One step forward, two steps back...

I was talking to a friend of mine this week who went through infertility treatments (she did IVF, I did IUI) and she said that her and husband sometimes talk about which egg was which baby (they had twins) and it got me thinking about the same thing... I'll explain what I mean... 

I know you all know about the ins and outs of baby making so I won't go through all that!  What you may not know is that before a woman produces an egg, she produces follicles.  These follicles need to be a certain size in order to produce an egg.  A woman typically only has one dominant follicle per cycle per ovary and that is the follicle that will produce a viable egg. These follicles need to be at least 18mm to be able to ovulate. When you go through fertility treatments (at least for what we did which is called IUI or intrauterine insemination), you are given a drug to help you ovulate, which means you produce more dominant follicles.  In Canada, the fertility treatments are strictly controlled and won't go forward with the insemination if there are three or more mature follicles (18 mm or more) produced.  When I went in for my check up after I had the drugs, they told me that I had many follicles (as a woman normally does).  I had many small ones which weren't going to produce any eggs and I had a 15mm one, an 18mm one and a 21mm one.  They told me that there was a small chance that I may have twins given the two follicles at 18mm and 21mm.  For this to happen, both mature follicles had to actually rupture and release a viable egg AND get fertilized.  What happened with me was that not only did this happen with the two mature follicles, but the 15mm one decided to grow to 18mm or bigger in only TWO DAYS and do the same.  So all three produced a viable egg, ruptured,  AND got fertilized!  That's what I call crazy!!!  Anyways, Gabe and I were talking and we are pretty confident that Jacob was our 15mm one who just said "WAIT FOR ME GUYS!!!!! I'LL GET THERE!!!!!!!!"  He's our smallest but our mightiest little guy!!  Since Zach was always the biggest and Sam was behind just by a little bit, I just assume that Zach was our biggest follicle and Sam was the medium one.  I just thought it would be an interesting story to share :)   Sorry for all the technical stuff!  I just like to clear things up because some of the people I talk to seem to think that "That's just what happens when you go through fertility treatments" and I get a little upset because our boys are truly miracles! 

Anyways... this week... 

Our poor little Zachary is still struggling with his supper time bottle.  It seems like he just really doesn't want it, but then he acts as if he's super hungry!  The moment I put the nipple in his mouth, he screeches!  I was at such a loss and I felt so helpless that there was nothing I could do to soothe him.  It took sometimes up to one hour just to get him to stop crying.  The wonderful nurse who came over on Tuesday reassured me when we talked about it.  She said that since he's taking all his other bottles no problem and he sleeps well and he doesn't spit up, she wasn't concerned.  It's just his fussy time and he'll get through it in a few weeks.  It's probably just a small case of colic.  Am I glad that there is only ONE baby with colic!  He did a little better by the end of the week.  Tonight, he didn't even cry when I tried to feed him!  HURRAY!!

I read the book called "12 hours by 12 weeks" written by a self called "baby sleep coach" who says that's she worked with over 100 families with all sorts of babies and her method worked 100% of the time.  A lot of her philosophies fall in line with my beliefs so I was happy when I read it that I had finally found a book that spoke to me.  The way she coaches families to eliminated middle of the night feedings is exactly the way we did it (which was the way our paediatrician told us to do it).  Gabe and I sat down and we set out a plan to start changing their schedules and start sleep training them, naps and all.  We decided to start the plan on Thursday night by not waking up the babies for their 10pm feeding.  I went to bed at 9, confident that I would wake up again within 2-3 hours to feed the babies.  Gabe was going to feed the first one that would wake up and I would feed the other two.  He stayed up thinking they would start waking up at around 11.  At 10:30, he heard them start to fuss.  He thought I was sleeping so he didn't know what he should do (I would have let them fuss as they sometimes soothe themselves back to sleep).  He decided to feed Sam and then he came to bed (this took literally like 15 minutes max, go Sam!!).  I was awake and wondering why he had decided to feed a baby.  I thought he had done it so that he would get it over with and could come to bed... this made me a little upset because we had decided to let them go as far as they could.  He told me the next morning that he wasn't clear what was expected of him and he was sorry if he messed up.  He didn't mess up, more formula won't kill our kids!  I didn't get the other kids up, I just let them go and what do you know, they didn't wake up until 5:30 the next morning!  They slept through!!!!  I was awake all night always waiting for them to start crying, so I didn't sleep but they did!!  I thought for sure that it was a fluke and it wasn't going to happen again but they did it again on Friday where I got a full 7 hours of continuous sleep!  I don't think I've slept more than 3 hours in a row since I was 4 months pregnant so we're talking about 10 months here!!!  Last night was the same thing... GLORY DAYS!!!!  You would think that I would be well rested but I sometimes feel more tired than I did when I slept worse. That was the good parts of the week!   I also decided to try to start them on a nap routine.  Now we normally put the babies back to bed right after their morning feed but with this new schedule, I'm supposed to keep them up until 9 so they nap from 9 to 10.  Then for their afternoon nap, I'm supposed to keep them awake until 1 so they sleep from 1 to 3.  This has NOT happened yet, and I've been at it for 4 days but I gotta keep trucking!  The morning nap seems to be much better, but trying to entertain three babies for 1.5 hours when all they can do is lay down on the play mats is HARD!  I gave up trying to keep them awake after an hour when they would fall asleep even if I danced like a maniac with one of them in my arms.  This weekend, Gabe was here to help and we played musical instruments, danced and sang and we still had a hard time keeping them awake. The lady in the book suggests to go for a walk or something to keep them up but the moment they go in their car seats, they fall asleep!  The afternoon naps have been a nightmare... I tried to do exactly what she suggested to do.  They need to be in their cribs for 1 hour in the morning, no matter what and 2 hours in the afternoon.  Even if they're awake, they should learn to stay in there for the full two hours even just to rest if they don't sleep.  On Thursday, I must have spent 1 straight hour soothing one after the other after they had decided they were done sleeping after 1 hour of being in their cribs.  I'm such a rule follower and I know that consistency is key so I didn't want to give up.  The method says to let them try to self soothe and only let them cry for a maximum of 5 minutes.  So there was a lot of 5 minutes of crying during that afternoon.  It was the first time since they've been home that I wanted to leave them in their cribs, go outside to sit in my van and cry.  It was sooooo hard.  I tried again on Friday and it was just as bad...  Gabe and I tried again on Saturday and he just found it too hard.  I really didn't want to give in because I thought that if I stopped, I'd be taking two steps back.  Reluctantly, I agreed to talk to some people who tried to establish a nap routine and see what worked for them.  Most of them told me that they found that when they tried when the book suggested, they found their kids were just too young and just needed to sleep when they needed to sleep.  I know that my babies still need a lot of sleep and dictating when they should sleep may not be the right thing to do right now.  One of the women I talked to said that she just let them take the naps they wanted and it didn't affect their night sleep.  So today we decided to stick with the morning nap, which went really well, and let them take their naps as they wanted the rest of the day and see what would happen tonight.  I really hope that they still make it through the full night as I'm alone again tomorrow!

The boys weren't really in their best state today, I think they may have a bit of a cold.  Samuel definitely has caught a bit of a cough from yours truly.  I have no idea where I caught it but I know I gave it to my little buddy.  He coughs and then sighs really loudly... it's so sad but so cute at the same time.  He's not stuffy, he just has a cough so I'm not too worried.  He also doesn't seem to cough when he's sleeping and his breathing seems to be fine.  The other two aren't coughing but I don't think they were feeling the very best.  Zachary took an almost three hour nap on his feeding pillow after his mid-morning bottle.  They all slept a lot this afternoon so I'm really hoping that this didn't set them up to NOT sleep through tonight.  We'll see I guess...

They have found their thumbs!  I know some of you may think that my method was a little crude but I do believe it has started to teach them how to self soothe.  Sometimes Samuel even wants his thumb more than his bottle!  He pushes at his bottle at about half way through with his tongue (which he has also found a use for) and finds his thumb.  When he realizes that there's no milk coming out of his tongue and he's still hungry, he starts crying!  So funny!

We got babysitters on Saturday night so we could go spend some adult time with our friends for our friend Chris's 40th birthday.  The children were invited but after last week's debacle, we decided that we weren't going to bring the kids to parties until they were older and we didn't have to have them in our arms or expect other people to hold them for us.  Also, it'll be much easier when they're able to play on their own a little.  So anyways, we went to spend some time with friends and it felt really good.  I laughed because we "partied" from 4:30 to 6:30...lol.  Not like the old days!!  A few of them were going downtown but that's even a word in our vocabulary anymore!  We also wanted to be back in time for the boys' last feed before they went to bed just in case Zachary gave my in-laws a hard time.  We got home and Zachary had almost finished his bottle, Jacob was done and Samuel was getting his bottle from Gabe's great uncle!  Talk about easy babies for babysitters!!! lol  I laughed because when we left, I left some instructions that the babies go in their PJs, we dim the lights and have quiet time and get all ready for bed before their bottle.  We got in the house and they almost start apologizing right away as the TV was on, not all PJs were on... etc.  It really didn't bother me, they were nice enough to come give us a few hours off, as long as the boys were fed and loved, I was ok.  They said they had to rush because they started to warm the bottles too late and there was a full on break down of all three babies because they were sooo hungry! haha...  We had a really good time at the party and coming home to babies happy and fed made my night that much better. Maybe it was also due to the two Coronas I had... trust me, when you drink as often as I do, two Coronas is all it takes to make you quite happy... just look at the picture below:

Good times!  Dan and I laughing at the "old" people in the room... 

All in all, it was a good week!  I got another afternoon "off" on Monday when my mother in law and her sister came back to babysit.  I spent it at the mall :)  On Tuesday, the public health nurse came over.  She is impressed with where the babies are at as far as their development.  She did a 2 month (as that's where they are developmentally) survey with me to see where they were at and we figured that they are lagging behind a bit in problem solving which is following objects with their eyes and reaching for them.  I worked on that all week and they're already much improved!  I read up online on ways to improve this skill and they suggested using a bright image on a cell phone or something of the sort.  I tried showing them the screen of my phone and they were mesmerized!  All three of them followed that screen from left to right and top to bottom like they were pros but the moment I showed them one of their toys, all they were interested in looking at was me!  I tried again and again and finally today, Samuel and Zachary followed one of their toys no problem!  I'm still working on Jacob but he must find me so pretty that he just can't stop looking at me! haha...

My sister and her family left for Mexico on Saturday, I'm glad they beat the storm!  My mother is coming home on Friday!!!!  I'm so excited to see her!  We've been Facetiming but she will be shocked at how big the boys have gotten and how much more they can do!  They'll be able to go into their bumbos and exercausers soon!  Jacob is the best at holding his head straight so I'll try him first.  He's also the closest to being able to flip over.  I give him a few weeks and he'll be flipping from his back to his tummy in no time!  I'm excited to see progress as I'm getting a little weary of the baby baby phase...lol.  Tomorrow the boys go in for what is hopefully their last RSV shot of the season!  I hate seeing them in pain!!

Until next week my friends!!

Getting ready for our Monday walk... Our only walk of the week due to the storm and the cold!! 

Stupid storm!  Poor birds who came back for Spring!! 

A confused looking Samuel on the left and my ever serious Zachary on the right

Selfie with mommy and Zach

Selfie with mommy and Jacob

Samuel and his thumb... he LOVES his thumb! 

Zachary's favorite position... it's about the only way he stops crying during his fussy time! 

New mobile

The boys loving the mobile! 

Mémère Arsenault and Sam

Matante Camilla cuddling with Zach

One crib, three boys... They still don't know that one another exists!  All they do is slap, punch, lick, and suck on each other... haha

This is when I was supposed to keep him awake...

He didn't want to stay awake...

Zachary found his thumb too!  

Daddy is tired too! 

See! I can almost roll over mommy!! 

Just cute! 

Tummy time! 

This is how they all wanted to sleep today...  see Zachary in the background?  That's where he slept for almost three hours!!! My little buddies were zonked!  

As always...

xox

The boys are 4 months old!!

My poor little Zachary has a hard time going to bed lately... this is the reason why my blog post is so late this week.  He was in my arms for about 3 hours just not being able to settle.  It's really hard watching your son struggle so much and you just have NO IDEA what's wrong.  He was off all day.  Well, it started yesterday really after we messed up his routine and brought him to a party... Here we were thinking we were being cool parents.  I guess cool parents shouldn't f*** around with routine because those cool parents are going to become exhausted parents who regret trying to be cool at all!  He cries through whole feedings sometimes!  I thought that he may just not like the formula, but he's not rejecting it at all, in fact, lately he hasn't spit up much at all.  He also did two feedings without any complaint...  He has pooped, but I think he might still be cramping...  Anyways, I'm just at a loss and right now my poor little guy is sleeping in a swing which I really don't like but if he's sleeping, I'm not touching him!  Hopefully he'll sleep tonight.  He slept last night all night after crying all afternoon/evening so I'm crossing my fingers that after tonight's 10pm feeding, he'll go back to his crib and become the beautiful sleeping boy I know and love.  We haven't had a rough night in a while so maybe we're due for one... womp womp...  Thankfully Samuel and Jacob go down without much fuss at all and Zachary's cries don't seem to bother them that much.  I can deal with one baby needing momma's arms but three would do me in!  Not that I don't love cuddles, but it doesn't do anyone any good for him to sleep on me all the time and I really hope it's not a habit that he's going to want to keep...

They are also liking their cribs less and less during the day for naps and for that I blame myself as I wasn't mentally strong enough to enforce it when all I wanted was to nap myself.  I just let them sleep where they seem to want to... once in a while I'll get them in there, but it's become a rare thing.  Hopefully when they start sleeping through a full night (like 7 to 7ish), and they have regular nap schedules, I'll have enough energy to get them in their cribs for their naps too.  At least they sleep at night in there!

The weather finally started turning for the better on Wednesday (although apparently there's a huge storm on the way this week!) and I got to go for a walk!  It was really nice to get out and the boys love walks!  I went again on Friday with my friend Jessie.  It was awesome to catch up and have some adult conversation.

We went to my family doctor on Monday, thankfully, my mother in law came with me to help.  My doctor seems to always be M.I.A. (I haven't seen her since before we even got pregnant) so I saw her nurse practitioner.  She weighed the boys and did some various checks and asked me a bunch of questions about their development.  She's very impressed with where they're at.  Zachary and Samuel, as far as their weight goes, are actually on the 4 month curve!!  Jacob is still on his corrected 2 month curve, but he's catching up!  As far as their development goes, they're pretty much on par with what normal 2 month olds are supposed to do.  She's not surprised as it can take a while for them to catch up.  They are doing what they're meant to do at this point and she's not worried at all.  After talking to her, we decided to wait before we switched fully to powder formula.  She said that it can take up to 2 weeks for babies to adjust to a new formula and my boys just weren't loving it.  I swear all three were crying during their feeds when we switched to powder... it really sucks because we have a whole bunch of free samples.  Oh well, she said to try again in a month, they may be more ready then and the transition may not take as long.  Our samples don't expire until October at the earliest anyway, so we've got time!  If I had one baby, I may have been able to hack the transition but with Zachary already having a rough go at things lately, I don't think I could have handled having three babies crying through feeds for a week or two!!

So Gabe dropped Jacob this week... on the couch!! Thankfully!!!  He tripped no only over a floor mat, but when he thought he had recovered, he then tripped over the dog and not wanting to fall on the baby, he kind of had to throw Jacob (like a 1/2 foot drop, not a big deal!) on the couch in front of him.  Jacob LOST IT poor little guy.  He just got scared.  All I heard was "Aaaahhhh.... OH SHIT!" and then I look over and just see Jacob being dropped on the couch and bouncing a time or two and then his little face just got so sad... his and Gabe's faces were the worst!  

I witnessed my first soft serve poop while changing Zachary's diaper... I know, gross right?  I totally thought he was done pooping but when I went to change him, he was NOT done.  It was weirdly and grossly mesmerizing... haha.

So the party we went to was for little Isaac (my friends Sarah and Chris's little guy) who turned one.  It was the boys' first party and we really wanted to be there.  Of course, the moment we walked in, it was "Oh my God, here are the triplets!!" and "TRIPLETS?!?" and so on and so forth.  The usual questions were asked, but everyone was so nice and so accepting.  I'm glad we had people who were willing to hold one of the boys because I didn't think of the logistics before going... I felt super bad for leaving them on my friends, thinking they'd get annoyed that I just pawned them off and left them there.  I tried to do the best I could but it was tough. We're going to need to think of a better solution next time because I guess I can't just assume that people will just willingly take a baby off my hands.  They are MY babies after all and my friends have their own children to worry about.  I think it'll be a little easier once I can put them down and they can crawl around, but then I'll just be looking for them all time everywhere, but at least it'll be mine (and Gabe's) responsibility and I won't just expect other people to help.  I'm not saying my friends weren't willing to help, they were, but like I said, they're MY responsibility!!  They were so good during the whole party, all quiet and cute and all.  We stayed too long and the boys didn't get their midday nap and that's ultimately what set off Armageddon in our living room that afternoon.  They were so tired that they didn't even want to eat their supper time formula.  I put Zach straight to bed without burping him as he was passed OUT after his bottle that I almost had to force feed him (I didn't even change him or put pants on him), he just needed to sleep poor little man!  I normally don't let them fall asleep on the bottle and if they do, I wait a while before putting them to bed, but last night was an exception.  At one point I looked at my poor exasperated husband and told him that we would make it, it was only one day and once they were sleeping, all would be good with the world again.  When we fed them at 10pm, our loving boys were back, smiles and all, and it made it all better.  They could have been screaming bloody murder for hours on end and we see one of their smiles and it just melts our hearts and makes us forget all the badness.  This is what makes it all worth it.  Today was a little better.  My in-laws were here to help this morning and my sister and her family were here for lunch and afternoon.  My sister and my nieces looked after the boys while Gabe and I went to get a few groceries.  It was nice to be out and about just the two of us, even if it was only for 30 minutes.  We ran into our friend Ray who asked us where the kids were.  I always want to say something like "Oh shit! The kids!" or "We left them in the van, they were sleeping..."  just to see their reaction... haha.  Like, we forgot our diaper bag at the party and when Sarah texted me to let me know, I texted back "Well, at least it wasn't a kid!".

I lost 2 lbs this week, it was a tough week, I cut way back on cheese and margarine, my nemeses.  You'd think for someone who needs to lose 70lbs+ to be in her BMI, the pounds would melt right off but nooooo... my body hates me. I could write a book on weight loss so trust me, I know what to do and I'm doing all I need to do kitchen wise so boo to you body! I know I know, give it more than a week... blah blah shut up Lol  Also, I know that 2 lbs is a nice loss and a loss I should aim for weekly but I expected more from my first real week.  Oh well, every little bit counts!  It's not like I'll have other babies, so I have time :-).


Here are some pics of the week :)

Doesn't Jacob look huge?? 

Since Monday was St-Patrick's day, I decided to make the boys some shirt using
onesies I was about to give away because they were getting too small.  

Jacob Patrick... his middle name came from my Irish descendant who was
the first to come over from Ireland. 

See?  He sleep where he wants to... 

Loves looking in mirrors!!!

I think this is my favorite "out-take"...  It could totally be a "Caption this" picture.  I say it looks like
Samuel farted and the other two are laughing at him.  Jacob is even trying to cover up the smell! 

Yo yo yo

Samuel photobombing

Mommy!!! I'm falling!!!!!!

I'm in LOVE with this picture

All the things they do at 4 months (2 months corrected).  That was the best take! 

Jacob was warm today and he wanted to sleep like this. 

Thanks for all your continued love and support!!  xox

SLEEP!!!!

Daylight savings time was really freaking us out but then we thought, Hey! maybe the kids will sleep "later"... That did NOT happen!  It was quite a tough night on Sunday night, the boys woke up early, not later, in the middle of the night, which caused them to wake up earlier on Monday morning... It was quite a rough morning.  A friend of mine, MJ, asked to come visit with her little girl.  I wasn't sure I was up for it, with the morning I was having but then I realized that it may just be the pick me up I needed.  It was funny to see them all on the floor!  It seemed like there were a ton of babies when there were only four.  It's still a lot of babies!!   I'm glad I told her she could come as we had a good talk and she was a great help! 

We had help from my in-laws on Monday & Tuesday night which is always welcome!  Monday night, I decided to test my babies... I decided to see if they were ready to sleep longer.  Some people told me that they thought the boys were still too young, but I thought they might be ready.  So instead of giving Samuel and Zachary their middle of the night dream feed bottles, I decided to just try to soothe them back to sleep.  I wasn't sure that Jacob was ready yet so I gave him his bottle.  Anyways.... SUCCESS!!!!!  I gave Jacob his bottle and when Zachary and Samuel started fussing a little, I turned them over on their tummies, gave them a nice back rub and a few bum pats and back to sleep they went!   I was awake from the time I fed Jacob until the boys woke up at around 5:30 because I kept expecting them to cry bloody murder!  When I saw 5 o'clock roll around, I knew we had made it!  I was so proud of them!!  I thought it was just a fluke but they've done it all week!  They start fussing at around 2 or 3 in the morning and all we have to do is flip them over on their tummies and back to dreamland they go. I used to wait until they started to fuss but now when one fusses, I flip them all over so I don't have to get up three different times! I decided to try Jacob on Tuesday night and what do you know, he almost made it, he woke up at 4:30!  He's been doing better and better all week.  However, there is always one that wakes up at around 4:45 or 5.  What I've been doing seems to be working... so yeah me and sleep!!  It's funny though, you'd think I would be more rested but now that I've been giving my body more sleep, all it wants is more and more!  I had to take a cat nap today as I was falling asleep on the couch!  I knew I really needed it when I woke up and my pillow was full of drool (haha... gross right?).  

I'm going to try something different this week to try to teach them that their wake up time should be around 7 or later.  I will give them their dream feed when they wake up at 5 and let them sleep a little longer after (letting me sleep a little longer too).  Eventually, they will hopefully sleep from 7 to 7 or 8 to 8, so this will start preparing them for that.  I know this is a long way off, but I believe it's consistency, patience and preparing them little by little that worked for the first "sleeping through the night" phase, so hopefully it'll work for phase 2. 

Monday night, I get a call from my mother in law who informs me that she wants to give me the afternoon off to myself on Tuesday and that she and her sister would come watch the kids.  The moment I hung up, I called the Spa and booked a massage.  It felt soooooo good!  I felt guilty for leaving my kids, but I knew they'd be well taken care of and mommy needed me time.  I was so grateful!  After the massage, I went over to McGinnis Landing, a restaurant I worked at for almost 4 years to get a gift my ex co-workers said they had for me.  I wasn't expecting what was awaiting me!  There were three HUGE bags of year 3 & 4 clothes.  The clothes are gorgeous too, lots of quality items!  One of those co-workers gave birth to her beautiful daughter Daphné not two days later! 

On Wednesday, the weather was really nice out and I figured I'd try to take the boys out for a walk around the neighbourhood.  We had a really nice walk!  That same afternoon, the boys decided to give me their worst crying fest yet.  It started at 2:30pm and all three got in on it :(.  I put on awesome 90s music (mainly because I know all the words) and I proceeded to have a dance party in the middle of my living room.  At first, I had them all on the couch and I was singing to them and that seemed to work.  After they realized that I wasn't that great of a singer, they started crying again so I decided to try dancing with them.  I alternated them one song at a time dancing with them in my arms.  It was a long hour until daddy came home!  Some people keep telling me that they must be hungry, but I know that they weren't hungry, they couldn't be hungry 2 hours after they ate!!  I think they just want to cry.  I'm going to try to take them for a walk around that time as they seem to like being outside in the fresh air.  That's what we did yesterday and they did really well.  They seem to eat three hours after their afternoon feeding though.  I hope the new schedule changes the fact that they eat at 5pm.  

Gabe and I decided to swap roles on Friday night.  He had the monitor by his head and I didn't wake up until he woke me me, at 4:40am, asking me what he should do...lol.  We fed them and then went back to bed for a while until Samuel decided he was tired of sleeping and wanted to come snuggle with us in bed.  I even brought the van for an oil change on Saturday morning while Gabe took care of the boys.  I got home and all seemed great, he had them all eating around him and they all seemed content.  He looks at me and told me that the scene hadn't been the same one hour prior!  I was wondering why they were eating so late... he then said: oops! I forgot that they ate so early!  He thought for sure that they were due to eat at 10 and was confused when they started being fussy at 9.  Poor little buddies were hungry... no wonder they were fussy!  Poor Gabe was all confused!  

We switched the babies to powder formula on Saturday night and changing things around has never been my sons' favorite thing, least of all Zachary's.  They have a hard time drinking it, maybe it's thicker?  Anyways, I had to switch their nipples to faster flowing ones.  Jacob and Samuel seem to be doing ok-ish, but this is the second night in a row that Zachary just won't go down to sleep.  As I write this, my poor little buddy is crying in his crib... I'm giving him a 10 minute cry it out session to see what happens.  It's his tired cry so I know he wants to sleep and he'll even take a crying break every once in a while... I'll have to take an intermission break to go rock him I think.  I hate it because I don't want him to get used to this as he has been going to sleep SOOOO well for the last month and I would hate for this change to affect his beautiful night routine.  I'm not cruel, so I won't let him cry for an hour, don't worry, but normally he falls asleep within 6 to 7 minutes.  It has now been 8 and he's still pretty upset so it's almost time for me to go to him... 

Here I go... help my little guy through his tears... :(  Oh no!  Now Jacob's awake!! Great time to go get us supper daddy!!! 

Gabe came home, took over for me as he still hadn't settled.  He had finally fallen asleep in my arms after my version of various Elton John, Pink, The Tragically Hip, Backstreet Boys and lullaby songs.  (Don't judge, I don't know many songs by heart!)  The moment I put him down, it was as if the world was ending... We decided to try to give him a bit of his regular formula with his regular nipple.  He drank 2oz right away and he's currently sound asleep.  So yes, the powder may be cheaper but I don't want my little man to suffer because I want to save a few bucks!  Anyways, we'll try him again tomorrow and see... maybe he just needs a few days to adjust?!?  

We went to visit our friends Alicia and Neil on Saturday since Alicia's parents were up and Linda, Alicia's mom, was super excited to meet the boys.  It was nice to take them out to their first visit out.  They finally got to meet their future best friend, Alfie.  Alfie is going to be a big brother in less than a year to upcoming twins and it was cute to see how he reacted to the babies.  For the most part, he was really good around them, but I think he felt a little like "Ummm... why am I not the center of mom's attention anymore?"  He was all over her... it was super cute because I guess I'll have three little 1 and 1/2 year old boys all over me one day! haha... Linda taught him to touch the babies' toes and he was reluctant at first but when he saw Alicia with a baby, he came over and gently touched Samuel's feet.  It was adorable.  I can't wait to see him around his future siblings!  He will be an amazing big brother! 

On Sunday, we went to see my nieces' last ringuette game while my in-laws watched after the kids.  They had been asking me since the beginning of the season to go to a game.  They were quite happy to see Gabe and I there after the game.  We were going to bring the boys but we thought it might be too much and they will get to see them plenty next season.  We also decided to go grocery shopping as a family.  It may not have been the best day to do this since it was SUPER windy but we made a plan and went for it.  We decided that the best way to be the most inconspicuous and less in the way with our HUGE stroller was to each wear a baby and push another.  It was a really good idea as we only had ONE person comment and that was because we had to let people by and she had time to count! haha... I think people may have realized once we went past them, but it was too late to say anything.  Jacob was on me and he was awake the whole time and just staring at everything while licking the crap out of the baby Bjorn.  Zachary was on Gabe and he passed out right away.  Samuel was the one in the baby seat and we didn't hear a peep the whole time.  It was so silent on his end that I checked when we got back in the car to make sure he was still in there/alive! haha...  It was nice to just go out as a family without having to avoid eye contact all all cost!!  It was a good first experience and it will be the best way for us to go to public places if we want to avoid stares and constant questions.  It would have been much better had it not been so windy!!

I read an article this week about how singleton mothers (that's what we multiple moms call moms with one child) are sometimes reluctant to complain to us about how hard they find their lives to be.  This got me thinking about how I think I feel when my singleton mom friends do this with me.  I certainly don't roll my eyes and think "oh, you think you have it bad?".  I do think that my life would be easier with one child, but I DO NOT think that someone with one child finds it easy.  Everyone has their own reality and if Sally's little Tom isn't sleeping at night and crying for hours on end, that's freakin HARD on the mom.  If Nikki's little Lucy isn't eating well, that's HARD.  If my husband tells me he's got a headache, it doesn't matter if my headache is bigger or happens more often, having a headache sucks and he should me able to tell me about it without me rolling my eyes at him. It's like every skinny girl I would trade my right arm to look like still thinks that she is imperfect.  It's like telling a little 12 year old that she's not really in love, she doesn't know what being in love is.  To her she knows.  That is THEIR reality and no one should tell them that their reality isn't justified, even if sometimes it might just be different than your own.  No one should be able to tell someone how to feel.  So that being said, I hope my mom friends don't hesitate to tell me their mom issues just because they think that I have it worse, it's just my reality and their reality, to them, is just as bad.  

My reality, as those of you who know me, includes my intense need to lose weight so I've told myself, yet again, that today is my last "fat woman" day.  I will put my before picture on here so that I'm accountable to all of you.  You may not care but it's more for me anyway :) 

Yep... still look about 7 months pregnant!! :(

Don't mind the flash... 

Here are pics of the week that you'll actually care about...haha :

Ophelia visiting

Doesn't it look like there are a tonne of babies?!?

Getting ready with our first walk alone with mommy

Zachary

Samuel

Jacob not liking the fact that he's not moving in his car seat

Chilling on the couch listening to mom sing some 90s tunes... Jacob is the only one enjoying this! 

Jacob smiling at himself in the mirror

Zachary smiling at himself in the mirror

Samuel thinking he's looking pretty good

Isn't this the cutest picture of Sam ever?!?

This is the witch hour face of Zachary

of Samuel....

and of Jacob...

This baby Bjorn saves me from going insane during their fussy time!! 

We don't often dress them the same but this was pretty cute! 

Momma!!! Don't take our picture!!!! 

Found my thumb Mom!!!!  Hurray!!! 

Visiting Alicia, Neil and Alfie

At my nieces' ringuette game

So you may have noticed that the ads are gone from my blog... I hope this is temporary.  I have been de-activated... I think it's because I've been soliciting clicks so I won't be doing that anymore and I have appealed the de-activation so hopefully you'll see them return in the upcoming weeks.  I want to thank those of you who supported me but unfortunately I think I lost all the money I had made so far... sad face...  oh well, that's life!  

As always my friends, 

xox