Here we go!!

Alright, that's it. I have been saying for months that I would start a blog because some of this stuff is just too good to be true. Between the chaos of having four kids under 2, working full-time, and living among four generations of amazing (and comical) family characters, we have a reality show in the making half of the time. I will start by explaining our situation for those of you who may just now be joining us and to remind those of you who have been paying attention that time flies!

A little over a year ago we found out we were pregnant with what we thought was our second child. Turns out, they were triplet boys! I will never forget the moment that the doctor turned on the ultrasound screen and proceeded to show us three dark circles, each containing a fetus! I laughed hysterically (literally, I was hysterical and didn't know what else to do at that moment) and Nate stood stunned and silent, white as a ghost. After the initial shock, we realized that we needed to quickly figure out how in the world we could pull this off. Our families rallied around us and my parents insisted that we move in with them when the time was right temporarily until we could handle it on our own. That turned out being May of 2011 when I was put on "couch rest" and couldn't drive anywhere. So we packed up a few belongings, including our clueless 16 month old, left everything at our house, and moved into my mom's house, where our gracious hosts included my mom, my second dad who I lovely refer to as Nashie, and my grandparents who used to solely occupy the downstairs level of my mom's house.

As I worked from home and carried the babies over the summer, gaining a lovely 85 lbs., we settled into life with the parents and grandparents quite nicely. Then in mid-August, the big day came. We scheduled a c-section at 34 weeks 5 days and our relatively quiet nights of dinner and taking turns putting one child to bed soundly were gone forever. Theodore, Benjamin, and Winston were born 1 minute apart in that order, weighing 5lbs1oz, 4lbs7oz, and 5lbs8oz respectively. They were all healthy and ended up spending their first night in the hospital room with me and going home with us after only 5 days in the hospital! This was good news but also terrifying to think we would be coming home immediately with 3 brand new babies.
The first week or so was especially hard because Alexander was recovering from hand, foot, and mouth disease that he had caught in daycare so we kept them separate and delayed their meeting until he was finally healed. That means I couldn't really see him for a week either. The first six weeks home with the babies were very hard because among other things I was breastfeeding/pumping, feeding every 3 hrs around the clock, and our night nanny hadn't started yet. For that entire period, I think I slept 3-4 hrs a day, not consecutively; it was 30 mins here, an hour here, etc. To put it simply, I was about to lose it. But Linda our glorious savior, otherwise known as the night nanny, started coming 5x a week and allowed me to get some rest. While things are never "easy" with triplets, they did get easier after that and we got into a pretty good routine. It took about 7 weeks or so for Linda to train our guys (and us!) to sleep through the night without eating, at which point I decided it was time for me to return to work. So return to work I did, right before Christmas. Every day is a struggle to get ready, get the babies up, feed them, get out of the door, do my day job, then rush home to start my night job of tending to babies and making sure all 4 get enough attention and kisses. Dinner time is chaos and then bedtime comes, after which we rush around trying to clean up and prepare for the next day when it starts all over again. All of this is done with the amazing help of my grandmother, without whom I would go crazy and probably breakdown a lot more than I already do. My mom and Nash obviously play a big role as well, but my grandma has truly saved us.

That pretty much catches us up to date. Although there were funny stories, major holidays, birthdays, and milestones over the past 4 1/2 months that I breezed right through, I am sure there will be many more times ahead. Like the time I ran into my grandpa in the kitchen in the middle of the night (I was making bottles and he was thirsty). I asked, "Hi Grandpa, can I get you something?" He said, "No, I'm good. Just a little thirsty," and proceeded to take a big swig of an open bottle of wine sitting on the counter. Good times. Many more to come, I'm sure.

Jenn