The Stomach Flu of 2014

When it comes to parenting, there are few things more difficult than having your babies be sick.  It's difficult to watch your little one suffer...but so much worse when you have three that all need you at the same time.  Let's face it, when your child doesn't feel well, all they want is to snuggle with Mama. This is hard when there is only one mama and three babies.

The stomach flu has hit our family and it's been rough.  Daddy got sick.  All three boys got sick. Fortunately (knock on wood) Mommy has stayed healthy...so far anyway.  Though dealing with all this has brought me to the brink of insanity.  All day long, the boys just fight over me.  We've had lots of tears (from everyone including me).  Lots of fighting.  I'm just so ready to be past this.

Fortunately the actual throwing up has only lasted a couple of days.  Hopefully we'll be on the up and up soon enough.

Sprawled out of the living room floor with our blankets from cousin Maddie

Ollie sleeping in Mommy's bed

Nolan at the doctor's office 

Finally started to feel better, so we went on a walk.  Poor Nolan was exhausted.

Sweet Sweet Nolan

If you've talked to me lately, you know I've been overwhelmed with the challenges of having three toddlers...particularly toddlers that:

• throw temper tantrums that involve banging their heads on any hard surface in sight
• have major separation anxiety
• don't feel the need to sleep anymore
• constantly fight with each other 

I love my boys dearly, and there are a lot of fun things about this age.  But quite frankly, it's really hard!  I've been really anxious about the winter months approaching.  For a while there, after we dropped our morning nap, we were leaving the house every morning: walks, trips to the park, play dates, going to the zoo, etc.  We kept pretty busy.  The days when we didn't get out of the house were the ones when we saw an increase in behavior problems.  I'm honestly dreading this winter when we're going to be stuck in the house for days at a time.  It's going to be rough.  It's already rough...

But just when I think I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE, these boys do things to remind me how lucky I am to be their mom.

Perfect example:

This morning Nolan woke up around 6:30.  He's been waking up several times in the middle of the night lately, and so 6:30 comes early these days.  The other boys don't typically wake up until closer to 7:30 or even 8:00.  This morning, I just wasn't ready to be up, so I went and got him and brought him back to bed with me.  He started fussing and squirming around, so I started to sing to him ("Wagon Wheel", of course).  He instantly closed his eyes and snuggled into me and fell asleep.  Life was good.  Mama was able to fall asleep too!  We both lay together until almost 8:00 when I woke up and saw that he was still sleeping.  He looked so sweet and innocent laying next to me and I just couldn't take my eyes off of him.  After a while, he stretched out and opened his eyes.  When he saw me, he instantly smiled the most sweet and genuine smile I've ever seen.  It made my heart melt. Then immediately after that sweet smile, he leaned in and gave me a kiss.  These are the moments that I need to try to remember when it's 5:00 in the morning and I'm up with a baby who hasn't slept since 1:00. 

16 Months

weight:

We haven't done an official weight check since their 15 month appointment.  We have weighed them right before baths on our bathroom scale though.  Their approximate weights are: 

Oliver - 24 lbs, 9 oz

Nolan - 20 lbs, 9 oz

Lucas - 20 lbs even

sizes (no changes): 

Oliver - 12-18 month clothes, size 4.5W shoes

Nolan - 6-12 month clothes, size 4 or 4.5 shoes

Lucas - 6-12 month clothes, size 4 shoes

teeth: 

Oliver - 15 - He's still waiting on his bottom left eye tooth  He's been extra whiny and clingy lately.  I think they've been hurting him pretty bad.

Nolan - 16 (no change)

Lucas - 16 (no change)

eating habits: 

Not a lot has changed in this department.  For the most part, they still all eat well.  We can always count on Oliver to eat all his fruit first.  Nolan is a bread guy.  And Lucas is obsessed with pasta. Nolan is probably our pickiest eater.  He really isn't interested in fruit other than bananas, mandarin oranges, and canned peaches.  Lucas is surprisingly our best eater, despite being the smallest.  Ollie is somewhere in the middle.

sleeping habits: 

Nolan is still really struggling with sleep.  He never sleeps through the night anymore.  He's been waking up several times every night and is often hard to get back to sleep.  He just wants Mommy or Daddy to stand by his crib all night and rub his back.  He's lately gotten into the habit of throwing his little blankey over the side of his crib.  He'll then cry hysterically until one of us comes in to get it. Talk about manipulation.  His middle of the night antics have been interfering with Lucas' sleep, so we finally decided to separate them again.  We did this for about a month around 11 months because they were keeping each other up.  We eventually were able to put them all back to together (which is ultimately what we prefer).  Things are getting rough again though, so Nolan has been sleeping in the pack n' play in the guest room.  He's still having a rough time, but at least Lucas is sleeping better now.  Ollie continues to be our perfect little sleeper.

gross motor:

All three boys are walking well.  Nolan and Lucas are now "running" around the house.  Ollie is getting much steadier on his feet, but he still can't get into standing position without pulling up on something.  All three love to climb the "steps" on our play set out back.  

fine motor: 

All three boys continue to be very interested in putting smaller objects into bigger containers.  They also really like Mommy to build things out of the Mega Bloks so they can take them apart.

language/communication (underlined words are new this month):

Oliver - waves, claps, gives kisses, points to his head when asked, signs all done, milk, says mama, dada, hi, uh-oh, auntie

Nolan - waves, claps, gives/blows kisses, signs all done, milk, ball, says mama, dada, ball, done, book

Lucas - waves, claps, gives/blows kisses, signs all done, milk, more, says mama, dada, done, ball

special outings/events:

We've done lots of Halloween/fall events this past month (Maple Leaf Fest in Baldwin, trunk or treat with my multiples group, SRE Halloween parade, trick or treating, hay ride).  We also went to Mommy's work for the first time.  This did not go very well, but we'll try again.  We also visited the library for the first time.  Grammy, Papa, and Auntie Cole visited!

MY BIG BOYS!

Happy Halloween!

If you know me at all, you know that I love Halloween.  Dressing up is just so much fun and every year I really get into.  So obviously I would be that mom who has her children's costumes planned out a year in advance.

This year we went with the Wizard of Oz theme.  Oliver was the lion, Nolan was the tin man, and Lucas was the scare crow.  Daddy and I dressed up as the wizard and Dorothy (respectively).  I have to say, I'm rather proud of my ability to get our costumes on a budget.  Halloween costumes these days are outrageously priced.  There was no way I was going to spend $40 per costume.  So I sought out used costumes.  I ended up getting Oliver's on eBay, Nolan's on a local swap shop, and Lucas' was so generously given to us by a fellow mom of multiples.  I ended up getting all three costumes for $25.  My costume was borrowed from a former coworker and James' was pieced together with items we already had.  He just had to buy a fairly inexpensive top hat.

In the end, I think we looked pretty fabulous.  Not only did we put it all together on a budget, but we certainly got our money's worth by wearing them so much.  The boys dressed up for the Maple Leaf Fest in Baldwin City, a Trunk or Treat event with our multiples group, and actual Halloween (which included trick or treating at Daddy's work that morning, going to the annual costume parade at my former school, and trick or treating that night).

Here are some pictures:

MAPLE LEAF FEST

TRUNK OR TREAT

 

TRICK OR TREATING @ DADDY'S WORK

HALLOWEEN NIGHT