Getting Out the Door for School

How am I going to get the kids out the door in time for school? I find the act of getting their gear and outer wear on them or attached to them, very stressful. I find that I spend a lot of time reminding each child what they need to bring. I worry that I will forget something important and that I will either have to go back and get it for them or have them suffer without it.
Even if they are not resisting and trying to be independent, they can only remember so much. I feel like I really am saying things 'a thousand times', telling each triplet the exact same thing gets tiring after awhile.
I would use a list, but they can't read yet.
I wanted a visual list of the outer wear they need for the day and the gear they need.
Because the kids will need different things on different days, I wanted a list for each child, preferably a small list.
Solution: A door hanger with photos or pictures of outerwear and gear needed for the day.

I took pictures of my kids' stuff and clipped it to the door hanger. For school gear, I added labels; because my kids are in french immersion, I also included french labels. One could get them laminated so they look really pretty, but I have 4 to do, so I just used clear packing tape. I made up some pictures for rainy, hot and cool days and will make some pictures for snow days complete with hat and mittens. When I am not using the pictures, I can just keep them clipped to the back of the door hanger.
I will keep the door hangers on each child's coat hook so they can see them easily. You can customize them so that they have pictures of their own coat colour.
I made up pictures for days at the beach, trips to the park and library.
When they get older, you can put funny comics, inspirational photos or sayings. You could even use it for you teenager, clipping the new bus pass or lunch money to the hanger.
Hope this helps you get the gang to school on time and that your kids develop a 'pleasure' in being organized and prepared.

Swimming Lessons: keeping Mommy comfortable & dry

In winter, change into workout pants or shorts for when you give them a shower after swimming lessons.
Can you tell by this photo how wet the bottom of my yoga pants got?
It was about -20C when I took my triplets to un-parented swimming lessons. I didn't go swimming but knew that when I helped them wash their hair, that I would get soaked standing in front of them in the shower.
So in the big swim bag, I packed a pair of pants to change into so that I would have dry pants to wear going home. The result, I was able to shampoo and rinse 3 heads of hair and still went home in my dry jeans.

(Never use a cell phone with a camera in locker rooms; I took this picture while in a private change room.)

Bringing Home Babies: Essential items for triplets and more

Like any endeavor, there are marketing giants poised to take advantage of every insecurity that you have about being a good enough parent and your desire to give your children the best. When you have higher order multiples it is natural to want to get every promising item and device but you don’t necessarily need three or more of everything.

There are items that are ‘must haves’ for safety and to just make you more efficient. I recommend that you align your shopping and culling list with sales in your area. In Calgary, our club has sales in the Fall and Spring where members can sell their used children's clothing and equipment. Unless you have a completely empty undeveloped basement, you will want to keep the amount of ‘stuff’ you have in your home to a minimum and only have clothing and equipment that you need for the next year. 

Some things are recommended but may not be suitable to you or your situation based on your home, your time and the personality of your children.

In an ideal world, you would buy an item such as a bouncy chair and try it out on each baby then buy two more if they liked it. However, it is quite likely that you will have your higher order multiples by Cesarean section and your days of hoping in the car to do a little shopping will be over for awhile. You may want to get someone else to do the shopping for you, shop online or buy what you might need ahead of time, knowing that you may return it later. Find a good store that will give you an extended time to make a return and of course keep your items in the original packaging. 

My advice is that if you get an offer of a donated item, you take it and store it with similar age grouping items. A bouncy chair would be stored in 'birth and up,' whereas an Exersaucer would be stored with 6-12 months items. 

The club’s website has an excellent list of things you will need and you may want to share with your friends and relatives through a blog type gift registry. TTMAC Layette & Supplies for Multiples Indicate which items you would prefer new and which items can be used.

When purchasing or accepting used items, check out the latest Health Canada Consumer Product Safety Guidelines and Warnings.  http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/child-enfant/equip/index-eng.php The great news is that for many companies, you don't need to be the original owner to get replacement parts so be sure to look used items up for recall notices. Also, if you get a used item and it is missing some parts, check with the manufacturer if they have replacement parts. I had an Exersaucer that was missing some toys and I got new ones for a few dollars each, then when I sold the item, I made sure asked for enough to pay for the parts.

When people hear that you have triplets or more, their sense of generosity is peaked and they will likely donate loads of hand-me-downs.  Ask people to separate clothing into sizes as well as whether it is fall & winter or spring & summer as it will make it easier for you to align your shopping lists for each TTMAC sale. Also, ask them to sort the clothes into genders too. 

Eating for Four or More: Nutrient Dense Food Choices

Eating for four sounds like an excuse to eat a whole cake for dessert but eating for four becomes an exercise in quality not quantity. When you are starting out, the babies are only the size of a golf ball and later in your pregnancy, your stomach will seem the size of a golf ball and you will have a hard time eating large quantities. You need to eat quality nutritious foods right from the start, not only for your babies, but to nourish your own body as incubator extraordinaire. 

When I was pregnant with my triplets, my belly was big but it was also exceptionally dense. I compared a singleton pregnancy to having a basketball in my belly, bulky but kind of spacious. Being pregnant with triplets was like carrying around a medicine ball, bulky and heavy. When I was pregnant with singletons, I gained weight and had a cushion of fat and fluid all over, but when pregnant with triplets, I seemed to only have extra fluid, the fat was being sucked up by the babies. Every bit of nutrition was being gobbled up by the babies so I had to make every meal and snack count to deliver high quality nutrients. 

Food Selection:

When making choices about foods, go for bright colours such as dark green, orange, blue, reds and browns. No more low nutrient white bread or white rice until after your pregnancy. 

For nutrient dense foods, think of Mother type foods in nature: Milk (cow to calf food), seeds (plant startup nutritional unit), eggs (animal startup nutritional unit), nuts (high protein plant startup nutritional unit), fruits (portable seed delivery unit) & honey (plant to pollinator food).

Top 25 Food All-Stars for Pregnant Women: 

Yogurt; Milk; Cheese

Eggs; Coldwater & Shellfish

Apples; Avocados; Cherries; Oranges

Barley, Bulgur, Oatmeal; Wheat Germ

Cashews, peanuts, walnuts

Asparagus; Broccoli; Cabbage; Pumpkin; Spinach; Sweet Potatoes, Yams; Tomatoes 

(Luke & Eberlein, 2005) 

Make up a grocery list of these nutrient dense foods for your grocery shopper. Start looking for recipes for these types of foods.

Ursula's Tips:

Start getting used to giving your babies’ snacks between meals and at bedtime even while they are in uetero.

Have a protein shake at bedtime. Pack it with frozen yogurt, berries, honey, protein powder, banana, etc. A bedtime snack will help you maintain your blood sugar levels as you sleep (reducing morning sickness) and helping you pack in all those food servings.

It takes 9 months to put on those pounds and will likely take 9 months to take them off. Don’t worry, you will be busy. 

Try swinging on a swing set to gently get your abdomen back into shape after a cesarean section.

Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet Potato Fries

1 sweet potato

vegetable oil

cayenne pepper

salt

Preheat oven to 450F; peel a sweet potato and chop into 1/4 - 1/8 inch wide spears; place in a bowl and toss with 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil; drain slightly; place on pan or cookie sheet and sprinkle with cayenne pepper and salt; cook for 15-20 minutes; flip half-way through if you like. Fries will be limp but flavourful. 

You can also deep fry them so they are crispy, but be careful that you don't consume too much fried food.

Serve with Parmesan cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, Tzatziki sauce, cheese sauce or gravy. 

Cook on the same pan as store bought potato french fries. If you chop up a big sweet potato, freeze what you don't think you can eat and cook from frozen next time.

In part, previously published in the September 2010 Multiplicity Newsletter for TTMAC: Twins, Triplets and More Association of Calgary. www.ttmac.org  Republishing permission granted. Thank you to L. Nielson for editorial work. 

Triplet Pregnancy: Recommended Number of Servings

Talk to your doctor about recent studies in nutrition and higher order multiples pregnancies. Ask about an appropriate weight gain schedule (keeping in mind that you will likely deliver early). 

These are the recommended number of servings for each food group from different studies.  

Source	Meat &/or Alternates	Milk Products	Fruits & Vegetables	Breads & Cereals	Fats
MultipleBirthFamilies.com	2-3	4-6	6-10	8-12	moderation
Luke & Eberlein	3 & 2 eggs	10	8 fruit & 5 veg	12	& nuts: 7
Fierro	6 & 2 eggs	4	2 leafy green 2 Vit C rich 1 Vit A rich (orange coloured)	5	5
Franklin	3+	3+	3+ veg 2+ fruit	6+	sparingly; select rich fatty acids
Birch & Bleyl	5  (2+ animal source & 2+ veg source)	6	2 Vit C rich 2 dark green  + as much as you like	8
Curtis & Schuler	3 meat &  2 beans, peas, seeds &/or nuts	5	4 veg & 3 fruit (1+ leafy green or deep-yellow; 2+ Vit C rich)	6+	limited amounts
Canada Food Guide: Pregnant w/ singleton	2* (*: plus 2-3 extra servings from any group)	2*	7-8*	6-7*	2-3 Tbsps

Copyright Ursula de Vries 2010

Sources for Servings Chart:


MultipleBirthsFamilies.com http://www.multiplebirthsfamilies.com/articles/pre_q3.shtml 

Luke, Dr. Barbara & Tamara Eberlein, When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy. Harper Collins Publishers Inc. New York, NY, 2005. (This book is my favourite, with incredible nutritional detail which is good if you need to make food choices due to being a vegetarian or if you have food allergies or sensitivities and what types of food to concentrate on each trimester.)

Fierro, Pamela, The Everything Twins, Triplets, and More Book. Adams Media, Avon, MA, 2005.

Franklin, Dr. Rachel, Expecting Twins, Triplets, and More: A Doctor’s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Multiple Pregnancy. St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 2005.

Birch, Kathleen S. and Janet L. Bleyl, Exceptional Pregnancies: A Survival Guide to Parents expecting Triplets or More. Elm Street Press, Stockton, CA, 2000.

Curtis, Dr. Glade B. and Judith Schuler, Your Pregnancy Quick Guide: Twins, Triplets and More the Book you Need to Have when you are Having More Than One. Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005.   

Canada Food Guide Checklist for your fridge

This blog is not intended as medical advice; consult with your medical practitioner.


Previously published in the September 2010 Multiplicity Newsletter for TTMAC: Twins, Triplets and More Association of Calgary. www.ttmac.org  Republishing permission granted. Thank you to L. Nielson for editorial work. 

Eat Like a Trucker for Triplets: Nutrition for a Pregnancy of Multiples

As soon as I found out I was pregnant with triplets I put a hold on all the triplet themed books at the Calgary Public Library and that first weekend, I sat and read them all. The most startling thing I found was all the food that they recommended that I eat. Images flashed through my mind of eating Denny’s Grand Slam type breakfasts every morning. Eating the recommended 12 breads & cereals was equivalent to eating about a loaf of bread a day, and it should be soaked in milk. I could not imagine it especially because my morning sickness was severe; the thought of eating anything made my stomach churn-again.

It completely made sense to me that if I ate enough healthy foods while pregnant that the babies would stay in me for as long as possible and that each day they were inside me, they were getting stronger and less likely to have chronic health problems.

I knew that the last stage of the pregnancy meant it was hard to eat because of the pressure on your stomach. I quickly calculated that if triplets were usually born at about 33 weeks, and because I was already at 19 weeks, it meant that I had less than 14 weeks to pack on about 50 pounds from nutritious foods. 

I had to force myself to eat, even when I didn’t feel hungry; I had to layer my meals with nutrient dense foods, eat more often and eat more. Instead of a lunch of a glass of water and a ham sandwich with just 2 pieces of white bread and 2 slices of ham and mustard, I switched to multigrain bread with ham and mayonnaise, tomato slices, lettuce and a slice of cheese plus a glass of milk. I set an alarm to have a 2/3 cup of trail mix and a plum at ‘snack time’. With supper, instead of a slimming salad of a few leaves of lettuce and a little salad dressing, I would have a side salad with full-on calorie salad dressing, a sliced hard boiled egg, parmesan cheese, tomatoes and toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top. I never skipped dessert. 

Muffins in Oven commons.wikimedia.org 

At one point, I was so thirsty, I would stand at the fridge, fill up and drink one glass of water, then another, then another, then take one more to bed with me to get me through the night. I found out that the amniotic fluid is completely replaced something like every 3 hours so I felt like I was contributing to a sparkly clean uterus if I drank water like crazy, even if it meant going to the bathroom constantly. 

Like all things with multiples, everything is intense, starting with the food you eat while you are carrying them, food is no longer just fuel or simple nourishment, but it has to be intensely nutritious. As people start asking you what they can do, respond quickly “muffins” and get friends filling your freezer. Your love and your care of your children can be expressed by you giving your kids excellent nutrition, by being a great incubator, even from the beginning. So say yes to creamy desserts, say yes to cheese on everything and feel good about dropping food on your shirt.   


Previously published in the September 2010 Multiplicity Newsletter for TTMAC: Twins, Triplets and More Association of Calgary. www.ttmac.org  Republishing permission granted. Thank you to L. Nielson for editorial work. 

There's baby number one, there's baby number two, and there's baby number three...

"I don't think there is a fourth one in there..."These are the words spoken by the ultrasound technician, and how I first found out I was carrying triplets. I was about 19 weeks along, going for what I thought would be my only ultrasound to confirm the timing of the due date.
That day will be remembered as one of the more significant dates in the life of our family.
That first weekend we skimmed every book in the library dealing with triplets and were confident that with some serious organization, we could do it. Through the years we have continued to figure out how to run our lives so that every one was healthy and happy and it has been work. We have gleaned tips from other parents, many books and resources. As we experienced the isolation of the first few years, I realized that many parents of higher order multiples need information but are extremely busy and do not have the time to do the research. As a natural writer, I am happy to share the things that I found worked so that you have a quick resource to help you get through the intensity of raising a family with triplets or more.