My Busy Life

Where I’ve been is a bit of a long story that can be summed up in one word… Triplets!  You see back in 2013 my husband, AJ, and I decided we wanted to expand our family with a baby.  This turned out to be no easy feat.  Thankfully we found out pretty quickly that we would need help conceiving and weren’t struggling for as long as many I know.  So that’s what I was busy with around the last time I posted, oh so fun fertility treatments.

The good news came at the end of August 2014, on AJ’s birthday to be precise.  We were pregnant!  It was the best news ever!  About a month later we got the most shocking news ever, we weren’t just having a baby, we were having three.  We walked through life with jaws dropped for a little while. 

We eventually recovered and started preparing for a HUGE life change.  Some of that preparation was for the dogs, but that’s a topic for another post.  This post is strictly a where I’ve been for the last couple years.

So I was carrying 3 babies, that meant I was going to get big… fast.  That was going to make doing agility difficult.  My doctor gave me the ok to continue as long as I was comfortable and not pushing myself too hard.  I managed to keep trialing until Nov. though my mom had to run Gidget a couple times for me.  They did really well too!  Gracie got her MXJ at one of those trials, I don’t remember which. 

So we were done trialing, but I was still running both girls in class.  That wouldn’t last though. We were working with class friends, Greg and Sue, to see if they could run the girls and get them some good exercise.  Gidget didn’t have much issue with running with friends but Gracie really just wanted to be by me.  So we worked with small courses that ended with Gracie getting to come back to me.  She quickly improved and was soon running 10-12 obstacles with Greg.

In Dec. 2014 AJ and I headed for La Crosse for a baby shower.  Thankfully we had decided to leave the girls in cities, boarding at the vet clinic I worked at.  We were maybe half an hour from La Crosse when we very suddenly came upon an accident, hitting the vehicle in front of us.  Turns out an older woman had somehow managed to drive the wrong way on a divided highway!  There were half a dozen cars involved and thankfully only minor injuries.  Our car had only a little cosmetic damage.  I rode in an ambulance to the hospital to make sure our trio was ok.  All was well.  We were able to mostly enjoy our weekend celebrating with friends and family!

In Jan. 2015 I was 24 weeks pregnant at a routine checkup.  There were some issues on my ultrasound and they found I was having contractions.  So I was sent to the hospital.  It was pretty scary at first, worrying that these babies were about to arrive much too early.  I was hooked up to various meds and the babies and my contractions were monitored.  I felt like crap for a lot of the weekend but it was all to keep those babies in my belly.  I did get a visit from friends and from a therapy dog! 

After that weekend I was put on modified bed rest.  I could get out of bed to move to the couch, use the bathroom, shower (while sitting), and make quick meals.  I was also allowed one outing each week besides my regular doctor appointments.  My dad had a wheelchair I could use so trips to Target were the highlight of my week many times.  All this meant no more dog training.

I had been planning on leaving my job as a veterinary assistant and going on a long maternity leave from teaching at Cloud 9 at the end of Jan.  So my bosses only had a couple weeks of my unplanned absence to fill.  I was bummed to have to quit early but it was a good thing as I was really starting to have trouble getting around and doing my job.

Gidget and Gracie were glad to hang out with me all day, but got pretty bored too.  They did get the occasional field trip for walks or an agility class with friends or family, but it was nothing like our former busy training schedule.  It was temporary, though life for them would never be the same again.

I read lots of training books in all that down time I had.  Played games and watched movies too.  That was my life for just under three months.  A c-section was planned for April 7, 2015. I would be 35 weeks and 3 days along I did end up in the hospital for another weekend in Feb.  Other than that it was pretty smooth sailing until that last weekend.  I developed a PUPPPs rash the Fri. before the surgery.  Too bad that has nothing to do with puppies.  I was horribly, horribly itchy! 

Tuesday, April 7, 2015 was one heck of a day!  Nervous, excited, terrified, thrilled, I covered the full range of emotions!  The day didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to go.  I’d made a birth plan that seemed to be completely ignored.  Despite that the surgery went well and we had three healthy babies, two girls and a boy.  Noah spent one night in the NICU due to some minor breathing issues.  The next morning he joined his sisters, Evelyn (Evee) and Kaylee, in the special care nursery.  They were there for a week, getting good at eating, getting their bilirubin levels to normalize, and starting to grow!  Then we went home and were on our own!

Well, we were on our own for a couple days.  Then we got help from my mom, and AJ’s mom and sister.  One of those three were around to help for most of the first 4-5 months.  Then we were really on our own.

AJ only had a couple weeks off from work so that help was the best thing in the world.  Daycare would be way too expensive for three kids, so I get to be a stay at home mom.  By the time we didn’t have help anymore the kids were sleeping through the night and had a pretty good daytime routine.  That made life easier for me.  I was able to manage most days without issue.  There were plenty of days that were crazy stressful too, but we got through them.

I started going back to classes before we ran out of help.  The dogs were happy for that!  Obedience or rally once each week at first.  Eventually we got back to agility too.  That was tough at first.  The girls were thrilled to be running again and were at top speed.  I was definitely not at top speed though.  We made it work and had some fun.

I started teaching puppy classes again at the end of June.  It took a while but I eventually started teaching other classes too.  Now I’m teaching obedience levels 1 and 2 and two foundation agility classes!  It’s great to be working a job I love and to get out of the house a few evenings a week.

In early 2016 we started our search for a house as our apartment was not big enough for all of us.  It took a while to find one, but we put an offer on a house in May and closed in June.  The house needed some work so AJ spent a lot of time over the next month making it move-in ready.  That meant a lot of long days for me with Gidget* and the kids.  We moved in toward the end of July.  It’s been great!  We go on walks almost every day and I can actually take the kids places like Target by myself!  The house still needs work and we’re not even done unpacking but it’s home.  I actually have some agility equipment set up in our yard!

The kids keep us very busy and there are plenty of other little events, dedication at church, having to cancel their first birthday party due to very bad colds, regular doctor appointments, physical therapy for Noah, lots of fun, plenty of stress, and love times three!

*Gracie’s story is to come soon.