Since Rory had a C-section and the babies were so small, they spent a little longer than usual in the hospital. When the babies were 6 days old, Rory and Logan finally brought them home. They were also told to keep Cody away from the babies until they were a little bigger and their immune systems were a little stronger.
On Saturday morning (the babies second day at home) Rory woke up alone in bed. She glanced around the room at the clock and at the 3 bassinets that were next to the bed. One of them was empty. A few minutes later Logan walked in with 3 bottles and one baby. "Hey, you're awake"
"Who is that?" Rory asked. The room wasn't pitch black but it was too dark for her to see the baby's clothes from where she was. They weren't only dressing the babies in their 'designated colors' but they made it a point to not dress them in matching outfits since the boys were identical and Julie might as well have been because she looked so similar.
"Noah" Logan said. "He was awake and making noise when I got up and I didn't want him to wake the others so brought him with me to make the bottles. You feeling ok?"
Rory nodded. They got the babies up, fed and changed them before butting them in the baby bouncers that were in the living room. Logan was making coffee and Rory was sitting in the living room, staring at the babies. She almost didn't notice Matthew come downstairs.
"Mommy, can I hold the babies?"
"Sit down" Rory said. She picked up the baby who was closest to her and put him on Matthew's lap. "You gotta hold his head"
"I know" Matthew said.
Later in the afternoon, Logan took Matthew to the park and Rory was at home with the babies. She was standing in the kitchen, making coffee while holding Julie who'd been screaming every time Rory or her down. Just as she was walking back into the living room ever the rest of the babies were asleep, her phone rang. She put her coffee down and picked up the phone. "Hi grandma"
"Hi Rory" Emily said. "I just called to see how you were doing"
"I'm good" Rory said. "A little sleep deprived, but good. How are you?"
"Well I was wondering, and you can say no if it's not a good time, but I was wondering if we could come meet the babies today" Emily said. So far only Lorelai, Luke, Shira, and Christopher (AKA the babies' grandparents) had met the babies.
"Yeah, I think that's ok" Rory said.
"Wonderful" Emily said. "Just tell me when is a good time and we'll come"
"We're home all day, so you can come whenever"
"Alright" Emily said. "I'll see you soon"
"Bye grandma" Rory said. A little later, Matthew and Logan were still out when the was a knock at the door. She opened the door (while still holding Julie) to see her grandparents. "Hi. Come on in"
"Rory, she's gorgeous" Emily said as she hugged Rory.
"Thank you" Rory smiled.
"How are you feeling?" Richard asked.
"A little sore, a little tired, pretty much what you'd expect" Rory said. "And this one screams every time I try to put her down so I've been holding her for like an hour and a half and my arm is completely asleep"
"Which is which?" Richard asked as they walked into the living room where Ryan and Noah were asleep.
"Ok so I'm holding Julie. I think the pink makes that obvious" Rory said. "Ryan is in the green and Noah's in the blue"
"Can I hold them?" Emily asked.
"Here" Rory said and went to hand Julie over to Emily. As soon as Rory let go of Julie she started fussing. Rory grabbed the pink pacifier from the coffee table and put it in Julie's mouth. "Grandpa, do you wanna hold one of the boys?"
"I'm alright just looking" Richard said
"Your grandfather is afraid of babies" Emily said.
Rory chucked. "Right. I remember" she said. Richard also didn't hold Matthew when he was first born.
"I'm not afraid, but they're very delicate and it makes me nervous" Richard said. "They are cute though. Newborns aren't always cute, sometimes they look like old men"
Rory laughed and then inhaled sharply.
"Are you ok?" Emily shouted.
"I had surgery 8 days ago" Rory said. "It's hurts. I'm fine"
"Are you sure?" Richard asked.
"Yeah"
20 minutes later Logan and Matthew got home.
"I wanna hold the babies!" Matthew said as he ran into the living room where Emily was now holding Ryan, Rory was holding Noah, and they'd convinced Richard to hold a baby so he was holding Julie.
"Do you see who's here?" Rory asked. Matthew nodded. "Are you gonna say hi?"
"Hi"
"Alright, sit down and you can hold Noah" Rory said as she stood up. Matthew sat down where Rory had been sitting and Rory put Noah in his lap. "Hold his head"
"I know" Matthew said. Every time he held one of the baby's, Rory or Logan (whoever was giving him the baby) reminded him that he needed to support the baby's head. It didn't never that he'd been told a bunch of times, they were still gonna remind him.
On Monday, Matthew was at school and Logan was in the home office on a work call (he wasn't able to fully take time off, but any work he did have to do he did from home and he delegated as much as possible). Rory had just finished changing the babies when there was a knock at the door. Rory opened the door to see lane standing there with a box. She knew that Leave was coming but she was confused about the box.
"What's with the box?" Rory asked.
"What's with the diapers?" Lane asked and nodded to the 3 diapers that Rory was holding.
"I have 3 newborns. Your turn"
"You have 3 newborns" Lane said as she followed Rory into the kitchen.
"I don't get it" Rory said.
First of all, congratulations" lane said. She put the box on the counter.
"Thank you"
Lane put her hand on the box. "Dinners. A lot of them. All picky child approved. All with heating instructions taped to them. I'm putting them in your freezer"
"You did not have to do this" Rory said.
"You guys have 3 newborns and a 5 year old. You don't need to be worried about cooking" Lane said. "It's stuff like lasagna, chicken and rice, spaghetti and meatballs, mac and cheese, stir fried chicken with vegetables and rice -the veggies are separate because I wasn't sure what Matthew likes, a couple different kinds of pasta, mini hamburgers, tacos, I don't remember what else, but there are a few of each. Everything's cooked, you just have to heat it up and at most assemble if we're talking about the burgers or the tacos. There's also some waffles in there"
"Thank you" Rory said.
"Now, I really wanna meet those babies who are being very quiet" Lane said.
Rory chuckled. "I just fed them so they're asleep"
"Oh, my God!" Lane said as they walked into the living room. "They're so cute. Can I hold them?"
"Go for it, but take one of the boys because Julie will probably wake up if you move her" Rory said. In the short time since the triplets were born Rory and Logan had already started to notice that while the boys were content to sleep pretty much anywhere, and didn't usually seem to mind being moved, Julie only wanted to be held. She cried when they put her down, and once she fell asleep that was it. If they moved her she'd wake up so they had to leave her wherever she was, including their arms.
"Who is this?" Lane asked as she picked up one of the babies.
"Ryan" Rory said.
"He's so little. Mine were never this small"
"Triplets are usually small" Rory said. She knew before the babies were born that they'd be several pounds smaller than the average baby. "Although that does mean that they're wearing preemie size not newborn"
"Well they are preemies so that makes sense" Lane said. "I seriously can't handle this level of cuteness. Just look at his little feet, and his cute little face, and his tiny little baby fingers"
Rory chuckled. "Yesterday Noah and Julie both fell asleep on Logan and I couldn't resist taking a picture since he was trapped and couldn't stop me"
"Where is Logan?"
"He's on a work call"
——
The first few weeks with the babies were really hard, but by the time they were 6 weeks old, Rory and Logan felt like they finally had a handle on things.
On the first day of November, Matthew was the first one awake on the house. This was usually the case and he usually went into Rory and Logan's bedroom.
This day was a Sunday and Matthew knew that meant a super lazy morning. It also meant that if he wanted to be in Rory and Logan's room that was fine but he had to go back to sleep. He wasn't supposed to wake them before 7 unless he needed something.
He quietly walked into the room and went straight over to where the babies were asleep in their bassinets, next to the bed. "Hi Julie" he whispered as he reached into the bassinet to gently touch her. He did that with each of the babies before climbing into bed with Rory and Logan.
Later that morning, Rory was in the boys room, changing Ryan when Matthew walked in with a sweatshirt. "Can you put this on my body?" He asked. He could do it himself but he liked when someone helped him so that the sleeves from his shirt didn't get bunched up inside the sleeves from the sweatshirt.
Rory laughed at the way he phrased his question. "Sure buddy, just let me finish this. Ok?"
"Mommy, why do you wrap up the babies when they sleep?" Matthew asked.
"You mean the swaddles?" Rory asked. Matthew nodded. "It makes the babies feel safe, and it helps them sleep. I swaddled you when you were a baby"
Matthew giggled.
"Look" Rory said. Keeping on hand on Ryan who was still on the changing table, she got her phone and pulled up a picture of Matthew when he was only a few weeks old.
"That's me?"
"Yeah, that's you" Rory said. "Here, take the phone" she said so she could pick Ryan up.
"I was so little"
"Yeah, you were"
