Triple Time

I don't think I've posted about this before, but for any triplet mamas that might be reading this, I would highly recommend getting a Triple Time schedule book. It is so very helpful when you have newborn triplets at home. A fellow triplet mom told me about it and I just ordered it and didn't even know what it was or why I needed it. Basically, what is comes down to is that it's a spreadsheet to keep track of daily feedings, diapers, medicines, appointments and so forth. When the boys were in the NICU, their nurses would consistently take their temperature, change their diaper and feed them (mostly with a feeding tube until the end) every 3 hours around the clock, and when that happened, they would record it all. After the boys came home from the hospital and I would take them to the pediatrician, I needed to (and was expected to) remember how much each of them were currently eating, the last time they pooped, how many wet diapers a day they had, how often they were spitting up and anything and everything else you could possibly think of. I do not have a great memory. Add in the sleep deprivation and the fact that there were THREE of them to keep track of and remember all the details for and I was a goner. Luckily, I had this book and religiously tracked everything. I was also insistent that anyone that came over to help write everything down as well. I would take the book with me each and every time I went to the doctor or had to call the nurse. Each time the boys came down stairs, the book came too. When we took the boys back upstairs, we carried the book up as well. I relied so heavily on it. I continued to use it until they were about 9 or 10 months old and even then I was reluctant to quit my book. I was hooked. I don't miss it now but was very grateful to have it at the time when I really needed it.

I was reminded of the importance of my Triple Time book recently when I recommended it to an expecting triplet mom. I thought I should blog about it. I hadn't thought about it for such a long time since I hadn't used the book since last May, but it re-entered my mind and I realize that I should continue to spread the word about it. I hope that any expectant or new triplet mamas reading this will get the book and will find it to be as helpful as I did.

I actually pulled it out and took a look for old times sake. WOW! Paging through the book, which I intend to keep, I was immediately reminded of our schedule and what the days were like back then. I can say without a doubt, it has gotten much, much easier. Whew!!!!

This book seriously looks old school

We didn't write down all of our appointments all the time, but religiously tracked diapers, feedings and medicine. We had abbreviations for lots of stuff and it was funny to see all the different handwriting in there from our many helpers over those first several months. Here are a few pictures of pages out of my legendary (in my mind) book.



11/10/13 - the boys had only been home with us all together for less than a week.
Check out that brutal feeding schedule - every 3 hours!

Last January - Looks like we began skipping the 3 AM feeding at this point and
we had gotten all the boys on Zantac (noted here with a Z) for reflux and 
were having issues with them not wanting their bottles at times (HTF = hard to feed).

This was a day full of spit up. 1 for Stokes, 1 for Ryan and 3 for William. Nice.

Ryan was spitting up quite a bit and had started having spasms, although I didn't
know what they were at the time. I was tracking the "weird eye rolls" that I had noticed.
I wanted to see how often it was happening and if I could make some sort of correlation
to what brought it on. Outcome - it was happening too much and there was no pattern
of when/why it would happen. 

Just another day in paradise ;)