OK so I know I have some new readers so I will do an introduction.
My name is Jerri, I'm 21 and happily married to Mike a pilot in the air force. Soon to be mom to triplets, aka fetus McJitters and company. Because of a birth defect I have I was not able to conceive the normal way. Our babies were conceived using IVF(in vitro fertilization, aka test tube babies). Four embryos were fertilized and allowed to grow several days to the blastocyte stage. Then they were transfered to my uterus. Three of those embryos "took", implanted, and now we are expecting triplets. No, they aren't identical, they are faternal, from separate eggs.
At about 16 wks we found out one of the babies has Anencephaly, a neural tube defect that can be prevented 99.9% of the time by a woman taking 400 mcgs of folic acid before she gets pregnant. Anencephaly is incompatible with life, we know our sweet baby boy won't live.
I started this to update people on how they are and all things pregnancy related.
The first entry is this one, the 2nd and 3rd are ones I consider important and have dated them far ahead so they stay at the top. The 3rd is stuff I need to keep easily accessible, for my own records.
Read, comment, ask questions. I am OK with honest questions. I ask you to please not be negative. It's hard enough planning for this birth, and planning a funeral. Accept our decisions or don't, but know they are OUR decisions and what is best for our family.
I will say straight up that abortion was not and is not an option. One, because of our faith, and two, because it would risk the health of the other two babies. We are willingly making this journey and trying to keep a positive outlook.
Thank you for reading, and welcome to our journey.

stuff to think on

I need to get this out, backdated it far back to make it easy to find.

Things we have to decide on. Things to do or not do.

First
tissue donations to the Duke university study on Spina Bifida, Anencephaly, and other Neural tube defects. We will likely do this. They will take small tissue samples from Asher, and from the other two they will take either cord blood samples or swabs from their cheeks for DNA. From Me and Mike they will do cheek swabs.

Second, Ashers birth.
Well, the birth of all three.
Asher won't feel pain. He will be blind and deaf, and he won't feel hunger or thirst.
We were told some parents opt to feed their anencephalic baby and others don't. She said some can't handle it.
Bathing and dressing him. We can do this or let the nurses do it.
We can keep him with us, even after death, as long as we need/want to.
When we are ready they will do the tissue samples. They can come to the room or nursery and do it, or we will be allowed to take him to the lab for it. They said if we do this they will make sure there is a private area for is.
We will also be allowed to walk with him to the morgue if we want, or one of the nurses can take him for us, or they can have the coroner come get him. I want to meet the person I'm handing my baby over to.

Pictures
The nurse gave us a name. A woman that has worked with them on most of their stillbirths for pictures. Heather had a still birth herself several years ago, so she understands. Hopefully we can meet with her soon and talk about what we want, which, I really don't know what I want.

The other babies.
If they do not need to be in the NICU we have the option of having them with us while we have Asher, or leaving them in the nursery. I don't know yet what I want, and may not know till then.

I'm sure there is more that I can't think of right off hand, will add them when I think of them, or when more comes up.