Here is a belly picture taken at 32 weeks and 2 days, i.e. the day after I was discharged for the second time from the labour ward.
As you can see, I'm really not that big for a triplet mother-to-be. Some times I really can't believe that there are three babies inside there. They must be really tiny babies!
Baby A: 1.675kg (3 pounds 11 ounces)
Baby B: 1.379kg (3 pounds)
Baby C: 1.786kg (3 pounds, 15 ounces)
Of course these are just estimates. The babies may be up to 5 ounces lighter when they come out. I'm really hoping that they can reach 1.8kg before they come out. 2kg would be an ideal weight, but I'm realistic enough to realize that I'm probably not able to carry three 2kg babies! Everything else looked good on the ultrasound. No more trans vaginal scan from now on as the cervix starts to shorten at this time anyway, so that's great!
One thing that I experienced after being discharged from the labour ward was that my babies had dropped. You know that happens when a pregnant woman is approaching her delivery date. The babies move lover towards the pelvic in preparation for a normal vaginal delivery. I now feel their movement lower in my belly. The drop has also caused my belly to flatten, and my belly seems to be growing sideways rather than frontwards. It's easier to breath lying down as the pressure of the babies on me is lesser.
I also see parts of my babies sticking up from my belly. I've been reading this old book called, "Praying for your unborn child". The author encourages mothers-to-be to engage with the unborn baby by caressing the baby when the baby moves, so every time I feel a bump, I will rub that bump or gently tap it. The book also encourages parents-to-be to sing to the unborn baby, but okay, we aren't going to that extreme!
So I've been on complete bed rest for a week now! It isn't as bad it sounds. I guess knowing that I am in the final league of my triplet pregnancy makes things tolerable! The most common reason for getting up from bed is to pee. The nurses brought me an old bed pan, (which looks like the picture except it is all rusty and old) but I tried using a bed pan while I was in the labor ward and hated it. I'm also not keen in having the bed pan on my bed, although MIL has offered to scrub and sanitize the bed pan for me! When I was in the labour ward, a midwife proposed that I pee in a plastic bag instead after my first bed pan attempt, and I really liked this alternative. So I got DH to buy some trashcan bags for me...he got those really flimsy black ones which aren't so great to use. What I do is to sit at the edge of the bed, pee in the bag, tie it and pop the bag of pee in the trashcan beside the bed. The I get the nurse to throw it into the proper waste disposal bin. Not so fun but it sure beats having a nurse carry your pee in a pan and cleaning the pan of your pee!If I hate the idea of peeing in a bedpan, then doing a big one in the bedpan is yucky. For that I get a nurse to wheelchair me into the washroom where I do it in the toilet, i.e the normal way. The nurses decided to leave a wheelchair in my room, so now I figured out that I'll just use the wheelchair to go to the washroom to both pee and do a big one! I either get a nurse to assist me or I am actually able to do this on my own, which is great!. Yes I have to stand to sit on the wheelchair and to get up from the wheelchair, so I'm not sure whether my Peri would be happy or not. The other day I was holding onto the towel railing as I lowered myself onto the toilet seat when the railing gave way and I fell, thankfully on the toilet seat. My MIL was with me and she almost freaked out!
I'm doing well though, and I'm thinking that the occasional standing and few steps I take should at least help my leg muscles not go to waste. Bed rest can really weaken the leg muscles and getting back the strength after prolonged bed rest can be very frustrating!
I also had my first sponge bath in the labour room and that wasn't fun either. So I get DH or a family member to wheel me into the washroom, then I slowly get up and sit on the chair in the shower and have my bathe there.
Other than these peeing and pooing moments, and shower moments, I'm pretty much confined to the bed! I know its the best thing to do for now. My legs and feet turn red whenever I'm sitting up or on my feet so I'm guessing that my stomach is blocking the blood circulation to my legs. I think that's good enough a reason to limit my movement. And since I'm really no longer ambulatory, I've finally relented and requested that they start giving me those blood thinners to avoid blood clots. I get a shot every morning at 10.30am. So much fun!
Apart from that, I'm really not in pain and the discomfort is tolerable, especially since I'm no longer walking. My only complain is that my belly is lopsided to the left as you can clearly see from the photo, so it's a bit uncomfortable to lie down and have your whole body misaligned and this is surely no good for my backbone. I have to put a cushion underneath the left side of my belly for more support. The lopsided belly also means that I can only get up from the bed on my left side, but have difficulty doing so on my right side! I have a slight backache due to the lopsided belly, and I'm hoping that it will not get worse.I sure how that I will get another belly shot in before the babies come out.
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