The Baby Machines...NOT!

I need to clear something up really quick. This is what people think when they see our little (soon to be huge) family..."Wow, they are baby making machines!"  Given the fact that we have our 3 little boys now, ages 3,4 and 5, and Emily's belly is poking out more and more with every day that passes, you can't help but think we are baby making machines.  I find this kind of funny, since in reality Emily and I have only really "made" one baby (Ethan) on our own.  Doctors have been our baby making machines!  Emily "just" carries the babies, not makes them.  I bring this up because I find it extremely entertaining to blow peoples minds with the triplets "baking in the oven" while they are commenting on the 3 little boys.  I say something like, "You think those 3 are crazy? What is REALLY crazy is that my wife is pregnant with triplets! That's CRAZY!!!"  I have received some of the most interesting, funny, and disgusted faces.

Emily hates it when I tell people, but I love it.  I think I embarrassed her for the first time ever yesterday in Jo-Ann's Fabric Store (yes, I shop there).  This was the first time that she was actually with me when I told someone about the triplets in addition to our current trio.  It was classic!  I have never seen Emily's face go red like that.  I want anyone out there reading this to tell me if they have ever embarrassed Emily...I would bet not, but if you have I want to hear the story.  She is one tough egg to crack!  That is what I love about her (well, one of the things anyway).

On August 20, 2012 we went in for the "Marathon Ultrasound", where they looked very closely at the anatomy of the three little ones "baking in the oven".  They had that joystick thing smearing jelly on Emily's belly for about an hour and a half!  To save you a lot of time, I will just say this, we have 3 very healthy babies.  All of them are measuring perfectly, heartbeats are great, and they are still wiggling around.  Remember how last time we went in for our ultrasound and they guessed at the sexes of the babies?  Well, just like every other ultrasound we have had, the tech was wrong again!  I am not surprised, I will give her the benefit of the doubt, and say that she did tell us she was guessing.  So, Baby A was a boy at the last ultrasound and remained such at the "official" telling, BABY A is a BOY!  Baby B was a girl at the last showing, and this time, BABY B is a...BOY!  2 boys, one to go.  At this point, Emily is NOT happy, surely there is a girl in there.  Last chance, Baby C was a girl at the last one, this time, BABY C is a....wait, the baby is not cooperating with us.  The tech spent a couple of minutes trying to figure it out, but BABY C was not cooperating.  The tech went on and continued with the measurements and came back several minutes later.  The whole time Emily referred to BABY C as a girl.  OK, here it is, the official word is BABY C is a...

GIRL!

This is Emily's favorite picture of all time!  Even though she didn't get the 2 girls that she wanted, she got her girl!  She is SO happy about that.  I too am ecstatic that we will have a VERY spoiled little girl with 5 brothers to protect and watch over her!  So, there you have it, the Hutchings are going to have 5 boys and 1 girl!  Till next time!

Here are some pics to enjoy:

Apparently there are 3 babies in this picture!

Baby B...Boy!

I think that Baby B is going to be the most photographed!

Boys and/or Girls

Well, here we come triplets!!!  Here are just a few of the things that we will need to upgrade to, I hope you're ready.  Feel free to laugh with us (you might be laughing AT us, but we won't know any different because we are laughing too)

3 High Chairs 

Triple Stroller

3 Car Seats

3 Cribs

I think you get the idea.  By the way, I got these pictures off the internet, so it in no way translates to our actual stuff (just throwing that out there).  We, at this point in the pregnancy anyway, have somewhat come to terms with it all.  We are SO excited to have the addition of triplets.  That said, we FREAK out when we think of it all logistically (I like to think that anybody would).  Just look at the above pictures and disagree with it, I dare you!

Wow, triplets.  I know I have said it before, but how do you even prepare for it?  Ideas are very much welcomed.  It has seriously been an emotional roller-coaster.  Like I mentioned, we are SO excited to be welcoming these 3 babies into our home, I would have it no other way, I think it will be hard, VERY hard, especially for Emily.  It is nice to know that we have family and friends who are very excited to help (at least that's what they've told us, and I would like to believe them!).  So, thank you in advance, because I know that we couldn't do it without everyone's help!

Well, get on with it, right?  So, we have had a couple of weeks for it to set in since our last ultrasound where we found out it is triplets.  I think we're fine with it, for the most part.  I personally love the unexpected in life.  For instance, not only the triplets, but our cruise that got stranded in the ocean in Nov 2010, I was the only one that enjoyed that whole trip.  It is just kind of a blast to do things off the cuff, especially when you plan something and it goes completely opposite of how you plan it, that is what I really enjoy.

July 19, 2012.  We went in for the 12 week ultrasound.  This one is just a relatively quick check to make sure the babies are still doing well, measuring ok, and heartbeats are good.  We were hoping to be able to tell the sexes of the babies, because sometimes you can at the 12 week appointment.  They were looking around at the trio, everything was looking beautiful, measuring wonderfully, and heartbeats were great.  Their spinal cord area was measuring really well too, that is measured to check for some abnormalities (with triplets, I guess it is a huge concern at this stage), and they all measured fine in the spine! 

Here are a couple of pictures of their profiles (it is amazing that you can already see the profiles at this stage at a little over 2 inches long):

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

We asked the ultrasound technician to tell us the sexes.  She said that at this stage it is very difficult to tell unless the baby REALLY cooperates.  She told us that she would give us her guess, but that's all it was, a guess, not for sure.  We would have to wait until the 17 week ultrasound to know for sure.  Remember from the last post, that all of the babies will be the same now, Baby A will always be Baby A, etc.  So, here is what the tech told us (remember, these are just guesses):

Just to reiterate, this is just a guess.  1 boy and 2 girls.  Looks like Emily will finally get her little girls!  Ok, I am excited to get a couple of little princesses.  Now, let the name fest begin.  We will find out for sure at the next ultrasound in 5 weeks, she got a pretty good look, so it shouldn't change (however, based on our luck so far with what ultrasound techs have told us up until now, we can't put too much credit into it until it is 100%).  We have to wait 5 weeks to see our babies again?  Well, I guess we will survive.  In the meantime, we are going on our cruise (you can read all about that trip at http://jakeandemilyhutchings.blogspot.com/2012/08/carnival-splendor-take-2.html ).  Till next time!

The Truth!!!

Since we are having twins, Emily's OBGYN wants her to go see the perinatologist as well since twins are a high-risk pregnancy.  So, Emily's July 5 appointment rolls around for her to go see the specialist, and they are going to do an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok with the twins.  I did not go to this appointment since I was at work, but I wanted Emily to call me as soon as it is was over, because I wanted to know how the babies are doing.  The following is based on the phone conversation I had with her when I finally called her because it was taking so long:

Emily went into the office, laid down on the comfy little beds that fold in a thousand different ways, they put the goop on her tummy and proceeded with the ultrasound.  The first thing the ultrasound tech said was, "So, you are having triplets, huh?"  Emily's response was, "No, it is twins and there is an 'invisible twin/triplet'".  The tech kind of giggled and said, "No, you are having triplets, there are 3 little babies right there, see, 1, 2, 3.  They all have strong heartbeats, and are moving around a lot!"  Emily broke down in tears.  How do you go from 2 babies to 3 babies?

No one could believe it, even the doctors were stunned that it went from 2 to 3.  This had never happened.  The doctor even said that it never happens.  If it has ever happened to anybody else out there, please let us know because I hope it has happened to someone else!  What a roller coaster ride we have been on!  First it was 2 with a possibility of 3, then it was definitely 2, now it is not definitely 2 but absolutely 3.  What?!?!  See for yourselves, definitely 3:

Back to my location of the story.  I was at work at our office (Smiles for Kids) on the west side of town here in the good ol' ABQ, and I had a break when I knew Emily had been done.  I didn't have any missed calls, so I sat down at our little table in the break room and called her.  She answered and said, "we're not having twins anymore."  I thought she had lost one of them, so I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry sweetie."  She replied with, "We're having triplets."  I will say this, I am SO glad that I was sitting down.  I couldn't believe it.  We talked for a few minutes to make sure we were both fine.  We were both in shock.  

What? How? Is that even possible? Triplets?  Wasn't that pretty much impossible with our situation?  How come we didn't see it before?  Can you imagine, triplets?  3 little mouths to feed, 3 bums to change, 3 babies to wake you up in the middle of the night, 3!!!!  Wow.  Emotions were flying at an all time high.  Needless to say, for the remainder of the day I was pretty much useless.

However, I think that I had some kind of a sign from on high because my very last patients of the day on July 5, the day I found out we were having triplets, a family came in to the office and I called them back to do their cleanings and x-rays, 2 boys and a girl.  The boys looked like twins and I asked the mom if they were twins.  She said, "No, they're triplets."  You can imagine my response, "Today I just found out that we are having triplets."  She was SO happy, and said, "Congratulations!!!  They are such a blessing!"  I said that means a lot coming from someone with triplets.  I think she was sent there to help me feel OK about the whole situation, because to this day I think a lot about what she said, "They are such a blessing!"

It did take a long time to even comprehend this news.  Even though we will be weighed down by all of the extra feedings, bums to change, crying babies, etc, we feel SO blessed to be able to bring these 3 little babies to our family.  We are both still (to this day a month and a half later) in shock.  However, we are SO thrilled.  

We now know that Heavenly Father has to have a HUGE sense of humor!  I mean He has to have one, right?  For sending us 3 more kids, we will have 6 kids ages 6 and under.  Well, here is to AWESOME family and friends support!  You are all amazing and have helped SO much!!  Here are some pictures of the TRIO for your enjoyment:

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

At our next appointment in 2 weeks (July 19) we will find out the sexes (maybe).  From now on, the babies will always be in the same general position in the uterus so Baby A will always be Baby A, and Baby B will always be Baby B, and Baby C will always be Baby C.  So, when we find out the sexes, we may just use names instead of Baby A, B, or C. 

Ultrasound #1

After a series of blood tests, all of which came back with a higher number than the last (which is a great thing), we were convinced that it was either twins or one.  This conviction was based on the fact that the numbers were still not quite as high as they needed to be for twins, but they were a lot higher than a single baby.  So, there you have it, twins or singleton.  On June 8, 2012 we walked into the ultrasound very excited, and nervous.  We put 3 embryos back in, and the likelihood that all 3 took was slim to none, so possibility of triplets never really crossed our mind.  The only time it crossed our mind was when we would get mad at Jennefer every time she told us (which was VERY frequently) that she was praying super hard for triplets because that would be the best deal...financially speaking (you need to know Jennefer to truly appreciate the "money saving" bit).  We did not want triplets because that would screw up all of our plans for the upcoming year, Emily was planning on teaching pre-school, we were planning on keeping our car, etc.  So, triplets never crossed our mind for real until this first ultrasound.

"Well, you have at least twins!"  That's what the ultrasound tech told us.  What do you mean "at least"?  It is either 2 or 3, not "at least" twins.  Where did she get her training, some backwoods garage university in Northeast New Mexico?  Then we all saw them, 2 beautiful babies, with a third sack where there should be a baby, but she could not move the probe around good enough to ever see anything in the sack.  Plus, the third sack was measuring about a week behind the other 2 sacks (which both actually contained a fetus with a heartbeat).  Look for yourselves:

Twins, we are having twins, possibly (but not a good chance) it's triplets.  So, what did we do, we decided to tell people we are going to have twins, maybe triplets, but most likely twins.  We had to wait one more week to find out for sure.  Let me say this, if you think waiting to see if the pee stick was a positive or negative, that to us was nothing compared to that next week of anticipation to see if it was 2 or 3.  Twins people can handle, everyone knows someone: mom, sister, cousin, aunt, etc that has had twins.  Heck, my mom and Emily's mom both had twins, my aunt and sister-in-law both had twins.  Twins, though hard to raise is do-able, at least they make it seem that way.  Triplets on the other hand...how do you even prepare for that?!?  I mean we had to take out every possible loan we could just to get pregnant, how could we afford to feed 3 mouths, buy 3 sets of diapers, buy a new car, 3 sets of clothes, triple stroller, triple high chairs, triple cribs, triple pack-n-plays, triple babysitters (forget that, who wants to babysit 6 kids?).  No.  We were pregnant with twins.  Period.  Or are we?  We will find out at the next ultrasound.  That week seemed to last about a good year, maybe 2.

Well, here we go again.  Back to the doctor's office, on June 15, 2012, to verify that it was to be twins, not triplets.  This time we had a different ultrasound tech, hopefully she got her degree at a more prestigious university than the previous one, right?  She got everything up and running, probing from every angle (which Ethan found fascinating by the way, until we realized that he had gone very quiet; see, we were so into the ultrasound to make sure it was twins we kinda lost track of the kiddos! Awkward!)  There they were, 2 beautiful babies, with strong heartbeats.  TWINS!  Talk about a sigh of relief.  The tech said that the other sack was what they refer to as an "invisible twin", or in our case an "invisible triplet", which is basically a baby that started to form but stopped growing very early in the pregnancy.  Here is the proof of this finding by the ultrasound tech:

I will not lie, we were SO excited!!!  Now, for certain it was twins, we could shout it out to everyone.  Twins it is!  We can continue with all of our plans, Emily can teach preschool, no new car, now we only needed double of everything, we would struggle with that, but not as bad as if there was one more.  We were happy!  Plus, we had a whole bunch of support from some very close family members who could help us with the mental aspect of twins.  Phew!

So, that is about it for now.  We have our next ultrasound on July 5, a couple more weeks.  Till then.

The Test Results

Waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and some more waiting.  That is what we did for another week and a half.  We had to wait until Monday the 19^th of May to find out 100% if we were pregnant.  It is about the worst thing to go through, the anticipation if you are pregnant or not.  I think that is one of the hardest things that anyone has to go through mentally, especially if you have been trying for so long, every month, year after year.  I know that we are not the only ones who have gone through that, so for those of you who are out there, we can fully empathize with you.  I will add here that I don’t know why it is that some people are blessed with a positive on the little pee stick and others are not, I do not fully understand it.  I truly wish that everyone that truly wished for it received it, because I know and understand how agonizing the wait and anticipation can be.  For anyone reading this that is in that situation, please know that we are praying for you, and hoping for you. 

We decided that we were going to cheat a little, this is where we had received mixed reviews.  If you cheat, you could be completely devastated by a negative test, or you could be getting false hope from a positive test because your body has so many extra hormones from all of the drugs/shots etc that are streaming through you.  We did it anyway.  We got the pee stick pregnancy tests (thanks to Dagmar for helping us know exactly which kind to get!).  Emily peed her little heart out on that stick Saturday morning.  Waiting, waiting, waiting…there is a faint line!  No way.  We didn’t know whether to believe it or not.  Luckily those people that manufacture the pee sticks are smart, and they put 2 of those sticks in every box (see the ad in the bottom left corner of the box)!  However, Emily somehow had the self-control to wait until the following day for test #2.

Unable to sleep from anticipation, she arose early, grabbed the stick, and peed on it.  Waiting, waiting, waiting…there it is again!  A little bit darker this time!  Holy cow!  It has to be right, right?  2 days in a row, the second time being a little darker.  We will say yes, it is right.  This is when we knew, but were still in disbelief, as I am sure most people are at this point.  We decided not to say anything until the “official” blood test that we had on Monday. 

Monday rolled around and we were told what we already thought we “knew”, we were pregnant!  YAY!!!  To see this after so many dollars, tears, fasting, and prayers is truly humbling.  Thank you to everyone out there who has supported us in this endeavor, you know who you are.  We honestly couldn’t have done it without your faith and prayers (especially our mothers as I know how close they are to the Man Upstairs), and I wish we had a way to thank you, maybe you can babysit for us :)  

When they do the blood test, they give you a number letting you know if it is high enough to let you know if you are pregnant, and depending on how high that number is, and how much it increases, you can kind of tell if it’s twins or a singleton.  Our number was right in between.  We were truly hoping for twins so that we could “feel” like we were done with increasing our family.  We again had to wait a few more days to see how our numbers were doing.  At this point, based on our numbers, we were either having twins or a singleton.  Next stop, more blood work followed by the first ultrasound at 7-8 weeks to see if it was multiples or just one, oh the anticipation for that day!

The Waiting Game

This is a good point to say thank you to one of the greatest women I know, my mom.  It was such a privilege to have her come out and watch "the brothers" for us while we were in Chicago, it truly meant a lot that she came out--Thanks Mom!  Not only was she in charge of watching our boys, but she was also put in charge of watching the newest addition to our family.  Let me explain:


The day before we left for Chicago, Emily texted me and said, "We should get a bunny."  My first thought was, "What did you just say? Where did that come from?"  I asked her where she got that idea, because she has wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with pets (any kind of pet).  She said that on the ward blog, someone had posted that there were bunnies for sale ($8) and that she thought it would be fun for the kids (to this day, I am still shocked that she wanted to do this).  I said OK and we went and looked at the little bunnies.  The people selling them only had one left, it was a cute little thing, and Emily fell in love with it.  So, introducing the newest member of the Hutchings household, as of May 4, 2012, I give you:

Bandita

If anyone asks who the rabbit belongs to, Cooper will instantly say, "Mine!"  But, the truth of the matter is that the true owner of the rabbit is Emily.  She will never admit to that, but it's true.  Here are a couple more pictures for ya (Ethan thinks that she REALLY loves carrots): 

Back to the reason behind this whole blog, the story.  I got home late Monday night so that I could go back to work the following morning, I had to leave Emily in Chicago which was not fun.  The actual transfer of the embryos wasn't going to happen until Saturday, so she was just sitting out there with not much to do for 3-4 days.  Most of you have probably already read her account of the transfer here: http://jakeandemilyhutchings.blogspot.com/2012/05/transfer-update.html, but I am going to give my version.


As I have mentioned, my mom came down to help with the brothers while I was at work, she stayed with us until Friday afternoon (thanks again Mom for doing that).  Friday night was our ward's Father/Son Campout.  I unfortunately didn't go because I had to be in a cell phone area early Saturday morning for the phone call about the transfer.  Cooper was a little heart-broken that he couldn't go camping, that is his favorite thing to do in the world!  So, we had to stay home.


I got the phone call Saturday morning with Emily and Dr. Sherbahn asking a few questions about how many of the four viable embryos we wanted to put back into Emily, or what to do with the ones we don't transfer.  He told us that the embryos did not look to good, we had a pretty big fall off rate, meaning that most of the eggs that fertilized were lost, or just didn't continue to grow.  We did have 4 that were ok, they were at the morula stage as opposed to the blastula stage which gives better odds for pregnancy.  The doctor said that because they were still a little less developed than he likes, he would put up to 3 back in, even doing that he said that the likelihood of getting pregnant was not great, let alone the chance all three of them taking was about 0% (seems kinda funny now, huh?)  We decided to put 3 back in and see what happened to the fourth for another day (to see if it continued to grow or not).


That night I got on the internet and did some research about morula vs. blastula transfers, and for the most part, they were actually kind of positive, so that got my hopes up a little bit.  We were really hoping that we would get twins, after all both her mom and my mom had twins, also Dagmar had twins (from the same doctor we went to), so we would be able to go to them for advice.  Plus, with twins, we felt like we would be able to feel satisfied and say that we were definitely done with the in-vitro thing and we would be happy if that was our family.


The transfer went well, Emily had to take it easy for a couple of days.  The doctor called us the next day and told us that the other embryo didn't make it, so we were pretty sure that we weren't going to get pregnant.  My hopes were brought down again.  


Funny story, Emily had this thought in the back of her head that her flight home was Monday night, so on Sunday, she went to church, got back to the hotel and looked online to make sure her flight was all set for Monday, and low and behold--she had already missed her flight!  It was scheduled for Sunday morning.  So, she had to spend a few (quite a few, actually) so that she could get home.  I was just happy to get her home.  


At this point, the waiting game really began.  We had to wait for 2 weeks to see if we were pregnant or not.  That is the worst!  All of you mothers out there can relate to that, the anticipation of, "Am I pregnant or not?"  This is where I will leave you now, in anticipation to see if we got pregnant (haha!).
  

Our Little Trio--The Journey

This blog is going to be dedicated to the thoughts and the feelings of 2 people who are bringing triplets into this world (this is where I scream in delight/fright).  This is my (Jake Hutchings) journal regarding this amazing journey that our family has embarked on.

It began with Emily coming to me and saying, "I think we need to do in-vitro again, as it will probably be the last time we will be able to do it before dental school, and then we'll be too old to do it again."  Being the wonderful husband I am, I replied, "OK."  Let me say here that my wife is the most amazing person I know, she began to get everything together, talking to doctors, talking to siblings, etc.  There is a wonderful In-Vitro specialist here in ABQ, and we were very tempted to go to him.  However, we just felt that we needed to go to the doctor that helped Dagmar (our sister-in-law) get pregnant with all of her babies.  I don't know why we thought that, given that her doctor, Dr. Sherbahn, works in Chicago.

Now, I am not going to get into every single little detail about how plans were made, and appointments were scheduled, let's just say that Emily did it ALL (she is amazing). She began to take her little shots, every day to get her hormone levels up so that her eggs would mature for the retrieval process.  At the appropriate time (again, I will spare the bloody details) we made our way to Chicago.  This was my first time ever to be in Chicago, and being the nerd that I am, I told Emily to take a picture of the skyline:

We got to Gurnee, IL (about 45 min north of Chicago) on Saturday evening, Cinco de Mayo 2012.  We had to be at Dr. Sherbahn's office the following morning for a blood sample, and then we were off to church, where we went to sacrament meeting.  The doctor's office called us later that day to let us know that the levels were looking good, and that the egg retrieval and insemination would take place on Monday morning.  So we decided to take advantage of the day making a short trip into Wisconsin (again, I am a nerd and I take pictures of state signs):

While in Wisconsin, we went into the Jelly Belly Factory in Kenosha, WI.  It was a great time, especially because it was free!  While we were there, it was raining like crazy, just walking to the car it made me feel like I had just jumped out of the pool.  Then we drove by the Great Lake Michigan!  That lake is huge!!  The shore that we went to was really beautiful, even if it was raining.  

As we were driving back to our hotel, I was bound and determined to find a shot glass from the state of Wisconsin (again, nerd).  Unfortunately, the guy at the first gas station told us, pretty much word for word, "This is Kenosha, we don't care for souvenirs here in Kenosha."  Who wouldn't want a souvenir from Kenosha, WI?  They need to be a little more proud of their city!

The following day was our retrieval, we went to the doctor's that morning and got ready to go.  When Emily got rolled into the procedure, they sent me into the "donation" room.  Embarrassing moment alert: The lady told me to ring the bell when I was done, and I did, 10 minutes passed nothing happened, so I rang it again.  She came in and asked if I had been done for awhile, and I said, "Yes, I rang it like 10 minutes ago."  She told me that she didn't hear it.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the room, or else this is where it would go (it was just a bathroom, nothing to exciting).

After my "deposit", they took me back to the room, where I saw Emily laying there on her gurney (in Gurnee, haha).  She was so very out of it, waking up from being under anesthesia.  It was sad to see, and the first thing that I thought was that I remember her looking exactly the same when she did the retrieval with Cooper.  Against her wishes I will put her picture here:

While we were waiting for the anesthesia to completely wear off, the doctor was doing his thing with the eggs and sperms.  They had to do what is called ICSI, which is where they actually have to inject the sperm into the egg.  My little swimmers have 2 left feet or something and can't swim straight, so they get a little confused by themselves, they need a little bit of help.  It was quite a surreal experience, 4-5 more days until the transfer, we are a little scared because the doctor said that the chances weren't the greatest, but the insemination went well and that we should hope for the best.  The waiting game begins!

Once Emily finally got out of her little funk, and had sat there for awhile recuperating, we decided to take on the city of Chicago.  She was such a trooper, because she was in so much pain from the egg retrieval.  Unfortunately I had to catch a flight that night, so we didn't have too much time, but we were able to hit up the Chicago Temple:

While in Chicago, there was one place on my bucket list that I had to go to: Wrigley Field, we didn't catch a game, so I still have to do that, but it was still awesome!

After these few places, we went to the airport and I had to catch my plane back to ABQ.  Unfortunately, I had to leave Emily in Chicago for the next week so that she could get the embryos transferred back into her.  I will leave it here for the time being and catch up later.