Friday, July 15, 2011

Camping & Brihan Visit!


Trying to overcome the death roll to complete diaper change


defeated!







Our friends Brit and Jehan (Brihan) came to visit last week. We didn't want to overwhelm them so we slowly eased them into triplet care. By the end of the trip they were in charge of a baby at night and would rock him back to sleep as needed. I think they got the full baby experience, Jehan got all the baby bodily fluids on her, pee, poop, spit up and slobber : ) They are currently childless and we did everything we could to convince them to change that. We dropped hints, told them how great parenthood was and how easy just one baby would be. We even dropped some scripture on them Psalms 127:3, "the bible doesn't lie guys so come on!" Not sure if it worked but I guess we'll see : P


Camping + Triplets = Disaster?

car packed to the brim

more camping pics at our flicker account, see right side bar under MORE PICTURES!

We planned this trip months ago and I thought that by then we could surely handle going camping. Well as the day approached I was getting more and more nervous especially since the babies had never spent the night elsewhere.

They actually did pretty good and while it wasn't super relaxing, which life with triplets never is anyways, it definitely wasn't a disaster. Brit and Phil did a little fishing here and there and would take one or two boys with them. One day we did a big hike, and by big I mean about 3 miles round trip. Everyone carried babies except me and let me tell you it left me sore for at least two days. Jehan convinced me that I need to increase my core strength and taught me some moves to help with that...let's see if I can do them regularly enough to actually help.

For the trip I brought along disposable diapers to simplify things. I think the experience has turned me into a self proclaimed cloth diaper advocate. I think parents of multiples are afraid of the added work with cloth diapers but really I'd rather deal with them than having to deal with constant leaking and incredible blowouts! And I even bought the good kind! First off they do not last the whole night, I actually had enough sense to bring diaper covers to put over the disposables for the night...it worked like magic! Second, a good cloth diaper cover rarely allows a blow out to occur.

Some essentials for the trip were:

-the "baby prison" a phrase coined by Jehan, it's our fence that makes for a big play area

-a highchair, I wish I had brought more than one, we strapped it onto the bench at the campsite and the babies really enjoyed sitting in it and watching all the action (grown ups cooking).

-backpack hikers, I borrowed two and the babies really enjoyed being up high and they seemed really comfortable.

-plenty of clothes, I way under packed and Thomas ended up in a diaper and shirt for the big hike (incredible blowout).

-at least two friends to help with the babies, we couldn't have done it without them : )

7 comments:

Jehan said...

Message from Brihan:
If anyone needs a baby fix-- go get one of the trips. Each one of them is adorable and easy to get attached to. I hope Thomas remembers his early morning whimpers and how I rocked him back to sweet sleep. I hadn't changed a diaper since my nephew exploded in his diaper a couple years ago (that was traumatizing, and it was a two-person job). So I must say I am rather impressed with myself, I changed two poopy diapers in a row while Phil documented the procedure with a camera. I was deemed an expert and thereafter changed plenty of diapers. We had a fantastic time. Britt can't stop talking about how much he misses the babies. We hope they miss us too. Oh, and Janet got me hooked on Teen Mom and swiss cheese.

Sara 诗媛 said...

The first picture it looked like those babies belong to them! Glad the camping trip went well. Who knows, maybe "Brihan" could be fortunate enough to have triplets as well.

nan cee said...

I am amazed at how well you do with the boys and admire you for taking them camping! Your car looked loaded down but sounds like you all had a good time.
Thanks for keeping up the blog. I truly apreciate seeing all the pictures and reading all the stories along with them!
Love to you all,
A. Nancy

Jonalyn said...

Looks like camping was fun (besides diaper issues, that is). Your "plan" will either make your friends want kids or decide they've gotten enough of a baby "fix" to last a few years!

Bryan said...

blowouts sound cool!

Since I am a single male adult, are those like when Best Buy has a huge sale on Saturdays and you go, and you come out with lots of stuff that you don't need, and a lot of debt, but it still feels good... is it exactly like THAT!

(the bad grammar was intentional)

Kari said...

Hi, we are taking our 10 month old triplets camping tomorrow. I want to bring cloth diapers, but my husband thinks its too much. Did you cosleep? Let me know if you have ant tips. We won't have any extra hands, five children plus me and husband. Thanks for writing about your adventure. Take care

Janet Pittsenbarger said...

Hi Kari, I didn't bring my cloth diapers after another MOM advised against it so can't say it's a bad idea first hand. But you deserve the break since camping is hard (but fun) work. Yes we co-slept and kept minimal stuff in the tent incase they woke up before us and started exploring. I'd recommend bringing as many panels of the superyard fence and enclose as much as possible, the babies love being in the action. We had them separated too much so we ended up holding them a lot more. Have fun!