Little Ships and Big Ships

Life has become very busy since we got back from the holidays, but has also been very productive. Frankly, Geeta and I arrived back in Toronto on the 1st of January feeling a bit stressed - at the time, none of our big ticket items had been completed. We’re happy to say that we’ve made a big dent in our to-do list with most of the big ticket action items being completed or close to it.

Our big ship (our min-van) and our little ship (our triplet stroller) have both arrived! Our little ship comes complete with a steering wheel and brakes – LOL! Our big ship is a Honda Odyssey. Yes – As much as we hate to admit it, we are now mini-van people. Believe it or not, our stroller barely fits inside our van. It’s kind of embarrassing taking out either of our ships, but we’re getting used to it. We can already tell that our triplet stroller is quite the attention grabber – we get a lot of questions about it and we can already foresee that spending time in public with our three little ones may not be as private as we’d like.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve also been able to finally secure a parking spot in our building, purchase and take delivery of our baby furniture, secure a nanny, get the car seats, and put together most of the baby accessories – phew!…we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be setting up the house a bit more and completing some last minute items – hopefully there is a bit of time to relax.

Geeta is doing great! She’s keeping healthy, and the babies are doing really well. The babies are almost 3 lbs each now and we’re hoping they stay in mommy’s tummy for a few more weeks. They love to kick and play – in fact if you keep your arm around Geeta’s belly as she sleeps you can feel all three of them kicking and prodding. It is so amazing to feel them. Sometimes, when I put my hand on her belly, it almost feels like the babies’ are trying to feel the contours of my hand…it’s so incredible! What’s also amazing is how the babies respond to music by my favourite band, U2. I play a lot of U2 music in the house and it’s incredible to see how they recognize it and start kicking (we’d like to think they're dancing) when it comes on.

Geeta is 29 weeks pregnant now and has crossed the critical 28 week milestone for triplets. The doctors thinks that Geeta will now deliver in mid-February, a bit earlier than anticipated; so we’ve only got only a few weeks to go! Every week counts at this point and we’re going to fight for every last day. The longer the babies stay in mommy’s tummy, hopefully the shorter the hospital stay will be for them. Next week the doctors will give the babies a shot of steroids to help their lungs develop rapidly in the event that they come a bit earlier than expected. We are aiming for 32 weeks and are hopeful that they will be close to 4 lbs each when they arrive. That may sound small but it is actually a really good weight for triplet babies. Below is a graphic indicating the positions of the babies in mommy’s tummy.

With Geeta having to stay off her feet these days, I’ve had to finally learn how to cook ;) Yes – cooking has never been a strong spot for me and I’ve never been too interested in learning. I’m pleased to report that I’m getting better at it and am actually enjoying it a bit too. Geeta typically will teach me one or two meals per week and I’ll jot down the recipe so that I can repeat it. I’m getting quicker at it now and must say that my Mac and Cheese has come a long way!

With work keeping me extremely busy these days and Geeta out of commission, it has been quite the challenge to juggle everything on the home and works front. It has been really touching for Geeta and I to see some of our friends going out of their way to lend a hand.

Back from the holidays

Happy New Year everyone!!

It’s been a while since we’ve updated our blog. We’re back from the holidays..... back from Ottawa. I was there since December 11th. Sacha joined me there on December 23rd and we came back to Toronto on the 1st of January.

It was a great trip except for the fact that we both got pretty sick near the end. I got a 24 hour stomach bug and Sacha caught a really bad cold. We’re now both recovered and happy to be home to start on the nursery.

The first Saturday when we got to Ottawa, my sister threw us a baby shower. It was such a nice surprise and a wonderful time to catch up with all my friends!

On December 20th my mom threw me yet another shower. This one was a little more traditional and it was with family friends and relatives.

Sacha and I were both overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. I’ve posted a few pictures below of both showers......

Christmas Update

Geeta is keeping healthy and is doing great. The ‘Three Musketeers’ are keeping mommy hungry and are starting to kick a lot! In fact you can even see them poking out of Geeta’s tummy when they kick – kind of like that Maltese commercial on t.v.

Our eight year old nephew, Rohan, has taken a real interest in his Masi’s (means aunt in hindi) pregnancy asking all kinds of curious little questions about his soon to be cousins. He has even offered to raise one of them to help us out :)

Geeta is in Ottawa at the moment, allowing her mom to feed her a feast every night. I’ll be hurrying home to Ottawa as soon as work gets a little lighter next week.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas

A few new pics from a recent photo session we did about a month ago to capture this milestone moment in our lives.

Princess Ariya and her Entourage

Just like with any sprawling city, real-estate is precious and there is nowhere to grow except outwards. As I come into my 5th month of pregnancy the babies have all taken up a piece of “real-estate” and have spread themselves out. Our two boys are sharing the bottom and our baby girl has claimed the whole top half to herself. She has spread herself out and has quite a bit of room to herself. In fact lately she’s squishing my stomach and causing some unwanted acid into my oesophagus that is hurting me. I’m back to sleeping on the lounger in the living room. All babies are very active but they call our girl super active. She loves to kick around, use her hands (it looks like she’s saying hi to us), and do somersaults!

The good news is that we’ve chosen our baby girls name...... don’t hold us to it but we think it will be Ariya Bella Gera.
The bad news is that we still can’t agree on any boy names ;-)

Here are a few pictures from the anatomy scan at 19.4 weeks:

Trip C = Girl; Trip B = Boy on the right; Trip A = Boy on the left

We're Having...

Two boys and a baby girl!

Sacha and I attended an ultrasound this morning and our Three Musketeers have ten little fingers and ten little toes and all is well so far.

This past weekend our good friends, Heather and John, threw us our first baby shower. Sacha and I enjoyed ourselves very much and it was a truly memorable occasion. It was so nice to have so many friends celebrating this special day with us. We were touched by their thoughtfulness, support, and generosity, and had a great time watching the men braid hair, make macaroni necklaces, and give fatherly advice.

Here are a few pictures and videos from the event.

Our hosts...

We’d like to share a poem that a friend of ours wrote for our babies – Sacha and I thought it was a very creative and personal touch....

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

In Spring Oh-8 I Went to Ivey
And Met Your Dad Who Was Quite Lively
And Then Your Mom Soon Showed Her Face
And Made That School A Better Place
-----
Within A Week She Was Practically In Charge
Running Events and the Family At Large
And Though She Wasn’t an Official Classmate
Her Constant Effort Made the School Year Great
-----
Now Onto Your Dad Who Would Help Us Learn
Spinning Tales of Nortel (The Money They Couldn’t Earn)
And Though You’d Think Him a Serious Man
That Image Is a Bit of a Sham
-----
Outside Class you’d See Him in a Different Light
Study in the A.M., Dancing At Night
And Though He’ll Say He’s Always The Adult
Remember To Take It With a Grain Of Salt
Because In his Day, He Loved To Have Fun
But a Balance, He’d Stress, Is Number One
-----
So If You Read This When You’re Teens
And It Seems He’s Always Pushing You to Succeed
Remember To Push Back and Ask Him Why
Would a Grown Man Have a Burst Blood Vessel In His Eye?
-----
And Now This Tale Will Have To Be Done
But Just Remember That Your Dad and Mom
Are Two of The Best parents Kids Could Ask For
So Listen to Them When They Give You What For
But Once In a While, And Without Remorse
Do Your Own Thing, And Chart Your Own Course!

~Justin Porter Nov.09

For those of you interested in seeing all the pictures and videos - click here.

November Belongs to Us

A couple of weeks back, Geeta and I were reminiscing at a Starbucks over some of the good times we’ve had over the years and how we’ve enjoyed our time to the fullest with travel, adventures, family, and good friends. We know that there are plenty of changes in order, and it has become clear that November is probably our last month to be our traditional selves with the freedom to do what we want without thinking twice. Come December and onwards, it will become increasingly difficult to be active as Geeta will need more bed rest - many expecting triplet mothers are succumbed to bed rest in the last 3-4 months of pregnancy to prolong the delivery date. Therefore, we declared that “November Belongs to Us.” We decided to make the most of the month with plenty of time for ourselves, friends, and fun. This weekend we travelled to Blue Mountain and had an amazing time! We’ve also been making an effort to get together with friends fairly often.

The last three weeks have brought some interesting new experiences and changes for us. For one, Geeta started feeling some fluttering – not quite kicks but it is possible to feel the babies if you keep your hand on her belly for a period of time. It has been amazing for me to feel them – it makes the experience feel that much more real. The three little musketeers are getting more and more active by the day and Geeta is starting to feel them more and more.

Another interesting change is that Geeta gets really hungry in the middle of the night. In fact she probably eats every 2-3 hours and has to keep a supply of granola bars and bananas beside the bed. It’s pretty funny hearing her eat in bed in the middle of the night. It sounds like cookie monster getting his fix with crumbs flying everywhere :)

Unfortunately for Geeta, sleeping has becoming increasingly difficult. Most nights the bed gets pretty uncomfortable for her and she generally shifts over to the couch and sleeps upright. Hopefully it’s just a phase and it will pass.

We went to another ultrasound this week and the babies are doing great. It was amazing to see how active they are and how they play inside the womb. Their fingers and toes are distinct at this point and it’s amazing to see them play with their hand and feet – I guess that’s why mommy is feeling the fluttering. We still don’t know the sex of the babies and yes we will be finding out hopefully in the next few weeks. There is no way we will be able to save the sex of the babies as a surprise – that would require us to come up with six potential names (3 x girl names, and 3 x boy names). We can barely agree on one name at this point ;)

A few recent pictures.

The Goal is 34!

As Geeta enters week 15, she is rapidly growing. In fact in the last couple of weeks her waist has been expanding by 1-2 inches/week. It’s hard to grasp how quickly things are happening. In a singleton pregnancy, it would be pretty difficult to even tell that a woman is pregnant at 15 weeks but with Geeta she looks about 6 month pregnant already as the Three Muskateers grow.

It feels really weird to see Geeta grow so quickly – Even though her tummy has been expanding it almost didn’t feel real until I got to go to an ultrasound. Because of my new job I felt like I couldn’t take the time off to attend the first ultrasound (which I totally regret) - so I had to miss it which really sucked. Attending the second ultrasound was such a surreal moment for me. It was truly amazing to see the three babies swimming around, and even kicking. Who knew that they would have fingers and little feet at this early stage? I certainly didn’t know.

Attending the ultrasound was the first time it hit me – that I was going to be a father and that Geeta was going to be a mom and that it wasn’t just about the two of us anymore…it was about our family. Wooh – what an incredible feeling; and definitely a defining moment in our lives.

With all triplet pregnancies there is a very high risk of delivering prematurely. In fact the average triplet delivery is about 7 weeks early and usually happens around week 33 of the pregnancy. Every week counts when it comes to the size and healthiness of the babies and the longer they stay in mommy’s womb the better. The difference of even a few weeks can mean the difference between a prolonged hospital stay versus the babies coming home. It’s hard not to feel scared about all the risks, but we are doing our best to be mentally prepared for a premature delivery.

So…

“The Goal is 34”
That is 34 weeks. If we’re lucky, Geeta will be able to carry the Muskateers beyond 34 weeks and our babies will be healthy enough to function and breath on their own. For now we will take every week as a blessing and continue to watch our family develop.