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:
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| Katie and Jack |
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| Katie with Alexis, Faith, and Jack |
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| Faith, Alexis, Jack |
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| some of the bottles drying |
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| Alexis and Faith |
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| Jack, Alexis, Faith |
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| Faith and Jack |
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| a partial day's supply of bottle |
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| Alexis |
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| Faith (top), Alexis, and Jack |
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| Val with Jack, Alexis (center), and Jack |
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| Jack's hair is growing in! |
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| Alexis, Faith, and Jack in 3 month clothes! |
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| Jack |
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| Faith (top) and Alexis |
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| Alexis, Faith, and Jack trying out some "new" toys |
