Late January – May
For the very first few weeks, before we knew about the trio, I was ravenous. I recall some nights when Ben and I would have our time to relax and watch Netflix after Elise went to sleep where I would snack so hard, I knew he was mortified. Too nice to say it, but it was clear in his eyes.
After maybe 6-7 weeks I started having the familiar feeling of constant yuck. Waking up and vomiting, vomiting if you don’t eat soon enough, not eating because you feel like vomiting… wanting absolutely nothing to eat. This plus working nights, gah! Forget it. It straight up sucked. When we found out there was three, I was finding little ways to cope, getting by every day, but surely not eating the recommended 4000 calories a day(ha!). And I wanted crap. Soda made me feel better. Bagels lasted a good while. Greek salads and mozzarella sticks. Never meat. Mexican food always appeals to me.
We had our initial consult at MFM on March 23rd. We met with Dr Litton, who reminded me that my three little parasites would just get glucose from me any way possible, whether I was eating or not.
We learned that despite being high risk, the chorionicity and amnionicity was tri/tri – meaning each baby had their own placenta and their own amniotic sac. This eliminates a slew of issues that other types of multiples can develop when sharing a cord or placenta. It also meant they were fraternal, unless by the slightest chance they all split from one egg early and implanted separately. There was a brief mention of selective reduction… but for whatever reason, I was given these three babies and if they were doing fine, I would carry them as long as I could.
I pushed through every day, finding that I already needed to nap at work instead of taking a 30-minute meal break. I also had to give up a lot of the extra shifts I had signed up for and let my boss know pretty quickly in order to do so. After about 12-14 weeks I felt mildly less fatigued and sick, but still vomited every morning, still had no appetite for healthy food. I made it to work… and tried to sleep. I started feeling more and more like physical activity was getting impossible by Elise’s birthday when I chased her around open gymnastics. The pain in my pelvic area and back was getting increasingly bad, and the stretching feeling in my abdomen was unreal.
By 14 weeks, I was as big as I was around 20 or more weeks with Elise, half-way to full term. I started working just in the CCN (more growing and feeding babies than tiny and sick ones) because my brain was a complete fog most of the time. Then I cut down my hours slightly at the end of May, and figured I could tough it out until the third trimester came along.
We also had a guess on genders in May. The crazy part was it was done first, by Elise. The night before an ultrasound she was in the tub, Ben and I were both in the room with her and trying to talk about the babies a little (she ignored most conversation about it for a long time). She wasn’t really talking to us or doing anything, but turned around and pointed at my belly and just said, “That’s my brothers.” and kept on about playing with her toys.
The next morning, we found out she was right. It was an early guess, but the tech was pretty sure I had a belly full of boys.
Lisey Plus Three 