One of the bigger surprises (other than 3!!) for me was the fact that everyone was born with some hair on their heads. Granted, not a lot, but not bald either.
We learned at one of the last belly NSTs in week 31 or 32 that Baby A (Harper) had hair that was visible through the ultrasound.
Now that we are about 30 weeks out of the womb, we’ve been watching the girls’ hair start to grow in more places than on their birth day. They still have a solid bald spot in the middle of the back of their heads, but other than that it’s starting to grow!
Reagan’s hair coming in.
Emerie had a bald spot over her right ear for a couple months. We thought it was due to a birthmark, but luckily that doesn’t seem to be the case now and hair is starting to grow in the same spot.
Everyone has a “five o’clock shadow” and I think by Christmas we will see a lot more!
Oh and the color!
I was positive during pregnancy that everyone would be born bald and eventually grow into little toe headed blondes. That doesn’t seem to be the case; in fact, we are certainly going to have redheads of some kind! In the sun, the girls hair definitely shines reddish, not blonde.
I am so very excited to see the color!!
Craig still sporting the hair…the girls are working on catching up…
As I start writing this, Reagan is sweetly looking at me from her swing while her sisters obediently nap up in their cribs.
We made it to seven months!
Teething is tough
The past month is full of small developmental milestones. We survived leap four and are now onto leap five, which is basically about relationships and space. They can now tell when we walk away from them (super fun…) or when something is in their personal space (like a sister). Binkie use is progressing nicely and they hold them and chew on them, although not quite correctly. Emerie constantly takes hers out of her mouth and then screams, like “who did that!?”. We are still working on that one…
Everyone has figured out their feet exist, although I think Emerie likes to play with hers the most. She is also teething like crazy with a tooth peeking on the bottom right.
A yellow Baymax
Sleep sacks are still needed at night. Reagan still startles the worst of the three but is slowly improving. The next step is to try these adorable sleep suits that look more like the Big Hero 6 marshmallow guy than a sleeping bag.
Harper and Emerie have tried a few naps with it and so far so good.
Harper smiles
Not surprisingly, we are already entering the age of the princesses. In fact, YouTube has some great Disney princess compilations that the girls love to jump to. They are picky though and don’t like all of them. I guess they already have standards lol. Craig is singing along to them now, and I’m relearning many of the songs I used to know as a kid.
Reagan giggles and talks to them and it’s so cute; all the while standing (not jumping) in her jumper. She looooves Snow White but it could be that she has brighter colors than the others.
Everyone now really smiles back when you smile at them, or even if you just make a happy face, they respond and I love it!! Our photo ops are still working at well for the moment.
And the fingernails! Looking in the mirror this morning, I noticed I have a nice scratch on the side of my face from one of them. Not sure who but it’s definitely from a tiny fingertip. They grow so fast!
Speaking of growing fast, the girls are getting bigger! Harper and Reagan are currently .4 of an OZ apart, with Harper in the lead at 15# 14 oz. Emerie is catching up at 14# 3 oz. 6-9 months clothes are washed and organized and starting to be used.
And lastly, Mother Nature did smile at us once this week. It was windy enough that all the leaves in our front yard blew across the street so we don’t have to rake them. Pretty sweet.
And so, just like that, we survived our first night of teething with only ONE baby so far.
This weekend had some of the usual baby crankiness, with Sunday being a little more dramatic than normal but nothing we haven’t survived before. We attempted to go grocery shopping the entire day and never actually left the house.
This is what teething looks like!
Everyone had a decent mid afternoon nap, with Emerie down for 1.5 hours to tie her all time longest, but the late afternoon nap was an epic battle that ended with Reagan napping in her crib, Harper hanging out with Mom and Emerie screaming her lungs out while Craig coaxed her angrily to sleep.
We did, however, discover they like watching Disney princess sing alongs while bouncing in their bouncers (well not Reagan but she likes the videos). Harper and Emerie made it 45 minutes! Reagan giggled at the music and enjoyed the colors.
We learned why yesterday was so cranky…while Emerie was hollering this afternoon I discovered the first tooth that is starting to cut in. Calm down, I did not get a picture…I could barely get a peep at it without her trying to kill me. But it’s definitely there, on the bottom, in all it’s first tooth glory. She is not taking it well. Lots of random screaming and she still takes the binkie out of her mouth but can’t quite coax it back in…
No this is happy Emerie, not teething Emerie.
She has also decided this life event is detrimental enough to stop sleeping, at least for last night. After an unplanned ten PM feed for 3 screaming infants, I’m pretty sure I was up every 30-45 minutes until I finally just got up at 4:15. Here’s to tonight going better…
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.
Error
This video doesn’t exist
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.
Don’t worry, only the start of this blog is slightly bleh. The end is amazing!!
Not everyday is sunshine and roses (today was hoodie weather!). I seem to post more when we hit a developmental milestone or the girls are looking super spiffy. The reality is, we definitely have our stress moments and hours of multiple screaming, inconsolable babies. It’s just not all the time, thank goodness.
The last few nights were one of those times you need three more hands on your body. Both Harper and Emerie were practically inconsolable for over an hour at bedtime on Tuesday and last night was a similar fussiness. Reagan was fussy but manageable.
We keep reminding ourselves that the girls are in another developmental jump and it’s making them uber cranky. They are definitely more interested in the world and looking around, when they aren’t shrieking. The past couple of days have been significantly less intake during feeding time, which is a little funny since I just ordered a bunch a bigger (8oz) Dr. Brown bottles. Guess they weren’t ready for that yet!
On a happier and less complaining note…last Friday Reagan and Monday for Harper, giggled!! Both were full on baby giggles, and will make your ovaries churn! Here’s Reagan giggling at Daddy.
And here is Harper giggling!
Emerie did a crazy giggle yesterday, one similar to the sneaky giggles in the movies, but she hasn’t fully done it yet. I’m sure it’s right around the corner…after four month shots…
The Douglets 