That Was Then, This is Now

Pre-Baby – There are no “spirited children”. A child’s temperament is malleable and often dictated by the parent.
Post-Baby – Yeah right!

Pre-Baby - Why does that mother not wipe that big booger out of her child’s nose?
Post –Baby - Wiping your child’s nose results in screaming. People will think you pinched your child with how it carries on. Plus, another one is going to reappear immediately.

Pre-Baby - You can train your child to sleep through the night; it just takes a little willpower.
Post-Baby – Ha, Ha, Ha! I think I may puke if I hear the words “sleep training” ever again!

Pre-Baby – Gross, why would someone let their baby continue to wear an outfit that appears to be soaked in saliva?
Post-Baby – Saliva, that isn’t saliva. It is a concoction of spit-up, boogers, formula, food and drool. I’ll change him into his third outfit of the morning when this one is totally drenched.

Pre – Baby - How can someone let their child fall asleep while playing in their jumparoo? That poor child must be exhausted
Post –Baby - My child has fallen asleep in their jumparoo several times. I think there must be some sleepy potion that puffs out of the seat when the kids jump.

Pre-Baby – I am not going to let baby sh!@ take over my house.
Post-Baby – I have used burp cloths for Kleenex, tripped over toys in my bathroom and have a space saucer in front of my fireplace. And yes, I have gotten rid of the coffee table.

Pre-Baby – I’m going to be the mom who pushes my stroller in high heels.
Post-Baby – I twisted my ankle before I got the second kid buckled in.

Kids at Play

Just a few pics to share:

Mia playing with our Valentine's Day balloons from Max:
Josie has been full of smiles lately:Marcus and his crazy hair:Marcus cut his first tooth over the weekend. Still no teeth from the girls. Marcus is still taking his time moving forward on all 4's. He will rock and move backward all day. He is also starting to push up into a sitting position. Mia is right behind him. A little more wobbly but a little more brave. Josie is also starting to get up on all 4's and rock. She actually may be the first to "officially" crawl.

Where We Sleep and Play

About 1 month after having the triplets, about 1 week after Mia was sent home from the NICU, we moved. We had been living in a townhome that we spent a year designing and almost another year waiting to be built. We finally moved in Feb '07 and found out we were expecting triplets in Dec of that year. The house and community would have been perfect for our first child, not our first 3 children. So we put our house on the market for several months but it did not sell. While I was in the hospital on bedrest, we got a private offer on our house (it was not even on the market at the time). It is amazing how some things work out. A few days before delivering the triplets, Max and I looked at houses online. Within days we had made an offer on our current home. The house is perfect. The girls and boys room were already painted. There is a room right off the living room we have turned into a playroom. The backyard is fenced (for Hayden) and their is a swing set. I never saw the house in person until after we had closed and right before we moved in. I love it!

It was crazy to move with 1 month old triplets but you would be surprised at how many other triplet families I've talked to have done it. This house is perfect for our family and I am so thankful things worked out for us. We have also been blessed with amazing neighbors who adore our dog and give him the love he deserves while we are busy with our infants.

Here is the girl's nursery. My mom and Aunt Carol made the beautiful quilts for the kids. They go perfect with the girl's nursery color.





Here is Marcus's room. We bought these cute words from Target to go on the walls in both the girls and boys room.








Here is our playroom. This is the only room in the house we have done anything to. Over the Christmas holiday Max and I painted and cubbied this room. We spend most of our day in here.



Here we are one warm winter day enjoying the backyard.


We are so blessed to have such a wonderful home and I am thankful for it everyday.

7 Months - This Must be Heaven

The kids have been a complete joy lately. They smile, laugh and entertain each other. The silliest things are funny: Josie cracked up yesterday watching Mia eat. When our dog Hayden enters the room, Marcus's whole body shakes with excitement. The other day, Mia couldn't stop gigling at a silly hat I put on my head. Baby giggles are a beautiful thing. I can take them places outside the house too. The other week we got stuck at Target in an awful storm. I had Marcus and Mia in the double stroller and was wearing Josie in the baby bjorn. I ended up buying some baby food and spoons and fed them at the Starbucks in Target waiting for the storm to pass. No one cried or caused a scene. We even went to a cocktail party to celebrate the completion of one of our rental properties last weekend. The kids sat and played on the floor for hours. They were angels. Here is Marcus with Uncle Nick enjoying the basketball game at the party.

Nights have also been wonderful. For the first time in over a year, I have nights where I sleep from 9:30 PM-4:30 AM without waking up. For over 1 month now, Josie and Marcus are officially STTN. They go to bed at 7 PM and I don't hear a peep from them till Marcus (of course) wakes up around 4-5 AM. Usually I can pat him back to sleep and go back to bed for an additional hour or two. Mia STTN about half the time. When she does wake up, it is usually around 4 AM for a very quick bottle. I have not heard a peep from Josie from 7 PM-6 AM in months. I am officially getting 7 hours of sleep most nights. Life is so much better with sleep. Sleep is a beautiful thing. Never underestimate the power of sleep!

I have heard people say that 6-9 months is a great age. I am beginning to see how people could forget the horror of the newborn stage and think about having another child. Something that was incomprehensible to me before. HELLO, NOT ME! WE ARE DONE! YES, FOR SURE!

I don't think days with the triplets will ever be easy. But, as the sickies go away, everyone sleeps, and smiles take the place of whines, life is placid.

Until we start to teeth, until rocking on all 4's and scooting turns to all out crawling, and until we catch another illness, let there be peace :)

Today During Nap Time

Marcus...sleeping soundly

Josie...sleeping soundly

Mia...

Her new nick names, monkey, trouble, crazy. Yikes, that is a cord in her hand! Time to baby-proof!

A Little Odd

I try to get out with the kids on most days. Often it is for a walk or jog on the trail by our house. Sometimes we go to the local Target, Petsmart or bookstore. Whenever we are out and about with the kids we get a little attention. Maybe a few people stop to "awe" and occasionally we get a medical person (L&D nurse, ultrasound tech, etc) to politely ask a few questions about how far we carried the babies, how long they were in the NICU and how big they were when they were born. You may be surprised that not many people ask us about fertility treatments.

Sometimes we walk to the grocery store about 1.5 miles down the road. Today was one of those days. And for some reason we got A TON of attention on this short trip. Luckily everything I needed today was down the cereal and baby aisle. However, conveniently, 5 grocery store employees needed to venture into the cereal aisle while we were there. They all stopped to ooo and awe and ask lots of questions. One 75+ year old man asked me if I used fertility drugs. Like I said, I am fairly open about my story but today I felt like I had to defend myself. I found myself telling this old man I didn't know how I used an ovulation drug that had less than 1% chance of triplets. The octuplets are getting to me.

I hate that I feel like I have to defend my use of fertility treatment. If I had needed to do IVF to get pregnant, I should have no problem admitting that. The ocutplets are getting to me darn it!

As we were checking out, an employee helped me unload my groceries and pack them back into the stroller. She said "honey, you let me know if I can help you out anytime!" The manager then came up and thanked us for shopping at his store.

Is it the octuplets or was it just one of those days?

My Babies are Growing Up!

I know my last post was a little emotional. We have had some tough days with the triplets lately and even a supermom like myself needs to vent from time to time :) As shiny and bright as our life is on most days, I like to be honest and admit some days are tough.

Today I am back to supermom. Between naps, bottles, lunch and administering Josie's breathing treatment, we managed to get the babies dressed (adorably) and do a photo shoot! There was a lot of snot wiping but we got some great pictures. Here is one of our favorite shots!

I also have been dying to get a photo of the babies using their new bath rings! Our awesome neighbor Gail (aka, our dog Hayden's surrogate mom, bless you Gail!) bought these for us (I promise we supervise the babies at all times while using these rings..I'm not trying for another controversial post ;)). The kids have always loved bath time but now it is a blast! As usual, Mia is being grabby. She loved being in the middle and pulling at her brother and sister!

Baby updates

Marcus is constantly up on all 4's rocking and has made progress on moving backwards. He hasn't figured out you need to move your arms forward to go forward.

Mia seems to actually move around more than Marcus but how is a mystery to us. She is not crawling or rolling to the other side of the room but somehow, she gets there.

Josie is not the type to be dramatic about her achievements. She is sitting like a champ, which came out of nowhere. I'm guessing some day soon we will look up and she will be daintily retrieving toys on all 4's.