Boob Flu

I am finally feeling 100% again.  Last week, I had mastitis.  What is mastitis?  I have dubbed it "boob flu" but it is basically an infection in a breastfeeding mom's mammary gland(s).  On Tuesday night I started feeling pretty bad and had some soreness on my right side.  I was really achy and had a hard time sleeping too.  On Wednesday morning, I didn't feel any better so while feeding the troops I researched on my phone and diagnosed myself with mastitis.  I had all the symptoms.  Aches, shivering, fever, hurting boob, etc.  I've had friends that have had it before so I knew that's what it was. Thankfully (after several calls trying to get into a primary care doctor) I was able to get my ob/gyn to call in an antibiotic for me and I started those on Wednesday afternoon and will finish them tomorrow!  I'm even more thankful that two friends, Jeniffer and Angela, were able to come help with the 11am feed.  Mark took the afternoon off and helped out and Mark's parents came that night to help with the bedtime feed.  My fever was as high as 101.3 and those times were the worst.  Once my fever came down I would feel a bit better but then it would spike again.  At points, I could barely move without crying.  It seems like a cruel joke for a nursing/pumping mother to get this!  What do you do??  There are still babies to be fed and loved on, bottles to be washed, laundry to be done, 5 year old to be fed, milk to be pumped, etc.!  I'm so blessed to have friends around with serving hearts that can help out in a pinch.  Thank you!  I'm praying I never get this again.

Laundry room organization

I consider myself a fairly organized person.  With 4 kids, I've felt this urge to purge and to be more organized.  We decided to start with the laundry room but since I needed Mark's help with a lot of it (Elfa installation) and he had a big project due at work, I sidetracked with other projects....I've gone through all of B's clothes and shoes and sorted out the items that are too small (stored now for K and R) and purged all of his socks that mysteriously lost their mate.  I reorganized the desk drawers and cleaned out under the kitchen sink.  Last week, Kate helped me go through the game room and Barrett's room.  I literally dumped out every bin or bucket of toys into a huge pile and sorted everything.  I threw out a full trash bag of junky stuff.  Don't tell Barrett.  I have somewhat of an obsession once I get my mind set on something!  It drives Mark crazy.  :)  Back to the laundry room...not only do I do the laundry there but we come and go through this room as it connects our house to the garage so we use it often.  Of course, whenever I decide to get organized I go to the Container Store which is probably my favorite store. It's definitely in my top 5.  I just love it so much!  We decided to do Elfa shelving and there is no better time than now when it is on sale for 30% off!  We have Elfa in our master closet, the nursery closet and we have plenty of freestanding Elfa drawers.  We really love the versatility and functionality and knew we couldn't go wrong.  We also decided to repaint.  We wanted a slightly lighter color so I went to Sherwin Williams and bought a lighter rose color.  Turns out it was PINK.  Imagine little girl, princess room pink.  It was awful.  I had cut in most of the room and painted around both doors before we decided we hated it.  I went to Lowe's and asked them to match the color we had originally painted the room in 2009.  Thankfully they were able to do that and so I repainted the pink areas and gave the whole room a fresh coat of paint.  I also repainted all the trim.  WHEN did I do this you ask?  During nap times for the past week or so.  Mark installed the Elfa on lunch breaks and evenings.  

I should have taken "before" pictures before I cleared out all the stuff on the shelf across the top.  Picture it completely filled with stuff.

Another "before" picture but again, imagine the shelf totally filled with stuff and the paint stuff not on top of the washer, however, there was other stuff there.

We stacked our front loaders and this is now to the right of the washer and dryer.  We have so much more space!

This is to the left.  We put in a hanging rod so we could hang clothes as they come out of the dryer.

The top area.

This is the lower area to the right of the washer and dryer.  There are two basket areas for each kiddo.  One for their backpack (diaper bag for trio) and below it there is one for their shoes!  The little white things are name tags for each kiddo, color coded of course!  And a place to hang bike helmets!

This is below the clothes bar on the left.  More shelves and two drawers!

Our key/charger organizer from Pottery Barn.  We've had this for a while but it just seems way better now that everything else is better!

View from the house door.

View of the left side.

On the back wall to the left of the washer and dryer.  So perfect for cleaners!

We just love it and we both find ourselves walking in there just to admire how great it is!  We don't get out much. :)  Next up on my to do list: garage reorganization, craft room purge and guest room closet reorganization. I'm sure I'll think up some other to do after that because I clearly don't have enough going on.  LOL!   It's like I try to create more work for myself.

4 month well visit

It's hard to believe we have triplets and it's hard to believe they are 4 months old!  They had their 4 month well visit last week.  It is really difficult to take all 3 babies anywhere alone and especially to the doctor!  We hired a nanny about 3 weeks ago to help us on Thursdays and Fridays.  She is AWESOME and we love her so much already.  Since their appointment was on a Friday, she was able and willing to go with me.  Here are their stats:

Kellen - 11 lb., 15 oz and 22.5 inches.  For preemie babies, he is in the 45th percentile for height, 68th percentile for weight and 90th for head size.  For regular babies, he is less than 1% for height, 1% for weight and 41% for head size.

Reid - 11 lb, 6 oz and 23.5 inches.  For preemie babies, he is 78% for height, 54% for weight and 88% for head size.  For regular babies, he is 2% for height, less than 1% for weight and 33% for head size.

Annabelle - 12 lb, 13 oz and 22.9 inches.  For preemie babies, she is 62% for height, 81% for weight and 55% for head size.  For regular babies, she is 3% for height, 21% for weight and 22% for head size.

Because they are preemies we always get both sets of stats and we talk about things in "real" age and "adjusted" age.  Adjusted age just means what would their age be had I carried them full term.  Overall they are doing really well.  They are just slightly behind their real age developmentally but are ahead based on their adjusted age.  Reid's torticollis is almost totally better thanks to his weekly physical therapy.  However, he still has flattening of his head on the right side because of the torticollis so he will most likely end up with a doc band (helmet to form his skull into a round shape).  We are going to make an appointment with Cranial Tech soon to have him evaluated there.  Annabelle has a slight flattening on her right side so we are going to work on getting her neck stretched out and changing her position more to hopefully help it.  Annabelle's tear duct is still blocked and if it doesn't open by 6 months it will have to be probed to open it.  Ouch!  Both Reid and Annabelle still have reflux which is treated with Zantac and Nexium, respectively.  Zantac did not work for her at all!  Kellen is rocking and rolling with no issues.  Lucky guy has no reflux, didn't need ear molds, has a perfectly round head, didn't need his tongue clipped from being tongue tied like Annabelle and Reid (and Barrett as an infant!) did.  He is just rolling along.

It is really amazing to see each baby's personality starting to develop.  Kellen is the most chill of the babies.  He loves his hands and will rub them together and stare at them for long periods of time.  We always ask him if he is devising an evil plan!  When he is ready for bed, he starts whimpering and immediately calms down when we start swaddling him.  He loves his sleep and is usually the first to sleep and the last to wake up.  He always seems to have lint and dirt in his hands which we cannot figure out.  It's gross and I feel like I constantly clean his hands!  He loves the TV.  He will try to turn his head from anywhere to find it.  He can rotate his body on the floor to get to where he can watch the TV.  And most the time, it is just on the Christian music or Classical music station, so there isn't anything to really watch!  He loves it though.  Lately, he has not been wanting to drink his bottles and he tosses his head back and forth and chews on the bottle nipple.  We have to swaddle him for most feeds which seems to help.  He is adorable and loves to smile and "talk".

Reid's nicknames are "Smalls" and "Reiders".  He has the best eyes and facial expressions.  He seems to always be alert and just absorbing everything.  He has definitely had some serious meltdowns but he is a good baby.  He is the worst sleeper of the three and often wakes and tosses his head around and then goes back to sleep.  He is usually the first to wake from bedtime and from naps.  He smiles and laughs quite a bit and it is precious.  He adores Mark's dad who can almost always get him babbling and laughing.  He loves to snuggle and probably won't be thrilled when he has to get his doc band helmet thing.

Annabelle is definitely our little diva.  She is loud and will definitely be heard!  She is full throttle on everything and has no middle ground.  It's either calm or complete chaos.  She has had the best meltdowns by far.  She was the first to start smiling and is always so alert.  She adores Mark and if she hears him she looks for him and if he walks by she tracks him until he is out of sight.  She has him wrapped right around her little finger too.  She attacks the bottle like she has never eaten at each feed.  Clearly, she does not miss a meal!  She cannot keep her pacifier in her mouth to save her life and we often play the "nook nook" game, as Barrett calls it. He always called pacifiers "nooks" or "nookies" so the nook nook game involves repeatedly putting her pacifier in her mouth when she continually spits it out.  It's almost like she sucks on it so violently that she can't keep it in!  She is such a beautiful girl and she will absolutely rule the roost with her brothers.

We thank God daily for the blessings of our 4 children.  We are so undeserving of this life we have.

Kellen, Reid, Annabelle.  Their onesies say a thompson-malhiot production 2nd edition Vol. 1, 2, and 3, respectively.  A precious gift from our dear friend Kandace.

How did that happen?

The babies were scheduled for their Synagis shots today (helps to prevent RSV).  Mark has a big project due at work on Monday so my sweet mother in law Sheron went with me to Medical City.  After I dropped her back off at her house I realized my gas light was on so I stopped at the new RaceTrac on Renner Rd.  I popped my gas thing, got out of the car with my credit card, left the car door open, and started pumping gas.  I heard the car door shut but didn't think much of it because it was really windy and I figured the wind blew it shut.  I walk back to the driver door and open it.  Except it didn't open. It was locked! WHAT?!  How is it locked?!  I didn't lock it!  I see the car keys sitting on the driver seat and my phone sitting on the console.  I quickly scan the locks of the other doors.  All locked.  Panic.  The babies are all in the middle row...thankfully sleeping soundly.  Hesitantly, I run inside the station.  I could see the car the whole time and the doors were locked so no one could get in.  I called Mark and told him what happened.  He had a call scheduled at 1pm plus I knew it would take at least 20 minutes for him to get there with extra keys.  The gas station attendant called a locksmith...25 minutes. Not gonna work.  So I called 911 and the Plano Fire Department arrived within 10 minutes and got to work.  They wedged open the top of the passenger side door and used this stick thing to try and push the unlock button.  No dice.  They moved to the driver side and tried the same thing but it wouldn't work!  I think they were unable to get enough force with the stick thing they were using.  Finally, they decided to try and push the unlock button on the fob on the driver side seat.  It took about 10 minutes but they finally got it!!  Sweet relief.  The babies were totally fine.  Annabelle started to cry when I mobbed her with kisses but quickly went back to sleep.  I'll never again get gas without having my keys in my hand.  I still have no idea how the door got locked but I am so thankful for the Plano Fire Department and that my babies are ok!  Had it been hot outside I would have busted a window myself using the fire extinguisher on the gas pump at the station.  Thankfully I didn't have to do that either.  Praising God for cool weather, helpful firefighters and healthy babies!