Howard Trio Plus One: 10 Months

As far as milestones go, I don't feel like I have much new to report this month which is slightly disappointing as I really thought all three would be scooting around and everyone would have at least one tooth. I know every baby develops at their own pace (blah, blah, blah...I feel like I get this talk all of the time) but the main thing that helps me not to worry is knowing that Micah didn't walk or get his first tooth until he was 15 months old (and he was full term!). Considering that he has a PhD and he is a great athlete, I don't believe that taking a few extra months to reach milestones is an indicator of future success. On the other hand, I got my first tooth around 4 months and walked at 10 months so I guess I was just hoping our trio would take after me in their development, but now that Faith is getting fast with her scooting I realize that it will be nuts when all three are crawling so I better just enjoy this stage while it lasts!

How old? 10 months (8 adjusted)

Our weights:
Alexis: 15 lbs 9.5 oz (+ 1 lb 4 oz from last month)
Jack: 15 lbs 11.5 oz (+ 10.5 oz from last month)
Faith: 15 lbs 6.5 oz (+ 1 lb 1 oz from last month)

Size clothes: For the most part everyone is wearing 9 month size clothes. Jack has started to wear some 12 month PJ's.

Eating schedule: We are still doing bottles around 7:00, 11:00, 3:00, and 7:00. We are now feeding solids around 8:00, 12:00, and 6:00. Breakfast and lunch are pretty much right after their bottles and dinner is later as I like to wait until Micah is home from work so he can feed the purees while I make our dinner, and then the babes can munch on teething wafers or their mesh feeders while we eat our dinner. It has been fun to eat family meals together! Everyone has cut back their formula volumes during the day since we have been doing more solids, so we have been getting the girls up around 10:30 (before we go to bed) so that they get in a few more ounces for the day. We would wake Jack up too, but he refuses to eat at this time of the night! Although this feels like a step backwards since it is an extra bottle, Micah and I both feel like it's worth it as the girls seem to sleep better when they get more calories and of course we want them to continue to gain weight.

Naps: Naps are still going great! The morning nap is about 1-1.5 hours and the afternoon nap about 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes the morning nap is cut short if we are going out somewhere or if I want the afternoon nap to be especially long, but that doesn't really have an impact on their moods during the day. I am so thankful for great nappers and I hope they continue to nap well for the next few years!

Bedtime: Bedtime is still going great. We have started to put Faith in the guest room at night as the girls were waking each other up and we would end up with a hysterical baby in the middle of the night. Separating them has helped us all sleep better, and eventually we will move Faith back into her crib. Jack still sleeps through the night, although the other night he was pretty upset around midnight but I think that may have been teething pain.

Favorite foods: Definitely Sweet Potato and Chicken puree....they can't get enough! They also love a Banana, Zucchini, and Amaranth puree that I had bought online (I had a ton so it's a good thing they loved it, but now it's gone!). I have made some of my own baby food (sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, black beans, and rice) and I've mashed banana and avocado, but I've been mixing this into store bought baby food as they seem to enjoy purees with multiple ingredients more. The store bought purees also tend to be thinner so mixing something I made with that gets it to a good consistency. They really like yogurt which we do most mornings for breakfast. They love banana and avocado in their mesh feeders, but they don't like it as much mashed because I can't get it very thin when I hand mash it. They still love teething wafers and we've recently introduced yogurt melts and puffs which they all enjoy eating.

Food dislikes: Any plain green vegetable (green beans, peas, etc). Anything with lumps or that is thick.

Likes: Being tossed in the air by Daddy, funny noises, watching people dance or jump, getting tickled, musical toys, watching each other play, touching each other (and everyone is getting more tolerant of this as well). When everyone starts getting fussy, a walk is always a great thing! They also seem to enjoy going to stores as they all love to people watch.

Dislikes: Getting faces cleaned after eating and getting diapers changed (everyone wants to roll away now).

Our milestones: All three sit great now. Although they occasionally fall backwards, we no longer put pillows behind them as most of the time they are fine and they can safely get out of a sitting position when they want to.

Faith goes on all fours all of the time and sometimes she'll move a hand or leg, but when she really wants to get somewhere fast she resorts to her army crawl (which is really just her left arm and right leg doing all of the work). It is almost time to put up the baby gate as Faith has ventured into the living room many times to check out the cat scratcher and the living room is not going to be baby proof. Faith also crawls into the kitchen now to look out the slider door or check other stuff out.

Lexi still resorts to rolling to get places, but it is a very intentional roll as she sees a toy she wants or somewhere she wants to go and she just starts rolling there! I don't think she's anxious to crawl since her rolling works out so well.

Jack might be doing a tiny bit of scooting (I never actually see it but somehow he seems to move around a little), but mostly he just pivots around and he does seem to get upset that he's stuck while the girls move around him. He still loves to stand and is pretty strong, but I'm trying not to encourage it too much right now as I know it is important for his development to learn to crawl first.

Things we do to make Mom and Dad smile? We love when they interact with each other and giggle with each other. It's fun to hear them say words like mamamama, dadadada, and recently Jack has started saying something that sounds like gooey, gooey, gooey. The other day Faith figured out how to get the lid off of the Cetaphil lotion tub and she got it all over the place, including in her mouth. Although we had a mess to clean up, I loved seeing her get into "trouble" like that as it means she is a smart, healthy baby. I really worried about all of them while they were in the NICU, and especially Faith since she was there for an extra 2.5 weeks, but stuff like this is proof that they are doing great. Pretty much everything they do makes us smile.

Our Pictures

ALEXIS

JACK

The rash on his face is from the teething drool. Poor little guy!

There's his one and only tooth!

FAITH

We couldn't get her to stay in one place as she kept crawling to us!

All fours! Smiling at Daddy :).

Crawling to Daddy during her photo shoot

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

Jack is a thumb sucker

The only one where they are all looking at the camera. This is getting harder as they get more mobile and interested in their surroundings (and each other).