OUR FAMILY!

Name: Ivan
Age: 11, going on 2
Nicknames: Scooter, Boo, Jerk, Bad-A#$, *&!#$$%^% and BOB BARKER.
Favorite Food: Anything and everything he can get his paws on
Relationship: Single but all the ladies young and old flock to him for some reason. ;)
Talents: Can fit three tennis balls in his mouth at once. He actually made the front page of the newspaper, so we call him our famous dog.
Daily hobbies: Whine, bark, eat, sleep, poop, maybe pee in the house if he feels like it, eat, sleep, chew on tennis balls, eat, eat, poop and sleep.
Fondest memory of Ivan: When he was mad that I was going out of town, he walked right up to me and lifted his leg on my brand new sneakers, that I had ON! Yes, you got it.....he just lifted his leg right on me. It was wonderful.


HOW IS IVAN GETTING READY FOR THE BABIES?
Let's see, other than his regular, daily routine of whining at 6 am every morning, barking like a big mouth, stealing the other dogs bones and food and just being a rebel (I do anything I want-type of dog).............he pretty much is ready for A, B and C.





Name: Striker
Age: 3 but will be 4 on Sept 7th
Nicknames: Strike, Crack Head, Blood Hound, Mrs. PERFECT
Favorite Food: We are just happy she eats. We swear she was anorexic for awhile because she was so picky with anything and everything she ate. Not a typical lab. She is crazy over chicken, but she is allergic to it. Eggs also make her crazy.
Relationship: She has a lot of relationships going at the same time. ;)
Talents: She is a Yellow Lab that can impersonate a Blood Hound. There are times she sits around the house looking like a Blood Hound with her droopy eyes and long droopy ears.
Daily Hobbies: Other than looking like she was a drug addict in her past life, her daily routines are like most dogs. She would sleep in till noon if you allowed her, then she eats, sleep, sleeps, sleeps and sleeps. If we go swimming or hiking she is a maniac. LOVES THE WATER!
Fondest memory of Striker: When she ate a whole rotisserie chicken carcass and $1,000 later she was released from the hospital. That was the most expensive Boston Market chicken and the last we ever had.





HOW IS STRIKER GETTING READY FOR THE BABIES:



She's getting all her sleep in now so she can stay up all night with the crying 3.








Name: LuLu
Age: 7 months
Nicknames: Louie-Louie, Peanut, Rat-Dog
Favorite Foods: She takes after Ivan and eats anything and everything
Relationship: Single and currently in heat and making all the boy dogs (including Ivan) and cats in the neighborhood flock to our door. She knew she was getting spayed this week and decided to go into heat a week early to mess with us all a little bit.(that is why she has a diaper on in the picture) She figured since mom's prego, why can't I be. GOD HELP US ALL IF SHE GETS PREGNANT. We won't let her out of our site. Ivan's shooting blanks, so no worries there.
Talents: In a few months, she learned how to roll over, give high fives and hugs. Much smarter than her brother and sister.
Daily Hobbies: Run around like a mad woman!!!!
Fondest Memory: The best memory is when we first saw her and heard her story. She was rescued from Kentucky and was going to be put down, but for some reason was saved and brought to PA to live with our crazy family. :) Momma P had to have sent her because it was her favorite kind of dog.

HOW IS LULU GETTING READY FOR THE BABIES?

She's learning how to pee and poop outside on a regular basis, so she will be fully trained when they are here. She's also working on her big mouth like her brother to protect them from harm. Too bad that both of their barks are bigger than their bites, because they act all tough and are afraid of the vacuum cleaner.

My weight is what?!?!?!?!

Our week 15 doctors visit went well. Got the routine checkup by a nurse........blood pressure, heart rate and WEIGHT! Ali told me I couldn't talk about that on here, but she is doing great. I probably have gained more than she has. :) Got to see the little ones and heard their heart beats, but it was short lived. The real reason for the ultrasound was to check the CERVIX. Ouch! We found out that we have to go back every two weeks and have her cervix measured to see if it is shortening and/or opening. So far, it looks completely normal. I guess this is a common thing with a multiple birth and if it isn't monitored, it could lead to premature labor. So we will pretty much be at the doctors every two weeks. Oh well........we'd rather be safe than sorry. The little one's heartbeats are good and strong. A is 153. B is 160. C is 147. According to the theory that says, girls have slower heartbeats, I guess you could believe that we may be having at least one girl out of the three. Who knows.....at this point, we don't care what we are having, as long as they are healthy. Keep your prayers coming and I'll make sure to keep you updated as much as I can. Shot out to Carol......... :) Hope preseason treated you well.

LiveStrong Challenge

Today we took part in the Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong Challenge to support cancer research and funding. Ali and I ran in the 5K run and I'm proud to say that even with 3 babies in her belly, Ali still did great. I was so impressed with how well she did. We finished our run/walk/stop in the bushes to pee/run/walk/run again in under 39 minutes. Not bad for a prego woman. Through all the sweat and tears we finished the race in honor of Ali's mother that passed away a year ago in June from cancer. She was definitely looking down on her little girl and must have been so proud. Love you Momma P!

Pop it like it's hot!

Oh man, is she popping. For those of you who don't get to see Ali on a daily basis, you are going to be amazed when you see her next. 15 weeks in today and she is definitely popping. It's adorable! Her little beer-looking belly just keeps sticking out more and more with each week. It's scary to think about sometimes because she is only at 15 weeks and she still has a long way to go and a long way to grow. We finally got the cribs in the house. They are not set up yet, but they are in the house. Our goal is to get this room done as soon as we can before Ali's energy and maybe, mobility starts to get limited. Trying to pick a room color that is not gender specific, yet doesn't make your eyeballs want to fall out because it is so bright is hard. YES, I did say NOT gender specific.........so that does mean we have decided to do this the old fashion way and not find out the sexes of the babies. That is my job during the delivery process.......Ali makes them and I get to tell her if they are a boy or a girl. In order to make room for the cribs we had to get rid of so much in the office and in the attic, therefore we had our first annual mini yard sale. When I say mini, I mean mini. Couldn't have pulled it off without the help of friends and our yard sale manager, Brandi. :) The end result was in our favor, not because we made millions, but because we gave so much away to good will and cleared out so much room. We did make a little profit for the baby fund, which was nice, and also, got to help out a family who was less fortunate and donated a whole bunch to good will. For pulling off the yard sale in a matter of days, I think we did a pretty good job. Ok, well enough of my rambling. We made it to week 15 and we are still doing well. Next ultrasound is Tuesday, so I'll make sure I keep you updated. Thanks again for all your support and well wishes.

WEEK 13

We have finally made it out of the first trimester. This is something to celebrate on many levels. Not only is it good for the babies because many complications, sometimes even miscarriages happen in the 1st trimester.

BUT, more than that, Ali's morning vomit session and mid morning vomit session and then afternoon vomit session has slowed down a bit. THANK GOD! What you read in the books is true............once you get out of the 1st trimester, you really do start to feel better. I no longer wake up to the sounds of her gagging in the next room early in the am. She is sleeping a little better and overall just feels better. Not sure what those 3 were doing to her for the first 12 weeks, but thank the Lord it has slowed down a bit. I was starting to get grossed out a bit about hearing all her vomit and gagging and "I'm bloated and tired" stories. :)

We have entered into week 13 and today was our first visit with the doctor who will be delivering the babies. Once again we had another ultrasound. This one was the first that was not an internal one. We both find ourselves getting more and more nervous with each visit. Not that we are thinking negative, but I dread ever hearing anything other than, "so far, so good." Here are some pictures from today.

Here is Baby A: He/She seems to be the least active and is located lower left side. A hasn't been as hyper as the other two during the ultrasounds. Maybe "A" will be a sweet, angel of a daughter. But who knows, usually the quiet ones are the worst. ;)

Here is B: B is the crazy one. B's located on the lower right side. He/She won't stop moving the whole time. You can see legs kicking, arms moving..........my opinion is that this is a boy who is going to be my little soccer player. You should see how he kicks. He also will be a devil......I can see it now.

Here is C: C is located right above A on the left side. In this picture you can actually see the outline of the baby's face. I definitely think C has Ali's lips and her dad's nose. (Love you Papa AL) C was so active as well....it actually looked like he/she had the hiccups because it kept bouncing up and down. Maybe we got another crazy boy on our hands here with C. Who knows.

What matters most is that they all are growing at an equal and normal rate. About 7cm each. All of their heartbeats are at 150 BPM, which is also normal for their age.

Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers. Please keep them coming. These three have a long way to go. Our goal is to get to at least 35 weeks before they are ready to make their way into the world. Stay tuned for more info. Next ultrasound is in 2 weeks.

When reality struck!

I guess you could say I was the one who had a harder time realizing that in 9 short months we would go from a family of 2 (well, a family of 5 if you count our three dogs) to a family of 5 (or 8 with the dogs) in just a short period of time. I was thinking we might be having twins, but triplets! That news is never so easy to take all at once. I needed my night to breakdown so I can fully accept and appreciate what we were having. I guess it is natural to be shocked and have a million different concerns run through your head at first. I was worried that we would be able to take care of and provide for the babies as well as we could if we were only having one. ONE is expensive enough, I couldn't imagine how we would do it with THREE. Once I played out all these concerns in my head and got things off my chest, I was better. I came to the conclusion that we are so lucky to have gotten pregnant not only on the first try, but with triplets. So many people in this world would love to say that. We wanted a big family anyways, I just wasn't planning to have it all at once. I believe that God gave us this little miracle and we will welcome it and love it as best we can. So, to make a long story short, I've tried to put the last 13 weeks into these last 5 blogs. Since this first ultrasound on June 19th, we have had two more. One on June 30th, where we first heard their little heartbeats. Now try to imagine two women (one hormonal and pregnant) hearing their children's heartbeats for the first time............we were balling. Doctors must have thought we were crazy. Other one was on July 14th, where we heard their heartbeats and actually saw them moving. Talk about unbelievable. They were only 1 inch long at the time and you could actually see their arms and head moving. One looked like it was doing the robot. Even at 9 weeks old, they can already dance better than Ali.......it's crazy. :) It's getting harder to get all three in the same ultrasound picture at once. Some of their individual pictures are so clear that you can actually see the outline of their one inch long bodies.

Words can't really explain this experience so far. Watching these three little miracles grow week by week has just been such a rewarding adventure and we are both excited to see where it goes.

As of right now, all three are growing at the same rate and are doing well. STAY TUNED!!!!

ARE YOU TELLING ME THOSE THREE DOTS ARE THREE BABIES IN ME????

June 19th, 2009 was a day we will not soon forget. It was the first ultrasound and the day we would find out just how many Ali was carrying. I can remember sitting in the waiting room thinking and praying that we would find a baby in there. For some reason I was so nervous.....we both were. We got called back, set up in the room and just waited for the doctor to come in. Before we knew it the ultrasound began and three black dots popped up on the screen. I felt like screaming, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!", but I refrained myself, but Ali didn't. She said to the doctor, "ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THOSE ARE THREE BABIES INSIDE OF ME?" She said it at the same time as the doctor almost fell out of his chair from shock of seeing the three dots. He just looked at us and said, "well you are definitely carrying multiples." From that moment on, we realized that we are the luckiest moms-to-be in the world.........well, I realized that, right after I had a nervous breakdown when we got home and then drank for 6 hours, but after that, I definitely realized how lucky we were. :)

So she's pregnant, now what?????????

So, on June 8th we came to the conclusion that one false-positive pregnancy reading was rare, but could it be possible to get two? We both realized that what we thought was the truth, she's pregnant. We still didn't want to get our hopes up, but it was really hard. We had to wait another week to confirm the pregnancy with some blood work.
That Friday, June 12th was the day we got the blood work done. Results wouldn't be back till the following Monday, so we had more waiting to do. The weekend felt like an eternity. It was so hard not telling everyone about the positive pregnancy tests, but we decided to just tell our closest family and friends.

Monday comes and we get the news we were waiting for.........OUR PRAYERS HAD BEEN ANSWERED AND CONFIRMED. SHE WAS INDEED PREGNANT. HOLY COW!

Now what? Time to schedule our first ultrasound. June 19th, 2009 was the day! More waiting.........this is the worst part. For some reason that whole week, neither Ali nor I thought that there was just one baby inside of her. I would talk to her belly every night and refer to the babies as PEOPLE, instead of just one. "HI PEOPLE!!!" I would say. Not knowing why, but we just didn't think that there was one. Ali's mom is a twin, so we were hoping that we had a shot at multiples. We even had a dream on the same night that we were having triplets. In my dream, I knew that one was a boy, but wasn't sure about the others. Ali's dream was just that she was carrying triplets.
Even our neighbors thought that she was carrying more than one. It was just a weird hunch we all had.
June 19th came and we went to find out how many she really had...............you won't believe what happened next.

June 6th, 2009

It was early Saturday morning on June 6th, 2009. The night before we stopped off at CVS and bought a pregnancy test. Actually bought two just in case we messed up with the first one. We both got up early around 5:30am to take the first test. With her first pee of the morning, Ali took the test and we sat and waited. Talk about stressful........we left the test in the bathroom and had to wait about 10 mins. I was dying to just run in there and take a peek, but I didn't, and we finally walked in together. We saw two faded straight lines. Ok, shit............now what does that mean? So, we grab the little info sheet they gave you and within 30 seconds we realized that, the TWO LINES = PREGNANT! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Could it be true? Could we be so lucky that with one try with the doctor we got pregnant? How is this possible? So many people try for months and even years and we got lucky on the first time. Holy Cow! We were nervous that maybe she took the test wrong, or that we got a false positive sign. We didn't want to get our hopes up. I must have gone back a hundred times to read the test again and make sure a line didn't fade away or disappear. I just couldn't believe that she could be pregnant. Hardest part was that all our friends knew we were trying and that today was the day to take the test, so how can we not tell them that she came back with a positive reading, without getting our hopes up and it not being true. We waited two days and took another one............POSITIVE AGAIN! OH MY GOD! It's rare to get one false positive reading nevermind TWO. This could only mean one simple thing.........SHE'S PREGNANT!!!!!

It's time to make a baby!

May 23, 2009 was the day. It was a beautiful Saturday .............sunny, warm and just had a good feeling in the air. We made our way to the fertility clinic to create our baby. I remember waking up feeling so nervous. I hope this process works. I hated the thought that it may take months and each time we would get our hopes up just to get them crushed by a negative read on a pregnancy test. All those crazy thoughts went through our heads. The whole process was simple! Much simpler than I had thought. We went in and within 10 mins, it was all over. The thought that we could have just created a baby while sitting here in this cold, doctor's office was a little weird, but I got over that quick. I remember leaving wondering if those little boys inside of Ali made their way to the egg or not. I was scared and excited all at the same time. Ali had a procedure called artificial insemination. Pretty much, you take sperm, put it in a vile and inject it into the woman with this long, skinny looking turkey baster. Ali had 4 follicles that had formed inside of her. That means, 4 eggs could possibly drop and get fertilized. We had to wait 2 weeks to take a pregnancy test. Those were the longest two weeks of our lives.

Hello and Welcome to McRino Triple Threat Blog!

Life Story about our TRIPLETS.

I'm going to make this blog an informative account of the adventure of our lives.

It all began about 4 years ago when Allison and I (Mary) met and started dating. To make a long story short, we fell in love, bought a great house together and have 3 dogs......Ivan, Striker and LuLu. Our lives were great, but we knew that there was that one thing we always wanted, and that was to be moms.

Back in January of 2009 we decided as our new years resolution to set some goals. Our main goal was to find a doctor that we felt comfortable with, find a donor and eventually get pregnant by June of 2009.

We started just as planned by finding a great fertility clinic in Paoli and made our first visit. We had already decided that Ali was going to carry, but we were worried that she may have some trouble getting pregnant, so we figured that the sooner we start trying the better. She went through numerous tests and everything looked good. Next big step was to pick a donor.

Now trust me.........picking a donor was NO simple job. It was probably one of the hardest things we ever had to do. It's basically like building a guy from scratch. You decide everything from hair color to eye color to skin color, etc., etc. We were so worried that we might be making a big mistake, but went with our hearts and found the perfect donor! Here he is as a little kid. SO STINKING CUTE!

After the stress of making the final decision about who to use, we had to face the reality of the price of this whole process. Let me make it clear to all the heterosexual people reading this........YOU HAVE IT SO GOOD! To get sperm from someone you love and trust for free and anytime should not be taken for granted. That is why we nicknamed this baby the million dollar baby.

So, the decision was made........ Now, finding an insemination date was next!