Juiciness Mama

This is often the first question I’m asked when people take a look at my 5’2” stature: how did you do it? How did you give birth to triplets??

My story starts with me getting pregnant. Which is a story for another day. But, I think what it started out with was a “choice”. It’s different from making a decision. Choice is powerfully CHOOSING the decision you want to make. It’s going in 100% and giving it your all. That was the decision that my husband, Dinesh and I faced, were we fully into this? Were we ready to accept all the good and bad that would come with this journey?

When we first found out we were pregnant, multiple medical professionals advised us to “reduce”, a fancy medical term which means to abort an embryo. So they wanted us to abort our identical pair, i.e. the twins that shared a placenta, leaving one embryo left over, the fraternal one.

We were in shock by this of course. Complete shock and utter despair. How could we ever think of getting rid of an innocent human life, or lives for that matter, our own flesh and blood? It took us over 1.5 years to get pregnant, and even one IVF cycle. Eventually we made the tough decision to keep all 3 babies. We decided to go against all odds: the risks to the babies and to myself, to go ahead and accept whatever medical challenges that could arise now and later. At the end of the day, the decision was a spiritual one. We knew that the Divine, God, Creator, Universe, whoever you respectfully believe in, would not give us something we couldn’t handle.

Because we had “chosen” the path of having all 3 babies after much research and deliberation, I knew that everything I went through would be worth it. And that I would do everything in my power to optimize my health, the health of the babies, and their chances at a great life.

Saying this pregnancy journey was the most difficult physical thing I’ve ever done is an understatement. Physically, it was hell. Almost Every. Single. Moment. For 4 months I would have my head in the toilet multiple times a day. Good days meant I only threw up once or twice but dry-heaved about 7-8 times. Bad days meant I threw up every hard-earned meal and retched about 16 times into the toilet. The exhaustion kicked my ass. My everyday was centered around getting as much food into me as possible, yet hating most foods: all meats, salmon, anything that smelled… and only able to eat vegetables and fruit. The only meat I could thankfully eat was white fish and shrimp.

After this 4 month period of hell, I had about 2 weeks of enjoying my baby bump and eating well without much nausea before I grew so big so fast that I began to experience all sorts of pain and discomfort. My back and hips killed me. My legs strained under the weight of the babies. My heart felt like it was about to give, like I was competing in a triathalon 24/7. I developed Braxton hicks contractions every night that threatened a middle of the night visit to the maternity ward to get checked out. And then I developed high blood pressure that was triggered by every little worry or piece of anxiety. It was awful. 

And then things just got worse. Most days I felt like I was going to die from my heart giving out or my inability to breathe due to the babies taking up so much space. I thought my body was going to explode from the weight and pressure of sustaining life for 3 babies. That’s 3 heart beats, 9 lungs, 30 toes, 30 fingers, and so forth. WOW.

When I was finally hospitalized at 29 weeks due to preeclampsia, I ended up with an emergency c-section a few days later. Out they came, with even one baby screaming, and our crazy lives began.

All in all, despite the discomfort, fear, and insanity of growing three babies inside of me, my overall determination and inner strength helped me figure out a way to make it happen. It starts with powerfully “choosing” your circumstances and not looking back. And that’s how I gave birth to triplets.