Weekends are long.

I don’t just mean weekends with a holiday like this past one, but in general.

I love my babies, watching them grow, snuggling, and being a mom…but MAN. Weekends can be HARD.

The girls are still battling the stuffy noses and colds. It seemed to be improving and Monday night we couldn’t remotely convince Reagan to go to sleep on her back in her crib, so another night of fussiness in our room. Luckily Harper and Emerie slept decently in the nursery. Last night we convinced everyone to sleep in their cribs, but bedtime took about 2 hours!

While the weekend was long, with several coordinated car nap times and some wonderful extra hands visiting, the girls are continuing to grow and advance and it’s fun to see.

Each day we practice sitting up, eating baby food and hand eye coordination while playing with toys. We are just around the corner from them independently sitting up and playing, as they are getting pretty good at it (with mild help).

Post work playtime

They now grab nearby toys, even when dropped, which is quite the improvement. They grab at their bottles and open their mouths when we hold them up. Emerie has mastered spoon feeding and is very demanding, while Harper and Reagan now tolerate it pretty well. I’m pretty sure they know the word “jump” and when we say it to them in their jumpers…

One new baby fact we did learn this weekend…baby teeth can RECEDE.  Emerie’s tooth dot went from…well…a dot, to NOTHING.  She apparently scared it back into her gum line.  How is that even possible?!  She’s still as droolly and cranky as the norm the past month, but now with less of a tooth than last week.  We can’t even believe it…

Miss Emerie now tries to grab everything off the table.

Harper, as happy as ever (thankfully!), had her first legitimate face bonk, straight into Craig’s glasses.  She was not thrilled, nor was Craig, and now has a nice pink dot in the middle of her forehead.  They are definitely getting stronger and can now apparently use their heads as weapons? Wonderful.

Happy Miss Harper

Reagan, who still has no visible teeth or a bump on her forehead, is very over having a cold, but still learning new things everyday. She believes anything you are holding should be hers to chew on, and is very interested in everything.

Even with a scratched eye, Miss Reagan is so cute!

We are excited for the holidays to get here and have our first Thanksgiving with them. I am also excited for some Black Friday baby deals!! Holidays here we come! So many things to do for their first holiday season.

The past week has been full of new “firsts”.  It was our first daylight savings time as parents, as their birthday was not long after the last one.  Reagan is now jumping in the jumper after six weeks of using it as only a place to stand, play with toys, or holler that she wants out.  I think my timid girl is getting a little braver.

She is so very cute getting comfortable in it.  I could absolutely sit and watch the three of them jump all day, if they’d let me.  We have moments where they remain entertained for 30+ minutes in them, as long as Craig or I are in view or close by.

Everybody JUMP, JUMP!

To add onto the little milestones, Harper rolled for the first time this week at Double Cuddles (mom group)!  She sneak attacked me and I wasn’t quite ready for it; she’s been rolling from her back onto her side for a while now, especially when trying to see something beside or behind her, but never fully commits to her stomach or from back to front.  She looked mildly shocked afterwards.

Craig participating in tummy time

A cold has hit the Douglas household… making it 7.5 months before one invaded the house is pretty good if you ask me.  I somehow managed to keep my July cold from the girls, with extensive hand washing and not breathing their general direction, but this one originated with Reagan and ended up catching all three- not sure from where. Nothing like starting out the first week of winter with a cold x3.

The first two nights were brutal. The first night we awoke to a massive scream fest from Harper and Emerie about ten minutes after Craig and I went to bed. Apparently being gunky and congested is reason enough to not sleep in their cribs (or flat on their backs). Thank goodness we still have the rock and plays, as they at least allowed everyone some sleep for the weekend.  Craig has Emerie next to him in our room and I had Harper next to me.  Reagan, on the other hand, slept fine in her crib, amidst all the stuffiness.

My happy Harper

It is funny how the different personalities come out in random things- like the snot sucker. Emerie and Harper don’t seem to mind it (we make sounds and chat with them while we do it), but Reagan just plain cries every time no matter how “fun” we try to make it.  I mean who can really blame her, I don’t like people sucking stuff out of my nose either, but it definitely helps them breathe!

Shifting around on the floor!

We’ve edited the bedtime routine this week to accommodate bathroom sauna time; i.e. running the water on HOT and letting the room steam up right before the nighttime feeding. Everyone gets to hang out in bouncer chairs and mostly enjoys it.  So far it seems to be helping.

Sauna time while Harper had bath time.

We have a few days left in the current developmental leap. The girls have greatly advanced with their toys and teethers and learned new observation skills. I have seen all three grabbing their pacifiers on the floor next to them, or chewing a teether, setting it down, and picking it back up to chew some more.  The other day Emerie was briefly sitting in the living room recliner chair and I watched her turn her head, scan the end table next to her, grab the TV remote and throw it on the floor.  Much more of that is coming!  Who knew her little arms could reach that already!

Reagan thinks silicone rings are a teething hit!

A quick weight update while I’m writing this. At Double Cuddles the girls were weighed:

• Harper: 16 lb. 8.6 oz.
• Emerie: 15 lb. 4 oz.
• Reagan: 16 lb. 11.6 oz.

Tuesday was In & Out Day for me- in other words, the girls cooked for 33 weeks in my belly, and they’ve now been out in the real world for 33 weeks as well.

I can’t decide which is actually harder, carrying them and everything that goes with that, OR being so insanely busy each and every moment of the day as they grow and advance out in the world.  I lean toward it being easier post partum, but that is simply because I was so much sicker and immobile while they were growing before their birth!

I will leave you with this adorable video. I could watch it all day!

We took Emerie to her first solo doctor appointment in early October. First off, I want to note it was a whole different ballgame to have two parents and only one baby at an appointment, and no shots! It was eerily calm and quiet and far less stressful than normal.

Anyway, at the six month checkup for the girls, we asked the doctor about two lumps on Emerie, one on her back and one under her armpit. They don’t bother her when I poke and prod, but they are definitely worth checking out, especially due to my medical history. I think my heart briefly dove into my throat as the doctor was examining her, because, of course, your mind always jumps to the worst conclusions possible, and it’s definitely a different fear when it is your kid as opposed to yourself. The pediatrician didn’t seem to think it was something big (or bad), but likely a vascular issue that we would just monitor going forward.

Emerie was so well behaved during the ultrasound and didn’t fuss at all (the ride home was a different story!). The tech was wonderful and mildly shocked when we told her Emerie was one of three.

It took several days before we received the ultrasound results, with our pediatrician suggesting we go to a pediatric dermatologist.

Later in the month we went to the dermatologist, after receiving the ultrasound results that state there isn’t likely reason for concern, but better to be safe for sure! The dermatologist looked at Emerie’s back and arm and proceeded to tell us the spots are another form of hemangioma, like the one on her head and Harper’s back, and that it was likely there since birth but only visible after some time as it rose closer to the surface of her skin.

One funny thing, the doctor noted that it is more common for babies to have hemangiomas if they are girls, part of a multiple set, AND identical…so we hit the “trifecta” (haha) on that. We will have to wait and see if anything pops up on Reagan, and Harper already has her one on her lower back.

Prayers definitely answered that things are not concerning. We will keep monitoring the spots and likely go back for a checkup at a year of age. The hemangiomas will continue to grow until then, and afterwards should start shrinking back down until they are gone. This includes the one on her forehead…which means at some point people won’t be able to use that to determine who is who!