|
|
I can not believe we have made it to the half way point of our first year! The days of feed, change, 1/2 break, then start all over, seem like an eternity ago.
Haley: Haley is still our sweet, bashful, laid back baby. She rolls and scoots all over the place. She can sit but still need help. She really seems more interested in being on her belly and working on crawling then anything else. I get worried sometimes because, unlike her siblings, she has no real desire to stand while being held, but put her in the jumperoo or her walker and she goes to town. She definitely beats to her own drum and wants to do things her way. She loves to play with the other two and laughs/ smiles all the time. She was the first to get her teeth and got 2 on her bottom front at the same time about 2 weeks ago.
Caitlin: Caitlin was the second baby to get teeth and she has one on her lower left bottom and one on her upper right top that has started to poke through. She is the jumperoo champ of the three. It is her favorite ply station and she goes crazy in it. She gets some real height going and is the funniest thing to watch. She continues to be the instigator of the group. When she gets fussy Criton follows suit. Haley does unless it is during a meal. Then Haley just looks at her, flashes a huge smile, and giggles. Normally this might bother me if it wasn’t for the fact when the were younger and Caitlin screamed, Haley got put down a lot. I wonder if that is what she remembers when she’s laughing. Caitlin is sitting really well on her own but has her moments were she gets too excited and falls over. To prevent injury we surround them with pillows if we have more then one up at a time. Caitlin is also working on perfecting her standing and holding on to furniture.
Criton: Criton is my giggle buddy. He loves to smile and laugh bout anything. He also loves to be tickled and play supper baby. He is getting the walker thing down, though he most stand up straight in it now which is so cute. He was the last to sprout a tooth last week and has his two bottom ones coming in as well like Haley. He can say mum, mummy, dada, and daddy already. It’s crazy but he even uses it correctly. He is by far our best sitter and doesn’t loose balance that much. He is also working hard with Haley on the crawling thing.
It is just so cool now because they are at an age where they are interacting with each other. Michael and I love to sit back and watch they play together and babble at each other, smile, and laugh together. For those who might be wondering here is our current routine:
7am… Up for the day, diapers changed, get dressed
7:30-8am… Breakfast (baby food, between 12-16oz between the three of them)
around 10am… Bottle (between 5-8oz)
12:30pm… Lunch (baby food, about 16 ounces between the three)
2-3pm…. Bottle (between 5-8 oz)
5pm… Bottle (they seem to be phasing this one out the past couple of days)
5:30-6pm …Dinner (baby food about 16 oz)
7pm … Bed time bottle and then bed
Everyone is usually in bed and asleep by 8pm.
In-between eating they usually take a short nap in the morning, about an hour nap in the afternoon, and rotate play stations (jumperoo, walkers, rocking chairs with toys, floor with toys, parents lap) It makes for a tiring day on us but generally good days for them.
Sleeping Through The Night…. Well that is a tough one. Haley is pretty good bout sleeping through most night but still occasionally gets up between 3-5am for a bottle. Criton will either sleep through the night, get up once at either 11pm or 3am (around), or he will wake up at both. Caitlin will either sleep through the night or wake up once between 3-5am. It’s crazy and there is no rhyme or reason to any of it. It doesn’t matter how they eat during the day, naps, how hard they play. Also we have never had a night where they all slept through. We tried lessening the amount in the night bottle but then they were all up at least twice. We look at it as, they will do it when they are ready, and until then we keep our shifts so we can get some sleep. It sucks at times, but it could be worse.
Well off to play with the kiddos!
There has been a lot of controversy over crib bumpers and as the kids get older and become mobile this becomes an issue. Pediatricians and other professionals say absolutely no bumpers due to the risk of suffocation. That wasn’t such a big issue when they weren’t rolling and scooting, but since they started that it was dangerous not to have bumpers. We would go in to feed or check on them during the night and find a leg or an arm sticking through the crib bars. So we started hunting for a solution….
We found the Breathable Baby line. It gave all the protection of a regular bumper but it is made with a breathable material. So if your child ever gets his face against it, he can still breath easy. They are sold online but we bought ours at Babies R Us for $30 a piece. They have a wide range of colors: green, blue, pink, brown, white, and black are the common ones found in the store.
Since putting them in the cribs we have had no more potentially dangerous incidents and they look really nice in the nursery. So if you are needing or thinking about bumpers I highly encourage you to check these out. We feel they are way worth the money. On their web page (www.brethablebaby.com) they also have a wide range of products that we can’t wait to try: Breathable blankets, toys, sleep sacks, fitted sheets, etc.
I wanted this first post to be an apology to my readers. Since having to pick up so many hours at work and a hectic month with the babies, I haven’t had the time to post anything. I had hoped to be able to do daily posts, but realistically, that is not feasible right now. So I am going to make a point to write at lest a weekly post. I appreciate all my readers and the wonderful support you provide me.
We have also added a “Social Network” links on the upper right hand side of the page for those who have been requesting it. It has links to our twitter, facebook, and RSS feeds. I hope this makes it easier for you to keep up with us.
Things to come… We have adding a “Preferred Products” section on the left hand side. By clicking here you will find posts all about different products that we have found extremely useful, fun for the kids, etc. It will include such things as bottles, formula, toys, feeding/ food items, things for the nursery, playroom ideas, and much more. This will definitely be a must to check out for any parent.
We are going to be putting up the Calendar Contest gallery in the next week so people can get a glimpse of some of the entries. We will also be opening this up to all babies/ children. If we get enough multiples and singleton entries we might put out separate calendars. More on this will be covered when we release the gallery.
Stay tuned… it is starting to get interesting here!
Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a little bit. This week has been kinda crazy with a lot of changes going on. First I’ll do a quick update on the children…
They are all eating two meals (solids) now. Once in the morning and once in the evening. The evening one seems to be really helping with getting them to drop a feed at night, but we have only done it for a couple of days now so we will see what happens. Caitlin and Criton are almost rolling now. They both get fully on their side and hang out there but haven’t kicked themselves fully over yet.
All of them seem bored with laying on their play mats to play. They all want to sit up to play. This wouldn’t be so bad except they can’t sit by themselves yet and I can’t help all three sit up at once… not enough hands. They can’t stand the bumbo for very long, and truly, the girls are a little too big for it to be that comfy either. Their rocking chairs are great but they need to be able to move around, stretch out, and sit up more then they do when they are in them.
I can’t imagine how frustrating that must be for them. To have the mental awareness and drive to do all these things, but limited because their physical abilities are not their yet (being able to sit alone, crawl, or walk). They will come in time but until then I would imagine they get pretty frustrated. We do what we can though, and everyone gets takes turns to sit with help and so on.
They have really started to notice one another this week as well. It is so cute. They stare at each other, coo to one another, and smile/ laugh at each other. It is wondrous to sit and watch them. I can’t wait till they can truly play together. It is going to be great.
On other notes…
While Michael is expanding his company, currently we just aren’t bringing in enough to do everything we want and need to without me working. I have been working about 10-15 hours a week but that isn’t enough either, so I will have to go back to working 3 10hr shifts again for awhile (30hrs a week). I’ll admit I am not happy about it but you do what you have to do to make it work. I worked all the time when I had my other two kids so I missed so much. I didn’t want to miss all that again and I won’t have another chance because we are not having any more children.
I want to be there for all their little milestones. I want to watch them grow and play. I want to fill their little minds with wonderful and useful things. I know that I will get a chance to do those things even with working, but it isn’t the same. I have so enjoyed being their primary care parent. It has filled me with more joy then I ever imagined. So it is with a sad and heavy heart that I will be picking up more hours/ days. It is what we need to do financially though.
Hopefully it is possible with my current clinic. Being in acute dialysis means you never know how many treatments you’ll have for the day. If there are not enough, then you get sent home early (which has happened a lot). I suppose we will just see how it all works out. My hope is that I won’t have to do it for very long, life is funny though and you never know what will happen.
Criton is weighing in at 15lb 0.5 ounces. He is about as long as Caitlin but just very skinny. We think he just has a high metabolism since he eats just as much as the girls but is constantly moving.
Haley weighed in at 16lb 5 ounces.
Then Caitlin weighed in at 17lbs 6 ounces.
I am just floored at how much they have gained. They are huge babies which is very uncommon for triplets from what I have heard. We have been extremely lucky. They all weighed over 6lbs when they were born and it just keeps going. I do worry about what they will weigh when they turn one though…lol
Reflux is very common in premature babies, and since most multiples are premature, it is something parents of multiples struggle with. I too had to deal with this at varying degrees. Caitlin had really bad reflux almost from the beginning and the other two had mild reflux. We have found several things that have worked so well that Caitlin was taken off her medication and the reflux, at this point, has seemed to resolve in all of them.
First I wanted to cover some possible signs of reflux. If your child has these I would advise you to talk with your pediatrician:
Arching their back while trying to eat.
Large amount of spit up or throwing up during or with 30 mins of eating.
Crying during their bottles.
Unable to lay baby flat after eating, and with good burping, without baby spitting up.
Difficulty feeding, can only take low amounts of formula at a time.
Note: Breastfed babies are less likely to have reflux but it is still a possibility.
Caitlin’s was so bad that she was on prevacid before leaving the hospital, and is what kept her there for 5 days after the rest of us were discharged. We had a horrible time feeding her. The throwing up/ spitting up was horrible. She would go through 3-6 outfits a day. It made her utterly miserable and extremely fussy. Haley and Criton’s was much milder and mostly just dealt with a lot of spit up. There are some things we altered though, that changed everything, and now their reflux is pretty much all gone. Citlin was also taken off her meds because she no longer needed it. I wanted to share those and some other basic tips with others out there that might be going through the same issues.
First some basics…
1. Make sure you get all the burps out. Babies with reflux tend to have a lot of deep burps which can make the spitting up much worse.
2. Sit baby upright for 30mins after meals. We used our infant rocking chairs and baby swing when we were unable to physically hold Caitlin due to another babies needs.
3. Frequent burping. Burp after every 1-2 ounce.
Now the things that made the most impact for us…
1. Homemade Gripe Water (you can find the recipe under “Learning Experiences”). The Store bought kind can not even begin to measure up the the homemade. I have tried them. We still make it and give it to them today. The days that we skip it for one reason or another, you can really tell a difference. I highly, highly recommend you at least try it (for reflux, colic, and general fussiness).
2. Changing formula: When we first came home they were on Neosure because they were preemie. We quickly started have really bad gas and constipation issues with the babies. So bad they would be extremely fussy because of it, which is very common for this formula. So we switched to Enfamil Gentle Ease. It worked great for awhile but was not a complete fix. It helped withe the gas and constipation but not the reflux. Finally we tried Enfamil AR. This was our magic as far as the formula went. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has a baby with reflux or spitting up issues. Now we still have some spitting up issues with Caitlin, but I am pretty sure it has more to do with deep burps that we just can’t hear or get all the time. None the less though, it is so much better and she never fusses about it anymore.
3. Bottles: I never thought bottle would really make a difference but I assure you, the can have a huge impact. We first had NUK’s bottles. They did fine until I read some people talking about Dr Brown’s bottles for reflux babies. They swore by how much of a difference they experienced, so I rushed right out and picked up a pack to try. The result was spectacular. Less gas, less burps (including deep ones), and the babies were chugging down the formula. It was wonderful! I highly recommend these to anyone with a baby. Reflux or not I feel these are the absolute best bottles out there for any baby. They are also very easy for breastfed babies to go back and forth from bottle to breast without issues.
As I said before, these three things seemed to make all the difference for us. Hopefully by my sharing this with others, that it will help them as well. There is nothing more heartbreaking and nerve racking as a baby with reflux. Your baby is screaming in pain and you feel helpless because there is not much you can do. Then after about 6 hours of crying, you are right there crying with them because your nerves are completely shot and you are too sleep deprived to do anything else. I feel your pain and hope these things help you as much as they have me.
I can not seem to convince Caitlin that 5am is not an acceptable wake up time. It doesn’t matter what time she goes to bed, this week she has just been rearing to go at 5am. It’s a little frustrating but then she flashes me the biggest smile and laughs, and there is just no way you can argue with that. She has sucked me in just like her daddy! What is going to happen when she gets older? Is she just going to flash that sweet innocent smile and get away with everything…lol.
Anyway, everyone here is doing good. Still not getting enough sleep and wondering if they will ever sleep through the night (10-12 hours at a time). It’s funny, some nights one will sleep all the way through. Some nights they all only wake up once about 2-3am and sleep till 6-7am. Some nights they still get up twice during the night (and maybe wake up early like 5-6am). There is just no rhyme or reason to it. I wonder if other mothers feel the same way. We have been told about all these methods of how to get them to sleep through the night, but, for now, I think we will just let them choose their own pace. I figure they will do it when they are ready. In the meantime we still keep our split shift (Michael from 9pm-3am and me 3am on).
We are going to try some day outings again to the parks, mall, zoo, and places like that. I am hoping that now that they are a little older and a little less fussy, it might not throw off our schedule so much. We will probably do our first one Friday since I work for a few hours tomorrow morning.
I know I haven’t been able to write here everyday but sometimes it is hard while the babies are still waking up at night. By the time I get the kids in bed, cook dinner, and eat, I am worn out. Sometimes I am so tired I don’t even eat, just fall asleep. Then I get on average 3-4 hours of sleep before my shift comes up and it seems like most of the time I have someone awake. I suppose there is no rest for the mommy…lol. It is much better though since we do this split shift. It allows me to get some sleep, as opposed to before when I was basically get no sleep.
Well it sounds like another kido might be getting up for the day so I am off. Will try to write about our day tonight.
P.S.
Those teething pacifiers at Babies R Us are so worth it. Criton and Haley just love them!
Haley has always been our quite laid back baby.I used to worry about her because with the other two being so fussy early on she didn’t get near the attention I thought she should. I was worried she would be so far behind in movements, play, etc… Not any more!
For the past three days she has been babbling non stop. It is the cutest thing ever. She talks to us, she talks to her stuffed cow, she talks to her other toys, she even talks to her hands…lol. I am going to try and get a video of it today or tomorrow and post with our other videos on youtube so everyone can enjoy it. She also is rolling from side to side. She hasn’t kicked herself over yet but she gets all the way on her side. She is also scooting everywhere on her back. She is also smiling and laughing more.
It is the most amazing thing to watch them grow into their own little people. Yes they are triplets but they are not alike. They have their own likes and dislikes, their own quirks, and so on. Sometimes it makes it hard to accommodate all three differently instead of lumping them together, but we feel it is really important. They need to be able to be themselves, have some things that are just theirs, and know we recognize their differences.
…………………………………………………………………………………..
Criton is the happiest baby ever, except when he is teething. He smiles and laughs more then any of them. Anytime I look at him or talk to him he gets this huge smile and he starts laughing. It is one of the greatest things in the world. I could be so tired from being up all night with them, but when he starts doing that I can’t help but laugh with him.
When the teething pain gets bad though, he is quite the opposite. He is so fussy and the only thing that soothes him is holding him upright on my chest (his belly against my chest). Then he will lay his head on my shoulder, chew on his fist, and stares at me with the saddest face. Oragel doesn’t last long enough and I don’t like to give him a lot of Tylenol. It isn’t good for him. So we hold cold teething rings for him and will be trying one of those crazy looking teething pacifiers. I’ll let everyone know how that works out later this week.
…………………………………………………………………………..
Caitlin has turned into a happy baby with a smile that just turns her daddy into a slave. All she has to do is flash him a smile and tiny giggle and he’s hooked. He doesn’t even care if she wakes up at 5am, as long as she does that…lol. When she was littler, she cried all the time. Homemade gripe water was the only thing that helped, but still she wasn’t as “bright” as she is now.
She is the only one who has attached to the pacifier and heaven help us if she goes out without it. She has even gotten better about not spitting it out all the time and then wanting you to immediately put it back in.
She loves standing. She can stand now for brief periods at a time while Miche is holding her hands. It is so cute. We have a debate going on between the three of us (Michael, Miche and myself) as to whether she is going to sit and crawl or just stand and walk. One of the nurses I work with said her when her son was 4 months old he just grabbed the bars in his crib and stood up. Then he went from standing to walking. He never really sat or crawled for quite awhile. She is just so strong. We think it is muscle she gained when she had really bad reflux. The pedi says she is doing great though.
Normally you would assume when your baby is 3 months old they would fit the 3-6 month size clothes. When they are six months they would fit 6-9 month size. That is what I thought. That is basically what I remember, maybe one size bigger then their age at times. Not these kids…
They are almost 4 months old now and their clothing sizes are just insane. Criton isn’t so bad, he is wearing 6-9 month clothing but he is also very skinny, especially compared to his sisters. The girls on the other hand can wear 12 month clothing. See the problem is, is that most the 6-9 month clothing is too tight and the 12 month clothing is too long. I know they are chunky, so were my other two kids, but shorter then a 12 month old. I know I am not the only one who runs into this issue.
Someone needs to make a clothing line for those in-between babies! Perhaps they already have one that I don’t know about. If so please let me know. Sometimes the style of clothing will make a difference and they can wear some 6-9 month clothes which is the right length… but that is getting harder and harder.
Who else has gone through this? What was your solution?
Well once again everyone only woke up once to eat last night… Yay! Hopefully it goes the same tonight. Caitlin woke up at 6am but only wanted to snuggle then fell asleep in her swing in the playroom Criton woke up around 7am and Haley shortly after. I fed everyone around 7:30am (6 1/2 oz bottles). We played until about 9:30am and then tried to eat some rice and apple cereal. The girls were not really into it at all but Criton downed it like there was no tomorrow. This was the first time I got anyone to actually eat the cereal. They love baby food though.
After the cereal they had another 6 1/2 oz bottle and then took a brief nap (about 45 mins), then we played again until about noon. Caitlin had a breakdown about then wanting to eat again, so I started the feed with her (6 1/2 oz bottles). Then we had some tummy time which never lasts long, and the rotated through the play stations. One is the jumperoo, one is the play mats, one is in the bumbo chair next to mom, and one is the plain mats with the puppets. We usually rotate through them when the kids are awake to give them a variety of play.
They did bottles again at 3pm and then we ate baby food at 4:30pm. They ate the entire container of bananas, 7/8th of sweet potatoes and corn, and a few bites of the turkey and broth. They just did not seem to care for the meat, so we will try it again tomorrow. So far bananas and carrots seem to be their favorites. After they got done with dinner they had their baths and then a snack bottle (about 3-4 oz). Currently they are sleeping in their rocking chairs. They will pobly get up again around 7pm and play for 30 mins before bedtime.
Most people don’t realize it, and perhaps it is just me, but I spend almost every waking moment with them, feeding, playing, singing, dancing, and ll other forms of entertaining. For those who may think SAHM (stay at home moms) have it easy, think again. Even my husband thinks work is easier then what I do with the kids all day. I can’t complain though, they are great kids and I have tons of fun with them… just usually fried by the time I get everyone in bed…lol
I am loving their 7:30pm start time for bed. They just seem so much happier and sleeping so much better. I would recommend pushing bedtime back 30min to an hour if your babies seems restless at night and they are difficult to put down (after you have not found any good reason why they do these things). It just may be that they are not ready to go to sleep yet, and if their put down is rough they sleep rough.
Well I am currently cooking a roast for dinner and must go finish it up.
|
|
Social Networks