Oooh, isn’t this fun? Thanks for all the questions so far. Keep sendin’ them if you want, here’s the question post.

Janna asks…

1. Do you have secret ridiculous wishes for your boys (like, do you imagine Miles being a rockstar and Linus an astronaut and Oliver a tight rope walker)?

Hmm. Not quite yet, except I did harbor a fantasy that Oliver was going to be a famous soccer player because he was getting adept at kicking a ball around. However, he seems to have lost interest for the moment.

2. How did they not know that your babies were identical in utero? Did they split so early as to all have their own outer sacks?

The boys were clearly monochorionic, but I’m not sure why my doctors never would say for sure that they were identical (or monozygotic). I wish they had, I probably would have been monitored more closely for TTTS and other complications. I know we’re incredibly lucky that we didn’t have any issues related to their monozygosity.

We did worry that two of them were monoamniotic (sharing one amniotic sac, which ups the risk of cord entanglement), but at about 23 weeks, my doctor found that they were indeed in their own amniotic sacs, which was a huge relief.

Evan (the boys’ uncle) asks:

Where did Ellie lose her board for Candy Land? We have looked all over the house.

Look under the sofa or behind her dresser.

Helen, also the mother of identical boy triplets, asks:

Do you look at other identical triplets and think they look more identical than your own?

Hmmm. I think my boys look pretty darn identical, so I guess the answer to that is no. But I think that some look at least as identical as mine. (In other words, no, I can’t tell your boys apart. Ha ha!) I do see some that don’t look very identical to me, but I think that might be my eyes playing tricks on me.

Brandy wants to know:

When the trips were newborns how did you know who was who? did you keep like an anklet or something with their name on them at all times?

We did keep their hospital anklets on them for a long time, but we also kept them in order wherever they were in their cribs. They were also dressed differently, and sometimes I’d write their initials on the bottom of their feet.

Also, Oliver has a birthmark on his butt, so if necessary, we could always figure it out at diaper change time. Miles was easy – he was lighter than the other two, so picking him up and comparing him to one of his brothers was a sure way to distinguish him.

Amymarie wonders:

How many times a day do you get asked, “Are they triplets”? Does it annoy you, or do you like it?

It depends. If we go somewhere with all three, then I’m sure to be asked a few times, especially if they’re in their wagon. If we put them in a double stroller and a single stroller, we don’t get as many questions. (Honestly, hardly anyone even asks if the two in the double are twins. I guess people are used to seeing twins.) And no, it doesn’t bother me. Unless I’m in a really bad mood.

What percentage of your take home pay goes towards day care?
About half of mine, but about a fourth of our household income. Roughly. I don’t like to think about it.

Angie wants to know:

Are you going to run another marathon? That’s when I started reading your blog.

Oh Angie, my goodness! You are the eternal optimist. Ha ha! Okay, well, I don’t know about another full marathon. One day, maybe, when the boys are older. But I do want to do the Jazz Half-marathon in October. It’s here in New Orleans, and it’s to raise money for our Children’s Hospital, which, as you know, is like our second home. Yeesh.

Okay, one more for today, gotta save some for another post tomorrow!

Maggie asks:

I was wondering if you went through any sort of IF treatments, and if you knew that there was a possibility of having triplets. This is going to sound dumb, but how do identical triplets happen? I’ve never heard of it until your story.

We did not go through any fertility treatments to conceive the boys. While identical twins and triplets do occasionally result from fertility treatments, more often than not, they’re spontaneous (never say natural! All babies are natural!)

I never in a gajillion years expected to have multiples. Especially not triplets. Who ever thinks they’re going to have triplets? Ha ha! Biggest shock ever! I wrote a post about it not too long ago…

Identical triplets happen when the fertilized egg splits, and then one of those halves splits again. (Here’s a handy chart I made.) It happens pretty rarely (I’ve heard anywhere from 1:60,000 births to 1:250,000,000 births, but I’d wager it’s more on the 1:60,000 end) but I have quite a few mom friends now with identical triplets. Here are just a few!

Okay, more to come tomorrow! Fun!