Swimming

The girls are really loving their swimming pool. I think it's their new favorite activity. We have the pool right on our back patio. Sometimes, they will stand at the sliding glass door and look out at the water while banging on the glass. I think it's their way of telling me they want to get in it.

Bob's parents gave us this cool sun shade umbrella a couple of years ago. We hadn't really used it yet because we don't sit outside very often. As it turns out, I finally have a great use for it. It is the perfect shade for the girls while they swim. It covers the pool pretty well and protects them from getting too much sun.

They are getting so used to swimming in their own backyard that when we go to our friends' homes who have big pools, the girls try to squirm out of our arms because they think they can "swim" anywhere! We were swimming at my friend's house yesterday afternoon and Rachel kept trying to get away from me and got so mad that I wouldn't let her go.

Sorry Rachel, but you were in 4 feet of water. Mommy can't let go!

Mama's just rambling......

I'm happy to report that Morgan's little "paci game" last only 2-3 days. I ended up having to let her cry for it for around 30 minutes and then I gave it back to her. That was the last time she threw the paci out of her crib. I think she learned that Mommy wasn't going to play that game.

Something crazy has been going on at night for the last week. The girls have been taking turns waking up to party in their crib at 3am. It's happened at least 5 times out of the last 7 nights. I'm exhausted. They don't do it on the same night. It's weird to me because we had a good 4-5 month stretch of wonderful sleeping at night. My friends tell me this is normal around the age of 18 months. I'm not sure I'm ready to go back to sleeping less than 5-6 hours a night. I've been having to take naps during the girls' nap time, which means my house is still thrashed and I don't have the time or energy to deal with it.

I'm trying so hard to get the house organized and fully in order before I start school in just 5 1/2 weeks. I'd like to make a place for everything and get things put away or cleaned out so that I can make myself a schedule to keep it that way. It's frustrating because I've been solo with the girls for most weekdays lately. When I do have someone here to help me, it's usually for less than 2 hours and it's just not enough time for me to get anything done because I'm usually washing dishes or showering or doing something else that isn't helping my organizing goal. When 7pm rolls around and the girls are in bed, I'm too tired to organize a closet.

The girls require a lot of attention lately. Gone are the days when they would play in the play room and entertain themselves. We're going through some sort of phase. They want me constantly. Mostly all at the same time too. It's really been an emotional roller coaster for me lately. I want to give them more one on one time and start to do more activities with them, but trying to find the time is overwhelmingly difficult. I'm doing the best I can though. I've been taking the girls out somewhere almost every morning. I'm trying to figure out how I can keep this up by myself. I'm not sure how long this phase will last, but it sure is wearing me down. I do have to say though.....As hard as it is right now, they sure are at the cutest stage!

This morning I was having a really bad day (all before 10am too!) . I'm really tired from not getting a lot of sleep for the last 2 nights. The girls were all climbing on me and fussing. I wasn't really in the mood to go anywhere, but I knew I needed to get us all out of the house. Something told me to put some of rachel's food my diaper bag. I was going to go get some grilled cheese sandwiches and take the girls to the park for lunch. I figured I could use some fresh air and feed the girls in their stroller. While I was on my way to get us some food, my friend Amy (with twins and a 3 yr old) called us and said she was on her way to the mall for lunch and would I like to join her. I hadn't showered, I was wearing work out clothes and a baseball hat.........and I only had the HUGE triple jogger in the van! I decided to go for it anyway. We had to carry the jogger sideways to fit into the elevator to get up to the food court/ I'm sure it was a sight to see! The girls did great during lunch too and I was thankful that I had put some "Rachel food" in my bag when I left the house. When we were done eating, we went down to the toddler play area and I let the girls out of the stroller to play for the first time. I'm glad I did it. I was terrified for the entire ten minutes they played....constantly scanning to make sure I could see them all at the same time. Most of the time, they stayed close enough together so we did just fine. Oh and I even got Morgan to drink out of a straw! Oh the things we are learning! So yeah, my friend helped me turn my bad day/yucky mood into a good one! Turned out to be just what I needed.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but Morgan is walking around really well now. She even runs at times! Ever since we opened up the family room and toddler proofed it, she started to choose walking over crawling. I think she just needed more space. Rachel is taking a few steps with assistance. I've been doing a lot of the same exercises I did with Sophia while she was in therapy. Rach is really responding to it!

Sophia seems to really be over her fear of strangers. We took her to our friend's house this past weekend for a bbq and swimming and she didn't cry once. When we got there, she just walked right into their house and started roaming around checking it out. There were lots of people there too. I'm happy she's feeling safe again when she's not at home. It was really nice to be able to spend time with our friends too!

Well, that's what is going on in the flakes house! I'll get the super cute pool pictures posted soon. :)

One tired little girl

Once in a while before Sophia lays down to sleep she willl sit in her crib and look around the room. Yesterday, I found her like this. She had been down for nap for about 5-10 minutes when I checked on her. I couldn't help but take a picture. She's so precious!

A day in the life..

When you have triplets, you get a lot of questions like, "how do you do it?" Or, "oh my gosh, what is your day like?" I've never really written about it before because most days I'm on auto-pilot and I just GO GO GO!

However, today......was NOT a good day. And it's not over yet. I still have a cryer/whiner (Morgan) upstairs at this very moment and it's 9:15pm. The girls are usually all OUT by 8pm at the latest. I'm kind of losing it a little today so I thought I'd come and get my thoughts out here instead of punching a wall. I really want to punch a wall too.

So here it is...... A day in the life of being a stay at home mom to triplets!

6:15am I start to hear the girls wake up. They usually go in and out of sleep between 6 and 6:45 when we get them out of their cribs.

6:45am Bob got the girls out of their cribs and closed the master bedroom door so I could sleep until 8am. Good man. (We take turns being the one that gets up early with the girls. Today was his day.)

8am I got up and Bob got ready for work. I played with the girls then changed their diapers (because they always seem to go pooders after breakfast) and got them dressed for the day and did their hair.

9am We went for a long walk around our neighborhood.

10am Played in the front playroom and had a snack

10:45 Brought them back into the family room so they could watch tv while I prepared lunch.

11am Opened the gate in the family room so the girls could get into the kitchen for lunch. We're practicing how to "follow mommy" and to walk/crawl to their high chairs on their own. Sophia and Rachel followed me and I had to get them into their chairs as fast as possible because Morgan had taken off for the tall staircase and was halfway up the stairs by the time I could get her.

11:05 They were all in their chairs and I fed Rachel while Sophia and Morgan fed themselves. We worked on "not throwing our food on the floor" which is a constant struggle.

11:30 Lunch was over. We went back to the family room area and played and looked at books.

12pm Changed diapers and took pony tails out so they don't pull them out and eat the rubber band in their cribs.

12:15 They all climbed up the stairs and no one tried to get away. YAY!

12:30 Girls were asleep!

12:30 Washed dishes, started a load of laundry, and filled the girls' swimming pool so it wouldn't be too cold for their afternoon swim.

1:15pm Ate lunch and relaxed for a little while

2pm I'm working on organizing the master bedroom closet so I worked on that.

2:30 Rachel woke up and woke everyone else up a half hour early. UGH!

2:45 Got them out of their cribs and gave them a snack and a juice sippy

3pm Put on swim diapers and swim suits

3:15 The girls played in their pool for the first time and LOVED it! I sat in a chair with my feet in the water and played with them.

4pm The girls started to try and climb out and grab things around the pool so I got stressed out and brought them inside. (The pool is right in front of our sliding glass door on our patio.) They all screamed and cried because they wanted to stay in the pool. I just couldn't keep it up alone though.

I got them all dried off, changed diapers and got them dressed.

4:30 Loaded the girls into the van for a drive because I didn't want to make dinner. We drove around a bit and then went to the Jack in the Box drive thru for grilled cheese for them and a coke for me!

5pm Got them out of the van and into their high chairs. Gave Sophia and Morgan their grilled cheese. Made Rachel's food..sweet potato and chicken puree with potato flakes to thicken it and olive oil to add calories. Then I heated up some peas and carrots for Sophia and Morgan to have with their grilled cheese. Then they snacked on Grandma's banana bread and a few cheerios before they were done.

5:40 Turned the tv on for the girls and then got their bath ready. Had to drag the pack n play upstairs to use as "the holding tank" for when they are waiting to get into the tub or when they get out of the tub. Got diapers and wash cloths and everything ready. Got them all upstairs, undressed, and in the tub. Bathed them all at once.... yeah I'm cool like that.

6:10 This is when our day started to fall apart. I let the water out of the tub and then get the girls out one by one as the tub is draining. Got their diapers on them and put them in the "holding tank" hahahaha) one by one. Once they were all diapered, I brought them back downstairs. I started brushing Rachel's hair and getting her dressed when I started to smell poopers. Then I saw a naked Sophia crawl across the room in front of me. I looked down where she had been before and there was a diaper on the carpet filled with POOP and poop on the carpet! I put Rachel down, grabbed the poop off the floor with my bare hands, grab the nasty diaper, then grabbed Sophia before her poopy butt was spread all over the room. I cleaned her up and re-diapered her and put a onesie on her immediately. This was the first time she'd ever taken her diaper off. Lucky me!

I still smelled poop and sure enough Rachel and Morgan had pooped too! I had to re-diaper all of them! At least only one dirty diaper got on the carpet right??? haha....I got the girls all dressed and ready for bed and gave them their bed time milk. We read books and watched Sesame Street until about....

7:15pm The girls all climbed the stairs and walked into their bedroom. Bed time YAY!

7:30pm Morgan started in on the "I'm in control of mommy and I'm throwing my paci around" game. Her game goes like this.... Throw paci out of crib. Throw herself down in her crib and kick and scream for her paci. Mommy gives her the paci back and within 30 seconds she does the routine again. I waited 10 minutes before I went in again. She was hysterical. I gave her the paci and walked out of the room. She did it AGAIN! We did this over and over again until around 8pm.

8pm I put the pack n play in my bedroom and put her in there where she did it again and again and again. She FINALLY just settled down now. It's 5 minutes before 10pm.

Now I need to transfer her back into her crib without waking her up.

Mommy needs a drink!

What happened to my wonderful sleepers? We've had almost 5 months of easy bed time and sleeping all through the night. It's been pure bliss. Is there some sort of crazy shift at this age? I thought I was going to lose my mind tonight. I'm mentally drained from this evening. Last night at 2am, Rachel woke up and thought it was party time and was bouncing up and down in her crib. The night before that, Sophia had woken up from 3-5am. What in the world is going on? I'm exhausted!

So that was my day. Bob is out with friends for a while tonight so I've been alone since around 8am. It's just been such a long day! Ah well, tomorrow is a new day right? Right????

Oh and I have some SUPER cute pics of the girls in their pool which I will post soon. I would have uploaded them tonight if I wasn't so focused on NOT punching a wall. I seriously ate half a bag of chips tonight while Morgan was screaming her head off. I guess that makes me a stress eater. No wonder I'm at my fattest weight ever other than while pregnant. Ugh... That's a whole different post altogether.

Ahh, I feel a little better now. Morgan is asleep. I didn't punch a wall and all is well for the moment. I think I'll be praying for a better day tomorrow :)

Our sweet little peanut

Rachel has made some big improvements with her eating over the past few days. Her therapist told me to always keep mealtime pleasant and to start with a food I know she'll like and eat. After she has that food, I give her something that is a little lumpy. I've been thickening her food with potato flakes or adding little lumps of rice crispy cereal. I also found some Earth's Best 3rd foods that are a little lumpy and she's been eating them. I'm so excited that she is accepting some of these foods. She even ate peaches over the weekend. She loves it when I crush cheerios and toss cut up bananas in them to make a sort of "breading." So a couple of days ago, I tried this with peaches. At first, she was kind of mad at me because she was expecting banana! But then the look on her face went from "HEY MOM" to "Hey YUM."

It has really been difficult working so hard with her, but it has been so worth it. Seeing her eat more food just warms my heart so much.

Over the past couple of days, she's started to refuse milk bottles too. She just wouldn't drink it and would throw the bottle away from her. Then this morning she surprised me by picking up a milk sippy and drinking the whole thing. Of course that was all she would drink all day. Well, other than a couple of sips of water here and there. I'm not even bothering with bottles right now. I'm going to keep offering her a sippy. I know her therapist didn't want me to stop bottles, but Rachel is refusing them so it just seems pointless.

We haven't had her evaluation for development yet, but Rach is now climbing on to the couches and is also climbing up the stairs in the house. She's been watching Sophia and Morgan climb the stairs at bedtime so a couple of days ago, we let her try and she did it. She was wobbly and slipped a couple of times, but she kept trying. She's also standing on her own now. She'll pull up to standing next to me and then let go and stand on her own. I realize that we are a little behind a lot of other kids, but with my girls walking on their knees so early on, I think that delayed their walking. I do look forward to having the development evaluation though. Sophia made such huge progress when we did it for her, and I know Rachel will too!

I couldn't be more proud of her!

Am I crazy?

I think I might be crazy. As if I weren't busy enough, I've added a couple of "jobs" to my already crazy days.

I've recently accepted a position as a moderator/leader for a new website for parents of multiples. I'll be heading up the triplet parenting section. It's not very time consuming and the website isn't very active yet. I'm hoping it will be soon. I'm not getting paid, but if/when the website starts to make money, some of it will trickle down to me. Either way, I'm excited to have something to do other than change poopy diapers and sing the ABC's all day.

I also accepted a board member position in my mother's of multiples group. I had told myself that I wouldn't volunteer until after the girls' second birthday, but I was talked into it. I will be co-chairing "membership" with a friend of mine. She and I will be responsible for hosting the "new parent" meeting that happens before our general monthly meeting. We will also follow up with our new and prospective members and will answer any questions they have an make them feel welcome. I'm happy to do it. I feel like I have a lot to offer a new expecting mom given everything I've been through with my infertility and triplet parenthood.

I have seven weeks until the Fall semester starts for school. I'm about to be a very busy mommy! I don't think my volunteer work is going to take up that much time. I'm committed to two monthly meetings for my multiples club.... The board meeting and then the general meeting. That's only 2 evenings a month. Also, my classes are online so everything can be done from home. I will just need to get myself on some sort of set schedule. I was table leader for our general meeting a couple of months ago and completely forgot to follow up with the people at my table after the meeting. I was supposed to start an email chat about our topic, but yeah... COMPLETELY FORGOT! It's not like me to not follow up like that!

So with all that said, I know I can handle all of this. It feels really good to be able to help other moms who are having multiples. It's a truly unique experience that you can only understand if you've been there. I'm just going to need to get myself a good day planner and stick to my schedule. (And work on my confidence lol)

In other news, the girls are going through some sort of....I don't know what to call it... A phase maybe? Today is day number FIVE that they've been fussy and whiny if I'm not doing something with them every second of the day. Gone are the days where they would just play in the play room happily. I've had to plan activities every morning of this week. I've had a head ache for two days so I was trying to just stay home this morning. I ended up taking them to a new park. Well, not a new park, just a park we haven't been to before. I just put them in the jogger stroller and we walked around. I have to admit I was jealous of some of the singleton moms there. They actually get to let their kids out of the stroller to run around. I wish I could let the girls do that. Oh well. Then we went and picked up some lunch and came home. I'm really hoping for a good afternoon with them. I think they are at the stage where they need more stimulation and things to do. I'm going to have to get creative!

Well, at least the weekend is here! Lots of house projects to work on. I need about 36 hours in a day.

24 just isn't cutting it anymore!!!!

First trip to the zoo!

The girls had their first trip to the zoo today. I can honestly say I felt like one of the attractions. hehehehe... We got a lot of comments, but they were all nice ones. We also ran into several people I know. It was kinda funny. My neice was there with us and told me that I know "everyone" at the zoo. hehehe...

We had kind of a rough start. The girls were doing a lot of fussing. I always think we are thirty seconds away from a triple meltdown when they do that. We had a picnic lunch and then they turned into happy toddlers! I wasn't starving them either. They had had a nice breakfast and I fed them crackers in the van on the way. Oh well. I was glad that they seemed to enjoy themselves. They didn't really notice the animals, but still enjoyed being outside.

I'm glad to have that first trip to the zoo under our belt. We had fun, but I probably won't take them back again for a few more months. I can see them getting more excited about the animals by the end of the Summer!

A big thanks to my mom and neice for helping me today! We also met my friend and her kiddos there. Fun times!

Overall, I'm saying the trip was a success!