KMBC Channel 9 News Interview

So, it's been a weekend of excitement in the Asher household.  As you all know, we are currently entered in a photo contest to win a year's supply of diapers.  Thursday night, I sent a message to the KMBC Channel 9 Facebook page asking if they'd consider posting our link on their page.  I didn't really think they would, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.  The producer messaged me back later that night and said he thought it sounded like a good story idea.  He asked me a few questions and got my phone number and said someone might be calling me.

The next morning around 10:30, I got a call from KMBC's very own Kelly Eckerman.  She asked if we would be interested in doing an interview.  I told her yes.  She then said, "Okay, the sooner the better.  We can head that way now if that works for you!"  I'll be honest, I had a little bit of an anxiety attack when she said this.  I had just gotten out of the shower, had no make up on, and crazy hair.  My house was not clean.  And my boys were still in their jammies taking their morning nap.  Somehow I was going to have to get myself, my boys, and my house presentable for all of Kansas City to see in 30-45 minutes.  I miraculously managed to do so.  I may not have had the perfect outfit on and the house certainly wasn't spotless, but the boys looked cute as always and everything else was fine.

Anchorwoman Kelly Eckerman soon showed up with a camera man and we got busy.  I guess in my head, I thought we would rehearse or at least talk about what she was going to ask me.  I was also kind of hoping someone would be there to freshen up my makeup to make me look glamorous in front of the camera.  Those things did not happen.  We chatted briefly and then the camera man started rolling and she started asking me questions.  I remember seeing Ollie heading for the tripod and expecting someone to yell "Cut!  Get the kid away from the expensive equipment!"  But we just kept going and luckily he soon became distracted and made his way for Kelly instead.  The interview lasted just a few minutes then the camera man went around and got some footage of the boys and our diaper stash.

Both Kelly and the camera man were very nice.  She gave me her card and said the story would air at either 5:00 or 6:00.

Afterwards I remember thinking:

"Did I sound stupid?"

"Is all of Kansas City going to notice how much I was sweating?"

"I hope the boys were being cute!"

I ended up texting the producer later in the day to ask when it would for sure be airing.  We found out it would be on at 6:00.  I texted my friends and family and updated my Facebook.  At 6:00, James, the boys, my friend Diane, and I sat down in anticipation.  I recorded the interview with my phone.  The video was complete with jabbering boys in the background (including my husband and his own commentary on the story).  At the end of it, you can hear Diane, "Oh my God!  You guys are famous!"  Quite funny.

The story aired 3 days ago.  Beforehand we had a little over 800 votes (which is pretty darn awesome).  We now have over 1600.  We are really appreciate all the support we've seen from our friends, family, and community.  And we are very grateful to Matt DeSarle, Kelly Eckerman, and the rest of the KMBC news team for sharing our story.

The story can be found here: http://www.kmbc.com/news/Triplets-compete-in-photo-contest/26178696.

And of course to vote, the direct link is: http://bit.ly/1mzP8EA

Thanks again for all your support!  Hopefully it ends up being enough for us to win!

The Cutest Thing...

Every once in a while after the boys go to bed, James and I will sit downstairs in the living room and share what we think "the cutest thing" about each boy is.

Currently the cutest thing about...

• Oliver is when he wakes up from a nap, I always take him into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.  He gets so excited to see his reflection and will light up with a silly grin.  Often times, he'll giggle at himself too. I've tried doing this with the other boys.  And while they like their reflection, they just don't get into it like Ollie does.  It is seriously the cutest thing. 

• Nolan is his love for rubber duckies.  He will lay in his crib for 45 minutes "talking" to his duckies.  It's seriously like he's having a conversation with them.  Sometimes things getting heated and James and I just have to laugh.  It is seriously the cutest thing.

• Lucas is that he laughs at everything.  It's so crazy to think Lucas used to be the one you had to really try hard to get a laugh from.  Now, he laughs at just about anything and it's such a funny little laugh. He currently LOVES the game "peek-a-boo" and will laugh hysterically when you play it with him.  It is seriously the cutest thing.

Vote for us!

Just entered a contest to win a year's supply of free diapers.  With three little ones, we could definitely use that!  Please help us win by clicking the link to vote.

http://bit.ly/1mzP8EA

Thanks!

Mother's Day

Years ago, Mother's Day was a day of loneliness and sorrow.  For people who battle infertility or people who have lost either a mother or a child, this day can be full of pain.  Because I've experienced that, I think it's something I'll always be conscious of.

James and I celebrated Mother's Day last year when I was pregnant.  He bought me a beautiful silver necklace that has two bigger birds (Mommy and Daddy birds) and then underneath them are three smaller birds, each with the boys first initial on it.  I love this necklace and cherish it.  We also went out for dinner that night.  Just the two of us...but really all five of us were there.  It was nice.

This year, Mother's Day was even better because I got to really enjoy it with my trio.  I told James what I wanted most on Mother's Day was a picture of me with all three boys.  I don't have many of these since I'm usually the one behind the camera.  I got my wish and also a gift certificate for a pedicure!

The day started with some quality snuggle time with two of my favorite young men...Nolan and Lucas. They're early risers and sometimes we just bring them into bed with us if they're up before 6:00.  Soon Ollie was up too so we gave them their bottles then came downstairs for some playtime.  They ate their breakfast around 8:30 then went down for their morning nap around 9:00.  During this time, James and I got to have an uninterrupted breakfast of French Toast, bacon, coffee, and orange juice out of the deck.  It was a beautiful morning, and James and I both agreed that it just slightly reminded us of all the outdoor brunches we enjoyed on our honeymoon in St. Lucia.  Jen and Rory came over with Dakota in the late morning.  Jen and I left the babies with the men and went to HyVee to pick out some delicious steaks.  We had a late lunch where, once again, the boys went down for a nap, so we were actually able to eat with both hands.  Rory made steaks, twice baked potatoes, stuffed jalapenos, and grilled veggies.  We stuffed ourselves.

After Jen and Rory left, we just kind of relaxed for a while.  When the boys got up, we went to the backyard and took some pictures.  I adore them.

We ended our day with a nice walk around the neighborhood park in our new stroller.  It was a great end to the perfect day.

They may not all be looking at the camera or smiling, but it's still my favorite!

Yes, I have my hands full!

The sweetest boys you'll ever meet

I just love this!

Playing in the grass

Multiples of Kansas City Play Group

I'm a member of the Multiples of Kansas City group.  It's a great group that provides support to mothers of multiples.  We recently started talking about getting a play group together for all the 2 and under babies.  We had our first one this past Tuesday.  Lauren hosted and ended up having 16 little ones running/crawling around her house!  At first the thought of that many babies and toddlers under one roof gave me a bit of anxiety, but the chaos was pretty controlled and it was actually a lot of fun.  We had 6 sets of twins (5 sets of girl twins and 1 boy/girl set), our triplet boys, and a tiny little baby boy.

It'll be fun to watch the boys become more social as we do more of these.  They're mostly used to just playing with each other (and Dakota).  It'll be a good chance for them to make some friends!

Now to see if I'm brave enough to host one.  Hopefully I'll sign up to host on a nice day and we can all play out back in our big fenced in yard.

Some pictures of the craziness:

Babies everywhere!

Ollie playing dress up

 

This picture just makes me laugh

More babies!

Hi Mom!  Just baking some Mega Bloks!

Having fun playing with new toys

Hanging out under the slide

Hmm...tools!

Getting Out of the House

It's so hard to believe that during the first 6 months of the boys' lives, there were sometimes weeks that went by where we didn't leave the house.  In fact the boys never really left the house unless they had a doctor's appointment.  Part of this was because I was so protective of them when they were little.  I didn't want to risk getting my precious and fragile preemies sick by exposing them to the outside world.  And then, of course, the ugly winter came.  Not only did I not want to drag my sweet babies out in the cold snowy weather, I myself didn't want to be out in it.

Then spring hit and everything changed.  I was ready to get these boys out into the world.  They needed fresh air.  They needed experiences.  So, starting in March, I began go on lots of walks with the boys.  A couple times I took our Triple Decker stroller but soon decided I would rather take out the double jogger and wear a baby.

Aside from frequent walks, here are some of the other places we've been in the last couple months:

• Lawrence St. Patty's Day parade/Buffalo Wild Wings
• Mi Ranchito
• Kansas City Zoo
• Bass Pro Shop to see the Easter Bunny
• Consignment sale
• Gracie's first birthday party
• Paige's Baby Shower/Backyard Bash
• March for Babies walk
• Deanna Rose Farmstead (twice)
• Multiples of KC play date

Last week, I had a 8 day streak of leaving the house with the boys.  Some of those were just walks, others were actual outings.  Regardless, I'm really proud of myself that I'm not longer afraid to leave the house with three babies.  Sure, it's a lot of work to get them all packed up to go, and I'm always nervous that someone is going to act out, but so far I haven't regretted a single outing.  And now that I have a nice new triple stroller, I'm sure we'll be leaving the house even more.  I'm looking forward to checking out the OP Arboretum and story time at the library.  My sister-in-law Jen and I plan on taking the crew to the zoo again next Monday.  Can't wait!

First zoo trip of the season

Easter at Bass Pro Shop

Deanna Rose with cousin Dakota

March for Babies

Loving the new stroller!

Fun at Deanna Rose

Too much fun at Paige's shower

Nolan snoozing with Mandra

Ollie's out!

Neighborhood walk

New Triple Stroller

I have a triplet mom friend, Sarah, who is a single mom (by choice).  Her triplets are three.  I can't imagine running after three little ones all by myself. She is a rock star.  I've actually followed her blog since before our boys were born (and before I had even met her in person).  It's a great blog and you should definitely check it out: http://omgtheresthree.com.

One of her biggest hits on her blog is her stroller.  She raves on it.  I sat next to her at one of our multiples meetings and she was telling me all about why this stroller rocks.  It's the Valco Tri Mode Twin stroller with Joey seat attachment.  So it's actually a double stroller that you can make into a triple if you buy the attachment piece.  The stroller itself retails for around $700.  Once you buy the Joey seat and canopy the stroller totals about $850.  Yikes!  I knew right away that we couldn't afford this stroller.

We were previously using the Triple Decker stroller which is just a metal frame that you can click your infant carriers into.  We call it "The Bus" as it is very long.  They boys will soon grow out of their infant carriers and then this stroller will be useless to us.  Aside from these two factors, it also does not have a brake which is really inconvenient and quite frankly, not very safe.  It doesn't have a swivel wheel either, so you have to tip it to make a turn which is super annoying.  So basically, while it's worked fine for us thus far, I kind of hate this stroller.

We started researching affordable strollers online and found two that we could (kind of) afford.  The Foundations The Trio Triple Tandem (or Quad) which is around $400 or the Baby Trend Triplet stroller (inline stroller).  We were leaning towards the Foundations one.  The Baby Trend one had horrible reviews and lots of complaints about the second seat having no leg room.  The Foundations one wasn't great either though.  It had a safety feature hand brake that you had to squeeze with your hand anytime you were moving.  If you let go of it, it would activate the brake and make the stroller stop.  While this definitely makes the stroller safer, I envisioned myself getting carpal tunnel from constantly squeezing the brake.  Overall the reviews for this stroller just weren't that great.

I was starting to feel like we were going to have to throw away $400 on a crappy stroller simply because it was all we could afford.  We started looking on Craiglist for the Valco stroller that Sarah has.  This stroller is apparently very hard to find and we couldn't find it anywhere remotely close to the Kansas City area.  So we expanded our search to all the (somewhat) surrounding states.  We REALLY wanted this stroller!  We ended up finding one in excellent condition for $350 in Fayetteville, AR.  I happen to have a friend who lives there.  I asked her if she happened to be coming back to Kansas anytime soon and she said she was going to be in the KC area the very next weekend!  It seemed too good to be true.  She met up with the seller and bought the stroller for us and delivered it that next weekend.  We were so excited!  We had to buy the Joey seat and canopy new unfortunately, so the stroller ended up costing us almost $500.  We've taken it out a handful of times since then, and I'm very happy with our choice.  I even took it to Deanna Rose by myself and never had any troubles fitting through doors or gates or anything (it's just a little narrower than our double jogger).  It's a great stroller and I think it will work well for us for the next couple years.

10 Months Old

Holy Moly!  The boys are 10 months old!  I say it every month, but seriously where has the time gone?!? They're going to be a year old in two months!  That's just crazy!

Their personalities are really starting to come out and it's just fun.  Here's a brief description of each of them:

Oliver - "Ollie" is our loud one.  He's always screeching or squawking or babbling.  His new favorite thing is to jabber while he's eating.  Honestly, it's pretty cute until he spits mashed up sweet potatoes all over himself.  He is super smiley and loves to show off his mouth full of teeth.  While he only has 6 teeth and the other two boys have 8, his just look like "big boy teeth".  He's been helmet-free now for a couple months.  We're glad he doesn't have to wear it in the heat of the summer.  And of course, I love kissing his big beautiful round head!  Of the 3, Ollie is the most interested in our dog, Kahlua.

Nolan - Nolan is our little engineer.  He's always looking at things from every angle and analyzing them.  I could see him being the one down the road who takes things apart and then puts them back together.  He's very curious about everything around him and is obsessed with any type of technology (cell phones, remotes, baby monitors).  All three boys can army crawl, but he's the fastest.  He is very smart and will clap on command.  He always lights up with a big smile whenever he does it.  He recently has fallen in love with rubber duckies.  He'll cuddle them in his sleep.  It's adorable.  Nolan will likely be our first walker.  He will take a few steps if you're holding both his hands.

Lucas - Lucas is our baby.  Of the three, he has the most separation anxiety.  More often than not, he will cry when I leave his sight.  He is skeptical around strangers, and it often takes him a while to warm up to people he doesn't know (total opposite of Ollie who doesn't know a stranger).  He'll randomly shake his head "no" at things which can be really humorous when you ask him things like, "Do you like Sam Brownback?" or "Are you going to go to KU?"  While he likes to "say no", he does not like being told no.  He'll cry if we tell him or his brothers "NO!"  Mr. Sensitivity.

Things we all like right now:

• Being on the move!  We are pros at the army crawl!
• Feeding ourselves our own bottles.  Nolan and Lucas have been doing this for months but now Ollie has gotten the hang of it too!
• The TV show "Pocoyo"
• Being snuggled
• Watching Mommy or Daddy cook or clean in the kitchen
• Going on walks and/or just being outside

Things we don't like:

• Avocados 
• When Mommy leaves the room
• Nap time (mostly Nolan)
• Taking medicine (mostly Lucas)
• Getting our face washed (mostly Lucas)

March for Babies

As you all know, our three boys were born 7 weeks premature.  They each spent between five and six weeks in the NICU before getting to come home.  It seems like a lifetime ago that we were traveling back and forth to the hospital everyday.  It was our normal back then to spend more waking hours there than at home.  It was our normal to not eat dinner until 9:00 each night because we wanted to stick around for one more feed.  The NICU was a very big part of our lives but at the end of it all, when we finally were lucky enough to have our whole family under one roof, they were all healthy.  None of our boys came home on oxygen or a feeding tube.  They were...normal.  Tiny.  But as healthy as any other baby who comes home from the hospital.

We are beyond grateful for the care our boys received in the NICU.  March for Babies had a big part of this.  Their mission is "to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality."  March for Babies donations support research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives.  And they bring comfort and information to families with a baby in the newborn intensive care.

I recently discovered that March for Babies funded the research that developed surfactant therapy.  Surfactant is a liquid that helps coat the insides of your lungs.  It helps keep them open so that infants can breathe in air once they're born.  Both Nolan and Lucas had to have two rounds of surfactant shortly after they were born to help them breathe.  Knowing that March for Babies was responsible for this medical advance makes me that much more supportive and thankful for this organization.

Over the course of the last several weeks, I've been raising money for March for Babies.  I raised $440 which was added to our group (Multiples of KC) for a total of $1595.  I can't say enough Thank Yous to everyone who donated.

The March for Babies walk was this past Sunday.  It was a beautiful day.  We got up bright and early and (after feeding and dressing babies) headed downtown for the walk.  Our Multiples of KC group had a tent so we met the rest of our group there.  We got a few group photos and just kind of hung out until the walk began.

During the walk, there was a bridge that everyone had to pass over.  On that bridge were posters honoring babies.  They had white ones that said "Look at me now!" and pictured a baby picture and then a current picture.  Then they also had yellow posters that were "In Memory of..." posters. There were a lot of these and it was very emotional walking past all of them.  It just made me feel that much more blessed that my story had a happy ending.  Sadly not everyone gets that.

All in all, it was a good day.  I'm glad we went and we'll definitely be making it an annual family tradition.