What's new....

Here is my latest profile...a sort of "Modified"

belly shot. 23W 4D

Ok, there is no excuse for my absence from this blog that I love so much! Somehow I recently found myself on facebook and have been trying to wean myself already from this "nosy" addiction! My blog was my first love and will continue to be my priority! :) So with that, let's see what's been happening here in the land of wiggly babies...

1. Today I am 24W 1D pregnant...a small, yet momentous feat all at the same time. The best part is that I still feel great! Truly. I still have a hard time sleeping...but I think I'm just subconsciously (or maybe consciously) afraid I'm going to squash one of the babies! No matter which side I sleep on, I can actually feel at least one wiggling baby beneath my skin. The vision that comes to my mind unfortunately is that of a small face pressed up against a clear, glass window....how odd am I?? So sleep at this point remains my greatest challenge.

2. The Babies. They are movers and shakers. All. Day. Long. I often wonder what they are doing in there...sleeping (clearly not), fighting (quite possibly) or just testing all their new people skills (most likely). Whatever it is, I am in love with these babies. I sit on the couch and stare at my belly for hours. I admit, it's somewhat alien-like the way they distort my once perfectly round belly, and yet, I am so captivated by it. My mother even video taped it the other day!

3. The nursery. I'm starting to think I should have found a way to put 3 cribs and a bed in there considering how much time I spend in it. I love it. I find it soothing, peaceful and just generally a happy place to be. Every morning when I wake up, and every night before I go to bed, I walk into their room and look in all three cribs. (As if, by some weird chance there were going to be babies in there already!) I just imagine what blessed chaos there will be when they arrive. Taking advice from my "Baby Mama" friend Anabelle, I recently added a small night stand to go beside the glider with a lamp for those late night feedings or rockings or whatevers! It couldn't be more perfect. :)

4. My gratitude for friends, families and even mere acquaintances. When I go in the nursery and look around, I am honestly overcome with gratitude. I cannot believe how much stuff we received from people we are related to, people we know well and even people we barely know. Whatever it is, I just hope that everyone knows how much we appreciate everything we have received to get these babies off and running!

5. Three. Of EVERYTHING. It's a weird feeling when I go to the store to buy something for babies...today for instance, I went in search of baby books. I had to buy three. THREE!! Three of everything....I momentarily stress out, until the cashier asks me if I meant to buy three baby books and I tell her I am having triplets...2 boys and a girl, and then my stress turns to smiles. I am going to be the mommy of three tiny babies. So yes, I'd like three baby books, please. :)
I honestly don't care how chaotic my life is about to be. I am blessed. I am excited. A little nervous that I will do a good enough job, but so darn happy. Since I failed to put up a belly pic last week or the week after, I will put up a few of me in the nursery. Ha ha. I told you, I'm in there ALL THE TIME. :)

Aunt Mary is our hero!

You know you're a loser when....one of the most exciting things that happens in your day is your sister calling to tell you that your crib bedding has arrived! Being the good "Aunt Mary" that she is, she even delivered it to our house at 7:45 at night because she KNEW I'd be DYING to set it all up and make it look as cute as possible! So here are the pictures! 1 crib down....2 to go! I love it! It's even cuter in person than it was on the websites! I promise to invite anyone over who wants to come see it in person! Anyhoo...thanks Aunt Mary!

It looks like a nursery!

Big things are happening at the Bunch Casa! It's like a whirlwind effort to get ready for babies! If you recall, I'm 23 weeks today and Dr. M. is HOPING I can make it to 30 weeks...THAT'S RIGHT, PEOPLE!! Babies could be here in 7 weeks! OMG! (I think I can make it...maybe even to week 32..) but that's my glass half full outlook! Anyway, as usual, I digress! Here are just a few of the exciting things happening...

1. Brian and I bought a bookshelf to put in the nursery to help "store" some baby x3 stuff.

2. My mom and Auntie Diane came over today and BUILT the shelf that Brian and I bought!! Thank you ladies! I LOVE IT!

3.My mom just finished (and in record time, I might add) re-upholstering a glider chair and ottoman that was given to me by my former student teacher Michele.

4. I bought some baskets (ok, by some, I mean 6-10....) but I DID wait till they were 50% off at Michaels.

5. My mom and Auntie Valerie came over this past weekend and re-organized a few of my kitchen cabinets and drawers so that a cabinet and a drawer could be designated for baby bottles, bibs, etc. Yay!

6. I sorted every item of baby clothing we've received by "Preemie", "Newborn", "0-3", "3-6", "6-9", "9-12" and 12+....now I can begin the process of washing everything with Dreft! Yay!

This is the new bookshelf, the newly upholstered glider and one of the cribs!

This is still the baby boy wall...

The little girl wall.... (yes, I'm still watching the blog poll...)

The changing table and 3 newly framed ultrasound photos!

So when you put all these things together, it almost looks like a completed nursery!! We still need some babies to put in there, and I'm still bringing order to the closet. (You'll notice I haven't shown any pictures of that recently... :) We'll get there. Someday. So for now, enjoy these photos

The newest nursery dilemma...

Ok, so the other thing that came out of the Crafts and Cookie Disaster '08 was more fuel for the latest nursery dilemma...Ok, think back...remember when we thought we were having 3 boys?? And remember how proud I was of my Podge-Podged letters spelling out "baby boys" which I excitedly HOT-GLUED to the wall?? Ok, well that was one of the first bits of decor which needed to be, shall we say, "amended?" So Brian and I trotted off to JoAnn fabrics and got letters to spell out "little girl" which have since been Podge-Podged with coordinating Pink and Brown scrapbook paper...So that's all fine and good. Now the dilemma is this. Feel free to form your own opinion and perhaps even vote on the topic....(I hope I remember to create new poll when this entry is written).

Ok, here's the scoop.In the interest of space and not overcrowding ONE wall with a ba-jillion letters (basically having "baby boys" and "little girl" AND the 3 name plaques all on one wall,) we have opted to place the words, "little girl" on the adjacent wall (over the changing table and one of the cribs. Now, in doing so, that messes with our original "vision" of perfect symmetry and nursery harmony!

1. We had originally envisioned a boy crib on the left, girl in the middle and boy on the right. Blue-pink-blue. However, that leaves Baby Boy Ethan on the right side essentially under the words "little girl." (He might not mind now, but how about later in life??) So, that led to option 2.

2. We leave Colton on the left, put ETHAN in the middle and Baby Girl Hunter on the right, closer to the words "little girl." (essentially giving her her own wall.) So that makes the cribs Blue-Blue-Pink. Makes sense right? Sure, unless you are driven by the insane need for symmetry. (Remember blue-pink-blue?)

So anyway, please, feel free to form an opinion and make your vote! I will leave my own opinion a secret until further notice. (I woudn't want to taint the polling) In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of Mary, Anabelle, Sarah and I attempting to solve (argue) this very dilemma.

This is Mary (not so permanently) affixing part of "little girl" to the adjacent wall. Anabelle and Sarah each added several letters while I looked on from below. (People are very picky about letting pregnant people stand on stools!)

What does that look on my face say? Do I like this idea? Do I not? What do you think??

Here are the three amigas plotting their work...

And here they are looking quite happy with their progress! Now that that's been settled, where should Baby Girl Hunter go?? In the middle or on the right?....You decide!

A Tour of the Nursery!

This video is really not anything exciting! Frankly, I realized that I had never attempted to upload videos before...only photos. Sooo....I took a quick video around the nursery in attempts to see if I am doing it correctly! Now just imagine that it's clean....everything is put away...there's a glider chair in place of our dining room chair....etc. :)

Three Cribs and a Changing Table!!

Piper is showing you how much room is still left in the nursery even with 3 cribs and the changing table! Brian and I fully believe that once we lay a rug down there, Piper will start to sleep right there in the middle of the 3 babies! She's a very good watch dog!

This is obviously a view of one crib next to the changing table...which we inherited from my mom and dad! It's actually a buffet table they got at Target, but let me tell ya, it's perfect for this purpose as well!

Here's another view of the three cribs...I'm still undecided about whether our little girl will go in the middle crib or in the crib beside the changing table....if we put her there, then we will likely put the words "LITTLE GIRL" on her wall! We'll see!

This is the beginning stages of my baby organization! With some guidance from my baby mama friend Anabelle, she was helping me figure out what I would want most readily right there in the changing table! So for now, the left side is for boys...socks, onesies and sleepers....same on the right side, but for girls. Burp Cloths, Hats and Receiving Blankets in the middle....for now! I have no doubt it will change by the time the munchkins arrive!
And what to do with all the bath stuff?? Well, I cleaned out under one of the sinks in the guest bathroom upstairs and it is now BABY TOWN! We've got hooded towels, washcloths, and shampoo and baby wash galore! The baby tub is currently being "housed" in the big people bathtub!

Making Way For Baby Girl Hunter! (and her brothers...)

So I thought I'd just keep you all posted with what I do with my time nowadays...especially now that we have a little girl coming to join the fun....

Yesterday I bought 3 white boards that we will hang somewhere in their nursery (likely on the back of the door) where we can keep track of important information regarding each baby. (You know, so that when my LOVELY friends and family who have offered to come over and hold/feed a baby (and I remember who each and every one of you are!!) there will be a place to jot down feeding/diapering/napping info...I of course couldn't stand the ugly silver metal edges of the white boards, so they have been transformed into personalized boards with brown/blue or brown/pink. :)

These of course, are the newest set of letters, (Pre Modge-Podge and pretty pink and brown paper, of course). The exact placement of these letters in the nursery is yet to be determined...and I have to say, it wasn't until this exact moment that I sit typing this, that I am realizing that the 'i' in 'little' is actually a 'j'.....Oops. I guess I'll be going to JoAnn Fabrics today!

Ok turn your head to the right and you'll see that these wood letters spell out "CUB DEN". Brian has long referred to his babies as his little "bear cubs." So he requested that I do something creative to these letters so that he can put them on the OUTSIDE of the nursery door so that everyone will know where his "cubs" sleep. I am personally hoping they learn to hibernate....

I just thought this was worthy of being captured on film...When you give Brian a job, (Ex."Honey, would you please put away the diapers for me?)...This is what he comes up with! The top of the nursery closet is literally stacked from shelf to ceiling, based on the size of the diapers! Gotta love it!

And for those who believe in fate or perhaps some other greater power...tell me THIS was not a sign of things to come...Months ago, as most of you recall, we were being faced with the decision to reduce our pregnancy to twins or keep the triplets. After what seemed like an eternity, we decided for whatever reason, that we had been blessed with three babies and that is what we were going to move forward with.

Well, not long after that decision had been made, my dad called to tell me this great story. His law firm had recently taken on a new accounting/bookkeeping company. (Something like that...) So a representative from that new company stopped by the law firm one day with "gifts." Some took books and things to keep in the conference room/library, but when asked if anyone wanted a piggy bank, my dad said, "Well, sure. As a matter of fact, my daughter is having triplets, so we could use a piggy bank!" Well, as it turns out, the guy says, "I happen to have THREE piggy banks!" And so, with a shiver and smile, my dad proudly accepted not one, not two, but three piggy banks. He recently gifted them to us to keep in our babies' nursery. At the time, we all joked about whether or not I should paint the pink one brown or green or some other more "boyish" color...THANK GOODNESS I DIDN'T! Baby girl Hunter must've known she was about to make her debut!

We're getting CLOSER! Just need another crib and 3 babies!

So again, I have this habit of posting out of order....I should have posted this entry AFTER the one below it. (Maybe you scroll down real quick and read the entry below this one, and THEN come back up and read this one!) :) So of course, IF you read the one below first, then you already know the crisis of the missing crib. So use your imagination and try to picture the 3rd crib between the two outer ones...

Thanks to Kristen and the Thanksgiving weekend crafts, I have been itching to mod-podge something else! So on a recent trip to JoAnn fabrics, I found myself purchasing some paper-mache like letters spelling out "BABY BOYS." Then I found 4 different pieces of scrapbooking paper to cover the letters with and away I went! I mod-podged my heart out! Though Brian, god love him, has decided that my new craft is actually called "Podge-Podging." hee hee...So after we (ok, he) put together the 2 cribs, we hung the BABY BOY letters and then hung the three name plaques that will adorn the wall above each crib identifying which baby lives where! I love it! THe next step will be a long shelf above the window which will serve as a landing place for the gazillion shades of brown teddy bears I have been collecting throughout my life! Yay! It's looking so cute! I find myself just sitting in there, usually with Piper, just looking at the room. I can't wait for it to be finished!

Good-Bye blue tape...Hello Cribs!

So this weekend was MOST exciting for me! (And a little bit frustrating..but we'll get to that!) So first of all, in our failed attempt to trade in Brian's truck for a more, shall we say, "Triplet-Friendly" vehicle, we found ourselves literally a stone's throw from the big Babies R' Us! Well, you know I couldn't pass that up! Plus, I needed to take a second, less-exhausted look at our registry to make sure I hadn't registered for anything pink or anything I really don't need. So...I decided for the first time in my life, that finally, I had earned the right to park in the "Expectant Mother" parking! Yay! (Mom, I know you would have been as excited as I was!) I'm so dorky, that I even made Brian take a picture of me outside the truck, standing next to the sign! Yes, there were others standing nearby, or watching from their vehicles, but whatever! Almost 4 years, 5 In Vitros and a set of triplets later, I DESERVE TO TAKE MY PICTURE BY THAT SIGN! :) So after my moment of satisfaction with my new sign had passed, we marched INTO the world of babies! Now, I have to give him a lot of credit, because as a husband, in a giant baby store, Brian was genuinely interested in what kinds of things we could possibly need for 3 babies! (However, my fail-proof method of MAINTAINING his interest was to give him the "magic scanner wand" and let him be the "beeper man." Worked like a charm! )

When we finished with that big excursion, back we went to our house to build cribs! Yay! (Ok, well only one of us was building the cribs, the other of us was watching and being moral support.)Guess which one I was?? So as you peruse the pictures, you'll likely find yourself trying to do some very simple math....hmm. 3 babies, 2 cribs...strange! Aahh yes, remember above, the part where I talked about the frustration of the weekend? Ok. Back at Thanksgiving, we were so excited when mom and dad Bunch bought us three cribs! We thought we were being so efficient, saving $153 dollars in shipping by using WalMart's "Site to Store" shipping...(they ship from their warehouse to whatever WalMart we choose, and then we pick them up there!) Pretty convenient right?

Ok, so I got an email saying 2 cribs had arrived, and one had been shipped and was in transit. Super! Well, by the time we got to WalMart, there were only 2 cribs. :( Turns out, they either lost the 3rd crib or it became damaged in transit, so they simply cancelled the 3rd crib. Yes, cancelled. Not called us to see if we'd like a different one, not notified us that one was going to take a little longer. Nope. Simply cancelled the 3rd crib. Well one of us is pretty patient, (ME) and the other of us is less so. (HIM). After waiting what seemed like long enough for the babies to actually be born, Brian heatedly exclaimed, "Look, we didn't order 3 cribs because it seemed like a fun number, we actually NEED 3 CRIBS." So how are we going to fix this??" Well, the short of it is, they had NO CLUE how to fix the problem, how to get us our crib back. So we simply have to reorder it again. Sheesh...Is this why I have avoided Walmart for so many years? Oh well...At least they sell Preemie Clothes!

So below are some pictures of Brian building the 2 cribs....bless him for trudging through it with a splitting headache. At one point, Piper thought we should take his temperature to make sure he wasn't getting the flu. (He wasn't) and then she rolled over so dad could make sure she wasn't getting the flu either! :) (She wasn't). I however, am trying miserably to get over a cold. YUCK!! It's very difficult to be pregnant and be limited as to what you can take to get over a cold! By this point, normally I'd be so drugged up on Theraflu life would seem good regardless! But not this time! Oh well...I still love being pregnant! :)

Getting Ready for Babies!

So aside from getting fatter by the hour, (No, seriously) lots of other fun things went on this weekend too! Because we don't get to see them as often, it was nice to spend a lot of time with the Bunch side of our family! Don't know if they thought they were coming for a leisurely vacation or not, but they sure didn't! They were all busy bees! First off, we were all part of the crazy "Black Friday" shopping crowd! That's right! Being pregnant has not slowed my shopping down! We had a very leisurely attitude about the day, so we had NO stress on Black Friday! (We didn't buy much either, but that's beside the point!

Then, on Saturday, Brian and his dad built our babies a closet...with shelves and another rod to hang clothes! Yay! It's so cute! And thanks to my mom and aunt who already started buying the world of blue and green in sets of three, and his mom and dad and their diligence in buying diapers already, our closet already has stuff in it! Woo hoo!

Then we spent that evening doing crafts! Remember the little wooden letters? Colton, Ethan and Hunte_. ? Well, we painted those letters while Brian stained the plaques they will go on, (And yes, Michaels was STILL out of the letter 'r', so Hunter will just remain Hunte for another week or so...)and then I tortured Kristen while she painstakenly tried to teach me my new favorite craft...picture frames, and wooden letters made out of scrapbook paper and Mod Podge! Watch out world! If there's a flat surface, I WILL Mod Podge it! (Anabelle, I have a great new project to share with you! Sarah, I swear, this new project will decrease our time in Michael's by at least a whole hour!)

And thanks so Nana and Papa Bunch, our babies now have cribs! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Here's a picture of their adorable little beds! (Don't worry, I fully intend to sleep all three babies in the same crib until I'm told not to! But they at least have their beds when they decide they've had enough of their brothers! (Oh and for those who have voted and those who are wondering...despite the fact that I see the bright ABC theme is taking a slight lead over the plaid, we have decided to go with the plaid...I've been told my blog picture of the plaid is a bad picture...it is in fact, very sharp looking! Brown, Blue and Vanilla...if you want to see a better picture of it, go to JCpenney.com or Babies R Us.com and type in the search box "Mad About Plaid"...it shows some better pictures of it! :)

So anyhoo...that's all for now! Thanks again to everyone for the continued thoughts and prayers! It is because of all of you that my tiny little boys continue to get bigger and stronger! I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as blessed as mine was. :)

Slight Update on the Names!

Ok, many have wondered where the names came from! So here it is...The first names: Colton, Ethan and Hunter came from hours of paging through baby name books and eliminating any name that formerly belonged to any student of mine. Amazingly, I've never taught a Colton, Ethan or a Hunter! The middle names however belonged to Brian's and my dad. Samuel is for my dad (Sam), Bradley is Brian's dad's name and poor Jackson, well, he was named after no one. Which is what led up to this new post! We decided that poor little Hunter would feel left out his whole life, so he shall now and forever on be named after his daddy! He will be called Hunter Brian! The teacher in me has decided that we will name the babies alphabetically by first name based on who is born first, second and third etc! That way I will always remember that Colton was first, Ethan was second, and Hunter was third! Gotta love teaching! So here's a picture of the wooden letter names and plaques I have begun...they were out of the letter 'r' for the time being...poor Hunte_. So our baby boys shall now and forever be called...

Colton Samuel

Ethan Bradley

Hunter Brian

A Den for our Cubs

Well, all I have to say is that Brian has been HARD at work in the nursery! He managed to finish all the painting, the chair rail and the crown molding! It looks so cute! I can't wait to put furniture in it! Which brings me to my next topic...show of hands here ...how many of you have ever played that game Tetris where you have to try and fit all the pieces together as best you can? Ok, well that is similar to how I would describe the process of trying to figure out how to fit 3 cribs, a changing table, a glider and possibly a dresser into that room. Let me tell you, it's not easy! It would be so easy to just randomly place 3 cribs in there, but when you have obsessive- compulsive-decorating-symmetry issues like I do, it really needs to be just right. Forget functionality! 3 babies or not, I still go for looks! So after about an hour of Brian and I tape measuring EVERY possible arrangement, he finally just left the room and probably decided (though he would NEVER actually admit it, god love him) that I have control issues and might be a little bit obsessed with where to put 3 cribs. So anyway, there I was with a roll of blue painter's tape and my imagination. Oh, and Piper. Because as usual, she does not leave my side, and she felt the need to help me envision where to put 3 babies too. (For which we temporarily subsituted teddy bears.) So by golly, I think I got it! So please enjoy the blue tape all over the carpet and just know that it is truly a functional piece to the completion of this room!

The nursery comes along!

So my super duper handy-man husband has been hard at work in the nursery! He has painted both colors we had picked out (which you do not see in these pictures...I'll update that this weekend) and will be installing the chair rail and crown molding this weekend! Yippee! Here are a few pictures of work in progress! As you can see, Piper was a big help as well. She was literally inches from my face in hopes of savoring the last drops of my bowl of soup!

(Above): The lower half was painted a darker tan, the top half is a lighter tan, and where you see the blue tape in the middle is where the chair rail will go.

Brian hard at work, taping away!

Piper watching carefully to make sure my soup does not get up and walk away.

Seriously, could she stare any harder?