Some Days Are Just Hard

I try not complain too much about my "bad days," at least not publicly, but today was one for the books. Jack had a blood draw scheduled at the infusion center at 9:30 this morning. This was the first count since he received IVIG two weeks ago, and we were really hoping his platelets would be up from the treatment. Around midnight last night, though, I woke up to Jack crying and I quickly realized that he had a nosebleed. Jack doesn't usually get nosebleeds, and unfortunately nosebleeds can indicate low platelets, so I slept badly the rest of the night as I was now concerned that Jack's body didn't respond to IVIG as we had hoped (plus both girls also woke up at different times during the night...yikes!).

In the morning everything went relatively smoothly and we got out of the door on time for our appointment. Right around 9:30 we were called back by the nurse. I told her about the nosebleed and after talking to the doctor she said we had to get an IV in Jack just in case he needed platelets. I felt like this was the right call since it's better to poke Jack once to get an IV in and do the blood draw at the same time, rather than poke him for the blood draw and then again if an IV is necessary. In theory, going with an IV is a conservative approach even though it may be unnecessary in the end (sometimes I feel like putting in an IV for Jack is like bringing along an umbrella to keep it from raining...it's good luck of sorts).

The kids in the waiting room at the infusion center. These appointments have become so routine for us that the girls are excited to go as the nurses and other staff are familiar, and there are fun toys to play with.

Although it is St. Patrick's Day today, the nurses and Jack were all having very bad luck. Over the next two hours Jack was poked a total of nine times by four different nurses, just to get the tiny amount of blood needed for a CBC. It was pure torture for Jack as he's usually pretty tough and calm through the process, although he always cries which is understandable, but by the fourth poke he was getting mad and by the ninth poke he was furious. It was also pure torture for me, since it's my job to hold him down on my lap and try to convince him to hold still during the nine pokes. Awful. I wanted to cry along with him. Usually I have a pretty good perspective on Jack's blood disorder since I see so many cancer patients when we go to the infusion center, but today I was feeling really sorry for Jack and myself as it sucked. No one should have to get poked nine times within a two hour window, and no mommy should have to hold her child down during the process.

Fortunately, the girls were keeping themselves entertained throughout this very long process by playing with the toys in the infusion center, watching parts of a movie on my iPad, eating snacks, and people watching. The infusion center only has a few private rooms, so today we were in the more public common area, and there were a few other patients in there as well. At one point I had to run over to the girls across the room to break up a fight (they were literally wrestling on the tile floor and all of the other adults in the room were shocked and staring), but for the most part they were very well behaved.

After Jack's blood was finally drawn around noon without placing an IV (lucky poke number nine!), we went downstairs to Subway since it was lunch time. I was so exhausted and hungry, I don't think I made eye contact with any of the onlookers (we tend to draw a crowd with our wagon). We went back to the infusion center to eat our lunch at a kid table. Jack's lunch consisted of a chocolate chip cookie, but I really didn't care as I felt so bad for him since he had such a horrible morning. Thankfully, the preliminary results of the blood draw came back while we were finishing lunch and his platelets were at 83,000. Not quite as high as I had hoped (normal is 150,000-400,000), but at this point I didn't even care as at least it meant that Jack didn't need a platelet transfusion and we could go home.

Of course, two of the three kids had poopy diapers that needed to be changed now that it was time to leave, and no one wanted to leave (go figure!), so it took us forever to actually head back to our car. Alexis got really upset about the diaper change and being forced to leave, so the entire wagon ride through the hospital, down the street, and through the parking lot she was crying and saying, "Daddy! Daddy! I miss my Daddy!" over and over again. People would start to smile when they saw the wagon full of two-year-olds, but as soon as they heard Alexis crying for her daddy their smiles turned to concerned looks as they were probably thinking her daddy was in the hospital. It took everything in me not to burst out laughing like a crazy person as I pulled the wagon to the car. The morning was just too long and stressful, and this tantrum along with the concerned stares was the icing on the cake.

On the 20 minute drive home I had to alternate between singing at the top of my lungs and rolling the windows down to keep the kids awake. I needed the break during nap time today, and nothing was going to get in my way! Although the nap was an hour late so night time might be difficult again, thankfully two of the three are now sleeping and I'm hopeful the third will fall asleep soon too.

Being a mommy is hard. Being a mommy to three two-year-olds is very hard. Being a mommy to three two-year-olds while at a ridiculously long doctor's appointment where one of the children is basically being tortured while mommy holds him down is unimaginable. Is it the weekend yet?

Life Lessons with Triplets: Sharing is Not Always Worth the Battle

Trying to teach triplet two-year-olds to share is an uphill battle. Since they don't fully understand the concept of sharing, I am really just dealing with the aftermath from taking a toy from a toddler. There is crying. Lots of tears. And screaming. And although one child is happy because he or she now has the prized toy, there are one or two others that are throwing a fit. When sharing is absolutely necessary, I use the timer on my phone to make it "fair," but honestly it doesn't help much since it seems so unfair to the two-year-olds. So, although I know it is very important for children to learn to share, sometimes it is simply not worth it for me since I deal with sharing issues all day long.

There are certain things in life that triplets must share, such as their mommy. Today in music class I had a lot of "triplet mom guilt" as all three wanted to sit on my lap and they weren't very happy sharing my lap with each other. All of the other children in the class were there with one or two caregivers, and no siblings, and of course those children were mostly content participating in class and they didn't really care about sitting on a lap. But Alexis, Jack, and Faith almost never have their mommy or daddy to themselves, and some days that is really hard for them to handle.

For the most part, we make sure the kids have three of everything and that those items are assigned by color whenever possible. This cuts down on a lot of fights, which keeps me sane. But last fall I bought the kids one small train set from Ikea thinking that would be sufficient, but I was wrong. There are simply not enough pieces in that train set to share, so we weren't able to play with it for months. For Christmas, Micah's parents bought the kids a couple of more train sets to supplement the original set, but that didn't solve the sharing problem since the kids wanted all of the train pieces to themselves and they would hog the tracks. So when I went to Target today I bought three small plastic bins, I put an initial on each bin, I divided the tracks equally, and I assigned each child a train color. This solved the problem! Tonight Alexis, Jack, and Faith happily played with the tracks and trains from their own bin. Plus, they really seemed to enjoy putting away their personal train set at the end of the night since they had special bins. Triplet mommy win!!

Faith putting away her train set. Look at that organization! She gets that meticulousness from her daddy.

Jack happy to have his own train set.

Lexi trying on her train bin as a hat.

Three kids, three train sets. Life is good.

Kids Say the Darndest Things: Part 1

As of yesterday, our trio is 33 months old! We are only three months away from their 3rd birthday!

Alexis, Jack, and Faith are truly talking in full sentences. I can't necessarily understand them 100% of the time, especially if I'm driving and they're trying to tell me something as they are still rear facing in their car seats so they aren't facing me and they seem to talk so quietly in the car, but most of the time their words are quite clear. I have been trying to write down some of the funny things that each of them has said over the past few weeks, although some of it probably sounds much funnier when said by a two-year-old than when written.

Faith:

• What's going on over here? (Said to Lexi and Jack when they were fighting.)
• Who are you texting? (Said to me when I was looking at my phone...and she should have been napping.)
• I liked it last night? Really Mom? (Referring to last night's dinner that she didn't want to eat for lunch.)
• I think I need ice cream to help me. (After she bonked her head and I opened the freezer to get her a Boo Boo Buddy.)
• Mommy! You did a good painting! (When she saw her newly painted bedroom for the first time.)
• I'm going to turn around like a puppy and slide down. (Said when getting off of Daddy's office chair.)
• Did you sleep well little sister? (Said to Lexi after a nap, but I've heard her refer to several of her peers as "little.")
• You're a good helper mommy. (Said to me when I was pulling the painters tape off of the walls and she was gathering it into a pile for me.)

"I love my doggy" is something Faith says often. She loves to give her doggy kisses. 

Jack: 

• Here are your marshmallows. (Said to me after I pretended to buckle up when playing a game with him. Yes, we use mini marshmallows as an incentive to get in their car seats.)
• Can I change Charlie's diaper? (He is currently obsessed with "changing" Charlie Brown's "diaper," which really just involves pulling 100 wipes out and wasting them.)
• We have no cream! (Said after "changing" his stuffed dinosaur's diaper.)
• I have keys, phone, but no rings. (Said when playing outside and driving his "car." Apparently these are the requirements to be a grown up to Jack.)
• I'm making music! (Said when waving a stick in the air like a conductor.)
• I want to drive. (I hear this several times a day, and he is usually talking about my 4Runner.)
• I'm a nurse. (When he plays with medical stuff, he tells me he is a nurse, not a doctor.)

"Hi Grandma!" When we were at Costco a few days ago Jack picked up the block of cheese and pretended it was a phone.

Alexis:

• You did a nice job. (When she saw her newly painted bedroom for the first time.)
• I have a leaf in my shoe...in my toe! (We just got new Crocs and she isn't used to stuff being in her shoes.)
• I miss… [Fill in the blank]. (This is said about any object or person, whether it's actually gone or about to be gone.)
• It sounds like: [insert baby crying, bird noise, dog barking, etc.] (Her interpretations are quite amusing.)
• I don't want. (The lazy way of saying she doesn't want to do something. She speaks in full sentences most of the time, but this phrase has stuck around.)

Alexis has talent when it comes to drinking! She often holds her cup in her mouth and drinks while doing stuff with her hands.