A Day in the Life

December was so busy with my birthday, Christmas, and our trip to Ouray, that I haven't posted other pics from the month so I wanted to share some of them now (in no particular order)...

Faith hanging out with her daddy

Alexis and Faith with Daddy

Faith - everything goes in the mouth

Alexis

Faith trying rice cereal

Alexis trying rice cereal

Jack's not very excited about rice cereal

It takes a village

Christmas outfits (left to right: Jack, Alexis, Faith)

Micah running with the triple stroller

Jack's new favorite sleeping position

on a walk near our house

Faith and Alexis in the stroller

post walk smiles

Alexis

Faith

Alexis is talented with her milk mustaches

Alexis

Playing

Alexis and Jack watching daddy organize his climbing gear

Jack gets so messy that one time Micah changed him before his bottle and brought him back to me like this! Definitely saves on laundry...too bad it's cold outside!

Alexis

Alexis trying out the Go Pod (folds up in a tube for traveling)

Faith

Jack

L to R: Faith, Jack, Alexis

7 Months

How old? 7 months

Our weights: 
Alexis: 12 lbs 14 oz (+1 lb from last month)
Jack: 13 lbs 8 oz (+1 lb 2 oz from last month)
Faith: 12 lbs 6.5 oz (+1 lb 2.5 oz from last month)

Although Jack's weight gain has been steady, the girls have had a little more trouble gaining weight (especially Faith). I feel like everyone has done great eating and gaining weight over the last month! 

Size clothes: The girls are still squeezing into some of their 3 month clothes but they do wear 6 months clothes as well.  Jack is wearing 6 month (and even a couple of 9 month things). All of their 6 month PJ's have become really snug but the 9 month ones are huge, so the girls are still squeezing in the smaller size for now.

Eating schedule: I'm trying really hard to keep a consistent schedule for the babies, although it is hard to force myself to get up in the morning if I've gotten up multiple times during the night for crying babies. Everyone is getting 5 bottles a day and we feed every 3 hours. The first bottle of the day is between 6:30 and 7:00, so if I actually start feeding at 6:30 a.m. they also get fed at 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, and 6:30 p.m. Over the last month the girls often were fed again around 10:00 p.m. to help them get in more calories. Jack has been getting almost 7 ounces (our bottles only hold 200 ml and 210 is 7 oz), Alexis has been getting 6 oz, and Faith 5 oz. A few days ago we bumped Faith up to 6 oz as she has started finishing 5 oz most of the time. They do not always drink the whole bottle, but they have been doing a lot better!

Naps: The babies get a nap after their first, second, and third bottles of the day, and they sometimes get a short "cat nap" between their fourth and fifth bottles if they did not nap well that day. Usually one baby gets off schedule from the other two as they don't all nap for the same amount of time, so the naps end up being at slightly different times (which means I always have a baby awake), but I strive to put them down for a nap about 1.5-2 hours after they wake up depending on how tired they seem. In total everyone gets between 3-4 hours of naps in each day. We are still trying to separate them as much as possible during nap times as they tend to sleep better when they're not in the same room, but this was a little more difficult when we had family in town and we were traveling.
Bedtime: We start feeding the 5th bottle between 6:30 and 7:00 and we put the babies in bed between 7:00 and 7:30. Over the last month we have continued to give the girls a bottle around 10:00 p.m. if they didn't eat enough during the day. Lately, though, they have been eating greater volumes during the day so we have not had to do this, and I believe it helps them sleep better at night as their sleep cycle isn't being interrupted to eat. 

Night Sleep:  Most nights we get up between 4-6 times to give the girls their pacifiers. Every once in awhile (about once a week probably) one of the girls seems to need a bottle in middle of the night as the pacifier, diaper change, and rocking is not enough. We are trying to be more consistent with our feeding schedule as I've read that helps babies sleep better at night (especially if there is a consistent wake up time every day). There have been a couple of nights that we have only had to get up once, and that felt amazing since it is hard to have our sleep interrupted so often, so we're hoping we have many more of those nights in the future! Recently we have been separating everyone at night again (Jack in our room, Lexi in the guest room, Faith in the nursery) so that they don't disturb each other at night. I think we need a bigger house so they can all have their own room consistently (and we have started looking, but who knows how long that search will take!).

Favorite foods:  On December 19 we tried feeding rice cereal to the babies for the first time, and no one was that excited about it. We haven't been giving them solids every single day as they haven't really caught on yet, but we've also tried pureed apples several times and pureed peaches a couple of times. I've heard a lot about "baby led weaning" recently so I plan to read up on that so that we can start giving the babes food off of our plates as they do seem interested when we're eating. Maybe that will go over better with them than rice cereal (which is disgusting by the way) and pureed stuff.

Our likes? Really no changes from last month. Singing is the best way to calm them down. They love to play in and with all of their toys (we got some great new things for Christmas!). They also enjoy stroller rides, which isn't new, but we have started to push them in the triple stroller while running and they do great! When they were so small we were worried it would jostle them too much, but now that they have great head control we aren't worried and they fall asleep pretty quickly.  One other thing they've started doing during the last few weeks is grabbing our faces, which is pretty funny and can be a bit disgusting if their hands are slobbery (which happens a lot with Jack as he is constantly sucking on his hands).

Our dislikes? Again, not any big changes from last month. They really are great babies, and they like most things!

Our favorite games/toys? They still like the same things as last month, and we have now determined that their favorite book is "Pajama Time" by Sandra Boynton. Every time we read it they get huge smiles and are totally entertained. In fact, Micah and I pretty much have it memorized so even if we just recite it to them they get really happy. Although I've heard mixed reviews on tickling, they do seem to enjoy a limited amount while getting changed. Their laughs are priceless, and they always get us laughing too! 
 
Our milestones? Alexis has gotten much stronger with her tummy time and no longer needs to use a Boppy. Jack has rolled over a few times from back to front. Faith has rolled over from back to front too many times to count! The only bad thing is that Faith has not figured out how to go from front to to back, so there have been a few times she has woken us up crying at night because she was stuck on her tummy. Alexis and Jack watch Faith roll all of the time, and I'm sure they will get it down soon too. 

Things we do to make Mom and Dad smile? Seriously they are just so cute all of the time that pretty much anything makes us smile (except for this annoying moaning noise that the girls make when they get tired or bored, but most of their noises are cute). 

Our Pictures:

FAITH

ALEXIS

JACK

ALL TOGETHER (L to R: Faith, Jack, Alexis)

First Family Vacation

A few months ago Micah came up with the idea that we should take the whole family to Ouray, Colorado between Christmas and New Year's for a little vacation. Ouray is known for the ice climbing and Micah wanted to meet up with his dad and a friend there, so he thought it would be a great time for us to do a trip since we would have six adults for three babies. I'll admit that I was very skeptical when we first talked about it as I knew it would be a ton of work to get the babies there (pack all of the clothes, bottles, food, diapers, gear, etc. and then stop along the way to feed bottles) and I thought Micah might be off climbing the whole time while I took care of the babies in the hotel room. But I have to say that it was actually a great trip as the guys only climbed half days so I was able to get out and have fun every day as well!

Jack, Faith, and Alexis with our friends Davis and Sarah

The whole fam outside our hotel room

The view from the balcony outside our room

 We left on Friday around 4:30 p.m. so that most of our driving would be when the babies were sleeping at night anyway. We fed them at home around 3:00, played for a bit while Micah loaded the car, and then we loaded them up. Everyone went to sleep quickly and didn't really wake up until we got to Bloomfield, NM around 7:00 and stopped at the Burger King. We unloaded the babies, I changed all of their diapers in the bathroom (conveniently there is no changing table in the men's bathroom there), and we fed them. We then ordered food for ourselves but ended up eating very quickly as there were suddenly a lot of kids at BK and the babies were becoming an attraction. The remainder of the drive went well as the babies slept the entire time, and we arrived in Ouray around 11:30 p.m.  Unfortunately, the babies did wake up when we got in our hotel room and it took us two hours to get the babies fed and put to bed in their pack n plays (we fed them to help them fall back asleep as they were all a bit hysterical from being woken up in middle of the night) and for us to unload everything we needed from the car. Micah and I finally made it to bed around 1:30 a.m. which is the latest we have stayed up in awhile!

Heating up bottles in the car. We actually have an outlet in our car that we had forgotten about on previous trips, so that came in handy for warming and we also use a thermos to keep water hot until we want to heat bottles.

Micah monitoring propped bottles in BK

Faith eating in the play area at BK

Our hotel suite was the perfect set-up for four adults and three babies (we stayed in a suite with Micah's parents while Davis and Sarah had their own hotel room). It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living area, and a small kitchen (not much smaller than the one at our house!). One of the bedrooms was much bigger so we were able to fit three pack n plays in it.

Play area in our hotel suite

Faith and Jack waiting for their bottles in the hotel (kitchen is behind them)

Finishing up bottles in the hotel room. I have Jack, Buzz has Alexis, and Karen has Faith.

Three pack n plays in our room. L to R: Lexis, Faith, and Jack.

Micah's parents arrived on Saturday and our friends were already there, so the guys spent the afternoon ice climbing while the girls strolled through town with the babies. That evening we went out to eat with the trio for the first time in months (I decided it wasn't going to work once they became more alert because they were more likely to miss a nap and have a meltdown), but it actually worked well as we had many arms to hold babies while we all ate.

Alexis

Faith with Grammy

Alexis

Jack the flirt

Alexis

Faith

Sunday the guys climbed early and in the afternoon Micah and I went to the Hot Springs, which we had never done before, while Micah's parents took care of the babies. It was very relaxing and I'm so glad we had time to do it! Sunday was Micah's dad's birthday so we attempted a fine(r) dining experience with only four adults and the three babies, which was a little more difficult but we still made it out of there without any major meltdowns (our friends had their own plans that night).

Monday the guys climbed in the morning again, but Micah's mom babysat for a couple of hours so that Sarah and I could drive to Telluride for the afternoon while the guys finished climbing. It was about an hour drive from Ouray to Telluride and we enjoyed an afternoon of browsing shops and enjoying the beautiful mountain views.

View of Mountain Village from the Gondola

Sarah and me (baby free for the afternoon)

On Tuesday (New Year's Eve) morning we fed the babies at 7:00 a.m., let them play while we loaded up the car, and we took off around 8:30 for home. Once again we stopped in Bloomfield, NM at the BK to feed bottles and grab a quick bite for ourselves. Overall it worked great, and there was only about 30 minutes of crying from Jack between Bloomfield and Albuquerque. Both ways the 5 1/2 hour drive took us about 6 1/2 hours. Not too bad with three babies to take care of!

Last pic before being loaded in the car for the drive home. L to R: Jack, Faith, Alexis.

I'm so glad we have a mirror so I can see the babies on long car rides

We got home around 3:00 p.m. and the babies were very glad to be able to get out of the car and play!

Tummy time after getting home from Ouray. Alexis is on the left and Faith on the right.

Jack doing tummy time.