Bad Days… Gripe Water Adjustment

As I said, there are good days and bad days. I think today may qualify as a bad day… The night shift was a little better. Caitlin slept 9 hours! She didn’t wake up till 4am for a bottle which floored us. Criton and Haley did good for them as well. 

They woke up at 12am and then again at 4 am. Hopefully some day soon they will all sleep at least 8-9 hours together then I might be able to get some sleep. It’s great that they are all asleep by 8pm now, but that is too early for me. Plus that is the only time I have to write here, clean the house, and things of that nature. Now they have been getting up around 5-5:30am which drives me insane because it is way too early. I want their wake up times to be around 6:30-7:30am. That way when they reach (if they reach) that blessed 12 hours a night they will go to bed around 7pm and sleep till 7am. Anyway, this morning they decided to give me a little more nap time and got up at 6:30am! I was excited. Unfortunately I have been completely exhausted all day long. It’s like I have been running on a battery the past 6 months and all of a sudden, today, it went dead. I wonder if this will be a new trend or just a fluke day? Miche got up around 8am and we decided to get out of the house today. So I fed the babies, she got dressed, and then we got the babies around. I am starting to get more efficient at this because it only took me 1 1/2 hours to get everything together and start heading out the door. We stopped by Babies R Us and picked up diapers (getting them their in the large boxes saves you money. It almost equals out to a whole pack of diapers extra. From there we headed off to the Mall. Why the mall? One, my daughter wanted to go and window shop. Secondly it is not weather dependent for the little ones. About 20 mins after we got there the babies wanted to eat. No big deal, we found one of those lounge areas, set up shop. and got down to business.  Criton cried just a little but wasn’t a big deal. We had several people pass by and stare/ marvel at the triplets (another normal), and the we got back to shopping. We wondered around for awhile and the babies were soaking everything in. The absolutely love to go out most days. I think the change of scenery does them as much good as it does me. Well while we were in Hot Topic, Caitlin started to have a melt down. I picked her up in one arm trying to console her while pushing Criton in the single stroller. It made no sense. We just changed her, she just an hour ago… so what was wrong? Then it dawned on me. She slept 9 hours last night, thus dropping a feed. That means she is going to try and make up those ounces today. I hate when things like that aren’t my first thought, instead of my last. It would save both the babies and I a lot of heartache. So I fed her again but that didn’t stop her meltdown. Once she was done she started crying again. So I decided it was time to go home. Good thing too because Criton was starting to get worked up from Caitlin’s crying (they are so sensitive to each other).  We piled everyone back into the car and head that direction. My husband works from home but keeps regular business hours, so I have been trying not to utilize him for anything during those times. This was an exception though. Criton’s cry turned from being fussy to his “I am starving” cry. So I called my husband, told him the we had twp feeders about five minutes away. That way he had time to take a break and do whatever he needed to before we hit the driveway. Once home we got the kidos in the house and started feeding.  That should have ended the fussiness but now we had a new problem. The babies were exhausted and fighting sleep. Really, why do they have to fight sleep? They aren’t going to miss anything. So I tried to put everyone in their cribs thinking they would nap as usual but they were too far gone. They took turns fussing and waking up the other two. Finally I gave up and put them in their rocking chairs and rocked them until they fell asleep. About an hour later they were all getting up again. Caitlin was hungry, Criton was just worn out and fussy, and little Haley was irritated by the other two. The witching hour came early and I spent the next several hours trying to console 1-3 babies at once. Not an easy feat but we got through. I decided that maybe a warm bath would help settle them. I waited until 6pm to start. Then I bathed and got each one ready for bed while Michael entertained the other ones. I had made a new Gripe Water which was now cooled so I gave each one a dose prior their bottle and rocked them down. Everyone was passed out before 8pm. They have been sleeping silently since. Maybe a little too silently… I keep going in to check on them because they are not making their usual weird sounds. After I left the nursery I walked through the house and actually looked around. It is a wreck! Laundry is piling up, the kitchen looks like a tornado went through it (Miche has been experimenting with cooking), the dogs have tracked dirt all over the kitchen floor, and their are babies toys/ equipment everywhere. I am too tired to deal with it though. I suppose tomorrow is another day. Hopefully the tweak to the gripe water will work better and keep the colic away. All in all, I suppose the day could have been much worse, we have had so much worse, but I hate hearing the babies cry. So when they have all evening fussing fits it breaks my heart. Gripe Water Adjustment:   I took out the dill, crushed the fennel seeds more, and added ginger. I’ll let you know the result tomorrow!