Hello all!

A lovely week-end with the first storm of the Fall/Winter on our doorstep. Actually looking forward to some cleansing rain. The Boys (B&C) had 3 soccer games this week-end. They won the first two on Saturday 6-1 and 6-0, but today played a team that knows what they are doing and we lost 1-6...but the team played hard.

I am giving some workshops in photography -- one in November and another in Yosemite in April. Got some people signed up -- looking forward to them.

Question for the week...

What your first thoughts/words upon finding out that you were pregnant with multiples?

Finding out about the three, my wife and I turned to each other and thought the same thing -- "We are going to need to buy a used mini-van!"

I hope everyone's week is a good one!

Vaughn

Thank you, Vaughn, for doing the weekly update. I appreciate it more than I can say!

Nothing very dramatic going on. Just busy with the boys' activities.Lots of homework for my high school junior. It never seems to end. Then, they each have one sport they are involved in. Between running around to rock climbing, water polo and two levels of aikido, I'm bushed. Did find a new gym for myself that I'm trying a one-week membership. Smaller, cleaner, and friendlier than the 24-hour place I had been going to for years. I think it's more motivating and that's a good thing!

My husband and I were in shock. At five weeks along, I started bleeding and thought I was having another miscarriage. I wasn't scheduled to see the doctor until 8 weeks along. When I called he said, come right in.

At the ultrasound, my dh and I were fully prepared for a loss. Then, the doctor said, "You're not having a miscarriage. You're having one, two, maybe three babies!" We were in shock - literally. Had nothing significant to say. From thoughts of loss to high-risk pregnancy in a split second. My husband did take out his wallet and gave it to the doctor said, "I won't have any money to need a wallet anymore!" How true!

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Sharon
12 year old b/b/b + 16 year old son

Hello!

Dd had her homecoming weekend! 'lots of fun! The little stinker and her friends went toilet papering and got caught! The police officer took all of the girls names, addresses and phone numbers and took the rest of their tp away. The officer said that if damage was reported in the area, he would call their parents. She had a pretty good time at the dance and looked gorgeous! I still can't believe that such a beautiful girl came out of ME!

About a week after I had a positive pg test, I started having abdominal pain. I went in for an ultrasound and they only saw one sac. That was when I was about 5 weeks. At 7 weeks we went in for the ultrasound. I told the tech that we saw only 1 sac two weeks ago. She took a very LONG time and finally said, "Do you want to know how many I see today, three!" I said Holy f***! Dh didn't say a thing. He was in shock and all I could hear was him letting his breath out. We drove home in silence and didn't really talk for a few days. We finally snapped out of it and started planning. We will never forget that day. Of course, we will never forget the day that we were told we had a viable pregnancy with oldest dd. I thought I had had a miscarriage (bleeding issues). At that ultrasound we saw a beating heart! What a relief!

"Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears."-- Gillian Anderson

Way back in high school, the cheerleaders TP'd my house (before a big basketball game -- I was the starting center). My sister was sleeping on the couch (having some marriage problems). She woke up and not knowing what the noise was about, let the dog out -- mad barking and cheerleaders scattering into the night!

Vaughn and the ABC Boys
Alex, Bryce, & Calder
3-31-97 @ 28.5 weeks
http://s515.photobucket.com/albums/t356/vaughn3abc/


PS...very nice day in the Redwoods yesterday. The maples (vine and big-leaf) are turning...not all the fancy colors one finds back east, but the yellow is beautiful amongst the greens. Very dry under the Redwoods, but soon to change. Today...winds expected to 50 MPH and a few inches of rain.

The rain will help with the forest fires we have burning inland.

We took the girls tping for the football players this past weekend for Homecoming (it's a junior youth league) but other than my car getting backed into by a pizza delivery driver no ill-effects since we get permission from the parents before hand.

The girls were hysterical yelling "HIT THE DECK" and diving to the ground anytime they saw car lights.

Laura
Mom to M, N & C (5/8/99)

Now that's funny!!! I can picture that in my head.

Incidentally, we were TP'd too! I noticed it when I went to bed. The funny thing, I didn't hear a thing. I was laying on the couch watching a sappy Lifetime movie and the dog was konked out on the floor beside me. The backyard tree is RIGHT next to the window and we had the motion lights on,lol!

"Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears."-- Gillian Anderson

It was a busy week for us last week.
My son ended up getting the "probable" H1N1 flu.
He was pretty miserable for 2 days with headaches and elevated temps but I can't complain since none of the rest of us have any symptoms and he was back to school and football 3 days later. I had just decided to get the H1N1 shot for the kids but it isn't available for healthy teens yet in our area. I guess we all have a natural immunization now.

I remember tp-ing in high school. It was considered a compliment as only the "popular" people got tp-ed. We were thrilled when we got hit and didn't even mind cleaning up.

We found out we were having triplets at 5 weeks. My hcg level was elevated (779) so the doctor suspected twins. The next week at the u/s we quickly saw 2 sacs. Then my husband saw a third. I thought he was joking until I saw the doctors face.
We were truly shocked because although the girls are the result of IVF, we had done everything exactly the same a year before and gotten our son.
My husband kept saying "It's going to be a party?" I couldn't speak.

Glad to hear that your ds is feeling better! I hope no one else in your family gets it! My oldest dd's friends brother was admitted last night for confirmed H1N1. He is sooo ill and that scares me to death. We were just with his family this weekend for homecoming pictures.
I was supposed to get my seasonal flu vac today but we were just informed that they have run out of the vac and it will not be available until the end of November. Thankfully, Katie got hers last week. She is at high risk for developing complications.

Does anyone know when the H1N1 vac is supposed to be on the market?

"Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears."-- Gillian Anderson

Hi Everyone,

We spent a well deserved long weekend in the WI Northwoods. Beautiful color. Had a bit of snow. Someone stole our gameboy out of the car, so that kinda put a damper on things....just goes to show you are not safe from crime anywhere.

Other than that, we all had a very nice time, including our very old dog who got to see the woods and the lake for the very first time..

The T.P.thing is just a nuisance. Thankfully, the t.p. people actually call everyone before they make a big mess to get permission. Since we rent and I would be the clean up crew my answer has always been NO! On the plus side, we do live in an affluent area and the paper these kids use is premium...stuff we could never afford. They tend to leave the unused rolls under the violated trees. Viola, t.p. for the next month.

I have spontaneous triplets(first pregnancy) and was with a nurse midwife before they were detected. My routine AFP test was off the charts, evidentally. So the day before I was leaving on vacation she called and said I needed a level three ultrasound that day because they thought the baby had spina bifida. I was like, gee can't this wait? I'm not aborting this child, what's the rush?? The idea of multiples never crossed my mind even though I had read that somewhere about a high AFP. Of course, none of the med pros bothered to tell me this.

So I guess finding three healthy girls on that ultrasound was a big relief. Kinda wierd, the shock of three did not set in until about a week later. Then there were all the people who said I probably wouldn't end up with all three anyway...nice, huh. Boy were they wrong.

Tami mom to ggg19 and g14 and dog 14

Hi everyone! How ya'll doing?
It's been busy here lately. Torunn and her brother Eirik came to visit a couple weeks ago. It was fabulous to see them again. Trying to find a way--and time--to take the family to meet the rest of her family in Norway. (Gotta love frequent flier miles! ) Our niece flew in from Atlanta last week for Francesca's birthday party. We have a slew of family in town next month. After that it'll probably be a few years before anyone visits again!!

Lots of rain, so our soccer season has been placed on temporary hold. Annoying to learn at last minute fields are closed, so we've got so many games to make up in the next month. Probably have 5-7 games/week once they begin playing again. Cheer and tumbling season begin next month, so practice times have increased. I'm so tired of carpools. LOL

Triplets are still being homeschooled, and we pulled Francesca out to return to homeschool. She is my naturally smartest child--and 2 yrs older than trio, but was behind them in math. She's now doing a part-time school in addition to homeschool. It's a wickedly intense program.

QOTW: We learned there were triplets at the 20 week ultrasound. It was the "oopsy" pregnancy, and third pregnancy in 3 years. Very much a BTDT mentality until the u/s. I laughed because it was so preposterous. Had never heard of naturally conceived trips before. We were told to expect mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and micro-preemies. Instead we had 35 weekers who are natural athletes, and can drive me bananas! Am so very blessed.
Tracey
Michael, Soccer Dude (13)
Francesca, Classical Guitarist (12)
Matthew, Slide Tackle Soccer Dude (10)
Alexis, Cheer Chick (10)
Gabrielle, Sassy Gymnast (10)

Host mom to exchange students:
Johannes, Germany (18)
Torunn, Norway (21)

I learned at about 10 or 11 weeks that I was having triplets. Doc first told me it was twins - I was SO EXCITED. Then when he told me it looked like 3, I was shocked . . . but still excited. I didn't think triplets happened to real people. I thought it only happened to tv characters like Phoebe from "Friends." DH was just plain SHOCKED when I told him (he was at home). -- Gloria

We were hoping for twins -- we could not afford to do IVF a third time (no success the first time). The first time was with 4 good looking zygotes. The second attempt was with the remaining four surviving frozen zygotes -- that were not as promising as the first four. And BINGO!

One should be careful of what one wishes for, LOL!

Vaughn

I have to agree with you, Vaughn.

Pur first child was IVF and I was always very open about our precedures. I found many people who had been struggling with infertility asked me for a referral to my doctor.

A year later I was in the OR for another embryo transfer hoping for baby 2.
I told the doctor I wanted at least 3 kids but we were running out of money and I had sent him alot of business so I thought he should do my next IVF procedure for free.
He laughed and said he was too cheap for that so he would have to give me twins this time.

He promised he was only kidding when the u/s showed triplets.

A little late but better than never.

I ended up on the ultrasound table at 14 weeks because I told my doctor that there was something wrong with my pregnancy and I wasn't leaving his office until he scheduled an ultrasound. He said that he had to write down a reason for the ultrasound. I told him to write whatever he had to to get me the test. He told me that the most common reason was to rule out twins. So there I was bursting at the seams with all the water I had to drink. The tech scanned me and got up and left the room. She came back with 2 doctors and said, "You were expecting twins, right?" I said "NO"! Then she scanned the trio and showed us. I burst into tears. How could I do that to my one year son? Dh thought it was great. I hopped down and went into the bathroom to cry and regain my composure.

Then we flipped roles and I thought it was great and dh didn't. We too, went out and bought a 9 passenger station wagon. (Vans came along shortly after that)

I am thankful to have had this life experience. What a wild ride it was!

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!