There's Three of Them?

That's the question we get everywhere we go. It's already getting old. I hate people starring at me and my family.

This is kind of a rant. Sorry.

As Tim and I are getting more and more brave with leaving the house other than for doctors appointments, it's getting more and more frustrating dealing with looks and comments from strangers in public. It is so annoying. Yes, most people are so super sweet, but with limited time and crowds, it's more annoying as to what they all say and ask. I knew it would be interesting going out with them, but I really wasn't prepared for how annoying comments can get, especially after the 1,372,908,280,283 time we get the same questions...

Yes, there are three of them. BUT, I really want to say, I swear, "nope two babies, and a doll." Just to see the looks on people's faces.

This is followed by, "they're all girls?" Which I think this is hilarious and annoying because of their completely pink car seats. Sometimes I want to say, "well do you think I would put my son in a pink car seat?" I mean seriously, but I do know that some cultures do not specify colors for genders, so I just smile and nod, and say, "yes, they are all girls."

"How old are they?" "11 weeks!"

"They are so small." "Well, the were born at 32w2d and spent time in the NICU growing, so they are really getting bigger each and every day."

Then normally they can't believe that I had them just a few short weeks ago. This question normally comes out something like this, looking at me, "and you had them?" with a very perplexed look. Which I proceed to nod and smile...I know, hate me, I don't care. I gained almost 70 pounds, I can't help it I have good genetics and lost it in practically two weeks. Hate me. This lady actually said yesterday that I made her sick and wanted to know how I lost the weight because it's been three years and she's still trying to loose her baby weight. I wanted to say, well I don't shove food in my mouth like you probably do, but I held my tongue and just said, "it was a lot of water." If I make you sick, don't look at me or my children. Good bye.

Then we also get, "I can only imagine." Yes, YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE!

"Are you getting sleep?" Nope, not much.

"Are they on a schedule?" Of course, with multiples it's a must.

"Wow, I've never seen triplets. (laughing) That's crazy." Great, now you have.

A lady at The Lube Center yesterday asked us this: "This might be a weird question, but was this natural?" Nope. IVF, but it was still God's plan no matter how they were conceived. We get that A LOT. Most people still don't know what to say when you say those three letters... I V F.

Of course normally, in between all these annoying comments, we get lots of sweet people saying how cute, adorable, beautiful and sweet they are, which I guess levels out my frustration. I can normally tell right away who will be nice, who just stares, and who will be the annoying question asker.

So all I ask is that the next time you run into a set of multiples, you think before you speak and think about what the parents might be going through. Do you really want to add to their stress? I didn't think so. And to all of you who do think before you speak, thank you for your thoughtfulness. That is truly what gets these crazy outings worth the trip.

For My Daughter

I stumbled across this book when I was in Barnes and Noble one day and I knew if I ever had a daughter I had to buy it. However, when I got pregnant with triplet girls, I knew I was not going to buy them at Barnes and Noble for $26.95 but when I searched on Amazon.com, I found them for $11.99! Whahoo!

The book is made by AARP, kinda weird, but it's a really special book that highlights your life from birth to young adult with your daughter. It prompts you with sentence starters, such as, "you're favorite toy was", "your favorite birthday party was", "you loved this outfit when you were 13" and so on. They have them for sons, grandchildren...what a great gift they are. I made a hint to my mom that I wanted to her to buy me one and fill it out for my life. I will be buying them as baby gifts for friends through the years because they are just so special.

Preview of Semi-Newborn Photos

I just had to snap some photos of the girls getting their professional photos done on Sunday at my parent's house! It was quite the production but luckily we have a great and very patient photographer! He brought his wife and they did a super job being so sweet and patient dealing with three little babies!

Here is just one of their little outfits that I had planned...

Needless to say...I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE PHOTOS!

Wordless Wednesday: BIG OWEEEEEIES!!!!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee -- You are TWO months old!

(...a few days late...)

I cannot believe you girls are TWO months old. You are changing everyday and finding out more and more about life and Daddy and I love watching you discover it day by day.

Madelynn and Claire --

Claire, you are 7lbs 8oz and Madelynn, you are 7lbs 4oz and both of you are eating 3.5 ounces of Simalac NeoSure formula about every 4 hours. Madelynn you are still on a slow flow nipple. Mommy is trying to get you on the next nipple because it takes you so long to drink your bottle sometimes, compared to your sissy who has had the medium flow nipple for awhile now. It's ok though, you will get it when you can and you are getting better and better each day. Sometimes at night you both will go 6 hours between feeding, and Mommy is getting ready to start teaching you the 12 hour night-time sleep schedule. I think you both will do just fine when you learn.

You both love bath time but hate getting out and getting dressed. We are working on that.

Your favorite places are your boppy pillows and laying on your Daddy's chest. Madelynn, you don't really like the swings or any of our vibrating/bouncy seats yet. You rather lay in your boppy on your back or tummy or lay in your cribs. Claire, you love the swings but haven't loved the vibrator/bouncy seats too much yet. However, you both love the vibration of your pack-n-play, it puts you right back to sleep.

You both love to suck on your hands when you are laying on your tummy during tummy-time. This is still both your favorite position to sleep, but we are not letting you do this much anymore. You both love to sleep in your boppys now too though, on your back, so we are encouraging that. That's how you sleep most nights now, and of course you love your swaddle me and it puts you guys right to sleep!

Claire, you are so strong with your head and neck control. Sometimes you push your hands up to push your whole body up when you're on your tummy and it looks like you are going to crawl away. It's amazing and Daddy and I can't believe how strong you are. You actually rolled over for the first time on 02.23.11, your two month birthday!! You rolled from you tummy to your back, going to the left! Daddy and I couldn't believe our eyes!! You have been doing it more and more each day, but you get very mad once you realize your on your back and you can't get back on your tummy. Claire, you have also started to sigh so sweetly. It's so cute and you are doing it more and more each day! It's a completely different sound than your cries and we love listening to you. We can't wait until you start "talking" to your sisters.

Madelynn, your head is so strong and you have so much neck control also. You follow in your sister's foot-steps constantly, so I don't think it will be long before you roll over either. Dr. Maggid did say that you girls were super strong for your age! You both have almost started smiling at Daddy and I. Other people say they have seen it, but I haven't yet, so I'm not counting it. I'm sure it will be any day now though.

You love to stick out your tongues out at Mommy and Daddy too! It's so cute!

You are both staying awake more during the day but still love to sleep a lot. Mommy loves to watch you sleep. You both have the most beautiful, angelic faces.

You both love to stare at anyone who holds you and take it all in. You especially love your Nana, Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie, who all come over regularly to see you.

Daddy and I tell you girls everyday that we don't want you to grow anymore, but there is no stopping it, we know that. We are taking in every little moment with you both. You two are super cute and we love you so much. You have the most kissable cheeks and we love giving you lots of kisses. You both are such a blessing to us and we can't imagine our life without you girls in it. We are so proud of all you accomplishments.

Here are your photos at two months old:

 Madelynn

Claire on her favorite spot..with her Daddy!

Madelynn (in purple through rest of photos)

Claire (in pink through rest of photos)

****I posted a lot because I just love their changing expressions in the photos and I wanted everyone else to see too!****

 Natalee --

You had another very stressful month but proved to be as strong as ever. You are still the strongest person your Mommy has ever met. You continue to amaze your Daddy and I.

You are now 4lbs 8oz and are eating 3 ounces of breast milk or Similac Sensitive every 3-4 hours. You never miss a meal, now that you can properly digest food. It takes you no longer than ten minutes to eat. You are such a good eater, but you almost always get the hiccups after eating.

You love your bath too and hate having your diaper changed. Mommy thinks you do it just for attention, but that's ok, you can have all the attention you want. Your hair is starting to grow back and your cheeks are getting bigger like your sissys. You are so incredibly beautiful. Your eyes are brown like Mommy and Daddy's, where your sissys have blue eyes. You have the loudest cry in the house, and for such a small little girl, it's too cute! Your cry is still a newborn cry, however it's as loud as a child's. It sounds more like you say "nah, nah, nah" rather than anything else. It's so funny!

You love your boppy too and you love the vibrating bouncy seats so much. We do not put you on your tummy at all because of your incision. Speaking of your incision, it is looking better and better each day! Mommy can't believe how good it is looking compared to how it did look when it was all infected. We do not need to keep dressings on it anymore and so it is drying up and is finally completely closed. Mommy cannot wait to go back for your follow-up to the surgeon so she can thank him for saving your life! He will always have a special place in our hearts, he was so sweet when Mommy and Daddy were so scared for you. But of course you pulled through and were so brave! You spent 13 days in the NICU once again, so out of the two months of your life, you have only been home with Mommy and Daddy for two weeks. You are home for good now though and we couldn't be happier!

Also, you are still in preemie clothes, however, some of them are getting too small now, so we know you are growing. You love to stretch your arms and you are always awake and looking around! We think you are taking everything in and don't want to miss a thing! You have the biggest eyes!

You are so sweet and we love that you are our daughter! We are so proud at how strong you are and you have taught us more about life and love than you will ever know, Natalee. A million kisses wouldn't be enough for you, you are so beautiful! We love watching you grow each day!

Here are your photos at 2 months old:

Wordless Wednesday!

This is how my morning started yesterday...

Follow the trail to my purse..

Just in case you didn't see enough in the first photo...

Madelynn and I had issues. But she is too cute to hold a grudge against. 

Oh well. Thank God for Clorox wipes and a steam cleaner.

The Girl's Nursery - Part Three

I know...this should have been finished like, umm...before they were born, but ya know, with bed rest, extreme swelling and oh yeah, pre-term labor, the nursery never got finished until about two weeks ago. I am so excited to say that it is about 99% complete. We still do need to buy the last crib, but have decided that the extra space in the room is better than buying the last crib at this point. Also, the curtains I wanted were on back order and so I waited for them for close to four months.

So really the only thing I needed to do was hang the girl's names above their cribs. This was totally not easy! I bought the white letters at Michael's during a sale and with a coupon, since I needed so many of them! Also, I bought about ten rolls of light purple ribbon. Figuring out how to get each name centered above the crib, all the same height and then have the correct amount of ribbon to make it letter perfectly next to the other was quite challenging. Each letter will hang differently, so finding the correct measurement of ribbon needed was different for each letter. After two months of starring at the ribbon and letters every time I walked into the nursery, I finally decided to figure out how to make it all work.

I decided that each letter would have the same amount of ribbon, no matter what letter it was, so the letters would be level at the bottom but the ribbon bows at the top would not. I liked this look and it seemed somewhat easier. So, just if you're wondering, I used 17 inches of ribbon for each letter, hot glued the ribbon on the back and then hung on the wall. I had to tape the letters to the wall because...well have you ever tried to hang the letter "D" or "R"? It doesn't work, plus I wanted all the letters to be perfectly spaced and level. For someone with the perfectionism that I have, this was a challenge.

I then had to tie a bow for each top, to hide the nail. I glued the ribbon bow to the end of the nail because it couldn't be done any other way and look good. If I glued the ribbon bow to the ribbon hanging, it didn't look good at all. So, each nail has a ribbon bow at the end and it looks just fine. No one would even be able to tell...unless you've read this!

The ribbon looks shinny, but it's not. I don't know why it shows up that way.

I am so happy to have their names done! It turned out perfectly and I even like the imperfections in the letters hanging. It makes it unique and sometimes, just sometimes, perfection isn't always the best.

 There is the rocking chair my parents bought me for my birthday. I love rocking the girls at night peering out the window. It's such a special time, however I'm so sleep deprived that it's hard to stay positive sometimes. I live in that chair all night it seems. The cross on the wall was in my room as a child, and so was that white shelving unit on the wall. I love that I used things that I grew up with, I want my girls to know how special these things are to me and that I wanted to share them,

These were the name tags I made the girls for their incubators in the NICU. Now on the front door of their room!

These ADORABLE little outfits were one of my VERY FAVORITE gifts that I received after the girls were born. LOVE them and I cannot wait to have them wear these on their 1st Birthday!

This beautiful statue my mom bought for me when I was born. It's Rapunzel and I have had it in my room ever since and now in my girl's room.

I LOVE Winnie the Pooh so when I received this book as a gift for the girls from a friend, I was so excited. The Pooh is from Niko and Michael who gave it to me when I was recovering from my appendectomy in 2006 and the little bear my daddy bought me the day I came home from the hospital when I was born.

So, there ya have it! I am so happy at how it turned out. I imagine walking in and seeing them peering up over the top of the cribs and saying "momma, momma"! Oh God is good!

Yay! Natalee is HOME again!

So happy....we have brought our little string bean home from the NICU again. 

We couldn't be happier to have all of our family back under the same roof again!

She is doing good and drinking all her bottle in just a few minutes, all 60ccs! We are hoping that her incision continues to heal and her infection is gone for good! I have learned how to care for her wound and keep it perfectly clean at all times. She is now 4lbs 5oz, but the strongest 4lbs I have ever known! I'm sure now that she can eat and digest the proper way, she will be catching up to her sisters in no time! No more wires, no more picc lines, no more IVs, no more beeping...no more anything but love and kisses from Mommy, Daddy and everyone else who loves her!

Thank you for your continued prayers to help heal our sweet girl!

Wordless Wednesday: I started to walk out of the house to go to the hospital in...

...my slippers!

Can we agree I need more sleep?

My Due Date!

February 15th was the date I was given for my "due" date. I would have been 40 weeks today, completely full-term, that is, if I had been pregnant with a single baby! However with triplets, 32 weeks was full-term, and quite enough pregnant for me!

I look at it as I got seven extra weeks with my little girls! But today, they are finally considered newborns! So their adjusted age is 1d, but their corrected age is still 7w5d.

This photo was taken two weeks ago but it's the last one I have of all of them together before Natalee went back into the hospital.

 

HAPPY DUE DATE GIRLIES!!!!