Howard Trio Plus One

Thursday, October 10, 2013

4 Months Old

Our trio is now 4 months old! Many people have asked me how long we will have to refer to their adjusted age and I have been told different things, but in general I think it takes about two years for preemies to catch up to their peers developmentally. So right now the babies are doing what most two month old babies do, plus a few things that older babies do as well.

They all do a great job with holding up their heads, although Jack seems to enjoy looking around so much that I think it's made him a little stronger than his sisters. In fact, I'm convinced Jack is ready to be a little boy instead of a baby so that he can explore and learn as he is continually looking around when eating his bottle, being burped, being carried, etc. He simply can't get enough of this exciting world and he's mostly only seen the inside of our house! He also loves to practice "standing" whenever we let him. Jack seems to have more smiles for his mommy than his daddy right now, but he will smile at anyone.

Jack is standing!


He's not strong enough for a bumbo chair, but this works pretty well as a seat (supervised of course!)

Alexis also loves to smile, but she definitely has more smiles for daddy than mommy. Faith doesn't seem to have picked a favorite yet as she smiles at mommy and daddy equally. It is surprisingly difficult to get pics of the babies smiling as they get distracted as soon as I hold up my phone or camera, so I only have a few pics of Faith smiling right now.

Jack (left), Alexis (top right), Faith (bottom right)

Jack and Alexis

Jack

Alexis

I've read that the smiles mean that babies now feel a whole bunch of emotions, which means each of our triplets has started expressing their unhappiness with situations as well. Our house has become increasingly more noisy as one crying baby starts off the whole choir! Even Jack who is quite laid back gets pretty upset about things these days.

Some changes in the last month are that the babies are now eating six to seven bottles a day instead of eight. This is great for me as it means less time is spent feeding and there are fewer bottles to wash. They are also starting to sleep longer at night, which is amazing. In general they eat their last bottles between 10:00 and 11:00, and then they wake up between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. But last night they actually slept until 5:30 a.m.! I get up a few times during the night to put pacifiers back in their mouths, but it still feels like a huge change in my sleep since they first came home.

Faith has now been home longer than her two month NICU stay! This might sound strange to new parents who get to bring their baby home with them when they leave the hospital, but I finally can say that I "feel" like Alexis, Jack, and Faith's mom. Since Jack and Alexis were in the NICU for six weeks and Faith for two months, and then we had family in town helping for awhile, it has taken time for me to really feel like their mom. I didn't feel like they knew me from a nurse, a grandma, a friend, etc, but now that I really have been spending most days alone with them as their sole caretaker, I feel like their mom. This is a great feeling and also a bit scary to realize how much they depend on me!

Their four months weights were:
Alexis: 9 lbs 9 oz
Jack: 10 lbs 1.5 oz
Faith: 9 lbs 7.5 oz

And they continue to gain weight every day! It is astounding to me that they are now outgrowing some of their three month clothes (especially Jack). I actually just bought some three month stuff at used clothing sales and those things might only get worn a couple of times before they outgrow them!

We are soooo thankful for everyone who has given us gifts, gift cards, and money. We are overwhelmed by the generosity that has been shown to us with the birth of the triplets. We received so many diapers from my baby shower and from others that we still have some left on our shelves, and we only had to buy a couple of packages of preemies and a couple of packages of newborns as we ran out. We also have hardly cooked since the babies were born thanks to our family, friends, and church. This has been huge as it's taken us a bit to adjust to life at home with three babies. THANK YOU!!!

Here are their 4 month pics...

JACK

ALEXIS

FAITH

Group Shots (Alexis, Jack, Faith)

Monday, October 7, 2013

Time Flies

It really is amazing to me how fast the past four months have flown by since the triplets were born. Micah went to Yosemite last fall for a climbing trip and since then he has been preparing for a return trip. We agreed that he could go on the climbing trip if I had friends and family at our house to help with the triplets, so before the babies were even born, plane tickets were purchased for friends and family to come help while he was gone. When the tickets were purchased we could not even imagine what life would be like with three babies at our house and part of me felt like the time would never come.

Well, now that time has come and gone! Micah had successful climbing trips in Zion and Yosemite with his friend Dave, despite the government shutdown and the national parks being closed when they were halfway through their 30 pitch ascent of The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite, and Katie, Melissa, and my parents have all come and gone. Thankfully, Alexis, Jack, and Faith are REALLY good babies so taking care of them is not overly exhausting and it was very possible for Micah to get away, especially since I had the help.

Micah between pitches on El Cap

Micah approaching the "Great Roof" on El Cap

I wrote about my time with Katie in my last post, and my time with Melissa was also great! Melissa is a high school friend who I haven't seen much over the years as we have lived in different parts of the country, but it is always fun to see each other and catch up. Since Melissa has two adorable boys, she has experience with babies and it was great to get her input. We are at a new stage now where I am not really feeding them on a schedule since they wake up at a different time each night and we are out and about, so it is harder to feed them exactly every three hours. The lack of schedule is freeing and also disorienting for me as I have to listen to and read the babies cues more, so having a friend around 24 hours a day with baby experience was a plus. Since Melissa has never been to NM we did a little exploring and even went to Santa Fe for the day! I was sad to see Melissa leave, but we are hoping to be more regular in seeing each other in the future.

Melissa with Faith, Alexis, and Jack

Walking around Santa Fe

Jack and me in Santa Fe. We had to buy hats for the babies as they get sunburned so easily! The hats are a bit big, but they'll be great next summer.

It was a lot of fun to have my parents here again as well. The changes in the babies were even more evident to them since they hadn't been to visit in a couple of months, and they really enjoyed how much more social the babies were this time. We were sad to see them leave as well, but my mom is hoping to come back within the next couple of months as she really can't stay away from her grand babies!

My parents with Jack, Alexis, and Faith

My mom with Alexis, Jack, and Faith

My dad with Faith, Jack, and Alexis

Our view of the Balloon Fiesta from a parking lot near the balloon park (this was baby friendly as they stayed in the warm car while we watched the first hour of the Mass Ascension)

Not only has time passed quickly since the babies were born, but I feel like I have changed a lot too. When I was pregnant I thought I would never feel "normal" again, and although I'm not exactly where I was before my pregnancy, I feel really, really good. I'm sure many women feel like their own bodies are foreign during and immediately after a pregnancy, but I gained a lot of weight with the triplets and I wasn't able to do any of my normal activities like running and climbing, so I temporarily felt like I had lost a part of myself and it is encouraging to me that some parts of the old me are coming back! A couple of weeks ago we drove two hours to a climbing area and met our friends Dan and Val and their two kids there. We took turns climbing and watching babies and kids, and it felt great to not only get out of ABQ, since I hadn't left since March, but to also climb outside again!

Faith at the climbing area

Alexis

Jack

Micah on baby duty

Climbing outside again!

When the babies were in the NICU it was hard to believe that they would some day grow up. But now that they have each more than tripled their weight and Jack is about to tip the scale to 10 pounds, I CAN believe that they will continue to grow. Jack and Alexis were both sleeping in Rock n Play Sleepers when we brought them home from the NICU, but within the last couple of weeks Jack started sleeping flat on his back in his crib and I'm sure Alexis and Faith will be doing so soon as well since her reflux is starting to get better (Faith is still in the wedge). It is so sad to put away all of their newborn size clothes, but it is also encouraging as it means everyone is growing and healthy.

Alexis

Faith

Jack practicing his head control during his bath

Faith looking at her mommy

Alexis looking at the pretty baby in the mirror

"Dancing" in the Pack n Play. We won't be able to put all three in here at once for much longer!

Holding my "big" babies!

Micah and the girls (Alexis is on his chest)

The girls in matching pj's (thanks Julie!). Faith left and Alexis right.

Jack might turn into a thumb sucker despite being given a pacifier

We have continued to get out and do things. The triplets have been to church a few times, REI (twice), Costco (twice), Flying Star (twice, and three times for Faith when I brought her to book club), Target, Trader Joe's, Sante Fe, Tomasita's in Santa Fe, and various friends houses. I'm sure they've been more places, but the point is that we are getting used to bringing them places which is not only a bit of work but also draws a lot of attention. Unfortunately, people will always be curious about our trio which means we will probably draw attention for years to come, but I suppose Micah and I will get used to it after awhile.

Sadly, I do feel like we need to start being more cautious about going anywhere with the babies as cold/flu/RSV season is here. Since the triplets were premature their lungs are not as strong as the lungs of full term babies, even though they are not on oxygen, therefore if they get sick it could be very serious and they could end up in the hospital. This is tough as we REALLY want to get out and do things during the winter, but we will just have to be extra careful and ask those who are around the babies to take extra precaution. We aren't sure what this will look like yet, but we might not have others hold them over the next several months if we go to social events just to limit the direct exposure to germs. It is an awkward situation and we want to live as normal as possible, but six months of awkwardness is worth it if it means the babies remain healthy during this first sick season.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Baby Steps

One thing we've found especially challenging about having premature babies is being patient. We had to be patient as they grew and learned to eat in the NICU, we had to be patient with every bottle feeding as you can't really force a baby to eat and it took them a long time to eat when they were small, and now we have to be patient as we wait for them to meet baby developmental milestones. In reality, each of the triplets is doing extremely well and in some ways I do believe they act like three months old, but we always have to remember to use their adjusted age (subtract two months from their actual age) when considering their development. Most people say that the baby months fly by so you must remember to enjoy them, but in many ways the baby stage has been prolonged since our triplets were born two months early so we are anxious to see changes.

They are all doing a great job at holding up their heads, but Jack has really taken off in this area. He absolutely LOVES to look around. He definitely gets bored if he is laying on his back or in his rock-n-play sleeper for too long, and he would much rather be supported in a standing position so he can see the world! This is fascinating to us since he is relatively small at about 9 lbs, but he is extremely strong. Jack's current obsession is watching the ceiling fan, whether it is moving or still he really can't look away! The girls also spend time looking at the fan, but so far they do not do it as much as Jack.

In the last few days the babies have all been smiling more, and I definitely believe Jack smiled right at me on purpose today! Sometimes they smile mid bottle or when they are falling asleep, but I picked Jack up and he was frowning, and then he looked me straight in the eyes and gave me this smirky smile! It was absolutely adorable and I cannot wait for this to happen all of the time!

One huge thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks is that the triplets are sleeping more at night! Micah was having a hard time waking them up for their 11:30 p.m. bottles, so we decided to change our feeding schedule a bit so that the last feeding of the day started at 10:00 p.m. So far this has worked great! The first night they slept until 3:45 a.m., but since they they have woken up anytime between 2:45 and 3:15. When one wakes up I get them all up for their bottles. I have also been feeding two at a time in middle of the night (I just leave them in their rock-n-play sleepers and hold the bottles), which means I can feed all three in just under an hour instead of a full hour and a half. After their bottle in middle of the night, they sleep until around 6:00 a.m., which means Micah can get a good amount of sleep and then wake up and feed them before he leaves for work. Although Jack never wants to sleep much after his 6:00 a.m. bottle, I wake up when Micah leaves for work around 7:30 so I am actually able to get a decent amount of sleep! This feels like a huge step and it gives us hope that sometime in the near future they will sleep even longer.

Micah has had a couple of climbing trips planned for this fall, so this weekend he went to Zion National Park. My friend Katie came to town to visit and help with the babies, which has been so much fun! Katie and I have been friends since first grade and we spent hours upon hours babysitting together in middle school, so it was fun to reminisce on our babysitting years as we took care of Alexis, Jack, and Faith together. It has been so great to have her here to help, and to keep me laughing as there really isn't much time for a break these days. We also made it a point to get out of the house with the triplets every day as I wanted practice loading them in the car and taking them out in public. On Wednesday we went out to breakfast at Flying Star, on Thursday we met Val and her kids at the aquarium, on Friday we went to Costco, and on Saturday we went on a long walk and did a couple of trips in the car to pick up take out. Everything went very smoothly! The most entertaining for us was definitely Costco as everyone stopped to look at the babies and comment on the fact that I had triplets. Unfortunately, we were so focused on getting places and making sure everyone was content that we forgot to take pictures.

Here are some recent pics of the trio: