Sometimes I feel like I should write a manual on outings with multiples. I should call it, "The Art of Crowd Control." I know it sounds like some presumptuous celebrity, but truly it’s necessary. Its one of those tiny well kept secrets that nobody tells you when you find out that you are pregnant with triplets.Sure, people say don’t let anyone near your babies when they are tiny. What they don’t tell you is, that while people like to pinch the cheeks of babies when they are infants (singletons,) people feel the overwhelming need to not only crowd multiples, but touch them, feel them and do things to them that they normally wouldn’t do to even their own children. I know it sounds mean. I know you want to see my cute adorable children. I understand that we are a novelty and that you have probably never seen a set of triplets before. Don’t get me wrong, I love to hear how precious and adorable and wonderful my kids are, really I do. But you have to understand a few things about ...

While you are pregnant, you find yourselves daydreaming of the day when you will get to hold your baby and rock him or her and feed them… When you are pregnant with more than one baby, you find yourself wondering how this is all going to work. As it turns out, there really isn’t too much out there on exactly how to achieve this seemingly impossible task. It would seem that the people who really know aren’t admitting to how exactly they do this. I can understand why, too. All the doctors tell you not to prop the bottle during every well baby exam, and the NICU nurses all have people who are there to specifically help with feedings. So the big question arises, how is it done? While in the hospital, my husband and I would make sure and make every possible feeding of our trio that was humanly possible with regards to our twelve year old son and his school schedule. I would get up each day and make the early feeding, run have lunch, then come back for the babies lunch feeding. Then I would ...

Something happens to a mom when they have multiples. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, or exactly how, but I suddenly found myself an organized mom. Not that I wasn’t organized before I had the triplets, I had to have been, or was to a point. It’s just that now I am super-organized. I have all these folders full of my maternity benefits and leave information, medical insurance and Medicaid benefit forms, middle school application process forms and school related information, and several that are full of nothing but health claim information and medical bills for me and the triplets. I save everything related to medical bills and claims and copy those things that I cannot save. I have even learned to micro-manage our health claim information, something I never dreamed would be necessary. I now appear to know more about claim processing than the representatives with my insurance company who have to hear from me almost every Friday to ensure that my triplet’s health claims are pro...

After they were born, the triplets were put into their own little isolette’s in the NICU. Vivienne and Kian shared an area and Kai was right across the walkway. It was observed on many occasions, that when one would cry, the others would answer.  That was just the beginning. Once testing began, if one baby seemed to be getting “Special” treatment, then the other baby’s would find ways to mimic their symptoms so that they would also get special treatment as well. This behavior held true and seemed more predominant with the boys than with Baby Vivienne because she was always babied more than they were and received FAR more attention from literally everybody else's nursies including their own. When Kian started looking a little yellow, he managed to blow his I.V. and they had to put it in the vein in his head.  This meant that he ended up with a huge gauze hat looking contraption that sort of resembled a dunce cap. This ALSO meant that he also got to sun himself under t...

When I first found out that I was having triplets, I set out to find the “What to Expect When You are Having Triplets” guide to my pregnancy. I dunno why, but I automatically just assumed that there would be such a book out there, somewhere. There just HAD to be or so I thought. There are books literally about every other aspect of pregnancy, so naïve little me figured of COURSE this book exists. After all, triplets aren’t all that rare, at least not to me! My very nearly three month’s pregnant self headed out to begin my search for the perfect triplet owner’s manual. I was very optimistic. I waddled into Barnes and Noble and headed back to the baby section. I was very excited and ready to learn as much as I could about what I was going to need to prepare for the arrival of my tiny trio. I skimmed through the shelves in the back, ready to pounce on the triplet section once I found it. I ended up skimming and skimming and skimming. I thought, “This can’t be right.” I wasn’t f...

Today, I made a startling discovery. I was making a run through the Target Toy aisle, looking for any bargains on baby toys, when I ran across the end cap for the new “Shrek the Third” movie. We are “Puss” people, so it’s required that I look for new and better “Puss” toys whenever I see the “Shrek” display. They happened to have several new ones, which is what initially caught my eye. I had seen the trailer and knew that Shrek & Fiona were expecting. Target had baby Shrek toys. I picked up one to check the back to see what all they were coming out with, when I saw IT. The word “Triplet” was there in huge letters, emblazoned across the front of the package. Surely not, I thought. But most assuredly so! Shrek and Fiona are having triplets, hence the “Third” portion of the title! Better yet, they appear to be having two boys and a baby girl just like I have! How nifty is that? My kids will finally have something they can watch that emulates their life! I know what you’re ...

Most people celebrate the First of May in the “Camelot” fashion seeing it as the whole, “It’s May! It’s May! That lusty month of May…That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray” concept.  In my household, however, the first of May is a day I celebrate by loading up my trio and going out. Where, might you ask? It really doesn’t matter to us where we go, just that we do! You have to understand, that my trio was born six week early and that was as far as I was allowed to carry them. So for us, they were “Full term triplets” but to the rest of the world and medically they received a very large “Preemie” label. Now, being a preemie means a lot of things, but being a “Multiple Preemie” means ever so much more. First of all, being born six weeks early means that my babies were about 4 pounds each (Vivie @ 3lbs 15 oz. ,Kian & Kai each at 4 pounds 15oz) actually large considering that the trio shared a very cramped space for a very long time. Although they were large to me, t...

We’ve covered the fact that our triplet stroller is unusually long and very super-huge, making public appearances very awkward. We decided to try an outing to the museum last summer while in New Orleans visiting family. Being babies, of course the need arises to have to change them at some point and of course it's never in a convenient and appropriate place. This time it was smack dab in the dividing line between the Ansel Adams exhibit and the Hurricane Katrina Photography exhibit. Now there was this very nice leather-looking chaise-lounge piece of furniture in the middle area that looked very inviting. But, being in a part of the museum that was as quiet as a church sanctuary due to the content and seriousness of the subject matter, I had decided that this was NOT the place to change our panties and britches.My aunt and I decided to demurely head for the nearest restroom. NOMA appears to have been built quite a long time ago, as the handicap allocations are mostly out of place (t...

After reading a forum posting about a lady asking for the necessary objects needed to prepare for the arrival of her baby, I began to think back about the things I couldn’t do without: or rather, things that my baby’s couldn’t have done without.There was the usual of course, pajamas, bottles, pacifier selection and diapers. But then I listed IT, the one thing that nobody should be without, the bouncy-seat. You can stick your baby in a bouncy-seat almost from the time your bundle of joy arrives. It’s not like the variety that we had when I was little. The newer ones recline all the way back and have inserts that can be used to support even the tiniest newborn. My tiny triplet preemies adored their seats and even used them up until recently. There is one teensy little problem with using them, though. They foster of love of all things that go “Boingy.” From the very beginning we place our children in these seats that are set to bouncing by the very tiniest movement of our infants. In the ...

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 that 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 in...

Mornings are very peaceful at my house. Each day I wake up to breakfast in bed. Not you’re 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 ...

Life with triplets can be really funny. After all, instead of one bouncing baby, I happen to have three. I know there are all sorts of myths out there about multiples. The funny thing is, a lot of them which seem preposterous are really true. I have found out that they do develop their own language. Yes, I believe that might have been the first thing they ever did…and I have a strong suspicion it occurred in-utero. 'Tis scary, yet true. Their communication skills in-utero became apparent when it came time for the advanced ultrasounds. The babies were required to be monitored as breathing so many times for the lab-tech in a given time-frame. It almost seemed as if they knew exactly what it was we were looking for and exactly what the tech wanted them to do...however they soon proved mischievous! You see, they actually appeared to team up against us on the outside. There were weeks when they were all sorts of moving around inside for the people in the waiting room of the doct...

As a triplet mom, I hear all sorts of things being said both to us as a family and about us as we go about our daily lives. People always are surprised to see me out shopping with my baby’s or going to the doctor by ourselves. I know we must be quite a site to see. Our stroller seats three, one behind the other and has foot rests for each baby. It is very, very long. So long, that I call it our limo. It doesn’t drive well for a stroller; however strollers rarely do drive well. Complete with our diaper bag and bottle bags for three and my purse and adorned with three sippy cups hung over the sides of each compartment, we must appear quite a site. We stop traffic, that’s for certain. Whether it is grocery shopping at Brookshire’s for our 97 cans of formula or shopping at Sam’s for our case of diapers and wipes, you can be assured of seeing quite a spectacle when I push that limo sized stroller loaded full of baby’s and pull that shopping cart. People react in many different ways....

When I first told my friends that I was pregnant with triplets (late September was when we found out & they would be due late April if they had proven to be a singleton birth), they promptly decided that I was having a litter of kittens and one actually dared called dibs on the calico one. The first question on everyone’s mind?  What are you going to name them? Well, after finding out the gender of everybody in December, we set about trying to find the perfect names. Of course this all brought to mind something written by T.S. Elliot that seemed appropriate at the time! “The naming of cats is a difficult matter, it just isn’t one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter when I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.” Yes, ONLY ME...I know, I know...I had Elliot's “The Naming of Cats” running through the back of my mind constantly. I figured that I might as well be having a litter of kittens. After all, there are three babies in there...

Carrying triplets is probably the scariest endeavor I have ever endured. In the beginning, of course you find out that you are pregnant and you haven’t any clue that there is more than one tiny person growing inside. Because of my prior health problems, my doctor decided to do an ultrasound at 9 weeks out. Because of a previous miscarriage, I was worried about the doctor not finding any heart beat. Little did I know, that lab tech would find not one, but THREE tiny heartbeats! What a shocker! No, I didn’t faint or pass out, although it did help that I was already lying down. But then again, that lab tech was too surprised to say anything more than, “ How many baby’s would you like?” All I could say was, “How many baby’s are you seeing?” Of course we now know the answer was “THREE!” So there I was, not expecting one viable heartbeat, only to find that I was supporting THREE! The doctor & the lab tech (after much oh my goodness-ing) printed out many pictures of my tiny tr...

My name is Mimi Rankin Webb, and I am a mumsy of a 12 year old boy, two 1 year old boys, and a 1 year old baby girl. It sounds like an introduction that you would hear at some sort of 12-step program. Instead, it’s my introduction and has been for a little over a year now. I get all sorts of questions whenever I go out.  It doesn’t matter if I am in the elevator, grocery store, or a parking lot, I get a LOT of questions!  I hope that by blogging, I can answer more of your questions in better detail than I can when asked while out & about! You have to understand, that by nature, I am a very friendly person. However, I often feel that I am being rude by not being able to stop & talk as much as I would like to with everyone who stops me to ask questions.  Hopefully I can remedy all of this with my blog! Let’s start over. Hello, my name is Mimi Rankin Webb and I am a triplet mom and mother to a wonderful 6th grader.  There, that’s better. Now, let’s get t...

We are counting down the days until Halloween and have compiled ALL the area-wide spooky Halloween and Fall Fest fun to be found in and around the Shreveport Bossier City area and beyond to help you celebrate! Is your favorite Shreveport, Bossier City and beyond event missing? Get it added to the  Halloween & Fall Festival Events calendar and guide by messaging sbmomsintheknow@gmail.com. Monday 10/11/21 🎃 Pumpkin Patch Information Guide 🎃 🎃  Mutiny: A Haunted Pirate Adventure - Shreveport AScareium  🎃 🎃 2021 Fall Break Hours For the Festival at DixieMaze Farms 🎃 🎃 Teen Stem Club: Catapults - Mack Memorial Library 🎃 🎃 Creative Minds: Monster Mania Craft - Hollywood/Union Avenue Branch 🎃 Tuesday 10/12/21 🎃 Pumpkin Patch Information Guide 🎃 🎃  Paint Your Own Pumpkin -...