Changing of the guard

My parents had to leave the day after Thanksgiving and my mother-in-law came in to help out. Unfortunately, my father-in-law got sick on the trip over, so he was banished to a hotel. Though he did come over and put up our Christmas lights! Jeff finally had to deliver on the promise that if we ever stayed home for Christmas, he'd spring for lights up on the house. Now I just need to get the tree and other indoor decorations up.

My mother-in-law bought rocking chairs for the babies (for when they are older) from Max Woody.

http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/traditional-artist-directory/max-woody

Here they are in front of their future seats.
We weighed the babies again last night and Gordon is almost 9lbs! Both Walter and Adele are very close to 8lbs. It is hard to believe they have doubled their weight since birth.

We had a neighbor, professional photographer, over to the house for a session.

http://www.marielreyes.com/

She shot a number of photos of them that we'll purchase and hopefully one we can use for Christmas cards. The babies were so cooperative! Here's one of the photos I took during the session.

This was a cute photo I captured of the babies conferencing. *grin* I just know they are plotting something!

Weigh in!

We weighed the babies last night before their baths and I thought I'd share how much they've grown. Keep in mind their birth weights on 10/4/10:

Walter - 3lb 10oz
Gordon - 4lb 7oz
Adele - 4lb 30z

On 11/21/10:

Walter - 7lb 1/2oz
Gordon - 8lbs (holy cow!!)
Adele - 7lb 3oz

Go Team Triplets!

Babies everywhere!

Since the babies have come home, I've stopped measure time in days or weeks. Rather, I measure time on 'how long do I have until the next feeding'. We feed the babies every 3 hours and that makes up the majority of my day. But I do find time to sleep, eat, and take a few personal moments in between all of that. Mostly because I have my parents here to help and Jeff does a lot. I don't know how any triplet moms out there do this all on their own!

We took our first walk as a family the other day. I'm so happy the weather cooperated. The babies really enjoy the walks and stay calm and quiet the whole time. Actually, they seem to just like being in their carseats in general.


We've instituted 'play time' every night before the eight o'clock feeding. This is more a time where I get to interact with them for something other than just feeding or diaper changing. Plus, I hope that keeping them awake for that half hour helps them sleep longer during the night time. During play time, we let them all hang out on a blanket together and we let them kick, focus on objects, and do some 'tummy time.' I made sure I recorded all the weird noises they make. They make these noises all the time, but especially during awake time.



They've also started noticing and interacting with each other a little more. Here are Gordon and Adele plotting something! The funny thing is that if you look further back in the blog, you'll see an ultrasound photo of them in this same position -- heads together.

And Walter's favorite place to be is in someone's arms. Especially his daddy's!!
They change so much every few days, I can't wait to see what they are like next week!

Whew! Has it been over a week already?

I admit my days and nights are starting to blur a bit! I'm doing okay during the day for the most part, but the nights are hard. Luckily, I have the best possible crew to help me. Jeff stays up and helps with the 11pm and 2am feedings, then my mom gets up for the 5am and 8am feedings. She also takes care of any fussy babies from 6am to 8am so that I get a solid two hours of sleep. When I'm sitting in my rocker at 3am with a crying Walter or Adele (Gordon settles right down usually after a feeding), I remind myself I only have to make it through the 5am feed.

For those of you who wonder how it works, we do get the babies up to eat at certain times. They don't always want to eat right away, but they are used to being on a schedule from the NICU and it makes things easier on me because if I waited until they woke up, I'd be awake all night. Basically, one wakes, so we rouse the rest to eat also. I breastfeed two babies at every feeding, but they still tucker out easily, so we also supplement with a bottle for now. The third baby gets a full feeding off a bottle.

They are all gaining weight. As of Thursday, Gordon weighed 6lbs 15oz, Adele weighed 6lbs 6oz, and Walter weighed 5lbs 10(?)ozs.

We've done baths at home a few times now and the boys get really worked up during, but settle right down afterwards when they are wrapped in their snuggly towels. Here's Walter with my mom after a bath.
And here's Adele. Our friends Rob & Bridget bought us these cute animal hooded towels with their names monogrammed on the back.
Here's Gordon enjoying some time in the swing. We don't use it too often, but it is super nice when we need it!! Sometimes you have more fussy babies than you have arms and the swings are great for settling them down.
I finally started dressing the babies in something other than sleepers. I have so many cute newborn outfits people gave me that I'd love to see them in at least once before they outgrow them. This was the first day I managed to get them all dressed up and so we got photos of them together. I won't be able to do this for much longer because they'll all crawl away, I just know it.

A full house

Everybody is home and happy! Well, except for poor Dad who had to fly to Phoenix for a meeting. But he'll be home today.

The nights, of course, are exhausting, but I've been having exhausting nights since about week 18 of my pregnancy. But my days are a lot less tiring. Not having to drive to the hospital every day is so nice. I can't imagine how Jeff must feel! He was at that hospital almost every day for over 2 months.

Here's our last family photo as NICU patients.
Here's Walter, ready to leave the NICU
And here's Gordon. These two were released on Monday, Nov 1st at exactly 4 weeks of age.
Adele got to come home just a few days later, on Wednesday, Nov 4th. Here she is with our primary care nurse, Jeannie, and the lactation consultant who helped us all out a whole bunch, Belinda.
When I brought the boys home, the cats weren't sure what to think. Here's Earl, meeting Walter and Gordon on Monday the 1st.

Finally, the whole gang is back together last night, Nov 4th.