A LOOOOOOONG overdue update

Family pic taken for the church directory. Ben and Mike are in Ethan's lap, Delia with me.


Ben was sooooo tired, he fell asleep in the bumbo!


Ben, Delia and Mike playing with their overhead gym.


Delia, Mike and Ben in their bumbos.


Ben, Mike and Delia


So it's true, life as a full time working mom and mom of triplets is exactly as busy and crazy as you'd imagine it is. And as you can see, I've not had much time or made it a priority to keep the blog updated. But I am going to make my best effort to get back to it now. Not only for all those who hung with me through the bedrest and 10 weeks in the NICU, but for myself, because as I look back at those first months, the blog is my only source of memories. And they are just way too cute now and do too many cute things, I've got to have some place to keep track of them!

Let's see, what has happened since November 1? A lot! I'll break it down by category:

HEALTH We've had a few bumps but at the moment are all doing great. Poor Ben has been hit hard. He spent five days in the hospital just before Thanksgiving due to a skin infection. He needed surgery to drain an abscess, and then IV antibiotics to get rid of the leftovers, but he has recovered nicely. There is about an inch long scar on his collar bone area, but we're working with over the counter scar cream to get rid of it. Or we can make up a fun story about what happened when he gets older, whatever.

Ben also had a bout of pneumonia and spent four days in the hospital at New Year's. Yes, Ethan was in the ER with him on New Year's Eve. I knew we wouldn't have a "fun" evening like we have in the past, but I hadn't expected that we would be in separate places! Such is life.

Other than that, no serious issues. Mike and Delia each had one ear infection; Delia and Ben had croup. Everyone has had fevers, coughs and runny noses. We expected that, between winter, crummy immune systems, and daycare. I didn't think it would be this bad but we are surviving. I joked that my new year's resolution was go to 7 days without seeing the pediatrician; we haven't made it yet. As a matter of fact, I'm almost positive that we haven't gone 7 days since we left the hospital October 10 without being in for some kind of shots, well visit or sick visit. Good thing I love our doctor!

DEVELOPMENT They are growing like weeds and learning all kinds of new things. Everyone has good head control and they enjoy sitting in their bumbos, although they can't sit unassisted yet. Delia and Ben have become big thumb suckers, but Mikey never really picked it up. He actually sucks on his upper lip which looks very strange, but hey, whatever works. They are starting to babble and coo, and Mikey squeals like a hyena. It is hysterical when they try to carry on a conversation with you, I can tell by the inflection of their sounds that they have a message they are trying to convey, but it comes out as ah-goo, aggen-gaggen, or gee. Mikey has rolled over belly to back, and Delia can go from her back to her left side. Mikey raises his head very well while on his tummy. Everyone is doing well reaching for toys and grasping things you put in their hands.

We had a visit with the developmental team at St. Francis last week and everyone is progressing right on schedule for their adjusted age, good news that put my mind at ease. They gave us suggestions on ways to play and exercises to help ensure everyone gains head strength, learns to roll over and sit up unassisted, and doesn't develop a preference for one side yet. Of course everyone ends up right or left handed, but at this age it is too soon for that to be determined, and for balance and such it is important that they don't work one side more than the other. They can also develop tight muscles if they are always looking one way versus the other, or develop flat spots on their heads.....Mikey actually has one on his right side that may require a head shaping helmet. That was the only "bad" news we got from the appointment. We see the pediatrician for six month shots on Friday, and she'll weigh in on whether we should visit with a specialist in STL or give it more time. It's not causing him development issues right now, but in some cases if left untreated it could lead to them. And of course I don't want him to be teased for having a lopsided head his whole life. We'll see what happens. I wish he was absolutely perfect, but at least this is a relatively common problem, with a safe, reliable treatment. Can't complain about that.

SLEEPING AND EATING Sleeping is excellent. Bedtime is usually around 8 or 9, and they usually sleep through til 4 or 5AM. Most nights somebody wakes up and needs to be held or sometimes fed, but most nights it only happens once, and they take turns. Very odd to me that it isn't consistently one or the other, but hopefully that means they are getting better at self soothing and falling asleep on their own. Everyone sleeps in their cribs regularly, which means I get to sleep in my big girl bed regularly too! They nap for a couple hours between the time Ethan feeds them in the AM and the time they go to daycare, then nap twice at daycare.

Breastfeeding is over. I made it just shy of four months before I threw in the towel. When Ben came home from the hospital after the skin infection, I was keeping him home with me while I attempted to work (just for one week), taking the other two to daycare, and trying to pump all at the same time and it was becoming a huge stress. They were starting to sleep more but I still wasn't, and they were only getting about 30% breastmilk anyway because I couldn't keep the volume up, so I rationalized that I should be able to multiple my time by 3, which translated into close to a year of breastfeeding, and I quit. I wish I could have made more and gone longer, but I did what I could, and I hope I did more than most. I do not regret quitting, returning that rented breast pump was a happy happy day!

Now we are on 100% formula, a special brand for preemies. We go through a can a day, thank goodness CGAM, Grandma Maggie and great grandma McDonough are keeping me stocked! Bottle making and cleaning is like running a small factory. We've developed processes to make things run more smoothly, and we live and die by our rules. It still takes a LOT of time each day. We are at 5-6 bottles per day per kid. The boys are taking 5 ounces per feed, Delia is at 4 ounces. Since we watch volumes very closely, we premake all the bottles and take them to daycare so they can easily pull them out and go.

Bottle washing tends to happen two or three times a day. Ethan is the bottle washer, I agreed to be the primary bath giver because he didn't want to, and he took bottle duty. Using Dr. Brown bottles makes things more complicated because there are two extra pieces per bottle to be washed. So for each feeding there is a bottle, nipple, collar, reservoir, and vent insert. Bottles from daycare have a disk (to prevent leaks if they tip over before being used) and a lid. Times three. Times 5-6. Yikes. And not only do we wash, we also use a microwave steam sterilizer to be sure we kill all the germs. We have two steamers, and three drying racks. Bottles have taken over our entire counter, but at least we have enough room to have the pieces sorted out.

I am the bottle maker, unless it is a night when we have a helper. We make an entire day's worth of bottles at once, usually mixing two batches of formula because I don't have a pitcher big enough to hold it all at once. It's down to a science now, and I've found that Ethan and I both tend to focus on these teeny tiny details quite a bit, I think because it's one of the few things we can still control.

We can't control the chaos our living room has become. Can't help that it looks like a toy store. Can't help that there are two swings, two bouncers, three boppies, three bumbos, and an overhead play gym filling the entire floor. And a playpen. Three carseats. A changing table and diaper genie. Cases of formula. Laundry hamper. And that's just in the kitchen/living room area. It is everywhere, on every inch of our house. And it's only going to get worse the bigger they become.

DAYCARE I love our daycare, and I love working. It probably makes me a freak, but I just cannot fathom staying home with them all day. I love them so, so much, but if I had to be alone all day with the three of them, I might throw them out the window. It is exhausting. So work is a pleasant break from crying, and a chance to feel useful to someone who doesn't sit in their own poo all the time. Plus the staff at daycare are amazing, the kids love them and I can trust them. When someone is sick, they worry and ask how they are. When we went for the developmental evaluation, they asked how they could help, and what sorts of play they should build into the lesson plan. I could not ask for more caring people and I am extremely happy that I was able to find them!

I think that covers the hilights of the past three months. I'll try to write more if I remember anything else, otherwise I'll make a better effort to keep current. But as you can hopefully tell from my descriptions above, every second of the day is busy so free time is hard to find!

Oh yeah, the ever exciting weight updates. Keep in mind we were six months on Sunday:
Ben 15 lb 8 oz
Delia 12 lb 8 oz
Mike 14 lb 10 oz