The day our lives changed: three heartbeats

It was six years ago today that a line was drawn in my life. Six years ago today that we heard, “there are three heartbeats. You’re having triplets.”* Our lives were divided into Before Triplets and After Triplets.

Six years ago today, I was about seven and a half weeks pregnant. My OB’s practice did ultrasounds at that point in all of their patients’ pregnancies to rule out ectopic pregnancy. I had been feeling good up to that point, aside from an aversion to a few foods.

I went into the ultrasound room by myself, while my husband, George, sat in the waiting room. The technician had me lie down, and she turned the screen away so that I wouldn’t be able to see it. I stared at the ceiling, counting the tiles and hoping everything was okay. I just wanted her to tell me if it was bad news, and I tried to prepare myself. When she asked me if I’d been having any morning sickness, I immediately thought the worst. I wasn’t having any, so I knew it had to be bad news. The ultrasound took a long time, and she asked me over and over to hold my breath while she clicked and moved the ultrasound wand. I had no idea what was going on. “Just get it over with,” I thought.

Instead, she called George in and turned on the large monitor on the wall so we could both see. Surely it couldn’t be bad news, right?

2104670356_e66c9ac797_zNo, not bad news. Just very unexpected news.

In that moment everything changed. Everything that we’d envisioned for the rest of our lives disappeared and was replaced by a new vision.

But how can you predict what life is like with triplets? I knew no one with triplets. Triplets: that doesn’t really happen, does it? I mean, my husband only wanted one kid. I was hoping to convince him later to have a second. And we get three at once?

Thank goodness for the Internet! I immediately found a few triplet support groups online and found other moms-to-be with similar due dates. I didn’t let myself get too excited, though. We had a few scares, like not knowing if any of the babies were sharing amniotic sacs or not, and I went through a few doctors before I found one I loved and trusted. 8949935554_89872e01fd_cIn the end, we made it to a little over 33 weeks, and within a couple of weeks, had three tiny boys installed in a crib in their nursery.

Six years later, are we living the life we envisioned? From the moment my doctor called out “it’s another boy! Three kings!” in the delivery room, I imagined a life of happy chaos. Three little boys leaving a trail of dirt, noise, and destruction in their wake. In some ways, it’s very true. While they’re far gentler and shier than I imagined they’d be, they’re also louder and more fun than I could have imagined. And I never would have guessed three little blond-haired, blue-eyed boys would result from two dark-haired and dark-eyed parents. Their hair is darker now, but their eyes remain as blue as ever. And our hearts are as full as our hands.

*Truthfully, I don’t remember exactly what the ultrasound technician said. But it was something like this. I allow myself some dramatic license here.

Pam Kocke
My name is Pam, and I live in Algiers Point with my husband George and my identical triplets Linus, Oliver, and Miles. I work from home as a Happiness Engineer for Automattic. I enjoy reading and photography and sewing (and blogging!)

6 COMMENTS

  1. I teared up at the ultrasound. I’m SUCH a sap. They are beautiful little boys, and to see their tiny lives being formed and then to look at them now? It’s really just incredible.

  2. Amazing! What a blessing! I burst into tears when we heard my son’s heart beat for the first time. I can only imagine the emotions you felt when you heard all three!

  3. Aw! Pam! Thank you for sharing the ultrasound – how amazing! I’m totally going to play it for Estella – she’ll LOVE seeing the boys before they were born 😉

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