Planning like crazy

As we find ourselves moving through the shock and awe phase and into acceptance we find ourselves doing what we can to plan and prepare for this major life event!  I think that I am probably more in hyper-plan mode than Michelle, but that is probably because it feels like one way I can contribute since I'm not the one growing three babies in my belly.  We have been borrowing books from the library about raising multiples and other books about parenting.  Kate sent us the latest baby bargains book and we've been looking at a lot of "baby stuff" online.  I think I've probably read about 1,000 carseat reviews!  It is tricky to find three carseats that will fit across the back of the Rav4 and even trickier if you want those carseats to be safe for babies less than 5 pounds which is likely to be the case for our babies.

The funny thing is that before we knew about the three babies I really wanted to be a "baby stuff minimalist" and not have one of every possible piece of baby equipment.  Now I feel like we don't have a choice because we are going to need to have safe and entertaining places for babies to be while we take care of other babies!  We have been reading triplet blogs to learn what things we actually need three of and where we can skip things.  We started a registry on babyli.st to help keep track of everything we think we will need.  My sister Kate had a great tip for us which was to put everything we need on there including things we already know we are getting used from people and just mark them as purchased.  That way people won't think we are dumb and just don't know that we need it!

Kate has some baby stuff to pass on and a couple of great friends here in central PA have been instrumental in hooking us up with more "donations."  We already have like three boxes of baby clothes, towels, and blankets.  Hopefully there is at least one little boy in their because we have quite a few boy clothes in those boxes.  One of the bags of clothes was waiting for me a one of my client's houses the week after I told them about the triplets..so nice!

We also started a spreadsheet of baby equipment that people have told us they have for us to borrow, like bouncer seats, a swing, and a bathtub, so we can keep track of who we are borrowing what from!  The more stuff we can borrow, get donated, or find cheap the better because these kiddos are going to be expensive.  My big craigslist score so far is this really nice twin stroller that we got for free!  The woman who posted it on craigslist said she wanted to give it to a family who needed it.  I told her "well, we are not 'needy' but we just found out we're having triplets so we feel pretty needy right now!" =)  She also gave us an old twin jogging stroller that is pretty beat up but will be nice for walking on trails.  Our friend Kathleen randomly catches me at work and says "oh, I also have XYZ in our attic for you" which is awesome.  We aren't saying no to anything at this point! Once we move then we can start setting up the nursery and organizing what we have so far!  In the meantime the research and planning continues...