"Well... There Are Three Babies"

July 31, 2007 will forever be stamped in our minds. That is the day we found out that our one baby in utero was actually three babies. We didn't start this blog until August so here is our story as I so clearly remember it:

After Keith graduated from business school we spent a few weeks traveling the east coast followed by a month-long Spanish immersion trip in Guatemala. While in Guatemala, at 9 weeks pregnant, I was sure that I was starting show. I knew it was too early but I eventually decided to look online to see what would explain my new little pooch. Everything I read basically said, "Oh honey, if you think you're showing at 9 weeks, you're not - you're just constipated or bloated... or you have twins." I knew the first two weren't true and as for the latter, I knew that couldn't be true either because expectant mothers of twins usually have more severe morning sickness. And although I was very nauseated, I was keeping my food down.

Upon returning to our new home we had our first appointment at 10 1/2 weeks along with our new doctor. We spent half an hour asking the usual questions: what are the chances she won't be available for our delivery, does she do/not do episiotomies, when would she do a c-section, etc.

We then started the sonogram. Immediately the baby appeared on the screen and just as quickly it went off on the left of the screen and came back in on the right. I thought that was strange and my first thought to myself was "twins?" I looked at the doctor and she had no expression change so I threw that thought out the window. Then, for the next minute she continued not to say a word or show any expression as the baby kept appearing on and off the screen. By this point I was just wanting to see the baby and wished she would stop moving the transducer around so much but I knew she had other things to look at like amniotic fluid, etc.

Keith and I were awing at the baby we were getting brief glimpses of when the doctor finally spoke. Her first words will forever stay with me: "Well... there are three babies." WHAT? We were in complete shock. Never in our lives had we thought about something like this happening. After we heard all three heartbeats (God is so amazing) I started to cry. Keith was so excited and said something like, "It's okay, it's going to be great!" I let him know that I was worried about the pregnancy, not the caring of triplets. The doctor quickly agreed that it was going to be a high-risk pregnancy and that I would see either her or the specialist on an almost weekly basis. (Little did I know that I would later be seeing her every day for 7 weeks while on hospital bedrest!)

We spent the rest of the day driving around town to tell my family the big news in person (no one even knew we were expecting) and the next week calling friends and relatives.

Words cannot express how blessed we feel that God chose us to raise these beautiful babies that he has so kindly lent to us while we are here on earth. Joy and love overflows within us every day and for this we give Him all the glory.