Moving Home

Today has been one of those really hard days when all I want is my mommy.  But my mommy lives and hour and a half away.  So she just can't rush down here to be by my side unless it's a real emergency.  And it's not.  I just want her here.

Parenting 2 year old triplets is a tough job for 2 people.  But when one of those people is incapacitated and the other has to pull double duty...it's super duper rough!  One person just does not have enough eyes and hands to keep all three where they're supposed to be and doing what they're supposed to be doing!

Kurt has some kind of awful icky stomach virus.  So while I'm trying to care for the trio, I'm also playing nurse to a very sick hubby.  Today, it seemed as though Kurt was getting worse so we headed to the ER to get him some strong meds and some fluids.  Thankfully, Dad and Elizabeth were able to come down to watch the trio.  That was such a blessing!  After returning from the ER, Kurt was starting to feel better and was actually able to sit up and drink some Gatorade without spending the next half hour in the bathroom!

In a few weeks we are moving back to my hometown where most of my family still lives.  It will be so wonderful to have that kind of support so close by.  I only wish we'd have been that close today so Dad and Elizabeth didn't have to take a whole day of work and spend 3 hours in the car just to help us out.  We appreciate it more than they will ever know!

It's a........

BOY!  I'm having a nephew!  I am "over the moon" excited to meet this little man!  Only about 20 more weeks. I'm soooooo bad at waiting!

Eli Patrick Roper

Big Man Jake

Initially, when we moved Luke and Sarah into big-kid beds, Jake seemed really content with staying in his crib. We thought he would just stay there for awhile.  After a week or so, he started to show interest in the others' beds.  He was getting frustrated with his lack of freedom.  So we decided it was time to open up his bed too.  He loves it!  Although now with three mobile toddlers there has been even less sleep and more play during nap time.  We've also seen an increase in the numbers of fights and bite marks.  So now the question is "do we keep them together or put them in separate rooms"?

Jake's new bed

Jake testing it out & Luke wants in too

They both like it

And of course a wrestling match breaks out!

Mr. Sandman

Mr. Sandman came early to our house tonight.  It is probably because the kids barely took a 5 minute (if at all) nap this afternoon.  About 8 o'clock everyone started getting really fussy.  Luke who is normally my wild man climbed up in my lap and fell asleep.  He didn't even wake up when I changed him for bed.  We decided to skip story time and teeth brushing just for tonight.  We were able to put him down in his bed completely asleep.  He never stirred even once. 

Who sleeps through a diaper change?!?!

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Sometime next week, I should find out if I'm going to have a niece or a nephew.  I'm going bonkers waiting!  I am sooooooo not good with waiting!

Coming Soon...August 2012

Bedtime chat with Sarah

This is an actual conversation...

Sarah: Mommy...I need Baby
(I place Baby in the bed next to Sarah)
Me: Here's Baby...good night Sarah

Sarah:  Where Dolly?
(I place Dolly in the bed next to Sarah and Baby)
Me: Here's Dolly...good night Sarah

Sarah: Where Lammy?
(Annoyed, I place Lammy in the bed next to Sarah, Baby, and Dolly)
Me: Here's Lammy...now go to sleep Sarah

Sarah: Where Kitty? Where Monkey?
(More annoyed but keeping my cool...)
Me: Kitty is in Lucas's bed and Monkey is in Jake's bed... now go to sleep

Sarah: I need foo-ball
(Seriously?!?! So I put the football next to Sarah, Baby, Dolly, and Lammy)
Me: This is the last toy...GOOD NIGHT!

After surveying the floor and satisfied that she had every toy possible in her bed...

Sarah: Night night, Mommy
Me: Night night, Sarah

Showing some triplet love

Being part of a family with triplets always brings an instant kinship with other similar families.  We reach out to each other in ways we wouldn't or couldn't with other people.  We feel each others sorrows and joys as if they were our own.  We're one big (loud) family! 

A fellow triplet mommy delivered her triplets just 6 months into her pregnancy.  Although her babies are tiny, they are all fighters.  She calls them baby ninjas and I love it!  To show her and her precious miracles some love from our family, we made little crafts that they can hang up in their NICU rooms.  Here are some pics of the shirts we made to show our support.  Sarah was our "Baby A" so she lends her support to Kim's "Baby A".  Jacob was our "Baby B" so his alliance is with "Baby B".  And of course our ladies man Lucas is paired up with "Baby C".  I know Kim has read this blog in the past.  I only hope she's too busy now with her trio to read it.  Otherwise it will spoil the surprise!

Sweet Baby A: Team Joel

Sweet Baby B: Team Joshua

Sweet Baby C: Team Shaina

Yes, sometimes they ARE sweet

Having three toddlers is by no means easy.  It is A LOT of work.  But there are moments where the children are so sweet that you can temporarily just forget about all the tough times and just enjoy.  I captured this shot of Sarah and Luke sleeping in one bed.  They are each others' snuggle bear.  Adorable.

This week has been pretty rough as just as I started to recover from a monster head and chest cold, Kurt got it.  He was very sick this week!  Thankfully his parents jumped in and stayed with us at our house to help with meals, cleaning, laundry, childcare, etc.  I don't think we could have made it through without them.  I'm hopeful by the start of next week we will all be back to normal.  I'm praying with all my might that the kids never get it.  One can only hope!

Tribute to Meghan

Tonight my heart hurts. I just don't know what else to say. 

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before but since having the triplets, I've been inducted into a close sisterhood of Triplet Mommies.  Some had their triplets before mine and they served as a mentor to me.  Ginny, Dawn, Anna, and Olive are some of the moms who guided me through my own pregnancy, answered every question I came up with, and gave me encouragement to keep pushing forward.  Some women already had triplets of various ages when I met them after our trips arrived- Julie, Amy, Michelle, Patricia, Erinn, Mandi, Samantha, Jennifer, Melissa, and Kristen. I have learned much from these women as well. And a few special and wonderful women connected with me while they were pregnant with their triplets.  I was able to mentor them just like others had done for me.  These amazing women are Meghan, Angie, Jennifer, Stacy, and Kimberly. 

Meghan was the first.  I guess she was about 3 months into her pregnancy when we connected.  The triplets were just a few months old and I was still trying to get my feet under me.  But I enjoyed chatting with her and reading her blog.  She read my blog too and commented a lot.  We exchanged a lot of Facebook messages and she always posted on photos of the triplets.  It was so fun to see her trio born healthy and strong. 

Meghan enjoying time with her babies

Meghan had battled cancer on and off for around 5 years.  It started in her late twenties.  Things were pretty stable but sometime last summer she had to have a surgery on her back where some cancer had returned.  The surgery went well and she was recovering.  Then she received another devastating blow that she had tumors in her brain that would have to be removed.  Again, the doctors expected things to go well for her and at first it seemed everything had. 

I had lost track of Meghan after communicating with her back in August but had thought of her from time to time and wondered how she was doing.  I hadn't heard a single thing from her in months.  Tonight I did some digging and found out she passed away at the end of October...just 11 days after her babies' first birthday.  Apparently the surgeries had been successful but she had a sudden massive hemorrhage in her brain while she slept.  It is comforting to know she passed without pain and suffering.  She had plenty of that while here on Earth. 

I know she is wrapped in God's loving arms as I type this but my heart still breaks for her family, her husband, and those 3 amazing miracles she brought into this world.  I know they will have plenty of pictures to see and stories to hear about their mom but it's just not fair they won't have real memories of her of their very own.  Meghan won't have the chance to hear them tattle on each other as they go through the terrible twos.  She won't get to cry when she drops them off at pre-school or follow the bus to school on their first day of Kindergarten.  She won't see them graduate college or marry and have kids of their own.  Please pray for the whole family.  It's been 4 months since she passed and I know there is still much grieving ahead of them. 

Beautiful and loving life.  How she'll always be in my mind.

Update on Big Kid Beds

Transitioning two of the three munchkins into toddler beds has been quite a challenge over the past week or two.  There have been good nights and good naps and there have been bad nights and bad naps.  It has been quite an exercise in problem-solving to keep the kids safe and the room in one piece.  So far the kids have destroyed several books, an entire brand new box of wipes one wipe at a time, a humidifier, a large picture frame, a sack of diapers, and a baby gate.  Oh and Lucas broke a piece of wood off the bottom of his crib and one of the slats off the blinds.  It's a new adventure every day!  Most of the time they have been good with napping at least a couple hours in the afternoon and at least 8 or 9 hours at night.  But there have been afternoons where we were not sure if they slept at all and one night they were up past midnight! Please continue the prayers as we forge through this new time in the kids' lives. 

Lucas's "big boy" bed

Sarah's "big girl" bed

Jake still with his crib...for now

Sarah climbing out of her new bed

A larger view of the whole nursery