Gang formation

Yesterday was a momentous day as Charlie was taken off oxygen. It was a great relief! He has to be checked quite frequently over the next few weeks but so far he's doing great.

What I love most about having triplets is watching them interact. This can be a pain as Charlie and Lex cry when the other one cries.

What's great though is watching them play or comfort each other. It's the sweetest thing as the evidence below shows. When you put them next to each other the first thing they do is touch hands. The hitting comes a bit later!

I love the idea that they will always have each other. I know my sisters are special to me and I can only imagine how much these three will mean to each other. You can already see it.

Pictures are Beth and Charlie discovering that they can hit the toys dangling over their heads, two of Charlie's cheeks, Beth sleeping whilst Charlie and Lex examine a toy intently, Beth stroking Lex.

Olympic athletes

It's been busy here at the Cunnington Baby Zoo. Charlie came home from his operation having done very well. As it was keyhole surgery he just has tiny scabs on his tummy and seems to be just fine now.

The kids have been inspired by the Olympics and are training for different sports- Beth the '24 hour sleep challenge', Lex the 'Mixed Screamathon' and Charlie the ' Cutey Smile Tournament' although tonight he has been rivalling Lex in his chosen sport.

Last weekend John and Janet visited from down sarf. What happens when a trained nanny and avid DIYer visit? Lots gets done! We were and are extremely grateful. It was lovely too see them too and feel like real people briefly.

This week Matt went back to work and I had the kids at home. I have had lots of help - thankfully! - some paid for by the state. Don't worry the kids will be paying taxes for a long time to make up for it!

Monday and Tuesday my mum was up in her regular slot. She's settling into our routine and helps loads with feeding and bedtime. Wednesday morning I was alone and strangely the kids were fine.

Wednesday afternoon our homestart volunteer came. She's fostered over 50 kids so is very handy to have around. Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings we get support workers in and Thursday afternoon another worker (no idea actually who she works for - maybe I should find out?) comes in.

So I'm on my own Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon. I've kinda relished the challenge which is good as a lot of this extra help only lasts 6 weeks.

Attached are pictures of Charlie and Lex smiling (also Charlie smiling at me) and two of Beth sleeping.

Next week we're trialling Charlie off oxygen!!! He's done amazingly well so fingers crossed he carries on doing that. Will get pics of those chubby cheeks as soon as. Can't wait!

Charlie's hospital trip

We are still at the hospital. Charlie had his operation this morning, which went well. They did keyhole surgery do he's only got tiny cuts on his tummy.

He's been very good, took a while to wake up from the anaesthetic apparently, but otherwise his oxygen levels are great and all is well. We can hopefully go home first thing tomorrow.

Cue one very relieved mummy!

Matt is home with Beth and Lex. Rumour has it Lex is very unsettled and Beth is off her food. Missing me or their brother? Both probably.

Attached are pics of Charlie in his gown, on the bed and after the op.

All about Charlie

Charlie has an operation tomorrow. He says he wants to explore more of the hospitals of Sheffield. He has an inguinal hernia and, as this is at risk of strangulating, he had to get it fixed.

I'm going to the hospital with him and Matt is staying at home with Beth and Lex. My mum is coming up to help him.

That's his bad medical news, on the upside he's doing really well on oxygen. He was on 0.5 (Lex was on 0.1) and his test results are so good he's now on 0.3. I have no real clue what these figures mean but I do know that they said it'd be one point down per month so going down two in a day makes him exceptionally clever.

I haven't given any updates on weight lately. Remember I thought they were going through a growth spurt? Well they sure were! The scores on the door are below...

Charlie - 8 pound 5
Lex - 9 pound 9
Beth - 7 pound 3

All have piled on weight in the last few days but Charlie took the prize with 11 ounce gain in 4 days!

Below are cute pics of Charlie.

All about Lex

This post is all about Lex as he's come off oxygen today! It's just a trial at the moment and he needs monitoring to see how he does but hey look my baby boy has cheeks!!!

Three weeks

The babies have been home three weeks now and you can probably tell by my lack of blogging that we've been quite busy.

The order of importance in our house now is babies, piggies, us. The piggies are feeling very neglected so you can imagine what we are like!

There was a point last week when I couldn't even remember when I last showered!

At first things were going well at night. The babies were sleeping around 3 hours then waking up for feeds. Oh how we dream of those nights now! We are hoping they are going through a growth spurt... Please don't disabuse us of the notion.

A few nights ago I was sat on the side of the bed rocking back and forth - and Matt said 'Claire, you are not holding a baby!' I thought I was!

The days have mostly been great fun though, except for the crappy weather. We have tried to get out every day, even in the rain.

I have attached pictures of cute babies, screaming babies, feeding babies, daddy with his babies and Beth's new smile.

First Week Home



Baby pile on

It's been a week now that the babies have been home. We're settling into a routine (do whatever the babies want). There's a lot of sleeping, playing on the playmat and occasionally crying as a trio. The whole concept of nighttime seems a little absent but they're getting better. Last night we got a solid three and a half hour block!



Beth bemused by her bouncy chair

Thanks to Beths generosity her cold has been shared with the boys so we have had some snottiness to deal with. We've been very busy with official visitors (nurse from the hospital checking on the boys, oxygen nurse from the Childrens Hospital, woman from the council offering free help (yes please!)) and unoffical ones too - see some photographic evidence.

The babies continue to grow (as they are supposed to do). Beth is 6 pound 4, Charlie 7 pound 4 and Lex a side splitting (joking!) 8 pound 13.

So life is a 3-4 hour round of feeding, sleeping (occasionally us), playing, nappy changing and feeding again. Most of the time this is great fun and only every now and then (3am usually) utterly exhausting.

Charlie's Statesmanlike passport photo

Matt is already 1 week into his month off. I am slightly apprehensive of him going back to work but am already planning how I will manage feeding three babies at the same time. We're both praying the weather gets better as we are both getting a little stir crazy.

Hopefully it will pick up and we can get out and about. We're entitled to a blue badge becuse of the boys being on oxygen so we are excited to see where we can park with it. The funny thing is that you have to provide a passport photo of the patient so Matt has taken a close up of Charlie for the badge - we havent told them he has an identical brother!



Chris tries to sneak away with Beth

Later in the week Matt's mum will be up and my mum will be up Sunday. It's handy that we have a number of babies as there's never long to wait for a cuddle.

Every now and then I get a second (when not busy with the babies, sleeping, eating or researching babies sleeping through the night) and I look at the babies, usually lined up in their cot and think 'Blimey we have triplets!'


Now I'd better go as Charlie has had a wee leak and Beth is grunting.

Elaine and Jo help with feeding time at the zoo