Life As We Know It...

Well, the night nanny has served her time. Six weeks went pretty fast and I already miss the nights of sleeping 10:30pm to 6:30am. I admit that the first couple times she cared for the triplets it was a little weird going to bed and having her do all the work herself. She didn't seem overwhelmed by the task and happily wished us goodnight. Fine by me! She was a nice lady though and heaven bless her for wanting to stay up all night.


Right now while the babies aren't on any sort of schedule, we give them a bath on Wednesdays and Sundays. This was how often they were bathed in the NICU and I didn't feel the need to do it any more frequently at home. When we start trying to get them sleeping longer at night and into a schedule, we'll do more of a nightly regime of baths and reading. For now, a couple baths a week seems sufficient. They don't seem to mind and actually enjoy collecting lint in between their fingers. Here's Dad on Saturday bath day with Caleb! Caleb is definitely out growing the sink.


I don't care what anyone says, babies like to be swaddled and wrapped nice and tight. Most of the time they struggle to break free for a couple minutes then realize they are safe and warm and calm right down. I feel bad wrapping them up most of the day and night but for now when they are sleeping a lot, it definitely helps. Here's all our burritos watching the ceiling fan for entertainment. Never fails to catch their attention!


Of course anyone who knows us knows that Christmas starts early in our house. We just love the season and music and lights. We hope our kids love it just as much as we do! So the first week of November our tree went up. The boys sat by excitedly and pondered the true meaning of Christmas.


Surprisingly, doing laundry for triplets hasn't been that bad. Not bathing everyday probably helps and I really don't go through many outfits during the day. We've started making an effort to put them into pajamas each night whereas before we didn't. What makes up the bulk of our laundry is burp clothes! We go through A LOT everyday and luckily a friend from church graciously gave us enough to last a couple days without laundering. We probably have 50 or 60. Zachary knew that Mom needed some help with laundry and jumped right in to help!


Caleb is our big eater. He is always frantic around eating time and gulps down around four ounces in ten minutes. Sometimes I think he eats so fast he doesn't realize he is full and cries for more. He eats just six times a day now because he can tolerate a larger amount at each feeding so that has been nice. We think he's still growing just fine! A couple days ago we gave him a 1/2 ounce more on top of his four ounces because he was still acting so hungry. Afterward.....he regretted it.



Right now we go through almost one can of formula a day. We are still using the formula they were on in the hospital so it's about $15/can. Adds up real quick when you need about 25 cans to get through a month. When the babies were born I sent out letters about their birth to companies to see what fun schwag we could get. Enfamil responded and sent us 54 cans of free formula! Add what we've received from our pediatrician, we've banked around $1000 worth of free formula! The Pedi office filled out a request for Enfamil to send us some more so hopefully we get 50-70 more cans. Score for having triplets! :)

Speaking of the pediatrician, the babies all had their two-month appointment last week for immunizations. They were all very well behaved beforehand and loved rolling around on the paper as usual. First things first, they were weighed and had measurements taken. They were measured on a regular growth chart rather than a preemie one! However, their numbers would've looked really good on a preemie chart.

Leah:
Height-20 inches (less than 3rd percentile)
Head circumference-14 1/2 inches (10th percentile)
Weight-8 lbs 7 ounces (7th percentile)

Zachary:
Height-20 inches (less than 3rd percentile)
Head circumference-14 (less than 3rd percentile)
Weight-7 lbs 6 ounces (less than 3rd percentile)

Caleb:
Height-21 1/4 inches (less than 3rd percentile)
Head circumference-15 1/2 inches (45th percentile)
Weight-10 lbs 11 ounces (25th percentile)


They are all still pretty small but seem nice and fat to us compared to their birth weights! After all the weights and vitals were taken, the doctor asked who wanted to go first for their shots...


Sweet Zachary. He volunteered and was brave for brother and sister. They each got five shots....so sad. All only cried for about 20 seconds and forgot what just happened.


On all the information sheets for the shots, they say that side effects from the shots (diarrhea, vomiting, sore legs, irritability, difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating, fussiness, fever) occur in 1 of 3 children. The odds were not with us. That night was a hard one. We could tell all the babies didn't feel well. Unfortunately for the night nanny (fortunately for us), they had a rough night of sleeping and eating. The next day they seemed to be back to their old selves. Not looking forward to the four-month checkup.

Here's a video of the babes playing on the tissue paper before the shots happened and the chaos began.