Every new mom has to adjust to life with her new baby.
Prior to birth, they read articles in magazines, excerpts from books, and get countless amounts of advice from their peers on how they will have to adjust their lives, from the unsuspecting and care-free days they enjoyed prior to giving birth, to the hectic and often blurry days to come once baby arrives.
None of this can quite prepare any mom for those first few outings with their new baby.
In fact, my triplets are fifteen months tomorrow, and I STILL haven’t quite figured it all out yet.
In the beginning, the NICU thought they were being nice and helpful by releasing only one of my tiny trio from the hospital.
This was meant to help me adjust to life with one newborn preemie before I was suddenly faced with life with three.
We later figured out that Kai was really sent home for bad behavior, lol.
He was forever screaming at their suitemate to BE QUIET in baby-language for example.
He also would thoughtfully try and unhook ALL of sister's wiring from the monitors to see the pretty lights go off and hear the pretty sounds: his earliest busy box short of the sibs.
Kai ALSO had a penchant for making the sibs feel sorry for his plight of always being upset by all things sensory.
He would scream incessantly, and they would comfort him by lobbing their paci's in his general direction as best as they could given the fact that they're preemies still in the NICU trying to eat/grow & get out!
As I already have a twelve-year old son, I found caring for my newly NICU-sprung triplet much like riding a bike.
Once you learn, you never forget. The only really odd issue that we had was the separation anxiety that he had for his siblings.
He had been used to sharing the womb with them literally since conception.
He was used to sharing his bed with his siblings and spending his every waking and sleeping moment with them even if they were initially separated at birth and unceremoniously placed in separate isolettes.
Later, he seemed upset to be slapped back into sharing with his brother as those things are enclosed and his brother can SURE stink up the place by filling his diaper (a trait he continues to exhibit til this very day, actually.)
He had only had his own bed for about a week before he was allowed to co-bed with his brother. Lucky for me, he quickly learned to think of himself as an “Only Baby” and actually revelled in the fact that he had all the toys and the bed to himself.
This was going to be OH-SO-Short-lived! As for me, well I took the opportunity to make dry-runs of getting the baby ready and out of the house for an outing on time.
It’s never easy, as you can NEVER guess or anticipate what obstacles are going to present themselves.
My goal was to get to the NICU for the babies to get to eat on their regular schedule together as usual which meant that we had that whole 10, 2 & 6 schedule.
I actually was able to get to the hospital, find a reasonable parking spot in the parking garage, and make the very long trek to the NICU with the baby carrier, diaper bag and purse in tow and in time to feed all three babies as usual.
For a time, I thought I had it all down and could do this!
Boy was I fooling myself. You have to understand that the hospital simply isn’t like other places around town.
There, people aren’t as likely to stop and ask too many questions, especially going in the back way like I was accustomed to doing.
You also have to remember that at this point, I was only sporting one baby carrier filled with one very tiny month-old baby boy, which wasn’t all that unusual in a hospital.
I had yet to even fathom all of the strange things that I would have to plan for with triplets.
I would soon find out during our first visit to the doctor’s office, though.
Oddly enough, the appointment was for me, not the children.
I was very optimistic about taking the triplets to my appointment with me as it’s customary for all new moms to take their baby with them to show them off to the doctor and her staff.
What I didn’t realize was that I am no longer like those other moms.
For the record, I was actually on time that day (something that literally won't happen EVER again, little did I realize.)
I left about 45 minutes early to go to the doctor’s office which was about five minutes away from my home in heavy traffic on a stormy day.
I had to drive around a while before finding a parking spot, which isn't really all THAT unusual.
Then, I had to unload my boy’s into the single-baby stroller (I wouldn’t get our limo-length stroller until they were about 5 months old.)
This meant that I had to roll baby blankets and plug the leg-holes with them baby bumper style, lest one of the boys managed to scoot down too far and hang out a bit.
Yes, you read correctly, I could place both boys in the single-baby stroller and still have room for them to stretch all the way out.
I would just carry Vivie in her baby carrier and push the boys in the stroller.
It all sounded good, in theory. It was in the parking lot that the first questions came.
The well-meaning people getting into the car next to us, peeked into the stroller expecting to coo over the cute baby.
Instead, they were shocked to see two very tiny babies fighting over their pacifiers.
“Twins?” they asked. “Triplets!” I replied, as I unceremoniously set Vivie in her carrier down next to the stroller.
I must have spent the next five minutes trying to politely answer questions and head for the building without appearing too rude.
It must have taken me thirty minutes just to get past all of the people streaming out of the building, the ones we passed in the hallway and the ones who didn’t want to let us out of the elevator, all asking questions about my babies.
Somehow, I managed to sign in for my appointment exactly at the time I was scheduled.
I will NEVER know how I managed it. Next, I experienced a new problem, one we have yet to figure out how to overcome.
I had to take the stroller and the carrier into the examination room with me.
They both didn’t fit in there with the doctor, the assistant, and the usual equipment, come to find out.
Keep in mind, at this point, we are only in a singleton stroller and an extra baby carrier.
Fast forward to life with the limo-length triplet stroller and we REALLY won't fit!
I ended up having to leave them in my doctor’s actual office during the exam with one of the nurses keeping an eye on them-it was probably the speediest doctor’s visit ever!
Once I had the behemoth triplet stroller, we would have to allocate for new and interesting tasks to add into our routine.
Oh, sure, there is the usual getting the babies ready for outings routine: gathering toys, stocking the diaper bag, fixing bottles and packing the insulated bags with them and loading the car with all the babies (one at a time, mind you or all at once in the stroller which takes even longer.)
Don't forget the babies...don't forget the bags. Have fun playing the tetris-like game of loading the trunk with the limo-sized stroller that doesn’t fit in the first place.
Get THAT in there and realize that you still have a lot left to load along with everything ELSE that wouldn’t fit in the actual car itself.
FINALLY, you do a perimeter check of the car to make sure you didn't sent something down here...or there...or on the porch even and finally find yourself tying the trunk shut with bungee cords, with the stroller hanging out about 8 inches past the bumper of the car.
Everybody has to go through this, right? Um...my normal...is probably NOT your normal...and that's okay (aren't you super glad? AND for all of those in my situation, I salute you! You've GOT this!)
For one of the babies’ appointments, I actually left the house an entire hour early to allow for traffic, unloading, and questioning time of the gawkers.
I was feeling pretty good about being able to do this, too, thinking I was gonna be ALL SORTS of on time today.
It was going great, traffic wasn’t bad, the weather was turning out rather pleasant, and I would have plenty of time to do everything nice and leisurely, or so I thought.
You KNOW where this is going: I was OH so wrong for thinking this was gonna be a great and easy outing!
I was sitting at a red light waiting for the green one, when a college student who appeared to be late for a class decided to use my car as his brakes.
Not only did he rear-end me coming off of the inner-loop, but he tried to ignore the fact that he did, thinking I would just drive off and forget about it.
Because of my tiny trio riding in the backseat, I had to get out and make this guy unroll his window and see if I could make him wait for the police to file a report for the accident.
Good thing I was already on my way to the Doctor, you can never be too careful with preemies!
I managed to get his insurance card to make sure he wouldn’t leave the scene (as he had already tried to already) and we both pulled off to wait for police.
Luckily, my trio didn’t even cry and seemed okay in spite of everything. I really wanted to scream and cry, though.
There is nothing more frightening to a mom than to have to look in the backseat just after getting into an accident and make sure the kids are okay.
The police finally came to take the information on the report, and actually starting asking me questions about the babies as small talk.
He tried to get us to go the hospital, but I explained that we were already on our way to our pediatrician for an appointment and that I would have her check us out there.
I had called the Doctor's office while the policeman was talking to the other driver and let the doctor’s office know that we were running late (embarrassed because I seem to never get anywhere on time anymore) but they were okay with it and said that they were holding our extra-large exam room for us (yes, we have our own room!)
We finally arrived for our appointment, unloaded, and managed to get to the sign-in desk at the doctor’s.
Everybody checked out okay, thankfully. Scary Mommy-Moment for me turned out okay in the end.
I would need new car seats and a new stroller (it was bent in the accident) but the babies were FINE, thank heavens!
I had left an hour early so that we wouldn’t have to rush, and had ended up a whopping fifteen minutes late.
Not too bad, considering everything that we had to go through just to get to the appointment!Want more? Check out Macaroni Kid Shreveport-Bossier Moms In the Know where you can find all of our events & MORE posted as well as crafts, area activities, and area resource guides for the Shreveport, LA, Bossier City, LA & surrounding areas!🌸 Macaroni Kid Shreveport-Bossier Moms In the Know is a free weekly e-newsletter and website that highlights all of the great things for kids and their families to do in our community. Plus, you can find fun activities, family-focused businesses, book and product reviews, recipes, crafts, and much, MUCH, more! Macaroni Kid Shreveport-Bossier Moms In the Know serves families in Shreveport, Bossier, Haughton, Benton, Vivian, Minden , Stonewall and other surrounding communities.🌸
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