The Naming Of Triplet's...

When I first told my friends that I was pregnant with triplets (late September was when we found out & they would be due late April if they had proven to be a singleton birth), they promptly decided that I was having a litter of kittens and one actually dared called dibs on the calico one.

The first question on everyone’s mind?  What are you going to name them?

Well, after finding out the gender of everybody in December, we set about trying to find the perfect names.

Of course this all brought to mind something written by T.S. Elliot that seemed appropriate at the time! “The naming of cats is a difficult matter, it just isn’t one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter when I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.”

Yes, ONLY ME...I know, I know...I had Elliot's “The Naming of Cats” running through the back of my mind constantly. I figured that I might as well be having a litter of kittens. After all, there are three babies in there!

I started out on the triplet connection forums trying to see what other people do when faced with such a daunting task. I learned that people actually decided to name their multiples using the defining letter given the baby during their ultrasounds.

They automatically assign a letter to identify each child:  for example, baby “A”, baby “B” and baby “C.” I was NOT going to be one of those people, so I immediately set out to search the internet of all baby name sites I could find.

At least if I find more than one name I like, I can use both! Not so fast, I found out. Now don’t get me wrong, I did have some idea where to start.

Naming my daughter was simple. My grandmother was always called “Baby Vivian” by her daddy because Vivian was also her mother’s name. I always liked the way her friends called her that even when she was well into her 60’s (Actually 'til her dying day & beyond.)

I decided I wanted my very own “Baby Vivian” as well. My husband found it cute too and we agreed to change the spelling to the French version to match my name, so “Vivienne” she became.

Besides, that was my favorite character from my current favorite musical, “Spamalot.” Being named after the Lady of the Lake shouldn’t be so bad!

Her middle name came easily as well. We decided to name her after my very great, Great, GREAT aunt (she was my mother’s great aunt so I’ve no absolute idea how many greats she should be to me!) Vivienne Emmalene she would become.

Now the boys, THEY would be the problem. You have to understand that I just simply do not like little boy names. I am not your Adam or John kind of girl.

In fact 12 years ago it took many trips to the bookstore before I finally found a few names that we could choose from for our yet to be first-born baby. I was nearly past my due date before the name "Bregon" even was a thought in our minds!

And to think, my husband had wanted to name him “George” after Lord Byron, which was NOT an option because I had named our cat “George” (As in I-should-love- him- &- squeeze- him-&- call- him- George from a Bugs Bunny cartoon!)

Now, I was faced with the challenge of having to come up with not 1 but 2 more sets of all new and perfect baby boy names. Everyone wanted to help, of course.

We thought of using my husband’s renaissance faire character name since I really liked that (I had thought it up of course.) However, naming a tiny infant “Tyberious” and naming a larger than life renaissance festival character that are two vastly different things.

I suggested that we could call him “Tye” which was at the top of the list for a while until a friend pointed out that it was all the rage to name baby boys Tyberious in Houston.

Besides, he had suggested not naming them after warlords in case they decided to grow literally into their names. Hmm…

Well, after watching many episodes of the multiple baby birthing shows on the Discovery channel, I stumbled across a very nice name that an English couple had named one of their children. It took me forever, it seemed, to find a spelling of it on the internet because I was going off of phonetics.

Then once I finally found it, I had to figure out how to Americanize it (Cian or Keane appeared to be screaming for someone to mispronounce.) So the list became Alexie, Kian, and Tye. I still wasn’t very happy with the list.

After much digging, and the idea that I was NOT going to remain pregnant forever while the babies waited around for me to find them names, I decided that we should use Kian and Kai.

Oddly enough, after watching the movie, “Son of the Mask” I had this odd notion that I should name one of the boys Loki after the god of mischief. My husband actually liked it (despite my obviously pregnancy-hormone induced state that convinced me this was a GREAT idea) so the smaller of the baby boys became Kian Loki.

Now I just had one more baby boy to name. Kai is from a book: “The Once and Future King” and is King Arthur’s brother. It means “Keeper of the Kingdom” according to the baby name site. I decided that he might not like being just Kai so I changed it to Kaiden in case it one day gave him grief.

His middle name, oddly enough came from a really silly movie called “Evil Dead.” Yes, I named that baby Ash. Well, I did spell it better and I even opted out of calling him Ashley as the movie states (and much to husband’s chagrin!)

Kaiden Ashe became officially our second triplet baby boy. Oddly enough, I could tell who was who & who was where in my tummy enough to inform the nurses exactly who would be named who just before their birth!

Originally published TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

http://mimirankinwebb.brandyourself.com/

 

Organization? WHAT Organization? I Do NOT Resemble ANY Such Concept!

 Something happens to a mom when they have multiples. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, or exactly how, but I suddenly found myself an organized mom. 

Not that I wasn’t organized before I had the triplets, I had to have been, or was to a point.

It’s just that now I am super-organized. I have all these folders full of my maternity benefits and leave information, medical insurance and Medicaid benefit forms, middle school application process forms and school related information, and several that are full of nothing but health claim information and medical bills for me and the triplets. 

I save everything related to medical bills and claims and copy those things that I cannot save.

I have even learned to micro-manage our health claim information, something I never dreamed would be necessary. 

I now appear to know more about claim processing than the representatives with my insurance company who have to hear from me almost every Friday to ensure that my triplet’s health claims are processed correctly and don’t slip through those pesky cracks.

At some point, I learned how to schedule my day and that of my triplets, managing to keep them all on the same schedule that they originally came home from the hospital with. 

I am one of those moms who can actually make appointments and lunch dates around that schedule, knowing exactly how my kids will be temperament-wise at a given moment. 

Sometimes I wonder, how did it all come to this? When did this happen? My eldest wasn’t ever on any sort of schedule and it never occurred to me that I would find myself with one now!

I actually bought five sets of three multi-colored bottles each so that we could know which baby had what amount of formula. 

We would know which bottle had which meds measured into them for each baby and I even went as far as to place them in a certain order in the fridge that would make dosage times a no-brainer. 

How in the heck did I manage to come up with that one? I’ll never know because it’s something I just did and luckily, it worked!

Sometimes I look in that mirror and I don’t recognize that Mom even though it’s my own reflection. 

People ask me how I do it, and I never know what to say. The truth is, I don’t really know. I just do whatever it is that I have to do to get my children safely through their day with my sanity in tact (or mostly!) 

I have learned to let things go that I just cannot always get to like the dishes or the vacuuming. 

Hopefully, I will remember to show my twelve-year old how to do some of these things…but I do forget.

I have had to learn that its ok to do things when I can and understand that sometimes things just have to go by the wayside. 

I have had to learn not to care what other people think of me because of this. All I can do is sit back and enjoy this wonderful ride of a lifetime!

Originally posted WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

HTTP://MIMIRANKINWEBB.BRANDYOURSELF.COM/

SOOO....What's It Like Carrying Triplets?

Carrying triplets is probably the scariest endeavor I have ever endured. In the beginning, of course you find out that you are pregnant and you haven’t any clue that there is more than one tiny person growing inside.

Because of my prior health problems, my doctor decided to do an ultrasound at 9 weeks out. Because of a previous miscarriage, I was worried about the doctor not finding any heart beat. Little did I know, that lab tech would find not one, but THREE tiny heartbeats!

What a shocker! No, I didn’t faint or pass out, although it did help that I was already lying down. But then again, that lab tech was too surprised to say anything more than, “ How many baby’s would you like?”

All I could say was, “How many baby’s are you seeing?” Of course we now know the answer was “THREE!” So there I was, not expecting one viable heartbeat, only to find that I was supporting THREE!

The doctor & the lab tech (after much oh my goodness-ing) printed out many pictures of my tiny trio so that I would have the undeniable proof of existence when breaking the news to my family. After all, who would believe I was carrying triplets?

Funnier still, I had to have the office worker write me a letter saying that I was carrying them so that work would believe me!

Next, it was on to the specialist’s office for my 12 week introductory visit. They don’t want to see you before 12 weeks because anything less than that may not be a viable multiple pregnancy. That was frightening.

I had gained 4 pounds by this point and was starting to feel my jeans tighten at the waist. The specialist turned out to be very nice, however you get to have this consultation in his office where he gets to tell me that I am much to short to be carrying triplets and that my chances for successfully carrying them are very slim. I looked him in the eye and told him, “We’ll just see about that!”

This is the point where selective reduction is implied/offered, which in my case just wasn’t an option. So,  I left my first big appointment with my specialist armed with a list of stipulations: mandatory full bed rest at 5 months, a list of foods that you should and shouldn’t eat, explicit instruction to find, identify and eliminate all sources of stress from my life, and a term date of 34 weeks. The 34 week goal is the scary part, even though the stress elimination was a close second.

I decided to approach this rather like a game. I had a starting point which I had already managed to get past (conception-passed that test with flying colors!) and now I had a set end point to strive for.

After having been told that most triplet pregnancy’s never make the 34 week mark, I decided that we would hit it right on target. The doctor just smiled.

Little did he know that he would find himself writing my OBGYN a letter stating, “Please deliver these triplets the moment Mimi is officially considered 34 weeks. Not a day before, or a day later.”

Much to my doctor’s surprise, after a pregnancy of no complications, I would walk to labor and delivery from the Schumpert parking garage and check myself in for my very planned c-section after the most frightening 34 weeks I have ever sustained!

Originally published TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB