Stomach Bugs

Last Thursday Griffin woke up covered in vomit. That began what has now been 9 days straight of:

• non-stop poopy diapers 
• a washing machine that is constantly running
• going through 10 bottles of pedialyte
• many many meals of oyster crackers
• 2 gallons of milk that have been sitting in the fridge longer than a week (that NEVER happens)
• super whiny, fussy, clingy kids
• a bathtub that has gotten more action in the past week than it typically gets in a month's time

I do feel bad for the boys. It has been a really rough week for them. Thankfully Griffin is finally starting to feel better, but the other 2 are still very much in the thick of this bug. If we're being honest, I don't think it really bothers them that much. They are definitely hangry and clingier than usual. But it's like they know- as long as this stomach bug keeps up, they will get to take at least one bath every day...and some days more than that. And as you can tell from this Instagram video I posted this afternoon- that is pretty OK with them.

Amazon Prime Fail

I asked Will to order some Triple Paste off Amazon earlier this week. Normally we order 2 at a time. When I checked the tracking info earlier in the week, I was pretty surprised to see that we had a shipment of 8 coming! Will was apparently doing some price comparisons and forgot to clean out the cart before hitting purchase. Bad news? It was a $250 dollar whoopsie. Good news? We are well-stocked up on diaper cream...for at least a few months! Will claims there will be no more ordering off of Amazon from his phone! I don't know why I find this so funny, but it cracks me up to look at 128 oz. worth of diaper paste on our counter.

Triplets, and triple paste, are expensive!

Stomach Bugs

We are in the midst of sickness in the Mason house. Cooper woke up sick on Sunday, seemingly got better, but then got bad again on Tuesday morning. Poor buddy couldn't keep any food down. On Tuesday morning I checked in on the boys on their dropcam while I was at work and found that Will was giving Cooper a bath thanks to vomit and diarrhea overnight. While Will was in the bathroom with Cooper I watched Griffin throw up in his crib. Exactly how it started for Cooper.  A quick call to their pediatrician confirmed that there is nothing they can do for a stomach bug besides ride it out. Needless to say, I left work early to help Will tend to 2 sick babies. We spent the day giving them small amounts of pedialyte every 10 minutes to prevent dehydration and letting them have a few oyster crackers here and there. Thankfully neither of them threw up the rest of the day...but I wasn't so lucky. My stomach had been bothering me most of the day, too, but I assumed it was from the (multiple) Christmas cookies I ate on my way to work...and then the piece of cake I had when I got to the office. 'Tis the season. I laid down during the boys second nap to try and sleep away my upset stomach. That didn't work, and I joined the stomach bug party that's infected our home. Amazingly both Wills have remained resilient and haven't caught anything yet, though we've been treating baby Will as though he has, just in case. I think Griffin didn't get as bad as Cooper because we caught it early and kept food away from him- nothing going in means little to come out! Our pediatrician said it was perfectly ok to keep them from solids for a day while they are getting past a virus, and that it will work its way through the GI tract so to get ready for full diapers. 

The boys seem to be doing better. We let them come downstairs for dinner last night and let them have more than a 1/2 oz of pedialyte at one time, along with some applesauce and crackers. No throw up before bed, but we'll see what their diapers hold for us this morning. My illness is following the same pattern so hopefully I'll start feeling better today, too! If how I have felt the last couple days is any indication of how the boys feel, then My heart breaks for them!! I hate seeing them sick. And I really hate the whining that goes along with them being sick. I know they can't help it, but it will drive you mad! 

Their 18 month check up is well-timed as we take them in today. This will be the first time that we'll be sitting in the "sick" waiting room for one of their group visits! Hopefully the bug has passed and we can get our house back in working order this weekend. My parents are coming to town and we have big plans to visit Santa!!

A Day in the Life: 12 Months

In preparation for our big trip to the Cayman's and leaving the boys for our first extended period of time, I have been prepping a binder for Sue that's full of information about the boys. I'm sure it's information overload, but I am admittedly anxious about leaving them for a week and want to be sure that I have all the bases covered in case something happens while we're away. I've pretty much wrote out my newest "Day in the Life" post to include in the binder so I figured I'd go ahead and copy/paste it here to save me from having to re-write it in the next couple weeks. So, here's a look at what life is like for us at 12 months old:

7:30-8:30 AM: the boys will wake up on their own any time between 7:30 and 8:00 AM. They are pretty quiet and content to hang out in their cribs for a bit as they first wake up so you don’t need to rush in there. When we do go in, they all need diaper changes and into their outfits for the day. If we plan to take them out and about, we put them in “real” outfits (rompers, or shorts and t-shirts or onesies); otherwise, we typically just put them in a clean onesie and no pants. 

8:30-9:30 AM: Breakfast time. They eat all meals at their triplet table now. They get milk with all meals now- some days they are more enthusiastic about drinking it than others. We typically put Cooper in the middle seat because he has had a tendency lately to throw food on the floor. He still does it from the middle seat, but not with the same enthusiasm and determination that he does from a side seat! Be sure to give Cooper 1 ML of his Ranitidine meds before breakfast.

9:30-10:30 AM: Play time. We take them on a walk around the neighborhood if it’s not too hot. If we do walk, we rotate the baby up who gets to sit up top in the stroller and usually bring some water along for them to have. If the weather doesn't permit for walking, they are perfectly good playing upstairs for a bit. When we are upstairs with them, they can roam the bonus room freely and will generally play well together. They are not allowed to play on or near the entertainment center (though they will surely try!). We have toys strategically placed to try and block their access but they will still squirm through- they’ll need to by physically moved away from the TV. Often.

They are also drawn to the window, so we will open the shades about halfway to keep them safe from any choking hazards. A current favorite activity is to bang objects against the window. 

We don’t really keep them in the baby jail for extended periods of time any more as the space is too small for them to have a lot of roaming room. We do keep them in the baby jail area if we have to leave the room to grab something. And we also have baby gates set up now that we leave closed at all times (especially the one at the bonus room doorway). We’re trying to get into the habit of always keeping the one at the top of the stairs shut, too. Just in case!

10:30-11:00 AM: Snack time. Back to their table for morning snacks. We offer them a sippy cup of water with their snacks, then they head back upstairs for naptime. They may fuss a little bit when we put them down, but that’s OK…they typically quiet down really quickly. 

11:00 AM-1:00/2:00 PM: Nap time. The boys usually will nap for at least a couple hours in the morning, if not longer. We typically clean up the kitchen and get their lunch prepped during their morning nap.

1:00-2:00 PM: Lunch time. Same as morning routine- except a bit messier as we usually feed them a combo of finger foods and spoon fed foods. 

2:00-3:30/4:00 PM: Play time back upstairs. Depending on how late their morning nap lasted there may be time to give them a quick afternoon snack before putting them down again. But if they took a long morning nap there is often not enough time, and that’s OK. They usually go down for their afternoon nap between 3:30 and 4:00 PM.

4:00-5:00PM: Afternoon nap. This nap is not normally longer than an hour or so. If they wake up on the earlier side we give them a snack right when they wake up…but if it’s closer to 6:30 we skip it all-together. They don’t always have 2 snacks in a day so we don’t stress if we don’t get both in! We only have one set of the EZPZ mats so they’ll need to be washed so they’re ready to go for dinner time.

5:00-6:30: Play time and dinner prep. We generally play with them upstairs until about 5:30 or 6:00 then bring them all down to the kitchen and let them play in the baby jail area while we prep dinner.

6:30-7:00/7:30 PM: Dinner time. We typically let them have all finger foods at dinner time and try to time it so we are eating dinner at the same time they are. I usually keep some extra food diced up and ready for them as backup in case they power through what’s on their plates (Griffin and Cooper!) They will often try to steal food off each other’s plates. I don’t know what is so tempting about the other plate when they have the exact same thing on their own… but alas we deal with that every night. We've noticed lately that they haven't been as excited about eating as they used to be. Sometimes we have to grab a fork or spoon and feed them off their plates that way. Will, especially, is a slow eater but gets very excited about trying to feed himself with a fork! After dinner Cooper gets another 1 ML dose of his ranitidine medication.

If there is time to clean up the kitchen after dinner we will; often Will and I will tag team and split up the work. One will work on dishes while the other cleans up the baby area- clorox wiping the triplet table and sweeping and mopping under the table every night. It's always a good day when the dishwasher is nearly full and we can justify throwing the EZPZ mats in there and starting it as opposed to hand-washing everything.

7:00-8:00 PM: Bedtime routine. We take them back upstairs and let them hang out either in a crib or in the upstairs baby jail while we get each one ready for bed. If it’s bath night, we bathe each one individually- it doesn’t matter who you start with.  Bath time takes about 45 minutes start to finish to get all three bathed and into PJs. All 3 boys get lotion and fresh jammies on bath night. Then we let them play upstairs for a bit before bed.

We try to have them down for the night between 8:00 and 8:15. Before bed, we’ll read books while they brush their teeth. I put all 3 in the baby jail and let them brush their teeth in there while Will reads the 3 bedtime books to them. We always read “Goodnight Pookie” last. I sit in the baby jail with the boys to be sure that they don’t steal each other’s toothbrushes, stand up and walk around with them, or use them as weapons against each other. J Once we’re done with books we take their toothbrushes away and then put them into their cribs, one by one. I let the first baby who gets taken to bed “help” me turn on the tranquil turtle before I put him down. They may fuss for a couple minutes (Will especially) when you first put them down, but they usually fall asleep pretty quickly.  

New Normal

One year ago today we brought Griffin home from the hospital, and our party of five was together in the same room for the first time! It is really hard these days to not feel nostalgic and a bit weepy when I think of just how far we've come in the past 365 days. One year seems like a lifetime ago, but in other ways it feels like just yesterday that we were dealing with our new role as parents and round-the-clock caregivers of 3 newborns. As we ease into their 2nd year of life it feels like we are once again adapting to a new normal. It's certainly not as exhausting, stressful, and overwhelming as where we were a year ago, but there are certainly days when the adjustment feels easier than others.

We have a tendency to change up the boys' routine just as soon as we get comfortable and adjusted to a particular schedule. The past couple weeks has been no exception. We've basically rocked all of our worlds by drastically changing their daily schedule. We dropped all their bottles cold turkey right after their first birthday, with the exception of their bedtime bottle, which we continued until we ran out of frozen breast milk. Admittedly, we went through the frozen stash much, much quicker than I anticipated. I had hoped that we could make it to 13 months with the frozen milk...we didn't even make it 2 weeks past their first birthday.

We gave them their last official bottle on July 1st, and that was it. No more bottles. We've replaced their bedtime bottle and books with bedtime books and teeth brushing. The first few nights went relatively well- there was a minimal amount of crying when we put them down for the night, but they slept all night like champs. I think they were enjoying their new toothbrushes and it was a good distraction from the missing bottles. But it seem like the novelty has worn off. The past couple nights we've had more tears than usual when we put them down and the tears have lasted longer than this mama is comfortable with. We try to let them self-soothe and they generally can calm themselves down on their own within a few minutes. But Cooper especially has been wailing for extended bouts of time the past couple nights. It's been especially tough for me, I admit. We have been lucky, fortunate, spoiled- whatever you want to call it- but our kids don't cry at night when we put them down. At least not for more than 5 or 10 minutes max. So when Cooper cried and fussed for 30+ minutes without letting up, I had to go in. Last night I brought him back out to the play room and rocked him for a bit before putting him back down. He still fussed a bit when I put him back in his crib, but he was able to fall asleep on his own pretty quickly. But tonight was a different story- even me holding him wasn't cutting it. He was NOT happy at all. We finally caved and gave him a 6 oz bottle of whole milk...and he went right down after he finished. Clearly we are all working on this abrupt adjustment to our schedule. I'm sure there will be more frustrating evenings like this as we battle through the transition, but we'll get through it. I will have to start toughening up my skin because I can't keep teaching Cooper that I'll come in an rescue him if he cries loud and hard enough!

Speaking of adjustments to a new normal, it feels like I have endless amounts of free time now that I've finished pumping. I truly have forgotten what it feels like to be able to relax at the end of the day and enjoy some downtime before bed. Before it was a mad rush all night from the moment I walked in the door to the moment I laid down to go to bed (get home, get dinner prepped for both us and the boys, have dinner, clean up dinner, diaper and change the boys into PJs, prep lunch for the next day, prep bottles, bedtime bottles, bedtime books, put the boys down, wash dishes, prep pumping bag for next day, shower, and pump). Nowadays, it is a little more relaxed. There is still the initial rush for the first few hours to get dinner prepped and the boys fed, changed, cuddled, and off to bed. But once they go down for the night I don't have to rush straight into the next thing on the to-do list before bed. I have noticed that my blogging has suffered since I did the majority of my writing while pumping. It will take some focus to sit down and write updates at night now. But the call of the couch and mindless television has been far more enticing the past couple weeks!

New stroller

The options for decent triplet strollers are pretty limited (and pretty pricey) but also a necessity so that we can get out of the house on our own when we're solo with the babies. This is especially important to Will, who has been going a little stir crazy being stuck inside all day, every day while I'm at work.

There aren't many triple strollers on the market, but the two that we debated between were the Adventure Buggy triple stroller or the Valco tri mode twin stroller with a Joey seat attachment. In the end we decided to go with the Adventure Buggy option and placed our order. The stroller is only sold in New Zealand so it took a couple weeks to get to us but it has been well worth the wait! We took it on its maiden voyage last Friday morning and we've literally taken the boys on a walk in it everyday since. 

Will is grateful to have the freedom to escape the four walls of our home during the day (and get some exercise and fresh air!) and the boys seem to enjoy the change of scenery, too. With any luck this is the last stroller we'll need to purchase as this one should grow with us (until they're 40 lbs!)

I think Cooper will likely ride "up top" most of the time as he seems to enjoy it the most

"Ahh, sunlight!!"

Serious ride

FREEEDOMMMMM

Glad I'm tall enough to use it, too!

Hand-Me-Downs

I've been very sentimental and nostalgic in the past week. I'm sure this has been brought on by several factors- my grandma's passing, the boys hitting another milestone by turning 9 months old, and because I've been sifting through their newborn clothes to give away. Looking at their teeny tiny little outfits that used to be soooo big on them reduces me to puddles of tears. Every. Single. Time. I look at them! It's somewhat hard to part with the clothes because I feel like it's closing a chapter of their lives that we'll never get back. I've kept a few sentimental onesies for each of them. My hope is to collect their favorite clothes over the years and eventually make a blanket for each of them that they can take with them when they leave home for good. Still, it's been very emotional as I pack up the rest of their clothes. I would keep them all if I could!

Fortunately I know that my favorite baby outfits are going to good homes. The beauty of having three babies at once means that there are plenty of hand-me-downs to share with friends! My wonderful work friend Ali just learned that they're having a baby boy, which elates me!! She was such a great support for me at work while I was pregnant, and remains so as I've been transitioning back to work full time. I'm so happy that we can hopefully pass that same support on to her as she gears up to become a mom. Knowing she has a boy on the way certainly helps! Her little guy will have no shortage of hand-me-downs from our crew. As an added bonus, her pregnancy falls almost exactly one year after mine. She is due in early August which means that most of our seasonal clothes will be appropriate for them to use.

The remainder of the newborn clothes are being split between several other friends- a big box already went to friends in California who had their first baby boy a few months ago, and we have some set aside for friends in town who recently had their first boy after welcoming a daughter a couple years ago. I have another friend who's due next month with baby #2. I have a big bag of baby boy clothes for her, too, even though they don't know the gender yet. I correctly predicted that her first baby was  a girl so I'm banking on being correct this time around, too.

As hard as it is to part with these newborn clothes, it's comforting to me to know that I'll be able to see our friends creating new memories with their own baby boys in some of our favorite outfits!

A Day in the Life: 6 months

Time for another "day in the life" update! In the 3 months since the last installment there have been some major developments for the boys (eating solids!) and changes for our party of 5 (back to work for Mom) so I will try to document a typical day and note how things differ on work days vs. at home days.

4:30 AM (work day): alarm goes off and I get up to pump before getting ready for work. I leave no later than 6:15 AM, while all the boys (dad included) snooze away
5:30-6:00 AM (home day): if it's my Friday off or a weekend, I usually get up somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 to pump, and then hopefully can get a couple more hours sleep before the babies wake up
8:30-10:00 AM: Time to get the boys up. Usually Will is our early riser- he doesn't cry in the morning, though. He just hangs out and talks to his mobile until one of us walks in greet them. Cooper tends to wake up shortly after we come in the room, and Griffin will often stay sleeping until we pick him up. Some days they are all awake well before 8:30; other days they will sleep soundly until 9:30, but on average we go in their room around 8:30 to start the day. We get the boys changed and into their rock n plays in the bonus room for their first bottles (we no longer feed the boys in their bedroom- so much more space in the bonus room and no one has to sit on the floor while they feed!) If it's a work day for me, then Will is doing this solo. Otherwise we trade off- one will get fresh diapers on everyone while the other gets bottles prepped (they get poly-vi-sol vitamins in their first bottle of the day) and gets Cooper his zantac medication to help with his reflux. We leave the boys in their sleeper pajamas for this first feed of the day, if we can. Lately all three boys have been sleeping on their bellies more, which often means soaked fronts when we get them out of their cribs in the morning. Everyone takes 8 oz at each feed now-they're maxed out in terms of how much we can offer them per bottle. As I mentioned before, all three boys can now hold their own bottles while they eat, so feeds are a little less hectic lately- more just monitoring to be sure they're angling the bottle up enough to limit their air intake. We read them stories while they eat, and make sure to burp them about halfway through their bottles. The song of choice while we burp them is the ABCooper song (A, B, Cooper, Dad, E, F, Griffin, H,I,J,K,L,Mom, N,O.P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,Willard,X,Y,and Z)
10:00-11:30 AM: The boys take their morning nap in their rock n plays. If I'm at home then I will pump for the second time. Then Will and I eat breakfast and get chores done around the house.
11:30 AM-1:00 PM: Playtime for the boys in the bonus room, which they have pretty much taken over with all of their toys. They all are great at head control now so they love activities where they can be upright. They all love playing in the exersaucer and Cooper especially loves the doorway jumper. Christmas was good to the kiddos so they have lots of new toys to explore. Everyone is rolling all over the place when they are on the floor, and they try to sit upright as much as they can as long as Mom or Dad is on the floor with them.
1:00-2:00 PM: Diaper changes and fresh clothes for the boys, then they have their 2nd bottle of the day
2:00-3:30 PM: Naps for the boys, this time in their cribs. And more chores for Mom and Dad, like dishes and laundry, cleaning up the house, bills, etc... I have to pump again, then Will and I eat lunch.
3:30-5:00 PM: The boys wake up from their naps and are ready for more play time
5:00-6:00 PM: If it's a work day for me, I get home around 5:00, just in time to help Will with the boy's next diaper change and 3rd bottle
6:00-7:00 PM: We keep the boys in their rock n plays for a little down time. They typically fall asleep for a little cat nap but usually stir around 7:00. While they doze, I have to pump again, and then Will and I race downstairs to try and eat dinner in peace. I also make my lunch for work the next day and make sure my outfit is ready to go for the next day, too.
7:00-8:30 PM: Dinnertime for the boys! We are trying to feed them solids at least once a day. Until this week we've been feeding them one-by-one in a high chair, which took quite a bit of time. Now that we have the triplet table, they can all eat at once. So feeding them is a much faster process now, but it's also quite a bit messier! They can reach each other at the table, so there are lots of sticky hands grabbing at each other's shirts, hair, hands, etc... And we need to practice patience as they get very cranky in between bites. They all love to eat, though, so this has been a fun addition to the routine.
8:30-9:30 PM: Back upstairs to get ready for bed. If it's bath night then we will start the bedtime routine a little earlier than 8:30. But Cooper gets his zantac again, and everyone gets changed into sleepers and finally diapers for the night. Then back out to the bonus room for their last bottle of the day. We read them bedtime stories while they eat, then I put them in their cribs with their tranquil turtle running to keep them company. They are typically in bed around 9:30 each night. Some nights they go down peacefully and we don't hear a peep from them. Other nights they will protest and cry for a few minutes, but usually they pass out within 10 minutes of being put down.
9:30-11:00 PM: I get my pumping stuff organized and packed up as best I can for the next day at work. If I'm on top of things, I will shower the night before and then head back upstairs to pump for the last time before bed. Will does the last round of dishes for me so I have clean pumping supplies in the morning, and then we both head to bed. If we're in bed around 10:30, it's an early night. Typically it's closer to 11:00 before we are done with everything. On nights when I don't have work the next day, it feels like a holiday as there is far less prep work that needs to happen to get ready for the next day.
 

Dinner time!

Our new triplet table arrived yesterday. What a difference it makes to feed all three at once! Dinner time is much faster now!

Ready to get the party started!

They seem to like it so far!

While Dad's Away...

Grandma and Aunts to the rescue! Will was invited to join a couple pals on a golf trip in Florida this week. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you ask!) the trip fell during the week so we had to call in reinforcement to keep the boys during the day while I am at work. Will's mom and sisters were more than happy to help, and now we are in the thick of a new adventure!

This marks the first time where we've had help for a whole day, and admittedly, it has been a little nerve-wracking! Not that we don't trust Maria, Cari, and Sue. We totally do. But watching 3 infants for an entire day is much different than helping out at night while we go to dinner. We've done our best to minimize the amount of extra chores that they need to do so all they have to worry about is enjoying the babies...but even then- it's a lot of work to care for all 3 kids at once. Hence the reason we require babysitting to be done in pairs. Cari is helping all three days that Will is gone while Maria is leaving tomorrow morning as soon as Sue arrives to relieve her.

We drove home (probably to the point of annoyance) the importance of keeping them on schedule, and have likely called or texted to check in on them too often. And of course, the ladies are doing a great job and the boys adore all the attention they're getting! As evidenced by the photos and video below, the kids are all happy as can be!

This is a good test for our first planned trip where we will BOTH be away from the boys for our annual anniversary weekend- but we have a couple months to prepare for that. And by we, I clearly mean ME. I'm looking forward to having time away with Will, but I'm still pretty anxious/sad to be leaving the boys!

Spying Checking in on the crew from work 

Smiles from Will

And from Griffin

And Cooper (though he was too busy playing to look at me)

We're thankful to have family nearby who are willing to help us in a pinch so that Will can have a well-deserved break from day-in, day-out daddy duty.

A Day in the Life: 3 months

I have been meaning to write my next "day in the life" installment, and seeing my cousin Leslie's latest blog post just inspired me to actually sit down and write it before we start their 4th month next week. Thanks to the boys' first round of shots and our newfound freedom to travel, their 3rd month of life has welcomed a bit more flexibility to their schedule...but for the sake of documentation I'll write about a "normal" day at home. The times are a loose estimate, depending on what time the boys wake up in the morning. Lately they've been sleeping a bit later (YAY!) which pushes our day back.

6:00-7:00 am: I wake up to pump while the babies start to stir in their cribs. The boys get "hot light" milk for their first feed of the day. (We have joked from the very beginning that my pumping is the equivalent of the "time to make the donuts" guy. I feel like I Always. Have. To. Pump. So when I leave a room to go pump, I often say that I'm going to make the donuts. And for whatever reason we started referring to the bottles of freshly expressed milk as "hot light" milk- I guess because it's still warm and fresh, just like when the Hot Light is on at Krispy Kreme.) I typically pump between 25-30 oz. of milk after going my longest stretch of not pumping overnight.
7:00 -8:00 am: wake the boys up, diaper changes, clothes change, first bottle of the day (5 1/2 oz for Cooper, 6 oz for Will and Griffin)
8:00-10:00 am: Will and I grab breakfast then do chores (dishes, laundry, check book balancing, etc...) while the boys doze in their cribs
10:00-12:00 pm: bring the boys out to the bonus room for tummy time/play time
12:00-1:00 pm: diaper changes, bottles (5 oz. for Cooper, 5 1/2 oz. for Will and Griffin)
1:00-3:00 pm: long afternoon nap for the boys in their cribs. I pump again (usually between 15-20 oz. for all my pumps for the rest of the day) while Will continues any chores that need to be done. Laundry and dishes are pretty much constantly needing to be done. When we have time we'll also try to clean up the house, do yard work, etc...This is also the time that Will and I attempt to get a nap in, if possible. It's amazing how quickly 3 hours pass before it's time to start the cycle over. Most days we don't have time to nap, but generally as soon as we lay down one or more of the boys will start squawking that they're ready to be awake and entertained.
3:00-4:00 pm: Back out to the bonus room for tummy time/play time
4:00-5:00 pm: diaper changes, bottles (5 oz. for Cooper, 5 1/2 oz. for Will and Griffin)
5:00-8:00 pm: Will takes them to the bonus room to hang out again while I pump. Once I'm done pumping, Will and I will take turns being with them while the other does chores, works on a dinner plan, etc...Admittedly we are still eating out for FAR too many meals. Dinner time is when we struggle the most. It's pretty easy to make a quick salad, sandwich, bowl of cereal, or frozen pizza for lunch while the boys are napping. And we usually can eat lunch in relative peace while they are in their cribs. But dinner time is a different story. While we have time to make something at home during this time, the boys are up and require at least one of us to be with them. We are also generally pretty beat at this point in the day, and the idea of cooking and cleaning up dinner dishes sounds far more complicated than running to Zaxby's. I imagine we would both be far thinner by now if we eliminated our fast food diet...but this is our reality these days.
8:00-9:00 pm: diaper changes, bottles (5 oz. for Cooper, 5 1/2 oz. for Will and Griffin)
9:00-10:30 pm: I have to pump again while Will hangs out with the boys in the bonus room. If it's bath night, we will work on baths for all three, then get them changed into PJs. We are still bathing them one at a time, so we work like a little assembly line. Will will undress each baby and hand him off to me. I'll get them bathed, dried, lotioned, diapered, and into sleepers. We will hopefully start doing bath time before their 8:00 pm feed.
10:30-11:30 pm: last bottle of the night (5 1/2 oz for Cooper, 6 oz for Will and Griffin) before bed time. We would like to get to a point where the 8:00 pm bottle is their last feed for the day, but for now we are keeping them out with us until their last feed of the night. We don't wait until midnight to feed them again because, frankly, we are dead tired and ready to get to bed. So we typically start getting them changed and ready for their last bottle around 10:30 pm. After this bottle they get put in their sleep swaddles in their cribs for what we hope is a long night's sleep. We have an old iphone that we use to play a lullaby Pandora station.
11:00 pm-12:00 am: I pump for the final time of the day, then do the last round of dishes before aiming to be in bed by midnight.
12:00 am-6:00 am: On a good night, everyone stays fast asleep for 6 glorious, uninterrupted hours. It's always a success when I'm woken up by my need to pump and not by a baby letting us know they're ready to start the day. On a more normal night, Cooper will start squawking between 4:00 and 6:00 which means one of us is up to give him a pacifier or make sure he's not laying in throw up. Will and Griffin, for the most part, will sleep very soundly for 7-8 hours straight.

We're lucky that we've been successful at eliminating the overnight feed, and that they are, for the most part, sleeping through the night well. There are many more diaper changes and cat naps in their rock and plays peppered into the day. And we try to get out of the house when we can to run errands, go on walks, drive around, etc...but there are definitely more days when we decide it's easier to just stay at home than to pack up everything we need to leave the house with three infants in tow. And on days when we do travel, we try hard to keep this feeding every 4 hours schedule, but in reality the boys often go 5-6 hours between feeds instead.

I do worry at times that we aren't spending enough time "playing" with them and giving each baby their fair share of 1x1 time. We try to spend time with each baby playing and interacting with them, we read books when we can, and we try hard to get tummy time in for all three of them. But some days the reality is that they spend more time in their cribs and rock and plays than I'd like, and this makes me worry that they're sleeping too much out of boredom. But then again, I also have to often remind myself that they may be approaching 17 weeks old (tomorrow!) but that their adjusted age is 6 weeks younger, so maybe sleeping too much isn't a bad thing. I feel bad when they are awake in their cribs, but it's hard to keep an eye on all of them while also keeping the house in working order and some days we have to put them in a safe place while we take care of business. I do hope that the extra time in their cribs isn't detrimental to their development.

In some ways our days have gotten easier as the boys can go longer between bottles without freaking out. Like I said, this schedule is loosely based on when they wake up, and whether or not we're out and about. But in other ways our days are getting more difficult, for reasons mentioned above. As they grow and are spending more hours of the day awake, they aren't as content to be stuck in their cribs all the time. I foresee the next few months becoming much more fun and challenging as they learn to sit up, crawl, and continue to develop their personalities. Add to that the biggest change of all (for all five of us)- my maternity leave is almost over!

I return to work next week. It is incredibly hard for me as I don't at all feel ready to leave my babies. I'm not looking forward to schlepping my pumping supplies back and forth to the office, and I worry about Will getting burnt out taking care of all three babies day in and day out with no help (at least, not at this point in time). It will be a big adjustment for all of us to have me out of the house for 12 hours a day. I am so glad that Will can stay home with them, though. Adding in a first day at day care to the mix and I might have a nervous breakdown!

I thank my lucky stars and am extremely grateful to have an understanding and supportive boss who has approved a temporary alternate work schedule for me while I transition into a full time working mom. For the next 3 months I will work in the office Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and then have one work from home day on Thursdays. And I will be taking Fridays off for the next 6 months. To say that this adjusted schedule is a blessing is an understatement. It makes me feel 1000% better about returning to the office knowing that I will still be able to spend quality time with the boys during these coming days and months when they change so quickly. And it will help alleviate some of the stress on Will that I am so concerned about. It is hard taking care of these boys with both of us here, day in and day out. Multiple days in a row of being the solo provider will surely be tough for Will. I have done more solo days than Will so far as he tries to get out and golf every so often to preserve his sanity, and I try to soak up every minute with them that I can before I have to leave them for extended periods of time. And as much as I love our little nuggets, they can be a bit much when you're on your own. You literally get NO time to yourself when you're the sole provider. Fridays can be Will's day to have some time to himself and unwind while I get my 1x time with them. And it will still allow us to have family time on the weekends where we can all be together. It's the perfect transition for me, and because of it, I'm able to look forward to heading back to the office. I truly lucked out when I joined my work team 5 years ago, and I continue to be grateful for that! I'm sure I will be a basket case next Friday when reality sets in and I have to leave for the day (I am working on Friday next week) but I truly am looking forward to getting back to the office, to my fantastic team, and truthfully- getting this next "hurdle" over and done with. There's so much apprehension on my part about going back to work. I'm ready to start so that we can adjust as quickly as possible to our new "normal".

Time

Time is such a funny thing. Everything about caring for babies warps your sense of time which is a trip for your whole body.

For one thing, we are up at all hours of the day, which makes it hard to remember what day of the week it is. For instance, I was surprised to see so many garbage cans on the curbs the other night when we went out for a walk. I couldn't believe that it was already Wednesday and trash pickup was the next morning. It felt like we had just gotten over the weekend when in fact the week was half over already. Will and I have genuine "what day of the week is it?" conversations with no hint of sarcasm at all. Especially on weeks when we have no appointments or reasons to leave the house it's hard to keep track of the days.

We no longer have designated meal times and instead eat at strange hours. And I feel like I'm hungry around the clock now! My body isn't getting the full night's sleep that tells my brain to not want to eat, so it's not unusual for me to feel starved at 4:00 AM and look for a quick bite to eat after we feed the boys. The fact that I'm pumping/nursing plays into this too, I'm sure. But Will and I have both noticed that sleep deprivation reeks havoc on your digestive system.

It's also a strange feeling to not have daytime vs. nighttime hours mean anything. I took a nap the other day while Will stayed up with the boys. When I woke up, it took me several minutes to determine if it was 7:30 am or pm. 

The boys seem to have impeccable sense of timing themselves. You could set a watch by how punctual they are. They eat about every four hours, which means they start to stir about every 3 1/2 hours, ready to get the show started. Some days we get lucky and they last an extra hour beyond their typical wake up period, but for the most part we can rely on them stirring without our rousing them awake. Griffin is the one exception to that rule- that boy can sleep! Sometimes he's one of the boys stirring/fussing that he's hungry, but usually we're waking him up to change him when it's his turn to eat. No matter how we slice it, it takes an hour and a half to get through their care time, which should leave us with about 2 - 2 1/2 free hours before we start the process over again. But it's amazing how quickly that window of time passes when you are trying to cram in feeding yourself, showering, doing dishes, running errands, paying bills, doing laundry, and in some cases try to get a nap in. 

It's hard to believe my maternity leave is already halfway over.  It makes me so, so sad to think about returning to work in a couple months. The time is going by way too quickly! I know I'll be glad to be back in the office and to see all my coworkers once I'm there, but man- I'm not ready yet!  

We plan to make the most of my final weeks of maternity leave- the boys will be making their first of many, many trips to Hilton Head Island next month. Will's family has been vacationing there for over 30 years and we're excited to start a new tradition of bringing our boys there for years to come. We started planning their island wear today- we'll see if they can still wear these outfits next month! 

Having a Moment

This. Damn. Machine.

The bane of my existence today

I will NOT miss pumping at all. I'm totally having a moment today of self pity, and it's not pretty. And I know it's not pretty, but I don't so much care at the moment. I loathe being attached to this piece of machinery all day and night. Despise it. For whatever reason I absolutely hate having to pump today, to the point of being in tears at the thought of having to hook up again. If it was socially acceptable for me to flail about and scream to get out of pumping I would do it. I feel the same way about pumping as Griffin does about losing his pacifier. Not having it. Here's his reaction if that pacifier falls out of his mouth: 

I 100% understand the sentiment, buddy. As a matter of fact, I brought him in bed with me while I am pumping right now so we could commiserate together. 

I love that my body is providing nourishment for 3 babies and am so grateful and thankful that I'm producing enough milk so that we're solely relying on breast milk for the boys. Unfortunately that doesn't always make me feel warm and mushy about pumping. I wish we could just have nursing sessions like a "normal" mother/baby relationship where I could nurse them all on demand and never have to worry about losing my milk supply. But with triplets, that's just not the case. For one thing, there's not enough time to nurse all three of them at each feeding session. I would be nursing around the clock if that were the case. And that's not a healthy alternative, either. But the reality is, even if I nurse the boys, I still need to pump afterward to make sure my body knows to keep producing milk, so nursing isn't saving me from the dreaded machine. 

There's a lot of fear in this whole sole-provider-of-nourishment thing. I'm petrified of missing a pump session, or going too long between sessions and having my milk supply diminish. I have already dropped from 8 to 6 pump sessions a day as the boys have increased the time they go between feeds and so I worry about what skipping a pumping session would do to my supply. Not that I could skip a session even if I wanted to- my body certainly sends signals that won't allow me to make it too long before needing to hook up to the pump.

Most days I can tolerate it and understand that pumping comes with the territory when you're raising triplets. Today, though, is not one of those days. 

A day in the Life- NICU Addition

I've seen other triplet bloggers document about a day in their lives at a certain point in time and I like the idea of going back to see what life was like for us when they were new to our lives, so here is my first installment of a day in the life!

I am bound by a strict pumping schedule of every 3 hours as I try to build up enough supply to feed 3 babies. I have alarms set on my phone so that I can pump at 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, and 10:00-both AM and PM. It's a group effort to get all the pumping equipment washed between pumpings and milk stored properly so Will is up with me for every pump, too. So currently our typical 24 hours looks like this:

At home: 11:30 pm- 9 am

1:00 am- pump

4:00 am- pump

5:00 am- Meaghan take pain meds

7:00 am- pump, then up for the day

9:00 am- drive to hospital 

At hospital: 10 am- 10:30 pm

10:00 am- pump 

11:00 am- Meaghan take all meds

11:00 am- kangaroo care with Griffin

12:00 pm- care/nurse Will

1:00 pm- pump/eat lunch 

2:00 pm- nap/rest

3:00 pm- care/nurse Cooper

4:00 pm- pump

5:00 pm- Meaghan takes pain meds

5:00 pm- kangaroo care with Will

6:00 pm- care/nurse Griffin 

7:00 pm- pump 

8:00 pm- kangaroo care with Cooper

9:00 pm- care/nurse Will

10:00 pm- pump

11:00 pm- Meaghan takes all meds

11:00 pm- drive home

Will and I joke every time the alarm goes off that it's "time to make the donuts"- I understand how that Dunkin Donut man feels in the commercial now!

It's a very busy schedule, literally around the clock. The day at the hospital has become regimented for me especially as we introduce the boys to breastfeeding. Logistics come into play because I can't do kangaroo care (skin-to-skin) with the baby right before I try to nurse him. So I spend my day moving from baby to baby to be sure everyone gets equal share of their mama. I literally keep a schedule on my phone that I refer to throughout the day. I'm so tired these days that it feels like I'm solving a complicated math equation trying to figure out when to feed the boys and when to kangaroo care with them. I also have to keep track of when to take all my medications so I don't forget to take them and when I should be taking all vs. some of the meds. 

I have to look at this on my phone approximately 29 times a day to make sure I'm giving attention to the right baby.

Kangaroo care with Cooper

Will sucking down his bottle from Daddy

Griffin wide awake after nursing with mama

Finally getting to see Cooper without his feeding tube on his face! He's in a milk coma here- nursed with mama for 15 minutes AND took his whole bottle. Grow, baby, grow!

Kangaroo care with Will- mama's point of view.

Chatting with Griffin after his dinner. I think he has discerning tastes- he'll nurse well, but isn't interested in the bottle, hence the feeding tube. Hopefully it will click for him soon and he'll get to take the tube out (by the nurses, not on his own- which he often tries to do!)

The NICU team refers to the boys' feeding schedule as care time. Will and I have been helping with the boys' care since day one, but have gotten to the point where they let us do the boys' care freely, without much assistance from them. Each care time (every 3 hours) involves checking their temperature, changing their diaper, and giving them their bottle. The boys are all on the same feeding schedule so during the day Will and I each care for one baby while the nurse or her care partner helps with the third. We're hoping to keep the boys on this same schedule at home, so this is good training for the whole family. Since Will and I will be on our own at home, we're hopeful that by the time we get to bring the babies home I'll be able to tandem nurse and/or Will can tandem bottle feed with the help of a boppy so everyone can eat at once. Since they are in different rooms in the NICU it's tough to practice this, but Will and I are a heck of a lot more comfortable caring for the boys now than we were just a week ago. Baby Will gets to try nursing twice a day because he's such a great eater and they think he can handle two training sessions in one day. 

Speaking of training, we refer to this time in the NICU as our baby boot camp. No one wants to have their children there, but since our guys are doing well and their biggest obstacles to overcome are growth and feeds, it's been nice to have some time to "ease" into multiple parenting and have knowledgeable help nearby for when we have questions. I shudder to think of how ill-prepared we would have been if they had come home straight away! I'm glad to have some confidence in caring for them before we officially bring them home.  

Slowly but surely we're getting faster and more efficient at tasks, too. Pumping, for example, is taking about 35-40 minutes per pump as opposed to the 45-60 minutes that it took at first. We have a routine down both at home and the hospital so we each know what the other is doing. I'm grateful that Will has been such a great partner since day one. He's been right here up with me around the clock for pumpings and never complains at all about how tired he is. It's a good routine we're in for now, but we fully understand that it will change completely once our trio come home. 

That's not to say everything has been sunshine and roses! Sleep deprivation is a very real thing. It makes us both irritable and overly sensitive. Add to that my raging hormones and I can be a hot mess! Whoever came up with the expression "no use crying over spilled milk" has clearly never lost some of their precious breast milk when the pumping pieces broke apart after a 4:00 am pumping session! We have both been overly sensitive and snapped at each other for no real reason. Things that would normally roll off our backs have led to bickering. However, we've been great about talking things over on our rides home at night and reminding each other that we're on the same team here. I also randomly cry at various points in the day. Sometimes just a drop or two, and other times full on ugly crying. Last night I was doing kangaroo care with Cooper and I lost it. Like big heaving ugly cry. I just had a moment of total awe that these babies are MY babies and we get to bring them home with us, hopefully soon. I couldn't even look at Cooper because it would set me off again. It's amazing how wonky post partum hormones make you feel!

We have great nurses in the NICU who have helped us, but were particularly fond of their night nurse, Allison. She feel in love with our guys during her first shift with them, before Griffin was even in the same pod as Will and Cooper, and has requested to work with them for the remainder of their time in the NICU. She is wonderful and we're so grateful that she took a liking to our little guys. She helped coach me through my first nursing session with Griffin, she's taught us easy bottle feeding positions for the boys, and she is just wonderful to talk to. She actually reminds me of a family friend of ours, Deb Discher. They have such similar mannerisms and personalities. I'm sure that's another reason I feel so at ease with her. She makes it so much easier to leave our boys at night. I have no doubt that they are in good hands at all times, but we feel especially at ease knowing that she's taking care of them. 

One thing we've altered in the last two nights is when we leave for the night.  

Instead of staying for Will's second feeding and then the 10:00 pm pump, we've left in time to be at home for the 10:00 pm pump and hopefully get an extra 1 1/2 hours of sleep at home. I hate Leaving the boys but the main reason we've stayed through the 10:00 pm pump is so the boys could have as much breast milk as possible and as little formula. My milk has really started to come in and my body definitely seems to know that we're feeding triplets. Last night, even without the 10:00 pump to help, the boys only had to split 55 CCs of formula among the three of them in their 9:00 am feeding before we got there this morning. What I've been producing today will surely get them through the night solely on breast milk. I'm really proud that I've been able to build up to this! Finally we are to the point where we are meeting their demands and can start building a surplus for storage. This helps me feel better about going home earlier in the evening. As much as I hate to go, I understand that Will and I both need to rest, too, so we can be good parents to our trio. 

So that's our life right now, our new "normal". Exhausting and hectic but so very wonderful, too. Will told me the other night that when we get into bed at night and he closes his eyes, all he sees is their faces. Ditto, daddy, ditto. Can't wait till our new normal is having them home and on our schedule!!

Random Updates

Last night we spent the evening packing diaper bags and getting the nursery baby cam set up. We opted to go with the Dropcam per my brother's recommendation and online reviews. The nice thing is that we can see all three cribs with only one camera! The nursery still isn't finished in terms of decorations, but it's definitely ready for 3 little boys to live there!

Dropcam view

We found the curtains on Wayair.com. They aren't exactly what we wanted, but we got all four panels for the price of one panel at Pottery Barn Kids...and they are close enough!

The maternity photo collage turned out great!

This morning as I was getting ready something went down, down there. I have no idea what exactly happened, but suddenly it was extremely painful to walk, to the point that I was in tears trying to move around. When describing the feeling to my sister this afternoon, I've been informed that the feeling I've been having is termed "lightning crotch"- good to know. Fortunately we had a doctor's appointment and ultrasound scheduled already, so I was able to talk to the midwife about this new issue.

Since walking was pretty much the most painful thing ever, I was given a ride to the doctor via wheelchair. Definitely embarrassing! But also necessary as I'm not sure I could have made the walk from the parking lot to the office. 

Certainly embarrassing being wheeled around the doctor's office by your husband. But also really glad that they had wheelchairs available for use!

We learned at our ultrasound that they will likely not do another growth scan because the boys are so crammed in there that it's hard to make out who is who. But all 3 babies have good heart rates and amniotic fluid so that's good. Like I mentioned in previous posts, I think our days of ultrasound pictures are over so our next photos of the boys should be their first pics of them in the real world! 

After the ultrasound, we met with the midwife, who offered some insight into why I was in so much pain. Snap is sitting breech right now and Crackle is head down, and both are really low, which is likely what is causing the pain I've felt today. The pain could also be from my cervix starting to dialate. But likely, Snap and Crackle are the culprits thanks to how they're currently positioned. Unfortunately she said the pain is not likely to go away between now and the boys' arrival. That's pretty disheartening as it hurts a LOT to move, and we have 18 days to go. But she also said she wouldn't be surprised if we delivered sooner, so maybe I'll get relief soon. 

My cholestasis test results aren't back yet, but the midwife is very confident that I don't need to worry about that condition thanks to my other new symptoms that have shown up in the past week. The awful stomach itching has spread and now pretty much my whole body is covered in an annoying, itchy rash. She said it looks like a textbook case of PUPPPS, which stands for "pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy." The good news is that the rash isn't harmful to me or the boys. The bad news is that the only "cure" to make the rash go away is birthing these babies. The only thing I can do between now and then is to try and manage the itching without absolutely losing my mind! She gave me prescription strength hydrocortisone cream and a higher strength Benadryl to help alleviate the itching, so hopefully that helps. Currently the itching is my worst pregnancy symptom that I'm dealing with as it's inescapable! 

This is what the rash looks like- covering pretty much every part of me right now.

The midwife checked to see if I should get a steroid shot to help the boys lungs grow in the event I go into labor soon, but the MFM doctor didn't think it was necessary. That is a great feeling! They think the boys are developed enough that their lungs should be OK if they were to deliver soon. 

We have 2 more weeks of appointments scheduled, but we'll see if we actually need them!