I feel like I may due for a blog posting. As most of you know, my husband Rhett is "King of the Blog" which I am very thankful for because without him a lot of the first 6 months would not have been documented. I have every intention of doing a scrapbook for each one of them because I cherish the ones my mom did for me as a baby/child BUT with triplets.. time is my biggest obstacle. I still haven't given up on doing the scrapbooks... I just have not started yet :)
So I thought I would give you an update on what is going on in our world. I went back to work 3 days a week in December which I thought was going to be the most difficult thing ever. And even though I cried the entire day before my 1st day back to work .. I actually did pretty well. I work as a nurse practitioner and love what I do which helps. Plus I work with such amazing people who have been so supportive. Having a little time to do something other than complete baby care really makes me a better mom. I used to feel a little guilty saying that but the truth is I don't get burnt out as easily with the tedious, repetitive job at home. Plus I miss them so much while I am gone.. I have nothing but excitement when I get home to do the bedtime routine which includes cereal, bath time, bottles and rocking x 3! So in other words, when Rhett and I get home from work we don't stop working until about 8:00. This is actually an improvement because until about 3 weeks ago we were still feeding them 5 times a day and not getting them to bed until about 9 or 10.
The other thing that makes a HUGE difference is Grace. She is our nanny who I absolutely LOVE. She is young, energetic & great with the babies. Peace of mind when you leave your children with someone for the day is truly priceless. I will without a doubt have a small breakdown if she ever leaves us.
So lets talk about the most important thing for parents of infants.. I don't care if you have 1 or 3 babies.. SLEEP is by far the most important word in your vocabulary .. well at least it has been for me for the last 5 1/2 months. One of the most challenging things when you are trying to help multiples learn to sleep is that one will wake up and you spend 15-60 minutes getting him/her back to sleep and just when you think your job is done... another one wakes up. There were many nights I would just lay on the nursery floor hoping it was the last time I had to put a pacifier back in a mouth and praying Maggie or Larkin did not wake up Kade.. because he was by far the hardest to get back to sleep. And just when you think you are at the end of your rope and you start looking up the effects of sleep deprivation on the Internet.. they start sleeping!! and not only that they started sleeping for about 10-11 hours. Now don't get me wrong.. we often have one culprit (Larkin) that wakes up about 1 time a night but he goes back to sleep easily and it really is a huge improvement from being awake for hours trying to get everyone back to sleep. Plus even when they do sleep all night.. (like last night) I still wake up about 3 am thinking I should hear someone and then going to make sure everyone is okay.
So the most common question I get is.. "How do you do it?". My standard.. (obvious) answer is "I don't have a choice"... but that is probably not the answer people are looking for :)
The real answer is:
- with an amazingly helpful and involved husband,
-with a huge amount of support from family,
-with a mind set that .. "don't wish away this time because it wont ever happen again and will pass too quickly anyway",
-sticking to a schedule,
- And last but not least.. you do it because you love them more than anything in the world and seeing their smiles and hearing their laughs makes it all worth it
The 2nd question I get a lot is "so how are they?" pretty generic question.. my standard answer.. "they are awesome!" Sometimes I feel guilty with this answer.. like people are expecting me to say "it is the hardest, most difficult thing I could ever do & I am barely keeping my head above water" .. So that answer could be appropriate on some days but overall they really are awesome! Yes.. it is, without a doubt, a lot of work but isn't that the truth with most all great things in life?
Now check back when they start crawling.. because my answer may be different


KT