Smiley faces

The kids are starting to smile when we interact. It's hard to catch them with cameras, but we tried. Here is Marie stretching out and smiling a little. She gives big stretches, and when she cries, it starts as a growl, then crying, then she coughs, and at the end, she gives off a little noise like a siren. It's so cute.

Will thinks this lady bug that hangs over his activity mat is hilarious. He laughs when we turn it on, and he stares at it intently.
Marie is demonstrating her excellent neck control in this picture.
Here's a big Abby smile!

I'm an old lady

I guess now that I have kids, other children think of me as being "old." We were walking in the neighborhood on Tuesday evening, and we ran into a family in their yard. It turned out that they had triplet boys (8 years old) and a younger daughter. The dad said about the daughter, "They said we couldn't, but we could."

Anyway, the daughter came over to look at the babies, and she commented on how cute and little they were. I told her that maybe in a few years, she could be our babysitter. Her response was, "I think you'll be dead by then. I'm only 6 years old." In her eyes, we must have been old folks who certainly weren't going to be around when she was older. It was so funny.

Correction/Retraction

Alice wanted the records to indicate that it was my dad who fed the babies off schedule on Sunday when I went to the grocery store. She said that soon after I left, Marie started crying, and my dad said, "That's Marie's hungry cry. We have to feed her." Alice said she tried to talk him off the ledge, but he wanted to feed the babies.

I can believe it because one night when he was helping with the babies, Marie had a particularly long eating spree. She drank 4 ozs from her bottle, and I poured her another ounce after that because she still seemed hungry. When her brother and sister wrapped up, they each had close to an ounce in their bottles. Dad saw the bottles and said, "Leftovers? Marie loves leftovers." He fed her those bottles too. She was in a total milk coma so he decided to take her up to bed.

After about 10 minutes, dad came downstairs and asked where I keep the sheets for the cribs. I asked him why, and it turned out that Marie had barfed her guts out when she got in bed. She couldn't handle it all, but she just kept eating.

I thought babies were supposed to have a shut off valve when they were full. My babies definitely don't have that. They would all eat until they puked if I let them.

Where do babies come from?

Because I have nieces and nephews at many ages, there is a lot of curiosity regarding where my babies came from. Rose is especially interested in pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc. When I was pregnant, she used to imitate me all the time. She would stuff 3 baby dolls under her shirt and pretend to give birth to them.


One time, I was over at Vivian's and Rose asked me if my babies tried to come out when I would go poop. I guess she figured that if food goes in your belly and you poop it out, that babies in your belly must have the same exit route.


After I had the babies, she told me that she wanted to have babies but she didn't want the doctors to cut her to get them out. Vivian told her that they don't have to cut her and that she came out through mommy's "we-we." Rose said, "Yuck. I don't want them to come that way either."

Rose also watched me breastfeed one time. Then, she lifted up her shirt and tried to squeeze her little boobies. She asked why she didn't have any milk, and I told her she would one day when she had a baby.


She wanted to know how the babies got in my belly, and I told her that her mom and dad would have to explain that. I already explained the whole menstrual cycle to Drew when he was like 5 years old, and that was very traumatic. Vivian gave Rose a vague answer--"God put the babies there." When Drew was little, Alice told him that Kibby gave her seeds that she planted inside of her to grow a baby. He wanted to know how they got there, and she said she swallowed them with some water. We give kids a lot of misinformation. I'll be lying to the triplets in no time.

I guess I should explain how I had to tell Drew about menstruation. He was spending the weekend with me once, and he found a tampon in my bathroom. He asked me what it was for, and I didn't want to tell him a bunch of lies. I told him that since women have babies, their bodies have to prepare for the possibility of having a baby grow inside of them every month. In order to do this, they have to clean out their baby growing area and all of the stuff that's in there comes out once a month, and it's clean and ready to have another chance for a baby. I thought that was vague enough, but he asked, "What kind of stuff comes out?" I said, "Blood and stuff," to which he responded, "OH GROSS!" Then, he found a tampon somewhere else, and he said, "There's another one of those gross bloody things." I think I totally traumatized him, not to mention that Alice and Kibby had to deal with the questions after he had time to think about it all. Kibby said I should have told him it was tool to clean hard to reach corners in the bathroom. I just didn't think that fast.

One baby? I laugh at your ONE baby

On Friday night, Alice took Abby from us and Mems picked up Marie. We just had Will, and he is our best behaved baby (most of the time). We took him out to dinner with us to Capozzi's (a little Italian place near us). He sat in his car seat in the booth, and he just looked around at everything. When it was time to eat, he got a little cranky, but I just rocked his seat, and he calmed right down. What an angel! He fell asleep by the end of dinner, and we went to Rita's to get some Italian ice-YUM! He slept peacefully in his car seat the whole time.

When we got home, I gave him a bottle and put him in his crib, and he slept 3 1/2 hours. At that point, Billy fed him and put him right back down, and he slept again. He again wanted to eat in about 3 1/2 hours, and Billy fed him again, and he went back to sleep. The next morning, we got up and loaded him in a single stroller and headed out for a brisk walk. Just getting ready to take a walk when we have all 3 takes about an hour.

Billy and I got to wondering if having one baby was really that easy or if we are just so overwhelmed by having 3 that one is a breeze. I guess it also depends on your baby's disposition. If Abby were our only child, we would probably be overwhelmed because she requires what Alice calls "special attention." The translation of this is being held a lot and sleeping in bed with a warm body.


All of the work really does pay off, though. Will has just gotten into smiling when you talk to him. It is the cutest thing! Aunt Alice can make him smile every time. She just tells him how handsome he is in a funny voice, and he gives her his big, goofy, gummy grin. I need to try to capture it in a picture to post. It just comes and goes so quickly! Marie smiles too, but she will start smiling and then open her mouth up big, like she doesn't quite know how to smile yet. Abby smiles in her sleep a lot, and she will smile back at a person smiling at her sometimes, but what she really likes to do is stick her tongue out. If someone sticks their tongue out to her, she'll do it right back.

Yesterday, I went to my dad's without Billy because he had some work to accomplish around the house. Kibby asked if "getting work done" was code for napping on the couch. Anyway, I left the babies at my dad's after lunch so I could do my grocery shopping. Liane also left Chloe there when she headed off to the Sandy Springs Festival. Luckily, Alice stayed to help Maureen and my dad. Liane only left about 3 ounces of formula for Chloe, and she already drinks 4 ounces at a time! Our kids just started drinking 4 ounces about 2 weeks ago. What a piggy! Of course, Alice fed Chloe as soon as she started crying, and when 5 p.m. rolled around, there was nothing left for her to drink, and Liane wasn't back yet. That's the kind of crap you do with a 3rd child...leave them somewhere for hours with no backup food. I left an entire bottle of formula in my absence in case I was somehow delayed and couldn't get back in time to nurse them before their next feeding. I was literally gone for 45 minutes.

I may have more time to blog in the next couple of weeks because our nanny just started last week. She's is great so far. I'll write more about her in another post.

Billy's late night ramblings

Billy has always been a sleep talker. There have been several occasions in the past where he has woken me up in the middle of the night to engage in a conversation that he does not remember the next morning. These conversations never make any sense. One night, he woke me up and told me to go look out the window. He would not stop telling me to do it so I had to go to the freakin' window. By the time I got back in bed, he was asleep again. Now that he is more sleep deprived, what he says at night has become even weirder.


The first couple of weeks after we came home with the babies, Billy would wake up convinced that we had one of the babies in the bed. He would wake me up and tell me to search the bed for a baby, but we didn't have the babies in bed with us (then). He wouldn't ever remember he even freaked out about this when we would wake up in the morning.


Sometimes, he does say something coherent, but he doesn't ever remember. Most nights, he'll wake up here and there when I'm getting up for feedings or consoling babies, and he'll ask, "Who needs to eat?" Usually, it's when I've already fed someone, and I'll say, "I just fed so and so," and he'll just respond "Sorry." He literally says "sorry" every time he talks to me at night. I'm sorry too that I have to get up a million times, and he hardly hears anything!


The other night, Abby was inconsolable, and I was holding her. It was probably around 1 a.m., and I needed to go to the bathroom, but I knew if I put her down, she would start crying and wake up Will and Marie. I woke Billy and asked him to hold her briefly. He was so out of it! He looked at me and pointed to his chest and told me to put a bouncy seat on him. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about, but he insisted. Then, he changed his mind and said he wanted a boppy pillow. I just told him to hold the damn baby so I could pee already. He held her, and he kept swearing it was Marie. I just agreed with him because I have found that works best at night. The next day, he didn't remember any of that even happened.

Marmie's Dress Up Dolls

Mems took everyone again on Friday night. Aunt Teri was in town for a conference, and she stayed with us Wednesday through Friday and then had another round with the babies at Mems' on Friday. When we went to pick them up on Saturday, they were all dressed up in fancy outfits. Marmie likes to play dress up. The picture above is Abby.

Here is Marie in her fancy matching outfit. Those little hair bow things crack me up!

Last, but not least, is Will in his "Rock" hat. He looks all peaceful here, but shortly after this picture was taken, Mems decided she was going to try taking his temperature because he felt warm. You are supposed to check babies' temps in their tiny hiney holes. Mems talked herself into getting the deed done, and she was standing there with the thermometer in his corn hole. All of a sudden, Will decides to let loose a huge poop. Mems screamed and gave up on the temp taking. She had a poopy mess to clean up.

It was all out poop fest after that. Marie pooped through her outfit and Abby crapped all up her back. It was good poop times! Thanks, Marmie, for helping them brew some killers.

(Un)Sexy Mamma

I was at Liane's house today, and she pulled out the breast pump to start stimulating her breast milk. Jason walked in the room and said, "Oh great, that again." Liane replied, "Which do you think is sexier, seeing me pump milk or seeing me in my mesh underwear?" I thought that was hilarious and got me thinking about how unsexy being a mom is.


First, the whole pregnancy thing is terrible. You get fat and swollen and hormonal. At that point your husband definitely doesn't want to jump your bones. When women say that they feel sexy when they are pregnant, they certainly aren't pregnant with triplets!


Then, you squeeze the babies out of your va-jay-jay or have them cut out of you, which are both ugly experiences for your husband to have to witness. How could he ever want to go near that area again after seeing a human being emerge from there? I can hardly stand to think about it, and I didn't have to see it.


After giving birth, you come home in your mesh underwear, wearing maxi pads as large as adult diapers, and you are stretched out to kingdom come. If you've pushed them out the old fashioned way, you are ripped or cut in your nether regions. If you've had a c-section, you have an incision across the area, and all of your insides feel like jelly. I felt like every time I rolled over, all of my organs were sloshing around. It was so gross!


Then, the next stage is caring for the baby. During this time, you are usually covered in baby poop, vomit, snot, breast milk, formula, etc. Everyday your husband comes home from work and points to a mystery spot on you and asks, "What's that?" There's nothing sexier than having to explain that it's throw up from 6 hours ago that you have not had a chance to clean up yet.


As if having bodily fluid all over you isn't enough to make you look bad, you are typically wearing unattractive, unflattering clothes at this point because you don't want to get nasty stuff on your cute clothes. Who am I kidding? Your cute clothes doesn't even remotely fit you yet at this point.


There's also the bathing, or lack thereof. Sometimes, I go a couple of days without a shower because I simply don't have time. Yesterday, I wanted a shower so badly and had no time until 1:30 a.m. So at 1:30 in the morning, I took my darn shower.

If I'm showering at 1:30 in the morning, I'm obviously not sleeping very much. That then also leads to many unsexy things. When you don't sleep, you snap easily. Even the most minor things set me off. For example, Billy brought home bagels one day, and he left them on the counter. I asked him repeatedly to put them in freezer bags and into the freezer, but he did not. The next morning, the bagels were still on the counter, and I just about started to cry about it. The most ridiculous part of this is that I don't even eat the bagels-he's the bagel eater. If they were stale, it would be him eating stale bagels, not me.

Although the having bigger boobs part is somewhat sexy, the fact that they are filled with breast milk is completely unsexy. Also, they are so uncomfortable that you never want your husband to get anywhere near them. They are "hands off." It doesn't get much sexier than your husband wanting to grab a boobie, only to get shot in the eye with breast milk.

Your conversations start to revolve around all things baby, which again very not sexy. Our babies are stuffy right now so I have to put saline in their noses and suction out their boogers. Then, I shot the boogers out of the bulb on to a sheet of paper or tissue. I always show the big ones to Billy. There's nothing hotter than a show and tell booger conversation. When Billy comes home and asks how my day went, and I say, "Come see the boogers I got out of so and so's nose," that is definitely NOT sexy.

The unsexy moments continue to pile up every day. It's a miracle couples ever have a second child, since they must be so turned off by each other by the end of the first year. I guess that's why God made men want sex so much...without that urge to do it no matter how unsexy the circumstances, our world would be much less populated.

The babies' newest sisen

Liane finally had her baby yesterday, September 12! Her name is Chloe Rose, and she was 8 lbs 5 ozs and 20 inches long. She is absolutely adorable.

Liane checked in the hospital the night before, and they induced her. They thought she would have her around lunch time the next day, but it didn't happen until almost 5 in the afternoon. She had such an easy delivery that she was already talking about having another one. The girl is CRAZY!

I told the kids they had a sisen-half sister, half cousin.

When Carley and Cooper went to the hospital to meet their sister, there was much confusion. Carley looked at her and immediately said, "Abby!" Liane told her it was not Abby, and Carley looked again at the baby and said, "Will?", but she says it "Wheel." She was wrong again so she tried Marie, but Liane informed her it was actually Chloe. I don't think she quite got it. I guess it will set in once the baby goes to her house and doesn't come home with me. It's going to be ugly.

Liane is totally weird about conspiracy theories. She thought they were going to baby snatch or swap Chloe so she kept her in the room with her at all times...even at night. Whenever they had to take the baby to the nursery for a weight check or anything else, she made Jason follow her and watch over her. I told her that we sent the babies away every night at Piedmont, and if they brought us back the wrong baby, we are just going to have to raise the wrong baby and deal with it. It was worth it to get a few nights of sleep.

I'm a bad blogger

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I'm constantly being reminded of how many people read my blog, and many of you check it daily for updates. I've been letting you guys down so let me try to get you up to speed.

First, a big shout out to my peeps in Philly that follow the blog. The Zeigler fam was there last weekend for a wedding, and they were told over and over that we had quite a fan base in the area. Thanks for keeping up with our adventures!

Here are some pictures and updates....
Here are the littlest dawg fans in our house. Do you see future cheerleaders? Marie is already saying, "We're #1" with her finger.

Daddy is tired and sleeping with the girls. Notice how he has his mouth open like Abby's. My secret strategy for not feeling as tired is to never try to add up how little sleep I get at night. I just tell myself I got at least 5 hours, even though I NEVER do.

Carley loves the babies. Here she is in bed with Will and Abby. Abby doesn't look too happy. Carley likes to say, "Babies go night-night with me."

Funny side story: Rose started school at Mount Vernon last week, and they were telling her that Show & Tell would begin the following Wednesday. All kids were asked to plan to take something to school that started with the letter "A." When Vivian asked Rose what she planned to take, she said, "I want to take Abby." Vivian said she was going to send a picture of the triplets with an arrow pointing to Abby, since taking Abby to school is probably not an option.

Cooper and Carley also started school last week. Carley worked herself up so much before going the first day that she barfed. She was so anxious, and she's a mamma's girl so she was not happy about separation from Liane. Cooper, on the other hand, was excited to go to school. I guess he was anxious to terrorize some new kids. Liane said he came home talking about his new friend, Nina. She later found out that they became tight because it was her birthday and her mom brought cupcakes. Cooper wanted to be friends with the chick with the cupcakes.

Will spent Friday night with Mems. She took this picture at her house. She's going to take Marie next weekend. Then, all 3 babies will have had their own night at Marmie's.

Speaking of taking babies, Vivian and Paul had them one weekend, and Paul quickly decided that he was happy with just Rose. Our babies converted him, and Vivian was thrilled. Her plan went just as she had hoped.

Kibby, on the other hand, still wants another one after they took 2 of the babies for a night. I think it's because he doesn't really do that much to help so for him, it's no big deal. He is afraid to hold them because he thinks they will break, and as for a diaper change, that's out of the question!

Drew and Kibby came over last weekend, and I gave Drew one of the babies to hold. Kibby said we shouldn't be trusting Drew to carry a baby because he doesn't even trust Drew to carry the mail in. Apparently, Drew drops mail all the way down the driveway as he brings it in, and Kibby has to go out there and pick up pieces.

This weekend, we got adventurous with the kids and took them to Costco and Babies R Us on Sunday morning to pick up a few things. You can only imagine the looks we get and the things people say. We are like a freak show. Everyone stares as we push our triplet stroller through places. Billy described it as being on a reality show with cameras following...you know everyone is looking at you, but you don't want to acknowledge it.

Also, if you make eye contact, it gives people permission to come over and talk to you, and I don't have time for that. I also don't want people to touch them. Some moms in my triplet groups put up stop signs on their strollers or a sign with the word "touch" in a circle and a line through it. It's just that so many germs are spread this way.

In non-baby issues, our first born, Winnie, continues to have some issues. We took her to the vet for the first time in several months on Saturday. We had her chipped in case she decided she wanted to run away from us and the babies. They also checked her leg, and it turns out, her ACL is torn. It's surgery time! That's gonna suck big time. We'll have to keep her on the first floor of the house for 3-4 months, cover the hardwoods with runners, and only allow her to take slow leash walks. If you've ever met Winnie, you know this is going to be challenging. She's a crazy beast! Last night, she got all excited about Vivian's striped pants. I don't know why she thought they were so amazing, but the minute Vivian put them on, Winnie tore off after her and was jumping all around her trying to sniff them. All that for pajamas! She's totally nuts.

On the nanny front, we went with Michele, who is the sister of a triplet mom in my triplets group, and she has nannied for 2 other triplet families from the time the kids were infants until they went to Pre-K. We figured she's very qualified to work with our family. Her current employer gave her a glowing recommendation, saying that sometimes she felt that Michele cared for her trips better than she did. I would say that's pretty good. She will start with us 2 days/week next week and then 3 days/week in October when I return to work.

I think you are all about up to speed now. Until the next time I blog it out....