Tripletville Adventures : Week 3 @ home ~ Daddy's back at work

Well this was another trying week for our little family as Gabe had to go back to work. Since he drives for a living and I, of course, want my children to keep their dad, am not letting him get up in the middle of the night to help with the feedings. I'm just glad that my mother is still here to help me until the end of the month. I am hoping that by then, the boys will either be able to skip their 2AM feeding or I'll have figured out a way to feed all of them at the same time. Can you say challenging?? Well if you know me, I'm quite determined and I will figure it out. Zachary is getting better at feeding with the help of the bottle prop so I will work on the other two. I still have a few weeks to figure it out so I'm sure I'll come up with some sort of plan. I think what will be the most challenging will be when I am truly alone in the day time (because I'm sure if it's truly terrible at night, Gabe will get up to help). It'll break my heart if they all need comfort and I can only get to one, maximum two at a time! A lot of people have offered to come help, so if I find it too hard, I'll accept the help that has been offered to me.

I'm starting to feel more and more normal which means that my weight insecurities are starting to creep in. Trust me, I know and realize that I've just had triplets, but it doesn't mean that my health has to suffer for it. During the pregnancy I basically ate what I could handle and after I had the babies, eating healthy was not on the top of my priorities list as you can imagine. I went for my first walk this week and my muscles have become so weak that a 15 minute walk was all I could handle. My lower abs hurt the whole walk and the next day, my quads were actually hurting, after a 15 minute WALK!!! I have always been someone who was in shape so to start back at zero is no fun, but I gotta start somewhere right? So here I go!! I went to see my OBGYN for my 6 week post op visit and she cleared me to start little by little. Eventually I'll be able to take the babies out for a walk so that'll be nice, for me AND for them! Talking about my doctor's visit, I had the most wonderful surprise! I was sitting there waiting to go in to see the doctor and who walks in but Josée, one of my best friends. Neither of us knew of our common appointment times and I've hardly left the house so to see her there was great. We hugged and hugged and had the most wonderful conversation. She's 17 weeks pregnant and she has the cutest little non-belly! I remember my 17 week belly...HA! It was nice to see a friend and get out of baby talk for 10 minutes, although we did talk about the babies!

A public health nurse came over this week to check up on how we were doing and on the babies; she weighed them, measured them and did some tests to make sure they were developing as they are meant to. Zachary weighed 6lbs 13oz, Samuel was 6lbs 11oz and Jacob was 5lbs 14oz, he's getting closer and closer to 6 lbs and it's starting to show as he is finally starting to outgrow some of their 7lbs pyjamas. Zachary and Samuel are on the 40th percentile as far as their growth curve and Jacob is at around the 15th. I'm just glad they're on the curve!

The boys are requiring more and more love (that I truly mind giving...NOT!) and attention. I'm always worried about one noise or another, always wondering if it's normal or if I should truly be worried. I'm part of a triplet support group on Facebook and it has been a Godsend. Anytime I have a question or I'm worried about something, there is always someone who has been through the same thing that answers my worry within minutes of my posting about it on the group's page. I can also repay the favor and I have even been told that this blog is helping some of the newer mommies with their worries. The wonders of social media!! Connecting triplet mommas from all over the world and making us feel like we're not alone after all!
So we've decided to start letting our good friends meet the boys little by little starting next weekend when they reach term. I've had to convince myself to let that happen as I would shelter them for the next year if I listened to my heart. We are still in the middle of cold and flu season and with all the new cases of H1N1 being reported, I'm petrified to let the outside world into ours. Of course, I know my friends would never jeopardize the health of the boys simply because they wanted to see them but it's still possible that some of them would carry a virus even if they felt fine themselves. I realize that I can't shelter them for life, but I wish I could put them in a bubble so that when people came to visit, they would still be protected. I know I'm probably just being paranoid, but I guess that's part of being a mother. We let Zachary's Godmother and Godfather visit today, I think it was good to start small to help me be more and more comfortable with visitors and people holding the boys... Here they are holding the babies for the first time, they didn't mind one bit! Serge even got to feed his Godson.

Serge and Samuel

Marie-Christine and Zachary.

So yes, I'm scared but I have faith in our friends that they will make my boys' health priority when making the decision to come visit. I have asked them to keep their children at home for this time to make myself a little less nervous... at least until flu and cold season has come and gone. We are so lucky to have such good friends that none of them have ever questioned any of our decisions, no matter how batty I may have sounded (well at least not to my face...haha).

So next week is a week full of appointments, the public health nurse is coming back, they are seeing their paediatrician (Dr. Mud if you recall) for the first time since leaving the NICU and my (and theirs now I guess) family doctor. I'm glad I'll be seeing their paediatrician as I have lots of questions! I'll be asking him when I can start trying to make the boys skip their 2AM feeding (hopefully before my mother leaves!) so that maybe, just maybe, once in a while, I can get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time... but I'm dreaming right, that probably won't happen until they're 5!!! haha...

Here are a few pics of this week...