I had never ever needed baby gates before because my trio had been confined to that wonderful yet ever shrinking play-yard.
Now, I needed that baby- gate to keep the babies contained for my sanity’s sake after moving into our new house.
Because we were in the middle of moving (the final stages actually,) it would be Monday before anyone could get anywhere to buy the actual gate.
Sunday was probably the scariest day of my life, short of triplet delivery day (where I pretty much flunked anesthesia 101 and nearly died from it alone.)
I had very innocently sent my baby-sitter (my 12-year old) to Six Flags, so this left my husband to clean the other house and get to the bottom of that barrel basically.
This meant that I was alone most of the day with the babies. Silly me had still yet to learn exactly how bad of a situation this really was.
So far, I had managed to get everyone upstairs for their nap, downstairs from their nap and fed lunch and dinner without any problems.
I even managed to get them into bed, somehow. I headed off baby trouble pretty well, too, considering the new expansive house.
Then it happened: the babies were crying. All three of them were hysterical and not drifting off to sleep as they usually do.
I very stupidly decided to go up and get them and let them play off their energy. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I picked up Kai first.
Maybe it was because he seemed the most upset: I just do not know what I was thinking at the time, really.
He was very happy to see me, as were they all. I got him downstairs without any problem, somehow.
He was happily playing with his toys in the living room as I ran back upstairs to get his siblings. This time, I went for “Double trouble” and picked up both Kian AND Vivienne, putting one on each hip, and headed for the stairs.
At the top of the landing, I knew I was in trouble. I could hear the tiny pitter-patter of Kai’s running feet coming down the hall.
We had been reading “The Foot Book” by Dr. Seuss earlier that evening after dinner. We had just put on our “Down-stairs feet” and both Vivienne and Kian were chattering away about going down-stairs.
I started down while they chanted away about going "Downstairs: with our downstairs feet" & all.
Meanwhile, Kai had made it all the way to the stairway. He stopped and did his funny little stairway posture where he arcs his back and throws his head waaaay back to see up the stairs.
Then he started laughing, and began to climb. He only made it up to the landing which is the second step up, technically.
He was all smiling and laughing and calling to Kian. I had just made it down to the landing and was trying not to scare him or startle him.
I was trying to decide if I should try and put the other babies down on the landing and set him onto the first floor or if I should try something else.
He was laughing, thinking it was all some sort of game (as he does most everything in life) when he started to walk backwards (yet another new accomplishment the new house has brought us.)
I thought he was going to be okay at this point, because he was backing into the wall behind him.
I had forgotten that he likes to walk sideways, too. He somehow side-stepped off of the landing and missed that next step.
He tumbled onto the hard-wood floor and there wasn’t anything I could do about it at all, save watch in abject horror.
It was as if everything had come to a standstill as I watched it all happen. I didn’t know what to do. It had all happened in a matter of seconds.
Normally, I would have reached out and grabbed him to keep him from falling, but of course I couldn’t because I was holding both of his siblings.
I had to actually walk down the rest of the way and sit down so that I could sit the other 2 babies onto the floor safely (after this, I didn't want to sit them on the landing and risk the others tumbling off.)
Vivienne did all right, but Kian didn’t want to sit, and in retaliation slumped thinking that I wouldn’t sit him all the way down.
I did manage to keep one arm around Kian as I scooped up a crying Kai. Kian ended up turning around to look up at me and slipped backwards and hit his head on the wall, but not very hard.
I think he was more upset with me holding Kai instead of picking him back up instead of actually hurt.
I finally got to check Kai and found that he was shaken, but all right. He has a small bump on his head, but it’s not his first one and it won’t be his last (he is my dare-devil baby.)
Kian finally got over his baby ego and patted his brother on the back and looked up at me and said, “Kai hoit: used downstairs feet to go up!”
In retrospect, it is kind of funny that he actually comprehended"The Foot Book" and was able to correlate it with the accident.
The very next morning, I sent my very tired husband to Lowe’s to get the baby-gate for the hallway.
He wasn't even allowed to stop and eat breakfast first! Together, Kian and husband put the gate up across the hallway leading to the stairs.
Kian was very glad to help put it up. But, when he figured out what it actually did, he cried and cried.
Kai seems rather indifferent to the baby gate. This worries me a bit really, after all, he is the baby who could walk on the rail of his play-yard and tried to play superman by balancing on the same said rail.
He also learned to climb on that play-yard gate. I really hope that this gate is Kai-proofed, becuase so far, not too much really ever IS!
Vivienne just stood there, leaning up against it. When I walked past her coming out of the kitchen, she looked up at me, crossed her arms, and let out a very loud and defiant, “Humph!”
I later caught her with one leg actually through the gate slats, her foot on floor of the other side, trying to get her body all the way through it.
Lucky for us, her head is too big to fit through all the way! This weekend, I finally feel like a real triplet mum, I guess.
I suppose I am very fortunate, really. The babies are nearly 18 months old (on the 13th) and this is one of only a few scary or frustrating incidences.
I had mastered NICU, bringing them all home for the first time and keeping their schedules (heck they're on them even now, though they don't even realize it, years later!)
I could make and CARRY 15 bottles all at the same time without dropping any of them, and could even bottle feed all three simultaneously if I had to.
I even got them moved over to the new house and asleep in their beds (safely or so I had thought) in just a few hours.
They only woke up once and it was because Kian’s teeth “Hoit” (he had cut a new one) and his crying over it had woken everyone up at 3a.m.
I can’t believe I had forgotten that one tiny, important, tid-bit of advice that my nurse had given me that day while in recovery from the triplet-mondo-c-section. It was very simple, and very necessary.
Baby gates are, in fact, my very best friend! Those are words to live by!
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