development

10 Months…Going Bananas!!

The girls hit 10 months this past weekend! Time is passing so quickly to their first birthday; it’ll be here before we realize it and should probably start planning for their (our) party.

We are introducing more table foods to the girls now that we have the fancy triplet table. And it makes it so much easier to wrangle them in!

Everyone is picking food up really quickly and especially like bananas that they can squish and play with…not necessarily eat. They are much happier to have it shoveled into their mouths by Craig or I. They also really like pancakes!

At ten months old, 8.5 adjusted, we are really starting to see some of the big milestones appear. My personal favorite??

Bottle holding. I’ve been waiting MONTHS for this one.

Harper seems to really have it down, but can be lazy about holding it when the bottle is full or if you start to hold it then she “lets” you do it the whole time. Reagan is pretty good at it as well, and likes to swing it around and then correct it back to her mouth. Emerie is great at holding it when starving, but still easily distracted and expects you to pick up the slack!

Everyone is progressing at sitting up. We still use the boppies with all three to minimize the bumps and screaming. Overall, they are all pretty good at it and can turn onto their stomachs, reach for toys, and steal from each other.

Another one? Crawling. It. Is. Coming. My guess is Reagan is going to achieve this one first, followed by Emerie and then Harper. Why? Reagan is already rolling and trying to push herself around. She’s definitely figured out her pushups!

Emerie has the rolling back and forth down, but not quite there on the butt wiggle. Harper, on the other hand, thinks it’s fine to hang out and chill with her toys and not put in any physical activity unless forced to.

The swaddle. We took that battle on at New Years and I am happy to say everyone is out of it for both naps and nighttime! It took four nights and a lot of grumpiness from babies and parents, but we did it!

Harper shifting around in the crib

Harper and Reagan have really mastered self soothing…Emerie…not so much. The past few nights she starts in her crib for a few hours, and then ends up with us after a meltdown. Reagan and Harper are sleeping great overnight!

Reagan is now rolling in her crib ALOT!

Playtime is getting more interesting, not just because the girls can sit up, but because their leg muscles are nearly strong enough to play with things while standing. That is our current strength training, in preparation for crawling.

Reagan at the play table

Emerie loves her jumper

Harper having some piano time

Personalities continue to change:

Harper has a great love for animals already! She loves the pups and kittens, stops what she is doing when they go by and genuinely wants to play with them. She’s the talker still; lots of dadadada and random discussions to herself. She’s very stubborn and doesn’t want to roll or start crawling…she is a great sitter though and really good at taking photos in selfie mode!

Reagan, at the moment, is our music baby and best sleeper. Not only does she love the YouTube singalongs like Trolls, Frozen, and Disney princesses, she also has a new shoulder roll type dance. I haven’t captured it on video yet but it’s soooo cute. She is really close to pronouncing her “m’s” and has said Momma twice this week! I thought I imagined it at first but others heard it too! Yay!

Emerie now cheeses it up for the camera with a huge, teethy grin. It’s adorable and shows off her bottom two teeth. She is saying dadadada and screaming in quite a high tempo now. She fights naps the hardest of the three and hasn’t quite figured out self soothing yet. She still loves to snuggle the most of the three.

We are back to better sleep with all three, with the exception of Emerie in our bed the last few nights. It does make for some pretty cute photos though…

Right before the morning feed at 5:30

I’m excited to start planning their birthday and have their first Valentine’s Day before that. So much to do!

Baby play date

Who is the most…?

Sleepy Reagan unswaddled!

I saw this on Facebook earlier this fall and thought it would be fun. I started filling this post out a couple months ago and I can already see some of the answers have shifted around. As I alluded to in my last post, the girls seem to have flip flopped a little on several personality traits. For example, Harper is no longer our rock sleeper…thankfully Reagan has taken that on and now loves to stretch out and sleep in her crib, pacifier and all.

Random family photo from when I started this post originally. They are so tiny!

So here we go!

Who’s the most stubborn? Emerie when she’s mad, Harper when she’s tired and doesn’t want to be in her crib.

Who’s the most laid back? Harper for the first few months, now that teething has slowed down it’s Reagan.

Who has the worst temper? Emerie!!

Who’s more likely to share? All of them right now, but they also all steal each other toys.

Who eats the most? Reagan. She’ll eat 2 full bottles at bedtime, sometimes more!

  • Playtime
  • Reagan sitting at the new table
  • New table!
  • I love this photo of Emerie – so angry with Miles!

Who is the picky eater? For baby food, Reagan or Harper; both sometimes believe we are poisoning them. For bottles, lately Emerie has been the most fidgety.

Who can sleep the longest? Harper up until last month. Now it’s Reagan!

Who’s the loudest? It depends. Emerie has the highest pitched shriek, but Harper loves to randomly yell and exercise her voice.

Who is the shyest? Reagan

  • Reagan resisting a smile
  • Emerie loves her jumper
  • Harper post afternoon nap

Who has the attitude? All of them lol…although Emerie probably takes the cake on this one.

Who needs the most reassurance? Emerie in general, Reagan when going thru a developmental leap.

Harper helping Mom sort through new clothes

Who is the most dramatic? Emerie for sure. She’s already starting her terrible twos lol

Who’s the clingiest? Emerie is when she is fussy or at bedtime, Reagan when I first get home from work and she demands snuggles. Harper occasionally at bedtime but she’s getting better at self soothing.

Who’s the sneakiest? Emerie. I think she’s going to be the bandleader.

Who giggles the most? Right now all of them on different things. Reagan is the hardest to get to crack a smile, while Harper will give you a big grin pretty easily. Em loves to smile.

Who dislikes tummy time the most? Who likes it the best? Harper definitely dislikes it the most! She will lay there and scream. Emerie dislikes it too but will immediately roll out of it. Reagan is not a fan but will cooperate for a few minutes.

Who enjoys jumping the most? If I have to choose one baby, I think it would be Emerie. When she’s excited to be in the bouncer, she is jumping to the heavens and giggling.

Big girls sitting up!

Who rolls over the most? Lately Emerie rolls the most, but generally that is due to her hatred of tummy time. Otherwise it is Reagan!

Who is the best sitter? Reagan is our strongest kiddo and can sit up really well!

Who holds their bottle the best? No one is great at it yet, but everyone is progressing along nicely.

I plan to fill this out again later this summer and see how different it is once the girls are mobile and better at voicing their opinions.

Sleep Training

The past few weeks pushed us out of our normal routine. As the girls continue to grow, each personality shows up a little more and constantly in new ways.

What is notable now is that it seems as though the girls are flipping around on a few of their traits. How?

We used to sleep. A solid, beautiful six or seven hours each night with only a handful of jumps out of bed to calm one or re-binkie. This phase appears to be over, especially for Harper, our best sleeper up until December. Now it is Reagan who is happy in her crib for the night, and generally doesn’t fight us when she goes down to sleep. Her timid demeanor lets her settle down for bed and go to sleep, especially when she has her pacifier.

The girls have always been swaddled for naps and nighttime. While this doesn’t work for all babies, we were 3 for 3 since coming home from the hospital. As the girls continue to grow and find the world more interesting, so far we have been unsuccessful in figuring out how to “unswaddle” them.

That brings us to this week.

Because we had such good sleepers prior to the holiday season, we never saw a reason for the cry it out (CIO) sleep training method…until now. In an attempt to get everyone out of our room and back into their own crib, we decided to give it a shot and hit two birds with one stone, teaching them to settle themselves AND be unswaddled.

Night #1 – Epic Battle

The first night of sleep training really displayed how stubborn our little minions are. We started bedtime at six like usual, coaxed about six to eight ounces of breast milk down each kiddo over the course of an hour, following our usual routine. Then, instead of coddling them to relax and crib sleep, we put everyone down, gave them a binkie, turned off the light and walked out of the room.

How’d they like that? Emerie was fully prepared to fight to the death over sleeping in her crib. It’s been quite a while since she’s spent an entire night in it, much to the dismay of Craig’s normal sleep habits. So off she went, like a heat seeking missile of baby rage.

Emerie’s rage encouraged Harper…I mean I guess sisters should battle things together? So both raged. Reagan quietly laid in her bed, wide eyed, chewing on her binkie with wide eyes and probably wondering what in the world was up with her sisters’ rage.

10 minutes. By this time all are crying. You can definitely tell Harper and Emerie are throwing temper tantrums, while Reagan is a little overwhelmed at their shrieks and is crying in response to that.

So the cycle continues. 10 minutes. Go in and reassure and binkie, walk back out. Massive rage. 10 minutes. Check and reassure, them walk back out. Then 15 minutes. Still baby rage. At this point I caved and gave Reagan to my mom, because her crying was due to her sisters chaos, otherwise she would have been sound asleep already. The second 15 minute stint finally accomplished our goal of the girls caving in due to exhaustion, and off to sleep they went (unswaddled!!).

ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

Best night sleep for Craig and I in probably 2 months. I almost don’t even know how to handle a whole night’s sleep.

Night #2 – The Battle Continues

Harper and Reagan protesting a long morning nap.

similar to the first night, the girls quickly hit rage once set down in the cribs. It appears the days are over when they will hang out in their cribs while we get extra milk down one of them, as the screaming starts about the time you lean Harper and Emerie over the crib to set them down. Definitely a new and not so fun trend. The girls drifted off to sleep after the first 15 minute interval (10. 10. 15). It is encouraging it was a little better than the first night.

Night #3 – Progress…

Victory is not yet declared, but we are making progress. The girls hollered through two ten minutes and one fifteen minute interval, and then Harper finally caved and fell asleep, allowing Reagan to then settle. Emerie fell asleep in the second ten minutes and slept through all other fussing by her sisters. That is definitely a first! They fussed a little through the night but self soothed after a couple minutes!

Night #4 – Still working on it…

This night took a ten minute and fifteen minute interval. While you could certainly tell everyone was tired, they definitely fought it tooth and nail to stay awake. Emerie would NOT feed and was put to bed with only two ounces, far less than her normal, so it was no big surprise when she was hollering at 10:30. I checked on her and then let her cry it out, and after a full hour caved and gave her more of a bottle. Little stinker! We ended up with Harper in our room and me asleep on the nursery armchair with Emerie. So much for that sleep training. I think the girls won this night. Reagan, like a champ, slept through the night in her crib and even soothes herself a couple of times when Emerie squawked from the chair.

Night #5 – Tired Littles

Again Miss Emerie wasn’t a fan of dinner time, although we managed to get a bottle down her. Tonight’s cry it out only took about 15 minutes! We did an impromptu bouncer session part of the way through their feeding, which we never do, but they were SO hyper. That seemed to help them go down a bit faster after that, but only worked until Emerie completely lost her mind around midnight. Needless to say, we lost that battle and gave her to Grandma because she kept waking up Harper and Reagan.

Night #6 – Two steps forward, one step back!?

Harper and Reagan went down pretty quick after their feed. Craig and my mom fed them their bottles and settled them a bit before putting them in their cribs with binkies. They maybe fussed five minutes? I fed Emerie in a different room- she was clearly grumpy and not feeling great, but I managed to get six ounces down her before she fell asleep.

Unfortunately her quick cat nap made her stay awake until around 10, so she and I slept in the first room for the night. She is also either growing a cold or has a sore throat, because she is hoarse and it sounds so pitiful!

Sleep training lessons learned?

It’s not super fun to let your kiddos scream it out; however, it drastically improves their sleep and helps them learn to self soothe and remain calm (mostly) when another one is crying. While at first I questioned if we should subject Reagan to her sisters crying, ultimately it was better to have everyone go through it together.

In five days we successfully broke them of the swaddle habit we’ve stuck to since bringing them home from the NICU. Now they are napping with arms out in the swaddle blankets or sleeveless swaddlers and will reach around in their cribs looking for their pacifiers without our assistance!

They also look ADORABLE when sleeping with their arms out. I think Harper might end up being a tummy sleeper (as long as she doesn’t realize it is like tummy time haha). Reagan is now our best sleeper and Emerie is still a work in progress but does go to sleep eventually!

How I found Harper this morning, happy with her giraffe wubbanub

We are glad to have the swaddling issue solved. While I would have been okay with them staying swaddled until they are five…I figure that is probably not the best route to get them to sleep anymore (haha).

We are also back to no Grandmas staying in the house, so the girls outnumber us again. Now let’s just get through the rest of their first year without a bunch of sickness and at least one needs to sleep each night!Fingers crossed.

Last night with Grandma Anne!

Little Swimmers

New baby milestone, at 9.5 months old.

Since before they were even born, Craig wanted to take the girls swimming. He was a water baby (and still is?! Lol) so we figure at least one of the girls would adore the water.

We know from our NICU stay that Reagan very much likes it and bath time, even with her timidity; and Emerie and Harper have learned to like it more during bath times at home.

I may have purchased swimsuits last summer, anticipating at some point over the winter swimming would happen. The girls are growing like weeds and Harper and Reagan have to be in 12 month at this point, as the 9 months outfits I bought are a bit tight. Glad I bought two sizes! Otherwise they would never come off when wet!

The thought of trying to take 3 nine month olds swimming at a public pool is not my idea of a good time, and caused me some stress. Luckily, my beautiful friend Kathryn opened her house and indoor pool to us so we wouldn’t have to try the public one yet. We also enjoy our play dates to have a ton of kiddos, so why not go swimming with a twin set and triplet set under one years old and two preschoolers? Sounds like an acceptable challenge to me. Apparently we fear nothing!!

Harper REALLY enjoyed the water. She kicked and kicked and liked sitting in the floaty seat (that’s awesome by the way!). She even did some tummy time leaning forward in it without rage.

Emerie wasn’t entirely impressed at first, but liked it after a few minutes. She is destined to like water, she’s in an adorable mermaid suit! Once she was comfortable she loved it.

Reagan was initially appalled at the situation but after five minutes was splashing around with her sisters.

The end goal of swimming was to get the girls to sleep better, and maybe through the night like they used to but haven’t in the past month. Result? Better sleep than a lot of recent prior nights, but not yet back to our joyous 7 hours of sleep.

First swim was definitely a success! I look forward to more with the Wheeles group and with future bestie Paris!

A Big Year: 2018

2018 was a big year for our family. Expanding to a family of five, both continuing to work full time, an exciting 7.0 earthquake close to home, and the ups and downs that come with being new parents.

The key things I learned throughout this past year:

  1. The most important thing is family. I’ve always enjoyed having a job and a career, and definitely put that in the import category in my life, when really, it’s not nearly as important as your little ones and spending time with your family.
  2. Friendship: it changes when you have kids. Some friendships can handle the big life change while some can’t; and realistically, thats okay! Life is about growing and changing. Sometimes people will surprise you!
  3. Patience is a thing. I’ve never been a super patient person, but with kids you just have to suck it up and go with it. I’m working on it…should have it down by triple toddlerhood. You’ll also find me eating chocolate and drinking wine in the bathroom for that life phase.
  4. Teamwork is a necessity. The day to day is really hard. Working together on each task drastically improves EVERYTHING. It also makes one appreciate their spouse in ways they may not have noticed pre-babies.
  5. Enjoy the little things- that hot cup of coffee, brownies baked by a friend, a quiet morning sitting by the Christmas tree (even if it’s at 4am), baby giggles or snuggling a fussy baby to sleep.
  6. Embrace your community! For me, it’s not just the multiple moms that I have things in common with, but just moms in general. We are all in the thick of it together!

The girls learned a good amount of things this past year too! Their list is far more interesting than my life revelations, including how to:

  1. survive “outside” in the real world!
  2. eat out of their bottles and almost hold them. So close.
  3. sleep through the night…and un-sleep through the night this month. Working on that one…
  4. laugh, smile, growl, and happily enjoy the world around them.
  5. grab and play with toys while sitting up.
  6. And lastly, to continue to grow, change, and advance into 2019!

We finished off this year letting the babies test out some beef broth. Needless to say, they are not fans of it (yet) so we followed it up with the well liked mango. Enjoy and happy new year!