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Our life with a toddler and identical triplet boys!

Life with Big Big Brother and Identical Triplet Boys!
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Friday, July 22, 2011

6 Months!

Wow. 6 months ago we had identical triplet boys at 32weeks 2days. It still seems SO crazy!! We have been through more than we ever could have imagined during the last year and I am sure we have much more in store for us....let's just hope it is more positive and doesn't contain any life threatening illnesses! We have gotten the boys on a pretty good schedule which has helped tremendously. At six months our days go something like this:

3am-6:45am: boys wake up sporadically and fuss, we give them their paci back and they go back to sleep (this wouldn't be so bad except for when they each decide to wake up 15 minutes apart!)

7am: one of the boys (or more) is usually jabbering or whining sometime around 7am, this starts the day. I get up one at a time and change their diaper and give them their prevacid. I can usually turn on the news (their not picky) and place them in a chair to relax while I get the next 2 up and bottles heated. I get all the boys eating at the same time with propping the bottles.

7:30-8:45am: playtime on the floor. They are really happy and content during this time and it's so much fun. We laugh and giggle lots. Brody usually rolls out of bed during this time and comes out and joins us, with a high-pitched "Hi, my baby brooothhherrss!!" It's too cute, he loves them so much and really does help me out when I'm in a pinch or being ganged up on by 3 babes! Auntie B often comes down and snags a babe and/or Brody to come upstairs for a bit, they entertain Uncle T before he leaves for work many days :)

8:45amish-10amish: I get all 3 down for a morning snooze! I am able to shower while Brody watches a cartoon or plays upstairs with whoever is around at the time (he loves having family around!)

10am-11am- diaper changes and entertainment. The boys are getting hungry and I try to tide them over until 11am by different play spots or a bath or their new favorite: the Giggle Bellies (thanks Linda!!)

11am- another round of 8oz bottles

11:20-12:30pmish- more play time

12:30pm-2/3pm: afternoon nap time

3pm- another round of 8oz bottles

3:20pmish-6:30pm- playtime and cat-naps, really anything goes during this time period. The more hands available, the better! We were fortunate to find a GREAT nanny who has helped us out big time during our transition here and has allowed us to devote time to the flooded house. We are very grateful for this.

6:45pm: last 8oz bottle of the day and most recently (last 2 days) followed by a few practice bites of rice cereal mixed with formula. There are a lot of opinions of starting solids at 6 months actual or 6 months adjusted (they are 4 months adjusted now). Our new pedi said to go ahead and introduce it if they seem ready. When Evan (the brutus) started sucking his bottle dry we thought it was a good time to try. We started with Evan and Riley thinking that Payton wasn't ready and they both did as expected- just ok. Tonight I offered some to Payton for the heck of it and he has done the best so far! Crazy boy, I should never underestimate him :)

7:10-7:30pm: work on getting the boys to sleep. This has become much more difficult since our move but it is getting better now that Ben and I moved our bed out of the bedroom and put all the boys in the bedroom with a door that closes instead of out in the hallway. They do fight it at first but when we try and rock them they fight that also so we are ok with letting them fuss a bit and then go in and try and soothe- it takes a few times of this until all are settled and by that point we are pretty much exhausted!


Evan: Our fighter :) He has bounced back from his horrible necrotizing enterocolitis illness and surgeries and has regained his title of the "big boy". He is a great cuddler and gives the best smiles. His new laugh is hilarious and I can't wait to catch it on video to share. Evan has not quite mastered rolling over by himself just yet, but he is really close. He sits in his bumpo and stands in the jumperoo, he is really strong! Evan will be the classic big brother to P and R, protecting R when needed (more to come about that later). We think he will be a big teddy bear with the kindest heart and gentle soul. We love you Evan!!



Payton: Thank goodness for Payton, has been our words lately :) He is soooo laid back! When I am swaddling all of the boys to lay down for nap time I wrap him up first and let him lay there....when I finish getting the other 2 settled (doesn't take long- they love nap time!) P is already sleeping and I just have to move him to his bed. Payton has always been a couple weeks behind his bro's due to his rough start at birth, but he is catching up a lot lately and I need to start giving him more credit. His brothers even have hair envy as P's is coming in the fastest so far. We have pegged Payton as the mellow dude that will probably just shake his head at his bothers when their older ;) Payton hasn't rolled over yet either but he gets around by arching his back and stretching out again. We are working on him loosening his tight grip and feeling different textures. His reflux has improved so much, it is so great to see him eat not in pain! We are so in love with this sweet little cutie-pa-tootie it melts our hearts!!




Riley: Yep, still Rowdy Riley! This little man is so spunky :) I can't believe he was born the smallest at 3lb4oz and has proven to be so strong. He was the 1st to leave the NICU and has continued to be the 1st at most things: smiling, cooing, sitting assisted, and now rolling over. We would have our hands full if he was a singleton let alone one of three! He keeps us on our toes and we love it. We joke that he will be the one causing trouble and running his mouth as a teenager and Evan will have to be there to "protect him" (and P will be back shaking his head ;) ) Riley likes to be heard and his brothers listen. Evan and Payton only get their words in after they have listened to Riley ramble. I haven't been reading all of the books on baby milestones this time around but I don't think these boys are too far behind there singleton counterparts. Riley is a love bug at heart and we can't get enough of his antics. Love you so much Riley!!



Other happenings...or just more rambling ;) The humidity has kept us indoors a lot lately but we are looking forward to cooler weather and venturing out more as time permits. We are still trying to get our lives in order after moving across the country and into chaos- it's so tiring!! The boys are about busting at the seams of their 1-2 size diapers, I haven't opened up any 2's yet, but I am sure they could even sport a size 3! I love my little chubby bubbies, I am lucky that (we) make big boys. It is definitely hard keeping all the extra rolls and creases clean- I have found some pretty smelly parts lately, yikes!

Brody came down with impetigo :( This has forced me to re-learn a non-HMO health system, ugh. I definitely became "Kaiser-ized" in Portland and this Blue Cross and Trinity Health System is really throwing me for a loop! We really like our new pediatrician, we ultimately made the decision to chose Dr. C because he is also a neonatologist and we thought that would be good for the trips. The urgent Dr visit really made me miss Dr. McPhee and her Sunset crew though :( She is a special lady who we will be visiting for sure someday! We luckily caught his infection early this time and is already doing so much better after a day of antibiotics and ointments. I won't even get into the difference in cost of our new health care coverage, that's a multi blogpost for sure!

Here are some more pics of our beautiful boys:

 Payton

 Evan

 Riley


 Evan

 Payton

 Riley

Brody with a fresh new hair cut!

xoxo, B

Monday, July 18, 2011

Volunteers Needed

I saw pictures last night on Ben's phone of all the work that was done on the house yesterday and it made me so optimistic! Now I am here today knocking down drywall and pulling out nails and I am feeling more hopeless than optimistic. Are we crazy to think that we could possibly call this home before the harsh winter sets in?? Ben tells me to focus on one piece at a time and not to dwell on the big picture. My break is over now :) will try and post more pics later. (And also fix the pics from the earlier post which my sister pointed out weren't working almost immediately, love you Sam!)

Keeping Busy


The trips all geared up and ready to go visit G&G Waind for the day. Look at their cute bear booties (thanks M&T!)

The extra hands are always appreciated!!

A paparazzi moment ;) (Aunt Carol, Gma Sharon, Aunt Bev, G-Aunt Velma, and Jean, G-Gma Elsie is missing from the pic)

EPR cooing for the crowd

Evan and Riley love the bumpo's the most- they are getting SO BIG!!

R

P

E

I have found that using chairs to feed the boys in has helped dramatically! They sometimes take down the entire bottle without dropping it once and other times I am constantly propping them back up. Maybe the incline is just right to help with their reflux? I'm not sure for sure, but it is a win-win for all. They are all still taking the prevacid tabs for the reflux but I am also hoping that they are outgrowing it as well- how will I know for sure? I would love to take them off the meds but I am REALLY scared of what might happen if they still need it, I am not quite ready to test those waters just yet.

ERP getting ready for their bedtime bottle at G&G Wainds

PER, Riley is always trying to rollover and he has been successful a couple of times already. Evan hasn't made it all the way over just yet, and Payton hasn't quite got the urge. I got these cute onesies from a triplet's mom in Portland garage sale when I had just found out that I was also having BBB trips (going to miss your sales and your advice, Lisa!) I wish I would have been able to say goodbye to all the wonderful MOMs I met (and didn't meet) from the multiples group in Portland- time just got away from us with all the craziness our last weeks were filled with. I would love to make it to one of their events in the future and am happy to still be able to stay in touch with them through some great blogs ;) Anyone know if Minot has multiples group?? I did meet a mom of triplets at the mall one day and forgot to ask, she had one of the trips with her- a beautiful teenage girl! It was so random to run into them!

Brody is doing great as well and is LOVING all of the attention of so many! Gma S comes over every chance she gets to help us out and B loves it when she takes him to the golf course to visit Gpa Steve, she is getting some good vids on her phone and I think we have a tiger woods in the making! B also loves to hang out with Uncle T and Auntie B~ he is always looking for them and wants to go give them hugs <3 Cousins Katie and Kim help out lots with Brody and the trips and Cousin Steve already has a soft spot in his heart for Brody too :) It is a BLESSING to be surrounded by family during these difficult times. Brody gets to go to Gma Chari's during the week and loves his cousin Drey....we can't wait for this city stuff to settle down so that Gpa D is a normal sight for all of us (loooong days at the office 7 days a week dealing with flood issues).

The work on my mom's house is in full swing and I hope to get some pics today so I can do some blog posts to document the process.


Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Weeping!

It was nice to have Ben come home for lunch today, it's that easy to do when you work in a small town! How much things have changed for us :) I was able to get all 3 boys down for their nap and we had a few minutes to relax so I turned on "Making Room for Multiples" a show on TLC. Bad mistake! It was a show following a couple having triplets and boy did it get to me. I guess I am not ready to watch those shows unless I am in the mood to cry. Seeing the mom get so emotional about the c-section and the NICU stay brought back so many emotions. It seems like soooooo long ago that we were making the multiple daily trips to the NICU in Portland. I miss those Dr's and RN's lots! I bet I never thought I would say that :) As hard as our numerous hospital stays were for me and all 4 of our boys, we were blessed to meet some really special people. I can't wait to get some new pics to send to the units so they can see how big our boys are now. I will have official weights to report in a couple weeks when we take the trips in to meet their new pedi for their 6 month well child check up, SIX MONTHS!! I just can't believe it!!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Our little STAR!

For those of you not on facebook here is the clip of our family on the local news here. Brody was born a star, we have known that all along :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_TVjZ19zpw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Happy Anniversary!!

This was from our 5th Anniversary in 2008~ just a few weeks away from welcoming the sweetest little boy into our family!
A couple of blondies loving life :)





These last 3 pics are from our 7th anniversary in 2010. We had just found out that we were pregnant again! We were probably discussing girl names over the delicious nachos at Matador (we never made it back to enjoy them again before we left Portland, we still drool over the thought of those amazing nummies!!) since I was convinced I was going to get the little girl I was longing for. Boy were we in for a shocker!! In a couple of weeks we would find out that our lives would be forever changed and blessed beyond belief with triplets. It is still amazing to us the way our worlds were completely rocked and the emotional rollercoaster we have endured ever since, waaay too much to reflect on in the few silent minutes I have right now.

So, Happy Anniversary to my love! We have been through so much together and I think we have proved that we are a great team. It hasn't always been easy and lately it seems like we have been tested waaaay to much, but we always pull through and maybe even get a little stronger :) Thanks for a wonderful 8 years and I look forward to what the next year will have in store for us~ xoxooxo

Love you babe! (sorry the collage didn't "save" in the order I picked but I don't have the time to try and fix it now, haha ;) )
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Friday, July 8, 2011

Morning Visit

The trips and Brody made their great-grandma Elisie's morning by visiting her at Edgewood Vista. B loves her and her white hair :) He ran around making a lot of folks smile while Gma E snuggled with Evan. Aunt Bev, Ben and I had fun seeing gma beam with joy, she sure was proud. B had his first big sucker from a basket of treats that were waiting for him, grandparents are so good at spoiling! One (older) lady thought Bev was the mom, gotta love the elderly! It's good to know we are here in town and get to have a lot more visits with all of those so special to us.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Feeling kinda normal!

and it feels good! We are getting things arranged and settled down here in the basement and although it's smaller than the house we outgrew (so we thought!) in Portland, we are making it work. I bathed 2 of the babes this morning with the company and help of my aunt and cousin while Ben took Brody and Evan to grandma C's for the day. Yesterday he took Brody and Riley, and tomorrow gma will be happy to have "her boy" Payton over for the day :) Gma offered to take one of the trips along with B over at her house when needed (she does in-home daycare), let me tell you- 2 babies is a breeze!!! hahaaa! We appreciate all the extra help as we are still going through boxes and trying to get things settled. I spent over an hour on the phone this morning trying to get Dr appointments set up and records transferred, oh the joys.

The trips have been doing so great lately :) The new Prevacid tabs (that taste like strawberries) have been doing the trick. Except for Riley- he likes to be difficult and does better on the Zantac. We hoped all could stay on the same meds but I guess they aren't identical with everything. Feeding Payton is A WORLD of difference now~ most of the time he is an absolute dream. They all have about feed per day where they are not comfortable and it's usually the afternoon and evening feeds, but at least it's not every feed. We are so grateful for the peds in PDX who helped us get them all taken care of, making appointments with a new Dr today made me miss Dr. MP so much!

The boys are now offered 8oz bottles and usually take 4-8oz depending on their mood. They eat at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm! It's crazy that we are down to only 12 bottles a day, way better than the 24 bottles we started out with!! Although, with this boil order 12 bottles is about the pain of doing 24 ;) We set up the boys cribs in the hallway outside of our room and they did great last night. They went down really good at 7:30pm and we didn't hear them fuss until 4am. I just gave them their paci's back and we only had to do that a couple more times until big man Evan couldn't hold off for his bottle any longer. He is such a big boy! Our brutus beefcake for sure :) It is awesome to see him thriving after all that he has been through.

Brody is doing great and loving life and all of the attention here. We are struggling to get him back into his routine as he has been staying up WAY LATE! We realized yesterday that if he doesn't get a nap in while at gma C's that evenings are no fun! I am happy he is not ready to give up a nap yet, they are good for all :)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great long weekend at the lake for the 4th of July with the Waind family (we missed Haley, darn work!!) It was all of us "kids" and our kids for the most part, but luckily David got to get a short break from work and him and Chari made it up for Sunday night, just in time to grill some dinner before the festivities started.
The boys all traveled great and seemed to enjoy all the fresh air and attention they got ;)


Payton's 1st pontoon ride, it was a windy one

Danny keeping Riley happy during the ride


Evan just lounged and enjoyed a nice snooze!


Brody thought it was pretty cool!


Kyle was great with Brody, they had a blast when we stopped at the Currie's cabin to visit. It was so much fun to see Brody interact with everyone there, he was quite the social butterfly and made some new friends.

Kara and Deb (not pictured) came on the boat and helped with baby feeding time. Everything we do these days requires a lot of preparation and taking a boat ride entailed a lot more than normal!

Ben and I were on the jet ski and I guess the crew had quite the time getting Riley into the bjorn on uncle D, I am not sure what the problem was?? haha

Drey and B had a blast and not much sleep was involved- they just kept going, and going!

We have barely been able to see Grandpa D since we have been home, it was nice to see him relax a bit! (being the city manager of a city in the middle of a disaster has been a bit time consuming :( we hope he has more time to relax in the very near future, that will mean good things for everyone!!)

Grandma C did a little shopping for all the boys, she did a great job!! Melissa and I struck out when looking for hats and swim shirts since we all packed and left in such a hurry, but grandma pulled through for us- THANKS!!

Can't get ANY CUTER!!

A little 4th of July, pre-fireworks dance party!

Oh yes, Drey taught Brody how to break dance too


We had the perfect view of the firework show and didn't have to deal with all of the boat traffic

It was a gorgeous night and a wonderful weekend






And then we came home, back to reality....