A Few Notes

• Last week we introduced the new, improved wireless version of Ellie... Ellie Version 3.0! She is now off her heart monitor! Go Ellie! We are unbelievably happy about this. :)
  
• I am awake right now because every time I put Sam down, he screams and the only thing that stops him is nursing him. Then he falls asleep in my lap, and if I put him back down he screams and the only thing that calms him is nursing him... lather rinse repeat. This would be worse except that I have a toothache and a headache (possibly related to each other) that are also keeping me awake.
  
• I am in an incredible amount of pain (aside from the toothache/headache) because I've done something to my back which was exacerbated by falling down the stairs last Wednesday. This was stupid, but unintentional. My doctor (actually, she's an NP) has suggested that this is only going to get worse because of the triplet factor and that my best option is physical therapy. I don't have time for physical therapy. Please give me pills! She's happy to give me pills, though she doesn't love that I'm breastfeeding (even though my pediatrician is okay with each of the pills that I'm taking), but says basically that the pills aren't going to help enough and that at some point I'm simply going to have to find the time for physical therapy. Yeah. First let's see if I can find the time for the dentist, shall we?
  
• My grandmother came to visit for three days and it was surprisingly lovely. I expected it to be stressful, but it wasn't. It was a bit difficult, because it was hard to get enough pumping sessions in with Maggie Moo (I eventually gave up getting enough sessions in, but I got enough to supply Abby, just not enough to have much excess). She was great with the babies, and fabulous with J. She turned 89 on Friday. It was nice to have pictures of my babies with their great-grandmother. Not many people get to take pictures like that. It was astounding. She's pretty easy to entertain and was content to just sit on the couch holding a baby for hours, which made my life easy. I managed to have breakfast, lunch and dinner on the table three days in a row, proving, once again, that I am super-woman. Admittedly, one lunch was purchased from a local restaurant, and the chicken for two dinners was rotisserie chicken purchased from the grocery store, but still!! I had to do all of the heating and arranging and um... other stuff! Anyway, it was a good visit.
  
• My tooth really hurts. I think it might be more than one tooth. Worse, I think I may have missed a dentist appointment last week. Whoops.
  
• Thanks for all the suggestions re: thrush. I got a script for Diflucan for a week from my NP today. I don't love the gentian violet idea because of the mess factor (even the lactation consultant didn't love the idea with triplets...she said it was just going to be a huge mess with three of them). I'm going to talk to the pediatrician tomorrow about switching the babies to Diflucan also. They've been on Nystatin for over two weeks and it's helped but not fully resolved the thrush in their mouths, so clearly some of the yeast is Nystatin-resistant, which is no good at all and I can't handle this cycle of the four of us passing it back and fourth and all around between us. Hopefully the Diflucan will do the trick!
  
• Thanks also for your suggestions re: milk supply. I think I was just being paranoid about milk supply. Further research suggests that all the signs that I was taking to mean I was experiencing a dip in supply were actually my body doing all the normal things (my breasts didn't feel as full as they used to, I've never felt a let-down response, etc). Also, I think my supply DID go down SlIGHTLY right before my period arrived, which is apparently normal. And my pumping output is slightly down from what it used to be (I pump 30-35 ounces per day whereas I used to pump 40-45 ounces per day), but it used to be that I primarily pumped and barely nursed and now I nurse all frickin' day long and pump far fewer times per day, so my overall milk production is probably significantly higher than it had been, it's just less measurable than it used to be (unless i wanted to be completely neurotic and weigh each baby after every feeding and even I'M not that neurotic...well, I am, but I'm too cheap to rent a scale right now). I did, however, order Domperidone and Fenugreek. The Domperidone arrived and the Fenugreek hasn't, so I've tried the Domperidone first. Actually, let me back up. Pam first sent me some Reglan which I used until the Domperidone arrived. It did help, but made me sleepy, which is no good when you have triplets. The Domperidone definitely makes a difference. When or if the Fenugreek finally arrives, I will stop the domperidone and try the fenugreek alone to give it a fair chance. Besides, my husband says there's no greater aphrodisiac than the smell of maple syrup and Jenna assures me that Fenugreek will make me smell like maple syrup, so it's worth a try, right? (Yeah, right, like we have time or energy for sex? Hah!)
  
• I think I will try to put Sam back down in a few minutes. It's risky, but I'm desperate.