development

Half Birthday Already?!

I can hardly believe six months have passed as of Thursday afternoon! The saying the days are long but the years are short really is true and I am starting to better understand that meaning.

Six months!!

We are starting a more exciting phase of development, with little personalities continuing to bloom and new traits and skills appearing.  This is the “age of the jumper” and with that comes the ability to start moving more.

Everyone is so observant now. I think their love of the bedroom fan is replaced with their love of the front yard tree. It’s bright and yellow and they stare at it constantly.

Snacking on their photo props…

Harper

Weight:  14 pounds, 12 oz. (23%) & 26″ (53%)

How gorgeous is this quilt made by my Mom?!

Favorite Baby Food: Harper tolerates baby food when she’s in the mood for it and is starting to understand how the spoon works to get her food. Like her sisters, she enjoys carrots and really likes sweet potatoes.

The sit me up chairs are awesome

Likes: She really likes the jumper! She has a different rhythm than Emerie does, and pushes up with one foot at a time, back and forth.  She almost looks like she is dancing and then she giggles and smiles at you at the same time.

Harper loves the jumper and has rhythm!

Dislikes: Harper is our “chillest” baby. Before she cries about something she will let us know in her stern voice she is not happy. She doesn’t really dislike anything other than being stuck in the middle between her sisters. Apparently she had enough of that in the womb, because she was in the middle!

Development/Traits: Her hands exist and almost her feet. This week she discovered she can watch the dogs as they rough house and she thought it was hysterical- full on giggles. Harper is pretty good at grasping things held in front of her and putting them in her mouth, so we’ve taken to handing her things so she continues to improve.

Emerie

Weight: 13 pounds, 4 oz. (5%) & 24″ (9%)

Emerie on Grandma Anne’s quilt

Favorite Baby Food: She likes everything, but really likes carrots. She’s mastered the spoon before her sisters and will open her mouth so you can shovel food in there. If you are too slow she let’s you know she’s waiting!

Likes: Emerie LOVES the jumper.  When I say love, I really mean love. When placed in the jumper, she will go for 30 minutes and bounce and bounce up and down using both feet, all the while smiling and chatting and giggling.  It is adorable.

Emerie’s happy place

Dislikes: No change on this one; she still like to be cuddled and demands bedtime snuggles.

Development/Traits: She has figured out her hands exist, but not quite her feet. She is starting to hold onto her bottle and not just knock it over (hallelujah!). This week she also discovered she can watch the dogs as they roam the house and that seems interesting.

What!?

Reagan

Weight: 14 pounds, 12 oz. (23%) & 25.75″ (42%)

Reagan chilling on her quilt.

Favorite Baby Food: She is not a big fan of baby food yet…but we are working on it. She tolerated pears and sweet potatoes, and carrots so far seem to be her favorite when she decides she wants to eat.

Likes: She really likes her toys, especially her corn teether and owl and anything that sounds like tissue paper. She also likes to look at the pictures on the fridge.

Don’t worry she isn’t crawling yet!

Dislikes: The jumper! She is NOT a fan. We’ve put her in several different styles and she literally sits there for a couple minutes, and then fusses. She will look at the toys a bit but refuses to bounce or jump at all.

Development/Traits: Like her sisters, Reagan has figured out her hands exist, but not quite her feet. She is extremely good at grasping things held in front of her and putting them in her mouth. Reagan is our startler; loud or abrupt noises still make her jump more than her sisters do. She also remains the strongest of the three.

Strong legs!

Everyone is still in halo sleep sacks at night; we figure that will continue for another month or two. We are also still tracking their feedings daily and that helps us remember how everyone is doing on things! We now have three jumpers and three sit me up chairs. And we survived six month shots; they are taking it 1000x better than their four month ones.

Post shot snack!

“Jump” into the World of Events

The girls are getting big! We’ve been in the fourth developmental leap (called the “world of events”) a little over two weeks now, and while there is a decent amount of crankiness and snuggle demanding, they are advancing quite significantly mentally. We decided to test out the johnny jump ups and see what the girls think now that their necks are all stronger. All three thought it was super exciting, although a little too stimulating after a couple of minutes.

Harper and Reagan both touch the ground pretty easily. They don’t have the jumping down quite yet but they wiggle and are starting to bounce. Emerie thinks all the colors are super cool, but looks so tiny in it.

Emerie testing out the jumper while in adorable leg warmers.

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We haven’t even turned on the music or the blinking lights and activities yet; it’ll be too much to handle at the moment. So they at content in their five minutes of wiggle time and then ready to switch out and snuggle.

Reagan checkin’ things out.

I took the girls to Double Cuddles this week and they were happy the whole ride over AND napped on the way home. Crazzzzy. Also had lots of playtime with their friends while us moms chatted.

As I’ve said a number of times, it is fun to see their advancements. The “world of events” development leap focuses on babies learning to perceive smooth transitions instead of separated, multiple transitions stacked on one another. For example, moving a baby toy would be seen as separate transitions each time your hand shifts; this leap teaches that a toy can move or shake and it is more fluid, they start to understand it’s the same toy moving and that they can reach out for it. They are also learning to successfully grab something and move it around without immediately dropping it. They especially like their banana teethers.

Starting to hold toys!

Reagan is really figuring out her hands. If I hold a toy up for her in front of her hands, she will grasp it and put it in her mouth.  Such progress!  Harper is starting to respond the same, and has figured out thumb chewing. Emerie won’t quite grab toys yet when I hold them out, but I did watch her reach over and forcibly pull a binky from Harper’s mouth and throw it across the pack and play…so there’s that…

Because why not wear leg warmers…

The next step should be feet awareness, and we’re trying to get them to start it!  I’ve stretched their feet to their faces and clap them together to make noise, but to no avail. Hopefully by the end of this leap they will have figured them out.

When does that third arm grow in?

Welp, I made it through week three of my return to work. I can say that sitting at a desk during the day is much more relaxing that I ever used to think it was, even with the wild chaos that is grant season and end of federal fiscal year.

While I haven’t caught up on work yet since being out, I’m quite enjoying being so busy. The day passes very quickly and before I know it, I’m back at home feeding and playing with babies.

We started nap training this past week and I seriously can’t figure out how I survived the entire summer being home alone during the day without it. In fact, I’m still waiting for that third arm to grow in. After about two hours being up, getting fed and playtime, we swaddle them and put them in their cribs with soft lullabies on the white noise machine. The first few times I said I’d give them 10 minutes to fuss before we got them back up, and so far they’ve never even made it to 5 before they fall asleep. So far so good! It definitely makes them happier in the evening and less super baby rage, and is now their new routine.

Chillin in the living room

It is also cute to see them figuring out their hands exist. Harper has it figured out and can grab things you dangle over her and put them in her mouth.

Reagan is starting to realize they are there and reaching for things, and Emerie has figured out she can hold things in her mouth when she wants to, although not quite that her hands are in her control.

The girls like music and enjoy listening to the old Disney songs we listened to as kids. They really like the Little Mermaid songs. When stalling until bedtime (without a walk during rainy/windy days), we turn on music in the background and entertain them with toys.

Check out that hand holding!

Something else funny to note. On our late afternoon walk last Friday, we had three separate occasions of someone stopping us to question about the triplets. Normally we don’t have any! One lady questioned “twins?!” with a big smile on her face, to which Craig answered “triplets!” She asked where the third one was (being carried), and I responded “oh we left that one at home, only two fit in the stroller”. The lady thought it was hilarious that I made a joke. People are funny.

We’ve also tried a little bit of baby food. The girls’ reactions are so funny. Emerie immediately picked up how to eat off a spoon and now licks it and loves it!

Reagan and Harper more or less think we are poisoning them.

The baby food is fun to try, but of course not supplementing bottles for a couple more months. We’ve tried pears and sweet potatoes so far with a few others ready for next week!

Lastly, Craig and I tested one another tonight to see if we could tell everyone apart. With the girls in diapers and bows (to cover Emerie’s mole), we swapped them around to see if the other person could tell who is who. We both passed! And so did Grandpa Cliff on FaceTime!

Testing baby food

Just for fun, we tried out baby food with the girls. Yes, it’s a little early for it and the girls can’t sit up yet without assistance, but we thought we’d give them a new experience. No, this does not replace their bottles, at least not yet.

First flavor to try was pears! The girls seem to think we are trying to poison them, and that their tongues are protecting them. You can judge their reactions for yourself!

We also attempted the first “nap training” this past weekend and it went pretty well! The girls took an hour long nap in the morning AT THE SAME TIME. That sounds promising doesn’t it!

5 Month Update!

Well it’s true…somehow we are already at five months with the girls. I can hardly believe time has passed so quickly (mostly) and that we are almost to half a year since their birth!

The girls may look the same to the eye, but they are all very different personality wise.  It is fun to see their traits and attributes come out on a day to day basis, and that reminds you they are three, separate individuals; three that just happen to come in the same package.

Here are a few things we have noticed for each of them.

Harper

Main Nickname: Hay Hay

Weight: 13 pounds, 16 oz.

Color: any form of pink

Likes: Harper is a big fan of sleep; in fact, she is by far our best sleeper. In general, she is the first to fall asleep at bedtime and the last to wake up in the morning. She also likes holding onto toys, chewing on them, and telling us all about it.

Dislikes: her carseat

Development/Traits: She just learned she can lay in her crib and pound her legs on the mattress. She is also very close to understanding that her hands and arms are part of her body and under her control, as she’s been looking at them with new eyes the past week.  I can’t wait until she discovers her feet! Harper is also stubborn and believes rolling is not something she needs to learn or try to learn. Instead, she’d rather spend tummy time crying or scooting forward on her stomach. She is also starting to scoot on her back and can move surprisingly quick when she wants to! Either way, she has no interest in trying to roll over.  Harper also plays this game with herself, on whether or not she can actually fit her entire hand in her mouth.  It’s pretty cute.

Emerie

Main Nickname: Emsie, Em, Emmie

Weight: 12 pounds, 3 oz.

Color: purple, and sometimes yellow

Likes: Emerie is still our snuggler, she likes to be cuddled and doesn’t mind being squished between her sisters.  She also likes her penguin pacifier, and being carried in the carrier on walks.

Dislikes: Being by herself, or being set down when there are able bodies nearby to hold her. Level of arms escaping her sleep sack: expert. She doesn’t like her hands being held down.

Development/Traits: Because Emerie is our littlest, she seems to be a few days behind her sisters on developmental milestones.  The past week she has been on wonderful behavior and likely about to start the next leap.  She rolled over last week for the first time, from stomach to back, but in general is not a fan of tummy time.

She’s also figured out giggling and doesn’t hiccup quite as much after now. She has also become quite the talker, i.e. there is a lot of shrieking everyday. She thinks it’s very fun to be loud.

Reagan

Main Nickname: Ray Ray

Weight: 13 pounds, 13 oz.

Color: teal, light green, baby blue

Likes: Reagan really likes her toys, especially the fox spiral one- she chews on the crinkly tail! She also loves one of the owl clips that has beads in it.  Personality wise she loves to smile for pictures and laugh, and enjoys bath time.

Dislikes: She doesn’t like to be squished between her sisters and likes her own space. She is not a fan of sleeping in and is usual the first one up for the day and often the last to fall asleep.

Development/Traits: Reagan is definitely ticklish.  We get more laughs out of her when she’s getting dressed or changed than any other time.  She was the first one to roll over a few months back, and now has done it a number of times. When she doesn’t want to go to bed at night, she tries to roll over in her crib; although I’ve only caught her one time on her stomach. I have a feeling she will be our first crawler, as she is starting to seem like she wants to move more.  She has also figured out how to hold toys in her mouth so she can chew on them.

Parent Update

While the past five months have been very busy with infrequent times to relax and adjust to a new lifestyle, we are feeling pretty good.  Now that both of us are back to working full time, daily schedules are very important to keep everything with the girls running smoothly. While the day starts at 4:30 AM for me and 5:30 AM for Craig, I don’t find myself as tired as I thought I’d be, but it is probably because we are almost always moving and doing several tasks at the same time. Once the girls are down for the night, we tiptoe around the house like the world might end if we make noise.

We go on a lot of evening walks before bedtime, both because now the girls seem more interested in looking around outside, and because it’s nice to get out of the house for half an hour while babies are entertained. They still very much dislike tummy time, but are all getting much stronger- we can’t wait to use the hiking backpacks!

About a month ago we pulled the girls completely off formula and that seems to lessen their crankiness after a feed.  For the moment I am producing about even with them, but as soon as the next growth spurt starts, I think they will be ahead of me.  Luckily solids are right around the corner, and soon they will get to test baby food.

We appreciate everyone’s love and support for the girls and our family, and are excited to see what the next month brings!