Photo Update

We've had a busy week and I'm behind on updates, but thought I'd post some recent pictures of the boys.

Getting hard to tell who's who!

Daddy gets to do baths on the weekend...yay!!!

Sunday

So far, today has not gone as planned. The washer broke and Jason had to fix it. (The silver lining is that it WAS fixable, I suppose) My machine is up and running, but now Jason has a puncture wound where the pliers stabbed through his hand in the process. Additionally, our washer problem involved water spilling everywhere (for the second time in two weeks), so that meant more soaked clothes to launder and a seriously grubby floor to scrub (a little surprise we found under the washer when we removed the pedestal drawer to wipe up water.)

Babies were ready for a nap, but we really wanted to hit up an estate sale in the neighborhood (I tried to go solo during naptime yesterday, but they were closing up for the day), so we loaded screaming boys into the van (in pouring rain) and drove to the sale. We hadn't figured exactly how we'd take three infant carriers plus William through the house, but decided to cross that bridge when we arrived. The doors had only been open 15 minutes when we pulled up and there was already a line...outside in the rain, of course. Take a number. They were currently on number 20 and the next available was 45. Selfishly I wondered if the kids could tough it out, but my better mom side prevailed and it was back in the van, back home.

The worst part of the day? We don't get the Packer game. (We decided to skip the football package this year because 1.) We're supposed to move to the land of televised Packer games, and 2) It seemed excessive during our money-saving effort) It's only the second game of the season (we were in WI for the first) and it's safe to say we're regretting that decision. Nonetheless, William is suited up in his #12 jersey, and we'll have to settle for keeping track of the score online. How did we get to this point? Well...

Weekend in Green Bay years before William. Look how tall I am! I used to be 5'6", but I was down to 5' 4 3/4" at the doctor this week!!! Beat down by life! Literally!

Our Packer play-off party, January 2008. Brett's last win as a Packer and one of my favorite games EVER. Our Bear-loving neighbors obviously love it when we do this. Jason is hanging our "G."

Summer of 2009...newest Packer fan, also known as # 58,638 on the season ticket waiting list.

Baby's First Packer Game! Notice how the trouble has already started...Jason and I have the game taped and paused. Gone are the days of watching things live!! (We probably haven't realized that yet!)

The "G" is out! Last season kicks off...with three more officially on the way.

Go Pack Go

Super Bowl!! I've been confined to bed rest, but it didn't damper the excitement...

Kick off 2011. Tiny butts have been cropped out of this picture, but Jason made me a hilarious birthday card (with the un-edited version) that said something about Rodgers having 3 new "tight ends" and "plenty of targets"...you get the gist.

Someday we'll get back to normal, and by normal I mean watching the Packers on Sunday. Someday we'll have a very rowdy cheering section every game day. And someday I'm sure we'll say, "awww.....remember when we took these pictures?" Have to go, it's kick-off and there are babies to feed, but til next time, GO PACK GO!!!

Worst blogger

Sorry for the posting lapse! I'm still figuring out how this new venture fits into my life, particularly since I've spent the last decade avoiding anything technology-related. I much prefer cards in the mail, books with pages, and a real friend's voice on the phone, but apparently ALL the cool kids text and Facebook, so the blog is my personal effort to get with the times. Checking email has previously been the extent of my "budgeted" computer time, so I'm not the best blogger. It's an acquired skill, I suppose.

Jason took several vacation days following the holiday weekend, so we spent the week in Wisconsin. It was awesome and stressful all at the same time. I can post pictures of all the fun things we did:

Ski Hi Apple Orchard

Trip to Great Grandma and Grandpa's, complete with fish fry...

Awesome auction at the fairgrounds where I acquired these two small stools (perfect for 2 of my boys, but hmmm...which 2? Maybe whoever's in timeout!!!) for $15...new seat coverings coming soon!

Thursday was a big day...the babies turned 6 months, I turned 32, and the Pack kicked off their season! (William holds his arms up for "touchdown" every time he spies Packers anything. Conversely, he holds his nose every time he sees Bears apparel. Super funny most of the time, but living in IL, it also creates some really embarrassing moments. Like in the grocery store when he spotted a woman wearing a Bears coat and yelled, "MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!"...POINTING at her with one finger and holding his nose with the other. Oops.

And finally a 1st Birthday Bash on the way home.
Can you believe that 6 out of the 7 kids in this pic were preemies?!? "Miracle Club" from left to right : Charlie, Ike, Ben (27 weeks), Bryce and Kaelyn (25 weeks), Kooper (34 weeks), and William (full-term, but still my little miracle, too!)

Ikey is totally dapper in his tie!

The thing is, according to these pictures, my life is completely under control. This is probably my biggest problem with the virtual world...it's totally deceiving. You don't see the part where William plugged the toilet the night before we left (as we were frantically trying to pack) and then flushed it again, causing the water to overflow everywhere. Which, in turn, caused us to stop our packing and car-loading and scrub the entire bathroom, throw away carpet, and do extra loads of laundry into the night to clean up everything that got soaked with toilet water. Or when I was trying to cheaply furnish our new house (at the auction) and a super old woman (who obviously had no need for home furnishings...a dealer, I suppose) outbid me on a table I really, REALLY wanted and I almost started crying. Or when I had a public meltdown, on the morning of my birthday, because I constantly feel like we're spinning our tires and just can't get settled. Or when we got home to Illinois, unloaded the car, and 3 days later, it still looks like a grenade exploded in every room of our tiny house. I don't necessarily want you to see those scenes, but I want to make it clear that they do exist. Triplets are hard. This whole situation is hard. My intention is to show you what a day in our house looks like. I know that's what I wanted to see when I knew we had triplets on the way (morbid curiosity?) and for anyone expecting multiples (or just wanting some good entertainment), it might be helpful. Or scary, but I'll let you decide.

Sip and See!

The boys made their big debut on Saturday afternoon! My sister, mom, and auntie created the most awesomely adorable "boy" party I've ever seen. It was drinks and snacks, and plenty of blue! Despite the weather, (the ONLY rainy day this beautiful fall week!), we had a wonderful turnout (over 90 guests!). The party was a great success and we were so happy to FINALLY introduce the crew!

Gorgeous centerpieces

Decorated jars and pretty paper straws for sipping

Baby B

Baby A

Baby C

A glorious banner for the guests of honor!

Setting up food table

Mmmmm....

Sweet tea, water, lemonade, and fruit slush

Pinwheels and balloons welcome guests

Deck tables

Me and Betsy

Jason and William (covered in stickers, of course)

A few of our peeps (minus a couple) before the party. Jason with Benny, Me with Ikey, Mom with Charlie

Health update

I haven't provided an update on the boys' health since our CaringBridge days, so I wanted to catch up on their progress. Appointments are an almost daily obligation. Last week we actually had six appointments in five days, so it's busy.

Charlie is doing exceptionally well. He weighs 14 pounds and has finally broken into the "normal baby" growth chart. In preemie land, he's in the 75th percentile for weight, but for his chronological age, he's in the 5th! Up until now, none of the boys had placed on the regular growth chart, so it's exciting to see him catching up. The main concern with Charlie is strength and muscle tone. He's the "floppiest" of the three and struggles to lift his head off the floor or maintain head control when upright. He still prefers looking to the right, and is pretty flat on the right side of his head. His neck is a little tight due to this preference, so they'll work on it in physical therapy. He's very interactive, loves conversation, and smiles at us all the time.

Benjamin weighs 12 lbs 6 oz, and is doing well after his PDA ligation. His incision looks great, but we can't lift him under the arms for another 3 weeks.  We have one more appointment with the cardiologist and then we're (hopefully) done. Ben's muscle tone is so-so. Better than Charlie, but still not great. He's also receiving PT and will hopefully become better on his tummy too. He smiles at us and likes to interact. Still more serious, but so sweet.

Ikey finally broke 10 lbs (and 5 oz, to be exact!), but continues to face the most issues overall. His eyes are definitely our largest concern. His ROP remains at stage two, but is somewhat improved. The healthy blood vessels seem to be growing (slowly) outward and the disease itself hasn't reactivated, which is great.  Unfortunately, we're not sure that he can see at all. Isaac does not look at us, track objects, or smile responsively, which is very troubling at this point. Structurally, his eye is fine and his level of ROP wouldn't cause blindness. Basically, if he has no vision, it's a brain issue. Fortunately, he never had a brain bleed and all (four) brain ultrasounds in the hospital were normal, so we're holding out hope that his eyesight will still develop. He's considered DVM (delayed visual maturation), but supposedly some preemies are late visual bloomers and go on to see just fine. In the meantime, it's obviously scary for us. We want to believe he'll be okay, but as the days tick by without any reassurance, we worry more. Besides that, his blood pressure and Alk Phos labs are trending in the right direction, but still not completely normal. He'll have another round of labs and a kidney ultrasound in October. It would be nice if those concerns resolved by that time. On the bright side, Isaac is really strong and lifts and holds his head much better than his two brothers. He'll still have PT to avoid further developmental delays, but he's definitely fighting to keep up.

Our post-op appointments are finally out of the way, so we got to scratch two surgeons off the doctor list. I think we're making steps in the right direction, it's just hard to stay patient. We remind ourselves everyday that from the beginning, every single thing has effected Ikey worse and taken longer to resolve. Right now, we have no reason to believe that his vision will be any different. Keep calm and assume he'll do it in his own time, that's our plan. So that's where we stand! Just wanted everyone to know how the boys were doing health-wise before the weekend. Despite the lingering problems, they've sure come a long way...

Busy Weekend!

Extraordinary circumstances have kept us housebound for most the summer, so as you can imagine, we were super excited to load the van and head north over the weekend. We haven't mastered the skill of efficient departures just yet, but we're a work in progress. Preparations began at 7:00 am and we finally hit the road at 3:00 pm. It wasn't our worst exit, but there's definitely room for improvement. Eight whole hours between breakfast and bottles, baths and showers, packing and loading, followed by one final round of lunch, more bottles, and last-minute diaper changes. We arrived in just under 3 hours with no stops and no crying, so that's a semi-success in my book!

Our revolving-door of chaos gets a little tiresome, so I found it completely refreshing to shift gears and focus on someone else for a change. With the much-anticipated arrival of Baby Bender right around the corner, my mom, sister, and I co-hosted a cozy brunch with plentiful showering for one of our favorite people on Saturday. My game has been pretty sub-par for most of all of 2011, so it was a (rare) proud moment when we pulled off a super cute (if I do say so myself) vintage nursery rhyme themed event.

Of course nothing ever goes that smoothly. Upon our arrival, William rolled down the hill with Auntie for an hour, ate dinner, slugged three cups of water, and then topped it all off with some indoor chasing while chanting the "Pease Porridge Hot" rhyme from one of the books. Not surprisingly, he came into the kitchen (red, sweaty, and breathless), as we JUST finished cleaning and barfed all over the floor. Awesome. I have a total vomit phobia, so a pukey kid is my worst nightmare. Unfortunately, I think he inherited this trait from his auntie because it wasn't the first time there's been unnecessary, self-induced, throwing up. We detoured from party prep to hose William's feet in the yard, give another bath, scrub the floor (again), satisfy his now empty stomach, and THEN put him to bed. Whew. Once we got rolling, we cooked, baked and decorated into the wee hours of Saturday morning, but it was totally worth it because the party turned out great.

Jason and "Pa" (my dad) were scheduled for kid duty during the party. It's not easy to disappear with 4 kids for 3 hours, but they tag teamed it and conquered the challenge with two parks, one zoo, and ice cream at Culver's!

Setting up the dessert table: A tablecloth made from Annie's nursery rhyme toile and banner created from 1940's  book pages, antique clothes pins, and ribbons. Baby's Breath in metal pitchers and vintage nursery rhyme figurines found on eBay.

Pease Porridge Hot looks pretty innocent...you'd never guess it was nearly the end of us on Friday night.

Baby Tears in tea cups

Pretty Mama!!

We spent Sunday at the farm with Jason's side of the family. The kids had a great time...cows, tractors, and cousins!

Calling the cows over

Tug O' War with a corn stalk

Our nephew Jaxson, 6 months

Hanging by the barn

First official cousin pic! Because the trips can't sit up, we had to improvise with tires from the barn. Top tire: Charlie and Jaxson. Bottom tire: Ikey and Benny.

Driving the old F-30, Great Grandpa Moll's tractor when Jason was little.

Trying out the newer Ford

From left: Ben, C-Bear, Ike

So, that wraps up our weekend in Wisconsin. We've only attempted that trip once before and this time was exponentially better. (Quick summary: The first time, all 3 babies fussed from Sun Prairie to Stoughton, and then SCREAMED from Stoughton to Beloit. We were embarrassingly unprepared and had to pull over at an interstate BP to ask directions to the nearest Wal-Mart. It was a pathetic scene in the end...there we were, buying ready-to-drink formula at 10:00 at night from the Beloit Wal-Mart, feeding the babies in our van...in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It wasn't my best mom moment. Needless to say, we did better this time...at least we had the necessities packed.)