Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Monday, June 29, 2009

Happy 3 Week Birthday




Happy Birthday to our little triplets. Right now they are what everyone calls "feeders and growers" meaning that their biggest obstacle now is putting on weight and learning how to eat. Here is an update:
Eloise- 3 lbs
Beckett- 3 lbs 7 oz
Adeline- 3 lbs 14 oz
- all are now wearing clothes so that means they are able to maintain their own temperature. They look so different in clothes even though they just swim even in the preemie sizes.
-the nurses keep telling me to bring their own clothes but somehow all of the preemie clothes at my house got mixed in with the newborn so it is going to take a few days to sort that out. Also, if I bring their own clothes then I'm hauling it back and forth to wash it. I'm fine with them wearing little tee shirts until they come home. I'll have plenty of time to dress them and do the laundry in the future.
-Beckett's PDA closed by the medicine they gave him last week so no surgery!! What a relief. While he was on the medicine they only gave him 1 ml of food 8 times a day and slowly increased his feedings which is why he has not gained too much weight. Also he went back on the bili light for a day last week but now is just cruising along.
-We had a little scare with Eloise last week because they thought her belly was distended so they did an x-ray to look for signs of infection which was inconclusive and a follow-up x-ray the next day showed she was just full of poop. So for a few days we were watching her diapers very carefully and every poopy diaper was celebrated. Just today she was such a good pooper while I was changing her she pooped and it hit her stuffed bear which I then had to bring home to wash.
-Adeline's old IV site in her head looked very sore and then a few cm down from that she developed what looks like a huge pimple. They were watching it for a few days and just today decided to do a culture of the site so they lanced her little head and sent off cultures to see what was growing. Until the cultures come back she is on "contact isolation" meaning that we have to put on a gown and gloves to touch her. It makes it more difficult than normal to change her and touch her with the gown and gloves but hopefully it will just be for 48-72 hours. They did more blood work on her and nothing else indicates that she is sick with infection in any other way but we have to wait until the cultures come back to know what is going on.
-This is especially sad because little Adeline is on isolation while Beckett and Eloise are now sharing an isolette today for the first time. I think she is teaching him her tricks because normally she pulls her feeding tube out of her nose 2-3 times a day and today Beckett did it for the first time while his milk was going in. It was a terrible mess. Or maybe Eloise pulled it out for him. They are very cute snuggled together but it is just really tricky to change the linens or change their clothes because of all the wires and tight quarters.

And now what you have been waiting for:

Beckett and Eloise- you can see that she is pretending to sleep and reaching for his feeding tube






Beckett and Eloise




Beckett and Eloise before all the trouble with the feeding tubes
This is Eloise's leg in a preemie onesie- you can see how big the leg hole is of the onesie compared to her little leg.
Beckett from a few days ago. This is why we call him our wrinkly worried little man.
Adeline in her big girl clothes. She looks like a baby doll with her fat little cheeks and double chin.

Adeline in her hat.
All of the babies have a stuffed animal in their isolette and we wanted to compare how big they looked compared to their animal...




Eloise and her pacifier, it is almost as big as her head!




Adeline sleeping so peacefully. This is before the infection on her head. You can just barely see the old IV site.

As other families can tell you that have had children in the NICU or the hospital, each day has its ups and downs. Some days are good and others not so good. It was a great day when we found out that Beckett would not need surgery but then his bilirubin levels were up and he had to go back under the lights. Then the next 2 days we worried about Eloise and if she was developing an intestinal infection. Then today, it was so sweet to see two babies together and then little Adeline is fighting this infection and is by herself. So it is up and down but we are just happy that they all seem to have just little set backs and their progress outweighs any of the steps backwards.


We have been keeping a crazy schedule with visiting the NICU and of course I'm still pumping 8-9 times a day so I know I'm slow on responding to phone calls and emails and I know it is tricky to get a hold of me because my phone is always off when I'm at the hospital so I apologize for the slow response! I promise, I'm not ignoring anyone. This is little taste of our daily schedule:


6:30- pump, walk and feed the dogs, eat breakfast and go back sleep until 8:30


8:30- pump, shower, get ready for the day, do some laundry, pick up the kitchen


10:30- leave for the hospital


11:00-1:00 hold babies, breastfeed, change diapers


1:00-2:00 eat lunch, pump


2:00-4:00 hold babies, breastfeed, change diapers


4:00- go home, pump, feed the dogs, laundry, eat dinner


7:00- pump


7:30 back to the hospital


8:00-9:30 hold babies, breastfeed, change diapers


9:30- go home pump, go to sleep


11:30- wake up and pump


4:00- wake up and pump


6:30- start over again!


The schedule is crazy but I'm so fortunate that my job now is to hold the babies and make sure they are getting the best nutrition possible. I think I'm tired now, just wait until all three are home with us but we can't wait!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

13 Days Old

"There are babies everywhere and most of them are ours."
-Quote from Rich about visiting the NICU


Our little triplets are now 13 days old and doing better and better each day. As of four days ago all of the babies were free of all of their oxygen, IV's, bili lights (i.e. sunglasses) and only the feeding tubes remaining. They seemed so much more relaxed and happy without being attached to so much. Rich is at the hospital for 3-4 feedings a day and I try to be there for 2-3 feedings. When I say feedings it is really the chance that we get to change diapers and take their temperature and do kangaroo care which is holding the babies with skin to skin contact. The feedings are all done through their feeding tubes but we are anxiously awaiting when we are able to feed them by bottle.
Unfortunately, I was banned from the NICU for a few days because I'm sick with a fever. I had to be fever free for 24 hours before I could go back and visit. I'm on antibiotics and feeling much better so I'm be back in the swing of things but in the meantime Rich took video while he is there and shows me when he gets home.

He is such a good dad and certainly should win some sort of award. His present for Father's Day this year was about 10 poopy diapers. I'm sure our little babies love kangaroo care with their dad because they get to lay on his hairy chest and pull his hair with their tiny little fingers. Luckily I don't have that problem.
They are all back up to their birth weight which is a relief and increasing their feeds with the exception of little Beckett because he is on a new medication where they have to essentially give him no food for 36 hours and restart his IV and give him nutrients by IV for a few days.
Within a few days of birth both girls received an echo of their heart to be sure there were no problems with the VSD they identified in utereo. They didn't find any problems but then we were hearing from the nurses that Beckett had a heart murmur which was unexpected because we thought any heart problems would be with the girls. Anyway, it turns out that Beckett has a patent ductus arterious, or PDA. Essentially this a duct in the heart that all babies have in utereo and normally closes within a few days after birth. His has not closed which I guess is not that uncommon in preemies. They are trying to close it with medicine which is why he is back on the IV and his feedings are limited. If it does not close with the medicine then he will have to have surgery which we are trying to avoid. But they are no longer hearing a murmur so hopefully the medication worked. We will know for sure when they do another echo today and they are also increasing his feeds back up again.


Here is picture of him from Saturday with his IV back in his hand. He looks very concerned and a little cross-eyed!



Another picture of our wrinkly little man.





The girls are doing great. Somehow in the last few days they have switched personalities. Where at first little Eloise was the terror tangling herself in wires, velcroing her feet together, scooting the side of the isolette and so forth. Now she is very calm and sleeps most of the time but wakes up and shows us her beautiful blue eyes when we are there changing her. Now, she just poops a lot especially in middle of changing which can get quite exciting in those little isolettes with all the blankets and wires.


Here are few pictures of Eloise doing what she does best these days- sleeping all snuggled up.






Adeline is now the active one. She gets really mad easily and will scream when she is wet or wants her pacifier. She even somehow got herself to the edge of the isolette the other day which we thought was only an Eloise trick. The funny thing is that she calms down as quickly as she becomes mad so she is back to sleep in seconds or at least just staring at you with those big eyes until she falls back asleep.She loves her pacifier and sucks on that like it is going out of style. She also is the one where we can see that she is putting on weight.

Never thought I'd be so happy to see a little such a pot belly on my little girl.







I guess now we know that the girls are not identical. Adeline and Beckett look more similar than the two girls but maybe that is just because of their similar sizes and bald heads. In fact, Adeline looks a little like she has some male pattern baldness going on and Beckett seems like he is getting blond hair. Don't know where that came from...



And here is a picture of me holding Eloise last night.



As you can see, I'm starting to look a little more normal and not so much like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Woman. I've already lost 40 lbs but I think that is really a reflection of all the blood volume and water weight.

Rich is at the hospital right now (he goes every morning at 7:30 for the morning milk delivery) and I'm supposed to be showered and ready to go with fresh milk for the late morning milk delivery and running behind which is not a good way to start the day. We are still getting used to being home and trying to find the balance between running back and forth to the hospital, pumping milk (that's me, not Rich), eating, walking the dogs, and keeping our house in half-way decent order but we'll get the hang of it one of these days!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Happy 1 Week Birthday

I'm home from the hospital and had a minute between my 8-10 times a day pumping to give a quick update. I came home on Sunday afternoon and have not been back because I'm so tired between pumping and trying to recover but I'm going back this afternoon. Rich has been there 3-4 times a day to hold the babies and change diapers.
I knew to expect coming home without the babies but no one can prepare you for how unimaginably heartbreaking it is to get in the car and leave the hospital without the 3 that you have been attached to and nurtured for so long. It was the hardest thing I have ever done but I know they are in good hands and we can go and visit 24 hours a day.
Here are some pictures that I believe were taken by my mom within the first 24-72 hours. I didn't have time to label the pictures and this is my first attempt at embedding a slideshow so bear with me because some might be duplicates.



We of course can tell each baby apart but I can tell you that in the beginning, Beckett and Adeline are the ones with the CPAP on their faces and Eloise just has a nasal cannula of oxygen. She is also the one with all the hair. These pictures were taken through June 12th and as you can see, Rich and I celebrated our anniversary on the 12th with a red velvet cake. Happy 5 Year Anniversary! That was also the first day that we were able to hold any of the babies and the pictures are of me holding Eloise for the first time. That was the best anniversary present I could ever get. Since then, both of us have been able to hold each of the babies. In all the pictures I'm wearing my nerd glasses because I accidentally threw away my contacts while at the hospital. And there are a few pictures of my brother Isaac who was there with my mom for the first 4 days.

All of the babies will have a feeding tube for quite some time until they can learn to feed from a bottle which is usually at 34 to 35 weeks. At first they were getting donated breast milk until I could provide it (no problem with that anymore!) They also all have IV's to supplement their feedings with extra fat and nutrients. They all also started off under the bili lights because of jaundice which is why in some pictures they are wearing purple sunglasses. All of the babies lost weight in the beginning which is a little scary because they are so small to start with but it is expected especially since they were under the lights which makes it harder to maintain or gain weight.
Here is a quick update about each:

Beckett:
He is our wrinkly little man. He started off on CPAP to help with his breathing but was taken off of that a few days ago and now is just getting oxygen via nasal cannula. In the pictures you can see the CPAP is pushing up on his little nose but it is back to normal now. He also didn't need the bili lights a few days ago but had to go back on it this morning. He is pretty relaxed and likes to be snuggled up. He also has really long feet and toes and I personally think is a dead ringer for a Rich-look-a-like. At his weigh in this morning he is only 1 oz off of his birth weight but that may change now that he is back under the lights.

Eloise:
She is the wild one with all the dark hair. In the beginning she just needed oxygen and now is off her bili lights, oxygen AND IV so all she has now is her feeding tube. She is so little but so strong. She was getting herself into little predicaments by kicking herself in the head with the IV in her foot, constantly pulling off her oxygen, and wriggling her way to the side of the isolette. We think she is going to be our escape artist because they had her on her stomach and we swear that she hoisted herself up and was trying to crawl out. She is also within 1 oz of her birth weight which is amazing given how active she is. She was giving all the nurses a run for their money.

Adeline: (or Addy as we have started to call her)
She started off on CPAP just like Beckett and actually looked a lot like him in the beginning. She is now off CPAP, oxygen and her bili light so now just has her IV and feeding tube. She is the most relaxed and just snuggles up in her isolette, is easily comforted and just likes to hang out. She had a rash around her neck and legs which has cleared up and they said it was just because her little skin was so sensitive not ready for this big world. She is within 2 oz of her birth weight and hopefully she will keep gaining now that she is off her bili light.

As for my health, it will take some time for the effects of the preeclampsia to go away and they started me on blood pressure medication. Luckily my pain from the surgery is pretty minimal and I can get by on the equivalent of ibuprofen. I go back to the doctor tomorrow.

One week ago tonight at 7:48, our first little one came into this world. Happy One Week Birthday to our beautiful babies.
What a difference a week makes.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Newman Triplets Have Arrived

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our precious triplets on June 9th, 2009.
Beckett Edward, 3 lbs, 5 oz arrived at 19:48

Eloise Armida, 2 lbs, 8 oz arrived at 19:49

Adeline Leona, 3 lbs, 3 oz arrived at 19:50


We are all still in the hospital and doing well. I will go home on Saturday or Sunday and the babies will stay in the NICU to continue growing. They are beautiful and despite their small size are thriving and showing the same personalities they had in utereo.
Thank you to everyone for thinking about us and all of your support!
We have tons of pictures and I'll tell the full story of how our little babies arrived so unexpectedly. In the meantime, we are just trying to visit them in the NICU and Rich is getting very good at changing diapers and taking temperatures already.
Thanks again for all of your thoughts and support!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Change of Plans...

I'm writing this from the hospital in a drug-induced haze. I was doing so well over the weekend but look at the picture of me from Saturday and add about 40 lbs of swelling and that would give you a good picture of my state right now.
I was admitted yesterday afternoon after calling my doctor when I was having shortness of breath, headache and extreme swelling. In a nutshell, it looks like I have pre-eclampsia and they are now trying to determine if it is mild or severe. They were able to rule out blood clots in my lungs but I'm retaining so much fluid that it is starting to build up around my heart and lungs which is why I'm feeling so short of breath. Now, I'm just waiting for the perinatologist and based on her decision and another lab test this afternoon will determine how soon we get to finally meet the Newman triplets. If it looks like the babies are doing well and they can keep the pre-eclampsia under control, they thought that I could possibly eek out another week or so on strict bed rest in the hospital. If it looks like the babies are in distress or my condition starts to worsen, we will most likely see the little pumpkins in the next few days. My hope of course is to keep the babies in as long as possible if it is still safe for all of us. At this point, every day counts.
Rich is here and we have nerd-central central set up in the hospital room with both of us with computers, phones, and his blackberry. My feet are so swollen they look like sausages. When Rich saw them he called me "Bigfoot" which I thought was hysterical or maybe I thought it was so funny because of the pain killers that I'm on. We still don't have names so that is another activity for this afternoon and I'm hoping we don't permanently scar our children with terrible names because their mom was looped up when picking names.
We should know more this afternoon!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

My first real outing

On Friday I asked my doctor if it would be okay for me to go to Babies R'us or Target for a short outing as long as I was in a wheelchair and not on my feet. I hadn't been anyplace besides Dr appointments and my house in 40 days and I thought it was a reasonable request. He agreed and said that my mental health was just as important as my physical health and if that would help me survive bed rest and relieve anxiety, he saw no problem with a shopping trip (within reason and as long as I wasn't walking).


I've been living in pajamas and tee shirts so I decided to get gussied up for my special outing on Saturday. This is as good as it gets when you are 30 1/2 weeks pregnant with triplets...Rich was wearing a shirt that said, "The Hottest Half." It really wasn't a joke about me, it was a half marathon tee-shirt but I thought it was pretty humorous given my swollen enlarged state.

My mom was here so the three of us decided to pick up a few things that we would need in the first few weeks like oh, say bedding and diapers and bouncy seats. It was perfect timing because I've been pretending that we still have time to get all this and I'll be able to just stop and pick it all up on my way home from the hospital. Yeah, right. I was excited that we could finally park in the special parking spaces at the store which I was hesitant to do before because I didn't look pregnant. I dare anyone to hassle me now.





My mom tried to push me in the wheelchair at the store and then made Rich do it because I was so heavy. Haha. It seemed that everything we tried to buy they were out of which really made me mad. Rich tried to make me feel better by pushing me backwards and turning me in circles in middle of the store. The fact they didn't have the big items we were looking for turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were able to find them online for less money, free shipping and no tax. Take that Babies R'Us. But we did get sheets, mattress pads and our first diapers. THANKS MILLIE!!!!!

Since our first stop was cut short we decided to make a quick trip to Target and pick up a few more things. Target had a motorized wheelchair which prevented me from getting left behind when Rich and my mom were looking and things and would forget about me but it also caused a few displays to get knocked down. I wasn't great at backing up but I liked the "beep, beep, beep" sound it made when did.



My mom was able to help us prioritize the items we need and then wash it all and organize it once we got it home. She headed back to Wisconsin that afternoon but now I feel more prepared to bring babies into the house. But I'm still holding out for a July delivery.

I was wearing flip-flops during our outing and by the time we were done I was lucky to even get those off my feet because my feet and ankles were so swollen. So I rested with my feet up before heading back to the hospital for another steroid shot late in the afternoon (and another wheelchair ride!) They had a little better luck this time with finding all the heartbeats but the whole process is still pretty humorous. I had 4 monitors on my belly- one for each baby and one to monitor contractions. All the heart beats were excellent and NO contractions even after all my activity in the past 2 days which was fantastic.

We also stopped by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a tour which we were unable to visit during our multiples class. One of nurses showed us the set up in a typical room and just provided us with some general information about what kind of care they get, hours, visitors and so forth. Hopefully our little pumpkins won't be there long, if at all, but it was good just to at least see it.

I'm just going to apologize in advance right now to anyone I may offend with being a maniac about visiting the babies, scrubbing your hands, touching the babies, putting on gowns, washing/SCRUBBING your hands, interrogations about recent sniffles/coughs or if you have been around someone with a cold and any other possible exposure to unnecessary germs. And that is just a list of things I can think of at this very minute.

Today I'm just resting and trying to get the swelling in my feet to down after my busy few days. Unfortunately Rich doesn't get to rest because has been a busy little beaver grocery shopping, doing laundry, and yard work and that was all before 11 this morning. Right now he at the store to buy me XXL men's white tee shirts. I think I've grown out of everything else in my closet and his. Hopefully he will be able to go a bike ride or run this afternoon if I don't run him ragged before then!

40 days and 40 nights, 40 more to go!

Friday marked 40 days of bed rest and 40 days more to go to meet my goal. It was my busiest day on bed rest so far with lots of ups and downs. It was also the first time I had to ride in a wheel chair. Rich was a very good driver and only exceeded the speed limit a few times and kept asking if I was buckled in.

To start with, my brother was here for the week and it is astounding to me how much he reminds me of Papa. He has the same sense of humor, same toes (second one longer than the first) is interested in things that I remember my Papa doing when I was little and Papa was the same age as Isaac is now like making granola, baking bread, and concocting ingenious ways to fool the birds into not eating his tomato plants. He also loves the Austin Farmer’s Market and brought all kinds of food with him from the market. This is just a sampling of what he made me for dinner one night: Grilled filet wrapped in bacon, golden beets with lemon butter, kale and beet greens with balsamic vinegar, tomato mozzarella salad, and cheese ravioli with homemade pesto.

No wonder I’m right on track with my weight gain. It’s very good for the babies but very bad for the size of my thighs. I also started on another medication to help with the heartburn because this past week I had been so miserable with heartburn that it was making me not want to eat or drink anything which is terrible because dehydration is one of things that can stimulate labor. We’ll see how it works.

On to the more exciting baby news…

On Friday I saw my perinatologist followed by the cardiologist. The weights this week are:

Baby A- 3 lbs 8 oz (and very long)
Baby B- 2 lbs, 15 oz
Baby C- 3 lbs, 6 oz

The weight of baby B freaked me out a little bit because it looked like she hadn’t grown from last week but he said that given the measurements from last week were done by a different sonographer and different machine at a different office the measurements can vary. As it is, the weights they give me are estimates that can be off by as much as 8 oz because they are based on such things as head and abdomen circumference and femur length. So, he was not worried about the weights as long as it looks like they ALL are growing. All the babies are so tangled up and one is behind the other two they had a heck of a time just getting measurements so I think the days of alien-looking claymation baby pictures are over. We are just going to have to wait until they are born.

They also think I possibly have something called intrahepatic cholestatis of pregnancy (ICP) which is causing all the terrible itching on my arms and shoulders.

“ICP is a pregnancy-related liver disorder in which there are abnormalities in the flow of bile (a substance produced by the liver that aids in the digestion and absorption of fats). These abnormalities lead to a build-up of bile acids (components of bile) in the mother's blood, resulting in symptoms such as severe skin itching.”

This makes sense given all my previous problems with my gall bladder and stones in my bile duct. Anyway, there is a medication which I have opted not to take and try to manage the symptoms with aloe, cortisone cream and Benadryl if I can’t sleep. Sometimes it can impact the babies but they are not worried because I’m monitored so closely. It typically goes away within a few days of delivery.

My perinatologist thought that they way everything looked on Friday it was possible that I could make it until July- that is until he checked my cervix. It has shortened from the previous week and I was having a bit of funneling which made all of us nervous. He consulted with my OB and decided the best thing was to give me a set a steroid shots that day and the next to help mature the babies’ lung development in case anything unexpected happened in the next two weeks.

The shots have to be done at Labor and Delivery at the hospital but first I had to go to my appointment with the cardiologist. Again they did an echocardiogram on each of the babies’ hearts to look for any new problems and to see if the VSD’s (hole in the wall between the right and left ventricle) on Baby B and C that I had talked about before had closed. Baby B just has a “pinhole” sized hole and he said he would be “shocked” if it didn’t close before birth and then we would be done with that problem. The hole in Baby C is much smaller than last time and he expected it would still be present at birth but very small and didn’t anticipate any problems. Again, because of the small size he thought it would completely close on its own within a few years with no interventions. And everything else in all the hearts looked great so he didn’t anticipate that we could have any additional cardiac issues that can sometimes be associated with multiples or birth before full term. So that was all great news.

By this point I was exhausted so I had my first of my wheelchair rides of the weekend back to car. We went back to the house, said good-bye to Isaac because was headed back to Austin, picked up my mom and headed to the hospital for my steroid shots. That was my first experience in Labor & Delivery (L&D) which I think is very lucky given that I’m already 30 ½ weeks pregnant. Even though all I needed was shots, per protocol they had to get a strip of all the heartbeats and my contraction pattern for 20 minutes which was quite a feat. It took 20 to 30 minutes alone to even get the monitors on in the right place and ensure they weren’t tracking the same baby. All the heartbeats looked great, I had no contractions, got a big old shot in the butt and I was back in my wheelchair to the car in less than 2 hours.

And that was just Friday...

Monday, June 1, 2009

“Only doctor approved medications from this point forward”

Rich has been incredibly tolerant of everyone coming and going and accepting of things that he maybe does not put much stock into. For example, my Haw candy for heartburn and all of my pregnancy teas. By the way, if you come over to my house and I offer you iced tea, it is really organic pregnancy tea specially designed for the third trimester. Sorry to the few males that I didn’t tell that to and drank it in the last few weeks. Don’t worry; you won’t get start producing milk or anything.

As some of you may know, Rich can be very protective and he hasn’t said too much about any of the alternative medicine until this weekend when I had a little incident with some essential oils when he said, “Only doctor approved medications from this point forward.”

My Aunt Rita had sent me some essential oils to help with heartburn. She sent peppermint and lemon oil, both which are holistic or alternative approaches to helping with heartburn. And I’m desperate for anything. The haw candy was working for a while but now I have waves of heartburn accompanied by burning and nausea in the back of my throat after every meal.

The instructions I got to go with oils said that ONE drop of the peppermint oil can be applied to the sole of each foot or the chest or abdomen to help with heartburn. Or one drop of the lemon oil or peppermint oil can be added to a glass of water before drinking to help with heartburn.

So my mom was here this weekend (my mom and Rita are sisters) and she gave me a lovely pedicure and then gave me a peanut butter bagel sandwich to eat lying on the couch while she was fixing dinner. About ½ hour after eating my sandwich I had terrible heartburn and quite frankly felt like I was going to throw up. We decided to try some of the essential oils to see if that would help.

My mom put peppermint oil on the sole of each foot rubbed it in and put my socks back on before dinner. By the way, it takes me about 10 minutes to put on socks myself and entails lots of huffing and puffing and Olympic gold medal worthy gymnastic maneuvering. Anyway, about 5 minutes after “the application” I was walking from the bedroom and I almost passed out. I got very dizzy, shaky and cold and the room started to spin and I ended up sitting down on the floor next to the bed. Rich thought maybe I was dehydrated or got too much sun from being in the pool. I thought I just needed to eat (it had been about 45 minutes since my last meal).

While we were eating my mom very casually said something along the lines of maybe we should wash my feet off because the peppermint oil was maybe too strong for me. She “MAYBE” put too much oil on each foot. She claimed that the oil just ran out of the bottle and I got to a drizzle of oil on each foot rather than a drop. And then said that some oils are used to induce labor.

She assured me the oils used to induce labor are the “crazy oils”, nothing like normal peppermint oil (which just made me almost pass out). I looked at some more literature and it said not to use sage, fennel, wintergreen, or hyssop oil during pregnancy and to check with a health care professional before using oils if you are pregnant.

GREAT. I’ve been on bed rest for 36 days trying to keep the little ones in for as long as possible, only to be undone by a drizzle of oil on each foot. So I’m done with the oils until I check with my doctor when I go on Friday. I think my mom and Rita could not wait any longer to meet the triplets and it was an unconscious conspiracy to put me into labor. Those two sisters sure can be sneaky.