not our typical post

Some of you I have talked to in the past week have heard about this story, but others haven't. Last Wednesday afternoon, one of the members in my multiple's support group was in a very serious car accident.She was driving her van with all 6 of her children (18 month old, 3yo triplets, 13 and 15 year olds) with her when she went over a hill and a pickup truck hit her head-on. Here is the story:http://www.wlwt.com/traffic/19850338/detail.html God has already started working miracles with her, as at first, it was questionable whether she would survive and if she did, whether her legs would make it, but after a few rough days, she is finally having a good day today. She has already had numerous surgeries, basically every bone from her pelvis down was broken, and has a LONG road of recovery ahead. Obviously her family is devastated right now. Her husband is the sole provider for the family, but has been by her side or with thier kids ever since the accident, so there has not been any income for a week now. While God has held this family close and things continue to progress with Michelle's health, we have to continue to pray and help this family as they work through this time. Just this past weekend, her church took a love offering, and raised $9000, and our multiples group held a golf outing where over $1200 will be donated to her family. At this time, one of the most important things is to keep thier house running as 'normal', but with no one working, there are bills and expenses that need taken care of, so that money raised will go fast-not to mention medical bills, a new van, and renovations to the house to make it accessible for Michelle when she does get to come home. Our support group has set up a family fund. If you are able to donate, even $1, please follow the below link and donate whatever you are able to help this family. If you're not comfortable donating online, there is a fund "the Michelle Ranes Family Fund" that is set up at 5/3 bank. Just make sure you tell them that's where the money is to go. http://www.tristatemultiples.com/ Thank you for your love, support and prayers!

"update the blog!"

so while josh is in the kitchen doing an absurd amount of dishes, making formula, and 2/3 babies are asleep, and i could be very productive in helping him or doing things around the house, the only thing i was told to do was to "update the blog"!!! so here we go...

The babies turned 2 months old June 10th (even though adjusted they were only +6 days!) My friend Kristie was in town, and came over to celebrate their 2nd month with an adorable heart shaped cake! They loved it!! =) (and so did i!!)

in the past few weeks, a common question i get is 'how much do they weigh now?' well, we don't have a scale at home that is very accurate, so i always just based it on what they weighed at their last dr. appt on june 5th and added a little bit and estimated the boys were in the 8's and Avery was in the upper 7's.....and i found out i'm not a good judge of weight. zach went to the plastic surgeon yesterday to have a consultation for the removal of his skin tag (which will be taking place july 8th), and got weighed....NINE POUNDS AND FOUR OUNCES!!! holy cow! so here in the next few weeks we will have outgrown the newborn size diapers, and most of the newborn size clothes! that's crazy! time is going by WAY too fast!!

here are the babies after their baths last week in their adorable pj's from my friend lindsey! obviously, if they are growing that fast, they are eating a lot too! Colby's high is 5ml's under 6 ounces!! We are going to outgrow the little bottles before we know it!! They take their paci's well between meals if they get fussy, but this is the result of zach loosing his paci, and me not getting it back in his mouth fast enough!! (this will be good blackmail when he gets older!!)

and we also have had more 'awake time' during the day. our days and nights aren't completely reversed anymore! they enjoy laying on their toy mat and even don't complain when we flip them over for some tummy time!

this past weekend we had lots of fun celebrating Josh's first Father's day. As my mom pointed out, last year on father's day, who would have ever guessed we would be where we are today! last week, josh worked a crazy schedule, so i didn't have much time to get to the store, so i had to improvise a little. we started out the day by giving him his new shirt from the babies that says "dad of triplets, that's right, i'm the man" =) and by surprising him with the babies new shirts

We went to my mom's for a wonderful lunch (again cooked by chef alex), and this time, the babies got to meet their great grandpa! when we got home, we had a little photo shoot to show off the babies shirts and to take pics with their daddy!

like father, like son

and this isn't the only time i've found him snuggled up with the babies. he LOVES to cuddle with them, and they LOVE to cuddle with their daddy. if they're fussy, all he has to do is lay them on his chest or snuggle up next to them and they are perfectly content!

also, a really good thing has started happening....a 5 hour stretch between feedings over night!!! while that doesn't mean 5 hours of sleep in a row yet, it does mean 3.5 or 4 (depending if i'm home alone or not!) in a row! the babies still sleep a lot between feedings...but the boys get very wiggly in the mornings and this is how i found Colby the other day when he woke up...

notice the sleep positioners are going vertically and Colby is horizontally...not quite how it is supposed to work!!

and in closing....here are a few more adorable pics of my babies!!

I'm semi-normal!!

This week (and by week, i mean the past 3 days that josh has been at work), i feel like we finally have things a little bit figured out around here without him. The babies and i have had lots of fun hanging out, we survived solo-mom bath night, worked out a new way to prop the bottles to feed the babies when they all want to eat at the same time, and my hands-free pump finally arrived...which is a lifesaver when there is a 1:3 ratio of mom to babies!

Bottle Propping with stuffed animals

Bottle propping with Colby's head helping out Zach

As we start to get in the hang of things, each new event is one thing more i can do with them that makes me feel semi-normal. I used the sling a few times this week when there was a fussy baby and i had other things that needed done-this week is was Colby both times, but he got to hang out in the sling while i washed dishes, did my hair and made lunch (all 3 separate occasions). I bought a cheap-o table with an umbrella for the back porch so i can sit outside with the babies without blinding them, and the biggest accomplishment was tonight...Shel and I met at Abuelos for dinner (hopefully enough spicy food to send her into labor) with all 3 babies!! It went great. The babies were awesome...even Avery who tried to skip her feeding before we left! We were obviously a sight to see...3 baby seats, one mom with a huge diaper bag, and one soon to be mom who is 9 months pregnant. We got a few comments, a few stares, but nothing too much that would keep me from doing it again!! I'm not sure what my next adventure is going to be...but so far so good!!!

ABUELOS!!

Avery~Mom~Zach

Shel~Colby

It's been a while

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. A lot has taken place since then and now. I went back to work this week so Kara has been on her own and hasn't had the time to update the site.The kids turned 8 weeks old on Friday, and have been home for just over a month. It has been great and the kids are growing like crazy. We had the 2 month checkup on Friday as well. They got their first round of shots. That was an experience. Each kid got 4 shots in the thigh and they hated it! I was worried that they were going to hate me just as much because I was the mean guy that drove them there. I was happy to find out they still loved daddy. When I got home from work that night Zach wanted to fall asleep in my arms just like before. The fliers we got from the doctor said 1 in 4 kids suffer minor side effects from the shots so I figured we had a pretty good chance of having a reaction. None of them seemed to experience any side effects so it all worked out. While we were there we found that the boys were 7 lbs 10.5 oz (Colby) and 7lbs 10 oz (Zach), and Avery is a petite 7 lbs 2 oz. She has been watching her figure.

We had fallen into a regular routine up until the time that I went back to work. Kara was going to bed at a decent hour and I had been staying up late night to do the overnight feeds. Now that I am back at work, Kara has been getting 2 or 3 less hours of sleep. Of course, this was the first week so with some adjustments she could get a little more in the future. The kids aren't eating every three hours like before. They have stretched it out to 4 or 4.5 hours between feeds. Kara did have a helping hand this week from her friend Kristie. She came in from South Carolina and stayed the night on my first night at work. When I got home at 330 in the morning, Kristie was still awake and feeding the babies. She stayed up til 9 am with them so Kara could get a couple extra hours of sleep. And of course Cooper is here to help out. He has many jobs and he has been great with the kids.

He protects He CleansAnd he even volunteers to be a pillow

As you could tell from our last post, we finally had our pictures done. They turned out great. The photographer took almost 300 pictures that day and posted her personal favorites on facebook so Kara could get them. We will get a cd with all the pics on it in the upcoming future. I didn't know it until that day but Kara has a deal worked out with her to do our 3, 6, 9, and 12 month pictures too.

I think they forgot the meaning of PLAY TIME

Ok, a little back story on this photo. It was bath day Monday. Kara and I usually do baths together but she had left for a little bit for a dr's appointment. I was bored and had everything done, bottles made, kids fed, dishes done. I decided to give the kids baths on my own. Mommy was really surprised when she got home and her little girl had a mohawk. But she is still cute!!