Triplet Time Out!

Everything is different when you have multiples. Because they are born early and with their siblings, they develop at a different rate than a single-born baby. This means that they are smaller and do not do the same things at the same time as other babies that are the same “Age” as they are do.

My trio rolled over later, learned to sit up later and didn’t even cut teeth until they were a little over nine months old. Actually, only one of my triplets can even walk and they are currently 16 months old.

I don’t know if it is because they are tinier than normal babies, or if it is because I have babied them too much, but this go-round I have been a bit more lax in the discipline department. My eldest was disciplined from the beginning as I could recognize that he understood what it was that I meant.

My triplets have been different in that I just haven’t thought that they would understand the concepts of right or wrong yet. Don’t get me wrong, I have been teaching them the difference between “Yes” and “No” and what “No-No’s” are. I just haven’t found that they can fully understand what it is that I am trying to convey to them in a situation where one of them is crying.

Recently, because my triplets are teething very badly, they have developed a habit of biting each other. I have caught them biting each other in attempts to get stolen toys back from each other and even when one got into the way of another. I have been in quite a quandary over how to address this with them.

What I have been doing, is making sure to turn my full attention to the child who was bitten or hurt after stating to the other two children that biting is bad, biting hurts, and biting is a no-no etc.

Of course half the time, I can’t even tell who did the biting, or caused the crying, but I sure can tell who lost the fight! Usually I end up consoling the baby who got hurt, leaving the others to watch the bitten sibling get all of the attention.

Saturday, I had to take my eldest son to Dallas to see “Sweet Charity.” This meant that husband had baby duty. After the show, I got a call from a very excited and proud husband.

As luck would have it, there was a biting binge in the play-yard. Kian had decided to pull Kai’s hair and at the same time bite Vivienne’s arm. Apparently he is very adept at multi-tasking for a toddler. Most adults aren’t so coordinated!

My husband had this very bright idea! He decided to try putting him in time out, something which we had thought of before, but hadn’t been able to find a good safe place to implement the punishment that wasn’t a fun place to play!

What he did, was sit him in his little feeding chair, turn it away from the television to where Kian had no choice but to sit there and watch his daddy play with his siblings and have loads of fun. He told him that biting and pulling hair hurt and were both no-no’s.

Husband did not do anything more than buckle him into his little chair and turn it around. He didn’t give him his feeding tray or a snack or a toy, either. He even managed to ignore Kian’s little sniffles and all (which is very difficult for a doting daddy to do!)

Poor biting and hair pulling Kian had to sit and watch his daddy play with his siblings in their play-yard with their toys. He apparently figured out that he was missing out and it made him very sad. After he was allowed back into the play-yard he was even GOOD for a time.

Husband only had one other incident with Kian biting and he went straight back into time out again. Each time, he sniffled and was sad about missing out and each time he was good afterwards.

I am so very proud of husband for solving our discipline dilemma. Now we have a good way to get our point across to the babies when they do something wrong. This way, I can actually separate each of them in a safe manner and where they cannot get to the others or communicate easily.

Hopefully they will get more teeth and the biting will go away and fade in time (and other habits!). If not, our new, modified time-out system may just help us quell our tiny trio problems!

Teething Troubles

It's very quiet right now, considering it's about four in the afternoon. As of late it's been very noisy for some reason or another. My trio are all cutting molars and various other teeth in odd places.

This means that they are teething. Teething means that ANY object that can fit in their mouth must be BITTEN and often! This process has involved chewing on such things as a tiny moose figurine (sorry Tyrone) that apparently is best chewed upon if you insert the antlers into your very wide open mouth and twist it a bit to where you can get those antlers in between the gaps in your teeth so that the missing ones can be enticed to break the skin.

Unfortunately for the moose, that pesky tooth has yet to break the skin yet. Sadly for my teething toddler, that moose's antlers just BARELY fit into his mouth so he has to open super wide to even be able to have the chance to maneuver it into his mouth. The laws of physics just are NOT in either party's favor here.

Kai has quickly discovered that if he isn't careful, those antlers will get stuck in your mouth (keeping it forcibly open) and just will not come out unless a parental unit takes pity in his plight (which often is very hard to do speedily as we are much to busy trying not to laugh at his predicament!)

Then there is the strange case of dental imprints popping up in places they shouldn't be. Poor Vivie has quite a collection running up and down her tiny, apparently very tasty, little baby girl arm. Kai has them on his bicep and even running down one leg. Oddly enough, Kian isn't sporting but a few bruises. I can only guess that it is Kian who has been leaving his dental imprints emblazoned on his siblings for all to see.

I really am at my wit's end with the biting business. It all happens so very quickly so I rarely can catch the actual act occurring. I know that if someone is crying, then someone usually was up to no good. However, in my house, It's the person who is wailing that gets the soothing mommy attention and not the one who may have caused them to cry.

I know that once they are old enough to really understand what they are doing that I will have to really crack down on this behavior. For right now, all I can really do is tell the general onlooking siblings that biting is bad and a no-no and hope that the offender really figures out that they are the one who is in trouble.

I have to take some reassurance in the idea that at least I am not giving them my undivided attention over the situation in that I must comfort the baby who is crying over being most recently mauled. I can only hope that this works out in the end. Either that, or those teeth will hopefully finally come in and the teething/biting urge will fade away along with it.

I am trying to hang in there and be a sweet and nice and loving mom, but it the power's that be are making it so very difficult. None of the babies seem to sleep entirely through the night. Thankfully, they rotate waking up which makes it a tad bit easier to soothe that baby back to sleep. The bad part is, that once I get one back into their beds, another one starts to squirm and cry and needs to be soothed.

This means that usually I don't get much in the way of sleep at night. I try and nap when the babies do so that I am at least tolerable to be around, but as of late that is becoming less possible. Today, they actually tag-teamed crying through-out nap time. They have been doing the same thing for most of the day. In fact, it's odd that it was quiet long enough for me to write this! Those teeth HAVE to come in sometime!

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I know that it will be over in a heartbeat. I even am trying to find ways to find the humor in all of this. Maybe it's some sort of honor to get to sport your sibling's dental imprints on your arm...a sort of baby right of passage maybe? I remember when my baby sister proudly left her dental imprint on my arm. She was always so proud of herself. I must have had that bruise for at least two weeks.

Ah well, it's almost dinner time for babies at my house. I have until "The Backyardigans" ends to have dinner ready and avoid the fussies! Maybe I can find something for them to chew on that is SUPPOSED to actually go in their mouths this time!!!!