead of little prawns. I also discovered the reason as to why I look so big already, turns out the fundal height is already at 18cm at 10 weeks.
I left today feeling much more comfortable and supported in our decision, it is just such a shame how all the doom and gloom risks make you feel especially when it was all the negatives that we were being warned about and not the positives of being able to bring 3 precious babies home.
