The Routine

Ah the daily routine. I don't have very much free time so, as you may have noticed, I don't write very eloquent. Throughout the day when all the kids are happy for a second I stop to type a sentence or two as fast as possible then get back to them. In fact, the kids aren't even awake yet and I took three breaks so far on this blog. I've read lots of routines from different parents and to me they always seemed to be over complicated. We needed things to be as easy as possible so by trial and error we ended up with a very nice process. Organization is defidently key. If you have multiples, buy a label maker so your family knows right where to put things when they help out. Knowing your thermometer is right where it is supposed to be or your Oragel etc. can keep things rolling. Bottle props aren't recommended by the professionals, but I see them as a very useful tool. Obviously I don't leave their side while they are propped. Would you rather take fourty minutes to feed two babies or take twenty while having a cup of joe? At 5am my wife wakes up and feed and change the boys before she heads to work. She wakes me up at 6am to feed, change and give Olivia her meds. Back to sleep for me, if I can. Sometimes its hard to sleep when its quiet, its too enjoyable. I wake up at 9am if I fell back to sleep and get the boys up. I prefer to feed them oatmeal in the morning mixed with apple juice but I mix it up. Oatmeal keeps them regular and an apple a day keeps the doctor away :P I give the boys their bottles then change them. I find a spot they are happy (Caden is hard to please) then I wake up sister. She is on diaretics to keep fluid out of her lungs so she can have issues with BM's so I base her morning mix by that. Its oatmeal mixed with prune juice if she hasn't BM'd in the last 24 hours, a different juice if she has. Then feed her her bottle,meds and change her. WAIT I missed the best part of my routine. Nothing in the world is better than waking up the kids! When you look down on them and say good morning is a bright happy smile every morning! God I love it, its fuel for the day. After Olivia is finished I have to position her in a 45 degree chair to prevent her from refluxing everything she ate up. Sadly she has to stay this way for a couple hours, which is the cause of her flat skull. I start the physical therapy with the boys as much as they will tolerate it. They absolutely hate tummy time so we have to find sneaky ways to get it in. Over my leg and on the exercise ball seem to be the best atm. I work on bringing things to mouth because they dont seem to have that instinct even though they are teething. Try out some side time if tolerated as well. Some days I get in alot of therapy, some days none. It really depends on their moods. The most important thing about this time of day for me is eye contact. Both boys are jealous so you have to make sure you connect with them. Usually by now I can work with Olivia on neck control and other basics. Even though she is 7 months old she is rated at a 1 month level physically. I find a happy spot for them throw in a load of laundry and sneak a meal in before their bottles at 12:30. I've heard of people with triplets doing 6 loads of laundry a day on tv and that means one of two things. They are either over doing it which will just add stress or their kids all had reflux but didn't mention the negatives on tv. We get by with 1-2 loads a day average for the whole house. Feeding, doing meds and changing the boys and then sister takes till 1:45 or so. We have fun time between these feeds, anything to make them happy. Wifey gets home at 3:30 usually and is ready to help by 3:45. We feed the boys solids again at 4 targeting more fruits and veggies. Then bottles/change. We stopped feeding Olivia solids at this time because the formula has more calories per ounce and she needs them. We feed Olivia her bottle, meds and change her At this point mom gets some fun time with all of them working on physical therapy once again while I do the dishes from the last 24 hours :) Thats right, we bought enough bottles to make it 24 hours and yes I let the dirty dishes sit. Dont judge me :) I use to do more dishes but the kids would be alone, you have to weigh your values. A days worth of dishes take over an hour sometimes lol. I use dish soap with bleach alternative because bottle brushes have sponges on them which studies are showing hold more bacteria than anything in the house. When I'm finished with the dishes my wife makes formula and fills enough bottles to make it 24 hours. Harder than it seems since the boys are on Symilac advanced and Olivia is on half Enfamil AR and half Symilac Special Care. I usually cook a fast dinner, slip the clothes in the drier and we eat on the floor so we can at least have some eye contact time with them. The weather has been ok lately so we try to sneak in a walk when we can. The walk we take is very very short, its more for exposure to new things. Before you know it 6:30pm is here and begins "sour hour". Since our kids sleep through the night very well (thank god) they get very fussy the hour before their bedtime bottle. It is every night and it is when most visitors come over. When the combination of teething, growing pains and sleepiness hit all at once, it's chaos. Finally at 8:30 we sneak in the kids bottles, meds and change just before putting them to sleep. The boys have been sleeping very well in Wombies but sister hates the constriction. Her guarding defense sets in due to such a long time in the hospital. After they are asleep we finish a few things, pick up, enjoy the quiet time together. Of course I left out lots of the variables throughout the day. Everytime Olivia refluxes hard enought to vomet we have to change it dirtys, we can sometimes catch it with a burp cloth if its small enough. Hurray for cloth diapers used as burp cloths! Also taking trash out when needed, the diaper pail, baths, things like that. I didn't want to buy a diaper genie because the refills cost so much so I tried to find an alternative. There is lots of talk on triplet connection looking for alternatives as well. I found a 7.6 gallon stainless steel round step can from Target that is air tight and holds alot of diapers. Beware when you open it though :) Thanks for your time.