Things I Don't Need...

I have come to realize there are a few things I don't need since having triplets. Here are the top ten...

1. I do not need a gym membership. Try running up and down the stairs hefting two babies a couple of times a day. Then there's the one armed pick up of a baby while holding another baby. I have my own weights to lift thank you very much!

2. I do not need to become famous. Everyone already stops, stares, points, and talks about me wherever I go. I've had people tell other people what they just saw after I am gone. This is the truth - I had a lady slow down in her car while we were going through a parking lot, roll down her window and yell out "Congratulations!" At least she didn't say my hands were full :)

3. I do not need both hands. I have discovered how much I can do with one hand - brush Caleb's teeth, put laundry away, clean up the house. No, I don't hold them all the time - they have to rotate!!

4. I do not need to shave my legs (very often) - hey that is a good twenty minutes I could be doing something important, like say showering or blogging.

5. I do not need to wear make-up. If I get out of the house dressed and in one piece you should all be happy. I'll leave my good looks for later.

6. I do not need a scrapbook/baby book. This blog serves for that and all of you get the joy of reading what I write :) On the same note I don't need to work on my novels right now. I am content to work on my very difficult writing course. Which is going quite well, by the way. When I write something good someday I'll use you all as guinea pigs to check it out for me. You may even get to read bits of my new novels early! Still don't need to be famous (see number 2) :)

7. I do not need a "real" date night. On Memorial Day we watched our kids plus 4 more just to get a chance to see the 3rd Pirates movies. We're not picky! The movie was good, by the way.

8. I do not need a perfectly clean house. Okay, so some of you are wondering when I ever had one! But, lately I have really been trying to get the place clean and organized but I am realizing that there are days I will have to deal with what's around me. Something I do need since having triplets: more energy!

9. I do not need another occupation. Caring for triplets is more than a full-time job and while some days I'd love to leave them for someone else to care for I wouldn't trade my crazy life for the world. Just one grin from Julianna from across the room is enough to melt my heart. That child can smile! Just one cuddle from Alyssa and I never want to put her down. And Rachel, well, she is my nut. Screams a lot and mostly just does crunches - if you haven't seen it you're missing out! I can't wait to see her older. I think she will just be so spunky.

And number 10...

10. Lastly I do not need my living room or dining room. Right now they are both in the process of being transformed into a very large "playpen" for the girls. Julianna is now rolling over everywhere and truly she's trying to crawl. Rachel is not far behind her. Alyssa is perfectly happy to lay there and chew on her feet. Oh, and food. Alyssa really seems to like solid food. Unlike the other two.

Enjoy some pictures of our work in progress and some of the best things I see all day every day. The rest of the best things are Kirk, Kaitlyn and Caleb of course!



And because I never get tired of putting up individual pictures of the babies... (please enlarge photos to see their smiles up close - such a treat!)







Sorry Alyssa's picture is a little blurry but I'm a bit OCD on making sure that each baby has the same amount of pictures every time I post - I'm weird but you already knew that!

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Not a holiday we celebrate in any special way but it is a nice day off :) I also want to add that yesterday was my father's birthday and it's my fault that I am late on this but I wanted to say Happy Birthday Dad! We love you :) This is a birthday picture of the girls for Grandpa - at least 2 out of 3 are smiling!

Here's an example of what exhaustion is. On Saturday the girls had one nap and then we were out for the rest of the evening so by their bedtime bottle they were just out.

Julianna couldn't even finish...



Rachel's eating in her sleep...



Alyssa would rather chew on the Podee bottle straw then eat...

Schedules and Follow-Ups

Rachel saw the GI today and she seems to be doing well. If I haven't said it before she has been eating better with the Podee bottle and the Prevacid. The doctor gave us the pill form of the medicine she had been on since she doesn't seem to like the other kind.

In other news I found Kaitlyn's baby book when I was digging myself out of the mess that has become my house (with help from Venzy and Cathryn - thank you!) and as I read what I had written about Kaitlyn I found that she only weighed 14.8 pounds at 6 months. I can't belive that Julianna and Alyssa are both larger than that and they both started out about 3 pounds less then Kaitlyn's birth weight. Caleb, on the other hand, weighed 19.14 pounds. Hmmm... Just fun to compare!

Kirk keeps saying we should put up a daily schedule for our house so here's the norm:

6 AM Kirk gets up - I'm still dead to the world

7:30 AM Kirk gets Kaitlyn up usually one baby has fussed by now and has to be moved to the basement (Alyssa!)

8:30 AM Kirk leaves to take Kaitlyn to school, I'm still trying to sleep, usually it's not working, some baby is fussing or talking or Caleb is opening and closing his bedroom door.

9 AM I get everybody up and make 4 breakfasts (not mine) - 3 bottles and a waffle - after breakfast I change 4 diapers

10 AM Babies are "playing" and/or screaming - I'm trying to eat breakfast, Caleb is playing computer or watching TV or asking me for something - a snack usually - I know, I know, he just ate but tell him that!

10:30 AM Babies are breaking down I'm trying to entertain them and watching the clock

11 AM Naptime - finally :) Now I can do laundry, wash dishes, play with Caleb, clean up the house, swing Caleb on the swing, check my e-mail

1 PM - Babies wake up if they're being good - more bottles and then some rice cereal - still going slowly

2 PM - Girls are already breaking down - they are much fusier in the afternoon - this is the point where everyone's help is so much more helpful

2:30 PM - Go for a walk, play with babies, yell at them from upstairs as I attempt to gather more laundry that mommy has not disappeared and that they are fine

3:30 PM - Naptime - again. Yea! Kaitlyn's home from school - she and Caleb play outside/then inside/then outside/then inside - you get the idea. Some days I get a short break here and work on e-mails/the blog and writing

4:30 PM - Work on dinner, Kirk's on his way home, pray I don't hear an baby crying

5:30 PM - Babies up again - feed dinner - another bottle - they have such a varied menu!

6:30 PM - We eat dinner and give the girls a little bit of fruit or veggies or something - we keep trying!

7:30 PM - The world is breaking down, baths for the older kids, homework with Kaitlyn, errands to the store - our big outings

8:30 PM - Work on getting all 5 kids to bed - Kirk and I take turns putting Kaitlyn and Caleb to bed or bathing the triplets and getting them their bottles. Usually depends on whether or not I want to hear the girls screaming :)

9:30 PM - All 5 kids in bed - Kirk and I finish up stuff around the house and then collapse on the couch. This is when I write, catch up on all my TV - gotta fit it in somewhere!

12:30 AM - I'm in bed.

Party Animals

We have been partying for the past 3 weeks! We have had two one-year-old birthday parties, one 3-year-old party, a baby reunion, a graduation party and finally a church picnic. We are crazy party people!!

Watch the girls break down at CJ's 1st birthday party - it happens so fast... Don't miss Rachel's new skill at the end of the video. She's ditching this party! Seriously, we all had a good time.



Today was the church picnic and the kids had a great time except maybe Alyssa who announced our presence to the world with her cry and showed everyone why we call her "loud". A special thanks to Kristy Shepherd (CJ's mom) for the picnic pictures.

I'm holding Julianna and Sally is holding Alyssa - one of the few people who can keep Alyssa content for any length of time!!



Kirk and Rachel



Caleb "caught" his first fish at the catch-and-release pond. He loves to be down my the water.

Here's Caleb being swung by Mary Alphs and her daughter, Amanda (Caleb loves them - they babysat him for us while I was in the hospital)



And here's Caleb when you actually want to take his picture...



Kaitlyn never left the grass sleds - even after hours and hours she didn't want to go home.




Keeping up with the Nelson's is easier said than done!! Till next time...

6 Month Check-Up

Of course I know the girls are going to grow and I know that they are getting bigger but when I see it on the scale it still blows my mind. Even little Rachel is now almost 10 pounds bigger than her birth weight!! She seems to tiny, I can't believe where she is today. The great news is that all the girls are doing excellent. They are "perfect" for their age. No one is lagging behind in the developmental area and they are all doing everything they should be for their age.

Here are the exact "stats":

Julianna Mabel - 17.5 pounds which puts her at about the 75th percentile for weight. Wow!! As for height she is 26 1/4 inches long in the 75th percentile. Her head is also in the 75th percentile :) She's the same all around!

Alyssa Elaine - 15.12 pounds which puts her at the 50th percentile for weight - an average 6 month old :) She is our tallest baby at 27 inches making her just under the 90th percentile mark. Wow again!! After much debate they determined that her head didn't shrink from last time and she is now in the 75th percentile for head circumference as well.

Rachel Gabrielle - 14.1 pounds which puts her at the 12% for weight - yes, I did write that right - obviously still our peanut! The surprise is that she's actually longer that Julianna at 26 1/2 inches and that puts her above the 75th percentile for height. Go figure. Her head circumference is about the 5th percentile. She is a tiny but long girl!!

Our other news from today is that we all spent the morning with some new friends - 2 year old identical girl triplets and their 4 year old big sister. We got a little glimpse into what we have to look forward to and in so many ways the future is just bright! I can't wait :) Granted, their mom did a lot of chasing and counting but the girls were well behaved and interacted very well. So much to look forward to...

Thirty Fingers and Thirty Toes...

Are 6 months old today!! I can't believe a half a year has gone by since they forcefully removed these 3 little ones from me. I'm still not sure how I'll survive the rest of this first year but having half of it behind me gives me hope.

A few things have changed since the beginning. Instead of 24 bottles a day we are down to 12. Instead of 30 diapers a day we are down to about 15. Some days just 12 diapers! The girls poop on schedule too. We are more "scheduled" these days though the girls don't always like to cooperate. Alyssa has her own ideas. Yes, they sleep through the night but for some reason Alyssa feels like crying at 6 AM is a great thing to do. Her sisters are not impressed.

Some things haven't changed. Julianna is still the most easy-going, slimiest baby I have ever met. She thinks it's very funny to puke on everything all the time. Our house which basically looks like Baby's R Us is also covered with burp cloths.

Rachel is still the peanut, still trying to do crunches 24/7 and still kind of in between personality wise. She's easy to make smile but also a screamer. Her days go either way.

Alyssa has been dubbed our "velcro" baby. She wants to be held all the time and finds it fun to just cling to my shirt. She's my first baby that isn't so into moving that she actually finds time to relax. But she's also my first baby to sleep less. Usually she screams during a nap or two a day, is the hardest to put to sleep (except if she does it herself - rocking her is hard!) and the most likely to wake up at night. Go figure. She is still the loudest baby ever.

We go on Friday for their check-up so I will post what they weigh. Can't wait for that. Right now I'm just enjoying that we've survived 6 months and the ability to make 3 different babies giggle. Still does freak me out a bit when I start talking and 3 pairs of eyes look my way. So intense :)

The girls in their entertainers - we have enough to rotate them around!

Notice the burp cloth in front of Julianna - it's always there... Yea, I don't know about this look either.



Yes, that's Kirk on the phone behind Rachel - things calm down enough sometimes for us to be on the phone. It's rare... just ask my parents - the girls scream every time we talk to them!



Alyssa is as intense as always... Notice the raised eyebrow - I think she's turning into her father. Her name does mean logical should've been our first clue...

Happy Mother's Day!

Today isn't my first Mother's Day but it is my first as a mother of 5! Wow! I never saw that coming. So many years I didn't think I'd have any children and now I have 5. Praise God for His goodness despite our doubting.

I do have to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom who I love and miss very much down there in Florida. She's a great mom! Kirk's mom passed away a few years ago and we still miss her very much. We wish she could be here to see all of new grandaughters.

I did want to say a special Happy Mother's Day to 2 new friends who are celebrating for the 1st time ever - have a great day Cherie and Jeannie!! Congrats on your triplets boys :) (Cherie's are 6 month old today and have been featured on my blog before) - Jeannie is a new friend who had her triplets 2 weeks ago and they have all just recently come home. Yea!

Here's me with all of my "babies" - some aren't babies anymore...

She made me a mother - Me and Kaitlyn



My only boy - Me and Caleb



And of course, the triplets one at a time. Hey, they're individuals too!

Julianna



Rachel



Alyssa

Baby Reunion

Most of you know that I suffer from an ovulatory dysfunction and that my body does not make the hormone necessary to ovulate so for each of my pregnancies I've had to take hormone shots to ovulate. Prior to last year we've only had one baby at a time but then something miraculous happened and the Lord allowed us to conceive our triplet girls. Helping us achieve this success is the place that I used to work: Genetics and IVF institute in Fairfax. Every year on the Saturday before Mother's Day they have a baby reunion and this year was no exception. So, we packed up our family of 5 and headed to the Marriott in Fairfax to show off our larger family and to see so many old friends.

This is us with the first doctor to count the babies, Dr. Lincoln. He just had to check out what he saw "off to the side" - before that we were "just" having twins :)



This is all of us with Dr. K, the second doctor to count the babies and to show Kaitlyn and Caleb the triplets for the first time and to assure us that they were all doing and growing well at just 7 weeks.



This is nurse Maureen holding Rachel...



Nurse Marsha with Alyssa... (both are old co-workers and friends)



And here's us having fun. There was face painting and clowns and balloons and food. We had a great time and we can't wait till next year! Mostly because it means the girls will be that much bigger :) Last year, they were still in me and we didn't even know what they were yet so it was exciting to me to have everyone finally meet them.

Happy 11th Anniversary!!

Okay, so we really tried to have the kids do well with this photo but it was a bit too close to bedtime and the girls were not cooperating! But do they ever? Then we had a new problem - the sign was tasty. Alyssa ruined our first sign. Oh well, couldn't read it as well.

Anyway, today is our 11th anniversary :) Eleven years ago we were not feeding babies! I was walking down the aisle at just 19 years old. Yep, I was young but I think I knew what I was doing.

I am grateful to the Lord for the last 11 years that I have spent with Kirk. He has been a wonderful husband and friend. Never once has he complained about anything and we have been through a lot in these 11 years. He is a wonderful father to all of our children and has more than proved his love to me over the last year especially.

While I was on bed rest he took care of everything and while I was in the hospital he was a essentially a single dad taking on more than I could ever do. He took care of the kids in an excellent way - okay, they weren't always dressed as perfect as I would have but these are minor details :) - and he even took care of me. I think he's still doing that. There's nothing more stressful on a marriage than new babies. Multiply that times 3 and the stress is off the charts. He has been easy going and loving through it all. The Lord really knew what He was doing when he got us together. And thankfully, Kirk said yes when I asked him to prom :)

Here's to so many more years...

When There's No Other Food...

Eat your sister!



Or maybe it's just a friendly kiss :) Because look how sweet they all are playing together on the floor...



Here's a little clip of Julianna's newest skill - the ability to roll from her back to her front. Notice how it's now impossible to keep her on her back!! Rachel and Alyssa just enjoyed hanging out on the floor - they can't do what their sister can yet. But just imagine how crazy it will be when all 3 of them are doing this!!

Don't miss the big grin I get in between rolls (I have to roll her from her stomach to her back - she can do it but for some reason she hasn't figured that out yet on the floor just in her crib).

Swingtime Fun

Rachel and Julianna "just hanging out" - Julianna thought the swing tasted good so she wouldn't look at me. I think Rachel's glaring at me but I'm not sure...



Julianna was the only one who cooperated with the close-up shot. This is most of life - she's the only one who cooperates with anything. Such an easy baby :) She'll get to hang that over her sister's heads someday soon!



Julianna enjoying the swing. Look at her cute little feet :)



Rachel liked the swing better when she fell forward rather then when she was leaning back in it. Kirk thinks she needs a swing that holds her flat on her stomach. The child does crunches all day, every day. It's very weird. Does she not know she can't sit up yet??



Alyssa had the sun in her eyes or she too was annoyed with me to look up because I wasn't holding her every second of her "waketime". Even with my friend Denise here we didn't have enough hands to go around and push Caleb on the swing again and again.



Had to include a picture of Caleb on the swing. He LOVES to swing higher and higher and have mom do an "underdog". Check out the baby in the background - can't tell who it is but they were all drowning in the baby swing. It was very cute. At least it kept them relatively happy for a while. That's my life! Running around like mad for a few hours in between baby sleep times. All I do is watch the clock until it's the next naptime or bedtime :)

Sisters

Everyone who knows me knows that I am addicted to clothes and not really my clothes but my kids. I am a Gymboree addict :) Mostly I shop the sales but the point is cute kids clothes make for even cuter kids. A tad shallow but there's nothing more fun that dressing babies up - isn't that why we have kids? Real live dolls :) Seriously, I wanted to share some pictures of the girls with their big sister. It's even more fun to dress the 4 of them alike. Well, Kaitlyn doesn't always cooperate but here are some pictures from the few times she has...





And a big thank you to everyone who watched the kids today so that Kirk and I could go out and celebrate our 11th anniversary. It was wonderful to get away for an evening. We got to see Spiderman III and go out to dinner.