Signs

"How much weight did you gain?"  That was probably the #2 question I was asked, only falling behind the question of, "Did you use fertility drugs?" Well, no we didn't use fertility, but if we had, would that have made a difference? I suppose it is just human nature to ask these kind of things, but when random strangers you don't know feel they can ask, it makes you wonder what is sacred anymore. Back to the weight question- None. I lost 45 pounds. I spent every day and night with my old friend- the toilet. We became good aquaintances while I was pregnant with Marley and we quickly rekindled that friendship while I was pregnant with the triplets. I received so much advice on how to prevent this so-called morning sickness (Oh how I wish it was only in the morning!) and I tried every piece of advice I was given, but nothing worked. I remember the doctor giving me a "Preggie Pop" and I was sick while I was still eating it. Ha. I would wake up out of a dead sleep to say hello to my dear friend. My body just doesn't like those pregnancy hormones. So, believe it or not, I lost weight thanks to the triplets. I was beyond exhausted, always sick and attempting to take care of my 2 year old and it was tough. Thank God I have a wonderful husband who would take over parent duty on the weekends so I could sleep. And thank God I have a wonderful mom who brought me lunch everyday because I would honestly rather have slept than ate but she made sure I was feeding her grandbabies, though they usually didn't seem to like what she brought. After our initial big scare with Makayla, my appointments started getting less eventful, but still very frustrating. I saw one doctor four times in two weeks, yet when he walked into the office to see me, he still had no idea who I was. As if the entire office was filled with women who were having three babies. It was just frustrating to have to always advocate for myself when the doctors I was seeing were supposed to be specialists. At one point my blood pressure was fairly high, roughly 160/90, and I had to point it out to the doctor. Mike had to ask about me losing weight, as I should have been steadily gaining, and even ask the doctor if I should try drinking Ensures or Boosts since I couldn't eat that many calories in food. At about my 30th week, they took some blood to do a few tests. The doctor told me my test for Spina Bifida came back abnormal for one of the babies and I needed to talk to the high-risk doctor at my next appointment. She told me many people who have babies who test positive for this choose to end their pregnancy, because in severe cases the child will never be able to complete normal daily functions. Of course that was not an option in my mind, especially being I was nearing the end of this long journey, but the fear of what could be was now there. For a week, until my next appointment, we were anxious over this. At my next visit, we go into the high-risk doctor's office and he says, "Of course your labs came back abnormal, you are having three babies. There is nothing normal about that!" But of course, once the concern was already in my head, I wasn't just going to forget about it overnight. There were so many little incidents that just added stress to my already stressful pregnancy. I had the doctor's assistant call me and say they were concerned how low my iron was and then she said they needed to take more blood to check to see if I had a certain type of anemia. When I asked her what that was, her response was, "Hang on a second, let me check WebMD." How reassuring! As we were getting closer and closer to my 37th week (the furthest I was allowed to go), I asked at each appointment when we could schedule my c-section. I was anxious to know when I would meet these three miracles!! Each week the regular doctor said I needed to ask the high-risk doctor and the high-risk doctor said I needed to ask the regular doctor. Finally at one appointment, probably during my 33rd week, a doctor walked in that had some answers!! It was my first appointment with her and I knew she knew what she was talking about. When I asked her about scheduling my c-section, she immediately pulled out the scheduler and was getting it planned. My mom always tells me, "There are signs all around, you just have to see them." Well, what happened next had to be a sign. The doctor tells me, that my exact due date, when they would schedule me to have these babies, was May 25th. This was 6 years TO THE DAY that my father passed away in the SAME hospital where I would be having the triplets. If that's not a sign that he was there keeping me and those babies safe, I don't know what else is. As we all know, we didn't quite make it to that day, but it was just amazing to me that of the 365 days in the year 2011, May 25th would be my chosen day- the day  I could safely have my babies.