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Archive for the ‘triplet mania’ Category

Some Notes

Posted in triplet mania on March 3, 2008| 9 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!

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Five Months and Some Milestones

Posted in My precious angels, parenting, triplet mania on February 19, 2008| 11 Comments »

My babies are FIVE MONTHS OLD today. Can you believe that I’m such a lazy sloth that in FIVE MONTHS I still haven’t managed to write about the day of their birth??? Man, I suck. Maybe before they’re six months old. Hah, I say, Hah!

It didn’t escape my notice, though I failed to find the time to make a blog post, that February 14th marked an anniversary for us. A year ago, in the midst of a pretty nasty ice storm, despite J having school cancelled, and terrible road conditions, S and I dragged ourselves out to the clinic for IUI day, for an IUI that was doomed to fail. The IUI was SO definitely going to fail that I had my IVF consult two days later and Dr. Amazing told me flat out that it was time to move on, and there was no way I was going to get a positive beta out of that ridiculous cycle. Everything went wrong with that cycle. Everything. Except my three precious miracles. They were right. A year later and here I am, looking at my three beautiful babies, and I know that no matter how WRONG that cycle was… everything was exactly right.

I cried tears of emptiness every day that I didn’t have any babies in my arms. And I cry tears of joy every day now that my beautiful babies are here. S heard me say that to someone recently and asked if I meant that literally. “I mean, I know that I’m dense sometimes, but did I miss you crying every day?” In the beginning, no, I didn’t literally cry tears every single day… but by the end… yeah, I really did. Not sobbing, wretching, buckets of tears, but I wiped a tear or two off my cheek every day toward the end. Especially after the miscarriage. And now, sometimes I stand over my babies’ crib at night and hold their tiny little hands as they sleep and I’m so overwhelmed with joy and love and even a little sadness for all the years of loss… that I still wipe a tear away. But these are hard-earned tears, and I wouldn’t give them up for anything.

And our babies…our beautiful babies… they’re growing up. I went through and took out all their Newborn clothes from their shelves. And I even took out all of Sam’s 0-3 month sized clothes. Ellie still fits in 0-3 month clothes (and even some NB clothes, but I put those away anyway, since she’s not lacking for clothes). They’re getting bigger every day, and it’s so funny to see it happen right before my eyes. My nanny tells me things don’t fit and I don’t believe her and then I take a look and it’s true! How could this be!? But, despite my belief that they are as teeney as the day they were born, they just aren’t. Abby is over three times her birth weight, and Sam is getting close to three times his birth weight. Ellie’s not there yet, but she’s finally double her birth weight, which is astounding. They just keep getting bigger and bigger.

In other milestones, Sam learned a new trick last week… If I leave the room and he cries, I come back! Yep, he’s got me wrapped around his little finger. And when I walk back in the room, he smiles and coos and calms right down. And then if I walk back out of the room, he starts fussing again! And so it goes… He’s still my little piggy and he wants to eat ALL NIGHT LONG nearly every hour and I have no idea how to break him of this habit, because he’s clearly truly hungry when he wakes up. I tried explaining to him logically last night that Dr. B. said that at his weight he should be ABLE to sleep through the night, but Sam was having nothing to do with it and he responded quite indignantly.

Abby is our smiliest baby who coos the most of all. Yesterday S even got her to giggle for the first time! More significantly, this week she started sleeping laying flat in the pack n’ play. She had been sleeping in a bouncy chair, which was really aggravating, because I was totally convinced she was never going to sleep in a crib, ever, but it’s finally happening! Best of all, she wakes up happy and smiling in the morning, which is a beautiful thing.

Ellie didn’t grow at all last week, but it’s clear that she’s growing now. She’s far more alert now than she was even last week, and she’s not nearly so skeletal looking. You can still see her ribs, but her thighs are chunking out a little and her face has a little more pudge to it. She’s finally got enough fat on her face that we’ve discovered she has dimples! Now that she’s more alert, she’s been rewarding us with lots of beautiful smiles. She’s also been fussing more than she had been, but I take that as a sign that she’s more aware of her environment, so it’s a good thing. She has another appointment on Friday, and I expect that she will have grown a bit then, so we’ll see. She still has a gastroenterology follow up scheduled next week. I haven’t cancelled it yet, but I suspect I might. I feel like her pediatrician is handling it appropriately and I don’t see how the gastroenterologist will really add anything of value at this point. We’ll see.

My father and his wife are coming to visit this weekend. It’s the first time they’ve seen the babies since the day the babies were discharged from the NICU, over four months ago. Amazing how time flies when you’re sleep-deprived. In many ways, parenting triplets (so far) has been a million times easier than I expected it to be. In other ways, it has been far more challenging than I could ever describe. I don’t feel like it’s more than I can handle, but I feel terribly inadequate for the job. I fear that I will be an inadequate parent for my children…that I will shortchange them in ways that I might not have if I’d had them one at a time. I fear that they will miss out on the individual attention they should be getting. I fear that J is missing out on individual attention that HE should be getting right now. But I also know that these are all fears I’d be having even with a singleton. I know that all parents fear inadequacy, and I know that the only thing I can ask of myself is that I strive to be the best parent I CAN be on any given day. Some days that will be enough, and some days it won’t be, but every day it will be as much as it can be and that’s really all I can ask of myself today.

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Five Months and Some Milestones

Posted in My precious angels, parenting, triplet mania on February 19, 2008| 10 Comments »

My babies are FIVE MONTHS OLD today. Can you believe that I'm such a lazy sloth that in FIVE MONTHS I still haven't managed to write about the day of their birth??? Man, I suck. Maybe before they're six months old. Hah, I say, Hah!

It didn't escape my notice, though I failed to find the time to make a blog post, that February 14th marked an anniversary for us. A year ago, in the midst of a pretty nasty ice storm, despite J having school cancelled, and terrible road conditions, S and I dragged ourselves out to the clinic for IUI day, for an IUI that was doomed to fail. The IUI was SO definitely going to fail that I had my IVF consult two days later and Dr. Amazing told me flat out that it was time to move on, and there was no way I was going to get a positive beta out of that ridiculous cycle. Everything went wrong with that cycle. Everything. Except my three precious miracles. They were right. A year later and here I am, looking at my three beautiful babies, and I know that no matter how WRONG that cycle was… everything was exactly right.

I cried tears of emptiness every day that I didn't have any babies in my arms. And I cry tears of joy every day now that my beautiful babies are here. S heard me say that to someone recently and asked if I meant that literally. "I mean, I know that I'm dense sometimes, but did I miss you crying every day?" In the beginning, no, I didn't literally cry tears every single day… but by the end… yeah, I really did. Not sobbing, wretching, buckets of tears, but I wiped a tear or two off my cheek every day toward the end. Especially after the miscarriage. And now, sometimes I stand over my babies' crib at night and hold their tiny little hands as they sleep and I'm so overwhelmed with joy and love and even a little sadness for all the years of loss… that I still wipe a tear away. But these are hard-earned tears, and I wouldn't give them up for anything.

And our babies…our beautiful babies… they're growing up. I went through and took out all their Newborn clothes from their shelves. And I even took out all of Sam's 0-3 month sized clothes. Ellie still fits in 0-3 month clothes (and even some NB clothes, but I put those away anyway, since she's not lacking for clothes). They're getting bigger every day, and it's so funny to see it happen right before my eyes. My nanny tells me things don't fit and I don't believe her and then I take a look and it's true! How could this be!? But, despite my belief that they are as teeney as the day they were born, they just aren't. Abby is over three times her birth weight, and Sam is getting close to three times his birth weight. Ellie's not there yet, but she's finally double her birth weight, which is astounding. They just keep getting bigger and bigger.

In other milestones, Sam learned a new trick last week… If I leave the room and he cries, I come back! Yep, he's got me wrapped around his little finger. And when I walk back in the room, he smiles and coos and calms right down. And then if I walk back out of the room, he starts fussing again! And so it goes… He's still my little piggy and he wants to eat ALL NIGHT LONG nearly every hour and I have no idea how to break him of this habit, because he's clearly truly hungry when he wakes up. I tried explaining to him logically last night that Dr. B. said that at his weight he should be ABLE to sleep through the night, but Sam was having nothing to do with it and he responded quite indignantly.

Abby is our smiliest baby who coos the most of all. Yesterday S even got her to giggle for the first time! More significantly, this week she started sleeping laying flat in the pack n' play. She had been sleeping in a bouncy chair, which was really aggravating, because I was totally convinced she was never going to sleep in a crib, ever, but it's finally happening! Best of all, she wakes up happy and smiling in the morning, which is a beautiful thing.

Ellie didn't grow at all last week, but it's clear that she's growing now. She's far more alert now than she was even last week, and she's not nearly so skeletal looking. You can still see her ribs, but her thighs are chunking out a little and her face has a little more pudge to it. She's finally got enough fat on her face that we've discovered she has dimples! Now that she's more alert, she's been rewarding us with lots of beautiful smiles. She's also been fussing more than she had been, but I take that as a sign that she's more aware of her environment, so it's a good thing. She has another appointment on Friday, and I expect that she will have grown a bit then, so we'll see. She still has a gastroenterology follow up scheduled next week. I haven't cancelled it yet, but I suspect I might. I feel like her pediatrician is handling it appropriately and I don't see how the gastroenterologist will really add anything of value at this point. We'll see.

My father and his wife are coming to visit this weekend. It's the first time they've seen the babies since the day the babies were discharged from the NICU, over four months ago. Amazing how time flies when you're sleep-deprived. In many ways, parenting triplets (so far) has been a million times easier than I expected it to be. In other ways, it has been far more challenging than I could ever describe. I don't feel like it's more than I can handle, but I feel terribly inadequate for the job. I fear that I will be an inadequate parent for my children…that I will shortchange them in ways that I might not have if I'd had them one at a time. I fear that they will miss out on the individual attention they should be getting. I fear that J is missing out on individual attention that HE should be getting right now. But I also know that these are all fears I'd be having even with a singleton. I know that all parents fear inadequacy, and I know that the only thing I can ask of myself is that I strive to be the best parent I CAN be on any given day. Some days that will be enough, and some days it won't be, but every day it will be as much as it can be and that's really all I can ask of myself today.

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Nanny Bliss (Updated)

Posted in nanny love, triplet mania on January 28, 2008| 26 Comments »

I do so hate leaving my babies behind each morning, but my nanny makes it so much easier. Because seriously, do you know what my wondermous nanny said to me this morning when I asked her how her weekend was?? She said, “I missed the babies!”

I love her!

(this is my 250th post. I’m a total slacker. With 3 months on bed rest you’d think I’d have written a helluva lot more than that. Bad Blogger. Bad Blogger!)

Edited to Add: Just to clarify, I do not have guilt about working and leaving my children with a nanny. I am sad to leave my babies. I miss my children during the day. I wish I could spend the day with them every day. But I don’t feel guilty about it. Guilt is born from knowing you’re doing something wrong and I know I’m not doing anything wrong. I am doing what I have to do to provide for my family in the best way possible.

I receive a lot of caring, supportive anonymous comments, so I won’t turn off anonymous commenting or move to a password-protected blog as some others have suggested. Nor will I delete offensive anonymous comments, because all the comments I get are a part of my blogging history and deserve to be preserved. But I would like to encourage my readers who don’t have a blog account to leave comments using blogger’s “nickname” feature. You don’t have to use your real name or initials, just a consistent one. That way, I know you’re a person who cares and not some meaningless troll like this insensitive pig who found his or her way into my blog today.

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Nanny Bliss (Updated)

Posted in nanny love, triplet mania on January 28, 2008| 18 Comments »

I do so hate leaving my babies behind each morning, but my nanny makes it so much easier. Because seriously, do you know what my wondermous nanny said to me this morning when I asked her how her weekend was?? She said, "I missed the babies!"

I love her!

(this is my 250th post. I'm a total slacker. With 3 months on bed rest you'd think I'd have written a helluva lot more than that. Bad Blogger. Bad Blogger!)

Edited to Add: Just to clarify, I do not have guilt about working and leaving my children with a nanny. I am sad to leave my babies. I miss my children during the day. I wish I could spend the day with them every day. But I don't feel guilty about it. Guilt is born from knowing you're doing something wrong and I know I'm not doing anything wrong. I am doing what I have to do to provide for my family in the best way possible.

I receive a lot of caring, supportive anonymous comments, so I won't turn off anonymous commenting or move to a password-protected blog as some others have suggested. Nor will I delete offensive anonymous comments, because all the comments I get are a part of my blogging history and deserve to be preserved. But I would like to encourage my readers who don't have a blog account to leave comments using blogger's "nickname" feature. You don't have to use your real name or initials, just a consistent one. That way, I know you're a person who cares and not some meaningless troll like this insensitive pig who found his or her way into my blog today.

Read Full Post »

Oh Ellie-Bellie, Why Won’t Your Belly Grow?

Posted in triplet mania, triplets pictures on January 23, 2008| 22 Comments »

The Triplets had their four-month appointment today. Can you believe it? Four months have passed since they were born and I still haven’t gotten my shit together to write about the day of their arrival into the world. I suck. Needless to say, it’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that I’ve been wrapped up in their lives and in caring for them. Yeah, that’s it. Uh huh. Anyway, they will be 18 weeks old tomorrow. It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you’re having this much fun. And seriously, how come no one told me it was going to get to be this much fun? All of a sudden they’ve started noticing people and they’re all smiley and interactive and loveable! I adored them before, but now, ohmygosh, it’s a whole new level of love that I didn’t even know existed! Seriously, I knew before how much I wanted to be a mommy, but if I’d known it would only get BETTER after they were born, well, gosh I’m not sure I would have been able to wait five years for these little monsters to arrive!

Anywhozit, they went in for their four month check up this morning and Sam and Abby are definitely growing, but Ellie… oh poor, sweet Ellie. She isn’t! I don’t know what to do with my poor Ellie-Bellie! Here are their current stats:

Sam: (my little piggie!) 10 lb, 6 oz 21.5 inches long
Abby: (my smiliest) 9 lb, 7 oz 21.5 inches long
Ellie: (my teeney beanie) 7lb, 8oz 21 inches long

Ellie last got weighed on January 4th and she was 7lb, 7oz. Seriously! I actually made the nurse re-weigh her today to make sure we’d read the scale correctly, because I just couldn’t believe she’d only gained an ounce. My poor, tiny baby. So we don’t know why she’s not gaining weight. We know that she doesn’t like to eat as often as the other two, that’s for sure. But we also know that when she does eat, she’s eating a sufficient amount (she gets about 3-4 ounces when she breast feeds…we’ve weighed her before and after feeding and she consistently gets that amount). In the past her weight gain has been borderline worrisome, but never really, really awful. Now, obviously, she’s definitely giving us something to worry about. In a way, it’s almost better because now at least we KNOW that it’s time to be more aggressive and we know that we’re not poking and prodding her for no good reason this time.

So here’s the plan: We drew blood from her today to run a CBC and a full metabolic panel on her (she’d previously had a thyroid panel drawn which came back normal). We’ll also have her stool checked for blood. We’ll add 22 calorie fortifier to her EBM feedings to try and get some extra calories into her. We will bring her back next week to be re-weighed and bring a copy of her feeding log so that we can calculate how many calories per day she’s eating. We will aggressively wake her to eat every three hours (we’ve tried this before with little success, but we’ll do our best).

I love our pediatrician and I’m very glad that he’s very level headed, but being very aggressive about working with us to find answers on this. We are relieved that her head circumference growth is exactly perfect on the growth charts, that her neurological development seems spot on, and that her muscle tone and motor development does not seem impaired. These are all good signs, so perhaps the weight gain (or lack thereof) needn’t be so alarming, but we still definitely need to explore it.

After the appointment, I went off to my first day of work. It was a very, very short day since I just really needed to fill out some paperwork and do a little reading, but that was okay with me. I think I’m going to enjoy this job. I hope so, anyway. I came home to smiling babies and promptly pumped 15 ounces, a new record for me.

Finally, I leave you with some pictures of my gorgeous trio…

The Trio:

Sam Playing:

Abby, Cute as a Button:

Ellie Sleeping:

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Oh Ellie-Bellie, Why Won’t Your Belly Grow?

Posted in triplet mania, triplets pictures on January 23, 2008| 24 Comments »

The Triplets had their four-month appointment today. Can you believe it? Four months have passed since they were born and I still haven't gotten my shit together to write about the day of their arrival into the world. I suck. Needless to say, it's not that I don't care, it's just that I've been wrapped up in their lives and in caring for them. Yeah, that's it. Uh huh. Anyway, they will be 18 weeks old tomorrow. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you're having this much fun. And seriously, how come no one told me it was going to get to be this much fun? All of a sudden they've started noticing people and they're all smiley and interactive and loveable! I adored them before, but now, ohmygosh, it's a whole new level of love that I didn't even know existed! Seriously, I knew before how much I wanted to be a mommy, but if I'd known it would only get BETTER after they were born, well, gosh I'm not sure I would have been able to wait five years for these little monsters to arrive!

Anywhozit, they went in for their four month check up this morning and Sam and Abby are definitely growing, but Ellie… oh poor, sweet Ellie. She isn't! I don't know what to do with my poor Ellie-Bellie! Here are their current stats:

Sam: (my little piggie!) 10 lb, 6 oz 21.5 inches long
Abby: (my smiliest) 9 lb, 7 oz 21.5 inches long
Ellie: (my teeney beanie) 7lb, 8oz 21 inches long

Ellie last got weighed on January 4th and she was 7lb, 7oz. Seriously! I actually made the nurse re-weigh her today to make sure we'd read the scale correctly, because I just couldn't believe she'd only gained an ounce. My poor, tiny baby. So we don't know why she's not gaining weight. We know that she doesn't like to eat as often as the other two, that's for sure. But we also know that when she does eat, she's eating a sufficient amount (she gets about 3-4 ounces when she breast feeds…we've weighed her before and after feeding and she consistently gets that amount). In the past her weight gain has been borderline worrisome, but never really, really awful. Now, obviously, she's definitely giving us something to worry about. In a way, it's almost better because now at least we KNOW that it's time to be more aggressive and we know that we're not poking and prodding her for no good reason this time.

So here's the plan: We drew blood from her today to run a CBC and a full metabolic panel on her (she'd previously had a thyroid panel drawn which came back normal). We'll also have her stool checked for blood. We'll add 22 calorie fortifier to her EBM feedings to try and get some extra calories into her. We will bring her back next week to be re-weighed and bring a copy of her feeding log so that we can calculate how many calories per day she's eating. We will aggressively wake her to eat every three hours (we've tried this before with little success, but we'll do our best).

I love our pediatrician and I'm very glad that he's very level headed, but being very aggressive about working with us to find answers on this. We are relieved that her head circumference growth is exactly perfect on the growth charts, that her neurological development seems spot on, and that her muscle tone and motor development does not seem impaired. These are all good signs, so perhaps the weight gain (or lack thereof) needn't be so alarming, but we still definitely need to explore it.

After the appointment, I went off to my first day of work. It was a very, very short day since I just really needed to fill out some paperwork and do a little reading, but that was okay with me. I think I'm going to enjoy this job. I hope so, anyway. I came home to smiling babies and promptly pumped 15 ounces, a new record for me.

Finally, I leave you with some pictures of my gorgeous trio…

The Trio:

Sam Playing:

Abby, Cute as a Button:

Ellie Sleeping:

Read Full Post »

Weight Check

Posted in triplet mania on December 20, 2007| 10 Comments »

The babies had a weight check yesterday at the pediatrician’s office. They are all growing, but Ellie is definitely still a bit of a worry. My big boy Sam is 7 pounds, 14 ounces. He’s so fat and cute and I love him (note: he’s actually not fat for a normal baby, but compared to where he started? He’s SO fat!). I love looking at him and his squishy cheeks and chubby thighs and thinking, “I did that! I grew that baby!” He is fed only breastmilk and takes 95% of his feedings directly from the breast, and it’s amazing. I grew that baby on the inside and out, and it’s an absolute miracle.

More miraculous was our not-so-little-anymore Abbysaurus. Abby weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces! She’s so huge! Abby was our runt to start and it’s incredible to see how well she’s grown. She, too, receives only breastmilk, though she had extra calories added to hers until yesterday, and she refuses to latch on most of the time so she gets it in a bottle. Still, I did that! I’m growing that baby all by myself!

Ellie is also growing but at a much slower and slightly worrisome rate. She is now 7 pounds exactly. Considering that she used to be a full pound bigger than her sister, it’s astounding that she’s now 3/4 of a pound behind her. She gained only 4 ounces in 11 days (she goes in for more frequent weight checks than the other two). The good news is that her eating has improved somewhat and she hasn’t been on a hunger strike in several days, so hopefully her next weight check will show some improvement. She also gets only breastmilk and takes 95% of her feedings from the breast directly, so I feel good about her, but I have a little bit of guilt that something’s going wrong with her growth. Still, I don’t think it’s me, since Sam is so fat.

The babies are all absolutely delicious with their own personalities and their own ways of getting attention. J is fabulous with them, but having really serious adjustment issues at school. We’re meeting with his teacher next week to talk about some strategies for helping him. Sigh. Hopefully things will improve soon.

Two of my pregnant triplet mama friends have had their babies recently, and I’m just so unbelievably happy for them. I know that the NICU time isn’t the easiest (yes, I still plan to write about that experience at some point), but it will be over soon, I promise!

Read Full Post »

Weight Check

Posted in triplet mania on December 20, 2007| 10 Comments »

The babies had a weight check yesterday at the pediatrician's office. They are all growing, but Ellie is definitely still a bit of a worry. My big boy Sam is 7 pounds, 14 ounces. He's so fat and cute and I love him (note: he's actually not fat for a normal baby, but compared to where he started? He's SO fat!). I love looking at him and his squishy cheeks and chubby thighs and thinking, "I did that! I grew that baby!" He is fed only breastmilk and takes 95% of his feedings directly from the breast, and it's amazing. I grew that baby on the inside and out, and it's an absolute miracle.

More miraculous was our not-so-little-anymore Abbysaurus. Abby weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces! She's so huge! Abby was our runt to start and it's incredible to see how well she's grown. She, too, receives only breastmilk, though she had extra calories added to hers until yesterday, and she refuses to latch on most of the time so she gets it in a bottle. Still, I did that! I'm growing that baby all by myself!

Ellie is also growing but at a much slower and slightly worrisome rate. She is now 7 pounds exactly. Considering that she used to be a full pound bigger than her sister, it's astounding that she's now 3/4 of a pound behind her. She gained only 4 ounces in 11 days (she goes in for more frequent weight checks than the other two). The good news is that her eating has improved somewhat and she hasn't been on a hunger strike in several days, so hopefully her next weight check will show some improvement. She also gets only breastmilk and takes 95% of her feedings from the breast directly, so I feel good about her, but I have a little bit of guilt that something's going wrong with her growth. Still, I don't think it's me, since Sam is so fat.

The babies are all absolutely delicious with their own personalities and their own ways of getting attention. J is fabulous with them, but having really serious adjustment issues at school. We're meeting with his teacher next week to talk about some strategies for helping him. Sigh. Hopefully things will improve soon.

Two of my pregnant triplet mama friends have had their babies recently, and I'm just so unbelievably happy for them. I know that the NICU time isn't the easiest (yes, I still plan to write about that experience at some point), but it will be over soon, I promise!

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Miscellaneous

Posted in parenting, triplet mania on November 4, 2007| 12 Comments »

Funny
One ridiculous thing about me is that despite having been a history major, I’m terrible with certain dates. It took me years to remember when my mother’s birthday is (September 27, but I used to mix it up with the 17th). The only reason I know when my husband’s birthday is is that it’s six days after mine. The only reason I remember mine is because it’s four days after Robert Burns’ Day (I was supposed to be born on Robert Burns’ birthday, and since I was born in Scotland, that would have been a huge deal, so my father has never let me forget it). And then there’s my anniversary. You’d think this would be one date I’d remember, right? I picked the date, after all. I was there. A year of planning went into that date. It should be emblazoned in my mind, right? But the first time I received my wedding album, the wrong date was imprinted on it, and that set a bad precedent. I have a friend who got married exactly three weeks before me and so I routinely call her and ask her whether I got married November 2nd or 3rd when I have to fill out a form that requires my anniversary date. She laughs at me every time, but she does tell me, so that’s good. Worse, I have to think really hard to figure out what YEAR even I got married. Hah. I never have to ask her that one, though, because all I had to do was figure out how long I’d been trying to get pregnant and subtract that from the current year, since we started trying immediately. Sad that my point of context is infertility…

ANYWAY, the funny part is this: This morning, my Google Calendar reminder sent me an email to remind me that today is my anniversary. Except, uh, that’s WRONG! Our anniversary was yesterday! Duh! I couldn’t even get the date right when I was setting up my calendar reminders! Sigh. Yesterday we sponsored a kiddush (small luncheon) at shul (synagogue) in honor of three things: Our fifth wedding anniversary was yesterday, today is the third anniversary of J coming to live with us permanently, and celebrating the birth of our triplets (November 7th is the triplets due date, which is coincidentally our anniversary on the Hebrew Calendar). There is much to celebrate, even if I AM terrible with dates. 🙂

I am Super-Mom
Sometimes this whole being-a-triplet-mom thing is hard, but sometimes it helps remind me that I am superwoman. For example… how many women out there can say that they’ve been able to feed THREE babies at once? Well, I can say that! Several times now, I’ve managed to nurse two babies at once, while bottle feeding a third baby propped between my knees. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but I’ve done it.

The triplets eat 6-8 times per day, depending. They eat between every 3-4 hours depending on how hungry Sam is… He’s our measuring stick… the other two don’t get hungry nearly as often as he does, so when he gets hungry, he gets fed and the other two follow, so that they all stay on close to the same schedule. We change close to 30 diapers per day. We have gone through about a case of wipes since they came home. We do about 3 loads of laundry per day, sometimes more. We sleep in chunks of 2-3 hours at a time. Occasionally, we are able to sleep for slightly longer, but it comes at a cost (if I sleep for longer, it means my boobs wake me up in agony from lack of pumping or nursing). Two of the babies are breastfeeding 85% of the time. Abby still refuses, but since she’s the little one, she gets extra calories added to her expressed breastmilk anyway, so it’s not an entirely bad thing that she gets expressed milk. Tuesday we’ll see a lactation consultant to see if she can help us figure out how to reintroduce Abby to the breast. In the NICU she was my best breast-feeder, so it’s a bit frustrating that she’s now refusing to consider it. But at least her bigger siblings are getting to be pros. They weren’t very good at all at breastfeeding in the NICU.

We are slowly getting the nursery together, but there’s SO much stuff that people have given or lent us… we have clothes from all different ages that people are lending us (kids at this age outgrow things so quickly it’s not worth buying much) that I have to sort through. The babies aren’t sleeping in the nursery right now anyway… they sleep in my room in a pack n’ play next to my bed. It’s not a big deal either way, the nursery is only three steps further away than the pack n’ play, but still… Eventually it would be nice if the nursery was finished. So Seth is working on that today.

Okay, super-mom has to go now. Babies are hungry. More later!

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