Still Three

I'm still here. Still pregnant. Still triplets. I saw the perinatologist on Monday, but then had to hurry up and get finished with all the details before Passover started, so I couldn't post. Anywhozit, my husband was able to be at this appointment with me, which is a good thing, and we had a long, detailed ultrasound done, so there was lots to see. There are still three. Three heartbeats measuring 171, 171, and 168 beats per minute. On the day of the appointment, I was 8weeks, 5 days. Baby A was measuring 8 weeks, 5 days. Baby B measured 8 weeks 4 days. And Baby C measured 8 weeks, 2 days.

The perinatologist was obviously hugely in favor of reduction, but failed to give me any compelling reasons why it should be my primary option. While she gave me the general information about how twins are lower risk than triplets, I didn't hear anything truly compelling... no specifics. She admitted that the triplets they deliver do very well. She certainly didn't suggest that reduction was my only option, but she did say that it was probably my BEST option for a positive outcome. Still, when pressed about specific medical concerns, she didn't have a lot to say.

She did, however, suggest that the bleeding that I was experiencing (oh, hey, it seems to have stopped!) was probably completely normal. She says she sees a lot more bleeding with higher order multiples and it's probably because there's so much placenta-action going on. This makes sense to me. She said that the cramping I've been having is probably actually a good sign, because it's probably just normal pregnancy cramping resulting from the placentas embedding in the uterine wall, but of course the cramping is three times as great as it would be with a singleton, but that's completely fine.

What she recommended we do is the Nuchal Translucency Screening and go from there. If the Nuchal Fold comes back looking fishy, we can do a CVS and then make a decision about reduction. She recommended that I go ahead and schedule the reduction and I can always cancel it if I change my mind, so it's scheduled, but I don't expect to keep that appointment. Nuchal fold is 4/20, reduction (likely to cancel) is 4/27. I seriously doubt that the nuchal fold scan will show anything compelling enough to suggest to me that reduction is worth considering. Reduction comes along with its own risks and I'm not sure it's worth it. Halachically, I probably do have grounds to pursue reduction within the bounds of Jewish law, but I don't feel sufficiently compelled personally to consider it yet.

And that's that. I have bunches of ultrasound pictures, but I'm rather lazy right now. Maybe I'll take care of it later. I've been offline for a couple days, but hopefully will catch up with all of your blogs soon. Not tonight though, it's my bedtime. Past my bedtime, actually.