Tunnel of Fun

Now that Zoey can crawl and keep up with the other two, I decided to get out the tunnel again. Zoey loved it! All three of them kept crawling in and out of it, crawling over each other like puppies, and playing peek-a-boo with each other.




This video is over two minutes long, but well worth it to hear all the giggles.



And now for some sad news. Our sweet dog Casey is sick. She was just diagnosed with a bone tumor in her pelvis. There are no treatment options. We'll keep you posted...I don't think she has much longer with us. :(

Saturday Fun

Bathtime fun. They were really splashing up a storm. The best part about morning baths is that they usually take really good naps afterwards. Whenever we try to do evening baths they are way too fussy to enjoy them.


Since it was relatively warm (in the 40s) and sunny, Jason took the trio for a long walk in the afternoon while I did some shopping.


We were in the kitchen and heard laughter from the living room. Apparently shaking plastic rings in unison is pretty hilarious. We love how they play together and entertain each other!

New skills

Zoey finally crawled! She's been getting closer and closer, and tonight she finally made her way down our hall. She had been fussy all afternoon and was refusing to go to sleep. Guess she just had to show off her new skill before going to bed. Here's a video of the action:


And Abby suddenly knows how to kick a soccer ball. This video shows her being kind of cranky about it - we think she was kicking the ball away to try to tell us to quit rolling it to her. :)

Welcome, Grandpa Gene!

Grandpa Gene (my dad) has officially retired and moved up here full time! We are excited to have him here. He came over the other day during the fussy 3-5pm period and it was great to have his help.

Helping Abby practice her clapping and waving skills




Helping with dinner


All of us are looking forward to spending more time with GrandMary and Grandpa Gene. :)

10 months old

Will add more pics tonight, but just wanted to get this post started. Happy 10 month birthday, babies! I'm so happy to be able to be home with you today to celebrate.


Abby loves smiling, clapping, waving, and making funny noises with her mouth.


Zoey loves practicing new skills (like standing and walking), hugging her sing-a-ma-jigs, playing piano, and feeding herself.


Lucas loves eating, standing, climbing over anything (and anyone) in his way, looking at books, and dancing to the music of his riding lion.


This is what three 10-month-olds can do to a living room. It actually wasn't too messy today, mostly because I kept some of the messier toys out of reach.

Triple feature

Here are a few videos from the past couple of weeks. The babies are doing so many new and funny things!

I think the new sparkly pink shoes helped Zoey walk behind the lion


Abby being cute and goofy


Check out Lucas's dancing skills

Giving up the pump

[apologies in advance for lots of text and few pictures in this post]
I've been thinking about the topic of breastfeeding a lot lately because of many recent and controversial news articles about the pros and cons of breastfeeding vs. formula. You can find a lot of these articles at the kellymom.com facebook page [I tried to include a link to the page but it didn't work]

The decision about how to feed your babies is a very personal one, and yet everyone seems to have an opinion about it. I had so many people say "but how are you going to breastfeed triplets?" and "but pumping takes up so much of your time" and "you won't be able to produce enough milk for them." It was really important to me to at least give breastfeeding a try, and I didn't want the fact that I had more than one baby to deter me. I want to share a little bit of our feeding journey, in hopes of letting other moms of multiples know that breastfeeding more than one baby is possible, and yet if it doesn't work, that's ok too.

I started pumping (using a Medela Symphony hospital-grade pump) within hours of delivery, and kept up the pumping routine every 3 hours around the clock. The babies were too little to nurse and couldn't latch well, so they were fed breastmilk through syringes, and then bottles. I had the babies practice nursing as much as possible, but for the first month, they really weren't that effective. I got pretty down about it at times, but their pediatrician assured me that they were likely to get the hang of it the closer they got to their actual due date (they were born at 35 weeks). So in the meantime, I just kept pumping and pumping. I felt really lucky to have had a good supply from the beginning. Lots of women really want to be able to provide enough milk for their babies and their bodies just won't cooperate.

[Let's pause to do some math. 8 pumping sessions a day times 30 days in a month = 240 pumping sessions. Each pumping session was 15-20 minutes, for a total of 4800 minutes (or 80 hours) of pumping per month (or 2.5 hours per day, if you'd rather think of it that way). The ONLY way I was able to do this was with the amazing support of my husband and family, who took care of babies while I pumped.]

And then, magically, during the week of their due date, Abby and Lucas started to nurse effectively, and they didn't always need a bottle to "top off" after nursing. Zoey still had some trouble, and so I kept pumping. Over time I gradually reduced the number of pumping sessions per day and kept up with the nursing as much as I could. We even mastered tandem nursing, which is much more efficient once you get everyone positioned correctly. I found the book Mothering Multiples to be very helpful.



We started having to supplement with formula when I went back to work. I hated it, and actually I still do. But, in order for me to supply them with all the milk they need, I would have to nurse and pump non-stop, which isn't really feasible for a busy working mom.




By late fall, it was getting harder and harder to find the time to pump. The babies were more mobile and were napping less, I was on my own with them more, I was busier at work, and I was just plain tired of pumping in the middle of the night. I had been renting the pump in 3 month increments, and it was due for renewal at the end of December. So, I decided to turn in the pump.

The day I turned in the pump was bittersweet. I loved that I wouldn't be losing hours a day to pumping, but I hated that I couldn't provide milk to Zoey anymore (she never really became a strong nurser, and stopped altogether by the fall). I'm still nursing Lucas and Abby a few times a day, and I hope that continues as long as they want and need it to.

There have been lots of sweet nursing moments. Recently, I was nursing Lucas in the evening and Casey the dog got up on the couch next to us. She laid her head on Lucas's body, and Lucas stroked her ear while he nursed. It was really precious. Jason took this picture of him taking a bottle in the same position (the camera was out of reach during the nursing; please excuse my crazy socks and slippers)



Thanks for listening, and happy feeding!