A Little Project for Harper

Harper's hairbows have been out of control since she was born. We have a wonderful friend in GA who is the hairbow QUEEN, and her little girl wanted to pass all of them onto Harper...so sweet!!! I find them all over her room, and when I need a certain one, I sometimes can't find it... which is very frustrating when you are trying to get out the door.

I saw one of these on another blog, and thought I could make that! So, tonight I gathered up my coupons & went to Michael's. There was also a ton of ribbon on sale for a $1, so I gathered up quite a few of those, too!

Here's how I did it...
I got a mini canvas, and painted it.


I let it dry, and the painted the word "BOWS" on it. I considered writing Harper or a big "H" on it, but then if we have another girl or girl-S, then I wanted to re-use it for them. I hot-glued ribbon onto the back of it, and then tied extra ribbon on the hanger to make it more fun :-)



Then I hung it up, and put her bows on it! They are all organized now, and super cute!

A Survey and Some Belly Pics

How far along? 15 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: about 10 lbs.

Maternity clothes? Oh yes... I don't even want to look at normal clothes, they make me too uncomfortable. Nancy helped me switch my closet out when she was here, so it feels nice and organized!

Stretch marks? Still just leftovers from Harps, but I know they are coming for me :-)

Sleep: Oh how I love sleep, and am enjoying it. I think every night how much I love it and appreciate it right now because i know there will be a day in the near future where I will not like it so much b/c I will be so large.

Best moment this week: Feeling the babies move and seeing them "play" together on the ultrasound.

Worst moment this week: Gagging. It is annoying. I read my post when I was about 14 weeks with Harper, and I gagged all the time then, too. Oh well, at least nothing is coming up!!!

Movement: I've been feeling them more and more. After the ultrasound tech confirmed where they are located now... two on my left, and one on my right, I was for sure that I've felt them move!

Food cravings: protein, avocados, milk.

Gender prediction: It is really weird. At first I thought 2 boys and girl, but now I'm thinking it is 3 boys. I don't have a "gut" feeling like I did with Harper.

Labor Signs: thank goodness no :)

Belly Button in or out? in but shallow

Wedding rings on or off? Still on, but I'm wondering how long they will be on???

Weekly Wisdom: Clean out things now while you have the time! Get other rooms ready and get rid of junk!( I kept my same "wisdom" from the last survey at 14 weeks with Harper b/c it is TRUE!)

Milestones: Seeing the babies move, flip and play on the ultrasound! We got to watch them for about an hour because the tech had to look for all sorts of things. She was training another girl who got to practice on me since I have triplets... not a common thing for a tech to see! It was fun, but I was a little bummed out b/c I thought we would get a gender prediction. Hopefully, next time!!!

Looking forward to next week: Maybe seeing Nancy and Will!!! Starting "couch" rest, and our sweet nanny, Kyla starts on Monday!!!! I am a happy mama!!

Here are some pics of the growing belly...
13 1/2 weeks





15 weeks - and a haircut! I realized I'm supposed to be taking it easy starting next week, so I went to get my haircut today just in case I begin to contract at all in the near future - in which I need to stay horizontal as much as possible. My hair hadn't been cut in about 4 months, and probably won't be cut for another 4-5 months. I need highlights, but I'm not getting them while I'm preggie. I'll wait until after the babies get here. :-) ( I know many people and even doctors say it is safe to get your hair colored while pregnant, but this pregnancy is high risk enough, and my vanity can be put on hold for at least 9 months! :-) )




My belly is going to be HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to Keep You Waiting...

Well, folks, the babies are doing great and are measuring ahead of schedule!!! Yahoo! But, we had a very conservative ultrasound technician who would not predict the sex of the babies for us. :-(

So, we must wait at least 2 more weeks if not 4 more. But, I promise by 4 more weeks we will know. That is when my big anatomy scan is, so we will definitely find out then.

I am very tired tonight after a long day of being in the doctor's office, so this is a short post.

My new goal is to drink water... LOTS of it! At least 64 oz... but working my way up to 96 oz... OH MY! Where is all this food and water going to go?!?! My tummy room is getting smaller every day!

I'll post a belly pic in the next day or so. It's gettin' large!

Love to all! Thanks for praying!

Your Guesses...

While we are sitting in the doctor's office, I figured I would let you know of your results on gender guesses. This includes guesses in the comments section and on Facebook.

3 Boys - 5
3 Girls - 4
2 Boys 1 Girl - 10
2 Girls 1 Boy - 14

Can't wait to see who wins!!!

Pray for us... these ultrasounds are always a little nerve wracking for me... Pray for Jesus' complete peace!

Love to all!!

The Blanton Six (six... o my goodness... did I just write six?!?!)

Trying to Gain Weight

Well, I am not doing so well at reaching 4,000 calories a day. It is hard, but my appetite is picking up, so hopefully it will become easier. The doctor said as long as I had gained 10-12 pounds by the end of the 1st trimester (which I finished last week - yahoo!!) I would be doing well. I haven't weighed recently, so I'm not sure where I stand exactly. We go to the Dr. next Tuesday for another ultrasound, so they will tell me then.

Here is my sample diet...

Waking Up
1 cup of coffee w/ creamer
1 cup of OJ

Breakfast
Bowl of cereal (usually Life cereal or Frosted Mini Wheats with 2% milk)
or
PB Toast (2 pieces)
(I was trying to do eggs, but now they are completely un-appetizing to me)

Mid-Morning Snack
usually a bowl of whatever I had for dinner the night before, or something just as hearty. I'm feeling well at this point in the day, so I try to eat something with protein, good carbs, and a veggie or two.

Lunch
Lately I've been doing soup with cheese toast & crackers... Clam Chowder has been my favorite most recently.
Lemonade... I LOVE lemonade!!! Sometimes I will just douse my water with a ton of lemon and no sugar... the sourness taste so good to me.

Mid-Afternoon Snack
pistachios
string cheese
appple
pickles ( cheese and pickles are so yummy together... I even liked this combo before I was pregnant)

Late-Afternoon Snack
2 spoonfuls of PB (sometimes on wheat bread)
glass of milk
carrots or celery - if we have it on hand.

Dinner
Whatever Chris brings home :-) We've had so many wonderful ladies cooking for us on Mondays and Thursdays!!!

Evening/Before Bed Snack
Yogurt
Tums :-)

I try to drink water w/ lemon through out the day. I'll drink Sweet Tea from time to time, but I mainly drink water, juice or milk.

I can't do a lot of sweets though. They make me feel light headed. I would love to be able to get a milkshake, but it makes me feel yucky! I remember feeling this way with Harper, too. I never had gestational diabetes with her, and I'm praying I don't get it with these 3.

Change Is A Coming

Today I am feeling like Mary Lindsey. I've been wondering when she would make herself known again. Slowly but surely, over the last few days I've been feeling more and more like myself. Not nearly as nauseous as I have been, nor as tired.

Yesterday, I even drove across town after Harper's doctor's appointment to find me some Zaxby's. Oh, it was soooo good!!! This afternoon, I think Chris, Harper and I are even going to venture out to Wal-Mart. Harper has been obsessed with magnets, so I think we are going to get her some alphabet magnets to play with on the refrigerator.

While mom and Nancy were here for Harper's birthday, we started working on cleaning out the guest room and planning the re-arranging of our house for the babies. Very preliminary stuff, but still needed to be done. Jo and Randy took back a car load of stuff to be stored in our house in GA until it sells. Hey, that's one positive about it not selling... free storage! :-)

I've been busy at making a list of all the needed items for the triplets. Nancy created this fabulous list for us. We call it the "In and Out" list. She broke down each room, and wrote all the stuff we need to take out of it, and then the stuff we need to bring in... we are pretty much converting our home into a day-care type setting. :-) This is just the beginning of many changes to come!!

Living Room
OUT IN
filing cabinet 3 swings
desk & chair pack n play
shelves
picnic basket
desk stuff
(move contents of desk stuff to white cabinet in kitchen)

*desk area soon to be replaced by 3 swings


Kitchen
OUT IN
boxes desk contents
storage stuff

*this will become our "desk"


Master Bedroom
OUT IN
hope chest crib
sweater bins
old clothes

Guest Bedroom/ Triplet's Nursery
OUT IN
queen bed twin bed
closet stuff cribs
bedside table recliner
TV

Harper's Room
OUT IN
Old Clothes


Chris just finished building a shed for us. I must say how impressed I am with Mr. Blanton because he did this all by himself!!! We now have extra storage to make room for all the babies!!! When Harper would be taking a nap, I would go out and watch him and smell the wood... I LOVE the smell of sawdust... weird pregnancy symptom:-)

and a video

More Birthday Pics

Here are some more pics from my camera... I don't know why Nancy's turned out so tiny.

The Cake

A girl and her tutu







Harper's cake to destroy :-)

The Beautiful Birthday Girl!!

The Audience

Before the Disaster :-)

Headless baby... haha

All Better

Harper's First Birthday

I am a little late on blogging about this, but we have had an eventful two weeks. The day after the ultrasound, Harper and I came down with some nasty cold virus that about did us in!!! Harper had a fever of 102-104 for about 4 days. We had to cancel the big birthday bash, but we still had lots of fun with Grandma Dee Dee, Aunt Nancy, Grandy, and Jo Jo!!

I had all these grandiose plans for Harper's birthday. I wanted a cupcake-themed party, with adorable invitations, plates, balloons, cups, etc. Well, it didn't so much happen the way my mind envisioned it since my body was ransacked by morning/evening sickness. However, the day was filled with love and celebration of a precious little girl.... and really, what more could a mom ask for?!?

I did get to make her a giant cupcake for her birthday, though!!! It turned out pretty cute :-) And I must say, Harper takes after her Daddy and LOVES LOVES LOVES sweets!!! Just look at her face after eating some strawberry cake!!!





Nancy captured her big day with wonderful pictures, and she made her a sweet doll baby that Harper adores. Go to Nancy's website to meet "Baby" :-) < Just a little side note, the last few mornings, Harper has been really quite when she wakes up. I go in every morning to a sweet baby girl with crazy bedhead talking and cooing to her baby. It melts my heart every morning!> Thank you Aunt Nan Nan for this gift- we will love for a looooooong time!!!



Grandma Dee Dee got Harper a piano that plays all sort of music. It is pink and lovely, and Harper dances to it at least 3 times day!!! She also got some fun DVDs (Baby Songs) to help get us through the long days :-) Momma is greatly appreciative!

Grandy and Jo Jo gave Harps all sorts of books and clothes... the girl is ready for summer!!! One gift that they gave Harper was a baby doll with a cloth body and plastic arms, legs, and head. Harper squealed when she opened it. The doll was so secured in the box, it took two of us to get her out. Well, when we did, her head fell off and freaked Harper out!! We all laughed and laughed. Chris finally got one of his plastic zip ties, and rigged the doll's head to her body. She works fine now, and Harper doesn't seem to be too scarred by the event.

Daggy and Mimi Leslie couldn't make it to the party, but sent a big box of goodies!!! Harper received some more adorable clothes as well as some fun videos and toys. She loves the blocks!

Chris and I racked our brains trying to figure out what to get her for her first birthday. Since we are trying to save some space, and we knew the grandparents would be getting her plenty, I decided I would make her a tutu for her first birthday!! It was so easy to do! And she was quite happy to wear it.






I can't believe a year has gone by since she was born. This has been the best year of my life, and I am so thankful to the Lord for blessing us with such a sweet little girl. We had so much fun celebrating with family, and we look forward to celebrating with friends, too, next year!!

Thanks for making this day so special!!!

Thank You Jesus!!!

Just a quick drop by while Harper is napping to say thank you thank you thank you (notice that is written 3 times!) for praying for us today!!! I was a little anxious as we were walking to the office from the parking lot, but once we sat down I had complete peace.

First of all... THERE IS A MEMBRANE!!! Our Jesus is so good that he let that be one of the first things that was found. It was beautiful and looked like a spider web! I've never liked spider webs so much :-)

We then saw all three babies movin' and shakin'! It was so amazing and beautiful because even at only 12 weeks old, we could see all of the bones in their fingers!!! They all looked to have super long legs like their daddy. The identical ones were quite cooperative, but the fraternal one was a little stubborn in getting all the measurements we needed! Ha! We'll see how their personalities play out in the long run.

OH, we even got a gender prediction for the 3, but we will keep that secret until the genders are confirmed at our next appointment... I know, I know, I'm so mean... hold out 2-4 more weeks and we should know for sure!! Plus, I want to know YOUR predictions!!! Tell me what you think the Trips are :-)

Thank you so much for praying! God is so good. We met our official doctor today, and just loved her so much! She answered all of our questions, and then walked us through what a triplet pregnancy looks like.

Since you all are my prayer warriors... please keep these dates on your calendars and in your prayers for us. These are some of our goals we are working towards...

*Feb. 12 - 2nd Trimester

*March 5 - 16 weeks - I have to start taking it easy. Only little things around the house. The couch and I will become BFF's... well, maybe not *forever*, but at least for a good portion of this pregnancy ;-)

*April 2nd-ish - Week 20 - Big Ultrasound... this is where they will measure how all the babies are doing. It will take a super long time. I'll update more when we get closer.

*May 28 - Week 28 - Babies can be born at this point, but still need a few more weeks to grow and develop. (I may need cheerleaders at this point b/c I will be huge & uncomfortable)

*June 25- - Week 32 - They will not stop labor at this point. Babies can be born healthy at 32 weeks! Dr. K told me the office would have a party if I made it to this point! (of course she was kidding, but it would be such a blessing if I kept the babies in until June 25!)

*July 9 - Week 34 - This is my goal to make it to. The babies would be very well off!!!

Once again, thank you thank you thank you for your prayers! These babies belong to God, and we know that! We continually have to turn them over to Him, though. He does have a plan for their lives... I pray that I am open enough not to stand in the way of it.

We love yall! Thank you so much!

PS... Don't forget to leave me your guesses on the babies genders! :-)

4th Folder, 4th PIcture

Dear, sweet Karyn,

Aren't you so glad that you tagged me for this? And aren't you so glad you have an honest friend who actually POSTED this insanity? I could have lied and chosen a really *cute* picture of myself, and said, "oh, here is my 4th picture in my 4th folder." But, this is my 4th picture in my 4th folder. Just a little fun on the Mac :-)




Now since I like "specifics", I took this literally, and went to my actual 4th folder from 2006. Now, if it was from this year, my 4th picture in my 4th folder is this little cutie after I took her hair down from a ponytail...



Now, I tag...Nancy, Jessica, Tara, Lindsey, and Leah

Movement

Just a little update... I felt the babies move tonight!!! My little peanuts!

I had gotten all comfy in my pj's and was giving my belly a nice little rub when I felt the one on the left move. It was distinct, and I know it was the baby. Then I came downstairs to tell Chris goodnight, and was hunched over when I felt the ones on the right move. It is a very distinct feeling, and I remembered exactly what it felt like when I was pregnant with Harper.

Just thought I would celebrate with yall!

Here's to a good and looooooooooong night sleep!

xoxox,
ML

PS we know where they are located from the ultrasound. Identical ones on right, fraternal one on left. They cal this kind of pregnancy "a pair and a spare." I haven't decided if I like that term yet... I mean.. doesn't "spare" kind of make that one baby feel left out? Just a sensitive mother's heart I guess :-)

Hangin' In There...

This has been my phrase to everyone who asks how I'm doing. I want to be honest, but I don't want to be a complainer because I know how blessed we are to be carrying 3 babies at once! My heart was so heavy one time for children. I wanted to feel morning sickness soooo bad. So, I am thankful that I am feeling this way, even though it is hard to deal with at times.

I have been seeing green for a good while now, and I'm so ready for it to be over. The good news is I don't actually throw up, I just feel like I'm going to all day. And, I have a terrible gag reflex, so I'm constantly gagging & hoping nothing comes up! hah! However, today was the first day that I have actually felt normal for the first time in a while, and I will tell you that it was a BIG relief! I hope this keeps up... I'll be 12 weeks on Thursday! Yahoo! I welcome the 2nd Trimester with open arms!!!

Today I had to change my doctor's appointment because Chris had a meeting conflict. But, I'm glad that they could work me in later the same day ... February 10th. Instead of being at 10 am, it will be at 1:30pm...so the updates will be coming later in the day next Tuesday :-)

Since a lot hasn't been going on... I will do one of my surveys... Go here to read/ compare notes with my pregnancy w/ Harper. It is quite interesting... at least it is to me :-)

How far along? 11 Weeks 5 days (same day I did this survey with Harper... weird)

Total weight gain/loss: A BIG FAT ZERO.... good grief, I don't know how I'm supposed to gain weight! It is harder than it seems.

Maternity clothes? All I can wear. I still wear some shirts that aren't maternity, but they make we look fat and weird, so I like the flow-y shirts better.

Stretch marks? Just from last time. However, I know I'm doomed...

Sleep:I love my sleep and need it desperately. However, I must be cold to sleep. It helps that it has been super cold outside, and I sleep with the overhead fan on... brrrrr.... I LOVE it!

Best moment this week: Not feeling nauseous today! Having a whole day to myself on Monday - a friend took Harper, and I got to sleep and rest. It was great!

Movement: I think I've felt them a few times, but it isn't completely distinguishable yet.

Food cravings: Today I wanted Quiznos, and I ate the whole sandwich (Turkey Bacon Guacamole)!! This is the most food I've eaten in a whole sitting in a while! I was proud!

Gender prediction: I think there is a girl in there somewhere... if not two! I feel very much like I did with Harper, but we'll see. It could be that it's because there are 3 in there.

Labor Signs: thank goodness no :)

Belly Button in or out? still in, but a very round tummy.

Wedding rings on or off? Still on!

Weekly Wisdom: eat when you are hungry. :-)

Milestones: Feeling better today!

And last but not least... a belly picture from this past Sunday... two angles... :-)