Day 8

Ahhh...sleep is a wonderful thing. The girls slept from 6:30 last night until 7:30 this morning. That's right - 13 hours straight and not a peep out of them.

Our feet hit the floor at 7:30 - and we're rushing! We have to all be at church by 9:30 and we need to be packed for the entire day because we aren't coming home after church. So we get downstairs and we all eat breakfast. Then while I get the girls dressed for the day - Pete goes and takes a shower. I try to get some stuff packed in their bag but they're not being very cooperative this morning. They keep fighting over a toy we brought back from Jen's house on Friday. Pete comes downstairs and I run up to shower and get myself dressed.

We make it out the door and on the road by 9:25 - just in time to get to church for the 9:30 mass!

Church ends at 10:45 - it was a long mass. The girls were good (thank you very much makers of Cheerios). And we have to go home. We need to bring the girls picnic table up to MA with us so we need to stop at home and get it...and the camera cuz I forgot it. So we decide to give the girls a snack while we're here before we hit the road. It's only an hour drive but they'll sleep on the way up.

We leave at noon to get to MA and only hit a bit of traffic. So we get there around 1:30. My grandmother has a play scape at her place so the girls are having a ton of fun hanging out with Gramps Robbins going down the slide. At one point another little girls came along and was about to go down the slide when Hailey almost bulldozed her while screaming at her. The poor little girl. She was 3 times bigger and 5 years older than Hailey - but apparently the slide was "Hailey's" slide and no one else should have dared go down it. I gave Hailey the stern 'you be nice' talk and let the little girl go down the slide. She got to the bottom, looked at me and said "that girl is crazy" and walked away.

Both my cousins showed up with their kids (minus Daniel...he had a game today). It was a very nice day spent with family. We all ate dinner - even the girls ate spaghetti...which they've always just turned their noses up to before so I guess it's just my cooking...lol. And we had to leave early as usual - the girls need to be on their schedule. Lately we've been flexing on their naps by letting them sleep in the car if we're going for a long car ride. But at night...they need to be in bed at home by their bedtime (or close enough to it). This is something many people don't understand - but also something Pete and I don't budge on.

When you have triplets that sleep through the night (with few exceptions of course) from 5 months on - you don't mess with their sleep schedule. No matter how much people beg us to stay somewhere...we always say no. We just can't. If we let the girls off their schedule - we're the ones that have to deal with the consequences. It won't be like this forever...and we keep reminding each other of this. It's just the way it is for now.

We get home around 5:30, feed the girls dinner, give them a bath, brush teeth, read books and in their cribs. Hailey threw her bear out of her crib. Usually I'd just go right back in there but she was really throwing a fit. I waited about 15 minutes and finally she won. I went back in and gave her the bear...but then I walked right back out. She finally settled down and went to sleep.

It sucks sometimes to be a parent of triplets. Tonight I would have loved to just pick Hailey up and cuddle with her for a while. There are times when I'd love to let them sleep in my bed. And times when I'd love to just hold them as long as they want to be held. But we simply can't. If we let one sleep in our bed - then they all sleep in our bed. That's just not possible. And of course with three of them - we can't hold just one of them all the time. It's hard to find the balance. Hannah needs a lot more attention than Hailey & Emily need. So we make sure she gets it. But there are just little things that we miss out on that other people take for granted. It was the number one thing I was afraid of when the docs said there were 3. I was afraid I wouldn't get that one on one time with each one of them that other parents get with just one baby. And I was right. I don't get that time. But there is so much more that Pete and I get - so it all balances out I guess.

After the girls went to sleep - Pete cleaned the kitchen while I cleaned the living room. Then I folded the girls laundry and got their clothes ready for the next 2 days. Tomorrow is my long day so I have to get things ready for Monday and Tuesday. Little brother came over for a bit to visit. I love when he just stops by to hang out. He wasn't here for very long - but it's nice that he comes to hang out. Makes me feel special. ;-)

I finished the laundry and started writing this blog. I'm laying on the floor (I started off sitting while I was folding laundry) and Pete gave me the best back massage ever. It's the small things in life I suppose. ;-)

Today was a great day. I think this blog needs more detail about what Pete and I talk about/discuss during the day rather than just the motions of what we've done. I'll try to work on that a bit more. Things like how we decided today that the girls don't actually need toddler beds. We are going to just put their mattresses on the floor and empty out their room. All that will be in their room is their bedding and mattresses. We thought it would be easier for them (and us) to maybe have sleep overs (for anyone willing to take them!) if they get use to just sleeping on a mattress. Plus - it'll save us $ not to buy 3 toddler beds of course. But it's things like that - we talk about them in passing. But no one knows about it...it's just something we discuss. And something like - Pete was all stressed out about church lasting longer than we thought today so we were a bit 'behind schedule' and he started to get cranky about it. He turned all drill sergeant on me and starting just barking out things that were going to happen. I just had to remind him that we were going to have a good day and we didn't have to be anywhere at any certain time so if we're a bit late - it's fine! He reminds me of things like this sometimes too. It's easy to get caught up in having to do things on schedule and being determined not to lose 5 minutes. But today...we could afford the 5 minute break. And it was nice.