15 Weeks and Growing

15 weeks today! For anyone who likes the fruit-baby comparisons, the babies are supposedly the size of apples this week (or 4 inches long).

I am finally starting to look a little pregnant (sometimes). Here's a picture I made Brian take of me tonight. For anyone who asked for photos of my bump, you're welcome. I guess I'll post a few here and there.

Most of the time I just look like I've gained a little weight. I'm in that awkward phase where I look fat instead of pregnant. But I'm getting there. Several people have commented on my growing bump the last few days. Jack (my boss) even rubbed my belly today. Pretty awkward but I know he means well.

Basically I've been trying to eat right and get some exercise while I still can. Here's what I've been doing:

Exercise: I've been trying to get to the gym some and I've been doing some prenatal yoga at home. I've been making it to the gym about once a week, but I would like to go twice a week if possible. Brian would prefer that I do nothing. My main goal is to stay healthy, keep the babies in for as long as possible, and keep myself strong enough to stay off bed rest as long as possible.

At the gym I do a light 30 minutes elliptical workout then either a very modified core workout or light upper body machines. 

Funny story about the gym this week: So yesterday I went to the gym after performing my Dance Mom duties. Unfortunately, there was a camera man there! And FYI, I just looked fat yesterday. Several of my coworkers confirmed this by laughing at my muffin top before I headed out. I blame it mostly on my poor choice of shirts but still, I had no business being in a video for a gym. Of course this happened though. For anyone who doesn't know, I have been in the 10 Fitness commercials here in Little Rock for over the last two years off and on. I happened to be at the gym at the right (wrong) time - 10 am on a Wednesday to be exact - and I ended up in several shots for the commercial. Sometimes my cameo appearance is still included in current commercials. Hopefully this time they only got either my chest up or my butt down. Yeah I know, good luck with that. At first I was in good shape. I was parked on an elliptical next to an older out-of-shape lady who had no business being in the commercial. But then, of course, an attractive (for the gym) athletic younger guy gets on the elliptical on the other side of me (if he turns out to be hideous in the commercial don't judge me - I couldn't be caught staring at him so I really don't know). I almost started picking my nose so they wouldn't use me again. Maybe I should have . . . . 

Today I decided to stay home for my workout. So I did my yoga video (thanks Bethany and Keith). Now I've never done yoga before so I have nothing to compare it to, but is she serious? First, the yoga instructor and the students are all wearing unitards. And they are supposed to be in varying stages of pregnancy. I, on the other hand, do not wear a unitard, ever. Then, the instructor tells me things like "feel the dignity of your pose" as I'm falling over, or my favorite, "yoga is like childbirth" (yeah right, I know that's a lie). Then there's the "guided relaxation" segment at the end. This is the portion of the workout where my dogs always find something or someone outside to bark at. And either Brian or Addison always decide that this is a good time to come in the bedroom and ask me questions, including "what are you doing" or "are you asleep?" Needless to say, the guided relaxation doesn't work for me. So yeah, yoga probably isn't my thing. I do like it though because it stretches me out. But I haven't really been able to fully relax during or after yoga yet. Maybe that comes later? Maybe I just need a less cheesy yoga video and/or instructor. 

Pregnancy Diet: Not really a diet I guess. But I am supposed to eat an extra 900 calories per day (300 per baby per day)! This is on top of my previous daily calories, which was around 1200. So basically double the calories. I try to get 2000+ calories a day. I am also watching fiber and protein. I downloaded a pregnancy nutrition app a few weeks ago to keep track of everything and that has really helped. 

My goal is to make my meals count and still eat mostly healthy good-for-me-and-the-babies food. I get full pretty fast (unless it's pizza, and then I can eat a gross amount that would put any grown man to shame) so I try to eat snacks. I've started eating bigger breakfasts, like a smoothie with fruit, yogurt, almond milk, flax seed and spinach if Brian is out of bed (don't knock the spinach until you try it - you can't taste it and it's so good for you!). And I've been eating snacks between meals, like pretzels, granola bars, yogurt (yum! and good for calcium too).  

Another big thing I have to watch in my diet is water. I need more than the standard 64 ounces recommended for everyone. I was told 80-100 ounces per day. I've done pretty well with this, usually closer to 80 but still good. And I can track my water with my nutrition app!  But as you can probably imagine, all that water means I can never sleep through the night without getting up at least once to use the bathroom.

My favorite foods right now - pizza, ice cream, cookies, and yogurt. I guess these aren't pregnancy cravings though because I love these things all the time anyways. I also rediscovered bagels with cream cheese. One thing I have noticed is that I have reverted to my high school/college days and dip everything in ranch again, like pizza of course.

Home Sweet Memphis

We had a great trip to Memphis this weekend (in our new minivan of course). I always love going home but I can't seem to get there often enough. You would think a 2 hour trip wouldn't be too hard to squeeze in but you'd be surprised. I can only imagine how this will be when we have 3 more kids in tow. Maybe everyone will just have to come visit us in Little Rock more often.

We had a full schedule of things to do this weekend, but first, my mom made homemade spaghetti. She called on Thursday to see what I wanted since I can eat anything I want as she put it. I'm not sure why she asked. My answer is always spaghetti. This was our first trip home since we told everyone we were pregnant and that we were having not one but three babies. I loved seeing everyone and showing off my ultrasound pictures in person. In a family of 5 kids I don't get to be the center of attention very often. Maybe that's why God decided I needed to have triplets - so I can get some attention for once. Whatever the reason, I'll take it. (Disclaimer - I do get plenty of attention. There's lots of love and attention to go around in my family. I just have to share).

The main reason for our trip - Brian's sister and brother-in-law had their baby this week. That's right, Baby Liam arrived this week! The triplets will have a cousin only a few months older than them! Sorry Liam that you only get to be the baby for a few months! 

Addison got to hold sweet Liam. A little practice for her big sister duties. She's a natural.

And of course Brian got in a little baby time too! Actually, he hogged the baby and didn't want to give him back. He's ready I think . . . maybe.

We also visited with my BFF Carly and her babies - Maddy (almost 6) and Sadie (4 months). Sweet Sadie is such a happy baby! I would have brought her home with me but I guess I can wait a few months and have 3 of my own!

Now that I've spent time with other people's babies I'm ready for mine to be here! But not too soon. Trying to keep these babies in as long as possible. 

I spent most of the day Saturday shopping for baby stuff - my first real babies shopping trip! We found some great cribs at a store in Memphis. Then we found them at a better price online when we got home! Yay! I also picked out my nursery bedding at Pottery Barn Kids. So cute!  I also made the executive decision that we won't use bumpers in the cribs unless the pediatrician says we need them. I've been reading that doctors are recommended that parents NOT use bumpers because they can hurt the babies. Addison survived with bumpers and so did most other babies but we'll save the money where we can. This way the babies will be able to see each other in their cribs too, which I've heard is great for them.

So this was a perfect weekend. Spent time with family and friends, played with some babies, went shopping for baby stuff, and ate lots of good food. Oh and I finally got a good night's sleep one night, thanks to my Snoogle that Brian bought me last week (photos to come in the future). Hopefully more of those to come!

Do We Know Genders?

14 weeks tomorrow! We made it though the first trimester! Yay!

We went back to see Dr. Dora today (yes my doctor is named Dora and yes I sing the Dora song in my head every time I say her name).  Everything is going great still. All 3 babies look great. Baby B was the most active during the ultrasound today. Baby A is starting to get squashed because this one is closest to the cervix and has the least amount of room. Baby C had its legs crossed Indian style - so cute! Dr. Dora said they'll all be in that position soon because they will run out of room. 

Some firsts today:

1. We heard all 3 heartbeats. All 3 were perfect!

2. Dr. Dora thinks she can tell genders!! 

3. I gained weight! 1 lb. to be exact but hey it's progress. Dr. Dora doesn't seem too concerned with my weight yet so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing for now.

So back to the genders. That's what everyone wants to know. If that's why you came to read my blog today don't feel bad. I would totally do it to someone else too.

Baby B. Baby B appears to be a boy. We're pretty sure about that one. Brian is super happy that he's getting a boy! He was so worried we would have 3 more girls. Then it would be Brian v. 5 Mann ladies. This way he gets a buddy. For now he plays with little Adam, the little boy across the street who comes over with his sister. Adam was pretty upset when we moved in that we did not have any boys for him to play with. Adam has definitely made his case that we need some more boys for the neighborhood. Maybe we can help add 1 more.

Baby A and Baby C. Baby A and Baby C were way more modest so Dr. Dora was not as confident. But . . .  they both appear to be girls. 2 more little princesses to spoil and dress up! And they have way cuter little girl stuff now than when Addison was little so I'm pretty excited.  

WARNING!!! Dr. Dora said "don't start monogramming anything yet." Today's gender announcement is only preliminary. Especially on Baby A and Baby C. We are only 14 weeks (tomorrow) which is a little early to know gender. Also we only looked at the babies with the weaker ultrasound so we'll want to confirm that this preliminary observation is correct before we name them and start making long term plans. I would hate to cause gender confusion before the babies even know their names. 

Other than that today was pretty uneventful in baby land. The rest of my day is a different story but that's part of being a lawyer I guess. No one can say it's boring that's for sure! 

Here are a few ultrasound pictures from today. As you can see from the first picture, there are still 3 babies in there!:

Next appointment is in 2 weeks (Monday February 3) for a full strength ultrasound. We'll probably confirm genders then. Then I'll see Dr. Dora 2 weeks after that (on Brian's birthday). We'll probably see the high risk specialist at some point within the next month or so too.

For now we're pretty excited about the unexpected gender reveal today! 

I Said I'd Never Drive a Minivan

I should have never said that! The saying "never say never" clearly applies here. Today we bought a minivan. And I'm ok with it so far. 

The decision to buy a minivan was really hard for me. I've had a hatred for minivans since I was a teenager. I'm the oldest of 5 kids so my mom has driven a minivan since I can remember. First we had a marroon Chrysler minivan. You know the one. Everyone's mom had the same one. Then we had the Toyota Previa, the minivan that looked like an egg. I learned to drive in that one. I hated that one. On top of the unexplainable egg design, it was also gross as a result of my siblings (3 brothers and a sister). I mean really gross. As in pop tarts smashed beyond recognition into every seat. This may be when I first said "I'll never drive a minivan." 

I also just bought a new car less than 2 months ago. I got a brand new Nissan Murano. I have always wanted an SUV and I absolutely loved it. It was beautiful. I thought I would drive it until I handed it down to Addison when she is old enough to drive it.

I have also never had a brand new car. This one had 8 miles on it when we took it home. Today when we traded it in, it had 2,500 miles on it. We really didn't have it long at all.  

I tried to protest the minivan decision at first. I wanted a large SUV, like a Suburban or even a Tahoe. But those don't fit in my garage. We have 2 separate garage doors which looks nice but really limits our choices for vehicles. We also live at the top of a steep hill so parking in the driveway or in the street is not an option. So I tried to convince Brian that a smaller large SUV, like an Acadia or Explorer, would be perfect. I lost. He was right. (Don't tell him. Maybe he'll skip this part). We wouldn't have room for strollers or anything else behind the back seat and putting 3 babies in car seats into an SUV would be a nightmare. 

Finally I gave in and agreed to look at minivans, but only Honda or Toyota (because my dad taught me to be a car snob when it comes to quality so it must be Japanese). That was the beginning of the end for my hopes of not driving a minivan. Brian marked SUVs off the list at that point. 

But then Brian worked his magic and found the perfect minivan for us. Well, perfect except that it's still a minivan. He went back to the dealership where we had just bought my car last month and had them look for a minivan for us. They found one in Texas - a 2011 Honda Odyssey EXL with only 30,000 miles on it! They also gave us a great deal on the trade in on my almost brand new Murano so we barely took a hit on that. The new van arrived today so we spent the afternoon at the dealership buying another new car. I highly recommend Northpoint Nissan if you live in Little Rock and need a new car. They took great care of us and everyone - I mean everyone - in the place said hi to Brian by name.

I like it (maybe I love it. I'm not sure yet). It has everything. Leather seats, rear entertainment system (just for Addison for now), Bluetooth, a backup camera, heated seats, a sunroof, power everything, and even a "cool box" to keep drinks cold. I can open and close the back doors with a button too which is really awesome and will come in super handy when I'm toting around 3 babies in carseats. And there's room in the back for the triplet stroller we will need (if you've never seen one it's worth a Google because it's ridiculous). It also fits in my garage (barely). 

Finally, Addison also loves it. 

So thanks to Brian we now have a vehicle that will hold all 6 members of our growing family.  He wants to get a license plate that says "MANNVAN" but we haven't decided on that yet. I'm down I guess. I probably need to own it now that I'm a minivan mom. It will be weird driving around in a minivan with only 1 kid for the next few months. But I know it's the best vehicle for us (again don't tell Brian he was right). And I've been officially welcomed to the minivan club. I guess I'll find out if that's a cool club to be in or not later.

Did You Say Triplets?

That's what the doctor said. And we saw them right there on the screen - 3 babies with 3 heartbeats.

I'll start from the beginning because this is my first post. We decided a few months ago that we wanted to have a baby. Apparently we did something right. We found out I was pregnant in December but we didn't tell anyone because we wanted to wait until after the first appointment. So we scheduled the first doctor appointment as soon as we could after Christmas (January 7). Brian read at least two whole books before we went to that first appointment so he felt pretty much ready for the appointment. He wasn't ready at all!

Everything started out pretty normal. The doctor decided to do an ultrasound just to verify that the due date was correct and to make sure everything was going well. That's when things got a little crazy . . . 

Brian and I could see the screen the whole time. She was looking at the baby, then she stopped. I just knew something was wrong, but then I saw it. A second baby. She asked us if we had twins on either side of the family. We don't . Then, as she was checking out the babies, she found the a third baby. Triplets!! No we didn't do any fertility treatment. These are spontaneous triplets! I have since done some research (ok I've since done a lot of research) and learned that triplets only account for about 1 in every 8,100 births. That's pretty rare! We beat the odds. Some of our family and friends have called us overachievers. Maybe they're right . . . .

Here's what we saw on the screen:

It's a little hard to see but there are 3 numbered compartments - one for each baby. They have since been renamed Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C, but more on that later.

We told everyone that we were pregnant that night. We had planned to wait until the weekend but Brian isn't good at waiting. In fact, he was supposed to propose to me after Christmas 2009, but as soon as he got the ring, he couldn't wait so he proposed on December 9 instead. I guess I am not surprised that he couldn't wait to tell this huge news! 

We hadn't told anyone in either of our families yet. We had already decided that we wanted to tell Addison first. I had already ordered her a big sister shirt but it wasn't in yet. So we went with Plan B - Brian went and bought her a big sister charm for her Pandora bracelet and a card. Then we told the rest of our families. We got to tell Brian's parents in person because they live close to us. We used FaceTime to tell my parents so we got to see their reactions. Everyone else we told by phone. 

Telling our news was really fun. We got to give everyone the good news that we are pregnant, but then we also got to say "but wait . . . there's more." Pretty much everyone was in disbelief at our news. Brian's sister didn't believe him for about 10 minutes. Maybe he lies too much, I'm not sure.

We let Addison tell everyone at school the next day. This was huge news at school. She's like a little celebrity (and so are Brian and I to an extent). I'm sure Addison is the most popular kid at school right now so we'll just let her soak that up for a while. 

We went back to the doctor on Friday for more a detailed ultrasound. Here's what we know about the babies. They move around a lot but I can't feel them move yet. They are all about the same size (about 5 cm last week but growing quickly) which is the most important thing. They are all in separate amniotic sacs and they appear to all have separate placentas. This is ideal because it means that they don't have to share nutrients or blood supply, which can lead to one growing too much and one not enough. We probably won't know if they are identical or fraternal until they're born. Based on my research, it is likely that 2 are identical and 1 is fraternal. We will likely find out if they are boys, girls, or a combination within the next month or so.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Friday ultrasound:

This is Baby A. This one is closest to the cervix (or the lowest one). 

This is Baby B at the top, Baby A is below and Baby C is the one you can only see a little part of (I think it's a head). Baby B is on my right side for now and is second closest to the cervix. Baby C is on my left side and is a little higher than Baby B right now. That could change though.

This is Baby C. I loved seeing the little face! I know it looks like an alien but I love my little alien Baby C!

We also got to see them in 3D which was a complete surprise! This is Baby B on top and Baby C on the bottom.

These last 2 are Baby A on the top right and Baby B on the bottom left. They were back to back (through the thin wall that separates them) then they moved and looked like they were spooning. They love each other already!

So that's it on the baby pictures. We'll get to see them way more often than if we had just one baby because the doctors will constantly check their growth and development. So I will share pictures whenever I get them!

We shared our news on Facebook this past weekend. We let Addison tell the good news with this picture:

We've been overwhelmed by the responses we have received. I have never felt so loved! So many people commented, sent prayers, and called us to tell us congratulations and good luck. I know this is a big deal to us but I had no idea it would be such big news to everyone else too! 

A little about my pregnancy thus far. I am thirteen weeks as of this post. I have not gained any weight, but I am trying! (Disclaimer for other pregnant women who may hate me - I only gained 9 lbs. the first time around.) I have had some nausea but nothing some crackers won't fix. I have been pretty tired but that has gotten better over the past few weeks. And I am starting to show a little (but apparently no one but me can tell). I am having a hard time adjusting my diet but I am really trying to eat more so I can gain weight. I promise! The only craving I've had so far is ice cream so that's good for the extra calories!

Ok so I'll stop here for now. I know that was a lot to say at once but A LOT HAS HAPPENED this week!