Some Exciting/Scary News

Well. Where to start. I had my blood test on Monday, Diabetes clinic and scan yesterday and a Paediatrician and OB appointment with Ted today. Test results all fine, my bile acids have gone down again to 8, so they are very happy with them. I started insulin at night last week and that has really done the trick with my blood sugar levels, keeping them nice and low, so that also kept everyone happy. At the scan all babies were perfect (would I expect anything else from them?) and all are now over 2kg!!

Baby A - Isaac: 2.01kgs/4lbs4oz
Baby B - Dylan: 2.3kgs/5lbs2oz
Baby C - Ailah: 2.1kgs/4lbs10oz

Ailah has moved right down in between her brothers now, hence why I got so wide all of a sudden! Really starting to feel the weight of them on my cervix now, Isaac is pretty much engaged and there is no possible way for him to back out as his sister is trying to push him out so she can come out! I'm getting stronger Braxton Hicks contractions now and the relfux is really getting to me!! I wake up every night with it and sit up burping until it goes away. I also sleep with my brace on now, it makes such a difference, I feel more secure and it makes rolling over a little easier. The itchiness is still there and my poor legs and feet look terrible with lots of yucky sores on them :(

I got to chat to one of the Paediatricians this morning, asking her loads of questions (thanks for the suggestions HOMmies!), which really put my mind at ease. She believes that they shouldn't have any trouble as their weights are fantastic and gestation is good so far, hopefully a few more weeks will be great. Which leads me to my appointment with Ted.

Firstly Ted reminded me how many people will be in the room and he was really lovely, saying that he has spoken to them about respecting my privacy (as much as one can in a birth suite) and allowing me to do what I have to do to birth these babies. I reminded him that I find it really easy to just slip away and go into my 'zone', to which he replied 'that's great, but the number one thing is that this is YOUR birth and regardless that it is triplets, it still needs to feel special'. I thought that was just lovely. We talked about the mechanics of the birth, he will give me 30 minutes in between babies until they look at popping some synto in an IV for me, then monitoring the babies with a doppler, and that is hopefully all I'll need. But he did say that he doesn't believe I'll need that and that I'll be an 'efficient labourer' and they'll practically pop out.

Then the conversation took a turn that I wasn't expecting. All along Ted has said that he wants me to go into labour naturally and not induce me. Things have changed. He has given me an induction date for Thursday the 6th of September. To be honest, I was so excited that it took a while for it to sink in and be shocked. No, induction is not what I want. After the appointment I had to wait around for my steroid shot, and it was only then that I began thinking about what he'd said. As great as it is to 'have a date', I don't want to be medically induced as it is very well known that it then leads to all sorts of interventions.......including a c section. Obviously not what I want.

When I queried him about this, he responded with a few things. Number one is the Cholestasis. Yes, my levels are low and stable now, but that is something they don't know about it - when levels will spike and exactly what harm they do to the babies. In a singleton pregnancy they induce before 38 weeks as the chance of still birth is far higher after that. Hence why he doesn't want me to go too long......Second is that in multiples there is a higher risk of something going wrong the longer they leave them in. Now, that's not my opinion. I have heard many women go to full term and over with twins, and mums of triplets get to 36-37 weeks fine. Thirdly, and I think this is the major contributing factor - I think Ted may be under a lot of pressure from other staff members involved about the logistics of calling them all in. I DO understand it is easier for all those people if I am induced. But I don't want this birth 'taken away from me' because of unnecessary medical inducement.

So, after my steroid injection I caught him in the hall and put the hard word on him. I asked for another week past the 6th, which would be the 13th of September. He thought about it and then said we will re-discuss the option next week. At least he didn't say no. He still hasn't said no to anything I've asked him. I'm fairly confident he'll give me that extra week, in fact he seems pretty confident that I won't even make it to the induction day!

If he does say no, then I'll be trying everything to bring these babies on without medical induction. And if that doesn't work, I'll be heading to the hospital at 8am on either Thursday 6th or Thursday 13th of September!

Exciting that in a little over 2 weeks (hopefully 3) I'll be meeting these guys face to face. Amazing!