Birthday Week for 3 Little Miracles

Tomorrow, our babies turn 2. Yes, half of our family celebrates birthdays on the same day. It makes for a very busy week. There are lots of challenges to having higher order multiples, but during this week of September we reflect on all of the blessings.

I suppose some day soon I'll have to stop referring to them as babies. In the feet pictured above, they were 6 months old. Today they're running, talking, singing, fighting, hugging, kissing, and the list goes on. They are hitting all of their milestones and surpassing many.

Two years ago today I was preparing for lots of possible complications. On this day two years ago I was exactly 29 weeks pregnant. I had done everything I knew (and learned during this process) to keep them 'cooking' for as long as possible.

I was uncomfortable, but not miserable. I had gained 60+ pounds, but my blood sugar was staying under control as well as my blood pressure. I was in the hospital, but not because of complications with me. Little Lauren was having trouble getting enough nourishment.

When I say little, I really mean tiny. The ultrasound the day she was born indicated that she would weigh about 2lbs., but her birth weight ended up being 1lb. 6 ounces. Yep a mere 22 ounces. It still frightens me to remember that.

They were wheeling me down to the high-risk perinatologist for daily ultrasounds to check her cord blood flow. Every day it slowed a little more and on this day they said that birth day was near. The flow had come to almost a halt.

Even with her little size our little girl was the feistiest of the 3...and sometimes still is. The boys weighed in at a 'hefty' 2lb. 3 oz. and 2lb. 13oz. As it turns out thus far, we have 3 very healthy 2-year olds and I can't tell you how thankful I am that God has blessed us in so many ways.

I've learned a great deal about motherhood and life in general during the past two years. It is one thing to enter into motherhood and it is an entirely different thing to add 3 children to your family in one day.

You'd have to ask my husband about fatherhood. For a guy that stayed a bachelor until he was 37, he's doing an excellent job. He's not afraid of anything that comes out of either end. He now changes poopy diapers with no complaint. One week of rotavirus makes daily poopies smell like a flower garden.

All four of our children are blessings and we are proud to have made it this far with most of our faculties intact. I won't blow smoke and say that every day has been easy, but the good things in life don't usually come easy. Thanks go to our extended family and many friends who have been a part of our village these past few years. We couldn't have done it without you.

My goal for this year is to document more of the cute stories on this blog. It is getting very interesting around here, but also very busy. Every stage gets better and more challenging at the same time. We have 4 very verbal kids.

They are all in preschool and I have filled my 'to do' list with projects that could take me through Christmas for their school days. Many things in our house have been ignored since finding out that we had 3 babies on the way.

But today...I'm making cupcakes!