Miles' Eye

Miles eye is recovering well. Here are a few more pictures of his eye. The hemangioma is still in the eyelid and can be seen, but it is not lumpy, bumpy and raised as it used to be. His eyelid looks a bit purplish, but other than that it looks normal. If you were to look really close you might tell he doesn't quite open it 100% when he is just looking around, but when his dad is about to tickle him he opens both eyes huge in anticipation.

New and Improved Eyelid (Oct 20th, 2009)

The Old and Unimproved Eyelid (Oct 10th, 2009)

This picture is to answer the questions of "How do you get that many kids out of the house?"

We have a double sit and stand stroller "the aircraft carrier". It carries two and Lewis (either sitting or standing) and the third has to be carried. Here we were at the Anchorage Museum.

Ducks in a row

Lewis, Ruby, Sage and Miles

This is what they wear when their evil parents make them go out in below freezing weather.

Remembering the Lost summer of '09

Thought to add some pictures to remind me that on rare occasions we did get to enjoy the short Alaska summer.

Walking the creek trail with Susan, Bryce and the four rug rats

Fourth of July in downtown Anchorage

Lewis with Tia Natalia

Lewis learned how to slide on his own this summer.

The cheesehead Auntie

She came bearing cheese!
Aunt Camille came to help back in September. She came with enough cheese to appease Carolyn's Wisconsin tastes for a month or more. Smoked string cheese, cheese curds, munster, and other stuff that those of us that don't speak Cheese don't know.

For two weeks she changed diapers, held babies, wiped spit up, fed babies, and the whole potpourri of baby duties. She even went out to dinner with all of us. I remember the dinners because during one of them Camille and Carolyn sprinted away from me like gazelles during an explosive diaper change in a parking lot. I remember changing Sage's diaper on the floor of the van while they waited a few steps away. Then SWOOOOSHHH! Without warning the brown torrent came out. No diaper was covering the rear end and the poo went as if fired from a garden hose. Had I aimed her a bit to the right Camille would've screamed and I'm sure she would have left Alaska that night. Instead the stream hit the door and splattered on me, on Sage, and all over the van. Camille and Carolyn ran. Maybe even sprinted while carrying the other two babies and Lewis. I thought I heard them laughing. It took me near twenty minutes to clean up the mess - by myself. I used up a box of wipes wiping down the carpet, the seats, even the insides of the door seal. The van probably still stinks but I've grown immune to the offensive smell of baby poop. What was I talking about? Oh, yes Camille helped out (just not when the shit hit the van).

By a stroke a luck Camille was here when the whole issue of Miles' eye came up. With her here we were able to deal with all the doctor visits and hospital visits without seeming like a mobile baby circus every time. We were happy for her help getting out to the Museum, the pick it yourself farm, and the Tuesday Night Runs where we forced her to march up and down hills while pushing a stroller full of babies or waiting for Lewis to get done seeing the spawning salmon so we could finish the race. It was fun to have her here and we were glad to have her huge help.

Aunt Camille and the aircraft carrier stroller at the You-Pick farm

The Rudzinski sisters trying to squeeze blood from a cabbage

Holding Sage - or is it Ruby?


Just about to give Miles a bath


Auntie of triplets


Hanging out on the new couch


Lewis, Aunt Camille, Ruby, Miles and Sage
lets hope they all learn to smile like their Aunt

It's been a month

Good gravy!
How can you have a blog and only post something every month?

I know, I know, I've been slacking on the blogging job. I've got a few dozen excuses if you want them or at least 4 two-legged excuses but I'll just shut up and post.

What's happened since the last post? The biggest incident was with Miles and his eye. As if someone saw my last blog about Miles' eye and my stories and thought I needed more to worry about. A day after the blog entry we took Miles and the whole gaggle to the doctor for a weight check. A weight check is when you get them all officially weighed on the doctors expensive scales so the doctors can be assured you aren't starving them at home. While there we asked if the pediatrician could look at his eye. His eyelid was slowly closing on him due to the hemangioma, the red things. He was able to open his eye about 40%. The pediatrician told us that hemangiomas go away after a year and all would be fine but asked us to keep an eye on it as she didn't want his eye to close too much. We wanted to know what "too much" was. She looked at it, didn't seem overly worried but did say she would confer with a pediatric opthamologist. She told us she'd call us in a week.
Within the hour she called us back. She said she had talked to the opthamologist and that he had a opening that same afternoon, but not to worry. We went nervously. After a two hour nervous wait we finally saw the doctor. After a two minute inspection he gave us the verdict. "I can fit him in my surgery schedule next week." That began our first worried parents installment in the medical world. There Carolyn and I were not knowing what to do, who else to go to for advice, or what other real options we had. Looking back we did our parent jobs well but it seemed a bit overwhelming having only a few days to make a informed decision on Miles' vision for the rest of his life. We called other opthamologists and learned more about hemangiomas and eyeball anatomy than we ever wanted to know. We googled every hemangioma website, even dissected sheep eyeballs in hopes of learning what was about to happen. In the end we went with the surgery option. Our other options were go to Indianapolis or Seattle for a second opinion (our opthamologist was said to be the best in the state), or do nothing.
The surgery seemed to go well. I had this idea that eye doctors were the cream of the crop in the surgical world. I thought Miles would come back better looking than he went in, his scars would be near invisible and no one would be the wiser. When he came out he looked like he'd been on the losing end of a extended boxing match. His face was swollen and the eye looked like hamburger. They sent us home with a little bottle of ointment and an appointment to see the doctor the next day. The next day his eye is still swollen, black and blue and clear pus is occasionally oozing out. The doctor looks at him and rather than looking at his handiwork grimly says "Wow, his eye looks great!" So much for my idea of eye doctors...

Miles' eye before

Miles laid out in his Radio Flyer gurney

Getting pulled into the operating room

The boxer after the match

Now for the gross pictures...
The Frankenstein pictures the day after

The scab

The scab falling off

The scab clinging by a thread
or eyelid beef jerky

in a cavern - in a canyon...

The now happy camper

Still playing with his sisters

Recovering well

What's up with Miles' eye?

He got bitten by a scorpion.
It's the mark of a future pirate.
It's a tapeworm under his eyelid.
It's a tattoo of a caterpillar.
He got licked by a rabid cat.

So everyone has been asking us what's up with his eye. Most are polite and don't ask but those that can't contain their curiosity ask it straight up. "Dude, what happened to his eye?"
I usually contain my smart-ass answers and tell them the truth. Miles had flies lay eggs inside his eyelid and we have to wait till the maggots eat their way out for the marks to go away...

Actually; Miles got his birthmark after he was about 2 weeks old. At about 10 days old his face broke out in a facefull of pimples. All the pimples left after 3 weeks but some red dots developed over his left eye where some pimples had been. They grew slowly to some six spots about the size of half a pencil eraser. They were flat but soon got bumpy. Took him to the doctor ready for her to tell us they'd have to remove the eye. She said it was a Hemangioma. A temporary tumor of the capillaries in the epidermis. Sounded bad but she said it wasn't a big deal. She said it would likely get a bit bigger and then fade away entirely by the time he turns one. We breathed a sigh of relief. In fact his sister Ruby has one by her nose. Her mark was bright for about a month and began fading and can now barely be seen. The mark is so common it is called Angels kisses and we've started to see and hear of lots of other kids that have it or have had it. So that's the story. But the story about the maggots is way more interesting...

Anything new?

"Abu" and GrandPa Price with Ruby, Miles and Sage

Sage, Miles and Ruby in their Sunday best

Miles enjoying the attention

"What happened?"
"Why haven't you written in your blog in over a month?"
I don't really have a good answer. Exhaustion maybe. No coherent new thing to say other than "Triplets will kick your butt." Maybe it's because we haven't left the house much and it feels our lives are just a repetition of "Feed, change, coddle, repeat...".
Things are happening but when one is deep in the rut of routine they don't seem as noteworthy. Kind of like looking at yourself in the mirror every day and not noticing any changes.

Snap, Crackle and Pop are growing. We have gotten out of the house here and there. People have been great to us coming to visit and giving of themselves and their time. While I often call this my Lost Summer of '09 it has been good to us. We have much to be thankful for and caring for little ones is a humbling way to learn what is important in the world.

Ninety minutes have elapsed and the "feed, change, coddle, repeat" cycle must be done again.

Lewis and the Triplets

Can you tell these two apart?
We can't (unless they are sitting on a scale or the light is just right and they are turned the right way).

The trio in a rare moment of unified contentness

In an uncommon moment all three are awake, not crying, dressed, not eating, and in the same spot.

The first whole family outing;
We finally did it. We went out to a restaurant. All eight of us. Grandma and Grandpa Price, Lewis, the triplets, Alex and Carolyn. Not sure if it was due to cabin fever, being stuck in the house while the weather outside it gorgeous, or if it was that all the cooks were tired, or perhaps we were just exhausted to cleaning up yet another mess. We went to the baby-friendly Red Robin burger restaurant. While the average person may not know it takes a special place to fathom taking little kids to; especially four little kids. It has to 1. Be loud (so as to drown out your babies crying) 2. Be fast (Lewis can shred the menu and everything on the table before most waiters come around) and 3. Have high chairs and car seat slings (three babies in car seats do not go well on a table or on the floor). The eight of us survived unscathed with only minor crying, quickly remedied with a pacifier, and only four oogling passerbies asking if they really were triplets. After that succesful outing we are pondering where to go eat next.

Tia Natalia

My fabulous sister has just finished her tour of duty. She arrived June 1st just a day after the triplets were born and helped with everything for the last nine weeks. And everything is a handful and a half when caring for three at once. She dealt with diaper blowouts that left her intimately familiar with the warmth of poo on her legs. She learned to cook for a one year old and hide his veggies in microscopic pieces. She learned to wear shirts with spit up. She dealt with sleepless nights when all three didn't want to sleep through Alaska's midnight sun. She cleaned, washed, cooked, rocked, played, fed, changed, and sang her way through what few will ever deal with. Oh, and she even taught Lewis how to do Yoga. We are eternally grateful, even if we don't seem it in our exhausted stupor. After this tour of duty I doubt any future baby caring will faze her.
My parents are here now. Not sure if the reality of all the work has hit them yet. They are proud of the babies but have suggested to me that I keep my pants zipped up.