Day in the life

So this week Gabe and I thought it might be interesting to give you a snapshot of a day in our lives at the moment, both from my perspective and his... Brace yourselves, this is a long one... but worth the read, as always :) (I think anyway).

Mommy's perspective...

This is what a typical Monday to Friday schedule looks like...

• 5:30 am - Wake up & set up to feed the babies with Gabe's help.  He helps as much as he can while getting ready to go to work.  
• After feeding and burping and changing, I put the babies at various places around me to their contentment (on a boppy, in a swing, down on their floor mat, etc.) 
• Fill up dishwasher with bottles to sterilize, start dishwasher, put a load of laundry in. 
• Check on the babies and if they've fallen asleep, transfer them to their cribs and hope they fall back asleep...
• If they are sleeping, I try to nap (I haven't been able to yet so why do I even try?!?)
• I try to shower while they are quiet in their cribs, this happens maybe every two days (or three, or four... maybe I should start logging my shower days on the calendar so I don't become a stinking mess... Come to think of it, when DID I shower last?!?) haha
• At around 8, I wash, rinse and boil the nipples as the dishwasher was leaving black residue in them.  
• I then boil water to sterilize water for the bottles if I need to.  
• By then at least one baby is ready to leave his crib (if he hasn't been out already).  
• I bring him to the bathroom where I change his diaper, wash his face, put some lotion on and get him dressed for the day (I like to dress them as I feel it helps them know that it's daytime.  Also, they have really cute outfits). Sunday is let's stay in our PJs all day kind of day. 
• I then go put said baby in a swing, on the floor for tummy time or in a bouncy chair, depending on his preference.  I repeat until all three boys are up.  I try to spend a little bit of time with each alone every day. 
• By then, it's most likely time for the 10 am feeding so I do that.  It's normally a crying fest by the time I set it all up and plug em up as it takes some time to heat the bottles up to room temperature. 
• I put on music and try to sing/dance with them.
• I put the clothes in the dryer
• Then I rotate them around the living room until they seem to want to sleep again.  They never nap long at this time but seem to be in pretty good spirits.  We spend time either visiting with company or playing around or getting in and out of sleep. 
• I empty the dishwasher, got get the clothes to fold.
• Then the 2pm feeding; I like it as it's the last feeding alone before Gab comes home.... 
• After this feeding is when the fun begins as it is the start of their fussy time.  Before, it was just Zachary but now, more and more, the three get in on the fun.  It's a constant rotation from my arms to soothe to the swing to the boppy to my arms etc.  It's a constant put one down, pick one up for about an hour until Gabe comes home and then he can help.  
• I started giving Zachary some probiotics hoping it will help and honestly, I think it is because when Gabe came home on Friday, all three were actually quiet.  He couldn't believe it!  He looked at me and said "really??".
• He's been pretty good the last few days so I'm hoping that's the key! Zach I meant, not Gabe...
• Ok...back to the schedule.
• The boys seem to be hungry earlier after their 2pm feeding so we feed them at around 5:30pm, we give a bath to whoever's turn it is and we normally put them to bed around 6:30pm. 
• (Ùzfvfd,d,s,md<,c  <------- sorry, this was Zachary's contribution to the blog... I was holding him and he was typing with his feet kicks...)
• They normally fall asleep within 10 minutes of us putting them to bed.  We sometimes read them a story or Gabe will play them a tune if they seem receptive.  That's the good thing about my boys... after crying their eyes out for almost 2 hours straight, they go to sleep pretty easily!! Jacob can cry (louder than my other 2 babies put together) for about 5 minutes and then BAM, he's asleep!  Samuel will just hang out in his crib without crying until he falls asleep (sometimes he needs his soother) and Zach is different every night.  (YEAH BOYS!!)
• At around 7, we try to eat.  Gabe starts prepping the milk for the next 24 hours while I assemble the nipples, covers and bottles. 
• Relax time after that (phew...) until the babies wake up for their 10pm feeding.  I sometimes try to nap at this point or we just watch TV to numb our brains for a while.  This is also the time when one of us has a chance to run out for an errand or two. 
• We feed at 10pm, we dim the lights and we try to not talk to them (which is sometimes hard when they're giving you a huge smile).
• We put them to bed and they fall asleep really easily at this point and we go to bed. 
• I wake up when the first one starts to fuss anywhere between 2am and 3am, wake up Gabe, go prepare the bottles and we dream feed them.
• Between the dream feed and their wake up time, I get up about 2 - 3 times to go soothe them or flip them over on their tummies.  Gabe can sleep through anything so he nevers wake up :(.  I also don't wake him up because well... what's the point since I'm already up?!?  It irritates me the most when he wakes up and says "Wow!! They had a good night didn't they??".  I know it's not his fault, but it's still irritating dammit!!! lol 
• So I get a broken three hours of sleep and then we start all over again... 

Daddy's perspective

He's a little more detail oriented than mommy is...

• 5:38 am Alarm goes off, get up to get ready.
• 5:39 Make toast for breakfast and start the day. 
• 5:43 Put one contact lens in, Jacob starts crying so I go in the room to turn him around to try get him to sleep a little longer to give mommy a little more sleeping time. 
• 5:44 Start to put in second contact lens and have to stop because Zachary starts to cry so I go in to the babies room to give him his soother to hold him off a little longer.
• 5:45 Get the second contact lens in my eye. Time to hit the shower and get ready.....no...wait...Jacob is crying again. Time to flip him over and give him his soother. 
• 5:47 The boys are quiet, time to run the hot water for my shower (takes a minute to get the hot water going)...almost ready to jump in then...nope...not gonna happen. Jacob is crying again.
• 5:49 Get Jacob from the crib and go chill in the living room with him for a bit to quiet him down. Turn on the water for the bottles (5 minutes to boil so it will be ready when mommy and the babies want to feed)
• 5:51 Change Jacob's diaper. He's just relaxing all quiet with daddy. Wait...what's that? Oh...Zachary is crying again. Put Jacob on the couch (in a safe position of course) and go get Zachary. 
• 5:55 Change Zachary while Jacob cries (meh! what can you do?) Once the diaper is changed,it's time to put the bottles in hot water (4 minutes) and wake up mommy to feed the boys!
• 5:57 Wake up mommy! Put Zachary and Jacob on the couch with mommy, get some bibs and facecloths for the boys and get the bottles.
• 5:59 Off to the shower!!!...no...slight detour, Samuel woke up and is crying in the crib. (did you forget about Sam? He was still sleeping.) Get Sam from the crib, bring him in the living room and set him up in Mommy's feeding operation.
• 6:01 Hit the showers!!!!
• 6:07 Change into my work clothes
• 6:08 Put the dog outside, prepare some food and water for work.
• 6:10 Change Sam's diaper while he takes a break from eating (since he woke up late to the party he didn't get a diaper change before the food)
• 6:12 Bark at the door??!?!...oh, right, we put the dog out to pee. Take the dog back in.
• 6:13 Help mommy before I leave by burping Zachary. Hand him back to mommy. 
• 6:14 Put on my left boot
• 6:15 Help burp Jacob
• 6:18 Put on my right boot. 
• 6:25 Go to the kitchen to get a different nipple for Zachary because he is not enjoying the current one he is using. 
• 6:30 Head out the door for work
• For those who don't know I'm a delivery driver so I drive around all day. I do some local deliveries in the morning, then around 9:30 I leave town and do some out of town deliveries stopping in Dorchester, Springhill and Truro then back to Moncton and I get back around 3:30 for a trip of 400-450 km. A couple more in town deliveries and come 4pm back home!
• 4:10 walk in the door greated by my lovely wife...and 66.6% of the babies crying. Crying to which my wife has probably been trying to keep under control since about 3pm so it's time for me to tag in and help out mommy. Time to take off the work clothes and switch to my daddy uniform, which consists of gym shorts and a tshirt.
• 4:15 to 5:30 consists of holding and rocking babies in various positions, sitting, standing, walking, soother, no soother, on their back, on a play mat, sitting them upright on the couch, trading babies between mommy and daddy with intermittent and varying degrees of success achieved of soothing them. Sometimes for a minute or two. Sometimes for ten minutes. The thing is with three babies sometimes it's Zachary or Jacob and Samuel. Or Samuel....or Jacob...Or Zachary and Sam, but then Sam stops and Jacob starts and by then Zachary stops....and Sam goes on for a long time but other times like tonight, they're all quiet, calm and sleeping. And sometimes 2 of them are calm and quiet and one is fussy.  Every day is different.
• 5:30 Prep the bottles and feed the babies.
• 6:15 Done feeding the babies time for diaper changes and a bath and some quality baby interaction time.
• 6:45 Put the babies to bed. They go down pretty easy and if someone fusses or cries, we give him 5 minutes and they usually soothe themselves. And now the babies sleep!
• 7:15 Prepare the babies formula bottles for the next 24 hours. This takes me about 25 minutes which consists of mixing up aproximately 500ml of water with 500ml of formula and repeating this process two more times for a total of about 3 Liters of formula. Pouring it in to 15 baby bottles and then putting it all in to the mini fridge. Rinse out the empty cartons and put some stuff in the dishwasher.
• 7:45 SUPPER TIME!
• 8:00 Babies still sleeping so it's free time. Time to relax or run an errand or two, or maybe a couple more chores.
• 10:15 Time to feed the babies! Someone usually wakes up with little warning and mad because he is hungry. The nice thing is even though they all sleep in the same room the one crying usually doesn't wake up the others. This feeding is usually a bit more chill and relax. The Babies are half asleep.
• 10:50 Put the babies to bed...and the parents to bed!!
• 2:00a.m. MC wakes me up to help with the dream feed. This is when we feed the babies a couple of ounces in their crib without waking them up. It's also a dream feed for me too cause I'm half asleep myself. ha.
• 2:15 Back to bed!
• 5:38 .....Alarm goes off...repeat.

Phew!! I'm tired just writing it!  

The boys are growing up... it's soooooo great to see.  Zachary has finally started giving us some smiles and actually looking at us!!  Samuel loves his floor mat and he can stay there for an hour sometimes just kicking and looking around.  Samuel loves to tell us his baby stories with big smiles on his face.  Jacob is almost always in a good mood unless he's hungry then it's game over!  

We had lots of visitors this week!  My forever friend Lizette and her pregnant wife Dawn came to visit with their little girl.  Véronique came back with Sébastien and we had a really good afternoon.  Véronique was changing Zachary and asked me if he ever pooped through his diaper and I told her that it wasn't something that normally happened.  She started undressing him and saw poop EVERYWHERE!! haha... I guess he went through his diaper after all... It was almost up to his neck!!! I told her to give up trying to clean him with wipes and I brought him to the bathroom sink to clean him up.  Not an hour later when Gabe came home, Jacob did the same thing!! It was his bath night, so he went straight to his bath.  My sister and my nieces came on Friday to give me a hand and my pregnant friends Josée and Christine came to see the boys on Friday as well.  This weekend, we had Zachary's godparents Serge and Marie-Christine come to visit.  On Sunday, Gabe's parents came to spend the afternoon with us and give us a hand with two feedings and take a nice walk.  Their weekly Sunday visits/help is the only way I can write this blog!!  We also had a visit from Gabe's friend Mike and his pregnant wife Monique.  Man there were a lot of pregnant women around this week!!  

On Thursday, my friend Véronique invited me to go meet her and a few other mommies at the Kay Arena's indoor track to walk as it was still a little cold outside.  I fed the boys at 9:30 and they were being unusually fussy so I thought there was no way I would be meeting her at 10:30 to go for a walk.  I was about to text her to tell her that it wasn't going to happen when I gave myself a little talking to.  I told myself that I needed a life too and that babies cry.  I put them in their car seat and within 5 minutes, they were quiet.  I made it to the arena!  There were many people there with lots of questions but it was super nice getting out and for once, I didn't mind answering the questions as they were, for the most part, pretty reasonable and I like talking about my boys!!  I met some really nice people and it did me some good to get out.  It was the first time I loaded up all the boys by myself and it really wasn't that bad!!!  This makes me feel good as I know I can do it alone!!  More outside visits!!! I'm hoping to bring the boys to my nieces' last ringuette game next Sunday, we'll see!!  Now that cold/flu season is at it's tail end, I feel better about taking the boys out in public.  

Thursday also marked 21 years since my father passed away... It's always a difficult day, but I found this one to be more troubling as I know how much my dad would have loved his boys.  He would have spoiled them to death!!  It's unbelievably sad to think of him never meeting them and vice versa but as my mother said, everything happens for a reason and were he still alive, my life may have been different and my boys may not even be here.  Everything happens for a reason and everything is as it is meant to be... 

I started another little side project (when do I have time really?!? haha... evenings when I can't sleep...).  I'm creating my own onesie and t-shirt and etc. designs.  I started it to create for the boys but then I thought why wouldn't I put it out there to the world?  It's mostly for parents of multiples but I'm sure other singleton parents could find use out of it.  I could even create other things if someone were to ask me.  You can find my store and my meagre design beginnings here: www.zazzle.com/jasaza (named using the first two letters of each of the boys' names). 

Here are pics of the week... please forgive the blurriness as my phone is not the best at taking pics! 

Jacob looking drunk

Smile and a wave from Jacob

Sébastien hanging out in the corner :)

Samuel trying to show us that he can hold his bottle all by himself!! 

Smiles from Sam

Little blurry but still cute! 

Loving their floor mat! 

Zachary loving his cuddle time with Matante Cindy

The smile we've been waiting for from our Zachary! 

And another one! 

After our Sunday walk

Daddy's first time using a Snuggli! 

Family pic!  We decided to buy this Snap N Go stroller to make it easier to go to public places.  It might prevent too many stares as well!!! We both hold a baby and push another.  It's less showy than our big triple stroller! 

Zachary passed out after his walk.

Sam looking for his thumb

Jacob had a growth spurt this week and he's looking more and more like a little man!   Look at those fatty cheeks!!!

I turned my pregnancy blog into a book!  I hope to continue doing this... it's pretty cool!!  We got one for both grandmothers and one for ourselves so the babies can read it.  It's also a fail safe in case this blog disappears! 

The first of three beautiful pictures my brother in law Eric took

#2

#3

My niece Gabrielle with Jacob

My niece Alexie with Jacob

As always my friends:

Live, Love and Laugh

xox

First week alone

This being my first official week alone, I felt rushed a lot where I needed to do everything before Gabe came home so that he'd see that I was able to handle it all on my own and that things would be as they had been when my mother was here to help me full time... well, I had to take a step back and realize that I can't do it alone and that's ok, I have a partner and he doesn't need to think I'm superwoman and neither do my kids.  I was rocking Jacob one day in the nursery and all I kept thinking was: "Go to sleep my little man, momma's got things to do!".  That's when it hit me that all those other things could wait; I had my son in my arms and he would never be this little again.  Right now, these boys need their momma and this is the time I'm going to miss in five, ten, twenty years... They'll never need me as they need me now.  I read a blog entry the next day that somebody shared on Facebook this week talking about just that, about the fact that when I'm 80, not only will I no longer be needed but I'll probably start being a burden to my boys.  The fact that I fed them, wiped their bums, gave them a thousand kisses a day and held them against my heart for hours on end some days won't matter anymore.  THIS is the time they need me, and THIS is the time that I need to spend every moment I can loving them as much as I can. I've shared that blog entry below if anyone wants to read it.  It's crazy how it showed up on my Facebook the day after I had come to some of the same realizations and spoke to exactly how I was feeling this week.  

Somebody Needs You

As far as being alone this week, it's not all that bad.  It's really not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Zachary is still having a hard time with cramps so I think I might try some bio drops that some people have suggested to me.  They seem to like the afternoon as a fussy time... they start at around 3 and last until about 5:30 when we feed them next so I have about one hour alone with them in their fussy time before Gabe comes home to rescue me!  The worst part about being alone is that I can no longer nap in the morning.  After their 6AM bottle, they normally go back in their cribs for a short morning nap.  There is always at least one who doesn't want to nap.  When my mother was here, she'd take care of the one who wouldn't nap, and I could stay in bed and have my own nap but now I have to stay up with the little bugger who won't shut his eyes.  The worst part is that I think they just don't want to be in their cribs because I take them in the living room, put them in the swing and they swing away super happy.  I guess I could nap while they are swinging but I would feel foolish napping on the couch while one or two of the boys are wide awake swinging away!  So now I take more naps at night between their 5:30PM and their 10PM bottles.  I fell asleep on the couch one night this week and slept for 2 and 1/2 hours while Gabe went about his business... I never heard a thing!  I'll be taking one of those naps as soon as I'm done writing this blog!  My eyes are closing as I'm writing... it might also be the wonderful glass of wine I'm drinking too so forgive any spelling mistakes! 

We went to the hospital on Monday for another RSV shot and for the paediatrician to have a look at the boys.  He is quite pleased with their development!  Zachary weighed in at 10lbs 9oz, Samuel was 10lbs 8oz and Jacob was 8lbs 12oz!  They're growing like weeds!!  I asked him about night training knowing that it was most likely way too early to start thinking about that but he said that they were probably ready to do some sort of night training.  He told us to start feeding them a little earlier and keep them up with us for a while before their "bed time" so that they go to sleep without a full tummy that way if they wake up and their tummies are empty, they won't freak out because they've gotten used to going to sleep on a semi-empty stomach.  He also told us to start reducing their middle of the night feed to see how they fare.  We started this on Tuesday night, deciding to do the middle of the night feeding as a dream feed.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when you feed the baby directly in their cribs while they are still sleeping (or just barely awake), you don't talk to them, you don't change their diaper and you don't even need to burp them.  Since we were only going to be feeding the boys 2oz, we decided not to burp them.  We wait until the first one starts to whine and we dream feed the three.  Zach wasn't feeling it the first night waking up at 4 (we had fed them the 2oz at 2) and just not having it!  I gave him a little more just to satiate him and he went back to sleep but not for long.  Jacob wasn't feeling it night two, also waking up early not happy with this hunger he was feeling.  However, it's been going pretty good since.  We are able to get in and out of bed within 20 - 25 minutes!  I did it alone all week (except for Tuesday as my mother was still here) and on Friday & Saturday night Gabe got up to do it.  We decided that Gabe would get up with me this week to do the dream feed as he says he's awake anyway so he might as well help me.  He's able to fall asleep very quickly and what's 20 minutes in the middle of the night?  The worst part of it is that it takes about 10 minutes to get the bottles ready (we have them pre-made so they're cold and we have to warm them up to room temp) so by the time the bottles are ready, at least one baby is wide awake and crying so there goes the whole dream feeding idea for that baby!  We will try something different this week so that it doesn't take so long to get the bottles ready!  One night they slept until 3AM... was I a happy camper or what?  I got to sleep for 4 straight hours!!!  WINNING!!!!!!  It was only a one time deal so I shouldn't do a happy dance yet! haha...  The doctor told us to keep reducing the feeding little by little until we have nothing but a soother to give them but I don't think they're ready to reduce yet so we will keep it at 2oz this week.  People keep telling me that it's way too early to sleep train but my boys are taking to it so far so we'll see!  They are really good at knowing the difference between night and day and go down pretty easy, never crying/fussing for more than 10 minutes. 

 Of course as I write this, my little Jacob is proving me wrong as he's waking up and not being a happy camper!  

Virtual interlude as I go soothe my baby... of course you won't notice this at all but you can take a bathroom break and come back if you so desire...

... I so wish I could have taken a picture of my little angel as I gave him his monkey soother, such a face I could just kiss all night!! 

 So speaking of my being tired... I must have been in a dream state myself on Tuesday night as I was changing Jacob's diaper because when I changed his diaper on Tuesday morning, I found a used wipe in his diaper... yep, a dirty poopy wipe!!! Poor little guy... no wonder he didn't have a good night! HA!  

This week I got to go enjoy a night with my book club ladies, it was really good to have some social conversation.  Of course, we talk about the book we read (this month it was "The Rosie Project", it's pretty good) but most of us being mothers, we talk a lot about our babies.  It's funny because when we started book club about 5 years ago, there were a small number of us with babies so the talk was much different than it is now.  We are still a group of girls who would do anything for one another and they are the reason for my sanity. I also got to enjoy a glass and half of wine (I stopped at the half as I had to drive...BOO!!! MORE WINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  I probably should have stopped at the one as I think the half is the bit that made me want to throw up on my babies while I was dream feeding them that night! Come to think of it, that was the same night I forgot the wipe in Jacob's diaper... woops!!  I just looked at the glass of wine beside me and reconsidered drinking it.... HAHA... as if!   

Gabe's parents came to help him while I was out.  He didn't really need the help (if I can do it alone, he can too right?) but they never say no to seeing their little babies.  They're pretty great at helping out when we need a hand.  They came today and helped for two feedings.  Gabe's dad spent about an hour walking around with our little fussy Zachary as that's about all that works when he's not his best self.  This helps us out a lot as it frees us to do the dishes, eat, shower, etc.  

We got another chock full of pre-made meals from my friend Alicia's mom Linda (THANKS LINDA!!!).  It's nice because they are all individualized portions so that it won't go to waste.  I just have set the meal to defrost the night before and have a great lunch the next day (well whenever I deem lunch to be...who knows when that happens).  

My fellow multiples mom friend Julie (whom I've known for a very long time and our mutual multiple pregnancy brought us back together again...funny how life works...) came to visit on Friday and brought me to yummy St-Hubert lunch.  She's 34 weeks pregnant with a boy girl set of twins and she's starting to feel it!  She looks pretty good!  Jacob had a fun time dancing on her belly!! 

My sister and her husband kindly offered to babysit the boys yesterday so that Gabe and I could go out and have some time together.  We went to lunch and ran some errands.  It was nice to be able to leave and know that the boys were in great hands.  As my sister had helped me for two weeks, she knew the boys' particularities and how I liked things to run so I wasn't worried about their schedule being disrupted.  Of course my nieces were here too so the boys weren't going to lack love!  When I got home my aunt and her boyfriend were here.  They had come down from Campbellton to give us a hand and of course meet the boys.  My aunt even made sure I didn't get out of bed on Saturday night and helped Gabe with the overnight feeding.  I was awake the whole time so I could have gotten up to help but it was nice to stay cuddled up in my blankets.  They brought us a spaghetti dinner so that was nice and when the boys went to bed we set up the table and had a nice dinner, some wine (well Gabe and I did... man, I sound like a wino don't I?!?  I promise I am not, this is like the third time I've had wine since the boys came home!!), and a nice dessert.  We even played a few games of Sequence after dinner.  Francis, my aunt's pretty awesome boyfriend, looked at me at one point and said: "Well I guess it's pretty easy raising triplets, we even have time to play cards!!".  I guess I'm just blessed that my babies like to sleep at night... for now... (knocking on virtual wood here...)

Samuel smiled at me this week... it was amazing!  For as long as I can remember, well it started in elementary school really, I've had a really hard time trusting that people actually cared.  Trust me, that shit stays with you so don't assume that your 7, 8 or 9 year old will just get over it...  I always assume that the moment I leave a room, people start talking behind my back about how annoying I am, etc.  I even used to think my family was truly a family of green aliens that changed into their true self as soon as I went to bed at night (this is my sister's fault by the way).  I used to sneak back into the living room to make sure they were still human but then I'd think that they heard me and had time to put their human costumes back on.  Yep... issues here... Samuel seemed to only "talk" and smile when he was with my mother, I stupidly started thinking that even my own children wouldn't like me so when he looked at me and gave me a huge smile on Tuesday night, I started crying like an imbecile.  Gabe walked in the room and asked me what was wrong with me... I said: "He likes me baby, he really likes me..." to which he replied, of course: "of course he likes you, what's wrong with you?" ... haha... yep, my issues run deep my friends... 

Just a few things to finish of this week... kind of a downer way to end I guess but it's all important to me...

A fellow triplet mom lost her three babies yesterday.  She got to hold them before they took their last breath but they were too little to make it into the world.  I kindly ask you to say a little prayer for them if you're the praying type.  If not, please just close your eyes and give those three little angels a thought and their poor parents some positive vibes...  

Secondly, Gabe and I decided to give to a cause this week.  We have been so blessed with all that we have been given that we give what we can when we can.  This little boy got into a horrible accident (one which his own dad came upon on his way home from work...can you imagine?!?) and they need help making the house work for his needs.  The dad is a single military dad with three other kids so please, if you can, think about giving to this family.  Here is the link to donate. (http://www.gofundme.com/606ivs) or click on the link below. 

Finally, some pics of the week, to bring our mood back up again by seeing my precious boys grow up!  They are 14 weeks!!! 

Zachary not too sure about this whole vibrating thing...

Yes... as you can see in the laptop's reflection, momma's watching "The Bachelor"! 

I'm done Momma - Zachary

My Samuel loving tummy time... for about 3 minutes

 .

...this was 5 minutes later... tummy time takes a lot out of me momma! 

When all three babies are screeching of hunger, this is how you make feeding time happen! 

Daddy hanging out with Zachary (between his legs) and Jacob (in his arms). 

You can't really see their faces but this is Zach and Sam with their collars popped, waiting to go pick up some chicks! 

My angel Zachary sleeping

Samuel passed out (notice his mullet... PARTY IN THE BACK!!!)

Jacob...not sleeping...he's probably watching TV, he seems to love it.

My little big guy Jacob sucking on his thumb waiting for his bottle

My aunt Mona, her bf Francis and the boys.  

LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE

Tears and tears and more tears...

This week has been a rough week... I'm happy my mother was still around to help us out as the boys, I think, are going through a phase... Maybe that's what they call one of those "wonder weeks".  This is the first time since we brought the boys home two months ago that I really feel like SUPER tired.  We went to bed at 8pm on Monday as I had a pretty rough night so I wanted to get as much (albeit interrupted) sleep as possible.  Monday night was another hard night with the boys... I must have been up almost every hour from their bedtime until 3am.  The day wasn't any much better... the boys are cramping bad this week and I just don't know how to help them.  I try everything, we even gave them warm water (sterilized of course) with a tiny bit of honey... well as much as the boys liked it, I guess that was another of my mistakes.  No more honey (I guess that's a no no until they're at least one) but the little bit of water seemed to help them go as they all had a poop within the next 12 hours.  Whether it was the water or just the fact that they really really needed to poop... I'm just glad it happened!  Yeah for poop!!  It took Jacob about 4 days and Zachary was also on day 4 by the time he pooped... poor little buddies.   When Jacob's system decided to let loose, it let LOOSE... all over me!!! It was the first time I got pooped on.  The worst was that he had a diaper on AND his pyjamas, it just leaked through! HA!!  I'm not sure if it's the iron we have to give them daily or just their system having a moment.  They had cramp issues all week.  Yesterday was much of the same... the boys had one of their worst afternoons.  Was I ever glad that Gabe was here to help!! It would have sucked having to deal with an afternoon like that all on my own.  I can picture myself just letting them all cry, plopping down on the floor and crying myself!  I'm sure it'll happen!  Wait for it in next week's blog as I'll be alone most of this week... for the first time!   Last night, after the afternoon's craziness, the boys decided they had had enough and wanted to sleep.  Zachary and Samuel slept for 6 hours!!!!!!!!  They lasted close to 7 hours between feeds!!! Not sure if this was a fluke or a sign of things to come!  I seriously checked on them 5 times to make sure they were still alive.  Jacob wasn't ready to let me sleep though... he still slept well but just not hours hehe!  So tonight we're trying a cluster feed as it seemed to work last night, we'll see how it goes... Always trying something new, hoping it's the right thing... but what IS the right thing?  Who knows?  

The nurse came back to the house to take some weights and measurements for the boys.  She does all sorts of tests with them too to make sure they are developing as they should.  Zachary and Samuel broke the 10lbs mark!  Zachary was 10lbs 5oz, Samuel was 10lbs 3oz and my little Jacob was 8lbs 6oz!  They're all about 21 inches long (yes, even Jacob... he may be little, but he's keeping up with the lenght).  They still have no reflex to fall forward on their arms... They would go head first without stopping themselves, so that's still a little scary.  Not that I plan on dropping them but my husband might... lol.  She said she's pretty pleased with how they're developing and so is mamma bear! 

Tuesday night, our friend Julie came to help.  She even brought supper!  That was almost as welcome as the help! haha... we are so lucky as most of our friends are people who don't need to be entertained and can just be there with us without any forced conversation.  Julie was extra amazing as she's a go getter and she practically forced me to tell her what she could do.  I still have a really hard time letting people help when they come over and I just say "no, it's ok, there's nothing to do really".  She made sure we sat down and enjoyed our supper, she did the dishes and just LOVED cuddling with the babies (who wouldn't though really?!?).  Here she is with Jacob and Samuel and loving it!  Thanks for your help Jules! 

My friend Alicia also came to visit this week.  She didn't really get to cuddle all the babies but she'll be around quite a bit so it's not the first or the last time she'll get the chance to cuddle.  She also brought me amazing news!  I'm not quite sure I'm allowed to say anything so I'll refrain, but I was quite happy!!  All these visits from my friends made me start missing work... not just the work part (yes, I like the work part of my job) but also the social aspect that comes with it.  I miss interacting with my students and most of all, I miss my friends.  Baby stuff all night and day can get quite exhausting!  That's why it's nice when friends come to visit as it takes a bit of the monotony out of my life.  Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my babies, but they don't really talk to me right now... 

We had to send our dog to the vet on Wednesday.  Poor girl's nails were so long and the nerve had grown with the nail so anytime we tried to trim them, she'd bleed and cry.  The vet had to put her to sleep to cut them as short as we wanted them.  She was super sad and cuddly all night after we went to get her.  It's quite nice not hearing her nails following me up and down the hall everytime I go back and forth in the hall (because she doesn't leave my side even if she couldn't care less about the babies).  

On Thursday, I had made another hair appointment to try and fix my hair... well fix the colour anyway.  I had decided I thought I looked like a little boy with my short brown hair so I asked if she could make it blond.  Anyways, I'm happy with the new result and I'm starting to like it more everyday.  So I had left my mother alone with the boys when I left, knowing that she would only be alone for 1 hour before Gabe came home and they were all sleeping when I left.  (I also missed the awesome turn around from the girl's gold medal win! Sad face.... ).  I guess the boys started going wild almost as soon as I left.  My mom was quite happy when Gabe got home... This is the scene that I walked into... haha... (I laugh now... but I will cry when it happens to me... maybe I will laugh, but then I'll know I've gone crazy!)

The boys went for their first real official outing out of the house this week.  After mom and I took a walk on Wednesday, we decided to go surprise my sister and the family.  My nieces LOVE taking care of the boys soooo much.  They even came back yesterday to spend time with the boys.  It'll be nice when they're old enough to babysit! haha!  

Here are some pics of the week:

Jacob's milk face

This walk was a little less cold... haha... We even opened the flaps to let them have some fresh air! 

My mom loving some snowy times before heading back to sunny Florida! 

Zachary in his crib

This is the state of our house most of the time... lived in I guess...lol

I tried to set them up to cheer on Canada for the game but Jacob had checked out early and I was quickly losing the battle with the other two.  Next time they'll be ready! 

As always my friends... Live, Laugh & Love... 

xox