Freckles

About a week ago Peter and I started noticing a couple little brown spots pop up on Abbi's arms and face. Turns out this girls got a case of the freckles. We are surprised that Abbi has the freckles when Brye with her red hair doesn't. Everyday it seems that there is a new little freckle waiting to be noticed. We point them out to Abbi and she just laughs. She is such a cutie pie!

Cleaning the house

In between the rain drops today the girls and I spent most of our time outdoors. In the morning they helped me plant some flowers in my very neglected garden. I was so happy to have the help. My poor garden hasn't been touched in months and there was a lot that needed to be done to it. Then later after the girls naps we all went out to the back and cleaned their house. I hadn't washed it since we moved it to the patio so it needed a good scrub down. Brye and Abbi were great help and they had fun "painting" the house with bubbles. They didn't stop there though, they went on to clean their slide and swing also. Now everything is sparkling for our guest to come on Sunday for their party. I am so glad I have such good helpers. I just wish our real house was this quick and easy to clean. :)

All Done!!

Well after three full days of hard work, Judy finished up the backsplash today. She finished putting up all the tile yesterday and came back this morning to do all the grout. It was quite a messy job but when it was all finished up the kitchen looked beautiful. I cleaned up the counters and put my things back on there and the room looks so different! I just love the new look and am so happy we finally got the tile backsplash I have wanted for so so long! Now we just need to get those granite countertops in (okay so I guess I may have to wait a while for that). Judy did such a great job and the tile looks better than I could have ever imagined! The color in the small tiles really stands out next to all my cobalt blue pieces. After Judy finished the kitchen she even went and fixed a few tiles in our master bathroom. It's so great knowing people who know how to do these things. Thanks Dad and Judy I absolutely LOVE my new kitchen!!

Moving along

Judy came back today to do more work on our new tile backsplash. Yesterday she started on the main wall but had to work around where the design would be. Today after picking up what she needed she not only finished the design but also finished putting all the rest of the tile on the remaining walls including the trim. Tomorrow Judy will finish the job when she comes back to fill in all the grout. I think it looks great already, I can't imagine how great it will look when it is all finished up!

Big Changes for our Little House

Today my Dad and Judy came over to put up tile for our backsplash in the kitchen. My Dad pulled off our old backsplash and then Judy stayed and worked on the tile all day. She got most of one wall finished but we are putting up a design in the empty space so it is going to take a bit longer. When the old backsplash was pulled off it took parts of the wall too so Judy had to patch it and let it dry. She is coming back tomorrow to finish putting up the tile and then plans on grouting it all on Thursday. Even though there is quite a bit to be done still, the kitchen looks so different already. I love how it looks so far and I know once it is finished it will look so much better still. This picture was taken at the beginning of the job after the backsplash was pulled off but before the tile started going up.



On Sunday, while Peter and I were painting, our next door neighbor Gary, came over and talked to us for a while. Gary is a great neighbor, the kind that everyone dreams about. He fixed both our lawn mowers while we were away because "he was bored." He is always doing things to help us out and offering to do things we never even think of. He is great with the girls too and Brye just loves him (Abbi is kind of shy). Anyhow he saw we had a stump left over in the back yard from when my brothers came out and cleared our land a couple years ago. Gary told his friend who does stump grinding on the side and got us a really low quote. We said yes and today his friend came over and in about 15 minutes the stump was gone! We are happy that is gone now, after staring at it for so long it's hard to believe it only took a couple days and 15 minutes to be done with it. Our backyard still needs a lot of work but things are definitely starting to fall into place.

Recovery: Three Weeks

It's been three weeks since my C-section and I know for sure that my body is healing now. I can get up easily and bend and sit and stand without any problems. I still feel pain at times if I move in a direction that pulls on my incision or if I have been up and walking for too long. I get a lot of pain in my back when I do too much but once I lay down for a while it feels better. I still try and take it easy for the most part but I am definitely starting to get back to normal. I am not aloud to exercise of course and I still can't lift heavy things (including the children) and at times it is frustrating. I have been helping out more around the house which makes me feel a bit better so Peter doesn't have to do it all. I still can't vacuum or sweep and it hurts to wash the girls hair because I have to bend over for too long. I'm getting better slowly, but I am getting better. I still remember the pain being so bad that it seemed like I would never get over it, I am so happy that stage is over.

Wow, Look at him go!

Poor Peter, he worked all week and finally had a day off and what do I recommend? Why painting the house of course. Yesterday our friend Kent came by and mentioned that he was suppose to paint his house today. That sounded good to me. Since we had the back patio poured I have wanted to have the paint touched up where there were grass stains and marks from the water runoff from the roof before we had our gutters put on. Since Peter had the day off I thought this was the perfect opportunity. Peter actually didn't put up a fight and with my help (I only did the areas I could do while sitting and didn't stretch to reach anything) we were done in no time. We did the entire back of the house where the patio goes up to and then Peter did the front porch by the door. In the picture he is getting the excess paint off the rollers, he didn't actually paint like that. Both areas look so much better, we haven't really painted or touched up any of the paint since we had the house built 4 years ago it was definitely time.

Whose Ready for Bed?

This is what happens when you put your blankets on the floor to wash the sheets.

Genius?

Today Brye asked me if I knew what 4 and 3 made. I said "hmm, no, I don't really know about that" she of course responded with "it makes 7!" I asked her who taught her that and she said "no one, I just knew it already." I don't know about you but I haven't heard of very many three year olds who teach themselves how to do math.

Pan-A-Cakes

This morning we all had a nice treat when Daddy made us pancakes for breakfast before he went off to work. The girls love pancakes so they were especially excited. Thanks Daddy, you are such a good cook!

Celebrate

Join us in the fun when we celebrate both Brye and Abbi's birthdays. The party will be on July 1st at 3:00. Hope to see you there!click on the image to see larger

Recovery: Two Weeks

Today marks two weeks since I had my surgery. The first week was really hard and the first part of the second week wasn't much better. Just in the last couple of days I have really felt a difference in my healing. I am able to move quite a bit more than I could before though there are still some movements that bring me pain. I have to be careful not to stretch or move in some ways because it pulls on my incision and feels like it is going to rip back open. I have lost about 28 pounds so far but I don't want to lose all the weight I gained (41 lbs.) since I was a little underweight to begin with. I don't go to the dr again for another 4 weeks when I will have my regular post partum checkup. Since I am finally starting to feel better I have hope that it won't be too much longer for my recovery. There are a lot of things I miss being able to do but I won't get the go ahead until I am 6 weeks post partum and my Dr says it's okay. I must say after all the pain I was in it feels like it was a lot longer than 14 days ago when I delivered, I am so happy I am starting to feel better finally!

Happy Father's Day

As most of you know we are very blessed to have the best Daddy in the whole world at our house. Today we celebrated Daddy and how great he is and how much we appreciate them. Peter is definitely the best Daddy but he is also the best husband too, me and the kids are so lucky to have him. We didn't do too much as I am still out of commission. We did make it out to have lunch with his father and see one of his brothers too. We didn't stay out too long as I wasn't feeling that great after a little bit and we also wanted to spend some time with just our family. I hope all you Dads out there had a great Father's Day also.

For the Birds

The girls spent a good part of the week with Grandma since I am still recovering from my surgery. They had lots of fun as always and one of the things they did was make bird houses. My mom found little kits that come with everything you need to make and paint the whole house. I wasn't there but I heard the girls had a great time and did a great job. You can see how hard they worked and also the finished product.

Cachers Care

I have many friends in the geocaching world and word seems to spread pretty quick when something exciting happens. It seemed that everyone knew that I was pregnant with triplets though I personally only told a handful of cachers. Every cacher has their own profile page where you are free to post whatever information you care to share. Most people put up info regarding their caching career and their finds and also their other hobbies. There is a section for latest news where you can post what is going on with you currently. I posted that I had the babies and am in recovery and I have had an overwhelming response from the caching community. Lots of cachers, some I have met some I haven't, have written me emails and sent well wishes. They all end their emails the same wishing me to be back on the caching trails soon. I love caching and though I am no condition to go out and make any finds just yet I love all the support I get from the other cachers in the area. The image is a snapshot of part of my profile page, you can click on it in order to read it clearly.

One Last Visit

This evening Rena and Reba came by. It was great to see them again. I was happy to hear from them saying they wanted to swing by as I am still in no condition to really go anywhere to meet people. We just hung out and talked a bit. Rena leaves on Saturday to move to Gainseville where she will start her residency at the local hospital. Hopefully we will see her more than we did when she was in Med school up in Buffalo. Reba got some time off work finally but she is spending in the Carollinas with some college friends. I was really happy to see them both and very appreciative for the drop in.

Recovery: Day 9

Yesterday was the first day that I actually started to feel better. My mom came over and helped with the house and watched the kids while Peter was at work. I was actually able to get up for a little bit and do a bit of walking. I thought that I was finally on my way to recovery but this morning I woke up and found my bandage over my incision filled with blood. I hadn't had much bleeding at all in the last couple of days so this alarmed me enough and I made a promise to Peter that I would call the doctor. I was really afraid to call because I didn't want any more pain inflicted on me and I was afraid of what they would say. So anyhow I finally got up the courage to call and they wanted me to come in today. They were worried that my incision was infected and they wanted to check it out right away. I had an appointment for this coming Monday but they said that was too long to wait. Peter closed his shop early and we went in to the Dr's office and had them check me out. They said everything looked good and that my bleeding was probably the result of a blood clot. They put new sutures on it where the old ones had dried and fallen off. They said I was good to go but where the incision had opened it would take longer to heal. Not really what I wanted to hear but I was too happy that it wasn't infected to care. So still recovering and I am starting to feel better but I still can't really do much of anything.

Underway

Last week while I was in the hospital Peter had teh backyard dug up and staked out for where we wanted our patio. The concrete guys came on Monday and worked through Wednesday to do the leveling, staking, and pouring. When I got home on Friday I was so excited to see it. It looks really great and now we are one step closer to getting our porch put on. That will be great so the girls can go out there and play and not get sunburned or bit up by the bugs. I have wanted a porch put on since we had the house built and we are finally getting closer. Peter took a couple pictures of the work so I could see it before I came home. We haven't taken pictures of the finished product yet but we can do that anytime. In these pics you can see where the concrete was going to be poured, from the corner of the house by the bay window to the end of house on the far side. Can't wait for the porch!!

Play Time

Since I am still pretty much confined to bed there isn't a whole lot I can do, including playing with the girls like I use to. Luckily my girls seem to be understanding to my situation and know that I can't do things like I once could. Instead they come up on the bed and sit with me and we play imaginary games where we eat all sorts of foods and pretend to be mermaids or other fictional characters. I love my girls and I am happy that I still get to play with them despite my circumstances. Soon we should be able to play like we use to but until than I can live with this arrangement.

Recovery: Day 6

It's been almost a week since my surgery and I can honestly say, I don't feel much better than I did on Day 3 (Day 2 was by far the worst). It is still really painful to get up and move, more so in the morning. I have pain killers that take away some of the pain but not all and they make me really dizzy so it is hard to do anything after I take them anyhow. Yesterday was nice, I just rested all day while the girls were at Kim's and Peter was at work. Today Peter is off and the girls are home. I like to have Peter home because he takes care of me but it is hard because I want to get up and help him with things that I just can't do. I have been pumping milk, which I plan on donating to a milk bank that gives it to NICUs around the nation, and this has helped to shrink my uterus back to it's normal size. I can tell that it is getting smaller because I can actually see my incision now whereas before my belly was still too big to see beneath. It is really good to be home and so much more comfortable than the hospital. My cat, Lucy, really missed me and hasn't really left me alone since I have gotten back. It's good to have her again but she is leaving fur everywhere because she hasn't been petted in a while. I never did get to see the babies and the IP's never did say so much as a "thank you" but I can't rely on the world to give me the justification that I need. Thank you all once again for all your prayers and well wishes, hopefully I will be feeling better soon.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Today was Abbi's second birthday!! She is so big, I can't believe it was two years ago when we first brought her home. She really has a great personality and she melts the heart in everyone she meets. Abbi is really lovey and loves hugs and kisses. She is also such a girl, she loves play jewelry and pretty dresses. Also Abbi is going to make a great Mommy because she takes such great care of her baby doll that she sleeps with every night. Today was my first day out of the hospital but we had to celebrate this great milestone. Peter and I got some gifts for Abbi and my mom made a pretty table to open them up and eat cupcakes. Papa made the cupcakes and my mom and Abbi put on the frosting and sprinkles and of course had a taste too! We got Abbi a few things just she had something to open and Grandma got her a slip and slide because she loved the one that was at Grandma's house, now she has one for home too! We plan on having a party for the girls later on when we will have some fun with all our friends too. Tonight the girls are staying at Miss Kim's house and after work tomorrow Peter will pick them up. I will be staying at home for the first time in a month and just resting in bed, I am really looking forward to that. Happy Birthday Abigails, Mommy and Daddy love you so so much!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives, a true testimony to how much God Loves us, he must if he gave us such a wonderful girl.

After all the fun of gifts and cake, Grandma wrote on a couple of balloons and the girls released them into the air outside. Maybe we will hear from someone who finds one.

Good Bye Hospital!!

Last night I was discharged from the hospital and it was nice to be leaving there once again. Though my stay this time wasn't as long as the last time I was there, this trip was much more painful. We went over to my mom's house since she is close by and that is where a lot of stuff was and also our little girls. Today we will head home but first we have to celebrate our youngest second birthday!! Abbi is such a big girl now, I can't believe she is already two years old (time for another one I guess). I will post pictures later of her and whatever it is we choose to do today. I am still in so much pain and can hardly move but I am sure there will be some cake and perhaps some presents for Abbi. Later this month or perhaps the beginning of next month when I am feeling better we are going to have a joint birthday party for Brye and Abbi since Brye's birthday is next month. This way they will get to see all their friends and have a real celebration. Just hope I feel better by then.

A Little bit of Brightness

Yesterday my mom came to see me here in the hospital, she brought me presents which is always exciting. I got chocolate from Godiva and some new jammies and nice smelly good lotions too! She gave me a foot rub and it felt really good. I had wanted to walk down to the Baby Place nursery to see all the newborns but I just didn't have the strength. Maybe I will today. My Father-in-law came by also and brought me pretty flowers, I was really excited as I love flowers! Also I had a deliverer come by the room and bring me flowers that were sent from the Surrogacy Agency with a balloon too. I was really happy to have some brightness in my room, it was kind of bleak before. Hopefully I will be sent home today, we are still waiting to be seen by the doctor so he can discharge me, he will probably come by after his office closes this evening.

**Update** Just saw the Doctor and he said I am good to go just as soon as the nurse comes in and removes all my staples. While we were waiting for him to come by today we had some visitors. Yay!! Ruth came by with her friend, Nye (spelling??) and they brought me Orchids, so pretty!! While they were here Rena came too and hung out with us through dinner. We got up and saw all the babies in the newborn nursery, they were all so sweet. Thanks guys for coming out to see me, next time you can come to the house instead of the hospital, that will be nicer.

At least now I am clean

Well, I took a big step today and got up to take a shower. I was in so much pain I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I spent most of the time just praying to God to give me strength. Peter helped me a lot (just like always) and took good care of me. I am trying so hard to do things myself because I know I need to eventually but it is so nice to have him here to help. He put the shampoo and conditioner in my hands and handed me wash clothes and took my bandages as I peeled them off. Thank goodness for those bars in the showers, it helped relieve the weight and stress off my belly at times. The Dr said that my pain is so great because I had triplets. Most of what I have been feeling is cramping due to my uterus contracting back to it's normal size. In a singleton birth your uterus grows to 1000x it's normal size, I have no idea how big it gets with trips. By the end of the shower I had to sit down, I was hurting so much and could barely move. I still have the IV in my arm though it is not connected to anything and they had to tape it up for my shower. When the nurse finally got the IV in my arm on Monday it ended up being where they normally draw blood on the otherside of your elbow, so when they wrapped it up today I couldn't bend my arm and that made it pretty hard in the shower. I can't imagine why anyone would prefer to have a c-section rather than trying for a natural birth. After I had Abbi I was up and walking right after delivery but now it is so painful to even readjust myself on the bed. I can't wait to go home, I am not in the maternity ward so the nurses don't really come to check on me or give me help with my mobility. Thankfully Peter is here and he helps me out. I had to ask if it was okay for me to start moving whereas normally the nurses would be encouraging me to get up and moving. So anyhow I had a really hard time this morning but At Least now I am Clean. Hopefully I will be going home tomorrow.
Peter took the picture with his camera phone from my hospital window. It's nice to be able to see some flowers. I haven't gotten any this time around but I can still enjoy the ones from my window. My Dad came by to see me yesterday which was a nice surprise and then later Michael and Angella came over and brought me chocolate (I missed it so much) and then proceeded to make me laugh a lot which hurt really bad. Thanks for coming guys I really enjoyed the company (even if it was painful)!

My Labor Story

I am not sure exactly what everyone has heard so I figured I would fill everyone in with my side of the story...

Yesterday around 12:30 pm I ate lunch and brushed my teeth and had my mom braid my hair (which I am so happy she did as it stayed out of my way the whole night). Peter came and got me after dropping off the girls and then we went to my Dr appointment at 1:30. When I got to the office it was like any other visit. All the nurses said hello and we talked about little things and then I was called back for my ultrasound. This week we were going to measure all the babies again to make sure they were all growing right and then check my cervix to see how long it was. We always start with Baby A as she is lowest and usually the hardest one to measure. The tech started off and right away she said "I can't get a heartbeat for A" I didn't think anything of it as A was always moving around so much and so squished in there that sometimes you had to get her to come out. I said "Oh she's just hiding in there" but the tech pointed to the screen and said "no, there's her heart but there is no heartbeat." At first I didn't know what to say, I think was just in denial because I didn't want to believe her. Then I got really upset because she wasn't doing anything to help her. I didn't understand why she wasn't taking some action to get her back but then it dawned on me that A just didn't make it and she wasn't going to come back. After that I was just really sad. The rest of the visit was a blurr. I cried the whole time but I had to stay there and let the tech take the measurements of the other two babies and then go back to A and take pictures for the Dr. I couldn't help crying and all I wanted to do was go home and be alone. I had to finish the appointment and have my cervix checked and it was pretty close to where it was two weeks ago. The Dr came in and talked to me about what usually happens at this point when a baby dies of Twin to Twin Transfusion (this is the same problem we had before when I had to go through the amniocentesis). He said there was a chance that baby B could die also because A was no longer giving any resistance and they shared a placenta. Peter and I stayed in a Consult room for a couple of hours and the Dr tried to find me room at the hospital so we could deliver in the morning. Finally the hospital said they had room in the NICU for the babies and we were free to leave the office and head over for the night. It was about 6:30 when we got to the hospital. They took me in pretty quickly and put me in triage. I had to wait a while for them to come and hook me up and I told Peter that I hoped they hurried because I was feeling a lot of contractions and I wanted to see them on the monitor. The nurse came in and got the heartbeats for B and C and then put the contraction monitor on and then left the room. Peter left to go to mom's and get some of my things and also to pick up some dinner since I hadn't eaten since lunch. While he was gone the nurse came in and told me I was having contractions pretty regularly and to give myself a boost of terbutaline (the pump in my leg) to calm them down. After about another half hour she came back in and asked if she could do an exam because my contractions had calmed a little but were still regular. I said that was fine and by the time I was ready Peter had returned and the Dr showed up. He did the exam expecting me to be about 1 cm dilated as I was three weeks ago but found me to be about 4-5. As most of you know you are ready to push at 10cm so the dr immediately called for an emergency c-section and they started prepping me for the procedure. The contractions were getting a lot stronger and it was really hard for me not to cry out in pain. The nurse tried four times to put in IV in before she finally got it. By this time I was in a lot of pain and the contractions were really strong and about 2 minutes apart. The anesthesiologist came up to talk to me about getting a spinal and I could barely listen to him. It seemed like forever but they finally pushed me into the operating room where they had me sit up on the edge of the bed so they could numb me. I have had an epidural before and spinals are similar but they don't leave a catheder in your back and the medicine takes effect immediately. Once they put the spinal in they helped me lie back down on the operating table because my legs were already getting numb. They had me take off all my jewelry and glasses and I had to lay on my back with my arms stretched out to the sides. Once they got the drapes up and incision site cleaned and prepped Peter was aloud in to be with me. The IM of the babies had also made it there after the dr called to tell her we had to deliver now. She was in the operating room also and was being very supportive. I could feel tugging and pulling on the otherside of the curtain, someone asked if I could feel any pain and I said no and asked if they had started. Apparently they had and that was a really strange feeling. The doctor took out all three babies in about 5 minutes and then proceeded to take out the placentas and sew me up. I felt movement but there was no pain.
Once I was cleaned up they sent me back to the Labor/Recovery room where I stayed until about 5:30 in the morning when they moved me into my own room. I didn't get much sleep as the girl that was next me apparently had a bad delivery and was in a lot of pain and then the girl next to her was getting prepped for her surgery and wasn't happy. I never got to eat my dinner Peter brought me but he brought me more for lunch today.
I am in bed and in pain with really bad cramps but I am trying to work through it and I have taken some pain killers. I heard that getting up and moving as soon as possible helps in the recovery so I got up with Peter's help and walked around my room a bit. When I felt more pain I returned to bed and sat down as I don't want to over do it. I never got to see the babies and the IPs may not let me at all. It's really sad to know I did everything I could for them for 8 months and I can't say good bye. It is their decision though and I will respect it though I don't understand it. I just really want to know if they are alright. The IP's haven't stopped in to see me and I don't know if they are going to. I know they must be devastated right now with the loss of their little girl and I don't even want to imagine being in their shoes. Please continue to pray for them and their new family.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers, calls, and emails. It is really helpful to know that everyone loves and supports me. I can't wait to go home, it will be almost four weeks that I have been there. Abbi's birthday is Friday also so I would like to be able to spend the day with my new two year old. Please continue to write to me it really helps lift my spirits. Emotionally I think I am kind of numb today. Yesterday was really long and I went through a lot, I think it has to catch up with me before I can start working through it.

Visitors!

Last night Michael and Angela came over and hung out for a while. It was a nice change of pace from the normal sitting there bored out of my mind that I have been doing. Earlier in the week Rena also came by and spent some time with me. While I was still at Dad's I saw Rena and Reba when they stopped by for a bit. It's always nice to see my friends and since I can't go see them I love how they are willing to come to me. Great seeing you all and hope you come again soon, or better yet, hope I can go see you soon!!