A few months ago, we thought we had things kinda figured out. The triplet bomb was dropped & because of it, some decisions were made for us. Sometimes it’s easier that way.
A lot of these decisions have been turned upside down since January 31st when we learned we were now expecting “just” two babies. I’ve been a bit MIA the last couple of weeks from posting because these thoughts keep rolling around.
I thought I might share what was decided & then probably end up doing a post on each one as our changing decisions are decided.
Cars: None of our then vehicles {’03 CRV, ’01 Jetta, or ’08 Evo} would fit three car seats. We were selling all, getting a minivan for me, a bigger daily driver vehicle & no “play car” for the husband.
Stay at Home vs Working: It’s laughable to think of putting three mostly-likely premie infant triplets in daycare. From the cost {$4500/mo anyone?!} & health standpoint. That was the biggest decision made for us when we heard “triplets”.
Travel: That decision was pretty much not travelling for who knows how long. Heck, I was thinking I wouldn’t really be leaving the house much with three babies ~ I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to hold all three while standing up.
Help: We’d already started recruiting retired & willing family members to come live with us on a rotating schedule for an unending time period.
Cloth Diapering: I’d wanted to do it with one child. The idea of paying for disposable diapers for three {much less my crunchy side internally yelling about the environmental thought of that} was too much. CD all the way & the cheapest ways possible {prefolds & covers}. I figured with triplets, I’d be home so no hassling with CDs at daycare & what’s another load of laundry?!
Breast Feeding: Again, with triplets, I wasn’t thinking I’d be going back to work {so lack of $$ for formula} & we wouldn’t be leaving the house {so who cares if there’s a kid or pump constantly attached to me}, & cost savings alone made me super-duper pro-breast feeding. Not to mention the health needs of premie triplets boosted by my milk. I’d planned to rent the Symphony hospital pump for the duration.
Baby supplies & non-necessities: Thanks to super generous family & friends, we’ve received almost all the baby supplies we “need”. With triplets, there were going to be little to no non-necessities.
I feel like this post sounds like I’m complaining which I really don’t mean for it to. Just wanting to remember what our thoughts were before & after. A lot of our thoughts & decisions haven’t changed much but I’ll talk about that later.
This post also isn’t meant to start the breast feeding vs formula, SAHM vs WM, CD vs disposable debates. I really hope it doesn’t go there because I’m an emotional pregnant chick & a wuss ~ conflict kinda scares me.
14 replies on “Decisions”
I don’t think this sounds like complaining at all.
Even with just two, I ended up renting a hospital grade breast pump for months while I pumped. A regular pump could not handle the volume of flow I produced with two. And Alex had low oral motor tone so he could not breastfeed… no way was I breastfeeding one and not the other, so I pumped.
I think that’s my plan too. To rent the hospital one & go from there. Thanks for the advice ~ I know I’ll be coming to you for more as I get further along!
I don’t think you’re complaining and even if you were, you’re pregnant! It’s totally allowed!
After all we went through to get pregnant, I swore I wouldn’t complain about it. So I really try not to do that & just be grateful.
You’re not complaining. There are a lot of decisions and life changes when you bring one baby into the world, never mind multiple. And then some of your decisions have to be altered once the kids actually get here. You plan the best you can and then roll with it once you have the babies. I’m excited to know what your plan is and hope that it all goes smoothly from here on out.
I hope so too!! Thank you!
I think all these decisions sound like they make sense, even with two babies instead of three now. It’s exactly what I would have chosen too. Breastfeeding multiples? I bow down.
Wait to bow down once they arrive & we see how it goes. But I’m going to be pretty committed to bfing!
So much of this is us too. And with Bella it adds even more complications and decisions along the way, not that I’m complaining either!
These are so well thought out, anyone who is having multiples or even just a baby has to plan for all these things! I know lots of moms who choose to stay home when they have a second because daycare is sky high. And as for pumping – you can do it. I don’t know exactly how it will all work out for us, but I do know I’m giving myself permission to FF every so often since we had such a rough time with Bella and I also need to sleep.
I figure – it will all work out so much easier once they are here, but until then it’s kinda fun to plan and prepare.
Yes, that’s me Diana. Love to plan! It eases my stress to put out there what we decided then to track what decisions were changing up with two.
I can’t imagine the decisions running through your head with Bella plus two, but I know you will rock them out. Anything I can help you with, you know I’m here.
You and Jason will figure everything out. Things will be a lot clearer once the babies come. Planning is good though, even if some of your plans change later.lol. It never hurts to have a plan! 😉 Love you all, and hope to see you soon!
whew! that’s a lot to take in and plan for.
even with one baby it requires thinking about all those things! i can’t imagine with two!!
go with your heart and try your plan, if its not working then try something new.
It is all very confusing! Even with twins some of your decisions may be the same. We found we needed a bigger car anyway because if someone ever visited us they couldn’t ride with us going places. Plus, a double stroller takes up a lot of room!
Travel will be hard but easier with two. We’ve taken our duo a number of places.
The work vs stay at home debate is a difficult one! Even with 2 for us daycare was cost prohibitive. I make more, so DH is the SAHD.
From a cost standpoint I regret not doing CD but I just wasn’t willing to do the extra laundry!
Hopefully with 2 in there you’ll be able to carry close to term or make it to term. That will help you determine if you even need to pump. I breastfed my twins and only pumped when I was at work. It wasn’t a necessity for everyday.
The way you use help may change…some depends on how long your husband is home. We had no help with our twins and did fine because we were both home for 8 weeks but if we had to do it over it would have been nice for people to provide meals. Since I breastfed there was no nightshift coverage. I fed one, passed it off to DH to burp, swaddle, settle, then fed #2. We worked as a team for everything.
Good luck sorting through all this! I’m always available for questions. There’s also a great online forum for parents of multiples if you’re interested. http://Www.twinstuff.com/forums. It’s been a lifesaver for me when I was in the trenches.
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