I know I seem a bit early, starting my Christmas shopping in June.  The new situation, having four kids, demands a bit more planning than starting shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.  Last year, I shopped all the summer toy sales and consignment sales for Christmas.  I have since learned that EBay is my friend! I figured this out when, armed with my 20%-off-anything-in-the-store-coupon, I set out to try and buy my baby girl her Christmas dollie.  Usually, these come from places like "The White Rabbit" or "Toy Fair"-everyone always gets excited over the red and white striped wrapped presents from "Toy Fair!"  Now, I am very picky when it comes to dollies.  My grandmother and mum always made sure Santa remembered to deliver very special dollies under my Christmas tree each year, and I am doing my best to try and stick with tradition.  That day, I scoured the shelves of Toy Fair, hoping that the most wonderful dollie would be there waiting for me.  It jus

People ALWAYS are forever asking me, "How did you tell your family you were having triplets?" I always WANT to say, "How did YOU tell your family you were having a baby?" Same basic idea, really it is, promise. You do what you have to do. Now-a-days, it's a gender reveal party, or picture, or social post, typically. Here is a silly triplet joke that I ran across years ago on this very subject.  I found it first on a forum called, “The Triplet Connection.”  I bet you might get a good laugh!  A wealthy man was having an affair with an Italian woman for several years.  One night, during one of their rendezvous, she confided in him that she was pregnant.  Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he said that he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child.  If she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18.    She agreed, but asked how he would know when the b

Shopping is a necessary evil that must be done, triplets, or no triplets. Being that I don’t have anyone to leave them with while I go shopping, I have to take them with me.  In the beginning it was different. I didn’t have a stroller until they were five months old, which meant I had to REALLY improvise.  In theory, I should be able to attach the car seat/baby carrier to the buggy.  To do this, I would need no less than three buggies. Not a good idea for someone shopping solo.  It looked promising at Sams, as they had a double seat in the front of the buggy that would seat two theoretically.  Note to self: It does NOT seat two car seats. I quickly found a solution that would allow me to go out and get the things I would need sans a stroller.  The solution was to place two of the seats (usually the boys) facing each other(so that they could entertain each other) side-ways in the container part of the shopping cart and put the other seat in another cart.  I could have put the third seat

Mornings are very peaceful at my house. Each day I wake up to breakfast in bed. Not your usual breakfast mind you, but one for my triplets. My husband gets up for the day and turns on the baby monitor so he can listen for the baby’s to wake up while he gets ready for work each day. Once he hears them begin to stir, he makes their bottles for them and brings them to me in bed. Next, he will deliver my daughter to me for her morning bottle while he picks up both of the boys and lays them side by side on the bed. They usually will all lie in bed with me together and have their bottles while we change them and cuddle and play with them. It’s really the most peaceful way to start off a day. After they eat, the baby’s will sit there and play with each other while they wait their turn to be burped. This is the time when they will usually say and do the silliest things. Each day brings new baby tricks! Kian usually starts his day saying, “I get up! I get up! I got up!” This is something my tin

If your babies were preemie, why did you deliver early? No more room at the inn!!! I was not allowed to carry them ANY FURTHER & nobody could figure out how it was that I got to that point in the first place because I am short & not all that big physically! Vaginal or C-section? C-section! By your choice or the Doctor’s?   I wasn’t feeling suicidal! You have to have c-section with triplets if you want to survive & have 3 babies to show for it! Did your babies spend time in the NICU? yes If so, why & how long was their stay? One was in 3 weeks (they thought sending one home with me to get me acclimated was being nice- ha ha ha ha ha ha- so I hauled one up to visit his siblings for another week- total stay in nicu was a month!  Or rather just under a month- they had to learn to eat & show that they were consistently growing-no real problems other than reflux & the phantom pda! Any advice how to handle it? Nobody can prepare you for it really-watching the discovery

In what state do you live? Delirium! Just kidding, it's Louisiana How old are you? I was...33 (34 in August!) Age when you where pregnant with your multiples? 32 Were your multiples your first pregnancy? Nope! 2nd & LAST! How many children do you have? 4 How did you come up with the names for your multiples? Very, Very Carefully! See blog, "The Naming of Triplets!" What is your profession (if you're still working)? I WAS a Customer Service Supervisor for Budget Phone (a locally owned yet national pre-paid home phone service.)  I went back to work when the kids were about 2 and worked from home (yes, this was when the great lap-top dis-assembling caper went down!) If you are now a stay-at-home mom, what did you do before? Now I am a stay @home mum who writes independently for the stage...I am a working artist, have a small non-profit community theater & haunted attraction and maker of all the things. I blog/write & more. I'm a regular multi-tasking mom

I quickly found out that there are very few helpful resources out there for mothers who are pregnant with multiples and even for those same mother’s after delivery. Locally, the multiples support groups had pretty much dissolved due to lack of interest.  I scoured the web looking for contact information on anything in my area and came up with only dead-ends save for the one lady who was kind enough to at least let me know that the chapter she had headed had been dissolved due to lack of membership interest. I did run across several television programs on the Discovery Channel that were very helpful. I had quickly realized through my research online that no two multiples pregnancies are alike, hence the lack of consistent information. I did find that watching these programs about other women experiencing complications of every imaginable combination did help me learn what to watch for with my own body. Ironically, I never did run across one show or website account that came even close t