Operation Virginia - Part Two

If you want to read part one, click here.

Well, we only have a few days left before the big departure. We have run lots of errands to make all kinds of purchases. They include a booklight (great for reading in the hotel room, reading in the car at night, or checking on the kids while the sleep), a power inverter (turns the cigarette lighter in your car into an electrical outlet), and the all important spray on sunscreen. We also got a few new toys that we hope the kids will like. We are hoping that newdar works in our favor, too.

One of our even more anticipated purchases finally arrived that I wanted to share with you. These are travel beds for the trio, called the Pea Pod Plus. I heard about these from the other triplet and quad moms in our group and they almost seemed too good to be true. In fact, we went out to dinner one night and one of the moms even brought one to demonstrate (this is what you do at dinner when you are getting ready to travel with triplets or more). Upon the advice of the expert mommies, we set these up for naptime several times before our trip. Once again (like the backpacks), Drew wasn't too crazy about this change in his life either.

If you look really closely, you can see some cute little kids in there.

We have to say we love these things! They make cute little tents for the kids. They also help solve another huge problem, how do you keep 3 toddlers contained when you are traveling out of town? Everyone has had at least one escape or fall out of the crib (except for Jack), so we didn't want to wait until vacation to find out what will happen if they cut loose for good. Plus, they can't stand up in there, so they can't get as rowdy. And since it's a self-contained tent, they don't throw their precious teddy bears out for us to pick up all the time. But the best part of all is how much space that these save. They fold up into a bag just a little bigger than a squashed basketball, and about 3 inches thick. We can get 3 of these puppies into our van for less space than the size of one pack 'n play.

Another problem we were worried about for our trip was how to feed the trio with all of their food allergies (especially wheat, milk, and eggs). We decided to pack as much food for meals ourselves as we could. Pull top canned fruits and veggies will come in very handy. We have also been able to find chips and rice cereal that the kids can eat and it will store well. It was a big relief when we got a plan of attack for that problem.

Finally, on Friday I ended my quest to find a double umbrella stroller. I thought I found one on Craig's List, but evidentially you have to specify that you want one with working buckles! So I went garage sale-ing with my friend Lucy (more like I shopped and she stayed with the kids in the van) and I found 2 matching umbrella strollers. They take up almost no room, so they will save us a ton of space. We also plan to use them as high chairs when we eat outside. The seller told me you can buy connectors to make them into a double stroller, too. But with all the drivers family we will have there, we may not need to do that anyway. I've been working on this purchase for weeks, so it was nice to have it off my to do list.

Now onto the laundry! Why I decided to clean out the coat closet and wash all the winter stuff before our trip is beyond me. I guess I was bored.

God bless,

Amanda

Operation Virginia - Part One

I haven't decided if we are brave or insane, but we have decided to take the crew on a trip soon to Virginia, to see cousin Erin graduate. As you can imagine, this is no light undertaking for our family. Preparations have been underway for weeks and are now in full swing.

One of the first problems we have talked about tackling is what to do at rest stops on our drive out there. Picture yourself with 4 very squirmy kids who have been in the car for hours and your spouse needs to use the facilities. What do you do? For us, we decided to purchase something called The Two in One Harness Buddy. These are cute little backpacks that have an animal on the back and the arms wrap around your child as part of the harness. They also have pockets on the back, as a place to keep treasures. The tail of these animals acts as a <deep breath> leash that you can detach if you aren't using it. I never ever ever thought I would get a contraption like this for my kids in a million years. But then, again, I never though I would have triplets, either.

They arrived yesterday, I tried to play them up to the kids this morning like a big surprise. We got one for Alyssa, too, so she wouldn't feel left out. I ordered the unicorn for Alyssa, the lamb for Lauren, the dog for Drew, and the monkey for Jack. Everyone seemed pretty excited about them, except for Drew who didn't seem to want to put his on at first. 

 

So with our good friend, Lucy, there, to help me out, we took the kids out for a test walk, wearing their new backpacks. I had envisioned us all taking a nice long walk around the block together. The kids would be full of joy and thanks for their mother letting them out of the stroller for the first time, to walk and become one with nature. We would enjoy the birds, flowers and grass together, and return home refreshed, as we had all gotten a chance to exercise our legs and lungs a bit. A truck was even nice enough to pull into the driveway across the street at the start of our walk. While the kids were enthralled with the nice truck, I was able to snap this shot of all 4 of them wearing their new backpacks. We were off to a good start.

If I had to sum up what happened after that in one word, it would have to be nightmare! It was chaos! Kids were running everywhere but the sidewalk. Strollers become deadweight to drag along and get in the way. Kids were collapsing on the ground when their backpacks jerked them back. I was taking pictures of the whole event sideways, while my arms was being jerked by leashes. Kids were screaming. Neighbors scowling as my kids led each other gleefully through their yards, nearly uninhibited. OK, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but my neighbor Linda took pity on us and helped us out. It was a little better after that, as we had 3 on 4 odds. Alyssa and Lauren seemed to enjoy walking each other, too. I knew there would be some training involved in getting the kids to walk and stay with us, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

Good thing we have almost a month until our trip, huh?

God bless,

Amanda

Humpty Dumpty and The Mall

Hello Faithful Friends,

Lately I have to say that I feel a little like Humpty Dumpty. The good times with my health just keep on coming. It makes me feel like Humpty Dumpty, because I feel like they have to put me back together again!
Right now I am on my low iodine diet again (one more week to go - yeah). This is to prepare for a follow up scan that I am doing to make sure that the radioactive iodine that I took in June got all the thyroid cells/thyroid cancer cells. My doctor said that it takes about 9 months to see if it worked, so here I am. For the most part, things are going much better this time around, because I don't have to go off my thyroid medicine at the same time. Instead, I will take shots on Monday and Tuesday that produce the same hormone that my body would have made if I went off my meds. They are really expensive (over $1000 each), so I am so thankful that my insurance paid for them! The only tough part is that the triplets have turned into locust/tazmanian devils with octopus arms. That means that all the cooking from scratch that I have to do usually has to wait until after they go to bed. It makes for long days, but at least it is just for a little while.

I also found out on Monday that I am having surgery on June 16th. This is the repair an incision from a previous surgery that I had through my bellybutton, way back in 2001. The surgery itself isn't too bad, just an hour or so and it's outpatient. The tough part for me will be that I can't lift anything over 5 lbs for 6 weeks! That will be very tough to do with the kids and I guess that means Dave will be doing all the grocery shopping this summer.

I am also going to physical therapy to get my back feeling better after the accident I was in just before Thanksgiving. They told me it would take a while to heal, since I was hauling kids all the time. So I waited a while to go back to my doctor. He took some X-rays, and they came back fine. So I am off to physical therapy, which is helping tremendously. I am glad to be getting range of motion in my neck back and the pain has gone down a lot, too!

So anyway, I would appreciate your prayers for good health for me. It's been a long time coming! Please pray that my scan on April 10th comes back clean and that I can get on with my life!

On a lighter note, I wanted to tell you about my trip to the mall today. Alyssa was at preschool and then off to a playdate with her 3rd cousin (yes, we figured out they are 3rd cousins). So, I was down to "just 3 kids". We are getting stir crazy and cabin fever as March hasn't been as warm as we had hoped. So I decided after lots of whining and crying that it was time for a change of scenery. I made the decision to take them BY MYSELF to a new mall that they had never been to before.

We got there near opening time, so the parking lot wasn't too full. This is something you think about when you get out a beast of a stroller and don't feel like being watched as you unload 3 kids. The trio was very well behaved and wide-eyed and quiet. Just inside the door I stopped and took off their coats, where we attracted our first major gawker/question asker. I've come to expect this, but sometimes you just never know what people will say or how nosy they will be. This lady could actually tell that Lauren (in her pink coat) was a girl, and was very nice and encouraging. I needed that, because as she walked away, I noticed that the beast had a tire that was getting low. I figured, oh well, we are here, I doubt there is a bicycle pump anywhere, so we are going for it anyway!

For the most part we just walked around. I met a really nice older couple at the directory map (I had to look for elevators at this mall as the stroller doesn't do escalators). This couple was really sweet and told me that they never had children of their own. They couldn't have been more positive about my kids (sadly, I can't say that about everyone), and I ended up seeing them several times around the mall. They also "rescued" me from a lady yelling across the mall to me "was it a surprise to have triplets?" I just looked at her and smiled and went back to talking to our new friends. Whew. Got out of that one.

I don't mind talking about our fertility issues with people I know, and I really hope that we encourage others who are struggling with it. We also hope that we have helped to take away some of the stigma of the whole subject that people can be really close-minded about. But there are times like these when I am surrounded by total strangers that I don't like to talk about the subject. You never know if you are opening yourself up to being judged by someone who knows nothing about you or your circumstances. I like to at least know someone's name before I talk about something so personal and gutwrenching to go through. There are also those who are just plain curious for the sake of juicy gossip. For those people who are just plain nosy, let them buy a People magazine and leave me out of it!

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to get off on a tangent there. But one neat thing that happened at the mall was that we just happened to see one of the NICU doctors that took care of Lauren, Drew, and Jack. I can't remember much of anything these days, so, of course, I couldn't remember her name (until I got a bill in the mail later that day for their NICU visit - but that's another story). I noticed her looking at our stroller as she walked by, so in a moment of boldness, I said, "Excuse me, are you a NICU doctor?" She looked at me a little funny and for a second I thought I was going to be royally embarrassed. But she said yes and that she had looked at the kids and wondered if she had treated them. I think it was a fun treat for her to get to see some of her patients and find out how they turned out (at least 20 months later). She said she would also let the staff know that I had run into her. I was really glad that I had that moment of courage, otherwise I would have missed out on a neat opportunity.

Then after she walked away, I noticed a billboard for the hospital (where she worked and where the triplets were born). What a coincidence. But not only that, as I kept walking I noticed that we had been talking next to a huge billboard talking describing the story of our friends who had quad boys - also at the same hospital! What are the chances of that happening all at once!?
So after that, we stopped for a snack, and continued walking around.

A few "what was I thinking" moments struck me as we were there. First was, what do I do if I have to go to bathroom? That stroller can't make turns very well, let alone fit into a bathroom stall and it's not like I can leave the kids with someone else while I go. Luckily, I came across a family bathroom. The stroller fit in there great, I could lock the door, and it was a break from being stared at! There was a guy in there ahead of us (whom I almost walked in on since he forgot to turn the "occupied" knob!). You should have seen his face as he walked out and and said, "Triplets???" The family bathroom was also nice as it calmed my fears of "what do I do if someone has a blowout?" It had a nice place to change diapers and everything. All three kids had done their duty before we left, though, so I wasn't too worried about that. But it was nice to have a plan of attack, if the need should arise.

Another thing I worried about in retrospect is what do I do if they all start crying? This struck me as I had to take the water cup from Jack to share with the others, and he let me know it he wasn't too happy with it. I kept getting lost in that mall (Dave has a good sense of direction, so that's usually his job!), so I was picturing myself going in circles with 3 screaming kids and a flat tire. But, luckily, none of that happened. The kids were really good. I stayed strong going through the food court with all those wonderful smells of food I can't have right now. (Oh, how I miss my cheese!) We probably got our most stares, there, too. But we survived.

We also met a very nice lady while I was backing up to throw away some rice cakes Drew threw on the ground (Drew throws EVERYTHING round!). This lady had 4 daughters and was telling me all kinds of things about her and even about potty training her kids. It's amazing how total strangers open up to you when you have a stroller full of kids. We also met up with a family with 3 kids and compared birthdays with them. Kids are always attracted to other kids. Is that called "kid-dar"? What age are you when you lose it?

But anyway, all in all, we had a pretty good trip and even got back in the van before the rain hit. Unfortunately, when it was time to load up, the parking lot was much more full. I had a truck behind me with two guys in it eating their lunch. It actually worked out ok, because they backed up when I moved the strolled behind the van. That gave me more room to work and turn the beast around - which made it much easier to load up. I wasn't exactly crazy about having an audience while I went about my chores. But, after I hurried to take the stroller apart, collapse it and put it in the van, I gave a thank you wave to them. They were laughing and I saw the one guy motioning to other to explain how I collapsed the stroller and put it in. I guess next time I do a demonstration I should put my body on the other side of it. Well, I have accepted that my family was put here on the earth for the entertainment of others. In return, I guess I am amused by how the stroller seems to get as much attention as the 3 tykes in it!

May your life be full of amusement, too!

God bless,
Amanda

This was copied and edited from our previous site on Babysites.

Grocery Rescue

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dave here again. We've had a fun Christmas experience so far, and it's been fun to see the babies and Alyssa open presents and play with new toys. Amanda and I sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus with the triplets, and we look forward to the day when we can explain to them the real meaning of Christmas.

Amanda's family came over for Christmas dinner, and being the genius that I am, I did some last minute grocery shopping the night before Christmas. Oh yeah, by the way, all the stores apparently forgot to call me to let me know they close early on Christmas Eve. Isn't Christmas Eve the day when all males go shopping for gifts? How dare all these stores close and deny us men time to shop! Thankfully, Walgreens was open, and they had the items we needed, and Amanda made an incredibly tasty lasagna that would have made Garfield proud.

Yesterday, the day after Christmas, I decided to take Alyssa and Drew to the store with me for a quick grocery stop. It was about 10:30 in the morning, and I told Amanda that I would be quick because lunch for the triplets was at 11:30. Being the experienced shopper that I am, I even made a grocery list in the form of a map, so I could fly through the store.

Alyssa likes going to this particular store, because they have these little kid cars attached to the grocery cart, so that she can pretend to "drive" the grocery cart. Well, usually, there are two steering wheels, but this one only had one because one had broken off.

So, we're flying through the store at an efficient pace, when Alyssa whines to me, "Daddy, my wand fell." (Alyssa was allowed to bring her little princess wand into the grocery.) Now, the problem was that she was placing the wand in a hole where the steering wheel normally is, and she dropped it into the plastic encasing (the kid's cart). I'm not sure even how to explain it, but basically, her 6 inch wand was inside the kid's cart, and I had no idea how to get it out.

This happened right next to the customer service desk, and fortunately for us, the head honcho was right there, and he was determined to rescue the wand for Alyssa. We used Allen wrenches, Phillip's screwdrivers, and needle nose pliers to rescue the wand. We tore apart this cart for about 45 minutes just to get the wand out for Alyssa. Now, some of you may be saying... "All this just for a wand?" ABSOLUTELY!!!! A 4 year old's princess wand means quite a bit to her, and as the mission control director said in Apollo 13, "Failure is not an option!" So, they will continue to get our business because of their desire to make a little girl and her daddy happy.

Well, that's it for now. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!!

Take care.
Mr. Mom

This was copied and edited from our previous website on Babysites.

Day of Firsts

Today was a day of firsts for us. It was Alyssa’s first day of preschool. I was trying to be supermom and take her myself (with the triplets), especially since this was a new school. Well, of course, we were all late. I was actually doing pretty well staying on schedule, except I didn’t leave time for taking pictures. I had a very reluctant model this year. She wouldn't take a picture outside like last year!

At this preschool, being a few minutes late means that you have to go around the long way, because a lot of the doors are locked, so we were doubly late! But, the teacher was very understanding, even though I felt like the worst mom - being late for the first day of school. I was really proud of Alyssa. She took it all very well.

After that, I figured that since I had everyone else packed up, we might as well go somewhere. I had heard the mall was quite an adventure, so I figured I might as well give it a try. Besides, I was itching to try out the new stroller. So off we went. The comments started right away in the parking lot. A car pulled over and a guy told me he had never seen a stroller like that. After asking me several questions, I asked him if he had kids. His reaction was pretty funny, as if he was taken aback that a total stranger would ask such a personal question!

As it turned out, I got there before the mall opened. It was snack time by then, so we ate our snack outside. It was a beautiful fall day, so I didn’t mind a bit. I was just hoping the trio didn’t get too squirmy. I knew I had to keep moving to keep them happy. Well, the mall soon opened and I didn’t even think about the implications of getting there right when it opened. There were lots of store clerks standing around waiting for something to do. So the staring and comments were over the top. It got to be a game after a while. I tried to guess how long it would take someone to spot us or point us out to the person they were standing next to. The shocking site of us made some people lose all manners and point right at us! I think I was especially amused, because people only knew half our story. Imagine what they would do if Alyssa was with me or they knew I was recovering from cancer!

Overall, we had a good time. Since it was their first time to the mall, Lauren, Drew and Jack were looking all around, even at the ceiling. I took them past the TV section. It’s like Vegas for babies - complete overstimulation of the senses. We went through the toy store and the pet store (almost didn't make it around some of the tight corners in there!). Jack clapped at the end of the pet store, as if to say “I really liked that!” I even treated myself to a Blizzard at DQ, which was a challenge to eat while pushing the stroller. It seems I eat a lot more junk food when Alyssa isn’t around, probably since I don’t have to justify it to her. I was glad I did, though, because a dear old man who could barely walk lit up when he saw the babies and stared at them the whole time I was waiting for my treat to be made. He told me he had to adopt both of his children, which I took to mean he struggled with infertility as well. That’s one of the best joys of having these babies in our lives. We get to share in the joy just their very presence brings into the lives of others. It’s an honor to get to share them with our community.

After 45 minutes of gawking, pointing, gasps, questions and comments, I had had enough and was worn out. The babies did really well, but I think they were ready to go, too. I wrote down below all the comments that I could remember, with some editorial comments by me in [brackets] afterwards. Enjoy reading a taste of our lives!

God bless,
Amanda

“Wow, is all I can say.”
“Did you have to special order that stroller?”
“You’ve got a truck full”
“You’ve got a train full”
“You’ve got your hands full!” [Wish I had a free diaper for every time I heard that one!]
“3 babies!?”
“Look, triplets!” [while pointing right at us as if we were blind]
“Triplets?” [This happens a lot, as if people can’t believe their eyes.]
“You are a brave woman.”
“There’s a busy lady.”
“You can do it all by yourself?” [I wondered if she thought I was never alone?]
“What are their names?”
“How old are they?”
“I’ve never seen a stroller like that.” [Sometimes the stroller gets more comments than the 3 babies in it.]
“Oh my!”
“Look triplets!” [Pointing us out to a co-worker. Nothing says “freakshow” like that, huh?]
“God bless you!”
“They’re adorable!”
“Are they all identical?”
“Are they all boys?” [Lauren was in a pink dress!]
“Do twins run in your family?”
“None of them are crying. What did you do?” [I told her I have a great big God and walked off.]

This was copied and edited for our original website on Babysites.

Good Day!!!

Yes, today was a pretty good day with Alyssa. Amanda is doing well, but she's pretty tired from the anemia. We're now at 26 weeks, so that's a very good thing. Amanda continues to keep her mind sharp by playing Sudoku, the game where you have to match numbers accordingly. She's very smart, so I don't want to go up against her with any of the puzzles, because she'd kick my tail.
Like I said earlier, Alyssa had one of her better days today. A couple of funny instances today: First, we just finished shopping at a store where she always gets a blue sucker. When we got into the car (she climbs into her seat by herself now- she wants no help!), she dropped her sucker in the worst spot on her car seat. It dropped on the fuzzy material thingy that goes right in front of her main attachment clip. So, I had to defuzz her blue sucker. 500 feet down the road, Alyssa starts whining/crying (which she honestly very rarely ever does in the car). I turn around, and the blue sucker is now in her hair, and she doesn't know what to do. So, while driving, I reach behind to her and just yank it out of her hair. Apparently, that's not a good thing to do, but hey, it worked. Amanda later asked me if I held her hair roots down before I yanked it out, and I just said, "huh?" When confronted with a problem to solve, guys don't think, they react, which isn't always a good thing. So, once again, I "dehaired" the blue sucker for my little princess.
We finally got home, and Alyssa had lunch. For some reason or another, she decided to put her milk bottle in time out. Not sure why, but it was pretty cute. Later on, we had a pretty non-eventful trip to another grocery store. The only bummer was that their donuts weren't up to standards for tomorrow's Donies with Daddy, so we had to make an extra trip to another grocery store (they sell donut holes, one of my favorites!).
Well, that's it for now. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all again next week. Please keep praying for Amanda and the babies!
Until next time...
Mr. Mom

This was copied and edited from our previous website, on Babysites.