TWO!

I don't think they are very excited that they are big boys now!

I woke up that Tuesday morning feeling like I would be pregnant forever. I pretty much felt the same as I had been, meaning all my aches and pains were a little worse with each and every day that I remained pregnant. I was miserable, I don't want to forget that, miserable! I guess at least I could be miserable at home and not stuck in a hospital, I am thankful for that. I had already stopped driving because everyone kept telling me to stop and I finally listened one or so weeks back. My in laws were already in town so they drove me to my fetal monitoring appointment I had that morning. The nurse that hooked me up mentioned that she didn't think I would last much longer, I was so relieved to hear those words but then was frightened by my next thought. "How does she really know that" since there were still no signs at all! Just like all my other fetal monitorings the nurse sent me on my way and told me a doctor would analyze the results and give me a call if anything looked wrong. As I walked down the halls of the clinic I never once even got 'are you expecting twins?' I was at least twice as big as I would have been with a full term singleton, I'm only 5'2" and I was huge! It would take my breath away if I tried to roll over from one side to the other, I had to sit up and then turn. For the longest time afterward I would forget that I wasn't pregnant anymore and hold on to something before sitting down to pee since it was too much weight for my knees to support. Anyways, so we drove back home and before I got into my comfortable clothes I had mama Sue snap a picture of me since today I was exactly 34 weeks pregnant with triplets! (see pic on right side bar)

Around 3:30pm I got a call from the hospital to tell me that it wasn't a real big concern but baby A's  (my sweet Caleb) heart beat was fluctuating a little more than normal. They'd like to repeat the non-stress test just to make sure it wasn't anything more than a fluke. I could take my time and come in within the next two hours. I really thought they'd just do the test and we'd be home for dinner. Worst case I'd be admitted into the hospital for bed rest or observation. Since it was late enough I called Phil at work and told him to come home a little early so he could take me in. I took a shower and finished packing my hospital bag. We arrive at labor & delivery sometime after 5pm and I get hooked up. Baby A is checking out great! They tell me I should be able to leave here pretty soon. Of course I was the talk of L&D, who is this woman that is 34 weeks pregnant with triplets and not yet admitted for hospital bed rest! Funny thing is, as I was laying there strapped to all the machines I started getting real contractions. Everyone starts to realize I might be in labor, I call my mom around 6pm to tell her that I can't say 100% for sure but this might be it and that she should see about getting the next flight here. Thankfully my doctor was on call, around 8:30pm and only 1cm dialated they finally tell us that I'll be going in for my c-section in the next hour or so. At that point all I could do was stare blankly at the walls during contractions and my weak aspirations for a vaginal delivery went out the door (actually I gave them a little kick). Get me some drugs now! It wasn't that they hurt that bad, it's just that I wasn't mentally prepared to deal with that and just wanted them gone and to be done with the c-section. I wasn't at all scared, I just wanted relief from being pregnant. On the other side of things, Phil was very nervous but not showing it. At 10pm, I get a spinal shot, and it feels oh so good! I can finally relax and get excited to meet my boys! At 10:35pm cut, rip, and pull! Out comes Caleb, then Eli (baby A and C). At 10:36 out comes Thomas (baby B). Screaming like crazy, and as Phil noted, he couldn't believe how wide they could open their mouths to belt it out : ) As they begin to sew me up Phil leaves me to go check on the babies and take oodles of pictures of them.

A little while later I'm wheeled to a waiting/recovery room. Next thing I know they bring in my babies one by one. I expect them to take a baby and then hand me the next one but instead they plop all three babies on me, 'oh yeah that's a much better idea' I think to myself. As I'm handed each baby I give them a kiss on the cheek, the kiss feels clammy and a little strange. I get my picture taken with them and I over hear one of the nurses tearfully say, 'this is the most amazing/best/greatest (can't remember the exact adjective used but something to that effect) thing I've ever witnessed in my whole life." Then off they go to the NICU. A little while later my mom walks in, just a half an hour after the birth! In only three and a half hours she bought a ticket, packed, drove from SJ to SF airport, flew to Portland and drove to OHSU (a friend picked her up). She barely made the last flight of the day to Portland!

I was so naive back then even though I spent hours reading about triplet pregnancies I was sure that 34 weeks meant perfectly healthy babies. Now I know that even at 35 weeks some babies have trouble breathing or other issues. Thankfully, my boys were indeed perfectly healthy! They didn't even need the bili lights for jaundice which most 34 weekers seem to need. Of course babies at 34 weeks do not have the energy to sufficiently nourish themselves by bottle so they spent two weeks  in the NICU without a single set back till they caught up developmentally. The rest is history!

Where did my tiny preemies go?

CET at 1 month, Caleb is so small that his shoulder is coming out of his preemie sized onesie!

kangaroo care is especially beneficial to preemies : )

Last Few Days as Babies!

I took these pictures a couple weeks ago, can't get away with dressing them like this when they are no longer babies anymore! In a couple of days you can call them toddlers, boys, dudes, guys but not babies, Enjoy : )

CET

C

E

T

CET (sorry some of the pictures are overly yellowed, took me a while to realize it and change the settings)

Oh no, I messed up my hair (C)

E

Thomas you are gorgeous!

But they will always be MY babies...

Excercise

Dad was trying to exercise  

Faster Father! Faster!

resistance bands

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C

ETC

Caleb is giving YOU the stink eye

Phil making his boys laugh

This is the first climbing wall one of the boys has been able to climb all by himself (Thomas)

Thomas got it all by himself on the first try. Caleb needed some help on the first try and then was able to do it on his own. Eli needed help each time : )

Caleb points at Elmo's nose

Then he shows me his : )

I am trying to make bigger effort to take one of the boys whenever I go grocery shopping. I think they really enjoy it and seriously I think I can hear them learning new stuff. This time I took Caleb by the hand and he rode on an escalator for the first time. Caleb thought it was way cool. Then he found this little Elmo that was stuffed in a clothes rack. We stopped and chatted a while about the Elmo : )

Caleb is sporting his new ribbon bow tie that I made for the boys 

Updates

 Suddenly Thomas' hemangioma is really hard to see. It is making me realize how much I have been relying on it to tell him and Eli apart (I can pick out Caleb from a mile away among his brothers). Most of the time I know who is who but lately they have a straight face or are scrunching up their faces in mid cry it will take one or two seconds to figure out who I'm looking at. It's fading quickly and the one on top of his head that's now under his hair is but a shadow. 

Not sure if you noticed by the pictures but I gave the boys a trim. It was much more challenging than just doing a buzz cut (don't look too carefully). I think they look so handsome with long hair on top and short on the sides : )

There are a couple of words I recently realized that the boys have been saying for a long time but I failed to notice so I need to give credit where it's due. I had written them off as baby babble but thinking back they have been saying it very consistently and in an appropriate way for who knows how long. First word is 'ten' ('here you go' in Spanish) but they pronounce it so delicately as 'te.' The other word is 'done' which they pronounce as 'duh' and it's usually in conjunction with the sign for all done : )

 The boys have been saying 'agua' (water) consistently and once Caleb asked for it when it was out of his reach.

 The coolest update of this post is that Eli said a two word phrase all on his own with out any encouragement. We were in his room and I asked them if they wanted to go to sleep (I was only joshing them) and Eli points at his crib and says 'mimi aya' which means 'I sleep there.' They may not have many words but Eli knew how to use them!

Having Fun with Grandparents

At the science museum...

The boys are hibernating

Thomas looking angelic

C

Thomas adopted this squirrel that was supposed to be hibernating in the tree

time for noms!

I tried to convince Eli that the orange noisy stick was way cooler than the pink one... he won that argument

Mama Sue got the boys noisy sticks which they quickly realized they could smack each other with

You think the boys would have been super excited seeing at how obsessed they are about trains, they were mildly amused at best

T

Caleb playing keep away with mama Sue, notice the plastic piece of junk in his mouth

Happy Boy! (E)

CET

C

Thomas keeps a straight face even when he's joking around

Library Score!

Updates

I was teaching the boys that kitty's wash their hands by licking them, after a quick demonstration all the boys tried it themselves. By far Caleb does it the cutest but for the life of me I can't get in on camera : ( Trust me, it's SUPER cute!

The boys hair is getting pretty shaggy and I wanted to cut it about a month or so before we do their 2year pictures so that their hair would look short but natural and not like they just had a hair cut (it just seems too planned and cheesy). How do you like that run on sentence? Well I just can't bare to shave off that chestnut brown that's become of their hair. The sun is going into hibernation soon so I know if I cut it off I won't see it till next summer. So I think we'll try again for long hair, last time it was just looking too ridiculous that we caved and buzzed it. I'm hoping we can just bare through the crazy stage this time and hope that their hair settles down (literally) sooner since their hair has thickened up. It'll just be a trim around the sides, bottom, and around the ears so it doesn't look too wild for their pictures : )

Some new and old new words

All the boys say dog (pronounced dawg). The boys are crazy about dogs and love petting and playing with dogs they meet at the park which makes me feel extremely guilty that we don't have one for them. But between the cats and the spring chicken's we are hoping for next year I don't think we'll have time or room for a dog, sorry boys.

All the boys say bye bye, which they pronounce bu-ba! It's so funny to hear them say it that way, it cracks me up every time because they say it so emphatically.

Caleb and Thomas say chi-chi (Spanish baby talk for nursing). Thomas says 'ca' for cars but I'm not sure if he means car in English or Spanish since they both start with the same two letters.

A couple weeks ago Thomas and I were looking at a book and he turns the page and points to a little boy and says 'niño,' he hasn't wanted to repeat it since. 

The boys and I were watching this eating healthy DVD hosted by sesame street characters and Eli, who was sitting on my lap, looks up at me with a big grin on his face and says 'eh-mo' (elmo). He hadn't said that in at least two months!

This video is soooo funny, there is no doubt that Eli loves his trucks. Through out the video I sometimes purposely ignore him and this is how bad he wants me name that truck...

Oh Crap! #38-42

Oh Crap! moment #38

What you are seeing is a boy (Thomas) that is trying to climb INTO a crib and getting stuck! It's a good thing cloth diapers add extra padding : )

Oh Crap! moment #39

It was getting a little warm so I opened the window and propped the fan in it to speed up the cooling process. I had planned to leave it open for just a few minutes because I'm fully aware of what my boys are capable of even though they may not have done something previously.

 If you are thinking 'babies falling out of windows' you are on the correct line of thought but don't panic just yet. I was sitting on the couch watching the boys play and checking my email on my phone. The cat comes running into the room capturing all the boys attention and jumps up on the window and out she goes. I get up to set my phone down on a book case that is literally 6 feet away and when I turn around there is Thomas looking out the window after climbing to the top of the fence! Interestingly enough the cat gave them the bright idea! This is the picture of the scene and I'm sure you'll understand why I did not stop to take a picture of the incident while it was happening. (Thankfully our window is only about 4.5 feet off the ground with a soft gravel landing). 

Oh Crap! moment #40

As much as you'd like to think you are, you are not an acrobat Thomas!

Safe dismount on an otherwise slippery floor : )

Oh Crap! moment #41

I have the boys fairly well trained to not climb on tables now. Well recently Thomas and Eli had gotten accustomed to eating their snacks on top of their picnic table outside. If you can imagine it their butts are on the table and their feet rest on the bench seat. I had been letting them get away with it because I usually have the table on a grassy dirt & weeds part of the backyard and their heads would only stand about 8 inches taller than when standing. Well this day was different since I had moved the table onto the concrete patio (I forget my reason, but I did have one). So on this fateful day I hand out snacks and sure enough Eli and Thomas go and sit on top of the table. Both Phil and I were out there and saw it happen right in front of our eyes, Eli gets the notion to get off but his foot gets stuck behind the bench and face plants on the concrete, as I see it happening I scream at the top of my lungs thinking somehow by screaming it would prevent what was about to happen. Next you hear that awful sound of a human skull hitting the ground (gives me shivers just writing about it). Of course the boys love scooping gravel out of the yard and scattering it about the concrete so Eli got some additional scrapes and cuts from the gravel. Whenever a boy hurts his head in some parentally traumatic way Phil, I, or both of us, depending on who witnessed the incident, confirms out loud so we both hear that said boy is on 'concussion watch.' Meaning we need to be aware of strange behavior in case we need to rush him off to the ER. Eli was on concussion watch that day but never missed a beat, how do people survive childhood!

Oh Crap! moment #42

This next one I did not see happen but have been able to piece the information together. We had some friends over that are not accustomed to toddlers. We were in the backyard and I needed to carry back a bunch of dishes into the house so I took the gate off the doorway since I didn't want to climb over it and drop all the stuff I was carrying. Instead of putting the gate back up I shut the door behind me but didn't lock it. The boys can open the door to their room but it's real loosey goosey so it doesn't take much effort. I didn't think them capable of opening the back door which is actually hard for me to open at times. Oh and besides, my friends are back there and of course they will prevent him from opening the door if he tries (my bad, not my friends, for not letting them know it was dangerous). The second Caleb notices I'm not there (my friends are still strangers to him) he starts freaking out and runs to the door, opens it, and falls down the step onto the concrete landing and falls close enough to the steps and rolls down and couple more steps (not sure how many but thinking it was just one or two). It wasn't a legitimate 'falling down the stairs' since I'm sure that would have meant a call to 911, but bad enough to put him on concussion watch. He had a big ol' bump on his head but just like Eli he didn't miss a beat!