4 months and counting

Rebecca and Aunt Jen


From right before grandma and grandpa left 2 weeks ago:


My babies are 4 months old now! We took them to the pediatrician last week for their checkup (and shots). We were so excited that everyone is now off of the preemie charts and onto regular newborn growth charts. Emma's 14 lb 7 oz, and in the 75th percentile! Rebecca is 12 lb 4 oz, and Julie 12 lb 2 oz, and they are both around the 20th percentile. So, at 4 months, we've basically caught up to other 4 month olds. We're still a little behind developmentally, but catching up fast. The girls are developing good head control and will be rolling over and sitting up any day now.

Greg and I took the day off from work to take them to the pediatrician. By the time we got them to daycare, got to work, then turned around and went back to daycare to pick them up, take them to the dr ... It was just easier to take the day off. After we finished, we picked up some sandwiches and went to the park to eat, feed the girls, and go for a walk. A nice family afternoon.

Emma and I at the park.


My college roommates came for a visit over Memorial Day weekend to come see us and try to help me regain my sanity. We put a big dent in organizing the girls' clothes. They were starting to outgrow the newborn stuff (and, Emma's pretty much out of the 3 month stuff now, too) and I hadn't had a chance to sort through all of the stuff people have given us to try to find clothes that would fit. Poor Em kept ending up in clothes that are too small. So we're all organized again.

Isabelle and Courtney with Rebecca and Julie


Emma and mom


Isabelle and Julie


Courtney also baby sat for us last Saturday night so Greg and I got a date night to celebrate our anniversary (this past Friday). She was so brave! But it was really nice to get a night out.

Courtney took these while she was babysitting. They're just priceless! Julie's on the left, Becca's in the middle, and Emma is on the right.




Courtney and I with Rebecca, Julie, and Emma


Greg and I were home on Monday for Memorial Day, so after we dropped Courtney off at the airport, we decided to continue on another 30 minutes or so up the road to some outlets. (I say that like we all of a sudden just decided to go, when, in reality, it took quite a significant amount of planning.) The girls did great - actually, they slept most of the time. But feeding them was a bit of a challenge because we had pop up storms all day. But people were really getting on my nerves. I know we are quite a sight when we all go out, but the comments were just non-stop. People were like following us around in stores. We're not a freak show. When someone started touching Julie, I about lost it. Greg and I split up for the most part after that to try to not attract quite so much attention. It just amazes me how people think they have a right to invade our privacy. Part of me just wanted to yell "I'm here to spend time with my family, not answer strangers' questions!" I suppose we'll be battling this for a while.

Rebecca is still full of smiles. One of the things that puts the biggest smile on her face is this bright yellow warning label on the inside of her car seat. Whenever we put her in the car seat, she looks for it and gets this big grin on her face. She'll stare at it for quite a while. She also has discovered the bear toy hanging from her car seat, and that will bring smiles to her face. She also really seems to like these flowers that hang from the canopy of the pack-n-play; she can see them from the changing table part of the pack-n-play and they seem to calm her down. And everybody is obsessed with the mobiles these days - they just love them! Mobiles can make tears go away.

Baby Bex




Miss Julie is still our Chatty Cathy. She loves to stare at your face and talk and talk and talk. We finally bought a mirror that attaches to her crib, and she seems to like it. I can't tell if it isn't getting her all worked up sometimes, though. She is doing really well with her head control and trying to hold herself up. She has been sitting up in the Bumbo seat and does great with her head. Plus, she looks so cute in it.

Baby Jules


Julie in the Bumbo - - she does really well in it!


Miss Emma is currently obsessed with her fists. She's been trying to gnaw on them and get them in her mouth for a few weeks now, and has just recently figured out how to suck her thumb. And she's at it all the time now. She won't take a pacifier unless she's really tired and about to fall asleep. Other than that, though, she's pretty content right now unless her diaper is dirty. She loves attention, but she can also keep herself pretty entertained (with her thumb, of course). On Thursday morning, we noticed her repeatedly swinging at the Moose toy that hangs from her car seat - she kept hitting its feet over and over. It's the first time we've seen her swing at a toy what seemed to be intentionally.

Baby Ems

Just a few notes from around here

Whew, another weekend, and I'm just exhausted.

Greg's parents, who had been with us for the last month, left on Saturday, so we are officially on our own now for the first time since before the girls were born. It's been about 36 hours, and everyone is still alive. I won't claim that Greg and I both got showers this weekend, but the girls got their baths.

We were bold and ventured out to Panera for dinner last night. We knew it would be empty and thought it would be a safe choice. We loaded up the girls right after they ate, and took the double stroller and carried one of the car seats. The girls did great - better than I had expected. Emma was awake and happy the whole time. Rebecca spent a lot of the time talking to the bear hanging from her car seat handle, and then fell asleep. Julie was asleep when we got there, and looked a little concerned when she woke up, but no screams. The only time they got cranky was in the car on the way home. A success.

Rebecca has been full of smiles for us lately. So darn sweet. She's been holding out on us.

Julie spent a lot of time staring at Rebecca this afternoon and trying to talk to her.

We split the girls up this weekend to try to continue to make progress on sleeping through the night. Emma was sleeping in our room for the last week, and was pretty much sleeping through the night. She'd wake up around 4 or 5. We moved her back to the nursery this weekend, and she's been sleeping easily until 6. We hear some noises throughout the night, but no screaming for food. I spent the weekend with Julie in the pack-n-play in our bedroom, and she slept until 5:30-6:00 both nights without waking me up in the middle of the night. Greg had it a bit rougher with Rebecca, downstairs in the pack-n-play. She has been up both nights screaming in the middle of the night around 3 or 4 (the feeding used to be @ 3). So, Emma and Julie are both pretty much officially sleeping through the night (now that I typed that I'm afraid I'm going to jinx it), but Rebecca's not quite there yet.

My First Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was great. It was a beautiful day, and we decided to go one town south for a picnic lunch. It could have gone horribly wrong - but the girls did great. We got there, ate lunch, and then let the girls stretch out on the ground for a while.

Some pictures...

Becca


The fam

Emma

Rebecca

Julie

Mom and Julie, with a big smile on her face

Mom and Emma

Mom and Rebecca

Feeding time with Grandpa

Good things come in threes...

... as we know. :)

But I'm hoping the broken things stop at 4.

In the last 2 weeks we've broken:

• the handle on the lawn mower, which had already been fixed once.  We now own a new lawn mower.  The old one was an old Honda that came with the house - the engine definitely outlasted the body!  Greg likes to say that we didn't get a free lawn mower with the house, we got a 30 year payment plan on the lawn mower.  It's lasted for over 5 years, so I guess we shouldn't complain.
• the track lighting in the kitchen.  I believe the transformer had to be replaced, but considering my complete lack of knowledge on electricity, I could be making that up.
• the vacuum cleaner.  Think it needs a new belt.  (That's what Greg says.  I'm not mechanical, either.)

So, to top it off, on the way to work, a huge rock hit the windshield of the wagon... you know, the only car that we all fit in?

Oh, this has got to stop.

I was thinking about taking bets on what will go next, but I don't want to jinx it.  We rely awfully heavily on the fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine these days.

Where we're at these days

Long time, no post! I guess it's pretty obvious to say that we have been busy.

My mom was here since the week before I delivered up through the middle of April, helping us take care of the girls around the clock. Greg's parents are with us now, and are keeping the girls during the day (and night!) since I started back at work about 3 weeks ago now. Knowing that the girls were at home with family definitely eased the transition back to work; we start daycare on Monday and I'm still a bit nervous. Overall, though, going back to work has been good for me. I really really needed to get out of the house, as I think I was about to go crazy there for a while. Plus, I shower regularly now.

A group shot just before my parents left. Greg has Rebecca, I have Julie, and my mom has Emma. Can you see Julie's hair sticking up?


This is a group shot. Poor Rebecca in the middle! (Julie on the left, Emma on the right)


The girls are doing really well! Emma is unofficially up to 15 lbs as of Friday night, which explains why those diapers have seemed a bit snug lately. She also slept through the night for the first time on Friday night, with a repeat performance last night! She ate at 9, went to sleep by 10, woke up at 4:30 whimpering and then went back to sleep. We had to wake her up to eat at 6 both mornings! Hopefully the other 2 aren't far behind. We have put her in the pack-n-play in our bedroom at night so Julie and Rebecca don't wake her up. I think we'll end up separating them like that until they are all sleeping through the night consistently.

Emma loves to be awake and looking around. She does not like being bored. She studies things. And Emma loves to eat! We knew she was ready to sleep through the night when she wasn't finishing those middle-of-the-night bottles. She holds her head up pretty well these days, and also likes to stand up if you hold her. She's thinking about rolling over- turning her head, and nearly getting on her side. Her favorite things right now (besides eating) are grabbing my hair (which I finally got cut), sitting in the bouncy seat, and going for walks around the house.

Some pictures of Emma:





Julie is up to about 11.5 lbs now. And she loves to talk! She loves to stare at faces, and then she'll start cooing and babbling. Her grandparents said she caught sight of herself in the mirror over the baby papasan chair the other day and started talking to herself. :) Julie only has 2 volumes though - her cute babbling and her ear-piercing screams. And she can alternately seamlessly between the two. I guess she gets mad when she doesn't have anyone to talk to. Luckily the screams don't last for very long. Julie also loves to smile, and tends to do it while she is talking to you.

Some pictures of Julie:





Rebecca is also at about 11.5 lbs these days. She definitely has the most hair of any of her sisters! Rebecca is usually a pretty mellow baby, but she tends to get really cranky around 7:30 each night. Greg found one way to soothe her, though - - take her outside and walk around the front yard. Of course, she gets even crankier when you have to come back in (the bugs were biting!). Besides being outside, Rebecca loves to look at her sisters and play with her own hands.

Some pictures of Rebecca:





And just a few more pictures:

Julie and Rebecca with Grandma and Grandpa



Julie (on the left) and Rebecca waiting patiently while we eat dinner. Yes, Rebecca is trying to wear her bib like a cape. We like to spice it up around here sometimes.

Weights at 2 months 18 days

Ooops, never posted this from nearly a month ago...

Emma: 10 lb 13 oz

Rebecca: 9 lb 7 oz

Julie: 8 lb 15 oz