Eight months in and Lisa Rope still can't quite believe she has triplets.
Actually, scrap that. She can't quite believe she is a mother of four tiny humans under three years old.
"Even now I wake up and think 'how did this happen?' Not in a bad way... just like how?'" she told Mamamia.
The 38-year-old from Sydney is the kind of person many assume doesn't even have one child, let alone four. But here she is deep in a world of nappies and schedules and bloody loving it, chaos and all.
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She didn't always feel like that though.
When the sonographer showed her and husband Brad, 37, the three heartbeats in her belly there were a lot of "profanities that came out between the both of us," she told Mamamia.
Amongst the swearing and laughing, she remembered spluttering at him: "But I just bought a new car? We're going to need a new car??"
But once the initial shock had settled the real nerves set in. How were they going to afford this? What about our son? How do you even... do triplets?
The answer: routine, and an amazing village of medical professionals, family and friends.
The moment Lisa left that sonographer's office she was on the phone to the obstetrician who'd delivered Xavier, her now three-year-old.
"You better not be on holidays when I deliver these babies," she told him. But she needn't have worried because Lisa ended up having a great pregnancy and delivery, despite being high risk.
"I was so well looked after. I did Pilates up until the week before. I only missed one week during my entire pregnancy. It really helped me - not for fitness but for keeping my body strong and stretched," she explained.
Walking into her planned caesarean at 35 weeks, Lisa was expecting the worst because the medical staff had "put the fear of God into us." But having already had a tour of the NICU ward in preparation, it didn't feel so scary when their girls ended up in there for their first month of life.
Months down the track Lisa and Brad have perfected a - not to be messed with under any circumstances - daily schedule.
"Our parents offer to mind the kids so we can go have lunch out. But we have such a good routine, that it's almost not worth disrupting it to go for lunch. There's going to be beautiful times ahead... but at the moment it's a strict schedule with calendars and whiteboards," Brad told Mamamia.
"There isn't much time for us, I won't lie," added Lisa. "My sister asked me if I had checked with Brad about something we'd been discussing recently and I had to think to myself 'I actually haven't really seen Brad lately.' Even though he's physically here, we're in kinda like work mode."
The days that Brad goes to work Lisa's mum comes over to help. You need at least two people at home at a time to have enough hands to look after four kids under three.
The triplets have naps timed at 9am, 12:30pm, sometimes 4pm, and then bedtime at 7pm. They don't get a choice, they all have to go down and wake up together.
"You have to keep them in the same routine, otherwise you'd just be constantly feeding. They do everything together... we don't let them have their own patterns," Lisa said.
Her other trick is two-course meals for lunch and dinner.
"I believe if they eat all their calories throughout the day and they're really full they sleep so much better. So I am just about getting them to 'eat, eat, eat' throughout the day," she explained.
The babies also have milk (two are breastfed while the third gets a bottle) at 7am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9:30pm, and then they sleep through the night until about 6am. The triplets have slept through the night since about six months old which has been beyond transformative for the whole family.
"I was convinced when I was pregnant, it would have been easier if I hadn't had my older child so I wouldn't know what to expect. But I think having the first gave me more experience to know what to do. I was a bit more sure of myself. The googling and things you do with your first baby sending yourself mad... I trusted myself a bit more this time," Lisa told Mamamia.
The coronavirus pandemic has actually been great for the mum guilt.
"It meant I was able to be in a bit of a bubble," she said. "While it's nice to have people over, just having those few people around without too many opinions allowed me to just keep to my routine."
Lisa worried that the triplets wouldn't get "as much time outside at the park and in the world" as other kids because logistically it's a nightmare. But the virus means she doesn't have to worry about that so much.
Having triplets also seems to have rallied her family and friends in a way she didn't expect.
"So many of our friends have come and done night shift. One even bought a massage table to my house and gave me a massage. I would come back from a doctor's appointment to groceries on the doorstep. I think the girls have touched a lot of people. It's just so unique... people are just so invested in their and our happiness," said Lisa.
Of course, there have been hiccups. Xavier had a few months of acting out dying for attention - but a new kindergarten helped that.
There were also a rough couple of weeks as the triplets' stomachs were getting used to different foods. But Lisa says they've hit a good patch now.
"We're coming to a nice time now, where they are eating food and their strong personalities are coming through and they're starting to engage with each other. I catch them holding each other's hands... they're so sweet and they're such good babies. I've been really lucky," she said.
Looking back, Lisa's advice for any future triplet mums-to-be: "Really look after yourself. Find the thing that is good for you, your body and soul (mine was Pilates). Keep strong and healthy and get a good village around you who you trust. My obstetrician is like my dad now."
Oh, and get ready to be asked by every stranger/barista/shop assistant/human you meet: "But... how do you do it."
Feature image: Supplied.
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