BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday, we went to the hospital for our 16 week ultrasound. As we pulled up to the valet parking stand, I suddenly had a wave of serious anxiety. I told Grant "I think I am getting sick to my stomach." He was like "Its okay your fine let's just go to our appointment." I was like "No I am really getting sick." We got out of the car and I pulled a Stan from Southpark. I projectile vomited onto the street in front of all the valet parkers. Grant started laughing hysterically because he said its rare you see someone projectile vomit out of anxiety. So, that is my humor for the day. It had been three weeks since our last ultrasound and I guess I was just really nervous about how the appointment was going to go and whether they would see any signs of TTTS or whether my cervix was shortening ect.

We finally made it into the ultrasound room and my anxiety was completely unfounded. All three babies measured perfectly, had four chambers of the heart, and there was no signs of TTTS. And my cervix was long and closed. So, great news on the health front. But, we of course are still not out of the woods yet. From this point on, I will be having an ultrasound every two weeks to look for TTTS. Once we reach 20 weeks, we can breathe a little. Once we reach, 24 weeks, we can really breathe. But, the doctor says the fact that they see no signs so far is definitely encouraging. Severe cases of TTTS tend to start a little earlier.

So, for the crazy news. We asked the ultrasound tech to tell us if she saw any boy/girl parts. She first scanned over the identical twins and sure enough, saw very clear boy parts. We were immediately excited because Grant wanted a boy so bad! Then, I was like "Oh my god what if the singleton is a boy too." She then scanned over the singleton and immediately said "Oh boy." Sure enough, there was another very clear boy part. At that point, we were a little shocked and awed. Never in a million years did we think they would all be boys!!!

Also, because they are all boys, there is an outside possibility that they are all identical. One of two scenarios happened during implantation:

Scenario A (most likely): two separate embryos implanted and one of them split late in the implantation process. Because the embryo split later, the split embryos share a placenta. The unsplit embryo has its own placenta. In this case, the boys sharing the placenta would be identical and the third with its own placenta would be different.

Scenario B (least likely): only one embryo implanted and immediately split early enough so the split embryos formed their own placentas; then, one of the split embryos split again, but was late enough that the third split embryo remained in the same placenta. In this case, all three boys would be identical.

We started to get excited about the boys and for the first time in the pregnancy, we started talking about names during the down moments in our three hour office visit. As we were talking names, we joked that we should name one "Stan" in honor of my projectile vomiting. (No-Stan is not one of our names). We took turns saying names and either agreed or nixed the name. For one of the names, I gave the name and Grant looked at me with shock on his face and said "That was the next name I was going to say." Needless to say, that name is one of our names! By the time we got home, we had all three names set in stone. We pretty much did the same thing with Lauren immediately after our 20 week ultrasound with her. We are really easy with the name decision-making!

And here are the pictures:

Baby A

Baby A's profile picture:

A picture of Baby A's boy parts:

Baby B

Baby B's profile picture:

A picture of Baby B's boy parts:

A picture of Baby B's arm:

Baby C

Baby C's profile picture:

A picture of the Baby C's boy parts:

Finally, here is a picture of Baby B and C with their heads together:

Finally, the here is a little chart that shows how much the babies weigh and how they are all lying in my belly:

As for me, I am starting to feel better with the morning sickness. I still have it and throw up almost every day but it is very very little compared to earlier on. I have gained 17 pounds at this point, which is just okay. I really need to pick up on the weight gain so I can make it to at least 50 pounds. Thank god the Holiday season is approaching so I can have my family wait on me and bring me unlimited fattening holiday food :)

We have our next ultrasound in two weeks. I will post again then.

Cheers!
Kara