Alexis, Jack, and Faith were born at 31 weeks and 2 days gestation, which is about average for triplets. Their early arrival was traumatic for me as although we knew that they would be premature, for the most part everything about my pregnancy had been going smoothly. For a long time, it was hard for me to talk about the birth of Alexis, Jack, and Faith as there were so many negative emotions attached to the events leading up to their delivery and our time in the NICU (you can read the birth story
here and there are many subsequent posts about our time in the NICU).
Thankfully, this past Monday was the 31 week 2 day mark for this current pregnant and I am quickly approaching 32 weeks! It was odd to look at Alexis, Jack, and Faith on Monday and know that they were the same size (but most likely smaller) as the baby in my tummy right now when they were born. And the most amazing part is that they have zero signs of being premature today.
I am hopeful that this current pregnancy and birth will be a healing experience for me. We are optimistic that this baby will be full term and I am planning on a VBAC (the hospital where Alexis, Jack, and Faith were born would only do a C-section for triplets). I have been doing a lot of research to increase my chance for a successful VBAC, and during my research I have been surprised several times by stories that have brought the emotions from my first pregnancy and birth to the forefront. I find myself mourning over what I missed the first time around as I read about "normal" birth stories and the related feelings of bliss and immediate connection with their newborn. As I said, the birth of our trio was traumatic for me, and it took months for me to truly bond with Alexis, Jack, and Faith for a variety of reasons (they were in the NICU for the first 6-8+ weeks of their lives, they were tiny and fragile, AND I was trying to bond with three babies at once).
During this pregnancy I was originally seeing the OB that I went to for my triplet pregnancy, but I decided to switch to a midwife (which also resulted in me switching hospitals) when I was around 28 weeks gestation. After finding out that 2 of the 8 doctors in my OB's practice did not support VBACs, I felt that my chance of having an unsupportive doctor during labor was too high. Plus, the last appointment I had with my OB left me feeling like I wasn't going to have the birth I am hoping to have, so I talked to a few friends about midwives and decided to make the switch. I will still be delivering at a hospital, I will just have a midwife attending the birth instead of an OB (but there will be an OB available in case I have to have a C-section).
Before switching to the midwife, we did have one scare related to our baby's health. I had to get a second anatomy scan around 25 weeks as the placenta was close to my cervix during the 20 week ultrasound and the doctor wanted to follow up. Although the placenta had moved to a better position, the doctor now thought that a portion of our baby's brain was missing! I had to get a fetal MRI so that the doctor could get a better picture of the brain. Thankfully, the "missing" part is in fact there, but for about 10 days we lived with a lot of uncertainty. Although we know that doctors must let a patient know if they see something concerning, this experience made us feel like the less interaction with doctors the better during this pregnancy as it does feel like doctors are often trying to find something wrong. After we found out that our baby was healthy, I made the switch to the midwife.
I have also decided to hire a doula, which I'm quite excited about. A doula is a non-medical person who is trained to assist during childbirth. Our doula won't replace Micah, but instead she will be a support to both of us. I believe that switching to a midwife and hiring a doula will increase my chance for a successful VBAC, which is important to me.
So far this pregnancy has been so much more bearable than my triplet pregnancy. I know now that I am NOT one of those women that enjoys being pregnant as I definitely have my fair share of complaints (heartburn, feeling big and awkward as I gain weight and my belly grows, constantly feeling hungry, feeling more tired, and catching every sickness since my immune system isn't working that well), but compared to my triplet pregnancy this is a breeze! I could hardly walk around the block in the final weeks of my triplet pregnancy, and I still manage to get in about 10,000 steps a day with this pregnancy. I am not "working out" as I would have hoped, but taking care of Alexis, Jack, and Faith and our house means I take a lot of steps during the day. During my triplet pregnancy my heartburn was horrible even when eating bland foods, but during this pregnancy it's more manageable (although it is starting to get a little worse as time goes on). My chiropractor, acupuncturist, and massage therapist were a part of my regular routine during my triplet pregnancy, but I've only been to the chiropractor a few times, my massage therapist once, and I haven't seen my acupuncturist at all this pregnancy. One ailment I had forgotten about during my triplet pregnancy was tailbone pain. I could hardly sit in a normal chair for an extended period of time because the pain was so bad. This time I haven't felt even the tiniest bit of pain in my tailbone (knock on wood!).
Another major difference between the two pregnancies is the amount of time I've spent preparing for the baby. Of course we didn't have any baby stuff before having triplets so I spent a lot of time researching gear and shopping consignment sales for clothes. I also spent a lot of time getting the nursery ready for their arrival. This time, though, I have only bought a $2 pair of Christmas PJ's on clearance for next year, a baby book, a changing table, and a changing pad. Every time I think of something that we "need" we decide we will just wait until the baby gets here to decide if it's necessary. We borrowed quite a few things for our trio so we don't have all of the baby gear, and of course we had strollers appropriate for multiple babies not a singleton, but with our triplets we learned that a baby doesn't actually need that much. I also haven't spent any time preparing the baby's room, partly because we plan on putting him in our room for awhile and partly because I haven't had a lot of time to think about it between taking care of myself, taking care of Alexis, Jack, and Faith, and our various travels and other activities.
One thing I have done like my triplet pregnancy is take photos of my pregnant belly along the way. My last pregnancy post had photos through week 23
here, so following are the photos from weeks 24 through 31. The triplet pregnancy photos are on the left and the current pregnancy is on the right.
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| 24 weeks |
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| 25 weeks |
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| 26 weeks |
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| 27 weeks |
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| 28 weeks |
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| 29 weeks |
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| 30 weeks |
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| 31 weeks (vs. 30 weeks with triplets since this was the last photo I took) |
