Life With a Four-Month Old x 3...

Well we headed off to the doctor this morning. The babies were cranky on the way over so we worried it would be a disastrous appointment. However, like I've said before, they enjoy the tissue paper and kicked around on it for about 45 minutes while I talked to the doctor. Then....


Zachary must have had a quick memory run across his mind of the last time they were on tissue paper...and he had a meltdown. I have NEVER heard him cry so hard before in his short life. When I picked him up and calmed him down, he would freak out again if I tried to lay him on the table. Smart little bugger. So there was lots of crying BEFORE the shots even happened. Because he was screaming and frightened the others, they started crying too. Not good. Here's the look of fear when they figured out where they were.



Note Zachary's hair cut. His Dad gave him a buzz because he's balding in back and had a mop up top. Now's it's all evened out and he looks like a million bucks!

Pediatrician Update: The doctor seemed please with how the trio was doing and growing. Of course there is concern over Zachary's reflux, Leah's constant spitting, and Caleb's rapid weight gain (not really:), so we have decided to add some rice cereal to Zachary's diet as well as Leah's, take Leah and Caleb off the high calorie formula, and increase Leah's dosage of medication.

Before I go on with their stats, I wanted to compare diaper sizes today. I can't believe they used to be able to fit into those TINY little pad things when they were born. Those won't fit around their legs now let alone their waists! I'm holding up a size 2 diaper which they will ALL be in soon. Caleb is already there.




Here are their current stats:

Leah- 3 lbs 15 oz, 15 inches

Weight: 12 lbs 10 oz (30th percentile)
Height: 23.25 inches (25th percentile)
Head: 16 inches (40th percentile)
Pant size: 3-6 months
Onesie size: 3-6 months
Diapers: size 1
Ounces/day: 21-22 oz
Medications: Zantac 1.4 mls twice daily up from 1 ml
Other info: loves to be near ANYONE, loves to touch and look at her brothers, great at holding her head up, scans just about everything in the room with her big eyes, still can only breath out of one nostril, has more fat rolls than the other two boys combined, having difficulty growing hair, and is so happy in the morning giving lots of smiles.


Zachary- 3 lbs 5 oz, 16 inches

Weight: 12 lbs 1 oz (10th percentile)
Height: 22.5 inches (less than 3rd percentile)
Head: 15.75 inches (10th percentile)
Pant size: 0-3 months
Onesie size: 0-3 months
Diapers: Size 1
Ounces/day: 21-22 oz
Medications: Prevacid, 1/2 tab twice daily
Other info: Thrashes his head back and forth while sleeping causing serious balding in the back of his head, first one to do most everything including smile, very stubborn and strong willed, loves to stand on your lap and refuses to bend his legs, flat headed on his left side and could possibly need a helmet (will know more later), received first hair cut at 4 months and surprisingly had a lot of hair, and is the cutest little munchkin I've ever seen.

Caleb- 4 lbs 12 oz, 17 inches

Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz (70th percentile)
Height: 23.75 inches (20th percentile)
Head: 17 inches (75th percentile)
Pant size: 6 months
Onesie size: 6-9 months
Diapers: Size 2
Ounces/day: 26-27 oz
Medications: None
Other info: Has the loudest cry and will wake the neighborhood, smiles at everything, giggles when you giggle with him, loves to eat, rarely takes a pacifier and is a great self-soother, will play quietly for long periods of time, loves his baths and smiles the whole time, falls asleep easily, is sweet as a marshmallow and cuddly as one too.

So here's a rundown.

Eating: Thinking back to when the trio came home three months ago, feeding them seems like a cinch now in regards to how often. Getting them to actually eat...is a different story. The trio is eating four times/day with Zachary getting an additional bottle overnight. We've just recently started feeding every four hours because we were having to wake the babies every time, they were tired and cranky, and usually after being force fed, they would spit/throw it all up. So we said forget it! We'll encourage them to sleep longer and offer more at each feeding.

This seemed to do the trick for a few weeks. Then the New Year came and for some reason, Leah and Zachary refuse to eat after only a few ounces. Has this happened to anyone else? We burp them and then we're done for. They won't let the bottle back in their mouth and start gagging. Then the crying begins. We've worked through it and usually get a decent amount down but some days it is so frustrating. Both Leah and Zachary have reflux and are already on medication twice a day. We use Dr. Brown bottles, burp them frequently, keep them propped while eating, etc... We're doing all the right things but the fact of the matter is that they just could care less about eating. They eat until they aren't hungry anymore instead of eating until their full. There are a couple things yet we could still do like thickening formula with rice cereal or changing formula. They have still be drinking the high calorie formula from the hospital days. Doc did give us the go ahead to change Leah and Caleb over to normal formula and use up the rest of the high cal stuff on Zachary. Once that's out, switch him over. Hopefully we'll see an improvement with their reflux once we've totally graduated from that formula. Leah uses a Nuk pacifier so we tried the Nuk bottles thinking she would eat better with those or spit up less. Nope. Still refused and kept collapsing the nipple. Not a big fan of those bottles. They say there is a venting system. If so, it doesn't work well at all.

Caleb is a great eater and is always enthusiastic about his bottle. The reason he is so much bigger than the other two is because he RARELY spits up and ALWAYS finishes his bottles...usually wanting more. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that we have ONE good eater out of three. Plus he doesn't burn many calories because he doesn't cry as much. We do feel bad though as he typically gets ignored after eating because we are concentrating on the other two. He's so good and just sits there looking around. So sweet.

Sleeping at night: I'm so relieved to say that two of the three babies are sleeping 12 hours at night. After the last feeding at 6pm, we put them all down and don't hear from Caleb or Leah until 12 hours later. Sometimes we even have to wake them up! I hate doing it but we've got a schedule to keep (see below if interested :) Some nights are better than others and they occasionally wake up and whine, but for the most part they stay put and sleep soundly. This is probably due, in large part, to the fact that they are wrapped SUPER tight. We really can't lay them down unwrapped because they are so accustomed to it and their arms wake them up if they twitch or touch their face. Not sure how we're going to wean off being swaddled. Any suggestions fellow bloggers? We did buy some muslin swaddle wraps because they are more breathable. We were coming in to some sweaty babies in the morning and worried they were overheating.

Like I mentioned before, Zachary still can't make up for a lost feeding at night so I still feed him around 1-2am and put him back to bed until 6am. We've been working hard on getting the babies to sleep better and have incorporated A LOT of routine to their bedtime feeding. This includes giving their vitamins and medications, bathing and lotioning, listening to soft music, turning the lights down, singing and rocking, sound machines to the same sound every night, and putting something soft next to their face. I believe in association and I know these babies associate all these things with sleeping for a long period of time. They have proved that. I hope Zachary starts eating more soon so we can eliminate his night feeding also. I have been staying true to Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and usually open the book once a day.

Napping: Naps are hit or miss. Sometimes they nap well, sometimes they don't. We encourage them to sleep as long as they will though. After one hour of sleeping, Caleb INEVITABLY wakes up and screams bloody murder. Inconsolable. We've tried everything. Now we just ignore him (he sleeps in our walk-in closet), he stops after about 10 minutes, and proceeds to sleep another 1.5-2 hours. So weird. Everyday it's the same thing though. Haven't quite figured it out. He's in the closet though because his scream wakes all the babies in the neighborhood. What's weird is that he doesn't do it at night.

Playing: As stated in the book mentioned above, 4 to 8 month babies usually can't tolerate more than 2 hours of wakefulness at any given time. Because the trio are still only 3 months developmentally, they are able to stay up no longer than 1.5 hours before getting grouchy and overtired. We try to do as much as we can with the babies while they are awake but be watching the clock as well so we know when to start winding down for a nap. While awake, they really like to lay under the activity mat, look at picture books, and play with their hands. They have lots of smiles when we play with them and are so much fun. I feel bad that they lay under the activity mat most of the day but they seem to like it and we can play with them all at the same time in the same place.


Here's a run down of our day...nothing exciting but for my own purposes I am recording what we do. Stop reading at this point if you're not interested.

6am: Declare the day, change diapers, prepare babies and boppies for bottles

6:15-7am: Give medication and begin feeding frenzy #1

7-7:30am: Lay under activity mat, help them practice standing and holding head up

7:30am: Lay all babies back down for a first nap, sometimes they fall asleep fast, sometimes they don't

8:30am: Listen for Caleb's high pitch, mid nap, screaming exactly one hour after being put down

8:30-9:30am: Walk back and forth to the bedrooms trying to encourage them to sleep and put the pacifiers in their mouths about 100 times

9:30-10am: Bring babies out as they wake up, lay them under activity mat, tummy time, play music

10-11am: Begin feeding frenzy #2 for the next hour

11:30am-12pm: Put all babies back down depending on who is tired first

12pm-2pm: Play the whole nap charade again with Caleb's screaming included

2-3pm: Begin feeding frenzy #3 for the next hour

3-3:30pm: Read books with them, show pictures, lay under activity mat, tummy time

3:30-4:30pm: Encourage babies to sleep so they can make it until the next feeding. Lots of times this third nap is the hardest and they all end up in the swing for a while. Lately we've been using this time for a walk since they won't sleep. Wash bottles during this time also.

4:30-4:45pm: Prepare night bottles, vitamins, and medication, prepare bedrooms with pacifiers, sound machines, lovies, blankets, etc... lay out pajamas, diapers, lotion for post-bath routine, and prepare boppies with burp clothes, bibs, and something to prop bottles.

4:45-5:15pm: Draw bath, undress babies, bath babies, take out one at a time to prepare for bottle

5:15-6:15pm: Give medications and vitamins, feed bottles, burp, wrap, soothe, rock, and sing to all three babies

6:15pm: Silence... (sometimes a baby is SO tired they take forever with their bottle and cry through the whole thing. So 6:15pm isn't always a for sure bedtime).

6:15-9:15pm: Pour next two bottles, mix more formula, cook, eat, shower, laundry, whatever...

9:30pm: Bed until Zachary eats at 1:30am