A Bad Idea
On Friday I had a great idea. I was so proud of my fun and ambitious idea and when I presented it to Chris he also agreed that it was a fantastic idea. Since Ava was going to go with Gigi to the spring fling at Blue Oak School I came up with the idea that Chris and I should take all three babies on a shopping outing in Folsom. Ambitious, yes . . . practical, no . . . a good idea to take three babies out on the town at 5:30 at night . . . no. A bad idea. What ensued over the next couple hours was a bit crazy and not condusive to maintaining a sane disposition. It started off rocky when we had the two babies snapped into the snap n go stroller and the other baby in the magic baby sling. Once we stepped foot into Pier One the natives were restless. Elsa started crying and then Violet joined in. Preston was fussing in the sling that was proving to be not very magic at the moment. Chris and I quickly jumped into gear, grabbing bottles and binkies and shoving them frantically into screaming mouths. I must not let the general public know that we have three month old triplets and we were dumb enough to bring them all out into the world for a shopping trip at 5:30 in the evening, and that the expedition was already failing. We would get one baby settled down and sleeping and then another would wake up and start crying. They were tired and they did not want to be tied down in their carseat browsing the sale on outdoor rugs at Pier One. As we found out they also did not appreciate buying diapers and wipes at Babies R Us or frolicking down the wine section of Cost Plus World Market. At 7pm we ran into neighbors inside Famous Footwear and we had two screaming babies in the snap n go. I was initially embarrassed but I quickly let it go and thought that this is just life with infants and did I expect them to be perfect citizens of the world when we put them in less than ideal situations? My neighbor said that he couldn't believe how quiet their cries were and that his daughter, who was with him, would really belt it out when she was little. See, they were all crying, but what polite and quiet cries they had! It could be worse. And it got worse. We headed over to Islands and called in some burgers. There was a 25 minute wait for our burgers and we would experience each and every painful 25 minutes in our car with three babies whose quiet and polite cries had excalated to a shrill scream. This video clip captured a little bit of the chaos:
Was the big juicy burger and greasy fries worth the wait in a car of screaming babies? We faltered a few times weighing our options and then decided that indeed we could not pass up the burgers and fries. During our burger wait when we couldn't take the screaming any more we got each and every baby out of the car seat and I started nursing like a mad woman in the front seat of the car. We were shuffling babies around in the front seat like they were a deck of cards, hoping we wouldn't drop one on the ground, or worse, out the window. I had Elsa on one boob and Preston on the other boob and Chris was holding Violet. For a time there was peace. Then we had to load them back up to head home and unrest resumed. Chris and I got home, put the babies to bed and then we went to bed. It was a bad idea but we don't regret trying. We didn't lose it or get stressed out or hostile with each other. We just dealt with our decision and realized that we won't do that again anytime soon. Meanwhile, the babies are doing great. They are eating 3 oz. bottles every 3 hours. The night before last they slept from 9 to 2 and then from 2 to 6. I cannot wait -- I mean I think about it all the time -- until these four children sleep all through the night. That's right, we not only have the three babies waking us up but we also have Ava waking us up in the middle of the night. The babies are 3 months old on the 22nd which means we are that much closer to better sleeping. It is pool season already and Ava is in heaven. She forgot how to swim over the winter but it only took a few days for her best dog paddle to come back to life. Next summer we will have all the kids in the pool and that should be interesting. Until next time. . . the mothership is singing off.
Was the big juicy burger and greasy fries worth the wait in a car of screaming babies? We faltered a few times weighing our options and then decided that indeed we could not pass up the burgers and fries. During our burger wait when we couldn't take the screaming any more we got each and every baby out of the car seat and I started nursing like a mad woman in the front seat of the car. We were shuffling babies around in the front seat like they were a deck of cards, hoping we wouldn't drop one on the ground, or worse, out the window. I had Elsa on one boob and Preston on the other boob and Chris was holding Violet. For a time there was peace. Then we had to load them back up to head home and unrest resumed. Chris and I got home, put the babies to bed and then we went to bed. It was a bad idea but we don't regret trying. We didn't lose it or get stressed out or hostile with each other. We just dealt with our decision and realized that we won't do that again anytime soon. Meanwhile, the babies are doing great. They are eating 3 oz. bottles every 3 hours. The night before last they slept from 9 to 2 and then from 2 to 6. I cannot wait -- I mean I think about it all the time -- until these four children sleep all through the night. That's right, we not only have the three babies waking us up but we also have Ava waking us up in the middle of the night. The babies are 3 months old on the 22nd which means we are that much closer to better sleeping. It is pool season already and Ava is in heaven. She forgot how to swim over the winter but it only took a few days for her best dog paddle to come back to life. Next summer we will have all the kids in the pool and that should be interesting. Until next time. . . the mothership is singing off.
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