After 3 weeks of craziness I'm finally sitting down to update what has been going on around our house. Nothing too exciting, just lots of adjusting to normal life, Dr. appts., etc.
3 little boys are in love with their little sister. Good luck to any boy who ever tries to get near our little girl. :) We won't have to worry because they are all over her. In the morning they go into our room and peek into her bassinet and say, "Hi Devyn! Morning." Then they all kiss her. They just think she's great (breathing a sigh of relief). They like to help with things like getting her dressed, giving her a pacifier when she cries, etc. They still go about their business most of the day and leave her alone. It's great!
We have also had a lot of Dr. appts. Devyn had 3 blood tests and 2 Dr. appts for her billirubin levels. Thankfully the jaundice cleared up, she's gaining weight and we got her started on reflux medicine. The one we have her one doesn't seem to be helping. It actually seems like she's a little worse..we'll have to see.
We took all 3 boys to the eye Dr. 2 weeks ago. They all got an eye exam to try to qualify them for a study for kids who are far-sighted. Noah's eyes were fine. Aiden was on the border of qualifying and Reese did qualify. There was a 50/50 chance of him getting glasses. Of course he got picked for glasses. Poor guy. We tried bribing him with cookies to wear them, but in the end the threat of time-out was the only way to keep them on his face. He's the cutest thing on earth with them on.
So now things have slowed down for a couple weeks before the madness of August begins (birthday, lots of check-ups, etc). I'm going to enjoy some time getting life somewhat back to normal now that we are a family of 6(!)
*I tried adding pictures to this post, but it wasn't working. I'll try again later!
Monday, July 22, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Isn't She Lovely
Last Thursday, June 27, we welcomed our beautiful little girl into our family. Devyn Marie was born at 10:37 am. She weighed 8lbs. 11oz. and was 21 1/4 in long. She is beautiful and healthy and we are so happy to finally have her here. Here's how she decided to make her grand entrance (don't worry, no gory details included).
Wednesday I went to my weekly Dr. appointment. Nate happened to be home early, so he came with me. I had made a tiny bit of progress. The Dr. was still optimistic that she could come before a c-section was necessary. He gave us 3 options. The first was to schedule a c-section just in case she decided not to come on time. The 2nd was to come back Monday (today) if she hadn't been born and make a decision on what day to have a c-section if it still didn't look like she was coming. The 3rd was to go to labor and delivery Thusrday morning and he would break my water in hopes of encouraging my contractions to speed up. I had been having contractions for a couple weeks that would be 10 minutes apart and then stop. We chose the last option and planned to be at the hospital at 5:00 the next morning. We left the boys with my parents that night so we could just get up and go in the morning.
In true Devyn fashion she decided that she didn't want to be told what to do. At 1:30 I woke up feeling uncomfortable and my water started to break. We quickly finished getting our stuff together and rushed to the hospital. The dr. had wanted me to come when they were 5 minutes apart, but they were immediately 4 minutes apart. After 9 hours and one heavenly epidural (which I desperately tried to avoid) Devyn was born. It was amazing. It was so incredibly different than the boys birth. I just posted about having trouble bonding with them. I bonded with her immediately. I was able to hold her for an hour and a half after she was born. It was everything I had hoped for.
Now we're home and recovering. Devyn is having some bloodwork done because she is jaundice. Tomorrow we'll see the pediatrician as well. I am so thankful to have brought home a baby with me. That was so important to me after leaving the boys. I have prayed many prayers of thanks for that and many prayers in awe of the human body's ability to carry, deliver and nourish a baby.
Before she was born I joked with Nate that when Devyn was born I wanted the song, "Isn't She Lovely" to be playing in the background. :) She is lovely. See for yourself...
Wednesday I went to my weekly Dr. appointment. Nate happened to be home early, so he came with me. I had made a tiny bit of progress. The Dr. was still optimistic that she could come before a c-section was necessary. He gave us 3 options. The first was to schedule a c-section just in case she decided not to come on time. The 2nd was to come back Monday (today) if she hadn't been born and make a decision on what day to have a c-section if it still didn't look like she was coming. The 3rd was to go to labor and delivery Thusrday morning and he would break my water in hopes of encouraging my contractions to speed up. I had been having contractions for a couple weeks that would be 10 minutes apart and then stop. We chose the last option and planned to be at the hospital at 5:00 the next morning. We left the boys with my parents that night so we could just get up and go in the morning.
In true Devyn fashion she decided that she didn't want to be told what to do. At 1:30 I woke up feeling uncomfortable and my water started to break. We quickly finished getting our stuff together and rushed to the hospital. The dr. had wanted me to come when they were 5 minutes apart, but they were immediately 4 minutes apart. After 9 hours and one heavenly epidural (which I desperately tried to avoid) Devyn was born. It was amazing. It was so incredibly different than the boys birth. I just posted about having trouble bonding with them. I bonded with her immediately. I was able to hold her for an hour and a half after she was born. It was everything I had hoped for.
Now we're home and recovering. Devyn is having some bloodwork done because she is jaundice. Tomorrow we'll see the pediatrician as well. I am so thankful to have brought home a baby with me. That was so important to me after leaving the boys. I have prayed many prayers of thanks for that and many prayers in awe of the human body's ability to carry, deliver and nourish a baby.
Before she was born I joked with Nate that when Devyn was born I wanted the song, "Isn't She Lovely" to be playing in the background. :) She is lovely. See for yourself...
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Things no one tells you before you have kids..
There are a number of things I have learned over the past 2 years that I'm sure no one ever told me before I had kids. Here are a few..
*Your children WILL annoy you. I felt like the worst mom on the planet the first time I felt annoyed by the boys. I mean what kind of mother feels annoyed by her children? Let me tell you. Every mother! When your child has screamed, "All done!" for the 478th time in 2 minutes you can't help but be annoyed. You are human and the little humans you love so much will annoy you to no end some days.
*You may not bond with your baby (or babies in our case) right away. I can still remember holding Aiden for the first time and feeling absolutely nothing. For all I knew I was holding someone else's baby. At the time I didn't give credit to the fact that it was a long, exhausting day and that sometimes it just takes time to bond with a baby. Of course now I would go mama bear on anyone who tried to hurt my babies, it just took time to feel that bond. It's not some instant magical feeling the way I expected.
*You will never go to the bathroom alone. Ever. There will be pounding at the door and if they get in they will tear the bathroom apart and cheer for you when you pee in the potty. After all we cheer when they pee in the potty.
*You will be stalked like prey. They will find you wherever you are. It sounds endearing and I know I should feel flattered that they care enough to want to know where I am, but sometimes I just wish I could sneak around without them finding me. I want to put away a basket of laundry in peace. Nope. Not happening. Again..banging on the door, tearing apart of the room...you get the picture.
*You will sing roughly 50% of your day. (50% being conservative)
*You will love these little people like you've never loved anyone in your life. They will gross you out, bug you, make you angrier than you knew possible. At the end of the day you would do anything for them.
They are the most amazing gift in the world. I find myself not so patiently waiting for this little girl to make her arrival. I have to constantly remind myself that at the end of this is a gift like none other. Until then I'll spend my days enjoying my 3 little gifts who follow me around and repeat my every word.
*Your children WILL annoy you. I felt like the worst mom on the planet the first time I felt annoyed by the boys. I mean what kind of mother feels annoyed by her children? Let me tell you. Every mother! When your child has screamed, "All done!" for the 478th time in 2 minutes you can't help but be annoyed. You are human and the little humans you love so much will annoy you to no end some days.
*You may not bond with your baby (or babies in our case) right away. I can still remember holding Aiden for the first time and feeling absolutely nothing. For all I knew I was holding someone else's baby. At the time I didn't give credit to the fact that it was a long, exhausting day and that sometimes it just takes time to bond with a baby. Of course now I would go mama bear on anyone who tried to hurt my babies, it just took time to feel that bond. It's not some instant magical feeling the way I expected.
*You will never go to the bathroom alone. Ever. There will be pounding at the door and if they get in they will tear the bathroom apart and cheer for you when you pee in the potty. After all we cheer when they pee in the potty.
*You will be stalked like prey. They will find you wherever you are. It sounds endearing and I know I should feel flattered that they care enough to want to know where I am, but sometimes I just wish I could sneak around without them finding me. I want to put away a basket of laundry in peace. Nope. Not happening. Again..banging on the door, tearing apart of the room...you get the picture.
*You will sing roughly 50% of your day. (50% being conservative)
*You will love these little people like you've never loved anyone in your life. They will gross you out, bug you, make you angrier than you knew possible. At the end of the day you would do anything for them.
They are the most amazing gift in the world. I find myself not so patiently waiting for this little girl to make her arrival. I have to constantly remind myself that at the end of this is a gift like none other. Until then I'll spend my days enjoying my 3 little gifts who follow me around and repeat my every word.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Why our kids are weird
Nate and I often joke about how strange our kids are. Seriously, they are total oddballs. Here are a few things that make our kids weird...
1. They LOVE getting their teeth brushed. They excitedly line up and wait for their turn. Noah just finished crying about the fact that I took his toothbrush and told him to go play.
2. They line up to get their nails clipped and ears cleaned and will even ask for me to do either of those things.
3. They love bedtime. We tell them it's time for bed and to go find their Elmo (they all have a stuffed Elmo in bed) and up the stairs they go. They jump in bed for a few minutes and then lay down and go to sleep. It's rare that someone cries at bedtime. It's usually because they're really tired.
4. They love sitting on the potty. We have little potty's that are a big hit. Everyone wants to try to go on the potty.
5. They really don't watch t.v. I wish sometimes that they did. I turned on Thomas this morning for them so I could take a shower. When I came back down they have ripped apart my filing cabinet. Awesome. I really wanted to reorganize all my files this morning (note: read that with heavy sarcasm).
6. They would rather eat sauteed peppers and onions than macaroni and cheese. Reese asks for sausage of some sort at every meal, Aiden loves plain lettuce, Noah loves cucumbers and avacado. Don't get me wrong I'm very glad that they like healthy foods, it's just not what I expected. We always expose them to a wide variety of food in hopes that they find a lot of healthy food they like. I guess starting to feed them these foods early helped. Peer pressure helps too. If they see their brother eating it they can't be outdone.
7. They "help" with laundry. Yesterday I put a basket in the living room and they collected the laundry from the hamper and the laundry they had scattered around the room. I know that will end, but it's nice that they like to help!
I'm sure there are other things I left out, but those are a few of the most notable. I love my little weirdos. My favorite things are the things that make them so unique.
1. They LOVE getting their teeth brushed. They excitedly line up and wait for their turn. Noah just finished crying about the fact that I took his toothbrush and told him to go play.
2. They line up to get their nails clipped and ears cleaned and will even ask for me to do either of those things.
3. They love bedtime. We tell them it's time for bed and to go find their Elmo (they all have a stuffed Elmo in bed) and up the stairs they go. They jump in bed for a few minutes and then lay down and go to sleep. It's rare that someone cries at bedtime. It's usually because they're really tired.
4. They love sitting on the potty. We have little potty's that are a big hit. Everyone wants to try to go on the potty.
5. They really don't watch t.v. I wish sometimes that they did. I turned on Thomas this morning for them so I could take a shower. When I came back down they have ripped apart my filing cabinet. Awesome. I really wanted to reorganize all my files this morning (note: read that with heavy sarcasm).
6. They would rather eat sauteed peppers and onions than macaroni and cheese. Reese asks for sausage of some sort at every meal, Aiden loves plain lettuce, Noah loves cucumbers and avacado. Don't get me wrong I'm very glad that they like healthy foods, it's just not what I expected. We always expose them to a wide variety of food in hopes that they find a lot of healthy food they like. I guess starting to feed them these foods early helped. Peer pressure helps too. If they see their brother eating it they can't be outdone.
7. They "help" with laundry. Yesterday I put a basket in the living room and they collected the laundry from the hamper and the laundry they had scattered around the room. I know that will end, but it's nice that they like to help!
I'm sure there are other things I left out, but those are a few of the most notable. I love my little weirdos. My favorite things are the things that make them so unique.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Now we wait
Life has been quiet, but busy, at our house lately. We're attempting to get things done and ready for this baby. I finally packed a hospital bag, got the car seat out and started packing a bag for the boys. We're slowly emptying out the baby's room. No, there is no room set up for the baby yet. Whatever. She'll sleep by me for now. It's fine. We'll put her in our room until she's a little bigger whether her room is done or not. No, she doesn't have a name yet. We still haven't made it through the name book. We have 1 or 2 possibilities. I'm not really worried. It's not really like me to not be concerned that we aren't totally prepared. I think I'm too tired to care. :) I haven't been sleeping well so getting things done takes a back seat to a nap many days.
Nate also was working some nights the past week so that really threw a wrench in our plans. I had to take the boys outside or to my parents' house just so Nate could sleep during the day. Keeping them quiet so he could sleep is merely impossible. So I didn't get much done and he didn't get much done because his sleep schedule was so messed up. Oh well. He's back to days now and hopefully we'll get back on track and get ready for the baby.
It seems as though we have some time though. I was shocked at my dr. appointment yesterday when he said I have made no progress towards labor. With the way things went with the boys I thought for sure this baby would be early. That baby is positioned with the head down, which is good, but there is no progress yet. I was a little disappointed, but I'm very excited that as of Sunday (37 weeks) the baby will be full term. I talk about this with my dr. and his staff a lot. When you've had preemies having a full term baby is an amazing feeling. I'm getting very anxious to meet this little one! Hopefully next week I'll have made some progress towards meeting this baby. I guess I'll have to find the energy to go for a lot of walks to get things going. I'm sure the boys will be more than happy to go for a lot of walks.
Nate also was working some nights the past week so that really threw a wrench in our plans. I had to take the boys outside or to my parents' house just so Nate could sleep during the day. Keeping them quiet so he could sleep is merely impossible. So I didn't get much done and he didn't get much done because his sleep schedule was so messed up. Oh well. He's back to days now and hopefully we'll get back on track and get ready for the baby.
It seems as though we have some time though. I was shocked at my dr. appointment yesterday when he said I have made no progress towards labor. With the way things went with the boys I thought for sure this baby would be early. That baby is positioned with the head down, which is good, but there is no progress yet. I was a little disappointed, but I'm very excited that as of Sunday (37 weeks) the baby will be full term. I talk about this with my dr. and his staff a lot. When you've had preemies having a full term baby is an amazing feeling. I'm getting very anxious to meet this little one! Hopefully next week I'll have made some progress towards meeting this baby. I guess I'll have to find the energy to go for a lot of walks to get things going. I'm sure the boys will be more than happy to go for a lot of walks.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
40 years
We spent this past weekend at a hotel with Nate's family for his parents' 40th wedding anniversary. 40 years! It is so amazing to me that both his parents and mine are still happily married. It's a great blessing to have good examples of what marriage should look like. We've only been married 6 years, but the past 2 have shown us some incredible challenges. That's a whole post of it's own! With such great examples to follow we haven't fallen apart, but come closer together.
Back to the weekend...
We left Friday afternoon after the boys had a nap and a bath (something Nate is taking over now that my belly get in the way of the tub!) They did great in the car, slept great in their pack and plays and were just really well behaved all weekend. I was so nervous that they wouldn't cooperate, but they were terrific. We had a blast! It was so much fun being together all weekend and seeing family. We came home Sunday late afternoon after having lunch with friends who live near where we stayed. It was FAR less work to go away this time. When we went to Indianapolis last year we had to do a lot more prep work. Thankfully as they get older it gets easier. We, of course, still get stopped constantly to ask if they are triplets and a host of other questions follow. The one that takes the cake for this weekend was, "So, who's getting fixed after this baby comes?". I'm not kidding. A perfect stranger asked this. I almost choked on my food. It turns out her son is a urologist so she was going to refer us to him. I politely told her we don't live in the area while secretly thinking, "Are you serious?!?". Something tells me her urologist son would be mortified to find out his mother is drumming up business in the local TGI Fridays. I think it's time for me to write the "what not to say to parents of multiples" blog. That's coming soon, I just need to find the right words.
All in all it was a great weekend. I did a lot of checking and double checking about what we were eating in order to avoid an allergic reaction for Noah. There were few moments of toddler attitude, which are many at right now in our house-including Noah saying, "Mommy, come!" when he wants something and Reese gently laying down flat on his face on the driveway when he's told "No". Oh boys...
Back to the weekend...
We left Friday afternoon after the boys had a nap and a bath (something Nate is taking over now that my belly get in the way of the tub!) They did great in the car, slept great in their pack and plays and were just really well behaved all weekend. I was so nervous that they wouldn't cooperate, but they were terrific. We had a blast! It was so much fun being together all weekend and seeing family. We came home Sunday late afternoon after having lunch with friends who live near where we stayed. It was FAR less work to go away this time. When we went to Indianapolis last year we had to do a lot more prep work. Thankfully as they get older it gets easier. We, of course, still get stopped constantly to ask if they are triplets and a host of other questions follow. The one that takes the cake for this weekend was, "So, who's getting fixed after this baby comes?". I'm not kidding. A perfect stranger asked this. I almost choked on my food. It turns out her son is a urologist so she was going to refer us to him. I politely told her we don't live in the area while secretly thinking, "Are you serious?!?". Something tells me her urologist son would be mortified to find out his mother is drumming up business in the local TGI Fridays. I think it's time for me to write the "what not to say to parents of multiples" blog. That's coming soon, I just need to find the right words.
All in all it was a great weekend. I did a lot of checking and double checking about what we were eating in order to avoid an allergic reaction for Noah. There were few moments of toddler attitude, which are many at right now in our house-including Noah saying, "Mommy, come!" when he wants something and Reese gently laying down flat on his face on the driveway when he's told "No". Oh boys...
Friday, May 10, 2013
The age of the owie
It has been simply amazing watching these 3 little boys grow and develop right before my eyes. They've gone from babies to toddlers in the blink of an eye. Lately they've been doing a lot of "growing up" and I love seeing how happy they are to learn new things.
We've reached the age where they are obsessed with owies. Aiden especially loves to pull up his pant legs and point out every scratch, scab and scrape and says, "owie", with each point of the finger. Yesterday I burned my hand and had an ice pack on it. That led to lots of kisses for my owie. So sweet. :) Aiden is also our no fear child. He decided he should be old enough to just walk off of a step instead of turning around to go down on his belly or holding our hand. He made it at first, but then fell pretty hard. He will break a bone at a young age. Mark my words.
They are also really into singing and counting. Reese can easily count to 10 and sings his abc's. The letters get a little jumbled at l,m,n,o. He's very much our child who studies everything and learns from observation. He studies me when I sing so that he can learn a song. He sings "Row, row, row" and "Jesus Loves Me" a lot too. Some words are not even close, but it's the best sound to hear his little voice singing. He loves to do puzzles, read and do anything academic. It makes a teacher's heart happy!
Their vocabulary is really beginning to increase now as well. They pretend to drink coffee and can say it, although sometimes it comes out with p's instead of f's. Noah is definitely our most verbal at this point. He repeats everything. One day I got into the van and from the back heard, "Hi, mama" in his sweetest voice. That same day I said, "Hi, honey" and he repeated it back. Melt. my. heart. Most recently he's started saying, "Please, Mama!" which Reese then picked up. All day long that's what I hear. I love it! They also ask me to "rock baby" which means to rock them in the rocking chair and sing to them.
Yesterday morning I went to get them out of bed and Noah and Reese were laying at the ends of the their beds holding hands through the bars. When I got them up all 3 of them were hugging and kissing each other like they hadn't seen each other in weeks. It was a nice change from the "Mine!" and the hitting that tend to go on more often.
All of this has reminded me to never take for granted how special it is to have triplets. I sometimes forget how incredible it is, because to me it's normal life. I also have to constantly remind myself how fortunate we are that none of them have any delays. As a matter of fact they are ahead in many ways. Today I am 32 weeks and 5 days pregnant. That is when the boys were born. That thought is not lost on me. I am amazed to think that they were so early and did so well. Praise the Lord for 3 little miracles! I was often told how much of a miracle it was that someone my size and my age (that I was very young) got pregnant with and carried triplets as far as I did. A miracle they are.
We've reached the age where they are obsessed with owies. Aiden especially loves to pull up his pant legs and point out every scratch, scab and scrape and says, "owie", with each point of the finger. Yesterday I burned my hand and had an ice pack on it. That led to lots of kisses for my owie. So sweet. :) Aiden is also our no fear child. He decided he should be old enough to just walk off of a step instead of turning around to go down on his belly or holding our hand. He made it at first, but then fell pretty hard. He will break a bone at a young age. Mark my words.
They are also really into singing and counting. Reese can easily count to 10 and sings his abc's. The letters get a little jumbled at l,m,n,o. He's very much our child who studies everything and learns from observation. He studies me when I sing so that he can learn a song. He sings "Row, row, row" and "Jesus Loves Me" a lot too. Some words are not even close, but it's the best sound to hear his little voice singing. He loves to do puzzles, read and do anything academic. It makes a teacher's heart happy!
Their vocabulary is really beginning to increase now as well. They pretend to drink coffee and can say it, although sometimes it comes out with p's instead of f's. Noah is definitely our most verbal at this point. He repeats everything. One day I got into the van and from the back heard, "Hi, mama" in his sweetest voice. That same day I said, "Hi, honey" and he repeated it back. Melt. my. heart. Most recently he's started saying, "Please, Mama!" which Reese then picked up. All day long that's what I hear. I love it! They also ask me to "rock baby" which means to rock them in the rocking chair and sing to them.
Yesterday morning I went to get them out of bed and Noah and Reese were laying at the ends of the their beds holding hands through the bars. When I got them up all 3 of them were hugging and kissing each other like they hadn't seen each other in weeks. It was a nice change from the "Mine!" and the hitting that tend to go on more often.
All of this has reminded me to never take for granted how special it is to have triplets. I sometimes forget how incredible it is, because to me it's normal life. I also have to constantly remind myself how fortunate we are that none of them have any delays. As a matter of fact they are ahead in many ways. Today I am 32 weeks and 5 days pregnant. That is when the boys were born. That thought is not lost on me. I am amazed to think that they were so early and did so well. Praise the Lord for 3 little miracles! I was often told how much of a miracle it was that someone my size and my age (that I was very young) got pregnant with and carried triplets as far as I did. A miracle they are.
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