21 Months: Look How Far We've Come

Recently I've been talking with some expectant triplet mommies and pulling out preemie clothes for a friend whose baby was born a little early. It has sent me on a trip down memory lane back to the anxiety of a multiple pregnancy and those first hazy days of complete joy and utter exhaustion.

I look at these boys, 21 months old last week and Amelia, now 4, and I am not entirely sure how we got to this place. Time has moved by far too fast, and yet I remember days when the boys were tiny when I swore time stood still. I did the same things hour after hour endlessly. Days and nights became so much the same that everything melded together, fused, until time itself became solid, unmoving.

But like the river rushing beneath a solid crust of ice, time moved on. Visitors came and went. The seasons changed. My three tiny babies grew and grew. They learned to smile, to laugh, to roll over and sit up. Now, suddenly, they are 21 months old, learning new words at lightning speed, making jokes, and turning into a real tribe.

The boys have always been aware of each other and even buddies, but now they want -- even demand -- to be together. If one gets up from a nap to find he's without his buddies, he will ask repeatedly for them. If one gets in trouble and goes to his room for time out, the other two will wail for him. If one cries at night and has to be pulled from the nursery, you'd better hope the other two are sound asleep or they will send up the cry for their missing comrade.

This has made some things harder, like giving time outs when we're outside and we just sit down. Whoever isn't in time out will often come up and sympathize with the perpetrator, only to be told to leave their brother alone.

But, it has also made outside time easier. Since the boys like to hang together, we have less of an issue with one wanting to play on the driveway with the ride-on toys while the other two want to play on the swings or in the sandbox.

We've got a huge yard and I've always tried to give the boys as much freedom as possible, so when they want to separate, I just take up a lifeguard position where I could run to help any of them, rather than insisting that they all stay right together. But it is much easier to keep an eye on them and play with them all when they want to be together.

All of the boys are very verbal. I would guess they have easily 200 words. They are forever observing and talking to us and to each other. It cracks me up to watch them talk to each other and then laugh. I think they must be sharing some insider jokes!

The other night a fellow triplet mom and I were talking about how surreal it is to think about those early days. It's hard to wrap our heads around it all, because it was unbelievable then and it's still unbelievable. We were slaves to the schedule, but I'm sure we couldn't have told you the time of day with any accuracy most of the time. Sleep trumped showering, cleaning, laundry, eating ... everything! We juggled the demands of our triplets and our older child the best we could at any given moment.

We weren't perfect parents by any stretch, but we survived. And here we are, with children who have thrived and grown. With new friends we wouldn't have were it not for the arrival of our triplets. With a newfound respect for sleep and how long we can survive with very little.

Every age is filled with new challenges, and we're knee-deep in potty training, tantrums, expressing differing opinions (loudly!), difficulty sharing, and a little pushing and biting to keep things interesting.

But boy, oh boy, oh boy, how far we've come!

© Trippin' Mama 2010

This Is Torture

8 p.m. - all boys in bed

9 p.m. - Amelia finally in bed. Resettle Sam and Alex.

9:30 p.m. - eat supper

10:30 p.m. - to bed after cleaning kitchen, making bottles, picking up toys, starting dishwasher and another load of laundry, and updating the blog.

11:30 p.m. - up for 10 minutes to resettle Isaac

12:30 a.m. - up for 2 minutes to resettle Sam

1:30 a.m. - Alex cries. Pick him up and walk. Sit down with him. Alex cries. Repeat for an entire hour.

3:30 a.m. - Isaac starts to wail. Grab him before he can wake Alex. Spend 30 minutes getting him resettled.

5:45 a.m. - up with Alex. He finally takes a decent bottle -- his first in about 3 days.

6 a.m. - everyone's up for the day.

I've got to go get some work done while boys are up so I can nap later today. Keep praying for Alex and for all of us.

Feeding Frenzy

For the past four days, these boys have been eating every two to two and a half hours. And, they've started waking up at night again! Saturday night they were up at 4 a.m., and all of them drained a 5-oz. bottle and went back to sleep in 20 minutes. It was a new record, but they shouldn't be waking up at night that hungry!

I gave them a couple days to get the growth spurt out of their systems, but clearly, they need more to eat. So, starting today we are adding a little rice cereal to their bedtime bottles. If they still need to eat voraciously during the day, I'll add some to their daytime bottles, too.

There's hardly time between feedings on a three-hour schedule, and this schedule means we're practically doing feedings back-to-back. And they aren't sleeping enough, so they get fussy. Enough already! Mommy likes her happy boys and her nighttime sleep.

Here are the latest weights:

Sam: 12 lb. 5 oz.
Isaac: 10 lb. 12 oz.
Alex: 12 lb. 12 oz.

At the rate they are going, Alex will crack 15 lbs. by the time they are four months old. And Sam is gaining fast on Alex. He might just catch up! As for little Isaac, watch out. He's been draining those 5 oz. bottles, so he might just surprise us all one of these days!

Shhhhh....

The house is quiet at last.

Ahhh....

I love the sound of silence.

I think the boys must be having a growth spurt, because they were hollering early for every feeding today. In the midst of all the chaos, I have to laugh, because I know I will often find myself with a hungry gang of boys on my hands as they grow up. It's a good thing all my mom's cookie recipes make 12 dozen, and I grew up helping cook for a crowd in my own family.

I try to remind myself that a growth spurt is a good thing, even though it throws the schedule out of whack and leads to more fussing than usual.

At least we know the problem can't be the chicken pox!

Flying Solo

Today Grandma Brigade Part 2 headed for home. Jeff's mom arrived the day my mom left, so we've had round-the-clock help for almost five weeks now. Last Thursday Jeff's dad, sister Allison and brother Jacob came, so we've had more hands than kids for the last few days, which has been very, very nice. Jeff and I got to catch a little extra sleep while they were here, and we're going to need it!

I did a feeding by myself today, and it went pretty well. The biggest problem is getting everyone -- or at least most -- of the gang to go down afterwards. One fussy baby is no big deal, two is manageable, but three? Well, one person just doesn't have enough hands for that!

I've got pictures of the family with the boys and Amelia, but I'll have to get to those later. I hear a couple boys calling me from the other room.

More Feeding Fun

The boys are still messing with my schedule, sometimes wanting to eat just 2 hours after they've been fed. At least they didn't wreak havoc with the night feedings. They kindly ate at 1:30 and 5:15, though Alex was up at 4:45 looking for food.

We've upped their bottles to 4 ounces, though they don't generally finish them. At least we know they have the opportunity to eat more, if that's the issue. And believe me, when they wake up demanding to be fed early, we do everything we can to get a full bottle in them. None of this dozing off after two ounces boys. Mama's not giving you snacks every two hours!

Fortunately, the boys are so gosh darn cute, we'll forgive them for messing with the schedule. As Uncle Jacob says, "I'm so tired, but I don't want to leave." Hear, hear!

Here are some pics of the boys with the stuffed giraffes that Grandpa D.'s secretary sent. The giraffes play a lullaby when you wind them up, and if you look at the ribbons you'll see they have the boys' names on them. Very cute!

Sam

Isaac

Alex

Baby Boot Camp -- The Night Shift

Well, our day campers were better than our night campers. The boys really gave Jeff and I the business from about 9:30 until 2 a.m. Sometimes one, sometimes two, and too often all three were have a good fuss. There simply aren't enough hands, bouncy seats and swings for that.

Jeff, my loving husband, took on the midnight feeding by himself to try to give me and Grandma a little extra sleep. It was a crazy idea, but he got most of the way through it before I realized (from the depths of sweet sleep) that more than just the one crying baby I had left him was crying and came out to rescue him from dealing single-handed with three babies who needed to burp or just fuss.

That time all the commotion woke Amelia, who wanted to get up and help. She and I sang a lullaby to baby Sam, and then I told her it was time for bed and to go ask Daddy to take her. Fortunately his crowd had calmed down by then. Amelia was up a second time about 1:30 and wanted to hold a baby. Have you ever said "No," to a very tired two-year-old in the wee hours of the morning? MELTDOWN!

We woke Grandma up then and Jeff took Amelia back to her room for rockabye and some milk. He got up with her this morning and persuaded her to snuggle up with him for an extra hour of sleep, which they both needed!

I hit the sack about 2:30 a.m., but forgot to set the alarm for the next feeding. The boys went until 6:15 before their feeding though, so I got almost four full hours of sleep.

Now their first two feeding of the day have gone beautifully, Jeff and Amelia are at the zoo, and Grandma and I both took a shower. (Insert Wonder Woman theme music here.) Time for lunch and another 20-minute nap after I prepare bottles.

Baby Boot Camp - Day One

My sister called this evening to see how "baby boot camp" was going. She thought she might need to come save the boys from Mom & Grandma!

So far, all is well, though night time is the real test. Mom and I regrouped at the breakfast table (oh, to be a coffee drinker!) at 6:30 and put the plan together. I am quite certain that wars have been waged and military campaigns launched with less planning and logistical consideration than we put into the day's schedule. Our main goal was to get everyone changed, fed, burped and back down in an hour, give or take 15 minutes.

Believe it or not, we did accomplish that 4 times today, and I nursed or at least worked with all three boys to nurse 3 times. All it took was some mom-genuity in creating a baby assembly line. Our little guys are big enough to handle a propped bottle, so we used Boppies -- or baby Barcaloungers as I like to call them.

Today the system looked like this. (I am VERY aware it could look different tomorrow. Yes, we are experimenting all the way through this. I have a feeling that will continue for years!)

* Get Baby 1 up (whoever is the most active or fussy) and change his diaper.

* Nurse Baby 1 and set him in his Boppy with a bottle while Grandma gets Baby 2 up and changes him.

* Nurse Baby 2 and set him in his Boppy with a bottle while Grandma gets Baby 3 up and changes him.

* Nurse Baby 3 and set him in his Boppy with a bottle while Grandma burps Baby 1 and puts him back to finish his bottle.

* Burp Baby 2 and put him back to finish his bottle.

* Burp Baby 3 and put him back to finish his bottle while Grandma burps Baby 1, swaddles him and puts him down in the crib.

* Burp Baby 2, swaddle him and put him down in the crib.

* Burp Baby 3, swaddle him and put him down in the crib.

* Pray that everyone goes back to sleep so you can slink off and sleep yourself. Or shower. Treasure that shower!

Are you tired, yet?

This evening we spent some awake time with the boys in addition to their evening feeding. Amelia helped throw away dirty diapers, bring bottles, and also held bottles for her brothers. It was so sweet. She's a good big sister.

By luck, maybe more than planning, the boys slept while we ate supper and were mostly (two down and one fussy isn't bad) back asleep an hour before Amelia's bedtime. That was perfect, because both Mom & Dad got to spend some time with her and get her through the bedtime routine.

Time to rest. See you all in 90 minutes.

All Right Boys, Let's Get in Line!

The boys are coming out of that initial sleepy baby stage, and suddenly spreading their feedings all over the place. Last night was rough, rough, rough! Sam slept well, but his "brodders" spent most of the night on Mom & Dad's chests snoozing and fussing while we barely slept. We can't be having that!

Today we're moving to a tight ship schedule that involves waking everyone up and starting feedings 10 minutes apart. And yes, we will prop bottles.

There's the 11 a.m. wake up call. Gotta go...

The Gang's All Here

The boys are one week old today, and the gang's all here. We brought Alex home from the hospital yesterday, and added him to the feeding mix last night. It was like juggling. We had learned with two, but adding that third was pretty tricky. Fortunately, they are all on a similar schedule and did pretty well last night.

I'll post pics of the five of us leaving the hospital soon, but now it's naptime for Mom.

First Night Home

We survived the first night at home with Sam and Isaac, but Sam really gave us a run for our money. He guzzled nearly 60 mls (about 2 oz) at 12:30 a.m. and then fussed and cried until 5:30 a.m., clearly with a tummy ache and possibly reflux issues. Sam's doing better today, but we'll keep a close eye on him as reflux is not uncommon is preemies and Amelia had reflux, even as an overdue baby.

Isaac had his fussy time from 5:30 until about 7:30, so it was a long night. We called in reinforcements today in the form of some wonderful neighbors who were thrilled to take over a feeding and be here for a couple of hours so Mom and I could get some sleep and Jeff could go to work today. We were thrilled to have them here! We'll be working with these boys on a feeding and sleeping schedule that we can all live with. I'm just so glad that Sam and Isaac were able to come home with us.

It was hard to leave Alex behind, but I know he's in good hands. Jeff went up last night and did his 9 p.m. feeding, and will probably do the same tomorrow. I promised myself I would rest today and care for the other two boys who really need me, so I did not go to the hospital. We are still hoping Alex will come home Wednesday.