Okay, here is the list, I will try to cover everything I can think of but anyone is welcome to e-mail questions,
concerns, criticisms! Warning, I bottle fed, not breastfed. If you choose to breastfeed, skip over the parts about the formula/bottles/schedule.
PRIOR TO BIRTH/AND OR BEDREST
I did not get the Triplet Connection forum expectant parents package so I cannot personally vouch for the
contents although those that have gotten it, seem to love it.
Drink water
Get lots of sleep/rest. Two reasons, one your body needs it, it takes
a lot out of you to carry the extra weight. Second, since it is very hard
to maintain the nutritional intake to feed three fetuses and you, if you reduce the calorie and nutritional requirements that
YOU need, it will be easier to for you to meet the demands for them.
Drink more water
Ob/Peri - No matter how old or young you are, a triplet pregnancy is a high-risk pregnancy, end of discussion. See at least a high risk OB or a peri, or have both managing your care.
Drink some more water.
Do not stay with an OB that you feel is acting too nonchalant about the whole thing. It is not the time to be reactive; it is time to be PRO-ACTIVE.
Then drink some more water. (Oh, anything that does not have caffeine in it will do just fine. Caffeine is a diuretic,
try to stay away from caffeine) Okay, I think you get the picture on water, just mentally stick it in between the rest of
the instructions.
If something doesn’t “feel” right go to your doctor or to a hospital, your body is trying to
tell you something. Who cares if the hospital dedicates an entire wing to you,
financed by your insurance company? It’s not worth it to ignore those feelings.
Go to the library and check out every book on caring for premature babies. Libraries also have magazine archives
where they usually keep 24 months of back issues of magazines, and these can be checked out just like books. Get or have someone get you the last 24 months of Baby, or Parenting, or Ladies Home Journal or Hot Rod
Magazine, (whatever trips your trigger) or some other magazine that you don’t receive at home. Beats paying for the new ones!
Maternity clothes – don’t overspend on these, unless you are planning on more children! And if you
are planning additional children, still don’t overspend. Save your money,
because you will need it to get you out of the Looney bin! Just kidding, one
more sounds good to me, and that guy with the white coat and long net looks kinda like Mel Gibson, don’t you think?
Anyway, hit up the xxxl men’s dept. I bought a couple of really
cheap men’s turtleneck sweaters, yes they will be baggy through your chest and shoulders, and the arms will be too long,
same with BIG men’s t-shirts, and BIG men’s sweat pants. But they are cheap, and they are comfortable, and you
will probably grow out of regular maternity clothes before you deliver so you will need them anyway. Plus you can sleep in the really big t-shirts to, even after you have the babies. Then go get yourself the biggest denim jumper from the Women’s Plus-size departments. If you are already a plus size person like myself, well, you may have to stick with
stretchy stuff, like maternity leggings from Sears, a size or 2 larger, under your men’s t-shirts and turtlenecks. If
you are handy with a sewing machine or know someone who is, you can get him or her to make you a maternity jumper with extra
room in the front. Believe me, you won’t be going far or often so just
get something that you can be very comfortable in, and forget how it looks.
Make sure you get a tour of the NICU and make sure that the NICU in the hospital that you will be delivering in
is a level three. We were not offered the tour, and it can be a bit overwhelming
at first. If the hospital you have chosen does not have a level III NICU, CHOOSE
ANOTHER HOSPITAL. Yes, we all hope that you make it past the critical point,
but if you don’t do you really want to be in a different hospital than your babies?
Verify and clarify insurance coverage right now, it would be a real shame (and it has happened) to choose a hospital
and a NICU, deliver your babies, and then find out that the NICU DOCTORS are not in your plan (most hospital NICUS are staffed
by another organization, such as Pediatrix.) Check on AFLAC, in some states this
insurance supplement is absolutely a godsend.
Get the list of companies that offer freebies and/or discount offers from Triplet Connection, and write your letters
now, and address your envelopes, you can’t mail them yet, because most need a copy of the birth certificates to be valid. I did not write my letters as a demand, instead I wrote to the effect of: if you have
a multiples program, could you please forward information on how to participate, etc.
Contact a multiples group in your area, go to a few meetings, or if you are on bed rest, perhaps someone from the
multiples group could come visit you to help you pass the time, and be a live person, that you can ask questions face to face.
Bed-rest time, there are thousands of things you can do on bed-rest. All
those photos you have been meaning to put into albums? Great time to do it. Get someone to get you some blank albums, some markers, some blank peel and stick
labels, and go to town. Read the books you checked out on premature babies. Start or keep up with a pregnancy journal.
All those sono photos you’ve been carrying around in your wallet? Start
baby albums. One for each baby and one for yourself, one for each grandparent,
or aunt and uncle if you are so inclined. Write thank you cards for your gifts.
Was there something that you wanted to learn how to do? Videos from the
library can teach you just about anything, from a foreign language to how to play the guitar.
Since scrap booking has become very popular why not give it a whirl?
If you make it to week 30, and I certainly hope that everyone does (or it looks like you may be put on strict bed-rest
soon) this is the time to start pre-preparing meals for when you go to the hospital, and for when you are running back and
forth. One thing that I did that was invaluable was to buy a bunch of ground
beef, brown it, and then lay it on cookie trays to freeze, gather it up, and put it in zip lock bags and/or microwave-able
containers. If you freeze it like this, then you can scoop out what you need, rather than have to use a whole chunk that is
frozen together. You can also steam or cook boneless skinless chicken breasts
and freeze them as well. Also, cook boxes (slightly under cook them) of
noodles, coat them with oil, and freeze them as well in either family size or individual portions. Then you can make spaghetti, or beef-a-roni, chicken Parmesan, chicken, noodles and gravy, chicken salad,
tacos or fajitas, or whatever, without any preparation, and a minimum of dishes. Oh,
stock up the paper or styro-foam plates, disposable cups, and cutlery if you chose.
BIRTH/HOSPITAL
Check your NICU visitation policy before hand, so no ones feelings will be hurt.
Limit YOUR visitors. Everyone carries germs, even if they are feeling
well at the moment. It would be a real shame for you to catch something, and
then not be able to visit your own babies when they need you so badly, or provide breast milk.
You can occupy your time in the hospital by writing the thank you cards for your shower if you haven’t already
done this. Hospital stays are very boring, and you will also become very bored
sitting in the NICU staring at the isolette waiting until the next feeding, but you won’t want to leave.
You can also do a NICU Journal, (I didn’t and I am regretting it)
Participate in the care of your baby IN THE NICU; most NICUs have a checklist of things you have to know before
they go anyway. This is an overwhelming experience even for practiced moms. It’s a whole different ball game this time, well, unless you had other children
who did NICU time.
Continue to take your vitamins, and drink water, it is very good for you.
BABY EQUIPMENT/SHOWER IDEAS
On baby equipment. Lets first repeat a simple lesson…. Baby
equipment manufacturers want you to buy their products, so they will try and convince you that you cannot be a good great
or fantastic mom if you don’t use their product. BALONEY! And of course they will use the cutest and most adorable babies in their commercials to get you to buy
the stuff.
Okay, this may be a VERY unpopular opinion, but one of the biggest reasons that it seems overwhelming to take care
of three babies is because everybody SAYS it is, and makes such a big deal out of it.
Not that it isn’t a big deal, but it’s not a BAD big deal!!!!
Lets start with the things that you will need three of.
Car seats. For the first 1year and at least 20 lbs, you will need
a rear facing infant seat. Many people are inclined to buy the rear facing/front
facing 0-45 lbs $3000 dollar models that you put in the car and leave in the car. This
means that you have to maneuver a baby into a car seat that is permanently anchored and facing the opposite way as you.
Maybe this will work if you just have one baby because you can actually sit on the seat next to the car seat and
strap the baby in, but guess what? You wont be able to sit next to the car seat
because there will be another CAR SEAT THERE! So you will either have to lean
your upper body over the car seat to strap the baby in, or crawl in from the rear of the vehicle to lean over the seat (providing
you have a van or suv). MUCH easier to put the baby in the seat in the house,
and then carrier the seat to the car, thread the seat belt through it, in the appropriate places, and viola! You are off and
running.
Even most singleton moms find the infant carrier seats useful, because you can leave them in the seat when you
go places, like grandmas, or the doctors, without using the stroller. You aren’t
going to want to take a stroller into your mothers or mother in laws living room as a place for the sleeping babies to sit
or lay do you? Plus they are designed to “lock” onto shopping cart
seats, so no need to use the stroller to grab a few items in a store. You can
carry all three of them at the same time when they are little, one on each arm and one in the middle. You can put all three of them in a large shopping cart, one in the seat, and two in the basket. Hey, and now they even have the Triple Decker Stroller (only takes certain infant seats though) which makes strollering for the first year a cinch!
Definitely go with an infant carrier that will take more than 20 lbs though, some go up to 22. It is possible that your babies will weigh more than 20 lbs before they are one. This means they still had to rear-face, and it’s a heck of a lot easier to put them in the car, if
the car seat itself is movable, but next kind up isn’t the portable kind. If
they hit 20 lbs before age 1, you will have to go to the seat that is both rear facing and front facing (5-45lbs). If you could put it off and just go to the front facing one that goes even higher in weight, you can get
through childhood on two car seats instead of three. When they are ready to move to the next size up, and front face, then you can go for broke, and buy the one
that eventually turns into a booster seat taking a child up to 8 years old.
Bouncy seats, vibrating or not, with a toy bar. These are a godsend. You do not need highchairs until they are big enough to sit up on their own (5-12
months depending on pre-maturity) if you have these. We just lined them up on
the dining room table to feed them. Without the toy bars, they also stack, so
these can be put out of the way nicely when you are not using them. Don’t
even bother with the ones with the canopies. The canopy ends up being for show!
High chairs. Well, tough subject.
They will be in them for a while, but the ones with the nicest features also are the biggest and take up the most room. You can go with the ultra cheap (that’s what we have) to the most expensive
if you want one with multi-position seating that adapts to a toddler chair and later on to an art center LOL. I am amazed that ANY ONE would buy a highchair that has a seat that tilts back into a reclining position
so if the baby falls asleep while…excuse me, did they say falls asleep? First,
you are feeding them, its not like you aren’t going to notice Jr. dozing off while you are spooning him the pureed peas! Wake Jr. up, finish feeding him, then and take him/her to their crib! After all you have a schedule to maintain!
My suggestion would be to analyze your space, if you have plenty of room, get what you want because it won’t
matter, if you have a minimum amount of room, or no room at all, there are alternatives, and some of the advantages of the
alternatives may make them more attractive than regular highchairs even if your dining room is 30x30! There are several brands of high chairs that attach directly to your table, pros are, lightweight,
fold up so they are portable so you can take them with you to relatives and friends, you can leave them attached to the table,
so they don’t take up any room, cons are they are not safe on a pedestal table, ruling out using them in most restaurants. There are a few brands that attach directly to the chair. I could not think of any cons other than you have to have the extra chairs, but you will need them eventually
anyway. These are also lightweight and portable if you want them to be, and several
have removable trays, and one tilts.
Cribs. We have two, not three.
My boys share a crib even now at 15 months. Yes, they lay on each other,
and yes, occasionally one may cry and wake the other one up. But it doesn’t
happen very often, and if you don’t have the space for the third crib, don’t bother with it. We also bought the cheapest ones we could find. White
metal ones at Kmart. 80.00 bucks. They have them in wood also, but the metal
ones are much sturdier. The only downfall is they make a lot of noise if the
baby bangs a toy on them. Some people buy the ones that convert to toddler beds. Well, all of the ones I saw that converted were over 200.00. I can buy a Graco toddler bed for 45.00 that takes a crib mattress, so why pay the extra money? Unless it converts to a twin bed, and I understand that they are even more expensive. To be honest both my singletons went straight from the crib to a twin bed, skipping the toddler bed all
together, so I may not even buy the toddler beds. It’s totally up
to you, but just know that you don’t have to have 3, and they don’t have to cost a fortune either. By the way, some prefer toddler beds because they are closer to the floor.
A simple solution for making a twin bed be closer to the floor is to use a ¾ inch piece of plywood over the slats instead
of a box spring.
Bumper pads YES, crib skirts optional, all other crib accessories like blankets, pillows, comforters, stuffed animals,
NO NO NO NO NO. You are already giving birth to babies that are at risk for apnea
spells, you do not want to make it possible for them to smother in bed clothing. NOTHING
IN THE CRIB BUT THE BABY. No loose blankets, no toys, no comforters, no pillows
NOTHING NADA ZIP ZERO. Do not taunt fate just for a cutesy bedroom. See clothing instructions for dressing baby for sleeping. Put
your baby to sleep on its back or side. We did have a couple of the bolsters,
that kept the baby on its side, and we did keep them swaddled as newborns but once they were moving around out came the blankets
and bolsters, and on went the warm sleepers. This does not mean you can’t
put up a mobile or a musical toy that attaches to the side of the crib.
Bassinets. Don’t bother.
When they come home from the hospital, set up one of your cribs in the dining or living room and keep all three of
them in there, and use the other one or two upstairs. About the time that you
would normally get rid of the bassinet, they will be just about to the point that they no longer can lie crosswise in the
crib, move it upstairs and switch them to the bouncy seats. You can put them two at one end and one at the other if you still
want to keep a crib downstairs, but the other thing is by this time they will be awake more during the day, and you do not
want them to get their days and nights mixed up. So when they are awake, you
want them to be awake.
Changing tables. I have one, and it is useful to a point. But mine are already getting to long for it and they are 15 months old, since I probably have another 10-15
months of diaper changing (note the wishful thinking), and I find it far easier just to use the dining room table. YUCK you
may be thinking, but we just bought an extra pad and keep it downstairs, we put that on the table first. Also, they will eventually start combat diapering sessions, and to have to try to put their diaper on from
the side contributes to that.
Monitors… your choice, I have never had one with any of my kids, I can hear them crying just fine thank you. My personal opinion is that monitors tend to send parents racing in at the slightest
noise (no slam intended, but especially first time parents) and can delay the baby learning to comfort themselves. If you have a really huge house, or you want to go outside to smoke a cig, or sit on your deck, then they
may be useful, I don’t smoke and I don’t have a deck and my house is maybe just a little bigger than average,
so we never had them. Well this isn’t exactly true, I got two from friends (used), but I took one to work to monitor
our fax room, so we could hear when a fax machine ran out of paper or jammed.
The other I gave the receiver end to my son whose room is in the basement so I didn’t have to yell for him for
dinner (one way intercom system)
Diaper bags. Get one really huge one, and keep it stocked with supplies
and in your car. Get a back pack that you can put your pocket book in, a bag
of snacks, a little container of wipes and a diaper per kid, along with a bottle of juice or formula. One of the coupons that
you will get from Gerber is for $5.00 off any product other than food, I used it to buy insulated bag with a re-usable freezer
gel pack. This also fits in the backpack.
Plus you can carry a drink bottle for yourself too. The backpack totally frees up both of your hands, arms and shoulders
and never slides down, plus gives you another place to put packages if you are shopping.
Strollers. Okay, I am the stroller queen. I have three single umbrella strollers, a double stroller that I converted to a triple, a J MASON triple
stroller, and a triple stroller I made all by myself out of pvc pipe, lawnmower wells, swivel gate wheels and little tykes
swings. (For slightly less than $100). Here are my thoughts…
First, I would spring the extra bucks and buy at least one double stroller, umbrella or other, and three single
umbrellas, and a good sturdy triple stroller This covers when you are by
yourself, or if you have one or two extra hands with you. If you cannot afford
a good triplet stroller, get one of those Baby carriers that hooks in the front of you, and use that along with the double
(one pro on this is it does attract a little less attention, because you are only pushing a double stroller)
Bottles. Okay, here are my recommendations on buying bottles. Which is NOT to buy as many of them as you think you need, because you won't really
need them. There are two types of bottles, regular and those that take the disposable
liners. There are 4 sizes, 4 oz, 5 oz, 8 oz and 9 oz. There are glass ones and there are plastic ones. Glass bottles are available in the 4oz and the 8oz;
all 4 sizes come in plastic.
Okay, what sizes to buy? Well, to start with you will probably leave
the hospital with quite a supply of little 4oz glass bottles of prepared formula. They
are reusable. Also, they will give you a supply of the 2oz ones, that they
use in the NICU if you ask. So, why would you need to buy the 4oz size? At the beginning you will be holding the bottle for the baby so, again, why buy the
4 oz size? The 8 oz size can hold 1oz, 2ozs, 3ozs, I am sure you get the picture.
Glass or plastic? I like glass, I like the feel of them, and the formula
stays warmer longer. But I also like plastic. .
Its lighter, the plastic is thinner so it heats up faster, if you are heating it in hot water. Because it is lighter, the babies will be able to hold it and of course not drop it and break it. Siblings can also drop a bottle and not break it.
So. What do you do? Buy
some of both. They won't be holding their own bottles for a while. (7-8 months for mine). DO NOT be suckered into buy too many. You wont be using them. You will need
a days supply, with a few spares. (I kept a set of clean spares in the supply
suitcase in the car) I don't know too many people who either don't wash dishes every day, or run their dishwasher every day. Heck, with the ones with the disposable liners, you really only need 1 bottle per
kid!! And you get a set of them free from Evenflo!
If you are using regular bottles, and you are planning on ONE dishwashing session per day and you are going to
make up the bottles in advance you would need 54 bottles. Well, you don't need
to make up the bottles in advance, and I washed mine as I used them. Do not buy
54+ baby bottles! By the time you need to stop using the 4 oz bottles, they hopefully
will not be eating 6 times a day anyway.
Besides we had two cases of 24 for each baby from the NICU, so we had 154 of these little 4oz glass bottles. We had 24 8 oz glass bottles 12 8 oz plastic bottles and 12 of the Gerber 5 oz bottles
they are the perfect size for juice. Only Gerber makes the 5 oz bottle. Which
by the way are perfect for propping since they are NOT ROUND they are square!
We did eventually switch to the disposable ones, but that was only because of the collapsible liner, and the fact
that we were feeding all of ours cereal shakes in the AM and the PM bottle when they got a little older, much easier to do,
if the liner collapses, than out of a regular bottle. The drop-in liners are
also washable and reusable, although the box tells you not too! We do it all
of the time, I change all of the liners in all of the bottles (we have 9) every 4-5 days.
We actually put them in the dishwasher still inside the bottle part, and when the dishwasher is done pull them out
of the bottle and rinse both the liner and the bottle in cool water.
You will need a bottle rack for air-drying your bottles that you wash out.
Nipples. The NICU will start them out with regular nipples or preemie
red nipples. They will give you a big supply of these too. One of mine did much better with the orthodontic kind, they other two hated that kind. Of all the things I think I wasted money on it was constantly buying nipples. We finally settled on regular old three hole Gerber rubber nipples for two, and orthodontic nipples for
the third. Then when we switched to the disposables, we went with Johnson and
Johnson silicone rounded top nipples. We gave the orthodontic nipple kid the
bottle and said tough luck if you don't suck out of this, it’s a long time till the next meal (jokingly of course).
Pacifiers. If you like constantly putting pacifiers back in little mouths,
get the orthodontic ones. Because they are already shaped into the shape that
a nipple goes into when it is sucked, they are hard for the baby to hold in their mouths, they slip right out. However, if you don't find hunt the pacifier a very fun game, I suggest the regular old bulb shaped silicon
pacifiers by Gerber. Since the bulb is larger it doesn't slip out of their mouths
quite as easily. Or, just teach them to suck their thumbs. Thumb suckers are VERY HAPPY BABIES. I have three! They can always find their thumbs, even at 4 am, and in the dark, or when you are in the front seat and they are two rows back, while you
do 55 on the interstate. Trust me on this one, I have 5 kids.
I keep a basket lined with paper towels to toss the nipples in once they have been washed. Don't wash your rubber nipples in the dishwasher they will deteriorate very fast. Silicone ones will be fine in the dishwasher.
Speaking of baskets. We use baskets for everything INCLUDING a really
huge one, that I bought and covered with quilt padding and a fleece blanket to carry all three of them from room to room. We keep diapering supplies in a basket, their toys are now in the basket that we used
to carry them in. Before the toys, I used it in the corner of their room to hold
all of the receiving blankets.
Swings/excersize -saucers/walkers. We had one swing, one excer-saucer,
and one walker, one Johnny jump up, one floor gym. You can rotate the babies from item to item. I only had two babies that
liked the swing anyway, the third HATED it. We had NO boppy pillows, I got three, and took them back because my babies hated
them. If you find you cannot live without something, think first about how you feel about having an item that takes ups so
much floor space (those swings have a pretty big base, before you go buy another. Besides,
they really are only in these things for a couple of months.
FEEDING BABY
The biggest most important savior of sanity is a schedule. It does
not have to be rigid to the second where you find yourself setting an alarm clock to time naps and stuff, but babies need
a structured day, they need to feel comfort in knowing what to expect next. If
you are a really lucky mom and your babies didn’t or don’t do any NICU time, then you are going to have to build
your schedule on your own. Don’t cave into demand feeding, you will
regret it when you are basically feeding babies around the clock.
It will not harm the baby to fuss for a few minutes until the next feeding time.
If it is more than ½ hour till next feeding you may need to adjust your schedule down, unless it’s a one-time
thing. Mine spent 21-28 days in the NICU and were discharged on a 4 hour schedule, although I find that to be not the norm
as most babies are discharged on a 3 hour schedule (and my little guy only weighed 3#15 at discharge). However, just stick with whatever the NICU has established. As
they get older move to the 4 hour schedule, and that should be good. The biggest
thing about keeping them on a schedule together is if one wakes up at 2:am for food, WAKE the other two up and feed them,
change them and put them back to sleep. If you don’t, you will end up with
one waking up at 2, another at 3, and another as soon as you put number 2 back to bed, and crawl back in your own bed.
If you are determined to breastfeed,
talk to the women who have done it successfully. I personally did not, not because
I didn't want to, but because I own a business, and I went back to work when they were 14 days old, my hubby took family leave
for the first 3 months and stayed home with them all by himself. But I do understand
that it is sort of rough at the beginning to build up the supply, and most usually breast feed two at a time, and formula
feed the third, rotating who gets what. But there are moms who pump instead and bottlefeed expressed breast milk for all feedings
to all babies. Also, talk to the women that tried and failed, so you can see
WHY they failed, and try to avoid the same fate if it is one that is avoidable. Some
women aren't able to build up a supply, but hey, every little teaspoon of breast milk is important, so even if you only express
a little and you have to mix it in with their formula they are STILL getting the benefits.
I expressed as much as I could the first few weeks and mixed it into their bottles.
Burping. I have seen parents that don’t burp their babies well,
and the dividend is an unhappy, gassy, crampy crying baby. The reason? They don’t want to pat them on the back hard enough to actually make them burp. Watch the NICU nurses. They look and sound like they are POUNDING
on the babies. Are the babies crying? No.
Don’t be afraid that you will hurt the baby, it will hurt more if you leave the air in there.
Powdered formula is the least expensive after breast feeding, but also requires a little more work. How much more? After you get it down the first time, not much!
A lot of moms prepare the actual bottles in advance and then warm them up at feeding time. This takes too long! Here's
what we did... I made the formula concentrated, with half the amount of water that you are supposed to use. And kept it in
a jug in the frig. You will find that at about 6 months, when they are drinking 25-30 per day each baby, that your fridge
would be absolutely overrun with bottles, if you make them in advance! We rented, (although you can purchase them for about
150) a water cooler with both the hot and cold water, and get bottled water with fluoride. At 2 am, you can go to the fridge and get your jug, give it a shake, and pour 2ozs into a bottle, and add 2ozs of hot from
the cooler, and you have INSTANT and I mean INSTANT warm formula! This is also great for "sterilizing" dropped pacifiers,
teething rings, etc. Just drain a little of the boiling hot water from the cooler into a small pan and toss in your item,
and swish it around! The first time will take you longer because you have
to set up the preparations (measuring into your jug and marking your line) The trick is to use a blender, and to use the LEAST
amount of water possible to get it to blend. Get a clean 1-gallon pitcher or jug, a very good measuring device, and look at
the instructions on your can of powder.
When the babies are very tiny EVERY calorie counts and incorrect mixing really throws off the nutrition. For example, If you use the per scoop method, 1 scoop per 2ozs of water, when you have made a total
of 32 ounces, you will have used 16 scoops of formula, and 32 ozs of water. But
if you look on the instructions, if you made that same 32 ozs all at one time it says to use
29ozs of water. So over the course of those 32ozs you mixed on a serving
by serving basis, you gave them 3ozs of water that counted for nothing; you gave your babies diluted formula.
This first thing is very important. This is because to be exactly right chemically, the volume of the water and
the volume of the formula must equal the total volume. If you use the per bottle instructions, you are lowering the concentration
of nutrients and calories because you have slightly more water than you need. NOT A GOOD THING for your little 3 lb peanut!
Ok, that out of the way. 3 babies eating 3ozs of formula at 6 feedings means 54ozs of formula per day. You can
keep formula for 48 hours in the fridge, depending on the type of formula, but nfamil, and Similac is 48 hours. 2 days is
108ozs. If you are using High Calorie Enfamil 1 can makes only 89ozs. So there is no danger of having to pour it out after 48 hours because you will be making more before
the 48 hours rolls around.
89 ozs=2.78 quarts. To make the whole can EXACTLY right, you need 29ozs of water per quart so you will need 80.62ozs
of water.
To get the convenience of the concentrate, you can cut your volume of water in HALF that way, you can add HOT water
to the cold formula to get warm bottles!
But there is an easier way than all this measuring each time! Get
an empty storage container. Using a measuring cup, measure out either 89 ozs
(for ready to feed) or 44.5 ounces (for concentrate) and mark that level in the jug with a permanent marker. What you will do is mix your formula, add it to the jug, then fill the jug with water to that line. Your formula will be perfect every single time.
You will get almost no foam at all if you mix the formula into the least amount of water possible. After trial and error I found that I could put about 14ozs
of the water into my blender, put the lid on, turned it onto high, opened the center of the lid, and using a funnel pour the
entire can into the blender as quickly as possible. IN THE CENTER, keep it away from the walls
of the blender. Using a large piece of paper folded into a funnel worked best.
In fact, I took plain white copy paper and fitted it to the opening of the blender top, and stapled it. After a few uses,
throw it out and make a new one.
Let it blend for a minute, it will be pretty thick, but there will be absolutely no lumps. . Add the blended formula to your empty storage container.
Add more water to the blender and using a spoon, stir the water to rinse the thick formula off the walls of the
blender. Don’t turn the blender on, you will end up with a ton of
foam.
Empty that into your storage container. If you haven’t reached
the mark you made, add water to get to that mark. You now have chemically and
nutrient perfect formula, either ready to feed or concentrated.
We have a water cooler. It is a wonderful investment. You can rent
them for about 15$ per month, you can also buy them for about $150. It dispenses hot and cold water. We asked the cooler company
for water with fluoride. If you buy the cooler, you are then free to use tap water in it. You should never use HOT WATER from
your tap to make your formula with, metal from the pipes leaches into the water.
Okay, so 2 am comes, and you have not one, not two, but THREE crying babies. You stumble
into the kitchen, take the ice-cold formula out of the frig, pour 1.5ozs into a bottle and add 1.5ozs of hot water from your
cooler INSTANT WARM BOTTLES! If you don't have a cooler, you can microwave the water in a separate container. Depending on
the temperature you keep your fridge at, you may need to adjust the amount of hot water (1 oz of hot, 1/2 oz of cold) you
add to get the formula just right for your baby. Practice with water you have kept in the fridge in a baby bottle Our refrigerator
is extremely cold, so it was exactly 1/2 hot from the cooler, and 1/2 cold formula.
Regular Enfamil makes 118 ozs of formula per can of powder. Mark
118 oz line on your storage container, or 59 for concentrated.
I hope that this will help you guys save even a couple of minutes of precious time, because we all know that those
saved minutes are worth a fortune!
Solid Food. MAKE YOUR OWN.
Anything that you can cook, (except corn) you can throw in the blender or food processor for baby. Peas will require extra processing time because of the little hulls, corn is virtually impossible to process
to a smooth consistency. Sweet potatoes, carrots, beans, spinach, all kinds of
fruits, whatever you have for dinner, before you season it heavily, take some out for the babies and blend. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, all in the same blender.
If you use canned vegetables just buy the no salt versions. Let me see
if I can explain how cheap it is. Gerber sweet potatoes are .50 per 4 oz jar. That’s .50 for ¼ of a pound, and they have water added! Buy a whole pound of sweet potatoes for .50, scrub them, cook them in a pot of water, let them cool, peel
them, and toss in your food processor. They will be very thick, and you will
have to water them down to get to the right consistency. You will probably net
nearly 24ozs of pureed sweet potatoes from 1 lb of raw sweet potatoes. That’s
the equivalent of SIX 4 oz jars. It really isn’t that much work, and look
how much money you saved.
CLOTHING
I ended up donating many articles of preemie clothing to the NICU with the TAGS
STILL on them. For goodness sakes, you have three to dress, do you really want to take the time to track down all of the pieces
of those cute little preemie outfits? Make your life a LOT simpler, and just get sleepers and creepers. Also, you will need
to do laundry every day, its not like having a single baby, where you can gather up the clothes pre-treat the stains and throw
them in the hamper for the weekend. Three babies will generate a load of wash a day. (Well, we use cloth diapers, so that
makes up the rest of the load)
You will need 10-15 Onesies, that’s the total, not per child. Remember if you are washing every day, and
you go through three, you still have 6 left to start the next day with. To be truthful, it was really rare for us to change
their clothes even once a day, as mine did not spit up often. If you find its
not enough go buy a few more. But don’t start out with more than you need. I did, by virtue of generous people. Guess
what? I end up using the same 6-9 of them over and over again. You wash them, and then you put them back in the bin or drawer ON TOP OF THE PILE, so the ones on the bottom
never get used!
You will need between 9-12 sleepers suitable to your house environment, total, not per child. Same reason, if you
run a load of wash per day, you start the next day with all clean ones, except the ones they have on. I say suitable for your house, because I have hot water radiator heat, in the winter, my upstairs where
the bedrooms are ungodly warm. If you have forced hot air, or regular vented
heat, your bedrooms may be cool. Dress your baby accordingly. If the room is
drafty you may want to use baby hats. We had the ones the hospital gave us, and
we used them until they got wiggly.
2 cutesy outfits per child for special occasions, pictures and holidays.
Family will just have to understand that they look adorable in their little sleepers and you are too tired to go look
for the little stockings that go to your daughters dress or the matching bow tie for the boys little vests that you couldn’t
find anyway. Keep these outfits in a big zip lock bag, with the accessories in
the bag. Or hang them on a hanger and pin the accessories to them.
To simplify things we have stuck with overalls, genderless colors, but bought gender specific tops for underneath.
(my daughter does get quite a few girly things from her cousin Emma who is two years older)
If you have all girls or all boys you will not have this concern, and you can go with gender specific clothing.
Also socks. Do your self a BIG favor, white crew socks, and nothing else. That way you don't have to mate them.
I keep their socks in a big basket on top of their dresser. In fact big baskets are a GREAT gift... we use one for shoes,
one for socks, one for sundries (shampoo, baby powder, nail clippers, etc), one for diapering supplies. I used a medium one,
that one of my flower arrangements came in, that had a plastic liner, to sit on the counter and we tossed nipples, rings and
caps to their bottles in it. You can carry them all over the house with
you. Buy a really big one and you can use it to toss toys in, and carry it from
room to room with you, and when you leave to go somewhere just bring the basket!
Bath time,
we did not even have a single baby bathtub. I did however find very useful, little bath "ramps" that we found at Wal-Mart
for 4.96 per. They are white metal, and look a little like a beach chair for newborns. They have a nonskid, mesh covering
on them that you lay the baby on while you wash him/her. They are little, and they stack, and they fit in the kitchen sink.
To bath ours, one of us gets in the tub, and the other hands in the babies one at a time. Bath time takes us no more than 20-30 minutes, and that is even with a little water playtime. When my husband is on night
work (he is a firefighter) then I used to bath them in the kitchen sink, using one of the ramps, but sometimes I did all three
of them in the bathtub using all three of the ramps.
Baby care products. Store Brand!
You can get a 15 oz bottle of baby shampoo, tear free, same ingredients on the back as the Johnson and Johnson version,
AND it is not watered down, it is the same consistency. Price about $1.00. J&J price 3.49. They also have baby
oil, baby powder, baby lotion, baby bath, they even have the vapor bath for colds! The
dollar store has some great deals! They also carry other baby stuffs very inexpensive
too. $1.50 for a spill proof sippy cup with the silicone valve. Playtex version? $3.99 at Toysrus. I got 3 bottles of shampoo, 2 bottles of baby oil, 3 containers of baby powder, a bottle of Cherry Almond
Shampoo for me, and a big container of petroleum jelly, for $10.50. That’s
right TEN DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS! I also have purchased their version of “Desitin”,
it is 40% zinc oxide and is wonderful, and has adult applications as well (you can use it on your nose and lips as sunblock
like lifeguards do. It was 1.50 per tube compared with 5.00 per tube for Desitin. Also for Adults the dollar store can be a windfall. Super glue THE EXACT
SAME SUPER GLUE is available 2 in a pack at $1.00 per pack. Same 3 gram bottle,
and the regular stores sell Super glue for about $3.00 per single bottle. Some
people have a LOT of hair, and like expensive shampoos. Wash
first with the $1.00 inexpensive one, then wash again with the expensive one, you need a lot less of the expensive shampoo
to do the second wash, and to get the benefits of whatever the shampoo is offering, be it moisturizing or shine or whatever. By the way, we just use the baby shampoo as baby bath, because just what we all need
are more bottles of stuff in the bathroom. Don’t use baby powder on small
infants due to inhalation of the dust.
Diapers. We use cloth diapers 5 days a week and disposables on weekends. We use regular old pre-fold cotton diapers, no fancy all in ones, or Velcro ones,
either. We use rubber pants that aren't really rubber, they are made from 100%
rip proof nylon, and a company called TLC makes them. These are available at
www.babybestbuy.com. They are in the same price range as the regular
rubber pants and they are yes, truly they are, 100% RIP PROOF. I know this, because
I tried to prove that they could be ripped! The regular rubber pants, bah, might
as well diaper the baby with money, and toss it in the wash and watch it disintegrate!
We use a mega pack of disposable diapers every 4 weeks, to cover the weekends.
If anyone is interested I made an online photo album that illustrates diapering a baby, let me know. As far as how hard it is to use cloth, that’s also humbug.
YOU STILL have to change the baby and wipe the babies butt. The only thing
different is where the disposable gets tossed in the trash, the diaper gets tossed in the wash, or the diaper pail. Put water and a cup of borax (not bleach) and just keep adding the diapers.
At the end of the day, dump the whole pail into the washing machine, run it through a light wash cycle, with just plain
water, then wash with detergent. You can even just add them with the solid waste
in them. After all, it’s not really solid for a few months anyway. Toss them in the washing machine. Do not overload the washing machine, for a medium
load of diapers, use the large load settings, they will come cleaner. Also, give them an extra rinse, your baby's bottom will
thank you for it, and so will your pocket book, because then you won't need to use the ultra expensive DREFT baby laundry
soap! Also, NO FABRIC SOFTENER, it decreases the absorbency. Don’t use Gerber Diaper pins, they are not sharp enough, get the 1st Years brand, and
keep them stuck in a bar of soap to keep them sharp.
Diaper wipes. Buy a couple of dozen of the NON PRE FOLD diapers, the
big plain cotton rectangles. Cut them into wipe-sized squares. Put them in a Tupperware container, with some water, and some baby oil.
This is great if you are using cloth diapers, because you can just leave the wipe in the diaper! The first couple of washings the edges will fray a little, but after that it will be like your favorite
cut off blue jeans on the edges.
Dressing the baby hints. This is a birth to whenever hint. To get little arms and legs through tiny sleeves and legs of outfits, stick your fingers in through the
end of the sleeve or leg, and grab the hand or foot. This is much less time consuming
than trying to push a moving appendage through from the inside. Visualize trying
to put an octopus in a paper bag. YEAH RIGHT.
It is also a little less traumatic for the baby, since occasionally their fingers will get bent backwards at odd angles
while going through the sleeve. Bigger kids?
Same idea, only now you can stick your whole hand through the end of the sleeve.
When your babies hit the combat dressing stage its time to break out the military rules of engagement and strategy. And this will happen as soon as they are able to roll from their backs to their stomachs. Okay, how to minimize the escape antics that occur as soon as you lay them on their
backs to be dressed. Keep a toy near the dressing area that they are only allowed
to play with when they are on the changing/dressing table. Minimize the time
that they spend on their backs, by putting on as much clothing as you can while they are sitting up. Save the diaper for last. Once the t-shirt or Onesie is over
their head, put on their regular shirt, and their socks, then lay them down, diaper them, and snap the t-shirt and/or regular
shirt. Pick them up and put them in your lap facing away from you, and add the pants and the shoes. BUTTONS ARE A HASSLE, try to get everything with snaps. Also,
if the t-shirts and shirts snap at the crotch and they aren’t tight, consider only snapping 2 of the three snaps. Getting all three snapped is also a hassle if the baby is trying to roll over while
you are trying to pull the ends of the t-shirt together. In fact, if you snap
just the middle one, consider it a success and move on! No one will know that
all three are not snapped! If you are dressing the baby in pants, don’t
put crawlers in pants that are too large, you will spend all day trying to pull them back up, they will crawl right out of
them. Not worth the time. In fact its just easier when they spend most of their
time crawling stick with sleepers, creepers and overalls, things they can’t crawl out of.
Laundry hints, don’t waste pre-wash and spot removers on your t-shirts and sleepers and creepers. They will grow out of them, not too many people will see them, and frankly who cares if they do? You are the one that has to spend the money to buy the pre-wash.
Now, their nice outfits, sure, you want those to stay nice. If you are concerned, keep one new t-shirt tucked in the
back of the dresser for special occasions. Besides once they start crawling,
NO AMOUNT of stain remover will clean up the knees of their clothes! You
can, once a month if you are so inclined, soak them all in the hottest water you can find with a bit of bleach which will
get most of the stains out.
Don’t bother to fold their stuff either, just stack it neatly. My
boys have a tall dresser, top drawer holds shirts, second drawer holds bottoms, third drawer holds sleepers and creepers,
fourth drawer holds the sheets to their crib. My daughter has a regular 3 drawer
dresser, we keep her sleepers and creepers in the top, tops and bottoms in the second and her crib sheets in the third. Socks are in a bin, t-shirts are in a bin, and rubber pants are in a bin, these
are stacking bins and they are on next to the dressing table. You can even keep
their sleepers in a bin too. This makes dressing them at the dressing table so
easy
Shoes. Get high tops that either Velcro or lace. Low tops will be kicked off in a New York minute, or they will crawl right out of them.
Tiny coats, tiny hats, tiny mittens. Our solution to this was peel
and stick hooks on the inside of the closet door. But we also used a basket
for these to, at the beginning.
TOYS – Don’t over spend in this area either, you will be sorry you did.
Just a few things are fine, when they are small. And when they are not
real mobile (read this as able to get to each other to fight over something) you don’t have to have three of anything
either. Unfortunately I seem to have very selfish babies, and I am finding out
that I do need three of some toys. But just as fortunately, to a baby, everything
IS A TOY. Broken remote controls(batteries removed,
and back panels removed), plastic containers of any kind, hit up the dollar store for big ones they can put things in and
then dump them out, but wipes containers are very popular with mine, and you will have a big supply of these, unless you make
your own wipes. Pots and their lids are a big hit if you can stand the
noise, (personally I love it) plastic utensils, like the spatula or cake turner or slotted serving spoons are also hit toys
as long as they don’t have pointy ends of their handles, especially at dinner time, when they are playing with the pots. I gave away toys they hardly ever touched when they were really little.
Cutting fingernails. If you are afraid of doing this, you better get
over it REAL QUICK. There are three of
them to scratch you and each other too! The easiest way is with baby nail clipper
and instead of coming into the nail head on, slide the nail clipper under the nail at the corner, and then slide across the
nail. This way you make sure there is nothing but nail in the clipper. When they
are little you can do this while they sleep. When they get older sit them in your lap facing away from you.
Bathing. Okay, this is unbelievably a HOT debatable topic, whether
or not to bath baby every night, every other night or whatever. I am of the opinion
that if it stinks it needs a bath, and by the end of the day, babies stink of spit up, and urine. Okay, and to dispel a few myths. Bathing does not cause dry
skin. HOT water, and SOAP cause dry skin. I have a friend who has a son with
severe eczema on both legs. Dermatologist instructions are to spend time in cool
to lukewarm water, second he gets out of the tub seal in the moisture with Aquaphor.
Okay if you don’t have time to bath them every day, don’t sweat it! They won’t shrivel up and die
if you only bath them every other day. But if you have a routine, you can bath
all three of them in less then ½ hour, and if it is part of your nighttime routine, then it should be every night, or it isn’t
routine! We do it this way…. One parent in the tub, the other hands
in dirty baby, and trades the next dirty baby for the cleaned one, diapers and t-shirts while the 2nd is being
cleaned, and so on. When I was by myself, before they could sit up real
well, I bathed them in the kitchen sink because it was easier on my back. Just
gather up your supplies beforehand and undress, bath and re-dress them one at a time.
Now I just put them all in the tub at one time. Yes they stand up, yes they fall down, more often they slide down,
and occasionally one comes up sputtering. But they don’t have very far
to fall, so its not as dangerous as an adult falling in the bath tub, and you can get tub sized rubber mats, and they get
used to water in their faces, making washing hair a lot easier. As far
as special baby bath products, we just use the baby shampoo as a head to toe body wash.
Okay, and now for some controversial advice: fuel for your little pooping machines.
Just as there are many choices at the gas station pump, you can get many choices from pediatricians depending on how
recently that pediatrician graduated from Med School, and whether or not they have children off their own, and how old those children are.
I have a great pediatrician. He is older and has children of his own that
are now in college. His children were raised almost the same as I was, under
the “old school”, yeah, the one that put kids on whole milk at 6 months.
Formula is nutritionally complete. Breastmilk is even better. But he has told me many times that guidelines are GUIDELINES not to be confused with engraved in stone
orders. They are first and foremost your babies.
If you disagree with your pediatrician on when to start cereal or foods here is what my pediatrician says, emphasis
on common sense. Around 4 months you can TRY some cereal. If the baby tolerates it, then his/her digestive system was ready for cereal. If the baby has an adverse reaction to the cereal like it makes them puke, or gets them constipated wait
two weeks and re-introduce. After the baby has been on cereal for 4 weeks, add
a fruit or a vegetable and see if the baby tolerates this. If he/she does, then
you can move onto the next fruit or vegetable. Do not introduce new foods closer
than 3 days, so that you can keep track of any allergic reaction and steer clear of those foods in the future. If you choose to switch formulas, give the baby at least three days to adapt to the new formula (unless
they are having a horrible reaction to it). My pediatrician feels that waiting
too long to introduce solids contributes to some food texture aversions.
Most younger pediatricians say no cereal in bottles, not because of choking (myth) but because of obesity from
too many calories. Preemies don’t have the calorie issues usually, but
you do have to be conscious of the nutritional components of their food. My
pediatrician said… You have three. As long as it doesn’t cut down
on the amount of formula they are drinking, they won’t be harmed by the extra calories in fact they need them. You have to do what you need to do to keep the chaos from being overwhelming. As long as by 6 months you are spoon-feeding them once a day, it’s a good thing
when you find something that can save you some time. We used Sassy Cereal Feeders up to about 6-7 months. At this time we switched to the Playtex nursers with disposable liners, and cut big holes in several of
the nipples. At about 9 months when they were sitting up in high chairs we switched
to totally spoon feeding them. However, my kids did continue to get “cereal
shakes” for both breakfast and bed time until they were 2 years old. Hot
cereal is a great way for anyone to start the day!
Discipline. OKAY, another VERY VERY HOT TOPIC! I suggest that you refer to your own upbringing, determine what was good about it, and what was bad. Combine this with the upbringing of your spouse, and reach a happy ground for both
of you. Regardless of the method you choose, discuss it NOW before you run into your first encounter with a behavior problem. And
what ever method you choose, make sure that you are both consistent AND both following through with the plan, as this is probably
the single biggest error that parents can make. It ranks right up their with
disciplining them when you are angry.
When you are angry, instead of being a parent, you end up acting childish, usually by over-reacting to the situation. Let the punishment fit the crime, and more importantly the level of comprehension
of the child. . If you need help
in this department there are several books available that you can use.
My opinion on spanking…. The only thing that I will touch
on is in life threatening situations, consider spanking to be the lesser of two evils, the other evil being death or severe
personal injury. If you have a child that runs out in the street you need to
do whatever you need to do to make sure that your child does not repeat this behavior.
I personally would rather spank them the first time, than bury them the second time.
If you have not been successful with timeouts, for instance you have tried this, but within several days they repeat
the offense, for God’s sake, don’t try a timeout for something like running into the street, or playing with matches
or playing with the stove.
Yes, spanking is disciplining by fear. I would not use it for simple
misbehavior like taking a toy away from one of the other babies, or pulling another babies hair. The difference is you can show the child that its not nice to take a toy from someone by taking a toy away
from the child, you can also tug on their hair to show that it hurts BUT you will never be able to explain to a 2 year old
that running out in the street can get them killed, you cannot demonstrate to them how painful it is to be burned, or impress
upon them what it would be like to end up with permanent disfiguring scars.
I consider mine too young to use spankings although we have tapped the back of hands reaching for dangerous things. Mostly you will spend your day redirecting their attention. Also cut your babies some slack! Babies weren’t meant
to be born in groups, weren’t meant to have to share attention, time, space and toys with other same aged babies. How frustrating for them that must be to have people expect them to have social skills
way before they would normally be learned, simply because they were born as part of a group.
They will indeed learn social skills ahead of time, but sharing isn’t a concept you can teach to a 1 year old,
or even a 2 year old! It is also not their fault that they can’t communicate
with each other. For starters they shouldn’t have to. Under normal circumstances, they would be the only baby and they wouldn’t have to try to communicate
to another baby that I’m mad at you because you took my toy. When
they are non-verbal, their only method of communication is hitting, biting and crying.
Instead of fruitlessly trying to punish them for misbehavior, try to understand to them its not misbehavior it’s
the only way they can communicate at that point. Redirect, redirect, redirect. Distract, run interference, separate them into two play areas with gates, these are
the things you will have to do.
Okay, I think I covered just about everything except potty training. Frankly
I just don’t remember how I managed way back when the teenagers where babies.
And my triplets haven’t reached that age yet. So when I get to that
bridge I will let you know! I am sure it’s going to be tough, because I
have two boys and one girl (how do you explain sitting down to one, and standing to the other two?). I think that training them one at a time is probably the route.
Best of luck X Three !!!!!!!!!
Morethemerrier
Aka Ruth
