Morning Pee Times Three

"Morning pee x 3" - that's the note I left myself last night so I'd remember to collect the triplets' urine samples for their yearly checkup at the pediatrician today.  I started thinking back to doctor visits with the three of them over the years.

I must admit the first few years of their lives are a bit of a blurry memory to me.  I remember their early doctor visits being the only time they ever left the house.  Three heart monitors, three infant car seats, one large diaper bag - their two older siblings coming along for the adventure.  My husband and I would start a production line - he would undress one baby to begin his exam, then start undressing the next, I'd hand the first guy back to be re-dressed and one of our doctor's amazing staff members would take the boys as they finished being examined and give them bottles so we could finish up with the others. 

Shot time was a nightmare - their doctor would come in with 2 nurses and 6 needles ready to go (at one particularly memorable visit, they received 3 shots each).  Three screaming babies, five sweating adults. Forget flu shot time when all 5 kids go at the same time, all afraid of needles.

We'd weigh and measure, so excited when they finally made it onto the charts to even be compared to their peers to find which percentile they were in.  Tiny little boys with big personalities, reaching all of their milestones late - my husband and I so relieved when they finally rolled, crawled, walked, talked. 

With our first two kids, percentiles were so important to us.  He was consistently 75th percentile, she was consistently 25th percentile.  I read "What to Expect - The Toddler Years" every month to be sure they were where they were supposed to be.  With the triplets, I quickly got rid of the book - it was clearly not going to apply to this situation.  There were no books to tell us what to expect, so we took their development one day at a time.

At their last yearly checkup, two were average height and weight, one is in the 75th percentile.  What a cause for celebration!  They are little fighters - I think back to when they were first born, so tiny and fragile in their incubators.  I would sit in a rocker beside them, thinking ahead to when they were all running around laughing and playing together.  I try to always keep those early, uncertain days in mind so that I am sure to appreciate the crazy beehive our house is today.