I know, I know...it's been awhile.

Sorry. I have no other excuse than to claim that I have been VERY busy chasing pacifiers.


This has indeed turned into a full-time position. You would think that I might have been spending time feeding, changing diapers, sleeping, whatever... Nope.


Oh for the love of a Wubbanub... For those who do not know what I'm talking about, they are small stuffed animals attached to pacifiers... As far as I know you can only get them online. Which I did, about a month ago. I was sure these were the answer to many of our pacifier problems, but they might have created more...see below.


Pros:

• There are 3 babies...three different animals...MUCH less pacifier confusion.
• Less pacifier chasing...Those stupid things can roll 20 feet and hide under a couch in less than 2 seconds.
• They are much less able to projectile spit them across the room. The stuffed animal portion weighs them down. My children could win a sunflower spitting contest hands down.
• They are a little bit easier to keep in their mouths because you can prop the animals next to them in bed. This is mostly wishful thinking...
• They are pretty stinkin' cute.

Cons:

• They are still pacifiers.
• It is in a pacifier's nature to fall out. This is what they do. They are evil.
• They appear to collect things like dog hair, fuzz, and are wonderful at absorbing puke.
• Instead of just falling out they like to attack faces. For reals. I stick it in, I turn around, the baby starts crying, I turn back around, the animal is flailing around their face beating them about the head and shoulders. O.K., not really, but that's what I imagine they think is happening.
• They turn into flying objects. Not kidding. Lily has indeed managed to fling hers halfway across the room... That girl has an arm on her.

Jack and Red Dog...

Jack is somewhat ambivalent about the whole pacifier thing. UNLESS you want to stand there and hold it in for 45 minutes or so. Once you put it in you better be committed. The next hour will be spent putting it in, walking away, screaming, running back to put it in, repeat forever... It's gotten to the point we just ignore the fact that we have a Red Dog unless it is almost time to eat because that is the only thing that works at that point. Good old Red Dog is our last means of defense. Thank God for the swing.

Ben and Frog Man.

Once again I find myself uttering the phrase..."Thank goodness for Ben." He is the success story. Frog Man ALWAYS works and he holds it in his mouth 80 percent of the time. In my book that is a winning percentage. Talk about double standards. This means Ben always has Frog Man and it is stuck in his mouth a bunch. When I am downstairs and hear him screaming all the way upstairs I can put it back in his mouth and it buys me another 30 minutes. I can't ask for anything more. Sweet, easy Baby Ben. On the flip side...this is his baby crack. I'm fairly sure he would toss me aside in favor of Frog Man. He is seriously, sadly addicted to this little green guy. I admit I feed the addiction out of pure self preservation. I hope I am not creating a monster.

Lily and the Penguin...

This is a failed relationship. For as good as Ben is at holding Frog Man in, Lily is equally as bad. That poor girl. She actually does a pretty good job keeping it in her mouth but it takes some concentration. As soon as she loses concentration for a second the mayhem ensues. The damn penguin begins to attack her face. O.K., what really happens is that the thing falls out of her mouth, it startles her, and she begins to flail wildly with her arms. Imagine little baby karate moves. This somehow propels the penguin toward her face where it appears to dance around and peck her eyes out. I imagine this is how she pictures the whole ordeal. All the while she is whacking at it. Somewhere in the middle she screams angrily, snorts, screams angrily, snorts, and so on. Her cry really needs some work. It's a great source of humor for us. It then gets thrown on the floor or across the room. I am a terrible Mom because I never wash them off after they hit the ground. It's just an impossibility. I then fetch and repeat the dreaded process. Again, she really only gets it when she's hungry or nothing else will calm her down.

So you see how I spend my days. It's a lesson in futility...for us all. I have sworn that I will be rid of these dreaded pacifiers by the time they are 9 months. Any veterans out there who have said the same thing? I know they need them right now because sucking is the way they soothe themselves. I'm beginning to think the way I can soothe myself is to set them on fire. Which I will do. Someday. Until then I pray they find their fingers. Soon.

Oh yes, one more thing. Valentine's Day came and went and I was a terrible blogger and didn't post their first pics. So here you go. You will notice Ben got so excited about the morning photo shoot that he spewed his breakfast down his chin. And on my bed. Yeah!

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...

The Nursery..

I wanted to share with everyone pics of the nursery murals that my Mom did while I was in the hospital. She did such an amazing job. I had asked her to consider painting the nursery early in my pregnancy...little did I know at the time I caused her some stress over this. I knew she would do a good job, everything she touches is always beautiful. If for no other reason that she will work until it is perfect! As ya'll can see she is extremely talented and put a lot of love into the paintings. Even knowing how talented Mom is, I never imagined it would turn out as great as it did.

She also put the cribs together, made curtains, decorated the room, put the bedding together, got all of the laundry done, and pretty much completely organized the entire closet. On top of all of that, she did our laundry, cooked Brian breakfast in the mornings, and brought me things to the hospital. I could have NEVER gotten any of this done on my own. Prior to going in the hospital I had slowed down ALOT. Sitting or standing for any amount of time either caused pain...or contractions. After getting home from the hospital I could barely walk across the room, much less decorate a room! She really took over, saw what needed to be done, and got it done. As I've said before, I have the greatest Mom in the whole world. While she couldn't take away any of the discomfort or uncertainty I was feeling...she did what she does best. She put my mind at ease...I knew that when the time came to bring these little guys home everything would be ready and perfect. And it certainly was. Check it out for yourselves...

This is Ben's mural that goes over his bed. Notice the "Welcome to the Jungle" sign...quite fitting, huh?
Here's Jack's alligator. Pretty fitting for his personality I'd say!
And here's our little Monkey's picture for over her bed. Notice the tiara and purse! You can't tell from this picture, but they are done in sparkly paint...so cute!
Here's the palm tree, complete with 3-D monkeys sitting on coconuts. You should have seen the fits that those coconuts gave my Mom. Apparently it's pretty difficult to crack one?
Another big thanks goes out to Nana who made all of the babies' bed's bumper pads and dust ruffles. Each baby had a different color and material. They look so good in the room and with the cribs. She also made covers for a rocking chair and a glider...We sure do use those a lot.

I can't tell you how many hours Mom must have spent not only on setting up the room, but getting the whole house ready. She made trip after trip to various stores to make returns for me and buy necessities. She even put together "Command Central" downstairs in our room. This is where the babies will be located for a few months before they get to enjoy their new digs upstairs...

All the mental preparation in the world can't get you ready for having premature babies. Even all those days and hours spent in bed at home or at the hospital thinking about what was to come couldn't really get my mind ready for the emotions I would feel the days and weeks after they were born. I knew they would be little, I knew they would have to stay for a period of time in the NICU, and I knew that they would have to work on simple things like feeding and temperature regulation. I thought I was fully prepared, but now I know that there is just no way to be prepared for it all. Your heart just goes out to them when you see them in their little isolettes, or stuck under those stupid phototherapy lights. You worry about how they are feeling, what is happening when you aren't there, and how all of this will affect them in the future. You want to make it all better...and quick! It's so hard to leave them up at the hospital, but there's just nothing that you can do but let them rest and grow and get strong.

I imagine this is how my Mom felt the whole time. She gave me the best gift in the whole world...peace of mind. She let me just worry about myself and the babies and she took care of all of the things that I couldn't. I know there is no way I could ever repay her. I just home I'm half the Mom she is. I know I've got pretty big shoes to fill.

On a less sappy note, I thought I would leave ya'll with some humor. The babies are getting so big! They got a clean bill of health last week from the pediatrician. In one week they had all gained a 1/2 pound. Jack is up to 6 lbs 1 oz, Lily 5 lbs 10 oz, and Ben 5 lbs 4 oz. This week both Lily and Jack are out of preemie diapers... They are even wearing a few newborn outfits because the preemie ones are too small - YEAH! So, I go to get Jack out of the crib and I find this. Apparently he didn't have enough room in his outfit so he tried to get out. Pretty funny, huh?

Merry (late) Christmas from the family...

Don't worry, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth...we've just been extremely busy. Between feeding, diapering, laundry, napping, making formula, sneaking in a quick shower, washing bottles, making bottles, holding babies, and pacifier chasing I have really fallen behind on my posting duties. I have, however, missed it! It's funny, as each day goes by I think about all of the things I want and need to write about...and all of the sudden the day is gone in a blur. Then days turn into a week and then into 2 weeks. I then begin to feel overwhelmed about all of the things I want to say and then don't write because I worry I will miss something. The only way to solve this is to write...so here goes.

I have many stories to tell over the past few weeks. Alas, you will have to wait, though. I want to talk about Christmas! This was the babies' very first Christmas. Poor things, they had no idea what they were in for! Lots of dressing up and pictures. As you can see from the picture below they were none too happy about their photo shoot! O.K., really it was just Jack who wasn't happy... I wonder what he's thinking? "Stop the flashes... Get this stupid hat off of me... Why am I always stuck in the middle??? Where's my trusty blue pacifier??? Stop this madness!!!" Meanwhile Ben is trying (unsuccessfully) to cover his ear and Lily is trying to get away from the screaming!


We had a great holiday. What with the RSV scare we weren't able to leave the house with the babies...but never fear, again the party was brought to us...on a small scale. We had close family over on Sunday for presents and barbecue. Thanks to everyone for making the trek our way to bring us Christmas cheer! I must say, re-integrating myself back into the real world sure has been nice. Brian and I both missed Thanksgiving, for obvious reasons, and we were extra excited about having everyone together and celebrating our little Christmas miracles.

One member of our family was REALLY missed. Aunt Debbie was sick, and she was so worried about contaminating our house that she stayed away. Thank you so much for sacrificing the fun time... I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that she cared so much about all of us to keep her germs away! I must admit I've become a bit neurotic about germs coming into the house. It was a bit of a tough decision to have everyone over, but all followed our hand washing and hand sanitizing rules! We also tried to keep the babies back in their cribs, much to their dismay...they REALLY like to be held and cuddled with after their evening meal. (I mean the babies, not the family...come to think of it, maybe the family too?) Thanks to Nana and Grandmother for cleaning up the kitchen while we tended to the kiddos. Nana even found some laundry to fold!

Christmas Eve was spent with our parents. Mom cooked a wonderful Mexican meal and we all spent some good quality time together. We even had a special treat...Brian's parents moved the kiddos up to their room to do the night and early morning feeds. We actually got a full night's sleep. Well, Brian did anyway, I still had to get up and pump in the middle of the night. Oh well, my day will come. We had more presents and breakfast in the morning...not to mention the famous Christmas photo shoot...

We got good old "fusspants" to stop crying, finally! Maybe one of the others was pinching him when we weren't looking?
So, here's wishing you all a wonderful, but late, Merry Christmas!!!

The First Pediatrician Visit

All of these years Brian just thought it took a lot to get me out of the house. I can't tell you how many nights on the town began in arguments about just how long could it possibly take for me to get ready to leave. Apparently in his opinion too long, I guess? Hey-I just wanted to look good, can't help it if it took a couple of hours sometimes, right?

And then we had kids. Three of them to be exact. Three tiny little sweet babies. Then he learned just how long it can REALLY take to get out of the house. Is this my revenge? Maybe so.

Our morning started bright and early at 5:45. That is of course after feeding from 12:00-1:00 a.m. and 3:00-4:00 a.m. So we were working on very little sleep to begin with. We fed, I took a shower and got ready, we prepped bottles for the day, packed everything they could possibly need, had some coffee, changed the babies, lined up the car seats, had some more coffee, dressed the babies, fed the babies again, got the babies in the car seats, cleaned up spit-up, re-checked four times to make sure we had everything, called for directions, re-checked a fifth time and realized I forgot to put bottles in the bag, and loaded us all in the car. ON TIME! Of course, little did I realize that it would take 20 minutes to drive just down the road because I am so paranoid of driving around our little treasures! So we were five minutes late, but no big deal.

Brian waited in the car with the kids while I went in to fill out the paperwork. Little did I know at the time that I had locked him in the back of the car...oops. So, we've all filled out paperwork at the Dr.'s office, right? Try filling it out for 3 PEOPLE! My hand almost fell off. Not to mention that it took about 30 minutes of incredibly messy and fast handwriting.

We waited in the car for them to come get us. Apparently you get the VIP treatment when you are super-cool triplets! I must admit I felt like part of the entourage. The nurse came out to get us and ushered straight in the back door and to the room. No waiting in a sub-standard, germ-infested waiting room for us!

So we met with the pediatrician, Dr. Hopkins, who we really liked. He spent a lot of time with all of the babies and was really excited to have them as patients. Who wouldn't be, they are obviously SUPER cute. They had all gained good weight, with Jack over 5 lbs! Crazy, huh? He still seems so little... They got a clean bill of health. AND, he said we could transition them to a 4-hour feeding schedule, which was the best news we had ever heard. Yeah!!! More sleep!

The whole visit lasted...are you ready for this? From the time we got there at 10:20 until the time we left at 1:00! THANK GOODNESS I remembered the bottles...the natives were definitely getting restless. Our next appt is next Tuesday for a weight check and to check out the boys' circumcisions...So we get to do it all over again.

We wanted to get right to that 4-hr feeding schedule so we started it last night. Of course, apparently we didn't discuss it with the kids because they were up all night screaming at us. Good times, so much for more sleep.

Hey guys, is this over yet???