Chez Perky

Transitions, Milestones, and Progress

We moved the nursery upstairs about a week and a half ago.  My three precious babies aren't just three steps away from my bedroom anymore.  Seth is in heaven; I am traumatized.  I thought I'd be over it by now, but I'm really not.  I admit it's nice having all four kids upstairs together.  It's nice having our own space downstairs, as we'd intended all along.  It's nice that J isn't all alone anymore.  Certainly, the babies haven't noticed any difference.  But...  it's so different at night - I'm so accustomed to hearing Sam's little sighs through the night, Ellie's cute little coos, and Abby's cries (Abby?  Not such a fan of sleeping). 

Our morning routine is completely different now, too.   It used to be that pretty soon after the first sounds we heard in the morning, Seth would get up and start changing diapers.  He'd change Sam first, and bring him to me to nurse.  Then he'd change Ellie and Abby, and bring me Ellie to nurse, and put Sam in the nursery to play while he offered Abby a cup of milk which she usually refused.  Now we hear them wake up, but we usually let them talk to each other for a while (and sometimes they even fall back to sleep!).  After J comes down to tell us he's awake, we tell him to go get dressed for school, and we go upstairs to get moving with the day.  Depending on whether Seth is still home (he often has to be at the hospital at an ungodly hour of the morning), we either split baby and J-man duties or I take care of it.  '

But first thing's first:  I open up the nursery door, and three beautiful, smiling, gorgeous heads pop up from their cribs.  These bright-eyed, bushy tailed, amazing babies never fail me.  They greet me with such joy and unconditional, overflowing love every single morning that I can't help but wonder why I ever questioned how I could handle triplets.  I wish, in those first few days or weeks of my pregnancy, when I was completely panicked about the prospect of getting through a triplet pregnancy and triplet parenthood, that someone could have adequately expressed to me how incredible a feeling it is a year later to have those three enormous grins shining at you when you open their door in the morning.  Or how unique an experience it is to sit down on the living room floor and have three enthusiastic babies giggling and crawling as fast as they can, racing to be the first one into your lap and climbing up to be the first one to get kisses.  I'm sure those experiences are incredible with one baby.  But they are nearly indescribable with three babies. 

Back to the nursery.

So you can see, this transition to the nursery is not entirely bad, it's just... different.  Once all the diapers are changed, we let the babies roam free for a while.  No more baby pit, you see.  The whole first floor (sans the kitchen, bathroom, and J's room) are baby proofed (for the most part).  I get J his morning medicine and then I nurse Sam and Ellie before I get the babies into high chairs for breakfast, about which time my nanny usually arrives (if it's a weekday) and takes over.   With the big difference in morning routine, it does making nursing the babies harder to squeeze in, and sometimes, it just gets skipped - I think we're getting closer and closer to weaning.   

So it's not an entirely bad transition, it's just a change.  And we all know how well I deal with change.

Hah.

In other news, Sam is completely walking.  He rarely crawls, but when he does, it's incredibly cute, and I keep thinking I should get it on video before I lose my chance.  I probably never will, and I'll regret it.  Ellie has become quite a good walker, as well, though not nearly as steady as Sam.  She's catching up though.  Abby, who had steadfastly refused to even STAND, let alone walk, took three steps on Monday without me there to even see, the little traitor.  How dare she?  She promised me she wouldn't walk yet!  How could she do this to me?  Who gave her permission to walk?  Certainly not me!  Anyway, I think it was a fluke, because she hasn't done it since, and she hasn't even stood up without support, so I don't think it's something she's keen on repeating any time soon.

All three babies have been varying degrees of sick the past couple weeks.  They all had a cold that wouldn't quit for about 3 1/2 weeks.  The girls got ear infections and sinusitis.  Sam skipped that, but then developed a four day 102 degree fever.  He was so sad - he wouldn't eat or play, he just sat in our laps sucking his pacifier and holding his beloved elephant blankie.  I normally don't let him suck on a pacifier except during naptime or bedtime, but that's all he wanted, and I thought it was only fair.  Poor baby.  But everyone is all better now, or so it seems, so here's hoping.  J also had a cold and his normal reactive airway/asthma type stuff along with that, but fortunately, even though he won't take his ADHD medicine without a fight, he LOVES taking his inhaler, so at least THAT isn't a fight! Whew!

J is doing really well.  I'm really proud of what a great big brother he is and how well he's doing in school and with speech therapy.  He's such a loving, creative soul and wants to do well.  I'll write more about it in a separate post, but we're taking a parenting class on "Parenting the Challenging Child" given by our Developmental Pediatrician, and we realized that so many of the things that made J challenging are already less of a challenge just in the couple of months that we've been working with the developmental pediatrician - and I'm just so proud of J for the progress that he's made.  The class is still incredibly helpful and it's good to see the material presented in a very methodical way, instead of the more bandaid approach we'd been getting it in our appointments with the pediatrician, but I feel so much less like we need this DESPERATELY than I did two months ago when we first registered for the class (though it only started 3 weeks ago).

Tantruming, Toddling, and Tales of Fun

Abby has this adorable new behavior, she throws these cute little temper tantrums when she's not getting her way.  She throws herself flat down on the ground, screams, pounds her little fists, looks up to see if you're watching her, and then goes back to screaming.  If you're not watching her (or you don't appear to be), she sits back up, wimpers, and goes back to playing, but sulks about it.  It is the cutest thing ever, though I'm sure when she's 5 it will seem less cute.

It's official - Sam is no longer just a baby  - he's a toddler.  But don't go trying to suggest to me that he's not a baby anymore, because he's still my baby, even if he is toddling.  Yes, it's true, he's not just taking one or two steps at a time, he's not just cruising along furniture, he's actually walking 10-12 steps at a time.  And it's not just a fluke, either.  He does this several times a day, then loses his balance and falls on his butt and giggles.  Fortunately, God made little boys with hard heads and soft bottoms for a reason.  Also, diapers are conveniently padded to help in that area.

For that matter, Ellie's not far behind Sam in the toddling department.  She also can take 8-10 steps at a time if she wants to.  She just doesn't want to do it nearly as often as Sam.  More often, she'll take 3-4 steps at a time, fall down and crawl after whatever she's after. Let's face it, my babies are smart, and crawling, for the moment, is more efficient.  They are fast little crawlers, so they're going to get at whatever they have their eye on as fast as they can!  Still, it won't be long before Ellie and Sam are walking, running, and jumping.

And climbing.  Did I mention climbing?  Oh yes.  Sam is a climber.  Abby, too.  They both climb the gates, even the ones that have bars, not holes.  And yesterday, Sam climbed his highchair.  He wasn't in it at the time.  Not good.  The J-man was never a climber, you see.  He was a bundle of energy.  He never stopped moving.  You had to keep moving to keep up with him, but ne never climbed, he never opened drawers, he never pulled things off of shelves or tables, so baby-proofing was a *snap*.  But with these triplets?  They are giving us a run for our money.  Ellie is into EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING is into her mouth.  Sam is climbing EVERYTHING. And Abby will open anything she can.  And they are all super-fast and in three different directions at once.  Still, it's fun.  And cute.  And not nearly as bad as I expected it to be.  We just have a little more work ahead of us to be one step ahead of them!

We know this because yesterday we did something very brave.  We opened up "the baby pit."  We have a living room and dining room that are essentially connected and basically one room.  But we've had the living room surrounded by a baby corral (the SuperYard XT, for those in the know), which has been a great way to contain the babies so that we can turn our backs to clean up after dinner, answer the phone, or even just play with them without worrying about which direction they're all running off into.  It also contained the toys into one discreet space.  The living room/dining room in combination is obviously a much larger space and is easily closed off because the kitchen has a gate, the basement stairwell has a door, the hall leading to the bedrooms has a door, and the doorway leading to the sunroom has both a baby gate and a door that can be closed.  So it can be one big baby pit if we want it to be, which is what we tried yesterday.  And much hilarity ensued.  The babies were SO excited at their newfound freedom.  They could hardly contain their enthusiasm.  In fact, they didn't even try.  They immediately put their minds to discovering all the little things we hadn't yet thought to baby proof.  This was good for us, actually because it gave us a good lesson in what we needed to get done.  No better trial than trial by fire, I say! 

So, I think we may be done with the baby pit.  I'm a little sad to see it go, actually.  But the truth is, they're getting a little too big and a little too active to be contained in it.  They fight over their toys and their space.  My house is really too small to have them contained in there.  And if I need to contain them somewhere, I DO have the sunroom where I can contain them (it's a nice child-friendly space with a foam floor and lots of baby toys, meant for child-containment purposes). 

So, um, anyone need a SuperYard XT?  Actually, I think it was 2 of them that we had  - one of them wouldn't have been big enough.  Sigh.  We spend so much money on this stuff and it's all so temporary, isn't it?  Maybe we'll use it again if I ever get to have that singleton I'm still dreaming of?  But that seems silly.  I mean, we never contained the J-man in a baby pit.  Do people actually contain singletons in baby pits?  Or are they just things that multiples parents use?

Finally, I love Sunday mornings because we get to be a little bit lazy with the timing on breakfast so I always (usually) make pancakes or omelettes or something yummy.  This morning was omelettes, which the babies LOVE (the J-man does too, which is shocking, since he's such a picky eater).  The babies ate TWO omelettes (total of 5 eggs), plus hash browns, plus three bananas.  They are hungry little monsters! 

Afterward, we gave them a bath, because, well, they needed it.  Even though I'm letting them each eat with a fork these days, they still mostly eat with their fingers and there was egg and cheese everywhere.  Sundays are also nice because Seth is home to help me, so I can give them a bath all together instead of three individual baths.  The babies love this, but I have to ask the moms of older triplets - how on EARTH do you manage this??  Were you really able to handle giving a group bath to your one year old triplets regularly?  Could you do it by yourself?  Because my babies are toddling all over the bathtub, in an absolutely hazardous manner and it's nearly impossible to handle them.  Even if I could manage them IN the tub (which I could ALMOST do), getting them all OUT of the tub safely would terrify me.  Can it really be done?  If so, can you tell me HOW?  This is the one thing I've never really managed to figure out how to do.  Are my kids just more excitable in the bathtub than most triplets?  They get SO riled up in the bathtub and go absolutely bonkers.  Is this normal? 

Anywhozit, here endeth my Tales o' fun, because the babies are waking up from their nap.  I hope you all are well - I'm off to snuggle with my precious babies until Seth and the J-man get home from soccer.  Then we've promised to do something SPONTANEOUS today.  I don't know what it's going to be (then it wouldn't be spontaneous, now would it??), but it's going to be SOMETHING, darnit!

Playing Catch Up: Pediatrician, No More Bottles, Lunch Out, and Rosh Hashana

I've had too much going on to ever catch up on everything I want to say, but here are some of the highlights:

First, The triplets' 12 month appointment went very well. They are developing quite well, and accounting for their prematurity, they are right where we'd like to see them developmentally. They're not doing everything you'd expect a 12 month to be doing, but they're doing most of the things you'd expect a 10 month old to be doing. Their gross motor skills are just where you'd expect a 12 month old to be, though, so they're right on the curve in that respect. The doctor is really pleased with how far they've come.

The best part is I asked about how vigilant I need to be this year during flu and RSV season and he said that none of my kids has ever shown any sign of respiratory problems (except J) or asthma, and that it's impossible to quarantine a baby, particularly with a school-aged kid in the house. He said we should lead normal lives this winter and not quarantine ourselves again. He told us what to look out for if the kids do get a cold and seem to be laboring more than they should be or seem to be in distress, but otherwise said to start acting like normal parents - or at least as normal as we can be with triplets. That being said, I think we WILL limit trips to the mall and such (not that we make any of those), but we won't limit trips to synagogue (not that we make so many of those) and while we'll ask people who come into the house to wash their hands, last year we wouldn't let anyone in the house who had so much as a sniffle - this year we're not going to such great lengths. The threat of three very sick babies was much scarier than the vague possibility of three moderately ill toddlers.

The only thing I mentioned to the doctor (and I prefaced it with a strong warning of "I'm NOT worried") that I wondered if I should be taking note of was the fact that Abby really isn't babbling much particularly in comparison to Sam and Ellie. Frankly, none of the babies babble much compared to other one year olds, but Abby is by far the quietest of the bunch. He actually took more note of it than I expected he would, but said it was something he would just keep an eye on for now. But he wants to be reminded of it if we still see her lagging behind by her 15 month appointment. On an unrelated topic, he also noted that Abby has a heart murmur, which we'd never picked up on before. He thinks it's just a normal murmur, but wanted us to know about it anyway, in case we were ever asked about it. Also it's a good thing to keep track of. While I know that this is a perfectly normal thing to pick up on, I admit to being somewhat alarmed - I have a heart murmur myself, but mine is s pecifically related to the patent foramen ovale that I have. While a PFO is generally innocuous, it does lead to a higher risk of stroke (I had a TIA when I was 23) and an increased risk of chronic migraines (hello? that's me!). So I'm trying to remember that lots of people have boring normal murmurs, but my heart did skip a beat when he told me he was hearing a murmur listening to Abby's heart.

The other bit of news is that on Sunday we went out and bought a bunch of new sippy cups. That doesn't sound like news, does it? The triplets have been drinking water out of sippy cups for a month or so, but on Sunday, they also drank their very last bottle, and moved on to sippy cups. This has meant they've been far less interested in drinking milk all together, but the doctor had said that the 10-15 ounces of milk that they'd been drinking each day was way more than enough anyway, and that it was totally fine if they drank less than that. Their calories should really be coming from solid food for the most part anyway. I thought this was interesting since I've seen elsewhere that babies this age should be drinking 16-24 ounces of milk, and I was freaking out because I knew my kids weren't coming close to that, but he was discouraging me from giving them even as much as I was. So we're good. No more bottles. Sam and Ellie are still nursing. I'm still pumping once a day on average for Abby, but I'm about to stop that. Mostly I'm doing it for my own comfort's sake - I get too engorged otherwise, but I'm going to have to just stop and deal with a few days of discomfort at some point, I think. How do people actually deal with the discomfort of weaning? I'm assuming dropping the pumping is just the same as if I were dropping a feeding, so it must be the same principle.

Sunday was all about the milestones, because not only did we buy sippy cups and rid ourselves of bottles - we also did another monumental thing... We took the babies out for lunch. Seriously! We went to a local pizza restaurant and they were little champs! They ate pizza and pasta and mozzarella sticks. They made a big huge mess, but they didn't melt down. We were lucky that when we pulled up to the restaurant, friends of ours coincidentally pulled up to the restaurant at the same time, so we had an extra couple of sets of hands to help us. Poor suckers didn't know what they were getting into! :) Don't worry, we cleaned up our mess before we left.

Finally, Rosh Hashana was lovely and probably deserves a post unto itself, not because there was anything so notable about it, but because of the comparison to last year. Last year Rosh Hashana was spent in the hospital trying to keep my babies in. Last year, I spent Rosh Hashana in the hospital, lucky to be in a hospital within walking distance of my house and community and lucky to have people in my community willing to walk the mile or so to come visit me. Last year, I had a nun come into my room to bring Yeshiva students to blow shofar for me, just feet from the NICU in a Catholic Hospital. Last year, the Catholic Hospital Pastoral Care Services was kind enough to put apples and honey on my lunch and dinner trays each day of Rosh Hashana. Last year, on Rosh Hashana, my doctor was setting up my c-section against my wishes for the following week and I threw a fit. She scheduled it for erev Yom Kippur which was flat out unacceptable (never mind that I frankly did NOT want a c -section). It became a moot point by my next ultrasound, though, because baby C had stopped growing and needed to come out, pronto, so my c-section happened the next morning. This year, on Rosh Hashana, I was surrounded by my four beautiful children. This year, I did not need apples and honey to remind me to have a Sweet New Year. This year is filled with the sweetness of baby giggles, the joy of a five year old's discovery of legos and bionicles, of new words and new skills. This year is filled with the light and happiness of milestones and love and the overabundance of family that I never expected to be blessed with. This year was so markedly different from last year. Last year I didn't make it to synagogue because I was strapped to monitors, IVs and terbutaline pumps. This year, I made it, but only briefly because I was laden with children, but my prayers were heartfelt and my eyes brimmed with tears of gratitude. I know that I've not been perfect, I know that I'm not worthy, but I'm grateful for every second that I have with my family.

*Sniffle*

I'd like to tell you about the triplets' first birthday, but I've been so busy this week.  I'd like to tell you how cute they were when they dove into their birthday cupcakes Friday after dinner, each with their own unique personalities, but I've been too tired at the end of each day to compose a post.   I'd like to write an eloquent post about the triplets first birthday party on Sunday, but the babies have been sick all week, which has been keeping me busy.  I'd like to tell you about their 12 month appointment with the doctor, but now I'm sick. 

So, in the absence of eloquence, I'll leave you with a few stats and a couple quick pictures, and then... I'm off to bed:

Sam: 21 lbs, 4oz (23rd percentile), 29 inches long (19th percentile) Ellie: 20 lbs, 2 oz (30th percentile), 28 inches long (13th percentile) Abby: 19 lbs (14th percentile), 28 1/2 inches long (24th percentile)

I've had people tell me that my babies are really fat; that I'm feeding them too much... but I think it's clear that they are not.  Even Ellie, my chunkiest, beautiful girl is only in the 30th percentile.  My babies are perfect.  I'll tell you more about their visit to the doctor when I'm feeling better.

Now for a couple pictures before bed:

Ellie loved her cake!

Abby was snarly and threw her cake around, but she loved it!

Sam got cake EVERYWHERE.

We Did It!

We did it!  A year ago, three little tiny lives entered this world. When I was waiting for the delivery to begin, I kept telling myself to remember what the neonatologist told me when I was first admitted to the hospital: they like it if the babies cry when they’re first born, but it’s okay if they don’t; it doesn’t mean something’s wrong. It’s okay if they don’t cry. I just kept repeating that to myself. There was so much noise in the delivery room, with so many people bustling around.  But all I could hear was the deafening silence waiting for my babies to be born. It’s okay if they don’t cry. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong. What would I do if they didn’t cry? Would I panic? Would I be okay? And then, suddenly, the doctor said, “Baby Boy!” I held my breath. It’s okay if he doesn’t cry. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong. 9:43am. And then, a tiny cry, a flurry of activity. Baby Boy Perky was whisked off to another room to be assessed and stabilized. There wasn’t enough room in my delivery room for three babies, you see. Seconds later, the next baby came out. “Hi Baby!” said the doctor. Baby What? ”Baby Girl!” It’s okay if she doesn’t cry. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong. A tiny cry. 9:44am. A flurry of activity. Time for Baby C’s arrival – It’s okay if the baby doesn’t cry. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong. “Baby Girl!” Before I could even think it again, the tiniest of cries, to match the tiniest of babies. 9:44am. Three healthy babies. Three beautiful tiny cries. One grateful mommy.

A year has passed. A year in which I’ve pumped 91 gallons of milk for my babies. A year in which we’ve changed over 6500 diapers. A year in which we’ve lost hundreds of hours of sleep that we’ll never re-claim. A year has passed in which we’ve learned just how huge our capacity to love our children is. A year in which we’ve discovered that it IS possible to juggle three babies, a four year old, two full time jobs (one for each of us) and still come out happy on the other side. Also a year in which we’ve discovered that yes, you can actually fall asleep standing up. Seth discovered that it IS possible to triple your caffeine intake. I discovered that there’s only so long that I can handle sleep deprivation, but the good news is that all the babies DID learn to sleep through the night about halfway through their first year.

I’m not sure how we got through those early weeks, to be honest. It’s a bit of a blur. Once the babies came home from the NICU, it was a lot of feed-a-baby, change-a-baby, feed-a-baby, change-a-baby, feed-a-baby, change-a-baby, pump, lather-rinse-repeat. But we did it!  We did it together. People ask me if I think that our marriage has suffered from the strain of having higher order multiples, but I think our marriage is much stronger because of it. Having triplets has just taught us that we are a team and we can make anything work together. It’s an amazing journey we’ve taken together.

These babies are absolute little miracles – all of them. There was a time that I didn’t know if I would ever have a baby to hold in my arms and today, when I sit down on the living room floor, my babies swarm over to me to be held. They fight to be the first one in my arms to get their hugs and kisses. They have come so far in the last year and I just can’t believe it.

A year ago Sam and Ellie were 3 pounds, 12 ounces each.  They each dropped below 3.5 pounds and were just over 4 pounds when they were discharged from the NICU 24 days after they were born.   Ellie struggled fro months with a failure to thrive diagnosis, refusing to eat, unable to gain any weight, worrying us all sick, until finally she started growing again.  Today, they are both just about 20 pounds.   A year ago, Abby was a mere 2 pounds, 11 ounces and she dropped to 2 pounds 4 ounces in the NICU.  When she was discharged from the NICU, she was still under 4 pounds.  Today, she's over 17 pounds. 

A year ago my babies had to be taught how to eat; they didn't have the "suck/swallow/breathe" reflex that full-term babies have, so they received a good deal of their nutrition via a TPN, and later, via gavage tubes, as they slowly learned how to bottle and breastfeed.  Today, they eat all the same things that we eat and they gobble them right up.  Ellie and Abby have really good pincer grasps, and Sam just rakes everything right up into his mouth.  They are all showing signs that they might like to try using a spoon all by themselves at some point, but Mommy isn't quite brave enough to try that out just yet. 

A year ago they never cried and the only sounds they ever made sounded like tiny mewing kittens.  Now they babble and giggle, though less than most babies I hear.  I'm told that multiples babble and talk later than singletons and that this is totally normal development.  Ellie is the most interested in exploring the world of syllables and definitely is trying out her vocal chords.  Abby is the most quiet and reserved of the bunch, but is definitely giggly and happy.  Sam seems finally to be letting go of his enormously loud happy screech, which, while endearing, was quite ear-piercing. 

A year ago, the babies barely had the energy to move their tiny hands and feet.  Now they are crawling everywhere and our house is filled with baby gates and baby corrals.  They are all cruising, and Ellie has even taken a few steps.  Seth spotted Sam taking one step, but Abby has no interest whatsoever in walking. I think she thinks that if she walks, she won't get picked up as often.

Each of my babies has come so far in the past year and I'm so proud of them.  Seth really said it best when he was looking at a picture the other day.  He said, simply, "I just love them so much!"

Me too.  I just love them so, so much.

3 Moms, 12 Kids, and a Whole Lotta Fun!

Last week, you may recall, I met up with Kelly and Keira and had a nice afternoon with just us moms, which was just amazing. But something was lacking that afternoon. Was it the pitter patter of little feet? The shouts of our angels voices? Could it be the cacophony of our kidderoonies we were missing? Not in the least! What we were missing was the ever amazing Jessica! So this afternoon, Seth and I packed up our four kiddos and met Kelly and her three kiddos at Jessica's house with her five little monkeys and we had a blast. No one told me that it was "wear a pink shirt day," and yes, I DO own other blouses, it was total coincidence that I was wearing that same green blouse again today. Or um, maybe it was just a sign that I need to do laundry? That could be it.

I accidentally took a 30 mile detour on my way to pick up some toys from another triplet mama, Kelli, because I'm a total dope, so we were late, but a good time was still had by all. I had never met Kelly's Ian or Emma before, only Maddie, so it was a true joy to see all three of her triplets together. Jessica's Evan was feeling under the weather, poor thing, so I felt badly for him, but with 12 kids all in one place, what were the odds that everyone would be feeling 100%?

Can you believe we managed to wrangle 12 kidderoonies in one house? That's because we are all three supermamas. That's us! Not only do we all leap tall buildings in a single bound, we all have sidekicks. Mine's named Seth. Jessica's is named Jon. And Kelly's is named Mike. J Now we just need to make some capes. Wait! We can't make capes until we make some logos! (Are any of you creative enough to make a logo for a bunch of triplet/twin mamas? I'm totally incapable of anything artistic like that)

Why, not only did we manage to entertain 12 children ranging in age from 11 ½ months to nearly 5 years old, we even managed to feed them all! I am always in awe of how Jess manages to pull this off with her own kids, and she is never phased with the addition of one, three, seven extra kids into the mix. Cut up a few extra grapes, make a few extra grilled cheese sandwiches, pull up a few extra high chairs / booster seats and next thing you know, there's lunch for a whole gaggle of children! We had so many children, we couldn't even fit them into one picture! (everyone had just come in from playing in the swimming pool so they were hanging out in their diapers - a perfect way to have an easy cleanup after lunch).

While the "big kids" played and ate lunch, my three little monsters ate their lunch and then played in the living room and had a grand old time:

Splish Splash

The babies took their first bath TOGETHER today. It sure was an adventure for Eema and Abba. I don't know if we'll ever be quite the same again, and I certainly don't know if we'll repeat the experiment again. The babies sure had fun, though. Abby was very calm through the entire bath, though didn't love that Sam and Ellie kept crawling all over her. Sam and Ellie, though, were quite squirmy and curious through the entire experiment: I couldn't keep Sam from drinking the water, and Ellie was determined to explore every inch of the bathtub. Abby just stared at her siblings in utter disbelief at their urge to explore.

Sam was so excited to be able to explore with abandon. He's so used to being confined to the baby bathtub that this was great fun for him (even if it was hair-raising for Eema!)

Ellie kept that duck in her mouth for the entire bath time! I had to wrench it from her when bathtime was over!

11 months

Eleven months ago today, my babies were born. *sniff* They're hardly babies anymore, they're little people now, growing up too fast. I don't understand why some parents are so eager to get to each new milestone - to me, moving to the next milestone means the passage of time, and I want to savor each moment with these beautiful babies - not just move on to the next milestone without even noticing the last one. They are really extraordinary now -

Sam was the last to smile, but he is so smiley now - his face just lights up when he sees Seth or me walk in the room, and he's super snuggly. He is a very good crawler and though he was the last to sit properly, he has no problems with that now. He stands, he cruises a little bit and a few times he's even stood up and then let go of whatever he's holding onto and stood unassisted for a few seconds. He's definitely thinking hard about walking, even if he's not there yet. I think he'll be there in another 4-6 weeks. Scary! He eats everything in sight and is usually the first of the trio to finish his meals. I haven't found anything he doesn't like to eat yet. He still has six teeth and love sto show off his chompers. He's babbling, but not as much as Ellie, who's my real talker. He's the most aggressive of the babies and is most likely to be stealing toys away from the other at any given point in time.

Ellie is unbelievably friendly. Her smile lights up an entire room. we joke that she's actually our cruise director because she'll smile at everyone and everything. She laughs and smiles so easily and has such an infectious little giggle. She's amazing. She has lots of neat ways of babbling, including a really high pitched "dadadadadah!" that she repeats over and over. She is by far the most verbal of the bunch with the most clear syllables of the bunch. She loves to eat, which is crazy considering her failure to thrive history, but we love it. She was the last to learn to crawl, but has finally mastered it, and is also a standing champ, and very bouncy. She now has five teeth, but two of hers are brand new, so they're harder to see than Sam's and Abby's. She's the most laid-back of the three and doesn't mind being crawled all over by Sam and Abby. She seems willing to put up with quite a lot of "abuse" from her siblings.

Abby is the most reserved of the bunch. She was, in some ways, definitely not meant to be a triplet. She definitely prefers to have her own space, and doesn't like to have the other babies touching her or in her space at all. She gets truly offended if they take her toys (Sam does this a lot) or look at her funny. Poor baby. She doesn't like sudden noises, doesn't like to be left alone, prefers to be held up away from the hustle and bustle of the baby pit. She's crafty, though, and if she wants attention, sometimes she'll crawl over to another baby, grab at their toy and then cry as if they were the ones who took it from her so that she gets attention. She's my pickiest eater, and also my most delicate eater. She is my least verbal baby, but she will imitate you if you make clicking sounds or raspberries. She also will shake her head no when she doesn't want to eat anymore, and she means it, so although she's the least verbal in terms of baby-babble, she's actually the most communicative in terms of actual useful communication.  Abby has six teeth and when she gives you her precious smile, which she doles out very carefully, you can admire them in all their glory.

They all love their baths, they all love to be snuggled, they all still love their exersaucers (though less than they used to), they all love the cats (though the cats love the babies less than the babies love the cats), they all adore the J-man (and the J-man adores them).

J is the best big brother in the universe. He adores the babies and loves that they're starting to get interactive enough for him to play with a little bit. He is eager to hold them and pick them up and play with them. It's hard to believe that he is almost five years old and starting kindergarten next week. How exciting. Time really flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? Or maybe it's just that time really flies when you're this sleep deprived...

Toothapalooza (Updated - Again)

The average number of teeth per baby is now:  4.

Sam has sprouted 2 more teeth!  He HAD been waking up in the middle of the night a bit more than usual (which is to say, he used to sleep through the night, and then, mysteriously, he wasn't sleeping through the night anymore), but I guess with everything else going on we hadn't put 2 and 2 together and calculated the likelihood of getting 4... 

And today we noticed that he has six, count 'em, SIX teeth!  Two on the bottom, and FOUR on the top!   

This might explain why he keeps chewing on me (ouch!), but hopefully that will end soon...

Update!  Abby now has six teeth also!  So now the average number of teeth per baby is, um, this math is a little harder, hang on... carry the two, subtract one, divide by three...4.666666666667!  Hey, um, how do you have two thirds of a tooth?  Ellie, bless her, is a total slacker with two teeth.  :)  This may explain why Abby's been chewing on everything in sight and a bit on the cranky side...

Update Again!  Ellie is cutting a third tooth as of 7/17/07 at 7:46am!  Without a single complaint!  (I told you she's my good one!)  So now the math is a lot easier and we have an average of 5 teeth per baby!  Holy shmoly, things are about to get interesting around here!

The beginning of the End

I am in such big trouble. Abby figured it out first:

Then came Sammy:

And I'm thanking my lucky stars that Ellie (my GOOD one*) hasn't figured it out yet.

Yeah, it's time to lower those crib mattresses.

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*Remember, it's very important, especially when you have multiples, that you should never, EVER, label your children.  Ellie is my good baby.