SIX MONTHS OLD!!!

Pics: Baby helper, Brandi, on her "last day" (we know we will have her back often if possible) with all three. Daddy making bottles (though not a complete day's worth)late at night so we don't have to scramble in the morning. Kendall and Clark having a first try in the booster high chairs. Emma in her chair. Super-helper, Erica, with Clark.

We couldn't imagine what our lives would be like at this time last year. We knew the babies were on their way, though we had just found out that there were three. I think we were probably still in shock right about now. This week, I took the babies (along with Brandi, the helper) to see Dr. Harris (our fertility specialist). We lucked out that she was in between patients, so she was able to come to the lobby and chat a few minutes. She remembers that the last time she saw us our eyes were as big as saucers and we were completely shocked.
Yes, I think that describes it. Shocked. Excited too, but shocked was definitely the primary emotion as we instantly realized that we would need a new vehicle in order to transport this many people at one time. Three cribs. Three car seats. Lots more diapers and bottles. What had we done?!?!?!
And here we are. Our little miracle munchkins are 6 months old. We managed to get to 34 weeks before they arrived and with no serious complications (except "stupid gestational diabetes"). The 3 weeks in the NICU seemed like an eternity, but in actuality, it wasn't too bad compared to what others had experienced. The babies were small, but still bigger than we had anticipated (certainly bigger than I thought I could hold in there). And today, they are growing like weeds.
We had two more vaccines last week and the unofficial weights were:
Kendall 14.6 lbs
Emma 13.2 lbs
Clark 14.4 lbs
Not bad at all. They are still gaining about 1.5 lbs each month and that is good. They are eating well, though we are still just doing formula. We are venturing back into "rice cereal land" this weekend. Hopefully it will go well and they will just love eating off of a spoon (the real purpose to feeding them food at this point is to get used to texture, taste, eating from a spoon, etc...not really for any nutritional benefit just yet). They have new booster/high chairs to adapt to as well. It won't be as cuddly as being fed by all of the sweet people who come and help feed them, but it's all a part of growing up. Once we can master rice cereal for a few days, we will move on to the real stuff and I will try my hand at making baby food.
Kendall is talking a little more each day. She has come up with a few noises that are really funny (and one not-so-funny whiny noise). She is so strong and really loves to roll around and look at things. We are trying to figure out a new seat for her as it looks like she's decided to try to escape from the bouncy seat. She remains a power-napper with very short naps throughout the day, rather than a nice long one. But she is sleeping well at night now that we have started swaddling her again.
Emma is rolly-polly (spelling?). She makes it very difficult to change her outfits or diapers because she wants to roll all over the changing table. She is MUCH better at hanging out on her own in an exersaucer (preferred location in front of the door so she can look outside) or a bouncy seat. She is a CRAZY kicker. It is a riot. She gets so worked up during a Baby Einstein video and almost kicks right out of her seat. She squeals and chatters quite a bit and loves to give you a big smile.
Clark finally found his feet this week also. He is a talker now and just loves to bounce in his jumpy seat. We are able to get him giggling quite easily and he always shares his big huge smile with everyone. He seems to be getting longer these days, as he keeps outgrowing his footie pajamas. He is still a big kicker also and loves to laugh at the babies in the Einstein videos.

We are so thankful to all of you who have helped us reach this important milestone in their lives. We are halfway through one of the toughest, but most amazing, years of our lives. We know that there are many more fun things and big changes, as well as challenging times to come in the next six months, but we look forward to celebrating their first birthday in January . We thank you for continuing to be so supportive through your love and prayers and help.

Getting out and about

Pics: Babies at a going away get-together for the Odeneal family. Aunt Karen and Kendall getting ready for a day out on the town. Miss Helen and Emma. Clark recovering from our venture to the farmer's market.

Well, I've managed to get out with the babies at least once each day for the last five days. It is such a chore to get out with them because I'm just not used to it. Those who know me well know that I always come with baggage...and I mean the bags with stuff. I've always got a tote bag with a planner, magazines, books, bills to pay, etc....just in case. I never know when I will want to work on any of that and feel the need to have it all with me. Well, as you can imagine, this habit has spilled over into my baby stuff. I NEVER know what I need, so I probably always have too much. I think I need extra clothes, diapers, wipes, pacifiers, toys, pee pee pads, bottles, etc. I've tried to learn things from shows about families with multiples. Unfortunately, I love to watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 and they have a lot of stuff.....because there are EIGHT kids. But I think that she has great ideas and I try to apply those to our situation. I think that the more I get out with the babies, the more I will learn what I need and don't need. I have already managed to try to only have a very small diaper bag with us when we are out. I may HAVE a larger bag or pile of stuff in the van, but I only carry the small bag with a few diapers, wipes, an extra pacifer, burp cloth and Purell (of course).

So, the babies have been to Babies R Us, Sam's, a going away party for a friend/family, a former workplace and a farmer's market. I'm pretty impressed with myself for braving it every day. I'm even more exhausted than usual because it takes a lot of energy to get them all diapered and dressed (in something other than a onesie - we are making an appearance, you know), loading up the bags and the babies and then getting in and out of our destination. We have learned in the last 5 days, that Emma requires that the van be in constant motion. She is fine in the car as long as it is moving. I had to circle Babies R Us the other day (a different trip when they did NOT go inside) about 20 times while Daddy handled a return.

Saturday evening was a going away gathering for friends who are moving to Wisconsin. I don't know much about that area, except that it will be cold in the winter and, for some reason, I think they have cheese there. We are happy for the family and wish them well. We've posted a picture of the children that were all gathered at their house that evening. While ours couldn't really do too much socializing, the other children seemed to have a great time together. We are thankful that we were able to see them before they head out of town. Good luck and best wishes to Josh, Angela, Glory, Joy, Grace, Joshua, Gideon and baby #6!

Yesterday, we went to Scripps Networks to see former co-workers. The babies did relatively well. They are VERY used to being held by people they have never seen before, but it usually happens in their own home. It seems that they were a little shell-shocked being passed around, but I think they did pretty good. Emma did voice her concerns after about 15 minutes (or so). At first, she was just giving them a sample of her singing voice and demonstrating her happy squeal. But it did turn into her expressing her need to leave the building...immediately. We drew a lot of looks as we were in our crazy freakshow stroller, but it was much easier than any of the alternatives. Unfortunately, I was a dummy and forgot the camera, so I didn't get any pics of the visit. Maybe next time. Oh, and have you ever seen someone with a triplet stroller trying to fit into an elevator???? That was certainly something to see. We were sort of hoping that someone from HGTV or the Food Network would see us and offer us a multi-million dollar deal for a series on decorating or feeding triplets....but no such luck. Don't they need more shows about multiples?????

Today was a trip to the farmer's market on Kingston Pk near Cherokee Trail. It wasn't a big area, but it was pretty nice - albeit it VERY hot. Initially, we loaded up all three car seats in the freakshow stroller, though we were missing Kendall at the time (she was out running around with Aunt Karen and would be meeting up with us). THAT was an attention grabber too as many people had to comment that we were missing a baby....until I put the watermelon that I purchased in her seat. THEN they were really bumfuzzled. I had a watermelon baby. :) Once Kendall arrived, we had to move the watermelon underneath. All of them did well and looked really cute, but Emma did express her discontent again and had to be carried for a few minutes before we left.

I'm trying to enjoy getting out with them before we hit flu and RSV season again and I'm shut in the house. I have to say that I'm really dreading that because I already feel a little "stuck" at home all day every day. Our prior outings have resulted in huge meltdowns so I became more worried about those than I was about getting out and quit going anywhere with all three. I've decided that all of us just need to get used to going out and we will all get better at it and learn to enjoy it more. So, I'll keep working on it....and look for us because you never know where we will end up. :)

Hello from Bristol

Well, Troy and I are on our "weekend away" and will be headed back tomorrow morning. In some ways it is too soon as I'm just beginning to decompress. In other ways, I am ready to get back to hugging my munchkins. We are so fortunate to have "Team Triplets" (aka Aunt Tam, Lola, Beth and Kelly) at our house taking great care of them. Aunt Tam was nice enough to send us some pics from yesterday and I'm posting some of them tonight.
Kendall is still the smiley one although not so talkative. She also remains the one who doesn't want to nap all day and would prefer to spend most of her time being held by anyone who will do so.
Emma is just a hoot with her gigantic squeal. She is SO loud and it is SO cute. She likes to babble. She seems to be sleeping the best these days but that is probably because she is the only one who still gets swaddled.
Clark seems to have found his voice and has become quite talkative. He is a PRO at the jumpy seat thing. He also loves to kick it in front of the TV whenever he is allowed.
I just got back from a movie near our hotel (I went to see Mamma Mia and Troy went to the Dark Knight). He will still be gone for another 45 min or so and I figured this was the best time to catch up on the blog. We have had a nice time visiting Bristol, Abingdon and Damascus. It has been nice to sleep without listening to a baby monitor with three not-so-quiet sleeping babies. There always seems to be someone grumbling or cooing or getting comfortable. It can be quite entertaining, but also isn't so good for Mommy, the light-sleeper. Anyway, we will be back at it tomorrow around lunch. Hope you enjoy the pics as much as we did.

Brief Update

Pics: Trying to pose the three together for a picture is a challenge - the Louis babies kickin' it. Kendall with her bum in the air.

Sorry, but we just haven't taken too many pictures lately. We'll work on that. The group photo was an effort, but I thought this was one of the cute ones, though not well-posed.

The new "routine" is going OK. We are back to feeding the babies every 3 hours in order to get them to sleep better at night. Once we can get 10 hours or so out of them, we can move back to a 4 hour schedule. We are also just about ready to start cereal,etc. The dr had asked us to wait another month and we are just about there. And we are both hopeful that it will help to get the munchkins to sleep a little longer.

The 3 hour schedule is really hard after living on a 4 hour schedule for so long. I don't feel that they are napping consistently and it seems like I'm always getting ready to feed them now, but this is just temporary. And I don't know that they are really eating more with the addition of another feeding. We had to adjust the amts in the bottles because there were many times that they never seemed to be interested in eating throughout the day. Aside from all of that, the schedule does seem to be working as they are sort of sleeping about 7 hours per night with very few incidences of waking up.

Kendall and Clark are still getting used to the sleep sacks instead of being swaddled. It allows them to move around more so they seem to wake themselves up. As does bashing their heads on the rails of the cribs. We have bumpers but have been told by many that we shouldn't use them because it's dangerous. We are sort of on the fence, but haven't put them in the cribs again. The picture of Kendall is from the other day when she managed to end up with her bum in the air because she is always rolling onto her tummy. Sort of nerve-wracking for us, but we are told that they should be able to roll themselves back over so that they can breathe just fine. It's still hard to be sure that its safe, but you just have to have faith that it will be OK.

Gotta get to bed while they are asleep. I'll work on more pics for the next posting.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Louis!

Pics: Birthday boy, Grandpa Louis and Auntie Laverne (visiting from California). Grandpa with the first two grandchildren, David and Marshall. The Louis family - Uncle Albert, Daddy Troy, Grandpa, Uncle Stevie, Aunt Marsha, David and Marshall. Grandpa and Kendall. Grandpa and Emma.


No time to write as I should be in bed as it is. We are working on a new schedule/routine for the babies in an effort to get them to sleep better at night. I'll be back soon to update everyone.
We just wanted to wish Grandpa a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And say thanks to Auntie Laverne for being in town for the big event and for her help with the babies over the weekend.

P.S. Emma found her feet on the Fourth! She has a new favorite "toy" now as she sits everywhere holding her feet. What fun!

Sunny Yesterday in the Baby Cabana

Pics: Kendall with Papa (Jim, our sitter's dad). Emma with Papa. Babies in the "baby cabana" in the backyard yesterday. Clark chillin' in the exersaucer. Emma's belly button.

I have wanted to get outside more and finally was able to get the baby cabana up in the backyard yesterday while Brandi was here with me. I don't know how long we ended up hanging out, but I think I spent more time setting it up. But it was nice and breezy and I think the babies really liked the change of scenery. At first they looked a little shell-shocked, but then seemed to really enjoy looking around and listening to new sounds and I'm sure there were new scents for them also.
We are still struggling with the nighttime routine in an effort to get them to sleep better/longer. Of course, with Emma's teething situation, it is unclear how long we can get her to sleep - which means that the others wake up too. But we'll see. Both of us are ready to add the rice cereal meal so that the babies will sleep better - this is what we keep hearing anyway. The dr asked us to wait anther month (from the appt), so late July...unless we crack before then and just HAVE to try the cereal.
I'm busy trying to learn about making baby food and what is involved in feeding the babies just to be sure that we know what we are doing. We decided that making baby food was the best option in order to be able to afford to feed them all. :) Seriously though, it just means that we will really KNOW what they are eating. And it should definitely be MUCH cheaper than buying baby food in the stores. If anyone has any suggestions about what worked for their kids, please feel free to share it with me.
I need to go feed Clark, so no time for updates. Just know that they are all doing well.
Have a Happy (long-weekend) Fourth of July!!!