triplet mania | ChezPerky

Archive for the ‘triplet mania’ Category

New Milestones – How Dare They!?

Posted in triplet mania on May 8, 2008| 7 Comments »

The babies turned 33 weeks yesterday. They have now been on the "outside" as long as they were on the "inside." It's an odd feeling for me. I waited so long to have babies, I guess I never really expected them to arrive, let alone to grow up! Who gave these babies permission to grow up and get bigger? I certainly did NOT! I know that one of the joys of parenting is watching your children grow and develop into people with strong personalities and independent thoughts, but I am not ready for that, and I definitely did not give my babies permission to start growing up just yet.

Alleged Crawling
Two days ago, super-nanny called me at work to say "Did you know your babies are crawling?" Thankfully, I've seen no evidence of this alleged crawling, because that would be too much for this little heart of mine to take! (The babies do scootch around and do roll all the way across the room – but actual crawling? NO! I remain firmly in denial that any such thing could have occurred!) Super-nanny swears that there was actual crawling that occurred that afternoon, but I still remain unconvinced. Mostly I'm standing here with my hands clamped over my ears screaming, "I'm not listening, I'm not listening! I can't hear you! Nyah, nyah!" Admittedly, this makes it difficult to type and typing with my toes is becoming quite tedious (Why oh why were humans not born with prehensile toes?!?), so I'll unclamp my hands temporarily to continue my story.

Ruthless and Toothless?
One sure sign that the babies are growing up that I can no longer deny, however, is that teething has begun in earnest. After five straight days of blood-curdling screams, Abby cut her first tooth. (Thank heavens for ~~small~~ very large favors… the first baby to get a tooth is the one who doesn't nurse!)That little tooth is a sharp little bugger, too. I mean, I know it had to cut through a gum and all, but sheesh! I totally get why she was screaming bloody murder! Poor baby. Looks like she's got another one coming in right next to it, and it seems that maybe Sam's got a tooth coming in also.

It's almost a relief, really, because the babies have been drooling and chewing on things since January and every time someone saw them drool or chew they would say, "Oh look! They're teething!" which, honestly, got to be tiresome. "Oh they're teething? OR MAYBE they're just DROOLING! You know, like babies tend to do?? But no one would believe me. You'll see, they'd say, as if they knew better. And of course, they'd be right, because eventually a tooth would pop out. But that's ridiculous, because I never said teeth were never coming in. But a little drool didn't mean teeth were imminent. The screaming that started five days ago? That was a pretty good sign that teeth were imminent. So when Super-nanny called yesterday to say, ~~"Hey you're a lousy mother and missed yet another milestone and I got to see it first…"~~ I mean, "Abby's tooth came through!" I wasn't remotely surprised. So I did what any completely neurotic mother would do and I rushed home at lunch time to witness the beauty of my child's first tooth.

I admit, it's not all that much to look at, but golly it IS impressively sharp.

My baby grew a tooth! Without my permission! How dare she!?

New Food
In honor of the new tooth, I decided it was time for Abby to have more interesting food choices. And since she was refusing to drink her bottle at dinner time and since she seemed pretty darned interested in what I was eating (Chinese Food), and so… I gave her chicken. And she ate it! I think she's ready for prime rib, what do you think? I also gave Ellie some chicken, but she wasn't interested. Admittedly, she'd just had a full feeding, so she may just not have been hungry. So far the babies' favorite foods are broccoli and summer squash. They also like sweet potatoes, but they do not care for carrots unless mixed with applesauce (they also do not care for applesauce unless mixed with carrots). Similarly, they do not care for mushed up bananas, unless mixed with avocado, but they DID eat little chunks of banana for me on Sunday (with an odd look on their faces, but they ate it). So they seem willing to take a little texture into their lives, which is good.

My extraordinary pediatrician, who is also a long-time friend of ours asked me when I last saw him whether I'd experimented at all with any solid foods. He had known that I was very hesitant about solid food, so he wasn't putting any pressure on me at all. I told him that I had caved to the pressure, but that I found it to be a very tedious, and somewhat horrifying process… It takes a LOT OF WORK to feed three babies solid food, particularly since they still have to be fed a full feeding of milk afterward (or beforehand, whatever…the point is, they're not getting much nutrition out of these solid food feedings for all the effort they take!). He said the key for me is going to be to capitalize on their independence as soon as possible, so as soon as they show ANY sign of being able to get food into their mouth by themselves, I should let them do so, even if it makes more of a mess at first. That's why I'm trying to get them used to textured foods now. I suspect Abby will be the first to experiment with putting food in her mouth by herself, since she's the baby who's most often putting objects in her mouth, but she hasn't managed to get any food in her mouth yet. Sam does love to suck on his fingers when he's got a spoonful of broccoli in his mouth though, so we'll see.

At any rate, I've also given the babies Gerber Fruit Puffs:

This is the first, and only, processed food that they've gotten, and I've done it strictly to give them another texture that they can try. I've given them to Sam and Abby. Sam loves them and Abby couldn't care less. I'm sure Super-Nanny has given them to Ellie also, but I haven't heard the verdict on her. Still, Sam would rather have spoonfuls of broccoli over even these newfound favorite fruit puffs.

Anywhozit, that's about it for now. Isn't that enough? I'm not sure I can handle more milestones than that!

Read Full Post »

Cry it Out?

Posted in parenting, triplet mania on April 23, 2008| 13 Comments »

I totally don’t get the “Cry it Out” method. I don’t get how people do it. How does it work? How do people stomach it? How long does it take for a kid to cry it out? I’m telling you, there is no chance in hell that “crying it out” would work with my kids. No. Chance. In. Hell. I can tell you this with near certainty because I spent today single-parenting under the worst possible circumstances. Let me back up…

Over the first days of Passover, I developed the most evil, insidious intestinal flu/bug/virus/horribleness known to humankind and most of it is a blur in my mind. I’m still recovering from it. Monday, my nanny told me that her brother-in-law finally awoke from his coma from the car accident that killed her sister. Consequently, she needed to go to Toronto immediately. Of course, no problem, no argument from me. Two hours later, she left to catch a plane. Thank heavens for those two hours, though. Then this morning (Tuesday) Seth left for Florida at, like, 5am. Honestly, I don’t know whether to threaten divorce or not. What do you think, is that a threat, or an offer he can’t refuse?

So here I am, four kids, no nanny, no husband, intestinal flu, and my golly it feels like all I do is feed babies all. day. long. Is this what my nanny does all day? Does it take less time to feed a baby a bottle? Actually, it turns out, it takes CONSIDERABLY less time to feed a baby a bottle than to nurse a baby. No WONDER M seems to have more time with the babies than me. How exactly is this fair? It’s getting harder and harder to nurse two at a time, because they push and shove each other, so it seems that by the time I’m finished feeding all three babies, it’s time to start over again.

Which leads me to my original point.

This evening I had fed all the babies and had about an hour’s reprieve when no one needed to be fed. I got J fed, threw some laundry in the washer, played with the babies, etc. Then Ellie started to cry. Since she’d been first in the previous round of feedings and since she nearly never cries, I figured she must be hungry. I picked her up and I said, “Ellie-Belly are you hungry, sweetpea?” And she looked at me, opened up her little mouth, leaned forward… and latched onto my nose and started sucking. I took this as a yes.

So there I was laying down in bed with her nursing her, and J was watching “Walking with Dinosaurs” next to me. When, unsurprisingly, Sam started crying. Because really, if one baby is being fed, and it’s not him, a great injustice is clearly being done in the world. And as his cries grew more desperate, Abby joined in the chorus. The wails grew so desperate that I began to wonder if they would simply “cry it out.” I couldn’t leave poor, desperate Ellie. She was so hungry and, after all, she had asked so nicely if she could please have dinner. She deserved to have a meal uninterrupted. And really, how long could Sam and Abby wail, right?

Little did I know. I had forgotten that the only one of my babies that has any patience whatsoever is Ellie. And that the only one of my babies who has ever stopped crying and fallen right to sleep is Ellie. And that the only baby who isn’t persistent is… you guessed it, Ellie. Not only that, but the few times that Ellie has cried and fallen asleep before I can get to her, I’ve felt unbelievably guilty for not getting to her in time. I can’t handle that kind of guilt. Crying it out is not for the faint of heart. Poor Ellie didn’t like all the screaming either, apparently, because the screaming kept distracting her. So eventually, I put her down in her crib and picked up Sam and Abby. And because I knew they were terribly desperate and wouldn’t possibly wait another single, solitary second, I gave them both bottles. And they calmed down. And then I picked up my poor, sleeping Ellie, and let her finish eating and then put her back to sleep too.

And everyone was in bed, asleep, by 6:30, just like normal. The only abnormal part about it is that normally I have an extra pair of hands at bedtime so no one has to cry while waiting for attention or food. So normally no one has to cry even for a little while, but tonight, Sam and Abby discovered how wonderful it is that they normally don’t have to “cry it out.” I honestly don’t know how other parents do it, becuase I’m fairly certain that Sam could cry for hours without crying it out.

Maybe other babies aren’t built like Sam? Maybe most babies are more like Ellie, who doesn’t cry much, and will generally quiet right down unless something really IS wrong? In any event, I’m not opposed to letting the babies cry sometimes. Heaven knows, I can’t answer their every whimper at the first sound of distress… I’ve got three babies to attend to and I can’t be everywhere at once. But I definitely can’t understand how I could possibly let them “cry it out” on purpose. Maybe I’m just misunderstanding the method. Because I’m telling you, if I hadn’t eventually picked him up and fed him, Sam would STILL be crying right now, four hours later. No joke!

Read Full Post »

Cry it Out?

Posted in parenting, triplet mania on April 23, 2008| 13 Comments »

I totally don't get the "Cry it Out" method. I don't get how people do it. How does it work? How do people stomach it? How long does it take for a kid to cry it out? I'm telling you, there is no chance in hell that "crying it out" would work with my kids. No. Chance. In. Hell. I can tell you this with near certainty because I spent today single-parenting under the worst possible circumstances. Let me back up…

Over the first days of Passover, I developed the most evil, insidious intestinal flu/bug/virus/horribleness known to humankind and most of it is a blur in my mind. I'm still recovering from it. Monday, my nanny told me that her brother-in-law finally awoke from his coma from the car accident that killed her sister. Consequently, she needed to go to Toronto immediately. Of course, no problem, no argument from me. Two hours later, she left to catch a plane. Thank heavens for those two hours, though. Then this morning (Tuesday) Seth left for Florida at, like, 5am. Honestly, I don't know whether to threaten divorce or not. What do you think, is that a threat, or an offer he can't refuse?

So here I am, four kids, no nanny, no husband, intestinal flu, and my golly it feels like all I do is feed babies all. day. long. Is this what my nanny does all day? Does it take less time to feed a baby a bottle? Actually, it turns out, it takes CONSIDERABLY less time to feed a baby a bottle than to nurse a baby. No WONDER M seems to have more time with the babies than me. How exactly is this fair? It's getting harder and harder to nurse two at a time, because they push and shove each other, so it seems that by the time I'm finished feeding all three babies, it's time to start over again.

Which leads me to my original point.

This evening I had fed all the babies and had about an hour's reprieve when no one needed to be fed. I got J fed, threw some laundry in the washer, played with the babies, etc. Then Ellie started to cry. Since she'd been first in the previous round of feedings and since she nearly never cries, I figured she must be hungry. I picked her up and I said, "Ellie-Belly are you hungry, sweetpea?" And she looked at me, opened up her little mouth, leaned forward… and latched onto my nose and started sucking. I took this as a yes.

So there I was laying down in bed with her nursing her, and J was watching "Walking with Dinosaurs" next to me. When, unsurprisingly, Sam started crying. Because really, if one baby is being fed, and it's not him, a great injustice is clearly being done in the world. And as his cries grew more desperate, Abby joined in the chorus. The wails grew so desperate that I began to wonder if they would simply "cry it out." I couldn't leave poor, desperate Ellie. She was so hungry and, after all, she had asked so nicely if she could please have dinner. She deserved to have a meal uninterrupted. And really, how long could Sam and Abby wail, right?

Little did I know. I had forgotten that the only one of my babies that has any patience whatsoever is Ellie. And that the only one of my babies who has ever stopped crying and fallen right to sleep is Ellie. And that the only baby who isn't persistent is… you guessed it, Ellie. Not only that, but the few times that Ellie has cried and fallen asleep before I can get to her, I've felt unbelievably guilty for not getting to her in time. I can't handle that kind of guilt. Crying it out is not for the faint of heart. Poor Ellie didn't like all the screaming either, apparently, because the screaming kept distracting her. So eventually, I put her down in her crib and picked up Sam and Abby. And because I knew they were terribly desperate and wouldn't possibly wait another single, solitary second, I gave them both bottles. And they calmed down. And then I picked up my poor, sleeping Ellie, and let her finish eating and then put her back to sleep too.

And everyone was in bed, asleep, by 6:30, just like normal. The only abnormal part about it is that normally I have an extra pair of hands at bedtime so no one has to cry while waiting for attention or food. So normally no one has to cry even for a little while, but tonight, Sam and Abby discovered how wonderful it is that they normally don't have to "cry it out." I honestly don't know how other parents do it, becuase I'm fairly certain that Sam could cry for hours without crying it out.

Maybe other babies aren't built like Sam? Maybe most babies are more like Ellie, who doesn't cry much, and will generally quiet right down unless something really IS wrong? In any event, I'm not opposed to letting the babies cry sometimes. Heaven knows, I can't answer their every whimper at the first sound of distress… I've got three babies to attend to and I can't be everywhere at once. But I definitely can't understand how I could possibly let them "cry it out" on purpose. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the method. Because I'm telling you, if I hadn't eventually picked him up and fed him, Sam would STILL be crying right now, four hours later. No joke!

Read Full Post »

6 month Check Up

Posted in milestones, triplet mania on March 25, 2008| 13 Comments »

Last Wednesday, the triplets had their six month check up. I’m still astounded that we’ve made it this far, to be honest. All the sleepless nights, the weeks of worry over Ellie’s weight gain (or lack thereof), the weeks in the NICU, not to mention the months of pre-term labour… I just can’t believe my babies are six months old. I gave my nanny the afternoon off and took the babies to the appointment myself. That was my first mistake. I mean, I’ve taken the babies to nearly all of their appointments by myself (I had help for their 4 month appointment, but that’s because I couldn’t stay for the whole thing because I had to leave when they started their vaccines so I could get to my first day of work). So I didn’t really think anything of going by myself to this appointment. But this time when I left the house, it was drizzling, and by the time I got to the doctor’s office it was POURING DOWN RAIN.

My doctor’s office is about to move locations, but the current location has sucky parking and lousy stroller access. The office suite itself can’t accommodate the triple stroller (the new office suite will be able to without a problem), which is fine because I hate putting the triple stroller in the car (you have to take the wheels off to get it to fit in the van, that’s how huge the stupid thing is!). I usually take the double snap n’ go and then baby bjorn the third baby, which is no problem at all when it’s not raining, but is a little trickier when it’s POURING DOWN RAIN. Ugh. It doesn’t leave me with a hand free for an umbrella (not that an umbrella would do much good with the horizontal rain that was happening that day), and oh, by the way, I don’t have a rain cover for the snap n go (do they even MAKE rain covers that fit the double snap n go? For that matter, do they make rain covers for the triple strollers?). I had to park in just about the furthest parking space away from the door that will accommodate a stroller and run through the rain with a baby strapped to my chest. Ugh! I was a total disaster by the time I got to the receptionist’s desk. For those of you who know me in person, you know this is a great travesty for me… one thing I PRIDE myself on is that despite the fact that I have four children, I still manage to keep myself together in public, at least. But I stood there dripping like a wet poodle, apologizing for being 2 minutes late for my appointment (I would have been on time, had I not been trying to navigate the parking lot puddles… I have NEVER been late to an appointment…yet another thing I’ve always prided myself on!).

But we muddled through, wet poodles are the new black, you know. For some reason, they didn’t have a nurse come back with me to take initial weights, lengths and head circumferences, but had an office aid doing that. She’s young and pretty and sweet, but not so bright and she stood there rather helplessly as I got the babies undressed. The nurses, see, the nurses jump in and help. Or at least hold a baby while I get the next one undressed. Sigh. Anyway, it was a long, drawn-out, painful task, but EVENTUALLY everyone got weighed and measured:
Sam: 14 pounds, 7 ounces; 24 inches long
Ellie: 11 pounds, 14 ounces; 23.5 inches long
Abby: 12 pounds, 10 ounces; 23.5 inches long
I put a blanket down on the floor, plopped all the babies down on the blanket and sat down and played with them until the doctor arrived. I’ve found this is the easiest way to control the craziness in the doctor’s office. They’re not big enough to crawl away, but they’re big enough that they don’t love being cooped up in their car seats for too long, so it’s a good compromise.

This was the triplets’ first well-visit with Dr. F. Sam and Ellie both saw him the previous week for an ear infection and suspected ear infection, respectively, but he’d never met Abby before. Julian adores Dr. F, so I already knew I liked him. I absolutely love his demeanor with kids and he’s great with parents too, which, to me, is the mark of a good doctor… being good with both the kids AND the parents! He was impressed that the babies are getting mostly breastmilk still. I told him I was a blubbery mess the day I first gave them their first ounce of formula and he told me not to be silly – no tears allowed – I’m doing a great job. Dr. F. has six kids and I told him I don’t know how he handles it, but he pointed out that six singletons (his range from 18 years down to I think 22 months) are not as hard as triplets. I wouldn’t know, of course, having never had six singletons.

He said all the kids look great. They’re all on target for their adjusted age… they’re roughly the equivalent of normal four month olds and they are right on target. Abby’s maybe even a little ahead of the curve in some ways – yay for her! He reiterated that Sam should be “able” to sleep through the night, but I think it’s crap, to be honest. And I don’t really MIND feeding him through the night if that’s what he needs (or wants, for that matter), so I’m all good there. The topic he DID broach that I don’t want ANYTHING to do with was… oh gosh, can I even say it?… solid food. Gah! I know, I know. There’s no good reason to be terrified of solid food, right? I should be excited to move on to a new stage in my babies’ lives, right? But I’m not ready! And frankly, I’m not convinced that they’re ready! Yes, they’re six months old, but they’re only four months, developmentally-speaking. So there!

Why am I having such serious panic attacks about this? WHY? I don’t know, but I swear to you, I’m having all-out-anxiety-ridden-complete-hyperventilating panic attacks about this. Can you imagine the logistics of dealing with spoons and bowls and solid food and messes and chairs and all that crap with three babies? THREE BABIES? My triplet mama friends CAN imagine, and I’m afraid to even ASK what kind of disaster my life is about to turn into. My house is already suffering from the neglect and I’m not sure how much more it can take, to be honest. I’m not sure how much more I can take! (I’m a neat freak at heart, even though my house is not proving it at the moment – gah!) Anyway, the doctor said it’s perfectly fine to wait until after Pesach (Passover) to start dealing with solid food, which is good, because I definitely can’t handle it before then.

The funny thing is that every time I think of rice cereal or oatmeal or anything like that, I have a serious panic attack. But if I think about just mashing up some banana or avocado, I think, “hey, that wouldn’t be so bad…maybe I’ll try that next week…” Except, I don’t know that I want to open that can of worms! Gah! I told you… it’s totally irrational, all-out panic attacks! (I never claimed to be rational. And hey, did you know there’s no medical reason I have to give my kids rice cereal? Somehow, that calms me down. I don’t know why rice cereal is giving me a panic attack, but IT IS! And so, I think we’ll be skipping rice cereal all together and moving straight to bananas and avocados and oh, other stuff. But probably not until after Pesach, because seriously… I can’t handle any more mess in my life!)

But anyway, other than the solid food panic attack that I had in the office, the visit went well. The babies look great. The doctor was impressed with how well they’re doing. He asked how we were coping. He noted that this was the first time ever that he’d seen a mother bring in six-month old triplets all by herself (score one for me! … I’m not the only triplet mama they’ve got either; they’ve got I think 8 or 9 sets of triplets and a set of quadruplets in the office). He thinks I’m doing an amazing job (I am, thankyouverymuch!). Sam and Abby don’t have to go back until June (well, Abby went back today for her last Synagis shot, but she doesn’t have to go back for a well-visit until June). Ellie needs to go back in April for a weight check.

Ellie, I noticed, had lost a little weight by Friday, which had me a little jumpy. By Monday, she was down to 11 pounds, 8 ounces. If she’s not on an upward trend by the end of the week, I’ll take her back in on Monday for a weight check, but I know if I bring her in now, Dr. B. will just tell me to keep an eye on her, so that’s what I’ll do for now. In other news, she’s a super-smiley girl and she still has the longest baby tongue on the planet. She loves to stick it out and she loves to get kisses. Lately, she’s been quite vocal and has taken to making loud, screechy noises when she’s happy.

Sunday night, Sam actually slept most of the night! He only woke up once and then went back to his crib sometime thereafter. Oh, did I mention that we recently separated Ellie and Sam? They used to share a crib, but I kept finding Sam on top of Ellie, and while Ellie didn’t seem to mind (it didn’t wake her up at all), it was making me nervous. So now they sleep in separate cribs. It’s kind of sad for me. 😦 My babies are growing up and becoming more independent! *sniff* Other things about Sam… he definitely knows who his mama is. If I come home for lunch, he gets SO excited and practically leaps out of the nanny’s arms to get to me, even if he’s in the middle of drinking a bottle. He wants mama! He knows where food is supposed to come from and he will stop at nothing to get it! 🙂 That’s my smart boy. He giggles and smiles and loves to play. He is the only one who’s even close to being on the growth charts (you have to be in the 5th percentile to be considered “on the charts”… he’s in the 3rd percentile for weight)

Abba-dabba is super-sweet. She loves to play on her activity mat and thinks that people were put on this earth to entertain her. She has a hard time drinking her bottle because she spends the entire time smiling and making googly eyes at whomever is feeding her. She will reach out to pull the bottle closer to her, but lately has mostly wanted to play with the bottle rather than drink from it. I’m shocked that she’s still growing because she eats the least of all three of the babies, and lately has been refusing to eat more and more often. Hopefully this will not be a permanent trend. She is the one baby that has me questioning whether I should be thinking more seriously about solid food, because she’s the one I think might actually consider eating it without causing me too much heartburn. We’ll see.

Read Full Post »

6 month Check Up

Posted in milestones, triplet mania on March 25, 2008| 14 Comments »

Last Wednesday, the triplets had their six month check up. I'm still astounded that we've made it this far, to be honest. All the sleepless nights, the weeks of worry over Ellie's weight gain (or lack thereof), the weeks in the NICU, not to mention the months of pre-term labour… I just can't believe my babies are six months old. I gave my nanny the afternoon off and took the babies to the appointment myself. That was my first mistake. I mean, I've taken the babies to nearly all of their appointments by myself (I had help for their 4 month appointment, but that's because I couldn't stay for the whole thing because I had to leave when they started their vaccines so I could get to my first day of work). So I didn't really think anything of going by myself to this appointment. But this time when I left the house, it was drizzling, and by the time I got to the doctor's office it was POURING DOWN RAIN.

My doctor's office is about to move locations, but the current location has sucky parking and lousy stroller access. The office suite itself can't accommodate the triple stroller (the new office suite will be able to without a problem), which is fine because I hate putting the triple stroller in the car (you have to take the wheels off to get it to fit in the van, that's how huge the stupid thing is!). I usually take the double snap n' go and then baby bjorn the third baby, which is no problem at all when it's not raining, but is a little trickier when it's POURING DOWN RAIN. Ugh. It doesn't leave me with a hand free for an umbrella (not that an umbrella would do much good with the horizontal rain that was happening that day), and oh, by the way, I don't have a rain cover for the snap n go (do they even MAKE rain covers that fit the double snap n go? For that matter, do they make rain covers for the triple strollers?). I had to park in just about the furthest parking space away from the door that will accommodate a stroller and run through the rain with a baby strapped to my chest. Ugh! I was a total disaster by the time I got to the receptionist's desk. For those of you who know me in person, you know this is a great travesty for me… one thing I PRIDE myself on is that despite the fact that I have four children, I still manage to keep myself together in public, at least. But I stood there dripping like a wet poodle, apologizing for being 2 minutes late for my appointment (I would have been on time, had I not been trying to navigate the parking lot puddles… I have NEVER been late to an appointment…yet another thing I've always prided myself on!).

But we muddled through, wet poodles are the new black, you know. For some reason, they didn't have a nurse come back with me to take initial weights, lengths and head circumferences, but had an office aid doing that. She's young and pretty and sweet, but not so bright and she stood there rather helplessly as I got the babies undressed. The nurses, see, the nurses jump in and help. Or at least hold a baby while I get the next one undressed. Sigh. Anyway, it was a long, drawn-out, painful task, but EVENTUALLY everyone got weighed and measured:
Sam: 14 pounds, 7 ounces; 24 inches long
Ellie: 11 pounds, 14 ounces; 23.5 inches long
Abby: 12 pounds, 10 ounces; 23.5 inches long
I put a blanket down on the floor, plopped all the babies down on the blanket and sat down and played with them until the doctor arrived. I've found this is the easiest way to control the craziness in the doctor's office. They're not big enough to crawl away, but they're big enough that they don't love being cooped up in their car seats for too long, so it's a good compromise.

This was the triplets' first well-visit with Dr. F. Sam and Ellie both saw him the previous week for an ear infection and suspected ear infection, respectively, but he'd never met Abby before. Julian adores Dr. F, so I already knew I liked him. I absolutely love his demeanor with kids and he's great with parents too, which, to me, is the mark of a good doctor… being good with both the kids AND the parents! He was impressed that the babies are getting mostly breastmilk still. I told him I was a blubbery mess the day I first gave them their first ounce of formula and he told me not to be silly – no tears allowed – I'm doing a great job. Dr. F. has six kids and I told him I don't know how he handles it, but he pointed out that six singletons (his range from 18 years down to I think 22 months) are not as hard as triplets. I wouldn't know, of course, having never had six singletons.

He said all the kids look great. They're all on target for their adjusted age… they're roughly the equivalent of normal four month olds and they are right on target. Abby's maybe even a little ahead of the curve in some ways – yay for her! He reiterated that Sam should be "able" to sleep through the night, but I think it's crap, to be honest. And I don't really MIND feeding him through the night if that's what he needs (or wants, for that matter), so I'm all good there. The topic he DID broach that I don't want ANYTHING to do with was… oh gosh, can I even say it?… solid food. Gah! I know, I know. There's no good reason to be terrified of solid food, right? I should be excited to move on to a new stage in my babies' lives, right? But I'm not ready! And frankly, I'm not convinced that they're ready! Yes, they're six months old, but they're only four months, developmentally-speaking. So there!

Why am I having such serious panic attacks about this? WHY? I don't know, but I swear to you, I'm having all-out-anxiety-ridden-complete-hyperventilating panic attacks about this. Can you imagine the logistics of dealing with spoons and bowls and solid food and messes and chairs and all that crap with three babies? THREE BABIES? My triplet mama friends CAN imagine, and I'm afraid to even ASK what kind of disaster my life is about to turn into. My house is already suffering from the neglect and I'm not sure how much more it can take, to be honest. I'm not sure how much more I can take! (I'm a neat freak at heart, even though my house is not proving it at the moment – gah!) Anyway, the doctor said it's perfectly fine to wait until after Pesach (Passover) to start dealing with solid food, which is good, because I definitely can't handle it before then.

The funny thing is that every time I think of rice cereal or oatmeal or anything like that, I have a serious panic attack. But if I think about just mashing up some banana or avocado, I think, "hey, that wouldn't be so bad…maybe I'll try that next week…" Except, I don't know that I want to open that can of worms! Gah! I told you… it's totally irrational, all-out panic attacks! (I never claimed to be rational. And hey, did you know there's no medical reason I have to give my kids rice cereal? Somehow, that calms me down. I don't know why rice cereal is giving me a panic attack, but IT IS! And so, I think we'll be skipping rice cereal all together and moving straight to bananas and avocados and oh, other stuff. But probably not until after Pesach, because seriously… I can't handle any more mess in my life!)

But anyway, other than the solid food panic attack that I had in the office, the visit went well. The babies look great. The doctor was impressed with how well they're doing. He asked how we were coping. He noted that this was the first time ever that he'd seen a mother bring in six-month old triplets all by herself (score one for me! … I'm not the only triplet mama they've got either; they've got I think 8 or 9 sets of triplets and a set of quadruplets in the office). He thinks I'm doing an amazing job (I am, thankyouverymuch!). Sam and Abby don't have to go back until June (well, Abby went back today for her last Synagis shot, but she doesn't have to go back for a well-visit until June). Ellie needs to go back in April for a weight check.

Ellie, I noticed, had lost a little weight by Friday, which had me a little jumpy. By Monday, she was down to 11 pounds, 8 ounces. If she's not on an upward trend by the end of the week, I'll take her back in on Monday for a weight check, but I know if I bring her in now, Dr. B. will just tell me to keep an eye on her, so that's what I'll do for now. In other news, she's a super-smiley girl and she still has the longest baby tongue on the planet. She loves to stick it out and she loves to get kisses. Lately, she's been quite vocal and has taken to making loud, screechy noises when she's happy.

Sunday night, Sam actually slept most of the night! He only woke up once and then went back to his crib sometime thereafter. Oh, did I mention that we recently separated Ellie and Sam? They used to share a crib, but I kept finding Sam on top of Ellie, and while Ellie didn't seem to mind (it didn't wake her up at all), it was making me nervous. So now they sleep in separate cribs. It's kind of sad for me. 😦 My babies are growing up and becoming more independent! *sniff* Other things about Sam… he definitely knows who his mama is. If I come home for lunch, he gets SO excited and practically leaps out of the nanny's arms to get to me, even if he's in the middle of drinking a bottle. He wants mama! He knows where food is supposed to come from and he will stop at nothing to get it! 🙂 That's my smart boy. He giggles and smiles and loves to play. He is the only one who's even close to being on the growth charts (you have to be in the 5th percentile to be considered "on the charts"… he's in the 3rd percentile for weight)

Abba-dabba is super-sweet. She loves to play on her activity mat and thinks that people were put on this earth to entertain her. She has a hard time drinking her bottle because she spends the entire time smiling and making googly eyes at whomever is feeding her. She will reach out to pull the bottle closer to her, but lately has mostly wanted to play with the bottle rather than drink from it. I'm shocked that she's still growing because she eats the least of all three of the babies, and lately has been refusing to eat more and more often. Hopefully this will not be a permanent trend. She is the one baby that has me questioning whether I should be thinking more seriously about solid food, because she's the one I think might actually consider eating it without causing me too much heartburn. We'll see.

Read Full Post »

A Milestone?

Posted in doctor fun, milestones, triplet mania on March 14, 2008| 6 Comments »

Wednesday night, right on cue, Sam started screaming, as per usual. Seth brought him to me, good husband and father that he is, to be fed, but Sam was having none of that. What? MY son wasn’t eating? MY son refusing to nurse? He was flailing around, and desperate, and clearly hungry and he would try to eat, but then would burst out screaming, poor thing. It was the middle of the night, so I knew I had plenty of milk, so that wasn’t the problem. Although laying down normally isn’t an issue, I tried sitting up with him, but that didn’t work either. I tried the other side. I tried another position. Nothing helped. He tried on and off to eat for three hours. My poor baby…so unlike him. I’ve almost never known Sam to refuse to eat, especially when he was so obviously hungry!

Finally, exhausted, he cried himself to sleep in my arms. Good timing, too, because it was time to feed Ellie. We put him back in the crib and I fed Ellie, who had no problems eating (so obviously my milk wasn’t the problem, thank heavens). Eventually, I got up and got ready for the day. When Nanny Extraordinaire arrived for the day, she got the babies ready for bathtime and she started with Sam, who loves the bath. And, sure enough, he got in the bath and giggled and giggled.

Until, that is, she tried to clean around his ears, and then he started to scream bloody murder! Amazingly, as soon as she stopped touching around his ears, he stopped screaming, but if she started again, he started screaming again. Coincidence? I think not!

Something like 90% of children will have an ear infection by age 2. J, at age 4, has never had an ear infection. So I don’t know WHAT to do with an ear infection! So, despite having just missed a day of work due to being sick, and despite the fact that I still felt crappy and was likely to miss most of the rest of of the day anyway, I realized that I should probably at least CALL the pediatrician’s office and let them decide whether Sam should be seen. I figured they’d say to just keep an eye on it for a day or two, but to my surprise, they said to bring him in. I conferred with Jess who confirmed my theory that it was unlikely that they would treat it, even if it turned out that Sam DID have an ear infection, but she said that the doctor’s office still likes to see what’s going on so that they’ve got a baseline in case it doesn’t clear up on its own. This made sense to me, so I made arrangements to take him in.

Of course, when I GOT to the office, Sam was all smiles and giggles, the little rat. I saw Dr. F (Dr. B wasn’t available, and I love Dr. F, so it’s all good). He came into the room and I said, “Wouldn’t you know it, Sam’s all smiley now!”
“Well, that makes things easy for me! Makes you look like a fool, but it’s all good for me,” he joked back at me. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

Dr. F even tugged on his ears with no response other than giggles from Sam. It was infuriating! (I mean, I’m all for Sam not having any problem at all! But could he PLEASE not make me look like the over-reactive first-time mom? I mean… all three triplets had their FIRST COLD last week and I was SO PROUD of myself for not completely freaking out and calling the pediatrician’s office immediately! Actually, Dr. F said he was proud of me for that, too…he said he would have called! Hah!) So anyway, he tried to look in Sam’s ear, but couldn’t see anything, so he disappeared to get a funky looking tool to help clean out the gunk from the ear. While he was gone, I lightly brushed against Sam’s ear and Sam screamed bloody murder and it took several minutes to calm him down! Gah!

Well, to make a long story short (too late, I know!), Sam probably DOES have an ear infection and probably perforated his ear drum. It’s only “probably” because with all the pus between the ear canal and the ear drum, Dr. F couldn’t see down to the ear drum. Yum! In light of the likely perforation, they ARE treating the infection with antibiotics, even though under normal circumstances, they’d leave it alone. Fortunately, Sam LIKES the amoxicillin (it’s really a good thing J never gets sick because he won’t take medicine of any kind and never has). And last night, miracle or miracles: he only woke up to eat ONCE.

Other Milestones!

Ellie is almost 11 pounds. She still carries the diagnosis “Failure to Thrive” and can’t seem to take in enough feedings to eliminate the calorie fortification. She’s still well below where she should be on the growth chart, but at least she’s finally moving in a positive direction TOWARD the growth chart! I’m so proud of her. I am no longer obsessively taking her weight before and after every feeding, because she pretty consistently gets 4-6 ounces per breastfeeding session. I just spot-check her now.
Abby has stopped being terribly interested in eating on a strict schedule. She always gets her minimum 6 feedings per day, but first thing in the morning what she wants is to play. She instead loads up on feedings toward the end of the day. If she gets six feedings in by 7pm, she sleeps until around 3am. If she has only had 5 feedings by 7pm, she sleeps until 11pm eats her 6th feeding then and then sleeps until 5am. She knows exactly what she wants, and she gets it. We’ve JUST moved her to 5oz feedings, and she is reluctantly taking it. 4oz wasn’t quite enough, but she probably would prefer 4.5oz feedings. In contrast, both of the other babies are now taking SIX ounce feedings!
Another Abby milestone… she can now almost sit by herself unassisted. If you sit her up in your lap, she doesn’t wobble much and she can hold herself upright for several minutes without toppling over. She’s the first to do that.
Sam is very giggly. Though Abby occasionally giggles and Ellie is very smiley and coos a lot, Sam is definitely the giggliest of the bunch. It’s very cute. He’s also the biggest, by far.
The babies turn six whole months next Wednesday. They have their six month check up with Dr. F that day. It’s the first time one of their well-visits is with someone other than Dr. B. I’m branching out! (Seriously, I adore Dr. F almost as much as I adore Dr. B, so I don’t mind branching out a little… but it is a milestone of sorts for me, because I was pretty determined NOT to branch out!)

Read Full Post »

A Milestone?

Posted in doctor fun, milestones, triplet mania on March 14, 2008| 8 Comments »

Wednesday night, right on cue, Sam started screaming, as per usual. Seth brought him to me, good husband and father that he is, to be fed, but Sam was having none of that. What? MY son wasn't eating? MY son refusing to nurse? He was flailing around, and desperate, and clearly hungry and he would try to eat, but then would burst out screaming, poor thing. It was the middle of the night, so I knew I had plenty of milk, so that wasn't the problem. Although laying down normally isn't an issue, I tried sitting up with him, but that didn't work either. I tried the other side. I tried another position. Nothing helped. He tried on and off to eat for three hours. My poor baby…so unlike him. I've almost never known Sam to refuse to eat, especially when he was so obviously hungry!

Finally, exhausted, he cried himself to sleep in my arms. Good timing, too, because it was time to feed Ellie. We put him back in the crib and I fed Ellie, who had no problems eating (so obviously my milk wasn't the problem, thank heavens). Eventually, I got up and got ready for the day. When Nanny Extraordinaire arrived for the day, she got the babies ready for bathtime and she started with Sam, who loves the bath. And, sure enough, he got in the bath and giggled and giggled.

Something like 90% of children will have an ear infection by age 2. J, at age 4, has never had an ear infection. So I don't know WHAT to do with an ear infection! So, despite having just missed a day of work due to being sick, and despite the fact that I still felt crappy and was likely to miss most of the rest of of the day anyway, I realized that I should probably at least CALL the pediatrician's office and let them decide whether Sam should be seen. I figured they'd say to just keep an eye on it for a day or two, but to my surprise, they said to bring him in. I conferred with Jess who confirmed my theory that it was unlikely that they would treat it, even if it turned out that Sam DID have an ear infection, but she said that the doctor's office still likes to see what's going on so that they've got a baseline in case it doesn't clear up on its own. This made sense to me, so I made arrangements to take him in.

Of course, when I GOT to the office, Sam was all smiles and giggles, the little rat. I saw Dr. F (Dr. B wasn't available, and I love Dr. F, so it's all good). He came into the room and I said, "Wouldn't you know it, Sam's all smiley now!"
"Well, that makes things easy for me! Makes you look like a fool, but it's all good for me," he joked back at me. "Seriously, what's going on?"

Dr. F even tugged on his ears with no response other than giggles from Sam. It was infuriating! (I mean, I'm all for Sam not having any problem at all! But could he PLEASE not make me look like the over-reactive first-time mom? I mean… all three triplets had their FIRST COLD last week and I was SO PROUD of myself for not completely freaking out and calling the pediatrician's office immediately! Actually, Dr. F said he was proud of me for that, too…he said he would have called! Hah!) So anyway, he tried to look in Sam's ear, but couldn't see anything, so he disappeared to get a funky looking tool to help clean out the gunk from the ear. While he was gone, I lightly brushed against Sam's ear and Sam screamed bloody murder and it took several minutes to calm him down! Gah!

Well, to make a long story short (too late, I know!), Sam probably DOES have an ear infection and probably perforated his ear drum. It's only "probably" because with all the pus between the ear canal and the ear drum, Dr. F couldn't see down to the ear drum. Yum! In light of the likely perforation, they ARE treating the infection with antibiotics, even though under normal circumstances, they'd leave it alone. Fortunately, Sam LIKES the amoxicillin (it's really a good thing J never gets sick because he won't take medicine of any kind and never has). And last night, miracle or miracles: he only woke up to eat ONCE.

Other Milestones!

Ellie is almost 11 pounds. She still carries the diagnosis "Failure to Thrive" and can't seem to take in enough feedings to eliminate the calorie fortification. She's still well below where she should be on the growth chart, but at least she's finally moving in a positive direction TOWARD the growth chart! I'm so proud of her. I am no longer obsessively taking her weight before and after every feeding, because she pretty consistently gets 4-6 ounces per breastfeeding session. I just spot-check her now.
Abby has stopped being terribly interested in eating on a strict schedule. She always gets her minimum 6 feedings per day, but first thing in the morning what she wants is to play. She instead loads up on feedings toward the end of the day. If she gets six feedings in by 7pm, she sleeps until around 3am. If she has only had 5 feedings by 7pm, she sleeps until 11pm eats her 6th feeding then and then sleeps until 5am. She knows exactly what she wants, and she gets it. We've JUST moved her to 5oz feedings, and she is reluctantly taking it. 4oz wasn't quite enough, but she probably would prefer 4.5oz feedings. In contrast, both of the other babies are now taking SIX ounce feedings!
Another Abby milestone… she can now almost sit by herself unassisted. If you sit her up in your lap, she doesn't wobble much and she can hold herself upright for several minutes without toppling over. She's the first to do that.
Sam is very giggly. Though Abby occasionally giggles and Ellie is very smiley and coos a lot, Sam is definitely the giggliest of the bunch. It's very cute. He's also the biggest, by far.
The babies turn six whole months next Wednesday. They have their six month check up with Dr. F that day. It's the first time one of their well-visits is with someone other than Dr. B. I'm branching out! (Seriously, I adore Dr. F almost as much as I adore Dr. B, so I don't mind branching out a little… but it is a milestone of sorts for me, because I was pretty determined NOT to branch out!)

Read Full Post »

Numbers Games

Posted in triplet mania on March 4, 2008| 12 Comments »

You know my love of numbers, right? I’m an analyst so I play with numbers a lot. I mean, I may never live down the day that I posted about having pumped 58 gallons of milk up to that point (and hey, over a month has passed since then, I’m sure it’s nearly time to recalculate!). Well, I realized that the babies are 24 weeks old tomorrow. Can you believe it? That’s a long time to be as sleep deprived as I am. It’s also a long time to be changing diapers. I figure we average 18 diapers per day (it was more in the beginning, but some days are less, so it’s an AVERAGE people… do NOT pick on my math here!). Do you know how many diapers that is??

I do.

Three thousand twenty four diapers.

That’s a lot of diapers. Thank heavens for my father who has been generous enough to send us the vast majority of the diapers that we’ve needed. We have only bought a few of our own diapers (primarily the preemie diapers that we used in the beginning). I consider us very, very lucky. We also have very generous friends with bigger kids than we have, who have given us their leftover diapers as their kids have outgrown diapers that my kids are still wearing.

And seriously? I am extraordinarily grateful that J is (finally!) potty trained. It couldn’t have come at a better time!

Read Full Post »

Numbers Games

Posted in triplet mania on March 4, 2008| 12 Comments »

You know my love of numbers, right? I'm an analyst so I play with numbers a lot. I mean, I may never live down the day that I posted about having pumped 58 gallons of milk up to that point (and hey, over a month has passed since then, I'm sure it's nearly time to recalculate!). Well, I realized that the babies are 24 weeks old tomorrow. Can you believe it? That's a long time to be as sleep deprived as I am. It's also a long time to be changing diapers. I figure we average 18 diapers per day (it was more in the beginning, but some days are less, so it's an AVERAGE people… do NOT pick on my math here!). Do you know how many diapers that is??

I do.

Three thousand twenty four diapers.

That's a lot of diapers. Thank heavens for my father who has been generous enough to send us the vast majority of the diapers that we've needed. We have only bought a few of our own diapers (primarily the preemie diapers that we used in the beginning). I consider us very, very lucky. We also have very generous friends with bigger kids than we have, who have given us their leftover diapers as their kids have outgrown diapers that my kids are still wearing.

And seriously? I am extraordinarily grateful that J is (finally!) potty trained. It couldn't have come at a better time!

Read Full Post »

Some Notes

Posted in triplet mania on March 3, 2008| 10 Comments »

Just some things I want to make sure I don’t forget:

Sam
Sam doesn’t coo as much as the girls do, but he definitely is a talker. And he’s found his “happy squeal”… he can sit in my lap, or on a boppy, and entertain himself with his happy little squeal for a good long while, but mostly in the morning. He is my snuggliest baby, preferring to be held at all times, and happiest when eating. He prefers nursing over bottles under most circumstances, and he knows my voice for sure. He’ll be perfectly content sitting in the nanny’s lap, but when I walk in the room, he’ll immediately turn toward me and smile and reach toward me, even if he was just drinking happily from a bottle. He loves to play on the activity mat, and sit in his Bumbo chair. Yesterday we tried him in the exersaucer for the first time, but he’s not QUITE stable enough for it yet. Jess suggested using some rolled up receiving blankets to stabilize him, but I haven’t tried that yet. It would probably work. On Friday, he weighed 12 pounds, 13 ounces, my big boy. He looks awesome in stripes. But then, I’m partial to stripes. 🙂 He is wearing 3 month clothes, some 3-6 month clothes and even a few just plain 6mos clothes! Goodness!

Ellie
Ellie is very smiley these days. Ever since we got her to start gaining weight, she’s been much more alert, much more smiley, and much more active. On Friday, she weighed 9 pounds, 14.5 ounces! She is still getting the 28 calorie fortification 4 times per day during the week, but I am free to nurse her as much as I can on the weekends, so I try to give her at least two 28-calorie/oz bottles on the weekend, but I nurse her the rest of the time. She is taking 5oz bottles per feeding and takes at least that much when nursing as well, which is astounding. She doesn’t have to see the doctor again until next Tuesday which makes me really happy. She is long and skinny and still has a newborn sized waist, so she still wears Newborn pants, but has outgrown her Newborn stretchies and onesies. So she’s solidly in 0-3 month clothes, but is long enough to wear 3 months even. She coos a lot and still loves to suck her thumb, particularly in the middle of the night. She does NOT like to eat in the middle of the night still.

Abby
Abby has been smiling and cooing longer than either Ellie or Sam. It’s hard to believe that she used to be the runt of the pack. She’s way ahead of the bunch in so many ways now. She holds tight to her teddy bear, pulls bottles closer, smiles broadly when she sees you peering at her first thing in the morning, and LOVES to play on the activity center. She also loved the exersaucer yesterday. She was 10 pounds 12 ounces on Friday. She hates formula of any kind, but still won’t nurse, though I haven’t completely given up trying. Sigh. When I’m feeding her a bottle, I can’t look her in the eye, because if I do, she smiles so broadly that she stops sucking on the bottle. It’s very cute, but makes for very long mealtimes!