Our New Ride (13 mo!)

13 months! (btw I'm doing this pic till they turn 2)

Our New Ride, The Joovy Big Caboose!

Took the sun shades off, don't need those for a while : (

I kind of jumped the gun on getting our next stroller, I get such a rush from getting a good deal and wining a bid on eBay. I was taking my time and wanted to get it used on craigslist but I stumbled on a seller on eBay that puts up a brand new Joovy Big Caboose once a week with the starting bid at $0.99! So I followed three strollers over a three week period and they all sold for way less than retail ($350). I won the last one for $265 (this includes shipping) not much more than what I would have paid for a used one! The resale value is really high so I don't think it will be a problem selling it after we are done with it. If anyone is interested the eBay seller is strollerstop. Here is the latest listing

What's so great about this stroller? It rides like a luxury car, turns on a dime and has room for all three of my boys! Two seats and one bench seat or standing option. Stadium seating gives all babies great views. It goes over bumps like nothing, the boys hardly feel it. The buckles on the five point harness are super easy to put on and the stroller collapses really easy. The bench seat is recommended for children 2.5 yrs or older but all my boys (13mo) have now ridden on the bench and they have done perfectly fine. We even heard someone say as we passed by say "what a great stroller."

The best part is that it attracts WAY less attention than my triplet stroller. People think and sometimes say 'twins!' I smile and keep walking and they keep looking of course. Then they notice the third baby on the bench seat and I faintly hear them say 'oh triplets!' But by then I'm too far for them to interrogate us : ) HAHAHA suckas! I'm so tired of always feeling like a traffic accident...

Cons, it's not much shorter than my triplet stroller, but it IS shorter. It doesn't fit in the back part of our minivan. It does however fit perfectly in the leg room of the middle section.

Phil asked, "this IS our last stroller, right?"

Me, "oh yeah for sure, I wasn't planning on getting the choo choo wagon (very popular among triplet families)."

Phil, "wait, but that's not a stroller."

Me, "did you want to get it?"

Phil, "heck yeah!"

It looks like Phil has choo choo wagon envy, but that's gonna be his thing, pushing a stroller is a lot easier than pulling three stinky butts that are only gonna get heavier : )

Thomas has been Usurped!!! (12 month well child check up at 13 months)

All weighed and measured, eating lunch while waiting for doc to come in

Pops feeding Mr. T

Thomas doing a little dance, he forgot shots were next!

The boys' handsome young doctor, he was there when they were delivered so he's known them from minute one. I'm pretty sure the only reason we chose him as our pediatrician was because he looks so much like Bret from Flight of the Conchords : )

Caleb, all done with shots, what a good sport

Thomas has been usurped by Caleb, he lost his 'big boy' status! Caleb has had such a great appetite lately that it doesn't surprise me. Little Eli keeps his 'runt' status. They all went up on their percentiles too.

Caleb 18 lbs 11oz, 28.5 in 10th percentile for age (up from 5th percentile)

Eli 17 lbs 13.5oz, 27.75 in, 5th percentile for age (up from 1st percentile)

Thomas 18 lbs 9.4oz, 28.25 in, 10th percentile for age (up from 5th percentile)

Old Stomping Grounds

Since the boys turned a year already we thought we'd do the rounds of our old stomping grounds. After too many elevator rides, which made the boys freak out each time, we dropped off one year pics to the NICU, MBU (mother baby unit) and to say hi to my lactation nurse but she wasn't there : ( , then to my perinatologist, she wasn't there either : ( oh well at least they'll get to see the picture.

We asked and there haven't been any more triplets at the NICU, so the Pittsenbarger triplets legacy still stands!

We joked around and told the boys they were acting like preemies so we were taking them back to the NICU. They didn't think it was that funny : )

Eli the Dancing Machine

What can I say, the boy loves to dance!

Eli the Dancing Machine from Janet Pittsenbarger on Vimeo.

Here I'm asking Eli where God lives in Spanish...this is what he has to say : )

Eli Knows Where God Lives from Janet Pittsenbarger on Vimeo.

For the Record

Just some interesting stats to celebrate our blog turning 100,000 views. Here's to all my faithful followers!

Blog

100,000 blog views: Blog hits as of today 10/26/2011, OMG how did this blog get so popular?!

58 official followers and counting : )

10 week ultrasound post has gotten over 4290 post views: Most Popular Blog post

~2,000 blog views/day: Max number of hits the blog has gotten in one day, this lasted for a few days after the babies were born (can't get exact figures but that's what Phil and I remember)

250-350 blog views/day: Average number of hits the blog gets now

We have visitors from all over the world (over 30 countries), here are some of the Countries where our blog is most popular. In order of most visitors:
USA
Canada
United Kingdom
Australia

Belgium
Germany

Netherlands
Russia
France
Malaysia

I can't believe it!

2758 pills: Vitamins taken during pregnancy (19 pills a day adds up quickly!)

19 Prenatal Appointments (11 Doc Appts + 8 Fetal Monitoring Appts)

13 Ultrasounds (most women only get like 2 or 3 ultrasounds!)

$13,000 our insurance company spent on ultrasounds alone!

$2000 Medical Bills for the year 2010 (pregnancy + NICU stay), you get excellent insurance when you work for the state : )

9465 diapers: Diapers Changed in 1 year, can you imagine what that looks like!?! So glad we did clothies, at least they biodegrade!

1440 bottles: Bottles given while exclusively bottle fed (0-2months)

4 days: Longest time going without a shower, this was at the peak of newborn madness and my usual helpers all canceled on me that week. But then a friend checked in on me and rushed over so I could jump in the shower otherwise it may have lasted much longer, yuk!

7 days: Longest time never leaving my house, I couldn't even take a walk because the weather was so crappy

5 hrs: Most continuous hours I (mom) slept at one time from 0-4months, and this probably only happened once!

2 weeks: Length of NICU stay, admitted late Tuesday night and discharged on Thursday

7 days: Length of time mom spent in the hospital

2 hrs: Longest period of time I've been away from my babies minus NICU stay (when is the baby honeymoon over, I can't get enough of these stinkers!?)

3 news stories, 1 article in the Oregonian, 1 article in Metro Parent: the boys 15 minutes of Fame

545 protein shakes: Number of Carnation Instant Breakfasts I've consumed during the pregnancy and 1st year after babies, it's such an easy meal!

Visitors

20 persons: number of different friends and family that came to visit us from California (or Utah) in the first year (many came more than once)

12 visits: number of separate visits during 1st year of babies lives (we never had to go more than two or three weeks by ourselves, thank you soooooo much!)

5 visits: our most frequent visitor goes to Aunt Janet! (It would have been 6 but she got sick and ended up staying at a hotel while Chance visited with us) Thanks : )

too many too count: travel shampoo left behind

Weight

60 lbs: Total weight gained in pregnancy

4 lbs: Most weight gained in one week

30 lbs: Most weight loss in one day (the day my babies were born!)

12 lbs 13 oz: Total baby weight : ) That was one BIG belly!

6 lbs: Most weight dropped in one week minus birth (first two weeks after the triplets were born)

Sympathy weight gained by Phil: he'd rather not say

Milk

1.5 liters or 50 oz: How much milk I pumped in one day while exclusively pumping (0-2 months), I'm assuming I produced a lot more after I quit pumping based on how much formula babies were drinking after I'd finish nursing everyone.

9oz: How much milk I recently (@12mo) pumped from ONE breast, holly cow that is seriously a lot of milk (yes pun intended)!

$4562 or $380/month saved (WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!): Amount of money we would have spent on formula had I not breastfed

Priceless: The benefits of liquid gold (breast milk) that my babies got : )

Cats Scare Babies video

Jail Break!

The boys broke out of the baby prison and won't be coming back!

Their new play space is so big they can play football!

New dining commons

I should have done this as soon as the boys learned to walk but we were too lazy to baby proof. What finally motivated me to take action? Two awful days of the boys getting into each others business waaay too much. Clearly they needed more room to play in. So with almost 3 times the space I'm happy to report that they are lovin' it! And they are not hurting themselves or getting into trouble as much as I thought they would. The first day out they were so preoccupied with exploring and enjoying their new found freedom that they paid no attention to mom. I'd try to get them to play with me and they'd just humor me for 30 seconds or so and then they were off. So the landscape has changed quite a bit, the superyard (ex baby prison) is still very valuable since I used it to I fenced off a small portion of the living room were the pot belly fireplace lives, which by the way we pretty much we keep going all winter long (a life saver on our heating bills). I moved the high chairs out of the dining room and into the kitchen/breakfast nook. It's much more crowded in there but it has a nice view with lots of natural light which makes story time over cheerios more pleasant. Oh yeah and dried up smashed banana chuncks are a lot easier to clean up off of tile than hard wood since you can actually see them : )

The great gold fish cracker spill of 2011!

The boys are really impressing me lately with all the new things they've learned. The best one by far is when I ask them were God lives and they raise their little arms up high, yes God lives up in the heavens! This makes mama so proud and seriously too cute. They also sometimes get their hands on one of the most coveted items, the wii-mote (not for babies!), but they know enough to point it at the tv and I'm sure they are hoping to turn on Eebee's Adventures. They also comb their own hair. There is an old comb included in their basket of toys and after a few times of me combing their hair with it, now when ever they pick it up they tap their heads with the comb. I will work on getting videos of all of this : )

Caleb has been walking around with his hands on his back lately, he looks so adorable!

How cute is this bench I scored at a thrift store???

This is the now the designated 'shoe putting on' place.

With chilly weather ahead of us I couldn't get the boys to keep a blanket on them to save my life. So now they sleep in sleep sacks or as I like to call them 'the boys sleeping gowns.' (these things are awesome, I highly recommend them!)

Walkabout

This post is not about 'A journey on foot undertaken by an Australian Aboriginal in order to live in the traditional manner.' This post is about walking : )

The boys look so cute walking, especially when you see all three running around. They are so tiny that it doesn't seem like they should be capable of walking. Thomas by far is the cutest walker, he looks like he's doing the 'Charleston' (Phil came up with that one). He holds his hands up close to his face and kind of high steps it. Eli moves his entire body left then right with each step. Caleb is the smoothest walker and always looks nonchalant as he glides past you looking like he's on a conveyor belt. I put this little video together so you can see what I mean.

Big boy shoes

Since it was a little muddy out I thought it might be a good idea to try out big boy shoes (hard soled shoes). I went and fished out the two dozen shoes we've been passed down. Thinking I could choose the ones that matched the best I realized that only 3 pairs actually fit. The boys have very chubby feet so the shoes not only had to be the right length but also width and depth. So Thomas ended up with these silly boots with pompoms. The boys were too funny, they didn't know how to walk in them! Case and point:

Play Time

Thomas

Eli

Caleb

In anticipation of winter weather we joined an indoor play area co-op close by. My goal is to make it out there at least once a week. The boys really NEED to go there everyday but that's all I can really handle right now. Going there, and really anywhere by myself, literally takes me the whole day to prepare. For example this last time we went I got the boys out of their pj's and dressed before they went down for their nap. I got myself dressed and ready during the boys nap in lieu of cleaning the kitchen (I usually have to sacrifice something). The boys got up at 2pm from their wonderful 2hr nap and I proceeded with my usual routine of diaper changes, milk feeding, and then lunch. I wanted to do a round of diaper changes before we left so everyone would be nice and dry for their fun outing. After I changed everyone I noticed Eli might be pooping so I go and change him again. When I get back from doing that, ugh, I see that now Thomas is pooping. I must add these were the tiniest of poops, they had bigger poops as preemies! Next I put on their shoes and load them into the car, ONE by ONE I run back and forth from the house to the car. At this point I have a good sweat going and we drive 2 miles in 7 minutes. I unload two of the boys into the double stroller, carry the third and walk 15 feet to the front door. The boys spend an hour maybe an hour and a half if we make good time. Then load them up and head back home just in time for their next milk feeding. I ask myself often 'was it really worth that much effort?'

YES it is. Being a homebody by nature the boys get cabin fever before I do. They kind of start to lose it towards the end of the day so a walk or outing is the perfect medicine. The boys LOVE it there, they don't take each others toys or cry when they fall down and I have to peel them away from whatever they are doing when it's time to leave. This place is going to be a life saver this winter!

One of the cool things about the co-op is that you can bring in stuff that your kids have outgrown and grab stuff you need that others have brought in. I found a great pair of shoes so that Thomas doesn't have to wear those silly boots I told you about earlier.

Sweater Fever!

We have a fever and the only cure is more festive sweaters!

Caleb

Thomas

Eli with crumbs on his mouth

Pumpkins for my little pumpkins : )

Seriously, how awesome would this picture have been had the boys been cooperating!?

We couldn't stay away, off to another pumpkin patch we went to create our annual fall memory with our friend K and Oz.

Update

Thomas and Caleb both cut their top front Left tooth within a week of each other. The tooth next to it is close behind. I can see Eli's top front right tooth coming in but it hasn't cut through just yet.

I think it's safe to say the boys are down to one nap a day, yay! A couple of days I had to resort to holding Eli while he slept but I think it helped him get into a pattern of sleeping a longer stretch. So from what I hear the one nap just keeps getting later and shorter till it's all gone : )

hoodlum street kid

OMG I wish I had three of these!

This is what happens when mom brings up all the 12mo clothes and they fit just a little too loose : P

This is Caleb's new favorite pass time, what a goofball! I didn't get it in this video but earlier this was making Eli crack up : )

Metro Parent

Back when Phil and I lived in Berkeley we were at a Long's Drug store buying who knows what when we were surprised to see our land lord on the cover of Bay Area Parent! She had adopted an adorable little girl from Guatemala shortly before we moved into the lower half of her house. Little did we know that just a few years later we'd be in a similar type magazine.

A free lance writer for Metro Parent, a local parents magazine, contacted us for a story she was working on. She remembered us from the article the Oregonian(local newspaper) did when the triplets were born. We had a lovely time at the park while she interviewed me and the boys played on a blanket. She was impressed at how well the boys behaved and couldn't get over how adorable they were. It's too funny but within a couple of minutes she identified Thomas as the "alpha male!" I thought that was the most fitting description anyone has ever come up for Mr. T! That little stinker will get his when he and his brothers realize he was the last one born : )

Once a year MP puts out two magazines, one is the regular monthly issue and the other is a yearly "Your Baby and You". We are in the later one and unfortunately they haven't posted a PDF of it in their website. So I scanned it but didn't have time to crop it pretty. If you click on the picture you should be able to see the text if you so do wish to read the article about prenatal care. I must say she did a good job and were surprised that we were the fulcrum of the story. I guess I thought for sure we'd be reduced to only two sentences : )

We are in this ad, can you find us???

M.O.M.'s are Awesome because...

This is a feel good post dedicated to all us em oh em's out there : )

Moms(and Dads) of Multiples are awesome because...

1...nobody wants to baby sit your kids by themselves and yet you take care of all of them day after day by yourself!

2...our husbands are way too busy to ever get 'jealous of the baby', which supposedly happens to new parents.

3...we have no trouble losing our pregnancy weight. Who has time to eat when you are chasing after so many kids (I lost all of mine by 6 months and I was trying to keep it!)

4...we can always 'one up' everyone. Don't complain to a M.O.M. about how hard your pregnancy was or how hard your ONE baby is!

5...your boobs won't sag as much. Let me explain. It has been said that a woman's boobs sag a little more with each pregnancy she goes through (I heard this on the news). Ok ladies, so you can now hold your head up and feel proud that your boobs don't sag as much as the next woman with the same amount of kids : )

6...nobody thinks you are vain for wanting a tummy tuck and often people will tell you 'you deserve it for all you've been through'

7...wanting to dressing your kids in the same outfit isn't dumb (I keep this to a minimum but I can't help but like it!)

8...we have a good excuse for always looking frumpy...life is so comfortable in pajamas. (note to self: order pajama jeans)

9...crying doesn't bug you anymore, it's become background noise to you

10...buy one get one free (for twins) or buy two get one free sales (for triplets) were made for us

11...our house looks like a hurricane just went through it and yet we are still admired for 'all we do'

12...oh yeah and we make people, three at a time!

Ok I can't think of anymore, anyone else?

Stick Wars

Hey give me back my stick!

Who wants the last hot dog?!..........I'll take it!

1 Year Photo Shoot

Sauvie Island Adventure

We love going to Sauvie island to pick berries, hang out at the beach and visit the pumpkin patches in the fall. It was an easy choice to go there for the boys one year photo shoot. It was a cool, cloudy, and overcast day, perfect picture taking weather! Thankfully the boy's Aunt Janet was visiting and she was able to help us juggle the boys and take pictures along with us. We are no Rebecca Davis from NW Catchlights but what do you think? I don't think we did too bad : )

First Stop: the great Columbia River Beach

In this set of pics the boys are all in birth order, of course! Caleb, Eli, Thomas

I totally scored on these shirts at a buy one get two free sale, they perfectly match the boys personalities. Click on the pic so you can read what it says : )

Mom and Eli

Second Stop: the Pumpkin Patch

Caleb in orange, Eli in green, Thomas in Brown

C

E

T

Thanks Aunt Janet!