Well, here we are....13 weeks pregnant! Seems like such a simple milestone. But not for us. Looking back at the disappointments that have plagued us the past three and a half years makes us cherish this milestone even more. Getting pregnant was never easy for us. I envied all of you who got pregnant so easily (and, as most of you know, I despised all of you briefly at some point in time). But I now understand with a much greater depth what it means to not take things for granted. All the failed pregnancy tests, the failed procedures, the disappearing embryos in our many IVFs, the devastation of a past miscarriage and the heartbreak of being told over and over again, "I'm sorry." All of these things make being 13 weeks pregnant with triplets, priceless. And as blessed as I am to have these 3 babies, I am even more blessed to have Brian to have gone through this with. I am convinced that he was put in my life for this reason. God must've known I wouldn't be able to get pregnant on my own and he picked the one person out there who is strong enough, humorous enough and stubborn enough to get me through this. Time after time, he would look at me and say, "We will be parents." And he believed it. I don't know anyone who deserves this more than he does. I'm so proud to call him the "daddy" of my 3 little babies.But enough of the sappy stuff....WE FOUND A DOCTOR! As I mentioned in one of my last posts, we graduated from the fertility doctor and are now charged with finding someone to care for these babies for the last 6 months...(Ha ha...I'm hopelessly optimistic that this pregnancy will actually last 9 months .) Survey says...Not a chance! But that's ok...So last week we met with a Doctor at TMC (Tucson Medical Center) whom we really liked. We had planned on selecting their practice to seek treatment...until.....we were forced? Bullied? No...lovingly coerced into meeting with another doctor who comes highly recommended, especially for the care of triplets. (Yes mom, that was for you!) So we made our appointment and last Thursday, we raced across town to UMC (University Medical Center) for what may have been the most entertaining appointment of our lives.
It's hard to really capture the "essence" of this appointment in words, but just understand that this doctor could best be described as..."quirky", "entertaining", and quite possibly, "crazy". (Those were his words, not ours!) His language was, shall we say, "colorful?" But his demeanor immediately puts you at ease and makes you feel like you are a normal person going through a normal experience. Finally. He was fascinated by the sharp contrast in Brian's and my size, and made repeated comments about how freaking huge Brian is! Some of his first words after seeing me, then seeing Brian, then back to me, were "Are you crazy? What were you thinking having THREE of his kids?! They're going to be huge!" And at a later point in the conversation, after Brian made a comment about how, for his own sanity, there had better be at least one penis in the bunch, another doctor, a resident who was there learning, commented that in 3 recent sets of triplets they'd seen, ALL babies were girls. Well, upon hearing this, the Dr. looks at the resident and excitedly says, "Are you crazy? Did you not see how freaking huge he is?! Don't upset the bear!" Then, he turns back to the ultrasound monitor, pointing and says, "Um, I think I see penis, penis, penis!" (he didn't really). But my goodness was it funny! In fact, those poor babies probably thought we were going 4-wheeling down a bumpy dirt road. My belly was shaking almost the entire time and it was actually quite funny to watch them jiggling all around from my laughing!
But even more important than the humor was the confidence he instilled in us. The first time he looked at all three babies on the ultrasound, he said with all the confidence of a top doctor, "These little buggers look great! They're going to be fine. You ARE going to have 3 babies." He also mentioned that I would have to get fat, but that I was not a china doll and I can do this. Frankly, that was all we needed to hear. Someone to finally boost us up, not freak us out. Whether he was blowing smoke or not, I don't really care. He made us believe we could do this. So....we made our follow up appointment and the decision was made! So we will be delivering our babies at University Medical Center, where there is a Level 3, world renowned neonatal intensive care unit to care for our babies when they are born. Triplets typically deliver at 32 or 33 weeks, possibly a week or two sooner because I am so tiny. So they will undoubtedly spend some time there, but were are confident they will be in good hands. So folks, so much for the due date of May 11....looks more like it'll be sometime in March. Say lots of prayers that I can keep these babies in even longer than that! So below is a picture of UMC, a place we will be spending a lot of time at in the next few months! :) Hooray! We found a doctor!
