Our Triplets Pregnancy

Triplets Plate

While Ricki was pregnant with our triplets, we documented her progress on the Internet. Below are the actually progress reports we posted. Each week’s update contains sonograms, weight gain, and other pertinent information. Our early updates are short, but as we learned more about being pregnant with triplets our weekly updates became more informative.


6 Week sonogram of our fraternal triplets

This sonogram was taking the day we found out we were having triplets.

Triplets Sonogram 1
All Three at 6 Weeks – Fraternal Triplets

10 Week sonogram of our fraternal triplets

10 Weeks

13 Week Sonograms

13 weeks

17 Week Update and Sonograms

We found out the sex of our triplets today (11/18/96). We are having two girls and a boy (Lindsey, Hannah, and Zachary). The girls are in position Top and Bottom_Left and the boy is in the Bottom_Right position. To date they are approx. 6 inches long. Everyone is doing well, Ricki has gained 18 pounds. We video taped the sonogram today, therefore the still pictures are not that good. Also, Ricki got sick during the exam and we were unable to get a picture of the Top position girl.

19 Week Update – 12/2/96

No sonograms taken today, but everyone is doing great. All three heartbeats were around 150-160 bpm. Ricki has gained 21 pounds to date and is approaching the size of a single full term pregnancy (we still have four months to go!). We are hoping to make it to 36 weeks, which would be the first week in April. It is most likely that she will go on total bed rest before the end of the year. Her back has been bothering her since she’s never weighed this much before. She still has cases of morning sickness (although it happens at anytime of the day). That’s it for today, hope to have the 21 week sonogram pictures available in two weeks.

21 Week Update – 12/16/96

Ricki has gained 24 pounds to date, she is averaging 3 pounds biweekly. All three babies and the mommy are doing great. The doctor estimates the babies are approximately 12 ounces each, which is around the size of a single nineteen week pregnancy. The babies have rearranged in Ricki’s uterus. If you look back at the 13 week sonograms they were positioned in the shape of a triangle (one on top, two on the bottom). Now they are positioned in the shape of an upside-down triangle with the boy at the bottom and the two girls on the top. Also, two of the babies are in the breach position, but since Ricki is having a C-section that should not cause any problems.

Location

23 Week Update – 12/30/96

No sonograms taken today, but everyone is doing great. All three heartbeats were around 150-160 bpm. Ricki has gained 26 pounds to date, up 2 pounds from last update. Ricki thought she felt some contractions over the weekend so the doctor prescribed her medicine (Brethine) to prevent contractions. She will probably stay on this medicine for the next 3 months. Also, over the weekend she started to feel the babies kick. With three babies in there she has 6 arms and 6 legs to feel moving. Ricki is now on bed rest and only gets out of bed for a few hours each day, mostly to check her email and eat.

Happy New Year – 1997 is going to be an exciting year for us. Looking back to January 1st 1996 our New Year’s Resolution was for Ricki to become pregnant. We never could of imagined the year we had. After each month of infertility treatment passes you begin to wonder if it every going to happen. And when it finally does happen to receive a miracle of three babies. It was definitely a roller coaster year. We can’t wait for March/April to arrive and we can start being parents to our three lovely children. 1997 is going to be a year to never forget in our household.

25 Week Update – 1/13/97

Tons of sonograms taken today. The technician spent a long time measuring the babies and examining their hearts. Everything looked excellent! They estimate from the size of the babies leg bones that they each weigh 1 pound 11 ounces. Ricki has gained 31 pounds to date, up 5 pounds from last update. She is on total bedrest, except when she gets up to check her e-mail. All three babies have been kicking and moving a lot.

Sonogram of right upper triplet (Lindsey)

Picture shows her head and you can almost make out her hand touching her chin.
You can see her knees and legs.

Sonogram of left upper triplet (Hannah)

She is face down and you can see her backbone. She is the kicker and mover of the bunch.

Sonogram of lower triplet (Zachary)

Shows him sucking his thumb.
Well, its a boy!

27 Week Update – 1/27/97

No sonograms taken today, but everyone is doing great. Ricki has gained 34 pounds to date, up 3 pounds from the last update. She felt one Braxton-Hicks contraction this week, but this type is no reason to be concerned. Today she had a glucose test for gestational diabetes and we should have the results in a few days. Other than the babies kicking like crazy, the only problem she’s having is back pain from the weight gain.

1/28/97 Update

We got the test results back today. Ricki barely failed her glucose test and is scheduled for further tests this Friday. I will post the new results when we get them.

2/3/97 Update

Ricki had a three-hour doctor visit on Friday. She had to drink a sugar solution and then give blood every hour. We haven’t heard from the doctor, so we assume she passed this time. We studied hard for this one 🙂

29 Week Update – 2/10/97

Just a few sonogram pictures taken today. Ricki was uncomfortable laying on the table for a long period of time. Everything looked excellent! Ricki has gained 38 pounds to date, up 4 pounds from last update.

Zachary – estimated weight – 3 lbs 3 oz
Lindsey – estimated weight – 2 lb 9 oz
Hannah -estimated weight – 2 lb 5oz

(These pictures are not as clear as the earlier ones. The technician seemed to be in a rush since there were three other couples expecting triplets and one couple expecting quintuplets waiting to be scanned.)

31 Week Update – 2/24/97

We weren’t scheduled for an ultrasound today, but the doctor asked the technician to scan Ricki anyway. Everything looked great, all of the heartbeats were between 130-150 bpm. The only concern the doctor had was that Ricki’s blood pressure was a little high. He asked us to return Thursday for a blood pressure check-up. She has gained 45 pounds to date, up 7 pounds from last update.

Zachary – estimated weight – 3 lbs 6 oz
Lindsey – estimated weight – 3 lb 6 oz
Hannah -estimated weight – 3 lb 1oz

Ricki feels a few contractions each day (plus a lot of kicking), but the doctors believe her prescribed medicine (2.5mg of Brethine every four hours) will continue to keep the contractions under control. She is also continuing to take her pre-natal vitamins and iron supplements each day. We are starting to get anxious. We would love to keep them inside until they are over five pounds each.

2/27/97 Update

Ricki’s blood pressure was normal today.

Position of  triplets in uterus. 
Sonogram of Lindsey – Her head on the left with her feet and hands in the air
Sonogram of Hannah – Her head on the right
Sonogram of Zachary – His head on the right with his hand touching his chin.

32 Week Update – 3/3/97

No sonograms taken today, but everyone is doing great. Ricki has gained 47 pounds to date, up 2 pounds from the last update. We are now going to the doctor twice a week, our next visit is Friday. Her blood pressure and protein level were normal today, and all three heart beats were pumping away. All three have been kicking and moving around like crazy (it’s fun to watch her stomach “do the wave.”) The only problem she’s having is back pain from the weight gain. She is going twice a week to neuromuscular therapy to help alleviate it. She has been drinking a lot of water, this seems to help reduce the number of contractions. I pack her lunch each morning since it is getting harder for her to prepare her own.

The weather here in Jacksonville has been gorgeous (mid 80’s). We had to go shopping this weekend to get her some shorts. With the weather being so nice, Ricki is spending time sitting on the patio watching our golden retriever play. Anything to get out of bed!

We are still hoping for April babies.

32 Weeks 1 day – The Birth

3/5/97

8:00 am

Ricki woke up this morning with some bleeding. I rushed her to the Labor and Delivery and she was 3-4 cm dilated. All three babies heart beats were fine and she was placed on a contraction monitor. The doctor gave her a steroid shot (to help the babies lungs mature) and put her on magnesium sulfate to slow down the contractions. He feels we might have 48 hours before the cesarean is scheduled. This should give the steroids time to work. I will keep you informed.

11:30 pm

I went home at 4:00 pm to let our dog out and eat some dinner. Ricki called me at 6:00 pm and told me “they’re coming.” I rushed to the Hospital; she was 6 cm dilated and everybody was waiting for me to arrive before they started the C-section. The C-section went smooth and at 7:31, 7:32, and 7:33 we became parents (8 weeks premature).

Everybody is doing great!

parents
Proud Parents