Lopsided

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. I am drained lately and have little left over for creative writing here. :) We'll see how this turns out.

We are here again, in my hometown of Gillette! We finally made it after quite a trip. I love spending time here because we get so much help and I get a little rest, so when the opportunity arose to travel, we took it. It worked out because my brother was home on fall break, so my mom rode back our way with him. Then she drove me and the babies out to Gillette yesterday. Dan will come to help us drive home in two weekends. He can't take all this time off work so unfortunately he has to be without us for a week and a couple days. Poor baby... what is his going to do with all his sleep and free time??? ;) I know he misses us but we'll talk often and maybe figure out the webcam!

It is a little bit harder to travel with everyone in the middle of the day, rather than through the night while they sleep. It was a long trip across South Dakota. We fed them in Sioux Falls and ran some errands. Then we stopped at the Nebelsick farm and Dan's parents got to see us momentarily. We did another feeding and immediately got back on the road. We made it as far as Wall, SD and had to stop for the next bottles.

When we pulled into town we looked for a place we could go in and sit down so we stopped at Subway. My mom and I took in the three babies and two diaper bags. We were kind of a spectacle, as usual. Mom ordered us sandwiches and held Aria, and she proceeded to fill her pants in line. After eating, I took the babies one by one to the restroom to be changed. Mom made bottles. We fed everyone. Meanwhile we had gotten many comments from onlookers. One couple said that they were highly entertaining to watch. I could hear "ahh"s and "oo"s as I played with Levi while we waited. I felt like an exhibit at a zoo.

Well, we would have been back on the road at a decent time, but each baby decided it would be fun to fill their pants for Momma. Yay. I started the task of hauling each baby off to be changed again. I had to walk all the way through the Subway into the gas station each time, everyone watching all the way. For the last diaper, the bathroom was occupied so I changed David on the front seat of the van. An hour and a half after pulling in, we were back on the road. But, luckily they all went to sleep and I did too, and we didn't need to stop again.

We arrived somewhere in the 10 o'clock hour. We fed babies and put them to bed. I got ready for bed too and noticed I had no bathroom basket. I had left it in my room in my rush to get babies packed that morning. Soooo, I had to take off for Walmart at 11:30 at night to get contact solution, etc. I couldn't go without a razor because that morning, in my rush, I had only shaved one leg! I couldn't stand walking around lopsided! I don't like being without glasses but what can I do? I got to bed kind of late that night.

The first two or three nights here, I think the babies were trying to kill me. I got about 4 to 5 hours of sleep every night. The decision was made that everyone needed to be eating some rice cereal to fill their bellies before bed. So, Aria and Levi had their first cereal. (Sorry you had to miss it Dan, but there will be lots of nights of feeding them in your future. :)) Both of them did great and they sucked it right down. They like it and sit up and open their mouths for the spoon.

Saturday morning, I got to go to Rapid City with my friend McKenzie and her mom for some "girl time" and shopping. We had a lot of fun trying on mounds of clothes now that we both are recovered from having babies this spring. Yay! It was fun to get out and spend time with my friend. I miss my friends from home and love getting to spend time with them while I am here. The one mishap from the trip was when my contact tore in the car on the way there. If you remember from before, I don't have my bathroom supplies, so no replacement and no glasses. So from Saturday to Monday, I had to live with one contact. It was so annoying!! I even sang at church with my sight being all wacky, but I made it through. So here I was again, lopsided. My dad said I am doing a great job of taking care of these babies, but not such a great job taking care of myself. Ha.

Sunday night, I needed to run to Walmart for some formula, diapers and other random items. I was still without my contact but I thought I was fine. But at night, lights looked like big blurry bulbs through my bad eye. Yikes. So, I closed that eye for a lot of the drive. Not very convenient. It was only two days after Halloween... so I found a 50 cent solution to my problem! A pirate eye patch for the drive home! I walked in the door to my parents house and said "ARRR!"

The other morning, Aria woke me up for a bottle at around 4 am. I was kind of flustered because she started crying the instant I laid her down for a diaper change. I REALLY didn't want her to wake up her brothers so I was trying to entertain and shush her. I got her bottle ready while holding her and fixed myself a big 32 oz of ice water. Then we went back to the livingroom. Well, in the darkness and excitement, I knocked over my iced tea from the evening before. It hit the couch, the table and the floor. Aria was still yelling as I cleaned it up. Then, as I tried to move the side table to continue soaking up the floor, my big water tipped off, the lid popped off, and water and ice went everywhere! Arg. I ran for a bigger towel... baby still crying. Finally, I got an acceptable amount cleaned up and laid Aria down to change her. She just got louder because she wasn't being fed. Finally, I stuck the bottle in and finished the diapering and snapping one-handed. My mom must have heard enough ruckus to wake up and came to help... to rescue me at the height of 4am stress. Thank goodness! I don't believe any of the boys got up right away so that was good. We don't have just the stress of a baby crying in the middle of the night, we have the stress that a baby crying could possibly lead to THREE crying babies. They hear each other now. We try to avoid that.

Well, now it is Friday and I am still working on this post. I got a replacement contact on Monday morning for my right eye. It was quite the ordeal. Turns out it can be quite complicated to get one contact. I was told by my local eye doctor that I had to go and sign a release, have it faxed and then they would fax back my prescription. I wanted to say... do you realize I am alone with three babies, no triplet stroller and it's almost impossible to run to the eye doctor without help, besides the fact that I am half blind and probably shouldn't be driving my three babies around? (ok, my sight isn't that bad... it's a nuisance but not bad.) Luckily we were able to pick up my mom over the lunch hour and she sat in the car with the kids while I stood waiting for the stupid fax to be returned. The Gillette office was great and would have just given me the contact if I had known the brand I had. They even called but our office said the type I took was bi-focals! I don't think so! So, I had to wait for the fax. After a half an hour, we left to go get lunch and see if the babies would fall asleep with the van moving again. I was able to get my contact when we returned.

Guess what my luck brought me this lovely Friday morning? My LEFT contact tore in half. I am done with this new brand!! Sooo, I had to swallow my pride and go get another one. I would have been fine and had Dan bring me my entire box from home... BUT a giant blizzard has canceled his travel plans and we won't be seeing him tonight. Sadness. I was bummed. We'll see if anyone will make it back from the Sioux Falls area this weekend. We were all going to be together for the high school musical here. It's a family tradition since my aunt is the director and we've all been in them for years. This year, my cousin is playing a part and I am very excited to watch him. If no one makes it, I won't have travel help getting back and my parents may have to help me drive part way. I know I won't attempt the entire 500 mile trip alone with the trio.


I am going to post this with no pictures and add some when I find some. I am out of time and it's time to feed Levi! He won't understand if I delay to upload photos for you all, so check back later!!

Love, Elizabeth

PS-I forgot to mention Halloween! We didn't do anything special besides answer to door for trick-or-treaters. The babies wore their cute onesies from Aunt Donna for their first Halloween. We have some pictures that my Dad took. I have a favorite of each child, but not one of everyone all together. That is a miracle moment that happens rarely.

All three looking at me on the floor trying to get some smiles.


My favorite of Aria.

Levi!

David!