Three For the Price of One: My Triplet Pregnancy: 20 Weeks: Another Peek at the Girls!

This Week's Developments:
* Babies should be around 10.5 inches long from head to foot (the length of a banana), and according to my app weigh around 10.6 oz (see below for actual weights from anatomy scan)
* Babies are swallowing more and more to practice digestion and producing meconium- a by-product of digestion(we'll get to see that in their first diapers!)

It was like counting down the days to Christmas awaiting our Anatomy scan on Wednesday. Since they give us the best glimpse of the girls and their progress and only come every 4 weeks, Brent gets out of work to come. The girls all looked great (measurements below). I will note that the standard of error is 2 oz with the weight estimates. Each girl's scan took at least 30 minutes as we measured key points on their heads, hearts, abdomens, arms, and legs, viewed kidneys and stomachs, and mapped bloodflow. A was very cooperative and photogenic as usual, B was slightly less so as she moved around quite a bit and whenever the tech thought she had her shot, she would have to let out an exasperated sigh and start over after B danced away. Regardless, B ended up giving us all the necessary shots too. C was very, very stubborn. She was comfortably lying on her stomach and was not going to flip over for anyone! The tech spent a very long time poking and prodding with the wand trying to encourage her to flip, but C was just was not having it. Eventually, she was able to get all but a couple heart outflow shots which C flat out refused to give up. The tech said she would try to get that measurement at the next scan in 4 weeks, but that today would be the longest scan because they got a lot of measurements they would not even be able to attempt to get as the girls become larger and more cramped. At future scans, they will just be measuring the keypoints to assess growth that should only take 5-10 min per baby. When we met with the specialist, she was surprised that the tech was able to get as many of the key shots that she did with triplets. My cervix measured at 3.7 cm (down from 4.1 2 weeks ago) but the specialist said it still looked long and perfect and this decrease did not concern her at all. The specialist also exclaimed that all three girls are breech- but this shouldn't matter much as they will be delivered via c-section anyway.

One concern the specialist did bring up that the ultrasound revealed was that A and C have what is called 'marginal cord insertion.' Ideally, the umbilical cord will implant right into the middle of the placenta for ideal blood and nutrient circulation. Quite often in multiples, the cord will implant further off to the edge of the placenta which could potentially impact the growth of A and C over time. The specialist said this is something that could potentially cause us to have to deliver the babies a little sooner than expected if it does appear that one or both of them are too far behind in growth, but that it is not generally something that could result in any long-term effects or cause any major risks to the babies as long as they are monitored closely. On my forums, I communicated with several other triplet mom's who had 1 or 2 babies with marginal insertion and none of them had to deliver early because of it and the babies were not impacted by it with any lasting effects other than possibly just being a bit smaller in some cases. Many of these Moms did have to deliver as early as 30 weeks, but it was due to non-related issues like pre-ecclampsia and HELLP. This seems to be the consensus with our google searches on the topic as well. We appreciate prayers that the girls will continue to grow well, remain close in size, and get all the blood and nutrients they need to thrive so that they can stay in there and cook as long as possible! Brent melted my heart today after he texted me many facts about marginal cord insertion that he had researched at work today, and finished with a text stating 'I can't wait to be a Dad!!'

The specialist confirmed what I was thinking about delivery date. She said I will definitely deliver by 35 weeks and would be incredibly surprised if, being pregnant with triplets, I even made it that far. She said most triplet mom's deliver around 31 weeks due to many issues that arise with growing 3 babies and the stress on the uterus and mom's body. 35 weeks would be February 28th, and I hope we can get as close to that goal as possible!

Next week I will not have any appointments due to the holiday week. The following week I will see my OB on Tuesday, and then the specialist again on Wednesday to do another cervical check.

Here are some shots of the girls from Wednesday (19w6d)! You can pretty much tell from the pictures that A was the most cooperative and C the least :) Throughout the 1.5+ hour ultrasound, they took more than 45 pictures, but these are the only ones that were printed for us. On the screen we were able to see frontal views of the adorable little faces quite clearly and close-ups of their little feet and handprints :)

Princess A: 11 oz, HR 138