You Know You Have Triplets if...

I posted a list like this that I wrote quite some time ago, but just found this in an old e-mail and thought it would offer a glimpse into our life. I wish I could credit the author, but it came as a forward of a forward.

There were over 100 items on the forward. I reduced the list to the ones that were personally applicable.

1. The nursery looks like an orphanage from all the cribs in a row
2. You can remember the answer to “did you take fertility drugs”, but not your own name.
3. You are afraid that if there is ever a tornado they will find you in the basement killed by a falling wall of diapers.
4. You can change 3 poopy diapers in 3 minutes.
5. Your stroller costs more than your first car and requires a hitch.
6. There is no room in your refrigerator for food, all available space is occupied by pre-prepared bottles of formula.
7. A regular sized pack of diapers lasts only 3 days.
8. You can change diapers standing up, while in line, at the Children’s Museum.
9. You no longer have a proper name you are either “The lady with Triplets or Moooooooooommmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyy
10. You can carry two, and hold the remaining child’s hand while you are going in and out of stores.
11. You automatically divide or multiply everything by 3
12. You have diapers in your purse, in the glove compartment, your desk drawer and in every room of the house – just in case.
13. You stop and tell a co-worker that you are “going to the potty”
14. Every square inch of seating in your vehicle is taken by car seats.
15. You not only are familiar with what a 300 count box of Kleenex looks like when they are all removed from the box one at a time, but you know for a fact you can’t put them back because you’ve tried.
16. You curse stores for only having two of something in a package, or for only having two of something on their shelf.
17. You can say, "Don't touch that, it is not your private part!" with a straight face.
18. You buy Baby Motrin, Cough Syrup, etc, 3 at a time, and the clerk looks at you funny, while the whole time you are wishing they sold it in gallon containers.
19. Instead of a wallet full of photos you carry around a CD because it holds 700 megabytes of them. 700 megabytes is 1 nights worth of photos.
20. Everyone in the neighborhood knows who you are, even though you’ve never met them before.
21. The grocery store clerk has commented on the 6-9 gallons of milk you buy each week, telling you it would be cheaper to buy a cow.
22. You are both shocked by the rudeness, and amazed by the kindness of strangers in the same 60 seconds upon entering Walmart.
23. If you’ve ever charted poops pees and food intake.
24. You ARE the church nursery.
25. You have to wash the dinner dishes by hand because the dishwasher is full of bottles/sippy cups.
26. You can say “she Just has twins” with a straight face
27. You don’t see anything unusual with the fact that you know not one, but several, quad moms.
28. A complete stranger walks up to you in the mall and says “my niece has triplets, her name is _________ do you know her?” and you say “yes I do” (and she lives in another state)
29. The awareness of silence strikes terror into your soul.
30. Whining is heard not just in stereo, but in surround sound!
31. You go to an amusement park with your triplet stroller only to realize YOU’VE become the source of amusement, or you go to the Zoo and find the other visitors watching your kids more than the animals!
32. You use the word singleton.
33. You buy a single weeks worth of formula, and the clerk asks you if you are stocking up.
34. You intentionally feed all 3 kids from the same spoon and bowl even though one is sick, because you can’t bear the thought of 3 consecutive 2 week cold sessions, you’d rather have them sick at the same time.
35. You enroll them in or join every activity and playgroup you can, you visit every playground in a 10 mile radius, sometimes more than 1 a day, just so you can be out of the house from dawn to dusk so you have less to clean up.
36. When discussing child proofing and singleton moms say “you just have to tell them no, you can’t child proof everything” and you laugh and say “Wanna Bet?”
37. You don’t mind taking a shower, with the door open, and with an audience. You are just glad to be able to get a shower.
38. You say to your husband “if you wake up these babies I’ll kill you” and you mean it.
39. You consider leashes a viable safety option
40. You bought a dog to cut down on post meal cleanup time.
41. On the way to rescue a paper towel roll on the verge of destruction you suddenly realize that it might buy you 5 minutes to check your e-mail.
42. You discover Nirvana when you finally convert to that all one color/all one size/all one style of socks, system.
43. Your home has become a complex maze of gates, locks and barricades.
44. Your kids have never actually walked through the zoo or store, because getting out of the stroller is NOT an option.
45. You are not horrified at the idea of “waking a sleeping baby” to eat. After all, it is time to EAT so sayeth the master schedule!
46. You seriously wish someone would sell Orajel in a toothpaste-sized tube. Is this little tiny tube supposed to be a joke? And that’s with the one day supply of infant Tylenol… don’t they know I need a 10oz bottle?
47. Most of your friends have multiples.
48. You don’t want to potty train because the though of trying to take all 3 to a public bathroom yourself sends shivers up and down your spine.
49. Your pediatrician’s office recognizes your voice.