17 weeks

Big week here in the Manning household.   We have been making strides toward preparing for modified bed rest.  Only three weeks away!  We've purchased a back pillow to make time spent in bed a little more comfortable and we got one of those breakfast-in-bed lap tables for me to eat meals and write on.  I stocked up on discount section books at Barnes & Noble, and made sure that I had plenty of scrapbooking goodies to keep me busy.  Next on the agenda is a subscription to Netflix and to a website where I can check out audiobooks for when my eyes get tired of reading.  I think I'm ready.  Well, as ready as you can be for spending four months doing absolutely nothing.

I asked Ryan to make me look skinny.  He didn't.

We're also well on our way to having our nursery completed before I go on bed rest and can no longer help.  Now that we know the genders of the babies, things are coming together very quickly.  We have purchased all of the baby bedding, I've been stocking up on clearance and discounted items and collecting coupons like a champion, and we have been able to finish our registry at Target.  The registry was a bit of a challenge.  It's hard enough putting together a registry when you're first time parents, but adding in the triplet factor complicates it further.  Also, it's hard not to think everyone in the aisle is staring at you like you're a greedy pig when you scan 10 3-packs of bottles or three different baby swings.  It kind of makes me want to wear a t-shirt that says, "Don't judge me, I'm having triplets."  But then I would have to add to the shirt, "No, I don't need your advice about the person you knew who had twins in 1976."  and other various disclaimers.  Then, after I got all of the disclaimers on the t-shirt, the font would be too small to read and I'd be back to square one.  I think I will just avoid going out in public from here on out.  Much easier.

The next three weeks are going to be big for us.  We will be trying to complete the nursery during that time period and prepare for bed rest.  Not to mention, we are making our trek back to KY to visit family and friends during the 19th week, just before bed rest begins.  During that time, we will be trying to catch up with all of the fabulous people we have missed and attending a baby shower hosted by the Illustrious Miss Lindsey Ransdell.  So excited.  Ok... so I think I've babbled about as much as I can about the happenings in our lives for the time being.  You're probably wondering what the heck we're having.  Well, on Thursday afternoon we had an ultrasound to make sure that the babies are all doing alright.  They are.  They're hearts are darn near beating in unison and they are all growing big and strong.  They were more active this trip then they've ever been, but our Ultrasound Tech was a rock star and she was able to tell us without a shadow of a doubt what the genders of our little ones are.

This is where each one of the babies are... and what they are!