My Babies are 4!

Exerpts from my journaling...

On January 23, 2003 I took a pregnancy test and then another...we were pregnant! Sean and I had only decided to start trying in early December so it happened really fast. The following Saturday we told our parents and my sister. Everyone was happy for us. That night I had really bad cramping so we went to the hospital. They did bloodwork and an exam. The hormone levels in my blood were lower than what they should have been, so they decided to do an ultrasound. We were preparing for bad news and doing a lot of praying. The tech. kept asking me if we had done any fertility treatments and I said no. Then she called in someone else who asked me the same thing. I just wanted to know if the baby was okay and all they would tell me is "If they let you go home you know you are okay, if not then you should worry." I was already worried! After what seemed like forever the ER doc said I could go but that I needed to make an appt. with my ob that Monday. Monday came and Dr. Jones told me very matter of factly "You are having a normal twin pregnancy." My due date was figured to be Sept. 28th which was the day after my sister's birthday. With this news came celebration and sadness. I was so afraid of sharing the news of my pregnancy, let alone a twin pregnancy, with my 3 closest friends who were all trying to get pregnant. I did, and they were all happy and supportive.

9 weeks later we went back for the second ultrasound to make sure both babies were okay. I laid on the table quite nervous, my first pregnancy had been twins but we lost one very early on. Judy put the gel on my belly and started the ultrasound. She was very quiet which was not normal for her, so Sean and I got a bit scared. Finally I couldn't stand it and asked her if everything was okay. She said "Look at the screen and tell me what you see" We said "3 black circles" and she said "uh-huh". I said "what?" still not quite getting it and she said "Amanda, there are 3 babies" We started giggling, in complete shock, and she had Dr. Kasten come in to take a second look. He said to keep it quiet for 2 weeks and then we would be past the first tri-mester.

We got home and my mom, who was watching Gabe, asked how things went. She was the only one in the family who we had told about the twins (she didn't even tell dad!). We showed her the picture and because she had seen Amy's with the twins, she caught on rather quickly. When she got home and told dad he called certain it was an early April fool's joke!

The 2 weeks went by so slow. I got so nauseated, lost 8 lbs. and couldn't stand the sight of diet coke! On March 12th we went back for our ultrasound and it showed 3 viable babies!!! We were free to share the news and was it ever exciting! Gabe couldn't quite grasp the idea of 3 babies. He was 4 and had been praying since before we got pregnant for twin sister's like his cousins. He got a lot of attention as the new "future big brother x 3". My dad made copies of the ultrasound and carried it everywhere. He interrupted a church meeting to tell the asst. pastor who had just had twins the year before, would whip the picture out in the middle of stores and restaurants. He was tickled!

May 6th we found out Baby A was a boy, Baby B was a girl and Baby C was most likely a boy. 2 weeks later we got confirmation that C was definately all boy!

I had dr.'s appt.'s weekly and that meant ultrasounds weekly. They couldn't distinguish 3 seperate heartbeats with the monitor, so they had to do it visually. We were always happy to see them. Gabe went several times and thought it was weird. One week I had been feeling this knocking between my legs. It was the strangest and most annoying feeling. It didn't exactly hurt but it was by no means comfortable. During one of my visits it happened and so Judy looked with the ultrasound and we saw Baby A actually knocking on my bladder! Caitlin would sommersault constantly and each week we would find her head in a different position. Jonathan would stick his feet up under my rib cage and hiccup pretty much non stop!

I found out during my 2nd trimester that Lura, Kellie and Victoria were all pregnant. It was so neat to all be doing it together! Me with 3, Kellie w/ 1, Lura w/ 2 and Vic with 2! One girl and 7 boys!

I was hospitalized once with a kidney infection and after that had to go on MATRIA for home contraction monitoring. I never had many contractions except for on the 4th of July when Scott's mom was killed in a car accident on the way to my house. I think stress induced those. I felt horrible and couldn't even go to the funeral because I wasn't aloud to travel out of town at that point.

The 3rd week of July they did an ultrasound and found that Baby C had slowed in growth. We were sent to Akron on July 31st for level 3 ultrasounds. They couldn't determine if there was danger or not, but decided to admit me anyways. We were completely unprepared! 4 days later on Aug. 3rd Luke Edward, Caitlin Grace and Jonathan Gerald entered the world at 8:43,8:43 and 8:44 a.m. Gabe was also born at 8:44 a.m. Sean and I like to think that Jonathan, who is the spitting image of Gabe, is the twin we lost that God knew we were not ready for in 1998. We spent just about 3 1/2 weeks in the NICU and came home only to go to Fisher Titus for a week. It was a tiring first year, but wonderful.

I am so thankful to my Lord for giving me 4 beautiful healthy children and on this day especially for my sweet triplets. They have made my world busier, noisier and a lot more complicated but have also made it full of much more love, laughter and happiness. I couldn't imagine life without them and I love them so much.

Happy 4th Birthday Luke, Caitlin and Johnny!