Rejuvination...

Well I'm happy to report that I am now among the living again. I have fully recovered from my sleepless night and am no worse for the wear. I had a night off!!! I spent Friday night with my best girlfriends for our traditional "Spaghetti night", then spent the night at Audrey's house where I got a full 8 hours of sleep! Brian's parents spent the night at our house and took care of the babies for a night and Brian got a full nights sleep as well! Yeah!

This was the first weekend in a long time that actually felt like a weekend. The past weeks and months have sort of melted together in a blur of days. When you can't go anywhere or do anything Saturday and Sunday are really no different than a Wednesday. Brian being home or being able to spend more time entertaining me was the one very bright exception! Good thing I like him, huh? I'm definitely assuming he likes me as well or he wouldn't hang out with me as much as he does... Of course it could be the guilt? I was carrying all of his babies...AND I'll be spending A LOT of time with them in the next few years....he better be nice to me or we could gang up on him... Ticklefest??? That should put the fear in him.

I digress... So I had a great Friday night with my girlfriends. Then, Uncle Eddie and Aunt Debbie called us Saturday and offered to hang out with the babies for a few hours while we went to dinner. It was fantastic... Thanks to everyone who made this fabulous weekend possible. It was definitely what I needed.

So on to the babies because I know that's what you want to hear. My friend Carol recently wrote a post on her blog about her life as a speech therapist. She inspired me to write about being an Occupational Therapist that has worked with many, many babies... and now has many, many babies.

First and foremost I have not followed all of the advice I have given my parents over the years. Daily tummy time??? Oops. To be fair they are just now hitting their due date and have been sleeping all of the time...so they haven't been doing that much. I promise this will become a daily routine starting tomorrow. It's also difficult when we have grandmothers, grandfathers, and great-grandmothers who want to hold babies all of the time! What a terrible problem to have, right? So here are some pictures of our our daily activities...

Group play and socialization: We are working on showing active interest in toys and people (Mommy). As of yet they don't seem to really notice each other much. Except in the crib when Lily likes to whack the boys on their heads while she sleeps.

Visual Activities: We are working on tracking toys in various planes and staring and gazing at objects.

Fine Motor Skills: We are working on actively grasping a toy and bringing hands to midline.
Self-Care Skills: We are working on holding pacifiers in mouths. This is especially important as Mommy is not an octopus and does not have enough hands to hold them all in. Prior to feeding time it often becomes a game of whack-a-mole where I try to put them back in as fast as they spit them out.

And, of course, TUMMY TIME. You can see from the pics below that all they want to do is sleep... The last one is of Daddy participating in tummy time. He's just trying to show them how it's done!

I am so tired. Demons inhabited my sweet babies last night. I know they couldn't be responsible for the madness that occurred. Dear sweet gentle Ben who NEVER cries wailed for hours last night for no apparent reason. I changed him, I tried to feed him, I gave him gas drops, but nothing worked. The only thing that did work was to hold him...for hours...and hours. What happened? Who was this child? Has Jack been telling him secrets? Is Ben switching over to the dark side? NOOOOO! I rely on my two easy babies to be able to handle Jack the fusspants. What if being a fusspants is contagious? What if it slowly spreads to all of them and I never get to sleep again? Then they will see the real fusspants!

Ben finally took a bottle at about 1:15 but was so tired from crying that he could only eat about 2/3 of it which I knew would be a big problem about 4:30 or so. He was so worked up he couldn't coordinate sucking and breathing...he was more sucking like this was the last bottle ever then gasping for breath. I reassured him that I would make more and that he would never go hungry...but I guess he didn't get it. He fell dead asleep FINALLY before he finished it.

Then fusspants woke up. He was totally fine when I fed him, then all hell broke loose and he CRIED and CRIED. He is so loud. My head hurts just thinking about how loud he wailed. At least Ben's cries are pretty soft and pitiful. Again, I tried everything to no avail. He finally cried himself tired and fell asleep at 4:00 and then I got to sleep...for an hour until Lily woke up screaming!!!! Which woke Jack up screaming!!!! Which woke Ben up screaming!!!!

I hid under the covers and plugged my ears.

Brian got up this time to start feeding Lily. Ben and Jack continued to cry. Loud.

I got out from under the covers and surrendered, knowing it was no use to hide from them because they were not going to stop until Someone fed them. My name is Someone.

I put them on the couch with Lily to warm their bottles and a chorus of screaming and crying ensued. All of them at once singing an evil melody trying to drive the sanity out of my clouded mind. I gave up and just laughed, it was all I could do...the last of my sanity slipping away into a puddle of fatigue.

Who are these children? Where did my sweet babies go? Where did my sleep go? How am I supposed to function on less than an hour of sleep? I am so tired...so very tired...

Oh the Monstrosity!

We bought a triplet stroller yesterday. Wow. The pic below explains the name of this post! I'm not sure how I feel about this. I know it is much needed. I know I will want to take the kiddos out by myself on occasion-especially come spring. But really, could it be any more of an eyesore? It's huge. Can you imagine the stares and gawks I will receive? I'm not typically someone who wants to draw attention to myself in public, I pretty much like to blend in with the crowd....I don't typically talk to strangers or make casual conversation with people I don't know. Guess those days are over if I go into public pushing three babies in this thing! Don't get me wrong. I am so proud to be the mother of three babies...and I LOVE to show them off, but from my experience of just telling people that I was pregnant with triplets, strangers ask some VERY invasive questions... I remember watching a story on TV about a family who had triplets. They showed their first outing with the babies in public and people literally flocked around them. Of course, that could have been the camera crew as well. I've been thinking of creative ways to deal with this. What do you think? No habla English? Sign language? Just stare ahead and pretend I don't hear them? Repeat every question they ask to me back to them to make them think I'm crazy? Hmmmm, actually this could be kind of fun!

Well enough about me...What about the babies???

• They are getting FAT. Monday was a milestone as that was the original due date they gave me if I were to go to 40 weeks. Tuesday they were 7 weeks old. They are eating well, awake and interactive a lot more, and sleeping well (just not at night). Fusspants (Jack ) continues to be a challenge as he appears to be a tad high strung and likes to cry when he is awake. Ben and Lily are nice and laid back...they don't cry unless there is a problem. I'm just waiting until the day that they figure out how much attention that Jack gets from being fussy. That is the day I may run away from home! Below are some before and after pics...

Lily Bug..

Jumbo Jack..

Bennie Bear...

Haven't they changed? It's amazing. I remember in the NICU when they started feeding them through a tube in their nose 10 ml and now they are eating 4 oz, which is 120 ml! They eat every four hours and usually wake up before it's time because they are hungry. I'm pretty sure that Jack would eat us out of house and home if we would let him...He is HUGE. I'm guessing around 8 1/2 pounds. I remember how tiny they were when they were born. They seemed so fragile and breakable. Now they're beginning to hold their heads up, rolling from their sides to their backs, and staring at us like we are crazy most of the time! Lily and Jack are completely out of preemie clothes and Ben is out of most of them. I've been putting them up as they grow out of them... Here's a little perspective on just how small they were...

How about some cute pics of the week?

Lily and her feaux (not sure this is how you spell it?) hawk!

Dad and Ben trying to make up for all the lost sleep...

Jack with a state-of-the-art "hands free" bottle holding system...