4. Starting to jiggle and figure out the juggle.

I'm 15 weeks pregnant and just starting to feel little movements in my belly. My left side is strongest, the one in the middle has made itself present a couple of times and the one on my right I only felt for the first time today. My belly goes from just a bit bigger in the morning, to looking 5/6 months pregnant by the evenings. I'm feeling SO much better, just in this last week really as I had a horrible cold last week. Its a welcome relief to be feeling a bit more energised and enjoying food again. I was starting to think I would feel horrendous for the whole pregnancy!

Just as I could feel the nausea lifting, we were all hit by a horrible cold. Jack wasn't phased, James was really rough for a couple of days with a lingering cough and sore throat, but I had the full force for 2 weeks with a cough that made me sick and started nose bleeds. I also felt like I was pulling stomach muscles with the coughing. The little wrigglers really did take all my goodness during those two weeks. But my goodness, what a relief it was to feel more energised and less sick when the cold did go away. The nose bleeds are brought on by the aspirin I'm taking daily, but it also helps to keep my headaches at bay in the mornings which I'm very happy about. 

The logistics.

This slight bit of energy is allowing me to start planning and getting things sorted at home. 

3 babies, plus a toddler, and two adults. Best not forget the cat!! We live in a dormer bungalow with two bedrooms upstairs and one down. We have a large open plan kitchen diner and a living room. We are also really lucky to have a garage and large utility which are such incredibly useful spaces. 

So, how can we make this work. We had hoped for a sibling for Jack, and the idea had been to split his bedroom into two single bedrooms. Both rooms upstairs have 2 windows, so it's a fairly simple split down the middle. We will need to add a light and a radiator then put a wall down the centre. Our bedroom has an unused balcony on it, so we will push the room out onto that to make it a better size as a small bedroom when we get around splitting it. It had always been the plan to get rid of the balcony for our bedroom, but unfortunately we will be giving up the best views in the house for our unexpected little bundles. 

For now, our plan is to split Jack's room in two, but just push ours out onto the balcony and keep it a big bedroom. This will become the triplets bedroom for as long as they want to share. It will fit 3 cots and a couple of bits of furniture. James and I will move downstairs. The room next to Jack's will become a spare room for whoever wants to stay and hopefully help us out in the early days, weeks and months. We might even keep a bed in our upstairs bedroom for the time being as the babies will be in with us to start with so the cots can stay unassembled. It will give us an extra spare bed for those first few weeks and months. 

In the garage we had a car up until this weekend. That has been moved out onto the mother-in-laws drive (thank you Lynda!) until we know what we are doing with it. The garage will become storage for all of the things you need for a baby, times 3! 

James has bought 2 sets of shelves which we put up on Sunday morning, to house our first purchase, which we picked up on Saturday. A triplet pram, with all the necessary connections. It has 3 bassinet fixtures which will also double up as moses baskets while they are tiny. 3 car seats with isofix bases, and 3 pushchairs for when they are a bit bigger. They all have covers and rain covers too. It was a really lucky find on one of the triplet groups and just so happened to be an hour away from where we live. I'm seeing people talking about having to ship them across the world! 

We feel like it's a bit soon to be shopping for prams, but it was a good second hand pram, at a good price, in a good location and I think we would regret it if we hadn't at least tried to get it. So here is it, in all its glory, taking up most of the shelves! The pram can also be used as a twin pram, so if I need to go into places, I can have one baby in a sling, or have someone else with a single pram with me. It's too wide to fit through a doorway with all three attached.

We have also sold our piano on ebay to create some more much needed space. 

Gender reveal?

We didn't find out what we were having with Jack, and had planned to have another surprise, but we will find out this time so we can get things sorted. Somebody said to me "you've had enough surprises, you don't need another one." So once we find out, I will start boxing clothes and storing them on the shelves too. A triplet mum who lives nearby had shown me her boxes of clothes labelled by size, age and items. 0-3 months, 3-6 months, winter coats, etc. I will need to be much more organised this time. I just have clothes for Jack to grow into in a drawer at the moment and I do a rotation every few weeks. I've started collecting boxes for these plans and I think James will be putting up some more shelves pretty soon! 

Thinking about stocking up.

Facebook is a brilliant place to find bargains and freebies. The pram came from there. But we have bought loads of bundles of clothes for Jack on there too. Plus shoes and toys. I'm currently looking for bottles, milk storage bags, nappies and other things we will need in the early weeks. So many people have used half a pack and just give them away for free. We did after Jack grew out of things, and will continue to pass things on to the next person. Babies can be very expensive, but if you're willing to shop around, it can be very cheap. This time however, we will need an awful lot more stuff!

3 times the baby, 3 times the price!

I keep thinking about and seeing things that make me stop and think. A couple of weeks ago I saw a waffle recipe and thought it could be fun to have a waffle maker. But then I realised we would need a super sized one now, no point in buying a piddly little cheap one. Also, tucking Jack into bed, we have a spare duvet so that one can be washed. We are going to need at least 3 more duvets, pillows and sets of covers. 3 more bike helmets. 3 more puddle suits. 3 more high chairs. 3 more pairs of wellies. And so it continues. This will all be things that we can shop around for, buy ahead of time and be a bit thrifty with, which we do anyway! Days out, however, will be a different matter when they get bigger. We love being outdoors and walking, so a picnic or a trip to the beach or a park will be so much fun. Ticketed days out will be something we will need to think about a bit more in the future. We will make it work and we will do loads of awesome stuff. 

But my goodness, won't it be amazing?! I'm getting really excited about this insane challenge we are taking on. 3 little Jack's who will know each other better than anybody else in the world, and with a bond they won't even realise they have. 

Speaking of Jack. His key worker at nursery asked him what is in mummy's tummy and he said "trickilets", she asked him how many babies that is, "3, 4, 5" and then she asked him if they are boys or girls. He said girls! Let's see if he is right! But I have to confess that this morning I was looking at the piles of vac pack bags full of Jack's clothes underneath our bed, thinking about how convenient it would be if they were boys. We have all the boys stuff, a new nephew and a friend with a baby boy who we can potentially borrow/buy things from. If they are girls it's a whole new start. 

Freezer space.

I'm reading a lot about expressing and freezing. Also, prepping meals for after they have arrived. We have two medium sized freezers which both desperately need defrosting, so that was yesterday's mission. I emptied and defrosted our "spare" fridge freezer yesterday and will swap everything over to do the other one in the next few days. I saw a slow cooker tip the other day where somebody had chopped LOADS of veg up and made a load of bags full ready to just throw in with whatever meal it is they want to have that evening. I tried to batch cook bolognaise and soup before we had Jack, but it all got eaten before he arrived. I like the idea of not having to spend time chopping and washing up when they arrive. But again. This is help we can ask for from a friend or family member. Anyway, whatever I choose to do, the freezers will be ready!