The Miles' Trio: A day in the life of...

Do you ever find yourself wondering what a day with triplets is actually like? It is something we often find ourselves trying to answer - because there really is no explaining it, rather we just get through each day and then breathe a little sigh of relief at night when they're all in bed. Now, don't get me wrong - I love how full our days our and cannot believe how lucky we are to have such fun, sweet, ornery, and healthy little girls... but bedtime takes on a new meaning with kids - and I'm pretty sure every parent out there would agree to that! At any rate, I thought I would take time to try to document what a typical day is like in our house - mostly so I can hold if over the girls' heads later on in life... Ha!

6:45-7:30: Rise and Shine! The time has varied tremendously over the past couple weeks with daylight savings time and the girls fighting that cold. Before that we were all getting up right around 7:00 AM - I have a somewhat stubborn rule about the girls not getting out of their crib before 7:00, though I was having to alter it a bit. With the time change we're back on track! The tricky part in the morning is if they all wake up at the same time... I can only carry two down at a time meaning I leave one not so happy little girl up in her room while I take the other two down. However, for the most part, they don't all wake up in the morning at the same time... they save that for naptimes!

Milk is the number 1 priority after waking up and stretching - no time for a diaper change before hand... so they get their bottle (we're switching the morning bottle to a sippy this week - fingers crossed) and I change their diaper(s) while they eat - multitasking is the name of the game! All three of the girls like to eat anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4th of their bottle and then take a playbreak, lots of energy to expend in the morning. We all play for about an hour or so and then head to breakfast around 8:30. Playtime in the kitchen is a favorite - they can demolish the "tupperware" (mostly glad, ziploc, etc.) cabinet in no time flat. They also are quick to point out if I forget to pick up the dog food/water! They play around the kitchen while I get breakfast ready... typical breakfast: cheerios to start, banana, blueberry-oatmeal pancakes (egg casserole this morning) or cinnamon-swirl toast or french toast. Sometimes we do a smoothie and/or cereal - kind of depends on the day. I try to mix it up, but have decided breakfast variety is hard.

9:00: Faces wiped, back to the playroom, time to get dressed... let the chaos ensue. This is kind of a crazy time - they go from playing really nice to fighting to playing to dancing to crying to... It kind of deteriorates as we get closer and closer to 10ish (the magical nap time).

10/10:30: NAPTIME! Ahhhh - peace and quiet. Time to pick up the first mess of the day, clean up breakfast dishes, get sippy cups ready for the rest of the day, laundry, etc.

Noon-ish: Back up and at 'em. After a quick diaper change the girls play for awhile before sitting down for lunch. They eat around 12:30 or so. Typical lunch: LEFTOVERS! What a range they eat... We do some kind of "main course" (ex: meatballs, chicken nuggets, fish, mac n cheese, lasagne etc.) with a veggie - carrots are still a huge favorite (sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, beans - all varieties, peas, etc.), and a fruit with grapes and blueberries being their faves (strawberries, pineapple, apricots, kiwi, oranges, peaches - they haven't met a fruit they don't like). We have been blessed with good eaters... thus far. I've heard that the picky-ness will make its appearance soon (fingers crossed that it might skip us).

1:00-3ish: PLAYTIME!!! It's been so nice we've been able to go for a walk as of late, but really the girls just play during this time - in the living room (we have designated play areas for the different parts of the day.. dorky, but it saves us all from getting too bored). The girls have their sippy cups at some point during this time, though it varies as to when and how much they even eat.

3:30ish: NAPTIME! Again, pick up the destruction... it's so funny to me how we go from a small mess to a big mess so quickly. The girls each like to play "only child" (up first and alone from a nap) and I'm amazed at how clean things stay.... until the next one/two get up! :-) Their afternoon nap ranges from an hour and a half to two hours - we get them up by 5:30 at the latest. Kind of late compared to other kids, but it works for our schedule. They eat a little more of their sippy and maybe a snack. Sometimes we go for a short walk or play outside before dinner.

6:00: Dinnertime... We've been pretty good as of late about all eating together - sort of. Rather, I cook and get dinner ready for us all (cut up for the girls - yes, my hand is sore). Trav feeds the girls and then we both stuff our faces quick in-between getting more food for the girls. Then it's time to clean up (again)... I find this the most exhausting part of the day for some reason. Sometimes the kitchen gets clean straight away and other times it waits until the girls are down for the night - depends on their moods.

6:30ish: PLAYTIME/DANCE PARTY... we sometimes put in a video for the girls to dance to, play megablocks, tunnel chase, or even jumparoos (still like them). Whatever they find entertaining, we do. They hit the wall right around 7:15 at which time we open up the gate (literally) and the girls rush to the stairs to head up for bedtime routine.

Bedtime routine: Climb the stairs... sprint to the right (into mom and dad's room) or toward the outlet - both hold great amounts of fascination - while mom and dad say, "come here". Heard them all into their room to play for awhile. After about 10 minutes Trav goes to get the bath ready while I chase around naked toddlers. Bath time - Dad does the baths (all three in the tub at the same time) while I get everything else ready - bottles out, boppys/pillows ready, music on, pjs and diapers out, etc. Whoever is crabbing gets out of the tub first - we lotion, diaper, dress pretty quickly and then it's time for baby #2. This is the most challenging part of the routine - three tired babies who realize it's close to bedtime and that bottle. Once they're all dressed we head downstairs - one of us carrying two and the other carrying one... Bryn likes to help turn off all the lights (I showed her once and now she LOVES to do it). We get downstairs and shove the bottles into their bellowing mouths - they have very little patience at this point. The girls take breaks at this point and go get us books to read, or chase each other around for a little bit longer... We've given up control at this point and let them go for about 10 minutes before putting on their sleepsacks and settling them down. They go down about 8:15 these days... ahhhh. Once they're in bed we finish picking everything up and breathe a sigh of relief - shocked that another day has passed.

And that's our day... The weekends don't vary too much from the weekdays other than the fact that Mollie is on day duty as opposed to one of us. Weekends are a bit easier since there are more people around - except that I've been trying to work over the weekends. Lately we've had lots of help from grandparents around the weekend... the girls love the company and so do we! although sometimes it makes for along week as we adjust back to "normalcy".

I think that probably the biggest difference with triplets/multiples is that you're even more "on" all the time. What I mean by that is that we really can't leave to do the dishes or go make the bed or anything else you might run quick and do. While we try to let them play alone or with each other quite a bit - we have to be "on"/around since tackling/hitting/(and recently) biting happens quick and without cause. It's been so much fun to see them increasingly play together every so often... such entertainment! The other difference might be the planning/thinking that is never-ending... this is probably true regardless of how many kids you have, who knows... all I know is that last minute plans are a thing of the past for us for the time being!

Update: Hadley is still high-step walking (about the cutest walk I've ever seen); Bryn has taken a few steps here and there (more of a side-stepper, still very risk-averse); Ryann is running faster and figured out how to climb onto the front couch (yikes). We also discovered two more teeth in Ryann's mouth yesterday - when did that happen? I still need to check out Bryn and Hadley... sneaky devils! Some recent pictures are below! Happy Spring!