Because I can't sleep.

Yesterday morning, I took Sophia to Sam's club. She did really well and enjoyed talking to me and pointing at everything while asking, "what is that" over and over again. We had fun. However, when we got to the check out, she decided that she didn't want to sit in the cart anymore. We were almost out of there so I decided to reach into my purse and look for something she could play with.... like my keys. The first thing I pulled out was a maxi pad. I was holding it up in my left hand while digging around in my purse with my right hand. I didn't even realize what I was showing off to everyone else. Hi people, see my maxi pad? It took me a good 30 seconds before I realized that I was holding a pad up for all to see. When I finally realized why the guy in line behind me was chuckling, I couldn't help but laugh at myself too. After you've gone through infertility treatments and a triplet pregnancy, holding a maxi pad up in the middle of a store doesn't even phase you. Did I mention it's not even that time of the month?!

Morgan and I went to Walmart today after dinner for a quick grocery run. She totally surprised me when we passed by another mom and toddler. She waved her arms and yelled...and I mean YELLED..."hi baby, hi baby, hi baby." It was interesting to me because this was a toddler who I think was around the same age as the girls. Morgan doesn't refer to Sophia or Rachel as a baby. It was just super cute because she totally noticed that one of her peers was in the store too. Oh and while we were at Walmart, I saw one of those crazy coupon ladies complete with her binder full of organized coupons. I was so jealous... I kinda want to be a crazy coupon lady too. Now if only I had the motivation............. hhmmmm.

Rachel is really into books right now. Her favorite is a board book called, Apples Apples. She will grab the book and climb into my lap and say, "Apples, apples.... apples, apples." She doesn't stop saying it until I start to read the book. I tried offering her a real apple today. I thought maybe I'd luck out since she LOVES the pictures of the apples in the books and she sees pictures of the characters eating them. (the characters are bears.... haha) She was excited to see the apple on the table in front of her, but there was no way, no how, not even in my wildest dreams.... that she was going to eat it or even touch it. But I'm not going to stop trying.

The girls are so much fun right now. Yes, every day is still a hard day. Anyone who says it's easy with 2 year old triplets is lying or drinks alcohol all day long. Or okay, maybe that person is a saint! Whatever! But yes, we are at a very fun stage. They make me laugh all day long. They also make me want to pull my hair out...... and then run away and be a circus freak, but that's normal.... Isn't it?

Having Bob home before dinner has been so wonderful for our family. I'm usually about to lose my sanity around 4:30pm and that's just when he swoops in and saves the day. He's basically fresh meat at that point and I let him take over while I cook dinner or take a few minutes to just be me. It's also made running errands a lot easier too. I can run to the store right after we eat dinner and I no longer need to wait until the girls go to bed. This gives me more time to actually sit down at night! I'm loving it.

Well, here it is almost midnight.......... I guess it's time for to try and get some sleep. I really shouldn't have had that 8pm latte. Tomorrow, it will be a glass of wine!

I'm all over the place

I have way too much going on, which um.....is nothing new, right?! So this will be another random blog post of things all over the place. I just can't seem to find enough time to sit down and write very often about what goes on in our crazy house!

Sophia did the cutest thing today. The girls always have their food on a plate, and for some reason this morning, I didn't use a plate when I gave them their dry cereal to snack on. She picked up the whole handful of cereal and looked at me and said, "need plate, need plate." It totally cracked me up. Morgan was busy chomping away not caring if she had a plate, but Sophia was not going to eat in this uncivilized way. She was so cute that I just had to get her a plate!

Rachel has been getting a little bit better with her food. I have started to ask her if she wants a certain food before I offer it. I don't give her more than two choices, but with her deciding yes or no on something, it seems to be helping decrease the tantrums in her chair. We're still at a stand still with trying to get her to try something new, but it's all about baby steps with her.

Last week's crazy bad night of sleep was just that. Just ONE night. I haven't tried having them sleep in any other clothes other than their zipper jammies. We've been using our air conditioning at night anyway so it's fitting that they are wearing warm jammies to bed. And no, we're not wasting money since it's not that hot out yet. haha... We have a separate A/C system for our second floor and we only run that one at night so we don't pay to cool the entire house. I still need to find some cotton zipper footie jammies though.

I got my surgery date. It's scheduled for the end of this month. I'm getting really nervous about it. Turns out I have to have a CT scan before the operation now. MAJOR TMI warning... During some pre op lab work, I found out that I have blood in my um... pee. That's always fun to share with the internet, eh?! I've had it tested twice with the same results so my doctor is ordering a scan to rule out any other issues before he does the surgery. He thinks the scan will be fine and that my endometriosis has possibly spread to my bladder, in which case, I need this surgery asap! It's still crazy to me that I'm even having surgery when I have three 2 year olds to care for. At least the surgery is on a Friday so Bob won't have to take as much time off of work.

Okay, remember not too long ago, I said I was going to do a half marathon this Summer? Well, of course you can guess that isn't going to happen. I'm not going to give up on that though. I'm going to have this surgery and get my body feeling better and get my fat butt right back out there running again. A half marathon may not happen this year but it WILL happen next year! My primary goal at this point is to just get my body healthy again. I'm so tired of feeling icky and being in pain. I'm ready to just fix the issue and move on.

We are loving Bob's new work schedule. Oh and BONUS.... he got a promotion and a raise this week! I'm so proud of him and excited! Anyway, having him home just before dinner has been so nice. We are now sitting down as a family every night for dinner. It's amazing how this change has really helped me and my stress level during the day. Knowing that he'll be home within 90 minutes of the girls waking up from nap has just calmed me. I used to have a long morning and a long afternoon alone with the girls. Now that he is home, it makes the early evening so much easier on me. I can actually prepare dinner, clean up, and we even do baths almost every night now for the girls. He, of course, doesn't like getting up earlier, but he says it's worth it to be able to come home sooner.

So did anyone else watch the episodes of Extreme Couponing this week? I'm really intrigued by couponing and want to give it a try, but no way would I ever take it as far as some of the people on this show. One lady bought like 50 something mustards. What in the world would anyone need that for? Anyway, I think I will give couponing a try one of these days. You know.... why not add something else to my list of things to do? HA!

Okay... speaking of. Sleep is next on my list.

Clothes are confusing - apparently

Why am I writing a blog entry at 1am, you ask?

Because I didn't put the girls in their normal pajamas at bed time, that's why!

For the first time in weeks, we are finally having some nice sunny weather. It was much warmer in our house  at bed time than usual, so I didn't want to put the girls in their blanket sleeper footie pajamas. They were wearing long sleeve onesies and some cotton pants all day so I just let them sleep in their clothes. They went to bed just fine.

Sophia woke up around 11pm crying a little. When I went to check on her, she looked really confused. She was sitting in her crib with one sock in her hand. She handed the sock to me, and I put it back on her. I had her lay back down, then I left the room.

Around midnight, I heard, "all done, all done," coming from the girls' bedroom.  My first thought was..... wha??? Why is Sophia saying all done? I went into their room to find her standing in her crib with both socks in her hands, just like she does at the end of nap. She got so loud that it woke Morgan and Rachel up too. They both stood up in their cribs and joined Sophia in the "all done" chorus.

I told them, "not all done, it's still time to sleep." Then I left the room saying, "night night."

You can pretty much guess that they all started screaming, right? This went on for several minutes before they stopped crying and started in again will the "all done" again.

This had never happened before so I wasn't sure what to do. That's when I realized they were confused because they weren't wearing their normal pajamas. It sounds crazy, but it's so true. We always put them in zipper jammies at night. So I went downstairs and got clean diapers and their pjs. I changed each of them and got them in their snuggly jammies and did our night night song. Oh and I have to add that when I got Sophia's pajamas on her, she sighed and smiled and got herself all cozy in her crib. It was like she was relieved to be wearing them. This time, when I left the room..... they didn't cry at all.

I'm still waiting for them to fall back asleep though. Well, correction: I'm still waiting for Sophia to fall back asleep. Usually if she wakes up at night, It's for at least an hour. Sometimes two hours.

Hmmm.... this could be a long night.

You can bet your butt I will NOT be making this pajama mistake again! If it's too warm at night, we just might have to turn on the air conditioner a little earlier in the season!

We found ducks!

My friend Deana has BBB triplets who are 19 months old. I love that we live so close to each other. (Bonus is that we are each other's personal Starbucks delivery person!)

Yesterday, we found an awesome walking trail near our neighborhood that is right next to a creek that has ducks. The kids really enjoyed being out and seeing all the ducks and birds. There was lots of pointing and quacking going on between our trios! We've decided that this needs to be a regular activity. It breaks up an otherwise monotonous afternoon! So much fun!

In other awesome news.... Bob and I have decided that his work schedule needs to change. For the past two years, he's been going into the office around 9am and not coming home until almost 7pm. That doesn't give me any help with dinner or baths, and he doesn't get to spend much time with the girls before they go to bed. This later schedule was working for us for most of the last couple of years since he'd have me sleep in late if the girls woke me up a lot at night. It's now a rare occasion if one of them wakes up in the middle of the night! So now, he'll going to the office much earlier and will be home in time for dinner every night! I am so excited about this! Can I get a WOO HOO?!

The Autism Question

I've really been struggling with the autism question lately. A few months ago, I was really concerned about Rachel. However, over the past couple of months, she's grown so much and is communicating with us pretty well that I just put the word, "autism" in the back of my mind. Yes, her food issues are classic autistic behaviors but her other behaviors just don't really seem to match up.

This past week, I got a phone call from our case worker. I have been lacking on my updates lately, but we've been having visits from Stephanie (the food therapist) and Mila (the behaviorist) for the last couple of weeks. Anyway, our case worker has received feedback from both Stephanie and Mila and they are still concerned that Rachel is somewhere on the autism spectrum. It frustrates me a lot, but at the same time, I agree with them......to an extent. They mostly only see Rach when they are playing and working with her about eating. This really stresses her out. What can I say.... She runs away from bread and totally freaks out if I present a food she's not comfortable with. I'm not even kidding. I wish I were kidding. Unless you have been here to witness these food issues or have a child who has these issues, I really can't even explain the difficulty it is to get her to eat. I just can't. Sometimes I feel so alone in this, but it is what it is and I'm just doing the best I can.

So back to the phone call. Our CW wanted me to do the M-CHAT test for Rachel. I hadn't heard of it before, but went ahead and answered the yes or no questions. Honestly, I was a little angry that I was being asked to do this. I went ahead with it basically to prove that she's NOT on the spectrum. Unfortunately, she failed 7 of the questions. Here is a copy of the test..... ( I got this by googling MCHAT and then copied it.)

1. Does your child enjoy being swung, bounced on your knee, etc.? Yes____ No____

2. Does your child take an interest in other children? Yes____ No____

3. Does your child like climbing on things, such as up stairs? Yes____ No____

4. Does your child enjoy playing peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek? Yes____ No____

5. Does your child ever pretend, for example, to talk on the phone or take care of dolls, or pretend other things? Yes____ No____

6. Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to ask for something? Yes____ No____

7. Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to indicate interest in something? Yes____ No____

8. Can your child play properly with small toys (e.g. cars or bricks) without just mouthing, fiddling, or dropping them? Yes____ No____

9. Does your child ever bring objects over to you (parent) to show you something? Yes____ No____

10. Does your child look you in the eye for more than a second or two? Yes____ No____

11. Does your child ever seem oversensitive to noise? (e.g., plugging ears) Yes____ No____

12. Does your child smile in response to your face or your smile? Yes____ No____

13. Does your child imitate you? (e.g., you make a face-will your child imitate it?) Yes____ No____

14. Does your child respond to his/her name when you call? Yes____ No____

15. If you point at a toy across the room, does your child look at it? Yes____ No____

16. Does your child walk? Yes____ No____

17. Does your child look at things you are looking at? Yes____ No____

18. Does your child make unusual finger movements near his/her face? Yes____ No____

19. Does your child try to attract your attention to his/her own activity? Yes____ No____

20. Have you ever wondered if your child is deaf? Yes____ No____

21. Does your child understand what people say? Yes____ No____

22. Does your child sometimes stare at nothing or wander with no purpose? Yes____ No____

23. Does your child look at your face to check your reaction when faced with something unfamiliar? Yes____ No____

Rachel missed questions 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 19, 23.  I was told there is cause for concern if a child fails 3 of the questions. Hearing this broke my heart. I realize that if she is on the spectrum, she's very high functioning. Almost all of her behaviors, other than food, are totally normal. She may be delayed, but otherwise, she is just like any other kid. We actually call her "Sophia 2 months ago." It's our way of saying that she usually does exactly what Sophia does, just a couple of months later.....Other than the eating, of course.

I talked the results over with the girls' entire team of therapists, and we've all agreed that it's best to get her tested by a psychologist. I'm tired of the back and forth and the wondering if she's on the spectrum or not. Having her tested will just help us better determine the right path to take with the therapies she's receiving. Plus, in the last couple of days, I've noticed behaviors that would have had her passing questions 5 and 23. So I know we're only failing 5 questions. And some of those questions, Sophia wouldn't have passed a couple of months ago and now she totally does. I'm not in denial here. I know that Rachel's eating issues are cause for concern. I know there is the possibility she is on the spectrum. I still think she just has some serious texture issues and learned behaviors about food.

We have to wait until the end of May for the appointment with the psychologist. I'm going to try and put this issue aside until then. I need to keep focusing on all the positives!

Randoms.....

Last Friday, Sophia said Rachel's name for the first time. We were sitting at the dinner table and Rachel reached over and took Sophia's plate. Sophia looked at me and then reached to grab the plate back. Then she said, "no noooo wayychaa." I think my heart melted right then!

Rachel is saying her own name. She says it like, "Raychooo." I'll say, "Rachel, come to mommy so I can change your diaper," and she'll look at me all cute and say, "Raychoo." Whenever I say her name now, she says it.

I've talked with my doctor and have decided to go the conservative route with surgery. I'm not planning a hysterectomy at this time. The recovery time is just too much for me right now, so we've decided to do a laparascopy and remove scar tissue and endometriosis. This surgery should buy me a few more pain free years. (I hope.) However, I did give him permission to do the hysterectomy if things don't look so good in there. I have to go and sign papers on April 4th and then the surgery will be scheduled after that. What are the papers for? haha... As long as I'm having surgery, I decided that I might as well get my tubes tied. It may not be the best thing for someone with endo, but at least I won't have to worry about any "surprises." haha......I am closed for business!

Morgan is in love with Barney. I really need to take a picture with her and the stuffed Barney we have. She has claimed the Barney doll as her own. She carries him around all day and sings the, "I love you, you love me" song. She also likes to do the "Dino Dance," which is one of the fun Barney songs. She's gotten really good at jumping up and down and dancing and turning around to the music. Yeah, I need to get her on video!

Sophia and Rachel are paci free. Since they girls were around 13 months old (I think), I only allowed them to use a paci in their crib during nap or night sleep. Recently, they all started to chew through their pacis. I was buying new ones almost every time I went shopping. It got expensive and I realized it was ridiculous that I was buying so many for 2 year olds. So I decided that when they chewed through their last pacis, that was going to be it. Sophia was the first to chew hers. I thought it would be a rough couple of days for her without one, but she didn't care at all. She totally surprised me. Same thing with Rachel. She had chewed through hers a couple of days after Sophia. They have both been sleeping for naps and night sleep just fine without them. They don't even care. Morgan, on the other hand, will likely be a different story. She is addicted to hers. She has always used a different kind than her sisters. She sucks on one and holds another in her hand. She doens't chew through them as often, but she has 2 left....and I'm NOT buying any more. Honestly, I'm dreading the day I have to take her paci away. I'm going to see if I can have her snuggle with Barney instead of use a paci....who knows. I'm not looking forward to it. Plus, Morgan is such an easy kid that I um...(don't tell Bob) ...um...might cave in with her and get her more if she needs it.

That's the latest and greatest going on in the Flakes house! I must sign off and get myself some sleep now!

Poop Initiation, Oh My!

Well, it happened. I've been initiated into the "toddler gets naked, takes off diaper and throws poop on the floor" club.

Trust me, this isn't a club you want to join.

I put the girls down for their 1pm nap this afternoon. Then, as usual,  I went downstairs and made myself some lunch. While I was eating and playing on my laptop, I heard Sophia say, "poo poo, poo poo," over and over again. I grabbed a diaper and some wipes and figured I'd change her diaper and then she'd fall asleep. It's not unusual for Sophia to let one loose at the beginning of nap, so this was just another normal day for us..... or so I thought.

I keep black out shades on the girls' window so it was still pretty dark when I walked into the room. I smelled poop as soon as I opened the door!  However, I looked down and saw what I thought was Rachel's purple paci on the floor in front of her crib. So I reached down to pick it up so I could give it back to her before changing Sophia's diaper.

That's when I realized I'd picked up a turd............not a paci!

I started to panic a little on the inside, but then I looked over at Sophia saying, "poo poo, poo poo, poo poo" and I saw that she was naked from the waist down and had her diaper in her hand. She had taken her pants and diaper off and then had thrown the poop ON THE FLOOR!

I was in complete shock, but started to laugh so hard at the same time. I've read several blogs and Facebook status updates from a lot of my fellow mom friends about toddlers who took their diaper off and played with their poo. I was actually dumb enough to think that it would never happen to ME! This is the kind of thing that happens to other people, right? Now I'm one of those "other" people. Enjoy it while it lasts people. YOUR turn is coming soon!

So since the poo was already in my hand and the bathroom is just right across the hall, I quickly flushed it and ran to grab Sophia since I didn't know what else I was dealing with. I leaned her over the sink and washed her hands (and mine) really good and then used wet wipes on her face even though there was no evidence that she had touched her face. I cleaned her up and got a diaper back on her and put her in clean clothes. Then I pulled all the blankets and sheets off of her bed. Once she was back in her crib, I realized I had better look around on the floor to make sure there were no other pieces of poo. I had already pulled her whole mattress out of the crib so I knew it was clean. Thankfully, I didn't find (or smell) anything else.

Needless to say.........Tomorrow at nap time, I'm duct taping her diaper closed and putting a onesie on under her pants.

In fact, maybe I should start to use duct tape on all three. Can you imagine if they had all done this at the same time? I can't even THINK about that.

This Mommy isn't messing around!

Oh and quick update about Rachel. She is doing so much better and has recovered from her pneumonia. I'm happy to report that all three are healthy!!! Whew!