Can You Say Outnumbered?

Chris and I met at our volunteer fire department in 2000. We are bothfirefighters (he does it for a living as well as volunteer). We gotmarried in 2003 and decided in Spring of 2005 we wanted to start tryingfor a baby. VERY soon afterwards we found out we were pregnant. When Iwas about 5 weeks I was having some pain so they did an early ultrasound- and saw one baby, and another "empty" sac. Two weeks later I had ascary episode of bleeding, at that ultrasound they found that there werenow two babies and heartbeats and another "blood clot" that couldn'tpossibly be another baby (against the odds). At 12 weeks we saw allthree strong heartbeats! We were immediately transferred to a MaternalFetal Medicine Specialist and the rollercoaster ride began!

Things went pretty well for several weeks. I was sick and very tired -but that was expected. The 18 week ultrasound told us we were having 3girls (given that we had 4 female dogs and a female cat at the time - myhusband was outnumbered in a big way - he only had one male cat on hisside!!!). At about 20 weeks I hit the wall. I had to start working 1/2days at home for my IT job. Luckily this was possible because I wascontracting. No working=no salary! At 24 weeks it was full days at homeand at 28 weeks I was fully effaced and was put in the hospital on bedrest. I stayed there till 32 weeks 2 days when I delivered (1/25/05). Wewere very lucky that they were perfectly healthy - they never had anybreathing problems or required oxygen or medications. They only spent alittle over two weeks in the NICU as "feeders and growers".
They came home one at a time - a day apart and it's been a wonderfulride ever since. They were born during RSV season so we were very strictabout not allowing visitors and even limiting family. It meant we dideverything by ourselves - but it was worth it - we developed a militarylike schedule that kept everyone happy and meant at least some sleep formom & dad. With Chris' schedule and my job's flexibility one of us isalways home with the girls - so he's a true 50/50 dad.
Now that the girls are older some things are easier and some are harder- but every day is an adventure! I am always amazed by their love foreach other - how protective they are of each other all the time - andthe bond they have. From day one they have never been able to go tosleep without each other. They also have a very hard time beingseparated from each other - yet they have such different personalities.In all - they are amazing!!!