A Very Eventful Monday

A day full of firsts!

We had our first playdate! Logan, Lauren, Lathan and I headed over to Bobby Jo's this afternoon to meet up with her 5 kids and Jessy's 5.

In all, there were 3 Mom's and 13 kids under 4 (10 of which were 6 months old or younger)! The picture above is of everyone, my three (6 months), Jessy's three (5 months) and her two toddlers 2 & 4 and Bobby Jo's 4 girls (4 months old) and her daughter, Reagan who is 3! It was surprisingly a fairly calm visit and we can't wait to do it again. I love that they can all grow up together, sharing in the joys of being multiples.

Here, Jolie and Reagan help give Lauren her bottle. Such good little helpers!

Lauren and Emmy meet! They are both the only girls in sets of b/b/g triplets. They're sure to have a lot to talk about some day!

Madison joins the girls for a chat

Jolie gives Logan his first Eskimo kiss!

For some reason the picture of Lathan won't upload, but he had fun too!

And now check this out...

Our dining room area has been transformed. What was once just a table that remained set

now contains three highchairs!

We've been given the go ahead to start cereal, fruits and veggies. We tried it out tonight and well, the babies weren't very impressed. Especially not Lathan and Lauren!

It got better once they realized it was food. Logan pretty much liked it from the get go as long as it was a continuous flow without ANY hesistation!

Hopefully each time will get better and better and they will soon enjoy their new skills!

October 28th

October 28th is a very special day for us...



P.S.
Don't be too alarmed by the totals...we have UNBELIEVALBE insurance and were helped by many generous family and friends!!!

Meme

I was tagged for a meme a few days ago by Teresa (http://kearleyzoo.blogspot.com/), one of my blogging buddies! Its funny how all of these blogs between Mom's are connected. I started chatting in an infertility chat room (Resolve) in January '04 where I "met" Jen x3 (http://amazingtrips.blogspot.com/). I was looking on Jen's blog one day and in her comments section, Teresa had posted a comment to Jen about OUR triplets. I then went to Teresa page and got hooked on her blog! It wasn't but a few weeks later we were standing in line for a coke at the mall when Teresa recognizes us and comes over to meet us. Long story short she is one of Mom's friends coworkers!

From what I've read, a meme appears to be 9 weird things about yourself to let those who read your blog know more about you. It also seems to be a good way to remind those readers the purpose of your blog, ours obviously being to share this amazing journey with those that we love and who have supported us these past few years. That's it. Not to comment on our parenting style (for the record "Samantha", our babies are in no way mistreated and they love their Podee bottles!) nor should it be a means for keeping score of any kind. Just purely for fun!

On the other hand, it is so nice to read all of the sweet comments (and emails) and know that for the most part the blog is serving its purpose and that people all over the country are getting to enjoy a piece of our lives.

And so on with the meme...

1) I think that babies in socks look RIDICULOUS. Not so much if they are wearing pants, but if our babies are wearing just a onesie, socks are out of the question. (Blankets are the preferred method of warmth for my kiddos!). I'll even take it one step further and say that for the most part, our babies won't ever be seen in shorts. Yuck. One piece outfits that are shorts are great, but as a general rule, when the shorts are separate, they just don't do anything for those itty bitty legs.

2) I am addicted to other people's blogs but I rarely leave comments. Strange because I love it when people leave comments on my own page. I'll have to get better about that because otherwise I'm kind of just a stalker!!!

3) I HATE mornings. I'm even trying to train the babies to sleep in, which has worked for the most part. We still get up early to feed but then go right back down and sometimes don't get up until 11am or 12! I'm sure once we are all consistently sleeping through the night and taking good naps during the day that we will be earlier to rise but for now I'm sticking with our current drill!

4) Kind of weird but I would love to have another baby and if I found out tomorrow that I was pregnant I would be ecstatic. I may have to keep Patrick liquored up for a while and we would completely drown financially (as it is the babies have started consuming $600 a month on formula alone!) but otherwise I think it would be fun! Realistically though, I know that if we were to ever have any more babies it would be once the triplets were older (Patrick says that I can't mention it again to him until the trio turns 5). That works for me. I'll just enjoy these babies and get them off to school, then we'll start over! I would really just like to experience some of the normal aspects of having a baby (one at a time). It would be great to carry a baby to term with no bedrest, skip the emergency c-section (turns out, those suck), hear the baby cry when it entered the world (Logan let out a little whimper but the other's were silent...pretty scary) and hold a baby the second it was born (not days later or in Lathan's case 3 weeks after). And how neat it must be to bring a baby home from the hospital when you go home. Leaving our trio each night was torture, I hated it. I do realize though, that I have been ABSOLUTELY blessed with our three and if God never gave me any more I would have NOTHING to complain about. That's what's kind of cool about it, no stress, if it happens some day it happens!

5) Perfect closets make me happy! I'd rather have junk sitting around than cram it into a clean closet. A little backwards I know, but for some reason an organized, tidy closet means a lot to me. Go figure!

6) This isn't necessarily weird, just something about me. I LOVE my family! If I could choose what I would do every weekend, it would be to have a big family get-together at Mom's. I love it when Sue, Marty, Grandma and the boys come in town, both sisters are there and we all just hang out, munchin on yummies that Mom made, talking, laughing and being silly. Probably the thing that made me happiest when I was in the hospital was a surprise visit from The Poole's and Grandma. Everyone crammed into my room, we ate and for a second I forgot where I was (until I looked over and saw poor Uncle Marty sitting on my potty chair because there was no place else to sit)! And on holidays when Uncle Brian, Aunt Tonya and Jason are thrown into the mix along with the occasional O'Quinn visit...I'm in heaven.

7) Now, as much as I like being surrounded by tons of family I also love my alone time. I guess that's why I stay up so late at night, otherwise I would never get that anymore.

8) I HATE to talk on the phone. Hate it, hate it, hate it! I like to hear from Patrick, my Mom and sisters but when it comes to having long conversations which turn in to talking about nothing I get frustrated. On the other hand, I LOVE email. Just the facts, no talking just to talk, no nonsense!

9) Hmmm, I guess another weird thing about me is that I may be one of the few people I know to not be addicted to Grey's Anatomy. I'll watch it if its on, but I would much rather be tuned in to NBC, watching My Name is Earl and The Office. I much prefer a comedy over a drama. Same goes for movies. Don't really love chick flicks, actions or mysteries but I could watch senseless movies like Wedding Crashers and 40 year Old Virgin a hundred times.

So that's the end of my meme. Now its my turn to tag some bloggers.
Julie (http://newallenaddition.blogspot.com/),
Amanda (http://lawlessbaby.blogspot.com/),
Abrah (http://abby1981.blogspot.com/) and
Lisa (http://thesundermans.blogspot.com/)...its your turn!!!

Sunday's Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch hoping to get a good picture of the babies in their costumes for our Halloween cards. Didn't quite get the picture we were looking for but got some fun ones along the way. Check them out:

First we had to dress the babies in all black to go underneath their costumes. Kind of looks like they may be heading off to a jewelry heist!

Lathan

Lauren

Logan

The Family

Lathan, Daddy and the Llama...turns out there were more llamas at this farm than pumpkins!!!

And last but not least is the picture that we ended up using for our Halloween cards. I even tried again today to get a better one of just the three of them but I had to cut the photo shoot short...by the time I got all three babies dressed, stuffed and outside they were wailing so loud I was afraid the neighbors would call CPS! Just wasn't worth it!

Pumpkin Patch

I don't have a lot of time to post and Patrick is working on our computer but I wanted to give you a preview of our day at the Pumpkin Patch and the ADORABLE Halloween costumes that Grammie handmade for the babies!
More to come...
P.S.
Clicking on the picture will enlarge it!

Videos

Another triplet Pow Wow (The boys think that Lauren's squeals are too funny, wonder what she's telling them!)...




Babies first thing in the morning...

Who do they look like?

People are always trying to figure out which parent the babies look like. We've pulled a couple of old photos and here's what we've come up with...

Logan (most of the time) looks more like Daddy:

Daddy

Daddy

Logan

Lathan a little more like Mommy:

Mommy

Mommy

Lathan

Lauren, a mix, neither, a little like Aunt Pammie, we're not sure:

Lauren


They are changing so much each day though, so I still think its really too early to tell. One resemblence we defintely see, and maybe also because of personality is between Logan and Dopey!!! Cute, Sweet, Quiet...all of the above!!! What a cutie!!!

We love you Daddy!

We just talked to Daddy and it sounds like he is extra tired and having a rough day. Hopefully this video from this morning will make him smile! (Unfortunately my memory card ran out so it gets cut off but its still kind of cute!)


P.S.
Way back on Feb. 6th we added our first baby ticker. The days got a little messed up since the babies came so early but at the top of our blog you will now see the updated ticker!

Our Goodies

It was like Christmas at our house this past weekend! Grandpa & Grandma came over and as usual stocked our pantry with LOTS of goodies. Each time they visit they bring us large amounts of supplies which is always extremely helpful. This time we got 432 of our favorite diapers and 9 LARGE cans of formula. THANKS YOU TWO!!!

We were also given three beautiful hats for the babies handmade by Esther, a coworker of Grammie's. These hats are so cute and soft...we love them!

New Hats and Wombmates Shirts

So now I'm off to write a few of the hundreds of VERY overdue thank you notes that we owe our family and friends. We have gotten very far behind these past few months but I've decided that if I write a few each night, someday I'll reach the bottom of the list! I kept thinking that there would be a time when I could sit down and get them all taken care of at once however, the babies will be 6 months old in a few days and that time has never presented itself so its time for a new strategy! Everyone has been so generous and thoughtful to us and if your still waiting on your thank you note, just know that we haven't forgotten and that it should arrive shortly!!! In the meantime, we've added some pictures to our Shutterfly Collection (http://www.guinntriplets.shutterfly.com/action) ...enjoy!

A few photos from these past few days...

Lauren Takes a Trip To Texas Children's Hospital

Poor little Lauren got pretty sick last week with what we've been told was probably a stomach virus. Late Wednesday afternoon, out of now where, Lauren threw up. She seemed fine, so we gave her a bath and went on about our business. She refused her 7pm bottle and then threw up a little more. By 11pm she was throwing up at times every 5-10 minutes and was pretty miserable. We made a call to the pediatrician who told us just to give her small amounts of pedialyte for the rest of the evening and for the entire next day. We followed those instructions and once Lauren seemed to indicate that she was no longer going to give back, we tried her formula. She wanted no part of it and would only take sips at a time. We figured it was just her stomach still acting up but by Saturday we still weren't able to get her to drink more than 1 ounce at a time (she usually takes 6) and even that was a struggle. The last bottle that she had finished and kept down was Wednesday's noon bottle and with our trio's history of tummy issues (pyloric stenosis, NEC, reflux, etc) we decided it was time to call the doctor again. The nurse told Patrick that it was probably an ear or throat infection and that we should get her down to Texas Children's Hospital. We waited until after her next bottle to make sure that she really needed to go to the ER but when our attempts were again rejected, we loaded her up and headed down to the medical center.

We got to the hosptial around 7:30pm. They checked her vitals and she had a slight fever (which she had been running off and on for a few days) and she just looked puny. We waited a few hours and by the time we were seen by a doctor, she was drinking 3 ounces of formula and her temperature was a perfect 98.6. They checked her ears, her throat and found nothing. Just to be sure, they got us some more formula to watch her eat and of course she drank another 3 ounces without any hesistation. We were on our way home a little after midnight! What cured her so fast??? I think that the second she realized she was back in the hopsital she perked up. They took her temperature in her bum (which surprisingly was a first for her, in the NICU they use the underarm method) and talked about possibly needing to start an IV for dehydration. Apparently that was enough for her and ever since she has been eating much better and isn't nearly as fussy!


P.S.
Our weekend ended on a good note, visiting Grammie's house for the FIRST time!!! We plan on making that part of our Sunday routine...thanks for hosting us Grammie and Aunt Pammie!

***New pictures added to our shutterfly account http://www.guinntriplets.shutterfly.com/action/***

Podee Bottles

Lathan

Lathan

Lauren

Lauren & Lathan

Logan (no Podee bottle but I didn't want for him to get left out of the post!!!)

How cool are these?!?! I heard about these bottles through another triplet mom (thank JenX3 if you're reading) and Aunt Pammie gave them to me as a baby shower gift. I have been trying them for the past couple of weeks without success but on Friday our persistance paid off and Lauren and Lathan were able to finish their feedings through these hands free bottles! Logan still isn't ready but it shouldn't be too much longer. These bottles allow us to be much more mobile as I can hook them up in the stroller or the car and feed all three (or at least 2 right now) at the same time all while driving, shopping, etc. How exciting!!!