The Adoption Chronicles

From thevisualmd.com: Something very interesting is happening in this, the start of your second trimester: your little fetus is starting to display his own unique personality. From this point on, different fetuses show different facial expressions. Some research even indicates that certain fetuses may start to smile at 13 weeks. Your baby may have started sucking his thumb! The brain has developed structurally; from this point on its mass will increase greatly.Your little one is looking more and more human. The eyes continue to move forward, and the ears are moving up to their final position. The neck is straighter and stronger, so he can now turn his head. The fetus is beginning to move around more in his amniotic swimming pool, although you can't yet feel those movements.

We were 13 weeks yesterday (Friday January 29) and the bump is getting really firm and growing! I love it! In this pic I'd been playing with Caleigh and she wasn't ready to call it quits. Our pup could play catch all day (as a matter of fact, I'm playing catch with her right now). I think she's going to have to learn to share and realize mom and dad are going to have a lot less time to spend playing with her. I'm sure she adjust just fine after a couple of weeks.

She's three now as of almost two weeks ago but she will always be our baby! Can't wait until she can meet the babies and they can meet her! Caleigh loves kids, especially the little ones. She is very gentle with them. It will be interesting to see what she thinks when they all come home! My loves. So much attention.

Baby C waves "hi" again to everyone, closer to his chin this time. We love you! Babies A and B together. Our two girls!!!!!!!!!!!! Mama is a little excited and proud, can you tell? We were so thankful for three babies no matter what sex they were but I really was secretly hoping for two girls and a boy...or at least a mixture! Thank you God! Amazing. I have no words to describe how we felt during this ultrasound. We didn't even know they'd be able to tell the sexes but as you can see baby C didn't have any troubles telling us he was a boy! Make no mistake. Baby C is a BOY!!!!!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!! Hi there my little man! We love you!

Baby C says "hello world!" His hand is up near his head. The perinatologist said they all three are very photogentic! :) Baby C hanging out. They got pictures inbetween them moving around like littel acrobats! They were so busy in there! When I do finally start to feel them it is going to be amazing if they continue to be this active! Baby B profile photograph.

Triplet B waves "HI" to mom and dad! Ha! What a sense of humor she has! A close up of Baby A's profile. Look at that little nose and lips!! Adorable! Baby A with Baby C in the background.

Tomorrow Clint and I go into the Maternal-Fetal Care Clinic for our first perinatologist appointment-or so we hope we get to see a perinatologist and not just a tech. I am SUPER excited though because we'll get to do another u/s and this time have photos printed!!! I will post them some time tomorrow for you all to see too! Last week the babies were really fun to watch just on the not-so-great u/s machine so I bet they will be even more clear on the maternal fetal care center's machine. Plus this week they will be measured for growth too. We hope they are all about the same size but I'm almost certain one will be smaller than the other two. I hope Baby B this time has caught up with the others. Time is going quickly! We'll be 13 weeks on Friday. Only 2 to 3 more weeks before finding out the sexes! Then it will be name picking time! And no, we're not telling anyone the names until their born! :)

The big 27 this year. Gosh, I think after 25 you just feel older ha! But, I feel great and we are so excited to welcome our three beautiful children into the world this year! What an amazing year we've had this past year. We look forward to 2010 and all God has in store for our new family.

This is from babycenter.com. I couldn't find what triplets would look like....that is a little harder to locate. "Your twins [triplets for us] are busy kicking and stretching. Their hands meet over their hearts and their tiny fingernails are starting to grow in. Eyelids cover their eyes. Tooth buds are sprouting under their gums." Can't wait to post photos after our (13 week) ultrasound this week with our perinatologist!

Not the best view of "The Bump" but you get the point. Pretty soon I won't be able to hide it anymore-something I am really excited about! Yesterday we were 12 weeks along so today officially marks the beginning of the second trimester!

We had an appointment this morning and our OB told us he wanted to do a ultrasound before we could ever ask for one so that was really nice. We looked and saw all three beautiful heartbeats and all three babies - which actually look like babies now! Baby B was all over the place like a little wiggle worm and Baby A and C I think must have been sleeping because they were pretty calm at the moment. It was even heard for our doctor to get a heartbeat on Baby B because he/she was so active! It was so cool to see him/her moving around so much in there. I cannot wait to be able to feel those three moving around. In a few weeks they will be big enough that I might be able to feel them. I think I should be able to feel them a little earlier because there's just not as much room in there with three - it's much more crowded! We were unable to print ultrasound photos from this particular machine because it was just a portable ultrasound. However next week at our maternal fetal car...

Thank you Dr. Keenan, nurses Jennifer and Mary and all the other wonderful staff at the National Embryo Donation Center for your care and support!

Just minutes before our frozen embryo transfer (FET) with one of the great nurses at NEDC.

Us with Nancy Lesslie , our social worker from Bethany Christian Services. We had another wonderful social worker in Milwaukee also from Bethany. Her name is Danielle. Danielle, we'll have to take a photo with you so we can have it on our blog! We took this photo when we went to Knoxville, Tennessee for one of our embryo transfers. Mrs. Lesslie met us at our hotel and we were able to meet in person for the first time since communicating over the phone and through emails for months. She is such a sweet woman and even prayed with us on this night before our transfer. Thank you Nancy for all the support you have given us! We are forever grateful!!

July 2009 Sara and Matthew's wedding - in the limo (drinking water) Clint "hugging" me! This photo was taken last fall ('08). This photo was taken shortly after we bought our house in Milwaukee, June 2007. Its funny to look back on the landscaping then verses now.

From The Visual MD .com: Good news! At the end of this week, you and your rapidly expanding fetus, who is now almost 3.5" (8.7 cm) long and 1.5 oz (43 g) in weight, will have reached the end of your first trimester!This last week has seen an explosion in growth: your baby's weight has increased about 60% since week 11. Week 12 will see an explosion of hair as well. Lanugo, the fine hairs that grow all over the fetus's body and protect her skin, appear this week. The placenta is well developed at week 12. It has been providing the vital function of furnishing the fetus with fresh blood and nutrients and removing wastes and deoxygenated blood. Now it also produces hormones vital to the fetus's growth, including estrogen and progesterone. The placenta acts as a barrier to your own immune system, which would otherwise destroy the fetus as an invader.

This shirt is loose now but it is only a matter of time before it is stretched to the max ;)

I am so thankful for a phone call I (finally) received today from nurse Mary at the National Embryo Donation Center ( NEDC ) where we did our frozen embryo transfer ( FET ) and adopted our embryos. I had repeated all my blood work on Monday at Froedtert and had been waiting to hear if my estrogen and progesterone levels were high enough to stop taking my medicine. Mary called and said we could go off starting today (i.e. yesterday)!! She said my levels were great and I didn't even have to taper off the injections or pills. I was so happy :) I'm pretty sure Clint was excited too as he won't have to give the injections twice a day anymore AND he won't have to hear me whine and moan about what a pain they are and how I can't fall asleep because I can't lay on my belly or on my sides due to bruising and soreness! Haha ! What a great day-I never thought I'd be so happy! :) I started thinking about it and I realized it has actually been since the beginnin...

This is a really short but very cool video of baby from embryo to birth (don't worry, it's not graphic at birth!! For those who are skeptical about watching). You have to check it out! http://www.thevisualmd.com/health_centers/obstetrics_and_gynecology/weekly_pregnancy_calendar

Thank you "mystery baby gift giver!" I figured out that it was Melissa S. who sent me the awesome "I have three peas in my pod" shirt. Yea! Thanks so much! I love it!

Okay, so you have to check out this sweet "baby ticker" thing on the left of our blog. My girlfriend Laura introduced me to it and I love it! It's funny though, the babies look like they're just floating around in a big bubble! Not exactly realistic but it shows their approx. growth and what they might look like at this stage in the game. Today we're 10 weeks!

Hi! Thanks for taking time to view our blog. We're just getting started and to be honest with you I have no idea what I'm doing but I will get the hang of it as time goes on. We started this blog so we could share our infertility and now pregnancy with our family and friends. We hope to update it fairly regularly but I make no promises ;) Love, Rachel