24 Weeks 5 Days worth of BELLY!

So I went to my check up this past Thursday and I am proud to say that everything was, and I quote the doctor, "quite unremarkable!" Again, when the topic is a triplet pregnancy, you REJOICE when they tell you that you are boring! My lab work, urine work, blood pressure, etc. is all looking good! No need for bed rest yet! (Though I was reminded that I am not to take up work slinging packages off a UPS truck or anything similar....darn.) No contractions yet, no nothing! Things are good! We checked heartbeats and all babies are still normal. Their heartbeats each increased by a couple beats per minute since the last time we checked but they are all normal!

Baby Girl Hunter quickly showed her true colors when it was her turn to get measured! The doctor, while doing the ultrasound and looking at Baby C (Hunter) says, "My, we have a fiesty one here! She is actually pusing back at me!" That's my girl! She was actually pusing back on the transducer wand thingy as if to say, "Hey, careful who you're squashing in here!" No wonder her heart beat was a little faster! She was doing some boxing in there!

And that about sums Hunter up! That little girl never stops moving. (Except when someone else wants to watch my belly move...then the stubborn little thing stops!) She can distort herself like nothing else! Ethan on the other hand, moves around almost as much as Hunter. Rather than making lots of small "punch" type movements, he prefers to contort and rotate his ENTIRE body all at once! I often find him crawling from a vertical position on the right side of my stomach to nearly horizontal and up under my rib cage! I won't say it's painful, but it's definitely apparent to me when he's doing it! And then there's my little Colton. I think he's got the best spot in the belly. He's below the other two and he spends his whole day lying horizontally. So whe he moves, I just feel little nudges here and there! He causes me no angst! Such a good little boy!

So anyway, that's my update for now! Enjoy the belly! It's large and in charge!!

A Car Seat Fiesta!

Ok, so we realize that we still have at least a little time left before the three little munchkins make their appearance, BUT, we are running out of room in our house what with all the baby stuff times THREE everywhere!! So today, Brian (and Piper) decided to put together the car seats and then...(cross your fingers) test them to see if we could even FIT three car seats in my Durango!

Now I have to say, I have long found myself to be pretty handy and pretty good at reading directions and putting things together, (I got that from my "Jack of All Trades Mother") but Brian is equally capable and actually ENJOYS doing these sorts of things. Lately, I have been thanking my lucky stars for that! Maybe it's the pregnancy brain drain (or maybe that's just my excuse) :) but I am happy to stand back, with the camera of course and simply watch the magic happen! Brian is absolutely AMAZING (ABC's The Bachelor is back on...what can I say? We have to use the word "amazing" at least 8 times in a day!) Those who are watchers know what I'm talking about... :)

But seriously, I've seen some people reduced to frustration and tears just putting one baby item together, and in all honesty, I don't discount their feelings! I myself find one to be enough. But I sit and watch in awe as he finishes one car seat, then sets it aside, then the 2nd and sets it aside, and then the third! With the same patience and good nature as he had when he put together three cribs, and hung three name plaques, etc. It's surreal really when you really stop to think about it. I'm so proud of him and so glad that he looks forward to being the "dad" of our three babies. And folks, I just wish you could have seen his face light up when he finished assembling the two boys' car seats and then ended with his little girl's pink one. :) She's not even born yet and already she can make her dad's heart melt. Life has a funny way of working itself out. Our perfect little family is almost here. And I couldn't be happier!

Away he goes! Car seat #1...

Car Seat #2.....

Piper is being a big helper. Can you tell? She's bringing him all the right pieces!

And Car Seat #3!
I'm very proud of them both!

So here they are, waiting by the front door...ready for the babies!

And....YES! They fit! They fit! And we still have the third row and the back trunk area to accommodate strollers, bags, the dog, etc. :)

Lookin' like little people! 23W 4D old!

Brian and me (and our sonographer) at UMC....Pretty certain this is the most UN-flattering picture I've posted of myself on this blog yet. Oh well...it is what it is, right??

So at this point, I am still not on official bed rest of any kind. I have put myself on "limited feet rest." (Which to me means, I try to limit the time I spend on my feet each day. )And wow, does it help! I go see my doctor at UMC every 2 weeks for a basic check-up...blood pressure, I pee on a stick to check my glucose level and go through the battery of basic questions..."Any contractions yet?" No... "Any pains?" No....etc. Then we do an ultrasound to make sure all hearts are beating and babies are moving!

Then once a month, we do what is called a formal ultrasound. These appointments generally take a little longer, as we basically move from baby to baby to baby measuring head circumference, belly circumference, femur measurements, arm bone (shoulder to elbow) , look at heart chambers, check blood flow around each cord, look to make sure they are still boys (or girls!) :) etc. From there, they are able to give us a fairly accurate picture of how big each baby is.

So last Friday, we had a formal ultrasound, and it was wonderful! All three babies look great! Colton's cleft palate was a little easier to see, but we are no longer stressed about that. Everything else looks just fine and that is most important! They are MOVERS! It's such fun to watch them turn and somersault, etc. This time, our sonographer was able to capture some really GREAT profile pictures! Which of course, I am going to share with you all! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

COLTON SAMUEL

1 lb. 9 oz.

152 heartbeats per minute!

ETHAN BRADLEY

1 lb. 7 oz.

149 heartbeats per minute

HUNTER OLIVIA

1 lb. 5 oz.

147 heartbeats per minute

(While we watched, Hunter literally folded herself in half! That is her knee joint in front of her nose! )

What's new....

Here is my latest profile...a sort of "Modified"

belly shot. 23W 4D

Ok, there is no excuse for my absence from this blog that I love so much! Somehow I recently found myself on facebook and have been trying to wean myself already from this "nosy" addiction! My blog was my first love and will continue to be my priority! :) So with that, let's see what's been happening here in the land of wiggly babies...

1. Today I am 24W 1D pregnant...a small, yet momentous feat all at the same time. The best part is that I still feel great! Truly. I still have a hard time sleeping...but I think I'm just subconsciously (or maybe consciously) afraid I'm going to squash one of the babies! No matter which side I sleep on, I can actually feel at least one wiggling baby beneath my skin. The vision that comes to my mind unfortunately is that of a small face pressed up against a clear, glass window....how odd am I?? So sleep at this point remains my greatest challenge.

2. The Babies. They are movers and shakers. All. Day. Long. I often wonder what they are doing in there...sleeping (clearly not), fighting (quite possibly) or just testing all their new people skills (most likely). Whatever it is, I am in love with these babies. I sit on the couch and stare at my belly for hours. I admit, it's somewhat alien-like the way they distort my once perfectly round belly, and yet, I am so captivated by it. My mother even video taped it the other day!

3. The nursery. I'm starting to think I should have found a way to put 3 cribs and a bed in there considering how much time I spend in it. I love it. I find it soothing, peaceful and just generally a happy place to be. Every morning when I wake up, and every night before I go to bed, I walk into their room and look in all three cribs. (As if, by some weird chance there were going to be babies in there already!) I just imagine what blessed chaos there will be when they arrive. Taking advice from my "Baby Mama" friend Anabelle, I recently added a small night stand to go beside the glider with a lamp for those late night feedings or rockings or whatevers! It couldn't be more perfect. :)

4. My gratitude for friends, families and even mere acquaintances. When I go in the nursery and look around, I am honestly overcome with gratitude. I cannot believe how much stuff we received from people we are related to, people we know well and even people we barely know. Whatever it is, I just hope that everyone knows how much we appreciate everything we have received to get these babies off and running!

5. Three. Of EVERYTHING. It's a weird feeling when I go to the store to buy something for babies...today for instance, I went in search of baby books. I had to buy three. THREE!! Three of everything....I momentarily stress out, until the cashier asks me if I meant to buy three baby books and I tell her I am having triplets...2 boys and a girl, and then my stress turns to smiles. I am going to be the mommy of three tiny babies. So yes, I'd like three baby books, please. :)
I honestly don't care how chaotic my life is about to be. I am blessed. I am excited. A little nervous that I will do a good enough job, but so darn happy. Since I failed to put up a belly pic last week or the week after, I will put up a few of me in the nursery. Ha ha. I told you, I'm in there ALL THE TIME. :)

Aunt Mary is our hero!

You know you're a loser when....one of the most exciting things that happens in your day is your sister calling to tell you that your crib bedding has arrived! Being the good "Aunt Mary" that she is, she even delivered it to our house at 7:45 at night because she KNEW I'd be DYING to set it all up and make it look as cute as possible! So here are the pictures! 1 crib down....2 to go! I love it! It's even cuter in person than it was on the websites! I promise to invite anyone over who wants to come see it in person! Anyhoo...thanks Aunt Mary!

It looks like a nursery!

Big things are happening at the Bunch Casa! It's like a whirlwind effort to get ready for babies! If you recall, I'm 23 weeks today and Dr. M. is HOPING I can make it to 30 weeks...THAT'S RIGHT, PEOPLE!! Babies could be here in 7 weeks! OMG! (I think I can make it...maybe even to week 32..) but that's my glass half full outlook! Anyway, as usual, I digress! Here are just a few of the exciting things happening...

1. Brian and I bought a bookshelf to put in the nursery to help "store" some baby x3 stuff.

2. My mom and Auntie Diane came over today and BUILT the shelf that Brian and I bought!! Thank you ladies! I LOVE IT!

3.My mom just finished (and in record time, I might add) re-upholstering a glider chair and ottoman that was given to me by my former student teacher Michele.

4. I bought some baskets (ok, by some, I mean 6-10....) but I DID wait till they were 50% off at Michaels.

5. My mom and Auntie Valerie came over this past weekend and re-organized a few of my kitchen cabinets and drawers so that a cabinet and a drawer could be designated for baby bottles, bibs, etc. Yay!

6. I sorted every item of baby clothing we've received by "Preemie", "Newborn", "0-3", "3-6", "6-9", "9-12" and 12+....now I can begin the process of washing everything with Dreft! Yay!

This is the new bookshelf, the newly upholstered glider and one of the cribs!

This is still the baby boy wall...

The little girl wall.... (yes, I'm still watching the blog poll...)

The changing table and 3 newly framed ultrasound photos!

So when you put all these things together, it almost looks like a completed nursery!! We still need some babies to put in there, and I'm still bringing order to the closet. (You'll notice I haven't shown any pictures of that recently... :) We'll get there. Someday. So for now, enjoy these photos

A Belated Week 21 Belly!

OMG! You'd think that now that I'm not working I could at LEAST remember to put up my most recent belly pictures! Well...clearly you are overestimating me if you thought that! Anyway, this picture is Week 21...so I'm behind 2 weeks! (I'm currently in week #23)...I'll get to Weeks 22 and 23 soon... For those who are tracking my weight gain challenge...my greatest gain so far has been 32 pounds! Unfortunately I lose 3-4 pounds as easily as I gain it, so I've kind of been lingering anywhere between 129 and 132 lbs. Oh well. I guess I'll go have some ice cream!

Happy New Year Babies! It's the year of your birth!

I love New Year's Eve...and of course New Year's Day. It's like our once a year chance to "start over", do things we didn't do the year before, stop doing things we shouldn't have been doing the year before, and just generally wipe the slate clean and get out a new you! Except this year was a little different.

2008 was another difficult year for Brian and me. By no means do I claim that we had it harder than anyone else, because trust me, I KNOW we all have issues. But as it relates to getting pregnant, it is a struggle that can only be fully understood by those who have been down that road. I began 2008 right off the bat with two surgeries following a miscarriage. While that left us with some new hope as we ventured into our 4th InVitro, we were devastated yet again when my overly stressed body failed to even produce enough viable eggs to go forth with another IVF cycle.

So we let a few months go by...frankly unsure about how to proceed. I felt like my body had finally given up trying to have a baby, I went from producing 18 eggs my first IVF cycle to 3 that last time....hope was not on our forefront. I don't know what changed down the road for us...perhaps it was going back to church, maybe it was positive thoughts from friends and family, who knows. But something in us said "GO FOR IT....One last time..." So back to the shots we went. This time I only produced 7 eggs. (not great) However, all of them fertilized! (good news) But after 3 days, only 4 of them had continued to divide. (only 4?? NOT great). However, those 4 were the strongest embryos we'd produced so far in ANY of our 5 IVFs. (Ok, looking better!). So anyway, if you recall, even in a normal attempt to get pregnant, each embryo only has a 25% chance at best of turning into a viable pregnancy. So by transferring 4 embryos, we had strong hopes that at least ONE should implant in my newly cleaned out uterus!

Well, the rest, as you know by now, is history. Someone was looking down on us that day because we are currently 22 Weeks and 1 day pregnant with TRIPLETS. That is what you call beating the odds! So, while 2008 started out on a rather depressing note, it ended on the best note I could ever imagine...I am so grateful for everything we've gone through to get to this day.

Though my back aches tremendously with the weight the three babies are putting on it, and though my sleep has already been reduced to a few hours each night, I try and remember what it took to get here and I am reminded that it is worth every ache and pain, and then some.

Life is short. This I think we all know. And I am just so blessed for all the heartache AND the triumph because finally, we are going to be parents!! And when the clock struck midnight and 2009 came in the door, I knew that things were good. This is the year our babies will finally be born. :)

Happy New Year to you all. I wish you all the hope and the blessings that YOU need to make 2009 a prosperous, healthy and happy new year.

Brian, Me, Mom and Dad ringing in 2009!

Sarah, Ami and Anabelle...please notice how BOTH Sarah and I felt it was OK to sport the

1985 leggings once again! Gotta love fashion!

This is Brian and Anabelle (or Brian and his FUN wife!) The Bunches and the Pearsons have a long standing joke that though we each love our Wives and Husbands, sometimes they're not very fun. So, we have traded. Anabelle is my Brian's "fun wife" and he is her "fun husband".

On the same token, I am HER Brian's "fun wife" and he is my "fun husband!" It's good to have friends that are equally fun! :)

The newest nursery dilemma...

Ok, so the other thing that came out of the Crafts and Cookie Disaster '08 was more fuel for the latest nursery dilemma...Ok, think back...remember when we thought we were having 3 boys?? And remember how proud I was of my Podge-Podged letters spelling out "baby boys" which I excitedly HOT-GLUED to the wall?? Ok, well that was one of the first bits of decor which needed to be, shall we say, "amended?" So Brian and I trotted off to JoAnn fabrics and got letters to spell out "little girl" which have since been Podge-Podged with coordinating Pink and Brown scrapbook paper...So that's all fine and good. Now the dilemma is this. Feel free to form your own opinion and perhaps even vote on the topic....(I hope I remember to create new poll when this entry is written).

Ok, here's the scoop.In the interest of space and not overcrowding ONE wall with a ba-jillion letters (basically having "baby boys" and "little girl" AND the 3 name plaques all on one wall,) we have opted to place the words, "little girl" on the adjacent wall (over the changing table and one of the cribs. Now, in doing so, that messes with our original "vision" of perfect symmetry and nursery harmony!

1. We had originally envisioned a boy crib on the left, girl in the middle and boy on the right. Blue-pink-blue. However, that leaves Baby Boy Ethan on the right side essentially under the words "little girl." (He might not mind now, but how about later in life??) So, that led to option 2.

2. We leave Colton on the left, put ETHAN in the middle and Baby Girl Hunter on the right, closer to the words "little girl." (essentially giving her her own wall.) So that makes the cribs Blue-Blue-Pink. Makes sense right? Sure, unless you are driven by the insane need for symmetry. (Remember blue-pink-blue?)

So anyway, please, feel free to form an opinion and make your vote! I will leave my own opinion a secret until further notice. (I woudn't want to taint the polling) In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of Mary, Anabelle, Sarah and I attempting to solve (argue) this very dilemma.

This is Mary (not so permanently) affixing part of "little girl" to the adjacent wall. Anabelle and Sarah each added several letters while I looked on from below. (People are very picky about letting pregnant people stand on stools!)

What does that look on my face say? Do I like this idea? Do I not? What do you think??

Here are the three amigas plotting their work...

And here they are looking quite happy with their progress! Now that that's been settled, where should Baby Girl Hunter go?? In the middle or on the right?....You decide!

Cookies and Crafts Disaster '08!

Ok, so it's been a while....I'M SORRY! I've been busy...trying to hatch 3 babies you know! :) So I'm just going to go ahead and do several separate entries to keep you posted about what the babies and I have been up to the past few days!

The holiday festivities all started on December 30, when we had our 3rd? (4th?) annual Crafts and Cookie Disaster. Sounds ominous doesn't it?? The first year, this event was excitedly named the Christmas Cookie Adventure (or something equally sweet sounding). But let's just say the cookies were nothing anyone of us were very proud of... So, the next year we called it the New Year's Cookie Disaster because again, our social skills far outweigh our baking skills and there was much "heated discussion" (that's code for girl fighting) about what ingredients go into which recipes and which cookies should be made, etc. So the next year, it was called the Cookie War. :) So you get the idea....This year, (back to the Crafts and Cookie Disaster) we decided that it was in everyone's best interest if the focus was taken OFF the baking and maybe placed more on the "socializing"...which is where the crafts came in! If you've been keeping up with mine or Anabelle's blog, then you know what that craft was....MOD PODGE! (or Podge Podge, or Hodge Podge)! Sarah, our cookie angel blessed us with BAGS of cookies she made all by herself the day before so that we could still indulge in cookies while we crafted, but not have to spend hours ruining them all! And Sarah is a GREAT baker! The cookies were SO yummy!

She even made the traditional rice krispy squares for Mary's 33rd birthday! Yum! The best part of this tradition however, has become the gift exchange we do! Last year, we picked names and bought eachother printed T-shirts to suit each other's personalities. This year, we did a jewelry exchange and we used the good ol' "Mother Right" story to exchange the gifts! What fun! The one thing that most clearly missing from this year's Crafts and Cookie Disaster was Nicole! My fellow pregnant friend who was under the weather and in no condition to fight over cookies, jewelry or Podge-Podge! But we missed her and we KNOW she's already looking forward to the theme for '09....until then! Hmm....could we call it the Cookie & Babysitting Disaster next year?? After all, between us there will be Jaxon, (who's the resident baby expert on this event,) 3 new Bunch Babies, a New Mikkelson baby, an older Mikkelson baby, and who knows how many babies might be in the oven....(Sarah? Mary?)

This is my favorite little "nephew" Jaxon and his "Aunt Ami"..please note his adorable onesie which states, "My Aunt Ami Loves Me!" And she does!

Though she didn't get a lick of help from any of us, Sarah gracefully produced bags and bags of cookies from the oven?? (Ok, maybe not THIS oven..) We can always pretend right??

And there's the crafters in action. It was no accident that Sarah is not in this picture! Though she graciously ended up helping Anabelle out, she was PERFECTLY OK with being the "craft watcher" and baker.

And here we are examing what new jewelry we each got in our RIGHT/LEFT game exchange!

Ta-Da! Here's our new jewelry! We missed you Nicole!