Sleepy Mama

I was just uploading a bunch of pictures of the boys to the computer and noticed that Will has been sneaking photos of me sleeping over the past few weeks. Some of these are pretty horrifying, but I can't stop laughing looking at them. Apparently I enjoy sleeping many ways:

Using boppies as pillows...

Or using car seat canopies...

Snuggling with a baby...

Or with a glass of wine...

Or with a magazine!

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".

Thumb suckers

We still love our pacifiers, but we have really taken a liking to our thumbs in the past couple weeks! Griffin and Will are especially fond of their thumbs. It makes bed time a whole lot easier!!

Outer Banks

We made a spur of the moment decision to drive up to the Outer Banks in North Carolina  after our week in Hilton Head. We had been planning to go somewhere else and spent the whole week discussing options- should we just stay in HHI for a few extra days, go to a new beach further south, or should we just head home? The weather forecast for HHI was not great so we eliminated that as an option on Friday, but we literally didn't decide where to go until we were driving off the island. I was checking weather reports the whole way out of town and we decided to take a right and hit I-95N as we came up to the exit. It felt good to have a little bit of spontaneity in our lives at that moment. Sure, we spent a lot of time weighing the pros and cons of going somewhere else so it wasn't completely out of left field that we decided to go somewhere. But it felt a bit like the old "us" to make a split second decision to go to somewhere new. 

As I mentioned, we discussed the pros and cons a lot before ultimately deciding to continue our vacation. 

Pros-

-we can have a little more time together  with just our party of five before I head back to work. Yes, we're together all day at home but being at home means chores and regular day-to-day things and less baby holding and snuggling. 

-the car is already packed: a HUGE pro since traveling with three infants involves lots of stuff 

-the kids have been great this whole week, which motivates us to want to keep going

-we could explore a new place and get the boys accustomed to traveling, something that is important to both Will and me since we want to continue to travel with our gang. 

Cons-

-we didn't have a place in mind, so we were wondering (even on our drive out of HHI) if we were trying too hard to go somewhere else just to go somewhere else

-the kids have been great all week, which means they inevitably will decide they're over traveling as soon as we get to a new place 

-this new place will be the 3rd new place they've been in in the last week. They may be hitting their limit in terms of being in new environments

-vacations with triplets are not exactly relaxing...would Will and I be up for adding a few extra days to our trip?

-would the weather of our intended location make it worth it to go? There was no sense going to a new spot if we were going to be stuck inside the whole time. 

In the end, we did decide to head to the Outer Banks and we're happy with our decision. The babies continued to amaze us with their flexibility and tolerance for being in  new places. The drive took longer than anticipated because parts of I-95 were closed from the flooding the week prior. But thanks to modern technology I was able to research and book a vacation house for us while we were driving so we had a "home" to arrive to when we got to town.  A huge relief since the idea of hotel searching once we got to the island was not appealing. I think renting cottages/cabins/houses are the way to go when traveling with triplets, at least at this stage of their lives. For about the same price as a hotel we get so much more space to spread out with all their gear, plus a kitchen where we can properly wash and sanitize their bottles, and a fridge to keep extra milk on hand. 

We spent more time driving around the Outer Banks than I had expected. We didn't have a huge agenda planned but we did hit the big items on our list- we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial, where we got National Park passports for all the boys. We look forward to adding lots of stamps to their books in the coming years! We went north up to Corolla to see the Carrituck lighthouse, and drove south down to Buxton to see the Cape Hattaras lighthouse. All in all we got to see 3 of the 4 lighthouses on the island, though we didn't go to the top of any of them for obvious reasons. We enjoyed driving up and down the coast and looking at the extremely large homes right on the beach. 

We would love to bring the boys back to the Outer Banks in a few years- there were so many fun things to do! It'd be fun to rent a big old house on the beach and spend a week playing on the dunes, climbing to the top of all the lighthouses, driving on to the beach for a day of tailgating right on the water, making a fire and having s'mores on the beach, taking a tour to see the wild horses, and exploring more of the little towns and shops. 

It was a lonnggggg drive home on Tuesday but the kids handled the drive with ease. We spent all day yesterday getting back on schedule. I think the boys are excited to back on home turf. We're so grateful to have laid back guys. This long trip gives us confidence that we can continue to keep exploring and look forward to planning more trips. Maybe we'll try flying next...but I have a feeling our cars are going to get the majority of our miles in the coming years. 

Sunrise from our front porch- the house across the street was gorgeous!

Going incognito by wearing Griffin- people assume we have twins and I'm wearing one of them

Top of the Wright Brothers Memorial

Carratuck Lighthouse in Corolla

I just love the houses!

Table for five- a typical set up when we go out to eat

 Bodie Lighthouse

They were digging the sand off the road!

Cape Hattaras lighthouse

We left the pack-n-plays in the car for this stretch of the trip. Have I mentioned how much we love our rock and plays??

Again with the matching, mom?

Nothing but water between us and Europe!

Apparently vacation takes a lot out of mom, too. I sleep easily these days!

Hilton Head

Our babies are rock star travelers! Whew!!! They survived the trip down to Hilton Head with zero troubles at all. 

We had originally discussed stopping for the night about halfway through the drive but since they tolerate their car seats so well we decided to try and make the whole drive in a day. We left early in the morning and took about 10 hours total, making a long pit stop at a Cracker Barrel somewhere in Georgia. It was our first time feeding and changing them in a restaurant and we were a bit apprehensive about how it was going to work trying to feed 3 fussy babies with only 2 sets of hands. But they barely fussed at all and were Mr. Populars amongst the late afternoon dining crowd. They had many admirers who stopped by our table to see them, but thankfully we only had one episode of errant touching by a well-meaning grandma (she also directed us to "take these babies to church")!

We did our best to keep them on a schedule but they helped us out enormously by adjusting well to sleeping in new environments with no problems and being on the go all the time. Sure, there were moments when meltdowns happened (ahem, Griffin) and there was one night in particular when someone (ahem, Cooper) decided he didn't want to sleep at all and kept his parents up all night long. But really, all three were easy going and great travelers. I think they really enjoy being in new environments and having new stuff to explore. 

One thing we were particularly grateful for is how well they do in restaurants! It's certainly not the easiest thing to do, luggin 3 car seats into a restaurant. We tried both bringing their strollers in and using high chairs and slings to hold them. But either way, they take up a lot of space at the table. You could visibly see the uncomfortable looks on the hostess' faces when we brought them into restaurants, but I'm happy to report that they gave us no reasons to worry at all. They were so well-behaved in every restaurant we went to- not a peep from any of them! I know that will change as they grow older but it was nice to still be able to dine in some of our favorite places last week! 

We were fortunate that the devastating heavy rains remained north of HHI but we did have several dreary, rainy days. Not quite the Hilton Head sunshine that we are accustomed to, but then again this was not the Hilton Head vacation we are accustomed to, either!  We didn't ride bikes around the island or go putt-putting or have drinks at the Hut. There were no sun-up to sun-down pool days for me, and we only made it down to the beach once the whole week. But it was a wonderful vacation, nonetheless. We took lots of walks with the boys around Coligny and the Forest Beach area, spent a couple afternoons wandering around Harbour Town and South Beach in Sea Pines, and slept in when we could. Will got a couple rounds of golf in and the boys were spoiled with constant snuggles from their papa and aunts and cousins all week. It was wonderful to introduce the boys to a place that's special to Will and his family (and me now, too!) and we look forward to watching them grow up each year when we return!

Every inch of the car was packed tightly

But we made it all fit!

Lunching al fresco

We had lots of helpers for the week

Very rare time on the floor- they were too busy being held to spend much time here

Watching Daddy and Curtis on the 18th green of Harbour Town

Each year we take pictures at this tree at Harbour Town- I'm looking forward to watching the boys grow up through these pictures!

Cooper getting lots of attention from Papa and Aunt Sue

Will and Olivia

Griffin and Avery

Hanging out in our room...it was tight with all three pack-and-plays in there!

Perfect pool set up- they LOVED being outside!

We all spent more time looking at the babies than we did enjoying the ocean views!

We are getting better at feeding on-the-go. But it does help to have an extra set of hands so all three can eat at once!

3 generations of Mason men

Party of Five!

Cousins!

Aunts!