Looking Back - 31 weeks (and another tooth!)

Looking Back - 31 weeks (and another tooth!)

Let me start by saying that we had an exhausting but wonderful weekend!
Friday night, I stayed up WAY too late but had a great night catching up with one of my closest girlfriends, Michelle, who was visiting from San Diego. I really paid for it on Saturday. I just can’t stay up that late and be ok the next day like I used to. I was really suffering on Saturday. I sound like an old fogey saying that, I know.
Sunday was an incredibly busy day as it was the day of the babies traditional Korean first birthday party. More info on that coming soon!

Jackson cut another tooth this weekend! That makes TWO for him! So we’ve got Zachary with eight, Jackson with two and Alexis…still with none! Even without teeth, she can sure plow through some chewy foods with her gums!

Their actual birthday is this Thursday and we plan on having a quiet night at home with the babies. I’ll give them each their very own cupcakes and Brian and I will sing “Happy Birthday”. I am looking forward to seeing them devour their cakes!

But for the real reason I am up later than I want to be…the continuation of the re-cap/countdown to their birth!

When I thought of doing this re-cap I thought it was a good idea not only for me, to get this stuff written down, but also to share with you as I look back and to make up for the fact that I never did a birth post. HOWEVER, I realize now that each post is the same. Misery!

Picking up where I left off, Lantry had left for the weekend and I was doing my best to hang on. I had pretty much lost my marbles and was delirious. I realized that I would be ok in the mornings but was DONE by the afternoon/evening. I would take my shower in the afternoon/evening to break things up and give me something to look forward to. I was getting more and more exhausted and I was less and less able to stay asleep for very long. My energy levels were shot but I was too uncomfortable to sleep well. I had lost my appetite.

This is the very last picture taken at 30 weeks and 5 days…almost a week before the babies were born:

I had developed a painful rash on my belly from the constant monitoring and alcohol based gel used for the monitors. We ended up using lotion instead but it was still painful. Numbness had started to really take over my whole body. I had to make my already short showers even shorter because I would get SO huge and swollen standing for that long and have horrible tingling in my legs. I think Brian (or was it my sister?) had to help me get off the toilet once. I just couldn’t get up by myself at that moment.

I could no longer sit up for more than a few minutes. Otherwise I would have LOTS of pain in my girl bits (lots MORE I should say) if I sat up too long. Also, my contractions would increase in frequency and intensity the longer I sat up. If I did sit up, I had to sit on a pillow because the pressure on my bottom was too much. Yes, I mean my butt. And I would get way more graphic than that but I think I’ll refrain. Let me just say that I learned what hemorrhoids were during those last few days.

I spent even more time on my side. Which meant more numbness. Turning over required help. I had to hold onto the side rails of the bed and get a little help pushing/pulling myself when I wanted to switch sides. I felt like a beached whale.

My blood pressure remained in a safe range which was wonderful.

Lantry had checked my cervix (painful) before leaving for her ski trip and I was 1 cm dilated, 80% effaced and at -2 station. Whatever that meant. Either way, I wasn’t going anywhere.

I started to really swell up, although I didn’t realize how much and how fast at the time.
I remember saying that thinking of being pregnant for another few weeks made me want to stick a fork in my eye. How’s that for keeping it together? HA HA!

Its funny, looking back on the e-mails I received during that time (yes, I saved ALL OF THEM) from fellow triplet mammas. It is so clear now how well they knew exactly what was happening to me. How I was slipping and starting to lose it.
Reading these posts is kinda hard for me because it really brings me back and I realize how traumatic the whole last days (and birth and NICU…) were for me.
I made it to 31 weeks. That was the longest week of my life, thus far. I felt like I was dying.
Little did I know, I was only days away…

Stay tuned.