From our friend Martha who is due with her baby in January in response to me calling her "preggo's"...
"Well at least I'll always only be 33% as pregnant as Julie".
Classic!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Where Have All the Daddies Gone? (The Y Chromosome Conspiracy - Part 1)
So I have noticed a disturbing trend amongst the pregnancy community...a severe lack of male inclusion. I first noticed this phenomena even before we knew we were having triplets. Since Julie has always been the "less enthusiastic" of the two of us regarding children and I'm the natural researcher in the family, I found myself reading all of the pregnancy books after we found out we were pregnant. Yes I said "we". You see that is the problem. After breezing through the usual "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and "Planning Your Pregnancy", I told Julie how perturbed I was to see that very little attention was given to the father's role in the pregnancy.
I don't know if the books are just trying to be politically correct by not assuming that a father will be involved in the pregnancy or if it is just a given in our culture today that all men are selfish and lazy creatures who will have to be bribed into helping out with the babies and/or other housework during and after the pregnancy. Call me crazy but I guess I assume that most (yes I realize not all) men have at least some vague concept of what they are getting into when they have a baby (or three).
For example, the following is an actual quote from WTEWYE regarding recovery after a C-Section: "You'll need plenty of help. Paid help is best for the first week at home, but if that's not possible, make sure someone (your spouse, mother, another relative, or a friend) is around to lend a hand." Seriously? Paid help is the first recommendation? Maybe I should suggest that to Julie so that I can stay home and play video games all day when she gets home from the hospital.
Things got even more sexist once we found out we were having triplets. After we got that news I quickly realized that everything I had read up to that point was basically useless. Therefore I rushed out and picked up several more books including the two most popular multiples books - "When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads" and "The Everything Twins, Triplets and More Book". Again, a severe lack of any indication that a man was going to at all be involved in the baby production process other than some lines about how women should not be afraid to ask their husbands to help out around the house when they are on bedrest. All I could picture while reading those parts was a man standing in the living room of his house, completely helpless, dirty dishes in the sink, empty hamburger wrappers on the floor, and unwashed laundry piled on top of the washing machine, saying "Babe, how do I turn off the lights?".
Meanwhile I discovered another interesting multiples pregnancy educational tool - the memoir. I was not surprised to find that numerous people had written memoirs about their trials and tribulations raising multiples. What I was surprised to find out was that only 1 of the roughly gazillion memoirs was written by a man - and even he was a stay at home dad. How ridiculous is that? Are men really that uninvolved in the raising of children or is there some other nefarious scheme at work. I would propose that there is actually a conspiracy amongst mothers to keep men out of the child rearing sphere of influence. While this idea will be shockingly radical to many of you, please check back for the second part of this series which will lay out even more evidence...
I don't know if the books are just trying to be politically correct by not assuming that a father will be involved in the pregnancy or if it is just a given in our culture today that all men are selfish and lazy creatures who will have to be bribed into helping out with the babies and/or other housework during and after the pregnancy. Call me crazy but I guess I assume that most (yes I realize not all) men have at least some vague concept of what they are getting into when they have a baby (or three).
For example, the following is an actual quote from WTEWYE regarding recovery after a C-Section: "You'll need plenty of help. Paid help is best for the first week at home, but if that's not possible, make sure someone (your spouse, mother, another relative, or a friend) is around to lend a hand." Seriously? Paid help is the first recommendation? Maybe I should suggest that to Julie so that I can stay home and play video games all day when she gets home from the hospital.
Things got even more sexist once we found out we were having triplets. After we got that news I quickly realized that everything I had read up to that point was basically useless. Therefore I rushed out and picked up several more books including the two most popular multiples books - "When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads" and "The Everything Twins, Triplets and More Book". Again, a severe lack of any indication that a man was going to at all be involved in the baby production process other than some lines about how women should not be afraid to ask their husbands to help out around the house when they are on bedrest. All I could picture while reading those parts was a man standing in the living room of his house, completely helpless, dirty dishes in the sink, empty hamburger wrappers on the floor, and unwashed laundry piled on top of the washing machine, saying "Babe, how do I turn off the lights?".
Meanwhile I discovered another interesting multiples pregnancy educational tool - the memoir. I was not surprised to find that numerous people had written memoirs about their trials and tribulations raising multiples. What I was surprised to find out was that only 1 of the roughly gazillion memoirs was written by a man - and even he was a stay at home dad. How ridiculous is that? Are men really that uninvolved in the raising of children or is there some other nefarious scheme at work. I would propose that there is actually a conspiracy amongst mothers to keep men out of the child rearing sphere of influence. While this idea will be shockingly radical to many of you, please check back for the second part of this series which will lay out even more evidence...
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
No News is Good News/A Pregnant Woman's Guide to Bodysurfing
Just a quick update for those that are wondering about our appointment this past Thursday. It was a pretty basic appointment with a quick ultrasound and nothing really new to report. We heard heartbeats on all three babies again and they are strong. Only one of the kiddos got measured and he/she has grown to 7 cm! Our next appointment with the regular ob was scheduled for August 1st, which is the same day as the next specialist appointment so we should have more news after that.
On a more important note, Julie and I got to spend this past weekend with her family in Ocean City, MD which was a blast. Despite having 9 adults, 1 infant and 3 pugs crammed into a 2 bedroom condo, we all had a great time and enjoyed our last chance to have the entire family together in the condo before our trio arrives. The highlight of the trip was getting to see our niece Ally who we had not seen since her birth back in February. It was amazing to see how fast she has grown and it really reminded me how fast our three will grow up. Also interesting was seeing all that goes into taking care of a 5 month old and how crazy it will be to have 3 at the same time. I guess God really does have a sense of humor.
At the same time, it was fun to see all the kids at the beach and think about how awesome it will be when the Waskey triplets are old enough to go to the beach (which should be about 8 weeks right?). I still remember all of our summer trips to visit my cousins in New York and how special those times were and I can only hope that our kids will look forward to visiting their cousin (well hopefully cousins) at the beach each year.
We hope you all are enjoying your summer and reading about our accelerating march to parenthood!
On a more important note, Julie and I got to spend this past weekend with her family in Ocean City, MD which was a blast. Despite having 9 adults, 1 infant and 3 pugs crammed into a 2 bedroom condo, we all had a great time and enjoyed our last chance to have the entire family together in the condo before our trio arrives. The highlight of the trip was getting to see our niece Ally who we had not seen since her birth back in February. It was amazing to see how fast she has grown and it really reminded me how fast our three will grow up. Also interesting was seeing all that goes into taking care of a 5 month old and how crazy it will be to have 3 at the same time. I guess God really does have a sense of humor.
At the same time, it was fun to see all the kids at the beach and think about how awesome it will be when the Waskey triplets are old enough to go to the beach (which should be about 8 weeks right?). I still remember all of our summer trips to visit my cousins in New York and how special those times were and I can only hope that our kids will look forward to visiting their cousin (well hopefully cousins) at the beach each year.
We hope you all are enjoying your summer and reading about our accelerating march to parenthood!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Just Add Clomid
So as news has gotten out the number one question that we've been faced with is some combination of "were you going through fertility treatments/do multiples run in your family/what are the odds?"
Given that Julie and I have been pretty open about our fertility issues for the past year and a half I figured why not answer that most important question for everyone right here on the blog. I should start by explaining that we had been trying to get pregnant for about a year and a half without success. Both Julie and I went to the various recommended specialists and got the normal (or so we were told) tests which all turned out ok. For people in our situation, the normal next step is to try a fertility drug like Clomid, which we did for one (yes, just one) month.
Now I know that you are thinking, "well gee Chris, it is pretty obvious how you ended up with triplets then huh?" HOWEVER, you would need to understand that Clomid is a drug that merely regulates the hormones in your body that affect your ovulation cycle so that you can be relatively sure of when the "fertile" time should be. As quick as Julie (and everyone else for that matter) is to blame Clomid for our triple bundles of joy, it should be noted that the most recent statistics available indicate that only 0.5% of Clomid pregnancies are triple trouble pregnancies. So even with pharmaceutical help we were still looking at long shot odds for triplets. So basically we hit the baby lottery but without the usual lottery benefit of $10,000,000 annuitized over 20 years (which would have helped!). And for the record, multiples do not run in either of our families.
The next question combo that everyone wants to know is "are they identical/what are the sexes/when will you find out?" We really can't answer those questions yet but we will once we can. Obviously if there are different genders identified then they can't all be identical and if they are all the same gender than we might have to wait until they are born to find out if they are identical or fraternal. We will hopefully find out the sexes at the week 20 appointment in late August so we have a little while to wait for that. As for upcoming activity, Julie has a regular ob appointment this coming Thursday so I will post an update sometime after that. Have a great Fourth of July!
Given that Julie and I have been pretty open about our fertility issues for the past year and a half I figured why not answer that most important question for everyone right here on the blog. I should start by explaining that we had been trying to get pregnant for about a year and a half without success. Both Julie and I went to the various recommended specialists and got the normal (or so we were told) tests which all turned out ok. For people in our situation, the normal next step is to try a fertility drug like Clomid, which we did for one (yes, just one) month.
Now I know that you are thinking, "well gee Chris, it is pretty obvious how you ended up with triplets then huh?" HOWEVER, you would need to understand that Clomid is a drug that merely regulates the hormones in your body that affect your ovulation cycle so that you can be relatively sure of when the "fertile" time should be. As quick as Julie (and everyone else for that matter) is to blame Clomid for our triple bundles of joy, it should be noted that the most recent statistics available indicate that only 0.5% of Clomid pregnancies are triple trouble pregnancies. So even with pharmaceutical help we were still looking at long shot odds for triplets. So basically we hit the baby lottery but without the usual lottery benefit of $10,000,000 annuitized over 20 years (which would have helped!). And for the record, multiples do not run in either of our families.
The next question combo that everyone wants to know is "are they identical/what are the sexes/when will you find out?" We really can't answer those questions yet but we will once we can. Obviously if there are different genders identified then they can't all be identical and if they are all the same gender than we might have to wait until they are born to find out if they are identical or fraternal. We will hopefully find out the sexes at the week 20 appointment in late August so we have a little while to wait for that. As for upcoming activity, Julie has a regular ob appointment this coming Thursday so I will post an update sometime after that. Have a great Fourth of July!
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