Its not house arrest, its a triplet pregnancy

In our initial consultation with the high risk OB we asked about physical restrictions and the possibility of bed rest.  He said something that turned out to be so very true.  "I don't need to give you any restrictions.  Do what you feel up to doing.  Your body will tell you when it needs to slow down."  And so it did.  In the early months when my mother would tell me to slow down, I reminded her of this conversation and insisted that there would come a time when I wouldn't be able to do so much, so let me do it now.

I was fortunate.  I never went on bed rest or had any formal restrictions, though sometimes my frequent appointments felt like a restriction!  Sure enough I did slow down.  I continued to work to the very end, but pretty much went to bed as soon as I got home.  I also began to park in a reserved spot very near my building at work, rather than the lot a block away because I'd be winded, in need of a nap and having back pain before I sent

my first email of the day.  I found that I felt up to getting out and doing things, like going to my older kids' track meets and an outdoor summer movie series and things of the like, but my limited energy, the summer heat and the 18 pounds of babies, plus placenta, etc I was carrying made walking too far pretty difficult.  My close parking spot at work inspired me to inquire about temporary handicap tags for my car.

Just prior to 32 weeks I asked my OB about this and couldn't believe how easy it was.  I wish I had swallowed my pride and asked sooner.  Their office submitted all the paperwork and in less than a week the tags were mailed to my door.  This allowed me to continue to go to my kids' track meets without using up all my energy on the walk from the far side of the parking lot.  It allowed me to continue with some sense of normalcy which was really important to me for the big kids.

I'm sure the process is a little different state to state, but I urge you to look into it.  I didn't want to be thought of as handicapped but I also didn't want to be under house arrest.  The temporary handicap pass gave me some freedom to get out and about in my final weeks of this triplet pregnancy.

oh snap!

There are many things I never even gave a second thought with my singletons.  One of them is snaps.  When you are have newborns and you're up a few times in the night x 3 babies you do not want to be snapping up the legs of tiny baby pajamas.  It just takes too long when you are doing three of them in an assembly line fashion and have 2 others waiting and sometimes screaming.  I've always found when someone is screaming is when I fumble most with snaps!

My advices:  in newborn and 0-3 month sizes go with zip up jammies or the elastic bottom gowns.  They save a bit of time that will quickly add up.  Now that mine are nearly 6 months and getting up less in the night, I have been putting them to bed in snap up pajamas on occasion but even now, still prefer zippers!

Back pain

I am told that as far as triplet pregnancies go mine was about as good as they get.  I only have 3 singleton's to compare it to and I can tell you it was certainly harder than those, but I do feel fortunate to   have had a pretty uneventful pregnancy.  I didn't have any swelling, I was never on bed rest, avoided gestational diabetes which I learned was very common in multiples.  I worked up until the day they were born and I even ran up until I was 20 weeks- because to that point I didn't know they were triplets and had run right up till the end with #3.  It was around 20 weeks though that I really "popped" and at that point my back began to hurt.

I had had back pain with some of my other pregnancies but certainly not this early on.  At 24 or 25 weeks I finally invested in a support belt.  I got one at Motherhood, but later on tried some others at my physical therapist's office and the Motherhood one ended up being the best for me.  The one I got had a pretty high back but was still flexible.  Since I sit pretty much all day at work, the more stiff ones that the physical therapist offered really didn't work for me.  They dug into me when I sat and I couldn't really bend at all, which was difficult with a toddler at home.  She agreed that this one was probably best for me.

Did it make my back magically 100% good as new?  No- but I was carrying triplets who ended up being nearly 18 pounds of baby in the end.  I did notice a difference when I wasn't wearing it for sure.  I think back pain is probably unavoidable when you are pregnant with multiples, but I did find a few things helped.

• Changing positions regularly- I could comfortably sit for 15 minutes then stand for a couple, then sit again, then walk around the office and make it through the day.  Since I had to go to the bathroom ALL the time, the short walk to the bathroom or the printer was usually enough for me at work.  At home I'd lie on my side whenever possible.
• Chairs with lumbar support- I explored a number of office chairs at work, and fiddled with pillows behind me at our dinning room table and when I was driving.  Even just sitting with my hand between my lower back and the chair helped. Be particular about where you chose to sit.  I avoided my couch for probably my last 3 months.  I actually missed it, but it was the worst place I found to sit.  There was nothing I could do to get comfortable there.  Benches without backs were also the enemy.
• Physical Therapy- I saw a physical therapist who specialized in high risk pregnancies once a week for my last 6 weeks of pregnancy.  She gave me stretches and did massage which did help. She also offered tips for C-section recovery and let me in some pool sessions.
• "Swimming"- lets be honest its really just floating, but the buoyancy in the water is great.  It took some weight off my poor back muscles.  I was pregnant in the summer and we have a cottage on a lake so I was lucky, but I also did a couple of sessions in the YMCA pool with my physical therapist and learned some water exercises I could do at the lake too.  My favorite thing to do was use a couple of noodles under my arms and just let the water support me.  I was afraid if I got into a tube or any sort of real floating lounge thing, I might never get out, so at least with the noodles I didn't risk that.
• Side sleeping.  On really bad days when I'd over do it and spend too long standing or walking, the only way I was somewhat comfortable was laying on my side.  The only problem here was if I did this for too long my hip and ribs would hurt!  I recommend fiddling with pillows, under the belly, between the legs etc.  I think its just trial and error.  What feels good to some people doesn't work at all for others.  I think it also depends on where your back pain is.  Mine was lower back mostly.  I found a pillow under my belly was too much, but the physical therapist suggested a towel or blanket because you can adjust the height depending on how you fold it.  This worked for me and then I usually did a pillow between my knees.  Some nights I'd put one kind of under my back.
• Stretching- this is important and unfortunately I didn't usually do it until I was already hurting.  I should have been better about staying on top of it.  Basic back stretches can be found anywhere, but I will share my favorite.  It requires a partner though.
• Lay flat on your back- when I did this you could put an arm between my lower back and the surface I was on because of the arch that had developed.  
• Get someone to gentle pick up your legs by the ankles and pull away from you.  When this happened the space between my back and the bed or table disappeared.  It doesn't take much.  I'd sometimes have my 9 year old do it for me.  If just for a couple of minutes everything was back in line the way it should be and it did provide some relief.
• Ice- I tried heat which felt good while it was on there, but the ice provide much more long lasting results.  I found that if I proactively iced rather than waiting till it got really bad, I could manage the pain much better.  I'd ice in the car on my way to work, then put my ice pack in the freezer and ice again at lunch time, and on the drive home.  Then at home I'd usually ice before bed.
• Massage- My older kids were actually pretty good about offering my back rubs when I was really sore.  They weren't by any means professional massage caliber but every little bit helps.  If someone offers- take it!

Must Read

If I go back and start at the very beginning, that is probably a very good place to start…  We did not find out it was a multiples pregnancy until my 20 week ultrasound.  We had the older kids with us to find out if #4 was a boy or a girl, within the first few seconds the ultrasound tech said, "There are two in there! No wait… there are 3!"  So at 20 weeks and 2 days we suddenly had a lot to do and we would soon learn, a shorter period of time to do it.

That night I googled "average length of triplet pregnancy" and found 33 weeks was fairly consistently the answer.  So we had about 3 months to prepare for babies 4,5 and 6.  Everyone we told over the phone didn't believe us initially.  I mean who has triplets?  Its just so over the top, they assumed it was a joke.  Of course those who saw the stack of ultrasound pictures were much quicker to believe.  

My mother was one who I told over the phone.  She of course wanted a call as soon as we were out of the appointment and was getting antsy because it was taking so long.  She texted and feared the reason it was taking so long was there was something wrong- not that it takes nearly 3x longer to check 3 babies!  As soon as I got in the car I called her and she initially thought it was a joke too.  Honestly I'm not sure why people would think I'd joke about this???  Anyway as soon as my mother got over her shock she hit amazon.com and bought me many books.  Some were good, some were complete duds and one was amazing.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is carrying multiples.  Its called "When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads- Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy."

Now since I was so far along when we found out I wasn't able to follow these guidelines as much as I'd have liked, but from 24 weeks to 35 weeks when the triplets were finally born, I referenced it nearly daily.  I loved the diagrams that show baby head and feet sizes over the weeks.  The visual is just such a compelling, convincing argument to do everything you can as a mother to keep those babies in there just another week.  The author feels pretty strongly that weight gain should be front loaded, which makes perfect sense to me.  By the end of my pregnancy I just didn't have the room to eat much, but the early weeks I was so hungry, I was able to really load up on the calories and the babies built up a good store. The book includes recipes, weight gain and calorie consumption guidelines and tons of other valuable advice for multiple pregnancies.  I feel very strongly that its a must read for every expecting MoM.  I really place a lot of credit on this book for my healthy 35 week triplets. 

I don't have a ton of free time and I'm not exactly looking for a hobby, but I've decided to blog...

A good friend of mine from college has a cousin who just had triplets last week, so she reached out to another friend with triplets and me to see if it'd be okay to share our contact info.  I told her I'd be happy to talk but warned that we were still in the thick of it, trying to figure it all out so I wasn't sure how helpful I'd be.  Our friend Carin, whose triplets are 3 now replied that I'd probably be more helpful in the thick of it, because her memories of the early years were spotty since you're just in survival mode.  I had been thinking of starting a triplet specific blog anyway, but Carin's words made me decide, I should get some of this down while its still fresh, assuming I can find the time to do so.  As you can imagine time is something in demand around here with 6 kids, including 4 month old triplets!  Wish me luck!