Another Set of Triplets

Last night Sarah was leaving to go see a friend in the neighborhood.  She walked outside and she came right back in.  She tells me that there is a chipmunk outside.  I of course do not believe her since I have never seen a chipmunk in our neighborhood and maybe even Charlotte.  So I go outside and she points to what she says is a chipmunk.  I look and it is small like a chipmunk, but its color is wrong it is not the brown with the stripes like a chipmunk.  It is more like a solid gray.  I tell her it looks more like a rat or maybe a mouse.  It's tail looks a little weird though like it was cut off or something.  Sarah then says look a rabbit.  Then I say look more bunnies.  The chipmunk ended up being a bunny.  Since they were so small Sarah ran in to get the camera.  We were unable to get a picture of the first one she saw, but we were able to get a picture of it's siblings on our front porch.  We were able to find three bunnies, so we are guessing that they were triplets.  Here is one of the better pictures we were able to get.

A normal days schedule

Many of you wonder just what a dad of triplets does all day long.  In this post I will try to give you some insight on how a typical day goes for us.

The girls get up somewhere between seven and eight and eat.  First I have to carry them downstairs and put them in their high chairs to eat.  Eating involves bottles followed by solid foods.  After the bottles, I try to give the girls breakfast type foods, this ranges from yogurt to oatmeal to fruit and to cereal.  The girls love fruit and cheerios.  A funny thing we have found out about fruit is that watermelon stains their clothing much more than you would think.  After eating the diapers all need to be changed before they are put in the play room to play.  Within half an hour of changing the diapers I will have to change at least one girl who is now stinky.  The girls play in the playroom until around 10 or 10:30 at which point they get fussy and I carry them all back upstairs to take a nap.  While they nap I make the bottles for the rest of the day and for the following morning.  They sleep for about an hour at which time I carry them back down stairs so they can play until noon when they eat next.  At noon I carry them back to their high chairs so they can eat bottles followed by solid foods.  Lately this has consisted of baby stage 3 foods.  After the stage 3 foods I give them something else that they can feed themselves, such as bread.  After the noon feeding I then change the girls again and put them back in the playroom so they can continue playing.  The girls will now play until two at which time I will carry them upstairs again so they can take their long nap.  If I am lucky the girls will all go straight to sleep and will sleep until 4 at which time I will carry them back downstairs to their high chairs so they can eat again.  Again they get bottles and some solid foods.  After eating I change more diapers and carry them back into the playroom.  The girls then play in the playroom until Sarah gets home from work, at which time we get supper ready while we move the girls back into the high chairs to give them food while we eat.  We have found that letting them eat finger foods while we eat make it more enjoyable for us since the girls are occupied eating.  After eating the girls play some more until 7:30 at which time we usually give them rice cereal.  At 8 we give the girls their last bottles and if all goes well we carry them back upstairs so they can go to sleep.  On bath nights after the 7:30 rice we carry the girls upstairs to bathe them and after the bath we carry them back downstairs to the highchairs to take their bottles so then we can carry them back upstairs to put them in their cribs.

Once the girls are sleeping there is still a lot to do.  The dishwasher needs to be loaded with all the bottles of the day.  The playroom needs to be cleaned.  The high chairs need to be cleaned as well as all the food residue that is now on the floor under the highchairs.  The bath tub needs to be cleaned since there is probably food residue in it also.

Once all the cleaning is done Sarah and I get ready for bed so we can do it all over the next day.  It is a busy day and we know the next day will be just as busy.  We go to bed hoping that no one wakes up during the middle of the night.

I think there are a few things that everyone needs to think about as they read this post.
1.  I can only carry one child at a time up and down the stairs (If we ever had triplets again, the first thing I would do is sell our house and buy a one story house or maybe it would be acceptable to use a dumb waiter)
2.  the girls still enjoy being held, so this is done frequently in the playroom
3.  grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning of the house need to be done on at least a weekly basis among other things.
4.  High chairs need to be cleaned after every feeding that way they are clean for the next feeding.

I have been told that this post looks boring or plain without a picture so to add some color to the post, here is a picture of the playroom when it is clean, and one at the end of a day of play.  Sometimes the room looks even messier than this when the girls decide they want to pull up the floor mat.

11 Months Old

The girls turned 11 months old yesterday, and they have turned into such little bundles of energy and joy.  They are very good crawlers and are into everything these days.  They love to have free roam of the great room, and will stand at the gate in the playroom and cry to let us know that they are done in there and want to roam.  They also love their ballpit, as evidenced in the previous blog. 

They all are walking along the furniture now, and seem to enjoy standing and exploring just as much as crawling.  They are good at taking all the bibs, burp clothes, socks, diapers, etc. off the changing table.  Emma is very maticulous on taking stuff apart, she pulls one sock out and puts it on the floor behind her, then takes the next one out, it is funny to watch how serious she is about doing this.  The other two just grab the stuff that she has stowed behind her and proceed to carry it to all other parts of the house.  Olivia is a great stander and will even use the walker to take some steps.  The other two aren't quite as confident with their walking skills, but Savannah uses her feet to crawl now, she looks like a little bear crawling around. 

They are no longer eating baby food, they get table food with us and formula for their meals.  They still eat 4 times a day, but they are all really good eaters, though Emma would prefer to eat the food and forgo the formula.  They love cheerios, Savannah even laughs when she sees them, it is such a sweet excited giggle.  They have become much less fussy and are just so enjoyable these days.  I would love to spend some more time with them, but Scott still has not found a job so that is not a possiblity for us yet.  Keep praying for him to find some work, as I know the stay at home dad job is very difficult for him.

Playtime

I love having triplets for many reasons, but probably one of the best is that they play together and interact with each other which is so fun to watch.  When they play in the playroom they always travel in a group, if one moves to another corner of the room the others follow within seconds.  They usually play with different toys but they are constantly close enough and often so close that they are touching one another.  I also think it is funny that even though they have a big room to play in they refuse to go around another baby, but rather the crawl over the baby that is in the way, and it is no big deal.  They also get excited to see each other, in the mornings they laugh at one another and then also if they are crawling around furniture and they spot each other they will laugh and crawl really fast toward each other, almost to the point of colliding.

We have some videos of them playing together, the first one is in the playroom, Savannah likes to have an adult in there playing with them so if you are spotted she cries.  I was able to get this video outside the door without being noticed by Savannah.



This second video is of them playing in their ball pit, at the beginning of the video you will see Savannah get excited when she sees Olivia round the corner.


And here are the girls standing at the gate, this is their new past-time when we are not in there playing with them.  They are actually in order in this video (Emma, Olivia, Savannah)

Father's Day

 think Scott had a nice Father's day this year, the girls were very busy.  My friend Kelly came over on Saturday, she had mentioned the idea of letting the girls finger paint for their dad.  She helped me do hand prints of the girls and then we took them outside and let them finger paint in their diapers, it was really funny here are some pictures. 

Each girl also got dad a pack of his favorite candies and they helped me write this sweet poem about their daddy.

Daddy of Triplets

A miraculous day it was when three healthy babies arrivedBut soon our parents were both very sleep deprived

Yet, our new father never missed a beat

A stronger man you’ll never meet

When we turned four months old

Our dad took a new job that was very bold

A stay at home dad he became

A job which doesn’t have a lot of fame

Our crying and screaming gave headaches galore

And yet he stuck around every day for more

Our smiles and giggles became his pay

And he quickly began enjoying each new day

Diapers to change, bottles to make

All times three for Heaven’s sake

Clothes to wash, high chairs to clean

Keeping Cuddles from being mean

Stack some cups really high

Hold each girl up and pretend she flies

Sing a song, play patty-cake

Pretend the plastic food isn’t fake

Dad is tired, but there is still time for fun

Hey I know, let’s all go for a run

So many duties for one man to do

I hope he can catch a nap or two

His devotion to each of us is so unique

And for his attention we all do seek

If we could speak we would say

You’re the best dad in every way

Sick Girls

The girls are all doing well now, but we have had a recent episode of a virus that they all passed around.  It was our first time with fevers above 99 and we were a little worried so we wisked them off to the doctor to find out that it was a sore throat/fever virus that would have to take its course.  Savannah came down with it first and within 24 hours Emma also had it. Olivia was the last to get it, but her fever never really got very high.  Savannah had a fever of 103.8 one night and I got worried and we spent an hour trying to give her ice pops and medicine.  Having 3 sick girls is totally awful, I am so thankful that Scott and I stayed healthy I'm not sure how I could have possibly managed if either of us had gotten sick.  We had to set our alarm for every 2-3 hours so we could give them medicine, with fevers that high we just couldn't chance them not having some medicine in their system.  We had to write everything down because we couldn't remember who had gotten the tylenlol or ibroprufen last and at what time.  They were really good troopers but we were exhasuted, my parents were kind enough to chip in and let Scott and I catch up on some sleep over the weekend.  This is actually worse than when they were infants, we are hoping that everyone will stay healthy for the next 20 years (ok I know what you are thinking, but it's a good thought).

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a nice Memorial Day Weekend with the girls, we played in the itty bitty pool that we bought them (it sure looked bigger at the store), went to  my parents for a cook-out, and even did a little shopping.

I dressed the girls up in some festive outfits for our cook-out, I confess that I really bought these outfits for 4th of July, but they are so cute I wanted them to wear them more than once.  I found these dresses at Kohls but I had to go to 3 different stores to find 3 of the same size (12m).  For those of you who have known me for a long time know that I love to get a deal, but with triplets that is just not possible if I want them to match I have to pay full price, but in this case I think it was worth it, look how cute they are.