Happy Halloween

Everyone had a great time. Dana and Dominic are not pictured, but were here and looked awesome in costume as well.

Caleb - Superman

Aliyah - Princess

Caiden - Scarecrow

Nolan - Lion

Preston - Pirate

Mya - Dorothy

Happy Halloween!!!

Update on the Babies

Originally my appointment was yesterday, but it was Caleb's first field trip and I wanted to go to that so I checked with the Dr and changed it to today. All 3 of the babies looked good and are weighing in at a whopping 3 oz. The ultrasound tech said that they had an 11% growth since I was there last and that it was really good. She was also able to guess the sexes of the babies. This may change over time since it is still very early, but as of today our higher order multiples are BBG....or Boy, Boy, Girl. I have lots of pictures, 18 to be exact that are really good. Unfortunately I do not have a scanner so you can see all of them. I did take a picture of one of them so you will get the idea. The other ones are in 4-D and much better, but this is the one and only picture that we will probably ever get of all 3 of them. Not sure if you will be able to tell what they are, but there are letters. The top baby is baby C- head on the left and feet on the right. Below baby C is Baby A and Baby B and their feet are touching so their heads are on the outside of the photo. Not the best, but you get the idea. Caleb is going to call them Shrimp. I must go read to my singleton now and hit the hay myself. Feeling a bit tired myself.

No charge!

So, I have had my current camera for about 6 months and the inevitable happened this week....my charger is missing! If you do not know my track record with cameras, it has not been great. This has been my third camera in about 2 years. The one prior to the current camera was given to me at Christmas last year and lost at Caleb's birthday party just 3 months later. It was a tragic day and I am still very upset about it. This incident on the other hand was not so tragic, just frustrating. Since my camera is so new, they did not sell chargers at the store to replace the one I lost. I had to go online and order a new one and fortunately they were able to get it to me quickly (for a fee of course). I was happy to see the little box outside our door this evening when I returned from work with the precious words Panasonic. You can't imagine how hard it is to have this blog now and not have a digital camera. I actually had to go and buy a throw away camera on Tuesday so I could take pictures of Caleb's first field trip, which by the way was a really good time. We went to the pumpkin patch and he got to ride the bus there and was REALLY excited. As soon as I get those developed and a disc, I will upload some photos, provided any of them turned out. Hard to tell when there is no little screen, but kind of exciting at the same time! Battery on charger at 5pm fully charged and ready to go by 7pm. Back in business......this is the boy's finishing up carving the pumpkin.

Mark decides to chime in....

After reading previous entries by a certain some one I won't mention, I decided it was about time to chime in. First of all, in case the cyber world is wondering, I'm doing great. Andi goes to bed early which allows me to enjoy the man room downstairs and a couple of drinks. Yes, It turned into drama searching for the superman cape for the party. It was under the covers at the foot of my bed. Andi has no clue what I went through to find it. There was no way Caleb was going to let us go without finding it. There was also NO WAY Andi would have let me live it down. I'm not sure who would of been worse to deal with, a crying 3 year old or a triple hormonal pregnant wife. I had to get the job done. Well I don't want to go on to long. Just a note . This holiday season I will be launching the movie trailer for the new babies. Stay tuned.

Tickets

The tickets have been interesting and I think Caleb is getting the hang of it. Last night he only got two tickets since it was late and because he had a rough time actually getting to bed. He gets 3 books each night and I read those. His new thing is to ask Mark to read him another book which is allowed as long as he turns in a ticket. Well, I think Caleb picked out the longest Curious George book on the shelf. I kept hearing him sigh and at one point he skipped a page, which of course Caleb noticed right away. Mark said the pages were stuck together, but I'm not so sure :). When that was done he wanted me to lay down with him, which of course for one ticket he gets 5 minutes. After about 1 minute he decided that he needed water so I told him that if he wanted water I had to get up. Can you believe it! I was traded for WATER! Mommy vs water and the water won. He must have been really thirsty! I didn't mind, I was exhausted by that time and went straight to bed myself.

SUPERMAN!!!

Well, I think I mentioned that I was one of the two planners of the fall party for MOMS Club. Well, the party was last night and it was a success! Babloo was the entertainment and if you have children and have not ever seen him he is a really good time. All of the kids wear their costume and it is so cute. Can you guess what Caleb was by the title of this post? He was SUPERMAN! He has been drinking his milk (not really but this is what he says) to get big and strong like Superman and he even told the lady at target when her gets bigger he is going to fly. Her response was 'good luck with that'. Caleb has been so tickled about Halloween and was very anxious to get into costume. So, the night before the party he had to sleep with it. Unfortunately this did present a problem for Mark getting him ready since he could not find his cape. I'm sure there was a lot of drama at home looking for it but finally it was located in a small ball in the corner of the bed. It was definitely a key piece so I'm glad it was located. Once the crowds cleared out Caleb was running and sliding across the floor on his belly with his hands straight out in front-it was hilarious and he actually looked like superman. Here are some pics from the party.

Grandma's House

Who says that Grandma's house is all fun and games?? Well, Caleb has been going to Grandma's on Tuesday and Thursday's after school since Trisha had Aliyah and his usual day on Friday. He really loves to go there, but I sometimes wonder why? Well she sent me a couple of pictures to document his time with her. Last Friday he was put to work planting a dog tree aka dogwood tree. Apparently they picked it out together and he insisted on putting it in the car, moving it out of the car and across the driveway and helped to plant it. I think working in the yard is one of his favorite things to do there and believe me, she gives him work to do.

In addition to working and eating, he does get some down time. He likes to lounge on the furniture for this. I don't have any current photos of him laying on the island in the kitchen eating ice cream in his jammies while watching a movie, but this should illustrate the point.

Another large part of his time there is spent cooking. Hamburger helper at 7 am - No Problem! This is a photo of him waiting for another one of her famous dishes, buttered noodles. He is patiently waiting for them to cook so he can add the best part- BUTTER! He would eat butter with a spoon if we would let him.

Balloon Glow

It is not too often that you will see Caleb and I in a photo together since I am normally the photographer. This is the last of the older photos and I promise from now on it will be all new stuff. This was taken at the balloon glow at Forest Park on September 19th.

Pumpkin Carving - Early October

Ok, so I can't resist posting some older photos. Caleb went to the pumpkin patch with Grandman and PaPa drew a face on it so of course Caleb insisted that he carve it as soon as he got home (mind you this was 3 weeks ago). He remembered where the pumpkin carver was (he has the mind of an elephant) and he and Mark went to town. As you can see he was VERY proud of his pumpkin. I'm sad to say that we had to throw it away a couple of weeks ago since it was already rotten.

Bon-Fire

So here at the only two pictures that I took! Caleb and Mark roasting a hot dog and Jason (my brother) and Logan just chillin.

Still working out the issues with the photos of the babies. Julie scanned them for me, but something is not right with them so I will have to find a plan B. I have called in the back up (Sam) just in case I can not figure it out tonight but there was no need too. Check out the belly. This is at 12 weeks, but on Friday I was measuring 15 weeks. 3 babies so I guess that adds 3 extra weeks??

So, I am starting to wonder if I am really pregnant and not just going through puberty or both. When I was in puberty I do not think I had this many problems with my complexion. Now, if you looked at me you might not be able to tell because they are the blemishes that are under the skin that are just downright painful. Oh, and that 'pregnancy glow' which I like to refer to as my blotchy cheeks is not boding well either. I guess I should consider myself lucky. If this is all I have to complain about out of 12 weeks other than being tired.

Anyway, we had a really great weekend. We had a bonfire at our house on Saturday night and it was a lot of fun. This time it was a little more even as the adult to kid ratio was 23:14. I had planned on taking lots of pics, but I only took two and they were before everyone even showed up. It always amazes me how the time flies when we have people over and then the next day I think to myself did I even talk to everyone? Things seem so hectic, but I guess it might have to do with chasing my singleton aka Caleb around to make sure he was being a good host to all of his friends. This is the picture of Mark and Caleb roasting a hot dog early in the evening. Caleb continued to check on the fire all night and even twice yesterday. Thanks to Mark's Aunt Lisa we got a new disciple book that is apparently a awesome. I am only on chapter 2 but dying to get to the rest of it. So far what they tell me is that this book will help people who have tried everything else and nothing is working. After Caleb's performance in Target Saturday morning I am ready to try anything. Mark is most excited about providing him tickets at bedtime. Apparently this is in some part of the book even though he has not read it. So last night he was given 3 tickets. These were not just any tickets, but Rams game tickets, probably preseason or something. Caleb was very excited about them, however I don't think he has the concept yet or he would not have liked them so much. The though is that he can only ask for 3 things once he is in bed, whether it be water or another hug or needing to tell a secret to one of us, etc. He turned in one right away so I could lay down with him for 5 minutes and when I was in there he decided that he needed to mail one and that the mail man needed to pick it up. He put it on the floor at the end of his bed and then the mail man (aka daddy) was summonsed. Unfortunately, the mail man was in the shower so he had to wait. Then, he decided that he was going to use his ticket to go to the rams game next week and he was 'so excited'. When my 5 minutes was up he needed to tell me a secret and so on. He finally went to bed at some point. Not sure though, since I was busy ready my new book. Can't wait to see what bedtime will bring tonight!

12 Weeks!

Well technically I will be 12 weeks tomorrow, but its late and we have a busy day tomorrow (pumpkin patch and bon-fire). The last two months have been a whirl wind since we found out that we were having triplets! Lots of planning and things to think about. I joined a group called MOMMES (Mothers of Multiples in the Metro East and St. Louis) and they have been awesome. I was given a mentor to help me with any questions I have and she has been great. The funny thing is that we share the same OB so we at least started with something in common :) She also lives here in South County and was also a member of the MOMS Club that I am in so she recognized my name. Baby Gear!! The first big items I got were my car seats. They are practically brand new (17 months old to be exact) and Laura (my mentor) gave me them! What a deal! They were given to her by some organization at the hospital so she wanted to pass them along to another triplet mother. They are the graco snug ride in a very popular pattern that everyone has. Oh, and two of them are a coffee and black color and the other.....can you guess.....it is PINK! The next big item I found was a stroller for all of those seats to sit in. Basically it is a metal frame that weighs 21lbs. $415 new and someone in the MOMMES group was selling it for $150 and it is in great condition. We're on a roll.....the next big items we needed were baby beds and I was able to find two at reasonable prices. Oh....and you wonder where are we going to put these little bundles of joy when they get here? Good question! Poor Caleb is going to have to move back into the 'baby' room. We of course will be redecorating and grandpa has agreed to make him a bunk bed so that will make it super cool-what kid would not want that? Ok, this is the 3rd night this week I have been up past 10 and I just noticed it is 10:03. Yeah-I think I am getting my energy back-Hooray! Ok, for real though it may be 10 and I did get up before 6 this morning with no nap (can you believe it) so I really have to go. I will try to keep this as updated as possible and I promise that I will have pictures added soon (as soon as I figure this all out). The hope is that Mark will add some posts as well.

Catch Up

As you can see I am trying to play catch up. I will post some pictures as soon as I have them scanned. Now that I am pregnant with triplets, it brings into play a whole new lingo that I was not aware of in the past. Caleb is known as a singleton and I am pregnant with higher order multiples. And once you know what the sexes of the babies are, you will be categorized into BBG, GGB, BBB or GGG, B standing for boy and G standing for Girl. Not hard to figure out, I must admit, but definitely not anything I was in tune to before. And.....we will be finding out what the babies are as soon as they are able to tell. I was hoping at my next appointment on the 28th, but I think I will just be a week or so shy of being able to tell. If not then, I have another appointment in 4 weeks and they will for sure be able to tell then. I think it is two girls and a boy, but who knows and who cares as long as they are healthy...but we are hoping for at least 1 girl! The other thing is are they identical or fraternal? The babies growing inside me are all fraternal, meaning they all are living in their own sack and have their own placenta. This scenario is optimal since indenticals share a sack and placenta which makes it a little riskier. The odds of having identical triplets are one in 200 million! Believe it or not there were actually two couples in NY that had identicals, one set was born in March and the other was born last Friday.

10 Weeks

At 10 weeks we went and saw a high risk specialist named Dr. Moore. She was super nice and very funny. Are all of the 'female' doctors that goofy? Mine for some reason seem to be. Anyway, she gave us all of the good and bad but tried to remain mostly positive. Even though my due date is May 3, 2009 (ironically Mark and I's 6th anniversary) we are hoping to make it to April fools day, which would be 36 weeks. The average for triplets is 32 weeks so that means some go come earlier and some come later. Obviously, the longer I can cook them the better. She also called me a 'player' since I delivered Caleb 5 weeks early due to my high blood pressure. This got me a sure fire ticket to a whole list of tests and let me tell you, the 24 hour urine study was the best! I never knew how much I actually peed in one day! Apparently the lady at the lab only thought I needed one jug, when in actuality I needed another one by 9pm and I had to continue saving for another 10 hours! That is a story for another time. My next appointment was with my regular ob on October 17th (today) and back with specialist on October 28th.

Pregnant ..... times 3!

Wow, at one point we were facing the possibility of not having any more children. The next thing you know we are in the Dr's office staring at a monitor with 3 little sacks with 3 little babies. Could it be true? Yes, it was true, the Gardner family of 3 would be doubling!