Hospital bedrest day 70 W31: 31 weeks!

Today has been a quiet day.  DH is back in KL for work, and so is my MIL.  FIL came in early this morning to deliver breakfast.  Then I was left alone for the rest of the day.  I got by the day by sleeping for a better part of the day till 5pm - I felt a bit disgusted with myself wondering whether I was being plain lazy or that having not slept the night before and having to carry three babies makes the sleep justified.  Yet as night approached, I was feeling a bit lonely.  It's hard being stuck in here away from everything else, when the rest of the people I love is out there in the world doing their own thing.  Then, kick, kick, kick...I felt baby B kicking within me and felt comforted.  I was not alone.  I had my three babies with me.  In fact, pretty soon, I will rarely be alone!  I might even crave for some alone time!

Having reached the 30-week milestone, DH & I finally felt confident enough to start making purchases for our babies.  We were both in mutual agreement not to make any purchases too early - I had read of a triplet parents-to-be who had set up an entire nursery but loss their babies at 22 weeks.  We didn't want any baby shower either, but being admitted at 20 weeks, that wasn't really an issue.  So up till recently, the only things we had for the triplets were a set of baby wear for each baby (courtesy of a dear colleague who gave me my one and only baby shower present!) and a set of wash cloths that I had purchased back in US several years ago.

One day, DH had come across the small collection of baby items that I had packed the night before I was admitted to the hospital.  He must have felt excited enough to take a picture because he seldom takes random photographs...he even included the two little cats we have sitting on his study table that is supposed to be symbolic of the both us!

I found a preloved light weight twin stroller for sale on Twins Plus Singapore and it so happened that mum was going down to Signapore last week.  She met up with the parents of twins and came home with the Peg Peragio Aria Twin Stroller!  The mother who sold the stroller to us also added in some new and preloved Avent feeding bottles and nipples.

I had told DH that I'd rather get a branded 2nd hand stroller than a new cheap stroller so I'm happy that we got what I wanted, even though this 2nd hand stroller did cost twice as much as a new cheap stroller.  My sister-in-law has passed us her single stroller and more Avent bottles, so we are done shopping for strollers and bottles for now!
I've also bought a moby wrap to maximize my carry-time with my babies, and a pupsik nursing cover.  Okay, the nursing cover was a luxury item, since I could get cheaper ones at half the price. I didn't like any of the designs from the cheaper once.  Also, I figured that if I was going to be breastfeeding a lot (and hopefully so!) then I should at least have a nice nursing cover.

DH finally got into the business of looking for an electric double breast pump and car seats.  This is a huge Yahoo and I was pleasantly surprised when he shared with me his research after months of trying to convince him that a triplet mother CANNOT survive on a single manual breast pump and car seats were essential for our babies safety.

My sister just arrived from Switzerland today, and she has brought a whole stack of preloved baby boys clothes, a new sterilizer and some other stuff - yay!  Its funny how excited we get over preloved items - but having less to spend is awesome because we really need to save for the new apartment that we just purchased and I know that DH is really worried about finances.

Ah well, I also cheated.  At 28 weeks, I went online to Amazon and purchased a few items to decorate our babies' nursery.  Just some pretty wallpaper border, a valance and a diaper stack.  Sigh, I wish we were in America where there are so many nice things to buy at affordable prices!  I'd have bought the lamp as well if there was a cheap way to get it shipped to Malaysia!  These are for our babies' room at our new apartment.

It's really easy to get carried away buying lots of cute baby stuff, so I started a spreadsheet to keep track of all my expenses for the babies so far.  

It's an amazing feeling to be at 31 weeks.  Now, we can finally talk about our boys confidently knowing that at this stage, they're most likely to make it.  Of course, we do not know if they will be born healthy or not.  We decided early in my pregnancy that we were not going to do amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling to test for chromosomal abnormalities, Down Syndrome or neural tube defect.  Since we had already decided against selective reduction, there was no point taking all this tests.  So far, our Peri has not detected any abnormalities during the scans, but without the tests, he cannot guarantee that there wouldn't be any abnormalities.  I do worry about this especially since only baby B seems to be pretty active - I can feel him kicking and moving throughout the day but his two brothers hardly seem to move.  I wonder if it is because of their position that I am not feeling them as much?  I brought this up once before to the Obs, but since all three babies' heartbeats are good and the scans have been positive so far, no one is worried except me.

Well, my recent blood results came back negative - though I'm not sure what I was tested for.  I've also been asked to test my urine daily for traces of protein.  Protein may indicate preclampsia, a condition that endangers both mother and babies, hence every pregnant woman's nightmare.

So now, we're just waiting to hit the 32-week milestone...