A Day in the Life of a Triplet

In this post, we thought we would give you a glimpse of what it is like to be a six month old triplet. Many people have said to me, "I can't imagine having three!" My response is always, "I can't imagine not having three." People always ask us how we do it and assume that life must be very crazy in our house. On the contrary, it is usually very quiet and calm. So here you go, a day in the life of a triplet!

4:00 AM Alex wakes up and decides to serenade his sisters and me. I can hear him through the monitor but since he is just chatting away and not crying, I go back to sleep and know he will too. He does.

6:00 AM My alarm goes off and I hear Ella (yes, I can tell their cries and their voices apart) half chatting/half fussing. I usually wait until 7:00 to get everyone up but I don't think she is going to wait this time. So at 6:20, I get up, feed the dogs and make the bottles to get ready for the first feeding. Here are the bottles ready for their babies.

6:35 AM I go up to get Ella and discover that she has fallen back asleep. I was not ready for that so I'm a littl discombobulated. This is how I found her. She even stayed asleep through this picture.

Here's Alex still sleeping

And Helen still asleep - she sleeps on her side like this every night.

I decide that I might actually have time to eat breakfast BEFORE the babies for a change. I go for it and I am actually able to finish a bowl of cereal before...

7:00 AM Ella is awake again so I go back up to get her

Good Morning Ella!

Grandma had time to go get Helen before she left for work.

Good Morning Helen!

And last but not least, Alex. I don't know that he was really ready to get up but we've got a schedule and for them all to go down for a nap at the same time, they all need to get up at the same time.

7:10 AM After a diaper change, the feeding begins. Helen and Ella get their bottles propped with blankets. That big space in the middle is for me where I will sit and feed Alex. I used to watch the morning news while they ate but now they have decided that the Today Show is more interesting than eating so the TV has to stay off.

7:45 AM Today is bath day so everyone gets a bath! First up is Alex.

Then Ella...

And Helen.

Bath order is determined by who is fussing more - the more fussing, the higher you move up in the bath order.

8:30 AM Everyone goes down for a nap. It is a good day, no one even fusses or cries but goes right down. It is hard to imagine needing a nap an hour and a half after waking up from 12 hours of sleep, but apparently that is what babies do.

Once they are down, I get dressed, start a load of baby laundry, clean up the bottles and chart everything. With three babies, it is hard to keep track of who has eaten what and how much and whose bodily functions are, uh, functioning properly. So here is a picture of the charts that we keep showing all the feedings and other activities.

9:00 AM My Great Aunt Rosemary comes over to help out today. After catching up for a bit, I'm off to the gym for a workout. This is my one chance to get out of the house for awhile.

11:00 AM I get home and everyone is up and getting ready to eat. I help make bottles and get everyone situated. Here is Aunt Rosemary managing the feeding.

12:00 Aunt Rosemary leaves and we have a little play time. Helen and Alex are in the round play things (I'm not really sure what they are called but they love them) and Ella is in the aquarium bouncer with one sock off.

12:30 PM Alex starts getting fussy so he goes down for a nap. Ella goes down too but since Helen slept longer than the other two during her first nap, she gets to stay up and have a little one on one time with Mommy. It is great when they are all sleeping at the same time, but it is also nice when it works out that I have only one that I can dote on. Here's Helen chewing on some of her rings.
12:40 PM Helen goes down for her nap. No one fussed this time either. The minimum nap time is one hour so I now have at least 45 minutes before I am mommy again. I use this time to eat lunch, put laundry in the dryer, and check email. I also watch a little TV.

1:30 PM Everyone is still asleep! Ella woke up and fussed for few minutes but then went back to sleep. I might actually have time to start dinner.

2:30 PM Helen and Alex are awake. I can tell it was a good nap because neither of them are crying, I can just hear them talking and cooing. I go up to get them and am quite surprised to see that Ella is still asleep. I am lucky if she sleeps for 45 mins or an hour. She's going on 2 hours now! We tiptoe out as quietly as possible and wait to see how long she will sleep.

While I get bottles ready, Alex and Helen have a little tummy time. "No Alex, you are supposed to get your head up like me. See? I don't think you are supposed to just lay your head down..."

3:00 Ella wakes up and she comes down to join the feeding. Here she is with her bottle propped just sucking away.
3:30 PM Now that everyone is fed, we have a little more play time. The girls are in the round play things.... We usually try to go for a walk around this time but today was cold (50 degrees) and windy so I decided to just stay in.

and Alex is in his Bumbo wildly flailing his arms to make the hanging things move.

4:30 Believe or not, they are ready for a power nap. Alex goes upstairs to his crib and goes right to sleep and sleeps for an hour (I promise I do not drug these kids or anything, I guess I just have kids that sleep a lot.....I'm not complaining!!)

Ella normally takes her power nap in the swing but since she took such a long nap today, she's got a sassy little smile on that says, "I don't need a nap!" About 15 mins after this picture, she fell asleep anyway :) Helen of course has no problem sleeping in her swing. I use this time to finish making dinner, check email and fold laundry.

5:15 Everyone wakes up and we play a little.

5:30 We start getting ready for bed. I make bottles and get everyone into their pajamas.

6:00 Everyone eats. I juggle Alex on my lap and try to keep the girls from knocking their bottles out of their mouth. Then I try to feed some cereal to all three. That did not go as well as planned.

6:30 We are ready for bed. Ella does not know it yet, but she really is ready for bed.

Alex in his crib...
Ella starting to sense that perhaps the fun is over....

and Helen who is happy to sleep or stay up. It's all the same to her.

As they are settling down (no major crying tonight which is pretty typical), I clean up bottles and burb clothes, put away toys, fold blankets and get all the stuff ready for another day.

7:00 Everyone is quiet and asleep. Here is the monitor that not only lets me hear what is going on in the nursery, but lights up when there is a lot of noise. Here we only have one bar lit up which means that all is quiet. Needless to say, it is usually not a good thing when all the bars are lit up.

Now we get to eat dinner and relax a little. I spend some time going through a packet of mail that was forwarded from home. Normally I use this time to do a little work, catch up on email, pay bills, write to Cecil, etc.

9:00 Bedtime for me. Time to go to bed and get ready for another fun filled day tomorrow!

See, life is not so bad with triplets. It just takes a little organization and patience. Good thing they have a type A mom who loves routine and schedules. I hear babies like those things too but even if they didn't, I don't think my kids would have a choice :) And there you go, a day in the life of a triplet is not so overwhelming and dramatic as some might think. Also, what the pictures and words do not show here, is how loveable they are and how fun all these little mundane tasks can be. Each one of them is so different and you quickly learn their quirks and who gets priority at any given time. I'll admit it is a lot to juggle and I'm always tired at the end of the day, but so worth it when I see how happy they are every morning when they wake up.