What do an ELEPHANT and I have in common!!!

 

 

  Well we both have ridiculously LONG pregnancies or at least my size makes me appear that I am pregnant for a long time.

A little background…. I originally thought that elephants were pregnant for 52 weeks but after some research I have found that they are pregnant for MUCH LONGER!! They are pregnant for 24 months which breaks down to 96 weeks!! I don’t know about you other ladies out there but I WOULDN’T want to trade pregnancies with an elephant.

   Anyway back to the point… I am sure with seeing my belly pictures you can see that I am as BIG as a house! Little did I know that I have surpassed the size of a “normal” pregnancy which stops at 40 weeks. I was measured this past Friday and I am measuring 46 weeks! All I can do is laugh and thank the Lord for blessing me with being pregnant this long! Because most triplet pregnancies are over by now. And I have been very blessed with minimal issues and trips to the hospital triage.

   Speaking of TRIAGE… We seem to visit about every 3 weeks and this past Monday was about 3 weeks. This is what happened…..

    All day I had quite a few braxton hicks. Then around 6:50 I started having pain along with the braxton hicks around 7:50 I started tracking them on a contraction counter and called my wonderful friend who is an RN. We continued to watch them and decided to head to the hospital at 9. Long story short I am very  very minimally dilated. The wonderful Dr. decided to go ahead and administer the shot to help develop the babies lungs along with some blood work and did a test to see if the babies will be coming in the next 2 weeks. The test came back negative which is good (woo hoo)! She also prescribed a medicine to help take the edge off from the contractions it will not stop them but certainly make them a little easier to endure. I took some that night and haven’t had to take any since them the contractions have stopped all together which is absolutely wonderful!! God is so Good!

   When we went back to the hospital yesterday to get the 2nd dose of the shot I spoke with the Dr. and she said that sometimes it can have good effects and stop it ALL together! So I guess so far that is what it has done! Thank You Lord!  So the plan is still on for us to make it until August 23rd (36 weeks). Less than 3 weeks to go!

  On another note I had a BPP ultrasound on Friday which I will be having every Friday until we deliver and the boys scored perfectly! They all almost 4 pounds each! Ross is exactly 4 pounds, Drake, & Jake are 3.11 and 3.12. So only a few ounces behind Ross. We are praying for each baby to be 5 pounds each, I guess we will just have to wait and see! 

I hope everyone is doing well!

Belly Pictures for weeks 28-32

   WOW! I can’t believe that we are already to 32 weeks these babies are going to be here before we know it! To be honest we are getting a little nervous and scared!

  Things have changed so much in the last few weeks to start my belly is HUGE!!!!  And as you can imagine now that it is so BIG the wonderful marks of pregnancy have appeared …. yep “STRETCH MARKS!” It’s something all mothers know of but prefer not to speak of! I don’t have too many right now but I am SURE they will only get worse! I really didn’t notice them at first because we don’t have a full length mirror at the new house yet and I can’t see anything past my belly button. But once I saw them I was somewhat sad. I must have been delusional to think that I would only get minimal marks carrying triplets!

   The other BIG change is at my 29 week Dr. appointment I was told that we needed to start thinking of a C-section date. At first I wanted to pick the furthest date possible saying that they will come when they come but, after speaking with our Dr. we decided on an earlier date at 36 weeks, because of all the risks of carrying them past 36 weeks. As you can imagine we were nervous about deciding to take them so early but the Dr. said pending an serious issues the babies may be able to come home with us or spend no more than 2 weeks in the NICU, of course we know it’s all up in the air until they arrive.

   But our  official c-section date is August 23, 2011. So pending any surprises that will be their birthday! Two days after their Daddy’s and 16 days before their Big Brother’s. So I will have 4 boys under 2 years old when they are born! CRAZY!!!

Here are the last few weeks belly pictures…Click here, here, and here if you want to see previous belly pictures.

28 Weeks : 42 1/4 inches around

29 Weeks: 42 1/4 inches around

30 Weeks: 43 3/4 inches around

• Try to over look the fact that we don’t have switch plates yet we are still putting the finishing touches on the house.

31 Weeks 43 3/4 inches around

 

32 Weeks 45 inches ( yes you read correctly!)

 

I can literally feel my belly stretch and grow it is not as painful as it is ITCHY!!! I know I am getting close to surpassing my height at 17 inches left and 27 days left!

A Triplet Baby Shower!

  On July 10 some wonderful friends and family threw me a beautiful baby shower!

• They even displayed some of the gifts that were sent early beautifully!

   The shower had some surprises as well! My Aunt Laurie and cousin Alana as well as my S-I-L Sarah and her three sweet babies drove the long distance to come to the shower. It was wonderful to be able to share the day with them!

  It was rather funny to try and maneuver ALL the adorable outfits and gifts  around my belly! Along with the fact that EVERYTHING came in 3’s!  and I only have two arms so I used my belly as an extra arm!

 

 

 

 

   I was truly over whelmed by the generosity of my family, friends, and church family!  I received LOTS of necessities, adorable clothes, and of course ……

LOTS and LOTS of DIAPERS!!

  People were even sweet enough to remember Willie and got him a matching outfits to go with his brothers! This is just one!!

Here are a few pics from the shower…

Of course once the festivities were over William & Willie had to come and check out all our new goodies!

 

Thank You so much everyone for coming and for all these wonderful gifts! I feel blessed to have all of you in my life!

What’s Up With Willie?

  I have noticed that since I have been pregnant with the triplets I haven’t posted much about Willie. So here is a little update of our sweet Willie Boy!

   To start he is FAR from being a baby anymore! He is in FULL toddler mode, at 22 months! I know lucky us! But with all the challenges that come with having a toddler come the sweet surprises as well!

  He has become quite a chatter box! He has the sweetest names for his cousins; he loves them ALL so much!! He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse “mee meee” and knows what he likes and dislikes (mostly things that I ask him to do)

   I love being able to wake up and spend each and everyday with him! He is so sweet and FULL of love especially for his DADDY!!! He has SERIOUS “Daddyitous!” It just melts my heart in the evenings when he hears the door open and runs straight to his daddy yelling “Daddy! Daddy!” I am not quite sure how William is going to pick up ALL FOUR boys as they greet him each evening in the coming years!

   This summer Willie has adjusted well to moving to a new house; which I am sure the new pool helped. He has been such a good helper helping his daddy any chance he can! We just hope he adjusts well to his 3 new baby brothers just as well!

  This past month we started swim lessons! He has really enjoyed them since he learned how to follow his instructors rules. It has amazed William and I how much he has learned not just in his ability to swim, since he still needs to learn how to pick his head out of the water when he swims. But mostly the pool safety skills! We couldn’t be more proud of him. He is definitely our little fish! He would swim ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT if we would let him!

  I thank God everyday for blessing us with such a wonderful son! I will try to post more regularly about ALL 4 of my boys!

Here are a few pics of my handsome little man!

Belly Pictures for Weeks 25-27

Wow! Every week I don’t think I can get any bigger and sure enough I do get bigger. But no worries my OB reassured me that I will not only keep growing forward but I will start to grow wider from side to side. YAY! Wouldn’t that make you feel better??? I am sure by the end of this I will look like Gilbert Grape’s Mama and have to be lifted out of my bed by a crane! No in all seriousness I am just amazed at my body and how God has made it to grow to accommodate all these children. He just amazes me! These past few weeks have been busy ones. We moved into our new house (necessities only) the weekend of June 13. We spent two nights here and then headed up to White Springs for Camp Meeting. To be honest I was really worried about the heat this year, but it really wasn’t that bad.

   The Tuesday of that week we had our first trip to Labor and Delivery. You see on Monday I didn’t really feel Jake move and then all morning on Tuesday I didn’t feel him move either. So I asked another mother of  multiples what I should do and so I followed her tips and unfortunately I still didn’t feel him move. So I decided to give my Dr.’s office a call. Of course they said to head to L & D. I don’t know what it is this pregnancy but the thought of heading to L & D makes me literally sick to my stomach. I guess I am just afraid that they will sentence me to hospital bed rest or worse say the babies have to come early. Anyway I headed to Shands William met me there. To put it bluntly I had held it together quite well all the way to the hospital and even till I got to my little curtained room but as soon as the sweet nurse asked me to take a seat onto the bed I completely lost it!!! Once William calmed me down I got an up close experience to how many machines and other things I will be hooked up to when the time comes to be at the hospital. After about what felt like an ETERNITY they found Jake’s heartbeat after several attempts and failures. Apparently he wanted to scoot down by his brother Drake so every time I thought Drake was moving it was Jake as well. All in all we were happy to be sent home from the hospital.

   That Friday I had a Dr. appointment. My Dr. said I was doing wonderfully. I went over some questions I had like when should I expect to see things fall apart and she they may not that I may make it to 38 weeks….t WOOOO HOOO!!! But if things were to go south they will try to get me to 34 weeks. She did remind me that I have been placed on “moderate activity bed rest” which I try to follow. I would say overall we got GREAT news!

This week Willie has gotten another virus =( and so that has put a kink in packing up the other house. But I have been blessed to have a wonderful mother, mother in law, and best friend who have been helping me any way they can.

Here are the last few weeks of belly pictures. If you want to see where it started click here and here.

Week 25- 40 3/4 inches around

26 weeks- 42 inches around

27 weeks 42 inches around ( I guess the belly wanted to take a rest maybe I will start growing outwards sooner than I thought)

Belly Pictures for Weeks 22-24

   Hey there everybody! As promised here are the latest belly pictures. I think it is starting to growing twice as fast!!! I no longer have a belly button. William seems to think it is hilarious to push it like it is some form of doorbell to the triplets! Hahahaha can’t you hear my laughter! So far I have minimal pain even though I am sure there will be plenty to come as the weeks pass.

   I can’t believe I am 6 months pregnant already!! They will be here before we know it! It has been fun to watch my belly contour into different shapes as each of my sweet boys gets comfortable.  None of them have moved spaces too much though they like their little corners of my belly. I swear Drake is going to be quite a kicker (football / soccer) He really enjoys practicing on my bladder. His favorite time to practice is middle of the night! I guess that would be my only complaint lately is that I have been struggling with sleep. It seems like as soon as I get comfortable they decide to have a party!

Just as a reminder this is where I started from: The beginning of the belly…

This is where I am at now…

22 weeks: 39 1/4” around

23 weeks: 39 3/4” around

 

24 weeks: 40” around

 

    I only have 22 inches to go till I am just as big around as I am tall. Considering that I at best have 11 weeks left and I am growing roughly at 1/4” to 1/2” a week I am sure I will prove my hypothesis correct. I guess pray for my poor belly and skin! =(

21 Week Baby Update

   Hello Blog world!! I know it has been a few weeks things have been crazy! We have been working day and night on our house wait till you see the updated pics that I will be posting this week! Right now I want to update you on how the triplets are doing! I wanted to get these ultrasound pics up before I go and have another ultrasound next week. Anyway…

   I am proud to announce that we have FINALLY named Baby 2. Here are all 3 names :

Baby 1: Drake Robert Whitehurst

Baby 2: Jacob  (“Jake”) Jackson Whitehurst

Baby 3: Ross Charles Whitehurst

Here are their stats & pics from the 21 week ultrasound.

Drake (baby 1)- 13 oz.

Jake (baby 2)- 14 oz.

Ross (baby 3)-14 oz.

  It appears to me that Jake and Ross are stealing all the food! Poor Drake only gets their left overs. But in all seriousness they are all growing roughly at the same rate.

  Also I would like to note that YES I DID ask the ultrasound tech to double check to make sure that there wasn’t a little girl hiding in there. Unfortunately there isn’t but she reassured me that she will check every time we have an ultrasound. =) I am actually getting excited about having four boys; they are going to be so much fun!

  Anyway like I said I have another ultrasound next week so I will post those quicker since it almost took me a month to post these! I will also post weeks 22-24 belly pictures before the end of the week. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!