BUSY MOM: PATIENCE KEY IN RAISING TRIPLETS, WOMAN LEARNS

KELSO -- The key to handling a house full of children is dealing with one dilemma at a time, enjoying the good times and hoping no one comes down with a cold, according to a mother of triplets.

Lori Reinagel, a mother of five children under the age of 8, including a set of 22-month-old triplets, said she's learned to keep smiling through the mounds of laundry, boxes upon boxes of diapers and frequent visits to the doctor's office.

"Survival a lot of the time is my main objective for the day," she said. "Now I go to church and pray for patience, because I think I'm going to need a lot of it."

Reinagel and her husband, Ron, of Kelso, are parents to the most recent set of triplets born at Southeast Missouri Hospital. They are now approaching their "terrible twos."

When the triplets were born, the Reinagels already had two other children: a daughter, Ashley, who was 5, and a son, Adam, who was 2. She said they had planned on having four children, so the triplets "just meant one more."

Ron, a CPA, is an identical twin and there are twins on Lori's side of the family, she said. But still, triplets were a real shock.

Reinagel said she found out she was carrying three babies from an ultrasound when she was 10 weeks along in her pregnancy.

During the procedure, the nurse told Reinagel she was having trouble finding a heartbeat. "It took so long, I kept thinking there was something wrong," she said.

But when the nurse discovered Reinagel was pregnant with triplets, she pointed to the screen and said, "`Here's baby A, here's baby B and here's baby C,'" said Reinagel. "I felt about every emotion a woman can feel at that moment. I laughed, I cried, I was scared; but I was happy."

The news left her in somewhat of a daze.

"I literally didn't sleep for two weeks. I kept thinking of three pumpkin seats, three strollers, three of everything."

After a relatively smooth pregnancy, the triplets were born with no complications. Nicholas weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces; Matthew weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces; and Erika weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces. They will be 2 in July.

After the babies came home from the hospital, Reinagel said she realized her life had been turned upside down. She decided then and there to take one day at a time.

"The first weeks are such a haze. I was like a robot. But they were good babies. They all started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks."

Her mother and mother-in-law were frequent helpers, she said.

Reinagel's mother stayed with the family four nights a week. Her mother-in-law would come over at 5:30 a.m. to take over, sometimes giving Reinagel her only sleep.

"We always knew if we had an awful night, 5:30 would come around sooner or later and we'd get to sleep," she said.

But there were times when, feeling overwhelmed, she would just sit down and cry, she said. The worst times are when one of the kids gets sick because the rest of them usually follow suit.

The babies went through 300 diapers a week during the first five months, when the Reinagels employed a diaper service. And Reinagel became a frequent visitor to the doctor's office.

"We had 78 office visits last year with the five kids," she said. "This year we're doing pretty good; we've only had 23."

Reinagel said the triplets' birth even changed her husband's housekeeping habits.

"He learned to do laundry," she said.

Taking the kids out to the mall or the supermarket is always a treat, she said. She said people's reactions to the triplets are usually ones of amazement.

"People say: `I've never seen triplets before.' Well, before I had them I hadn't seen any either,'" she said.

"Its amazing to me that three kids who were born at the same time can have such different personalities. Matt screams. He's definitely the loud one. And Nicholas is the good little guy. Erika doesn't let anything get by her, and she keeps the other two in line."

Reinagel said despite having garage sales twice a year to keep the kids clothed, and hiring two babysitters when she and her husband want to go out, she wouldn't trade her hectic life for anything.

"We have a really strong marriage, which makes all the difference," she said.

"I always say I smile more than most mothers."