My wife's escape has 145000 miles on it and it has started idling rough when its cold but after you get it warm it stops shaking while idling. Also, driving down the road it will occasionally jerk. Anyone know what could be causing these problems?

Our 2001 escape was doing the same thing with close to the same milage it ended up to be a coil went bad this is a known problem with these coil on plug setups. Eventually the engine light will come on and you can have it put on a computer to see what cylinder is misfiring. I know autozone will check codes for free.

had 3 misfiring cylinders

had 3 misfiring cylinders
I bet that all three coils are bad. I have had to replace all 6 coils, and yes one at a time.