Happy Birthday Daddy and Mommy!

We have had a busy couple weekends here in the Huber household...thank God for Nanny Debbie...she is the woman who watches our boys during the week and lately during the weekends too! Mommy and Daddy have really been living the life!  Last weekend we went out for dinner, laser tag and bowling for Mike's birthday and then this weekend she watched the boys so that Mike and I could go for breakfast on Saturday and then I went to work for a bit and Mike and Konrad went to the doctor for Konrad and quickly stopped by at cousin Charlotte's birthday party and then he dropped Konrad back off at home and Mike and I went to Holly's baptism...then today we went to breakfast WITH the boys and Mike's parents which was only their second restaurant adventure ever and then we had some birthday dinner with my parents...and of course the most important birthday present of all...Konrad is still sick, hoarse and wilty from the Lila cold he caught last weekend and came down with on Thursday and today Zachary started with a runny nose and chesty cough and a temperature of 103 and Mikey had a runny nose and a temperature of 101.5...woot!  Now admittedly Mikey and Zachary were probably coming down with it yesterday but their very busy mommy didn't notice until today which was the first time that I have actually spent more than a couple hours with both of them in at least a week...It's good to be a mommy of triplets :)  Poor sicky icky babies...its a Huber theme these days I'm afraid...perhaps we need to go back into the bubble, but I am pretty sure that the bubble got us here now in the first place...hmmm philosophy of baby illnesses...anyway, here are some party pics to lighten the post a bit, lol...

Daddy's cake

Daddy, Greg, Jeff & Erik a few drinks into bowling...

Happy Birthday Daddy! (at the restaurant)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Mommy's birthday breakfast

Konrad was VERY excited to get some food...we don't get out much...

That sure is a lot of candles...

Daddy got Mommy some roses, awww

Grandma Carol and the boys!

Long work days and 5 am wake ups are not condusive to frequent blogging...a much overdue update

I am going to try REALLY hard to get back to the once a week updates...but for now:

Mikey has 7 teeth, the newest came in a few days ago, he is very close to taking his first step and is testing out one handed transfers. He is a chatter box with his brothers in their weird little language and he loves nothing more than to stick his tongue out and blow some raspberries when he is feeling sassy, which is most of the time. He is learning to clap and he loves dancing to music and laughing at his brothers. He is a VERY fast crawler and he takes great pleasure in his victories. He spends nap times and evenings lapping his crib, screaming at his brothers and trying to steal their blankies and pacifiers through the bars and eventually settling down for a sleep.

Konrad is working hard on his 5th and 6th teeth as we speak, but he is very cute with the four he has. His close behind Mikey in the race to take a first step and working very hard to catch up in speed of crawling as well. He still falls over if he crawls too fast, which is sad but funny and very frustrating for Konrad. He is the best and most variable talker and he is having conversations with us all of the time...we just don't know what he is saying yet. He clearly signs and says more and bottle and he says mama, dada, he claps and waves. He is a very entertaining dancer and he has a little head motion where he moves his head side to side to the music that is too cute when music plays...sometimes he moves his head so fast that he almost falls over, lol. He is learning to sleep in his crib right now and it is no fun for anyone, but very necessary for the sanity of his parents and the safety of his head :)

Zachary has 6 teeth, four of which came in a few days ago within 24 hours of eachother...he was not happy. He is learning how to pull himself up although he hasn't quite figured it out yet and he likes to stand when we help him. He knows that he wants to, he just doesn't quuite have the strength and coordination yet. He is adorable and easy going as ever and he is constantly laughing at his brothers and his own inside Zach jokes. He has finally gotten the crawling thing down, but he is slow and it frustrates him when Mikey gets places faster or crawls right over him like he is standing still when he is going too slow. He is very tolerant of his brothers and he will allow them to take just about anything besides his pacifier. He loves puppets and books and he still is an extreme Daddy's boy. He is starting to make more attempts at talking...we will see.

The boys have an evaluation with the pediatric developmental clinic at Henry Ford next week. Their pediatrician feels that they need some PT and speech therapy. So we will start the process once again and see where it goes. At this moment in time, they are healthy...I think, lol.

"What did you find, Konrad?"

Zachary happy as ever!

Sassy Mikey!

Baby pile...no matter how much room they have they always pile together!

Update on the boys...(finally)

The boys had their 1 year old well baby visit with their new pediatrician and also their 1 year old pictures! They are doing great and changing so fast lately. They are learning new things every day it seems and they are looking more and more like little boys not babies.

Michael's 1 year photo

Mikey weighed in at 22.5 pounds and 29 inches tall, he is pretty much in the 20th percentile for everything and he is the tallest of the boys. He is sitting by himself, pulling himself up on his knees and to a stand, and crawling like a mad man. He is eating finger foods with his hands and pinchers, and now that he knows how, he is holding his own bottle and wants to do it himself most of the time. He is very picky about his foods and he will only eat certain puffs or fruits...he looks at his tray like I plopped a turd on there when I try to give him cheerios instead of puffs. He is still a bit of a toy thief still and spends most of play time watching Zach and Konrad to see who has the best toy and then he tries to take it...they are giving him a run for his money. He loves to dance and lately he has been sitting with his legs out the slats of his crib swinging his legs like he's on a dock in the summer...very cute. He is a bit behind in his language, we rarely hear him say any consonants at all, but he gets his point across with shouts and other noises...he is not very articulate but he is VERY vocal, lol.

Konrad's 1 year photo

Konrad is the smallest and shortest of our little guys. He weighed in at 20.8 pounds and he is 28 inches tall. He is in the 5-10th percentile for most things. He is sitting, crawling, pulling himself up to his knees and he just figured out how to pull himself up to a stand. He is a good eater and he likes most foods. He is the least picky eater although he has a bit of a puking problem if something doesn't agree with him. He won't hold his bottle, although we know he can because he has done it. He is the most ahead of the boys in language and fine motor skills. Konrad can clap his hands, wave good bye, he is quite chatty and says "Mama, Dada, Baba" for the appropriate people or for his bottle. He also makes a lot of talking attempts and is very vocal with his baby language. We know he is saying something, we just don't know what yet. He is happy, hyper, and very interactive and he is definitely starting to hold his own with his brothers, although he is definitely the most sensitive and impatient baby and he doesn't like to be pestered by his brothers unless it is on his terms.

Zachary's 1 year photo

Zachary weighed in at 24.8 pounds and he is 28.5 inches long. He is in the 70th percentile for head and weight and in the 15th percentile for height. He is sitting by himself, although he is very careful about his transitions still, and crawling very well. He is a very good eater and he prefers to feed himself except before bed when he likes us to hold his bottle. He takes hand fulls of finger foods to his mouth at a time to scare his mother...he kind of looks like a little squirrel when he eats, lol. He is the most behind in fine and gross motor skills and he is just starting to figure out the whole pincher grasp thing, and so far he has no interest in kneeling or standing up. He does walk when you hold his hands, but not as well as his brothers. He holds his own bottle and says "Dada" but other than that he hasn't really started talking like Konrad has. He laughs and smiles ALL the time, and he is the most pleasant and happy of our babies. He is extremely easy going and for the most part let his brothers crawl all over him...literally. He is a lover not a fighter, he is so gentle and he is quite independent unless he is tired and then he wants some attention.

The Huber Boys are 1 year old!

Baby Prison, lol

Since the boys are pulling themselves up so much lately, we decided that its probably time to phase out the walkers and encourage them to walk on their own...so we pulled out and put up the super playyards, aka baby prison, in the living room. They like it okay so far, but I like it quite a bit because I can control what goes in a little better as far as dirt. Now they have a space of their own (nearly our entire living room, lol) and people aren't walking across the same floors that they pay on. they crawl so fast now that they were starting to "escape" the living room area when I left the room even for a second. They were following people right out of the living room and into the kitchen and halls and although I clean the floors frequently, I was starting to get scared that they would find something that they should not have and put it in their mouth before we could stop them. Now we can control their environment a bit more and they can't escape into the hallways or kitchen unless we want them to. Our boys are growing up...

Baby Prison

Kindred spirits...

Lately I have been getting alot more negative comment regarding being a mom of multiples. People accusingly ask me if I did IVF so they can shove me in the same category as the crazy lady from California and they are so disappointed when they find out that I did not. I can always tell that they want to ask more questions like "well then are they natural or did you do something to make this happen to you?". They want to know "Is this your fault or God's fault" and "Are you a victim of circumstance and I should pity you or are you a victim of selfishness and greed and I should tell you that it serves you right". I know this because some people are not so subtle, some people come right out at you and say these things. I have literally had people say "Did you bring this on yourself or should I feel sorry for you?"  I suppose that in some ways I did ask for this...I did want children. I wanted them badly, almost desperately and I always said that I wanted to have three before I was thirty...well I checked off that box, lol.  But some days I ask myself whether or not I am a good mom...somedays when I am tired and overwhelmed and I have spent the day fending them off instead of nurturing them and loving them as a good mom should I wonder..."Did I do the right thing?" and "Am I doing right by them?" Although I couldn't decide which one to trade in if I had a gun to my head...I am overwhelmingly guilty to admit that some days I have moments when I wish I was "normal" and that I only had one child at a time so that I could show them love more and give them the attention and affection that I wish I could.  Most days I am all business just to make it through the day and now that I have even less time with them in a day it feels even worse because I get home and hit the ground running...make dinner, make bottles, get babies ready for bed, put them down and then Mike gets home and I am mad and exhausted from my long day and from my even longer 1-2 hours with the babies....this is not how I pictured my life...but the Polly Anna in me asks "Is it ever?" and I get up every morning and make it work...we all do.

Someone on triplet connection forwarded along this blog entry. I agree with much of what she says...and I probably need to take her advice and get on the medicated band wagon...but even more than that, it reminds that I am not alone on this island at a time when I am really struggling to figure it all out...we all are...

WHAT YOU WISH FOR
By M. SINDY FELIN

Eleven and a half months ago I gave birth to triplets. That’s THREE babies. All at once! Not impressed? No doubt then you are among the hordes marveling at what is turning out with each passing day to be a curiouser and curiouser shipwreck in the person of one Nadya Suleman of Whittier, Calif. Suleman disgorged octuplets (seven plus one stowaway) a week ago.

I’ve been asked often in that week whether having triplets gives me any insight into what Nadya Suleman is about to face. It absolutely does not. Perhaps if these were her first children I might have something to say about sleep deprivation (it’s unimaginable), coordinating volunteers (a lot more people will offer to help than will actually follow through) or exclusive breastfeeding (don’t have your heart set on it). But with six children, including a set of twins at home, Suleman should have more of an idea of what is in store for her than I did when I found out I was carrying triplets.

So I don’t have any words of wisdom for Suleman other than, “Please, stop!” I do, however, have some advice for those who have recently found themselves pregnant with triplets or more. Many of these women find their way to the message boards of tripletconnection.com, where they post desperate questions about the chances of their babies being born without disabilities and their chances of finishing the pregnancy without becoming debilitated themselves.

I understand their worries; I had the same ones. But after nearly a year of being the mother of triplets I can see that theirs are not the right questions. What these new parents should ask — and what I should have paid more attention to — was what happens after the children are born.

To start, there is the financial strain. On the message boards parents share strategies on how to get free formula and diapers, how to find formula on the cheap on eBay and how to qualify for WIC, the government program that helps with the cost of formula and cereal for infants. I used to joke that I spent so much money trying to get pregnant that I wouldn’t be able to afford diapers by the time I finally did have a baby. It wasn’t so funny a few months into my triplets’ lives when I found myself exactly in that position.

Then there is the emotional strain that at times comes from a wicked level of postpartum depression coupled with weeks on end of getting virtually no sleep. I formed a close online bond with a group of about a dozen women pregnant with triplets and due around the time I was. When my babies were 4-months-old, I gloated to a friend that I was the only one of the group not on antidepressants. Sure, I spent quite a bit of each day shaking and sobbing alongside my newborns, but I wasn’t on meds! Not two weeks after that conversation, I stormed into my doctor’s office and demanded she give me something — anything, to make my day-to-day life bearable. A few weeks later, I had her double the dose of my Zoloft.

Finally, there is the strain on marriages and families. Couples counseling and divorce are often the topics of conversation on the message boards. My own relationship with my partner, shaky for some time before we became parents, did not survive the stress of raising three babies. I find myself now among a growing number of women who are single parents of triplets. Even the octuplet grandma out in Whittier has thrown a public temper tantrum and declared she will not be around when her daughter and the octuplets are released from the hospital.

And humming along in the background during all this chaos is the constant awareness that “I asked for this.” Triplets rarely just “happen.” You pay in money and emotion trying to conceive. Then you suddenly go from barren to oh-so-fruitful, and any regret or second thoughts feel hypocritical.

So you give up the idea of attachment parenting, breastfeeding until kindergarten, Mommy and Me classes, making new mommy friends at the park. And you forget all those daydreams about what finally holding our little ones in our arms would be like — the woozy, tearful love, the hours spent cradling a single, precious child. And you take on three times the postpartum depression and three times the screaming. A baby eventually sleeps at night but one or two are always awake. ALWAYS.

You do all this on your own, if you can, because reaching out for help is tinged with embarrassment that after years of yearning you can’t seem to handle it.

But here is the last thing these parents-to-be need to know. Each night there is a brief period of time where everyone is sleeping and you realize you did it — everyone is alive, dry, and fed. People like to say “I couldn’t do what you do,” and you nod heroically but in reality you know that yes, they could. When faced with the seemingly impossible, we women have a way of rising to the occasion. Because even with the seemingly insurmountable difficulties I face raising triplets on my own, I would rather be fighting this beautiful battle than return to the days I thought I would never carry even one child of my own.

Standing...what!

A few more birthday pics...

Happy Birthday to Zachary!

Happy Birthday to Konrad

Happy Birthday to Mikey, Happy Birthday to you!

My little monsters...

Mikey, caught in the act!

Konrad, riding a new present!

Konrad standing by himself!

Birthday Boys!

Happy 1 Year Old Birthday Babies! The boys turned 1 year old yesterday, amazing!  We are so proud to have survived this past year.  It has been challenging, I won't lie, but very worth it.  We are so blessed to have such beautiful, healthy boys...and three of them too! We still can't get over the whole three kids thing, lol, but we are happy that we got so lucky, we can't pick one to trade out.  The boys woke up happy and were very confused by all the singing at them all day long, but like good sports they danced and sang along most of the day, laugh.  They really enjoyed their cakes and of course they approached the actual eating very differently. Zachary just tore in and covered himself, his chari and the walls in icing and cake. Mikey, picked at it for a while not sure if he should eat it, he looked around, watched his brothers and then ate it without using his hands...kind of like a pig trough, lol.  Konrad started eating it right away with both hands, but much more delicately than Zachary, he even tried to eat his candle before we could pull it off, he was READY, he has the whole feeding himself thing down. It was pretty darn funny. It definitely shows how different they are, but it was quite an experience to watch all three of them chow down on their cakes at once.  I am so happy to have gotten them through their first year (but a little sad too because my babies are little boys now) and I am so looking forward to watching them grow.

Birthday Boys!!!

The cakes in all their pristine glory!

Opening Presents

Eating lunch...we want CAKE!

Then it was time for cake...

Konrad eating his candle, Mikey not sure what to do yet...

Konrad eating his cake

I think I'm done...

Mikey eating his cake

Mmmm cake!

Zach loved his cake...Squishy!

Yep, he got the wall too!

Then the clean up...

Now you have some!

Zach REALLY enjoyed his cake!

Hope Mikey is not allergic to red dye...