11 Months

Sadly Alexis, Jack, and Faith have been fighting their first real cold for the past week. All winter we were very cautious about bringing them out in public and we were conscience about washing our hands before touching the babies and their things, and we tried to ask everyone who was in contact with them to do the same even though it felt awkward at times. Since the babes were preemies (31 weeks, 2 days) they qualified for the monthly RSV shot this past sick season and I am glad we decided to get it as it gave us additional peace of mind and helped keep the babies healthy even though the monthly shots were hard on everyone. I knew they would get sick sooner or later, especially as we let down our guard and because it's harder to protect them now that they are on the move, but it's still hard to watch them fight a sickness.

Although I am enjoying our now 11 month olds as they are so much fun to play with and to watch them explore their world and grow, I also feel sad that they are almost 1 year old! It's hard to explain but I think most moms probably feel this way. I wouldn't say I'm a baby lover as I get bored just cuddling babies and I'd rather make them laugh and teach them new things, but it's still hard watching MY babies become more like toddlers as there is no going back. I definitely found it difficult to appreciate the baby stage since we had a rough start in the NICU and we spent a lot of time worrying about their health, their weight gain, and their development, not to mention the hours spent bottle feeding three babies in the early months, but now that they seem to be growing up so quickly I'm feeling sentimental. Here are some pics from the early days...

Jack (a few days old)

Alexis (a few days old)

Faith (a few days old)

Alexis, Jack, and Faith together in the NICU

Alexis and Jack

Alexis and Faith

Faith and Jack

Faith, Jack, Alexis

First family photo on our anniversary when they were two months old, which was full term since their due date was a few days before our anniversary

Although it's not even been a year since they were born, I have a hard time remembering what they were like at this age. Although they are still not big babies by any means, they have grown so much and they act so much older now! It's amazing how much change a person goes through in the first year of their lives. This past month has brought many changes developmentally and new teeth! I was excited to see this progress since I didn't feel like much happened in their tenth month. Here is our 11 month update.

How old? 11 months (9 adjusted)

Our weights: 
Alexis: 16 lbs 2.5 oz (+ 8 oz from last month)  
Jack: 16 lbs (+ 4.5 oz from last month) 
Faith: 15 lbs 14 oz (+ 7.5 oz from last month)

Not the best weight gain, but since they are getting used to eating more solids and less formula, and battling colds and Jack is teething, it was a rough eating month.

Size clothes: For the most part everyone is wearing 9 month size clothes. Some 12 month clothes fit as well (it's crazy how different each brand sizes their clothes). All are wearing some 12 month PJ's although most of the 9 month still fit too. 

Eating schedule: We are still doing bottles around 7:00, 11:00, 3:00, and 7:00 and we are still feeding solids around 8:00, 12:00, and 6:00 (when Micah is home for dinner). We are still getting the girls up around 10:30 for a bottle (before we go to bed) so that they get in a few more ounces for the day. Although we have tried this with Jack a couple of times in the last month since he has not gained much weight and he needs to drink more, he still refuses to eat at this time. 

Naps: Naps are still going great for the most part, although recently Jack seems to take shorter naps than the girls (sometimes only 45 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon). For the most part, though, I get an hour by myself in the morning and afternoon.

Bedtime: Faith is still sleeping in the guest room and Alexis has been sleeping through the night more often now. Eventually we want to move the girls back into the same room, but for now it seems to be better to have them separated since Faith still wakes up. We are trying to help Faith sleep through the night as we have gotten back into the habit of giving her a bottle sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. as she wakes up crying and has trouble falling back asleep unless she's fed, but we've realized that she probably doesn't really need that extra bottle since it means she only drinks about an ounce at her 7:00 a.m. bottle. 

Favorite foods:  They still love the same foods as last month and they are getting better at eating thicker foods or things with lumps. I know they are ready to feed themselves more so that is something I plan to work on during the next month. Although ultimately they need to feed themselves, the transition will be hard as I'll need to be on the lookout for choking and it's much slower to have them feed themselves (although all three do a great job at getting food in their mouths when we give them puffs and yogurt melts). Everyone has also figured out how to drink from a sippy cup AND straw cup and they think it's a lot of fun. I still have to help them get the cups to their mouths some of the time, but they are figuring out how to do it themselves too which is exciting. Right now they don't get much from the cups and half of it dribbles out of their mouths so I'm just giving them water, but hopefully in the next couple of months they can transition to formula or milk in their cups so we can start eliminating bottles.

Food dislikes: All three seem to prefer mixed foods instead of foods on their own. Right now they will pretty much eat anything, and if they don't like it I just mix in a fruit puree or something I know they like and they will eat it.

Likes: Honestly I really believe they love hanging out with each other. When they wake up from naps and I bring them downstairs they usually get big smiles when they see one another, which is super cute. The girls especially like moving around the house together and giggling together (I wish I knew what they were babbling about!). A walk still does the trick if they are fussy. All three still love being tossed in the air by Daddy, hearing us make any sort of funny noises, getting tickled, musical toys, and people watching.

Dislikes: Getting cleaned up after meals and getting diapers changed are still on the top of their dislikes. They also don't like being in their car seats when we are at the store (especially Jack). And long car rides are not anyone's favorite as we found out a couple of weekends ago when we drove to Denver and back. I wish I could read to them more often, but Jack gets really upset when I turn the pages since he likes to hold the book so it just becomes frustrating for everyone.

Our milestones: 

Faith goes on all fours all of the time and she will do several hand and knee moves before reverting back to her army crawl (because it's so much faster for her). She is literally all over the place and our baby gates will be going up as soon as we get back from Michigan. Faith has attempted to get up the first step on our stairs several times with some success at getting her feet under her. And within the last week she has conquered getting into the sitting position on her own! She also loves to go from sitting to standing by just holding onto our fingers.

Lexi has started to army crawl as much as she rolls now, which is great progress. She's still working on getting from the seated position to her belly on her own, but she does it part of the time. She also manages to get all over the house, although she's not as quick as Faith she loves exploring. She also spends time getting on all fours and rocking, and she enjoys standing while holding our fingers.

Jack is definitely scooting everywhere now which is awesome. He loves to make his way over to the slider door and look out the window or just move around the family room to different toys. He is also working on getting from the seated position to his belly, and is making progress. Like Faith, he loves to go from sitting to standing by just holding our fingers and he would practice standing all day if we would let him. Jack also cut TWO new teeth in the past month! He got his bottom right tooth on April 22 and his top right tooth on May 3. He has been drooling like crazy due to the teething. Still no teeth for the girls!

Things we do to make Mom and Dad smile? Faith loves to crawl over our legs and use our legs to help her stand when we are sitting on the floor. We love watching all three explore their world by scooting around and playing with toys. They all love to get in each others personal space and it's quite funny to see Faith sitting on Alexis or Jack's laps and to see them all tangled up in each other. Like I said last month, pretty much everything they do makes us smile.



Our 11 Month Pictures

ALEXIS

Watching Faith play with Grammy during her photo shoot

JACK

Despite his cold and cough (and possible croup) he managed to be smiley for his photo shoot

FAITH

 

Not the best pic since it's blurry, but she's actually crawling on her hands and knees!

She was headed to Lexi. It's hard to sit and take photos when your sister is playing nearby!

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

It was much harder to get all three looking at the camera and smiling this time. They are so much more interested in other things (Mommy isn't that exciting anymore) and they are all battling colds.

Tomorrow we fly to Michigan! We are hoping that our two flights (ABQ to Minn and Minn to GR) go smoothly despite the colds and the 4:00 a.m. departure time from our house. We are thankful that Grammy (Micah's mom) is here to help us travel and that we will get to see both of our relatives while we are there. I am looking forward to a somewhat relaxing 18 day stay in MI with our babes while Micah spends a couple of weeks climbing in Yosemite! A much needed vacation for all of us.