Solid Food, Round 1

We used to be able to feed the girls their 6am bottles on the weekend, and then get them to go back to sleep for at least another hour or so. Getting back in bed was always our weekend treat. But lately, those ladies have different ideas, and are apparently on to our plan of trying to get more sleep. So, last Saturday, I thought it would be a good time to start introducing rice cereal, hoping to buy us a few more minutes of sleep.

Julie loved it. She slurps it up, but doesn't quite understand that it's not a bottle - - so she gets frustrated that she can't eat as fast as she wants to.





Emma's not quite sold on the idea. I think she's holding out for something better.






Rebecca could take it or leave it. She's not crazy about sitting up in the Bumbo chair, and she kind of leans, which makes it hard to feed her.





Because I know it's coming, I started making baby food last weekend, too. So far, we've got sweet potatoes, squash, apples, pears, avocado, banana, and watermelon in the freezer. I am buying some jarred stuff for convenience, but will hopefully be able to make a big chunk of it ... because we're going to go through so much... It was a little intimidating at first, but it's actually not bad at all. And I am strangely satisfied by watching the food processor puree stuff. The food processor has been used more in the last week than it has in the last 4 years.

Some sweet potato and squash:


Greg's sister was also here with us last weekend, cooking and helping us take care of the girls.

Becca with her Aunt Jen:


And just some more random pictures:

Becca fascinated with the ruffles on the side of the bouncy seat.


Julie and I


Becca in the exersaucer:

Trying not to go a month without a post again

Swimming was on the agenda for the last weekend in June. We got a little inflatable pool (that's big enough for all of us to get in, since the girls can't sit up yet), let it warm in the sun all day, and then took the girls to test it out late in the afternoon.
Rebecca

Emma and Julie
We had waited until the pool was in the shade (since the girls still aren't supposed to be in direct sun, or wear sunscreen), and as we were going outside, we noticed that it was clouding over. After about 10 minutes or so, the girls had had enough, so we started getting ready to go inside ... and sure enough it started raining. Then, "Was that thunder?" "Yeah." So we scrambled, but of course all safe and sound.

My brother Steve and his girlfriend Stephanie came to visit us for the 4th of July weekend, to meet the girls. It's still so weird to think of my brothers as uncles. It never occurred to me, throughout my whole pregnancy. It wasn't until a few days after they were born, and as weird as it was to adjust to being a parent, it was almost weirder to think of my brothers as uncles.

Rebecca and Uncle Steve

Julie and Uncle Steve

Uncle Steve and Emma

Steve and Steph with Emma and Rebecca

Steve and Steph did great with the girls, and even let us get out of the house for a couple of hours on Friday to get some dinner and go to Costco. We just hung around the house on the 4th and did some grilling. We turned on the fireworks on tv later, but I don't think anyone really watched them.

Julie, Emma, Rebecca.  I don't think Rebecca trusts us.
Steve and I
Steph, Steve, and Becca
Greg grillin'

We also tried swimming again on the 4th.  Julie was not interested this time, and just started screaming.  Steph took her and walked around with her for a while.

Greg with Becca

Emma and Rebecca

Julie and Steph

Look at those tears!

Julie tends to get over tired, and then really fussy, which just makes her even more tired, which makes her more fussy ... it's a vicious cycle. One of the things that calms her down? Dad singing the Pink Panther theme to her. (Last night I resorted to putting her in the car seat and driving around for 20 minutes.)

Emma was the first to figure out the toy hanging from her car seat - when you pull on the moose's legs, he rattles and retracts back up.  Now we hear that in the car all the time.  (She taught Rebecca to do it.)  It weird to feel like I taught her that - a few weeks ago while we were eating lunch while out shopping, I grabbed her hand a bunch of times and helped her pull.  And a few days later, she was doing it on her own.  Completely different than my futile attempts of trying to teach the cats to use the scratching post. 

Rebecca rolled from her back to her belly last Sunday, so now all 3 of them have rolled in both directions. I think they're still sort of surprised when they do it, judging by the looks on their faces.  She seems to be absorbing things like a sponge lately - from the hanging toy on her car seat, to really starting to reach for toys.

Rebecca asleep on her side

The best thing ever.

Emma giggles now, and it's the best thing ever.

All patriotic

The triplets hope you had a happy 4th of July!

Long Overdue

Wow, I don't know if I've ever gone so long without blogging. No posts at all in June?!? The longer time goes on, a blog update just seems to be a bigger and bigger task, and then ends up getting pushed down lower on the list. So this may be long. Bear with me.

I battled a cold that started like allergies for about 2 weeks. I probably picked it up from Julie, since she was the first to become congested. Of course we all ended up with it. To add to the fun, I melted cough drops in my pants pocket somehow. And it made a huge sticky mess that eventually fused my pocket together. And then I forgot and put the pants on again later in the week.

I got mistaken for a teenager a few weeks ago at "take your kid to work" day; perhaps the glare of the sunlight off of my gray hairs temporarily blinded the security guard, as she chased after me to tell me I couldn't go through the gate when Greg and I left for lunch.

Greg and I have been putting way too much energy into doing battle with the insurance company. We are finally close to resolving the issue of the neonatologists at the hospital not being in network. Yeah. Crazy. Like we had a choice. If the girls were born anywhere else, they would have been transferred - it's the only level 3 NICU around. The hospital and nurses were in network, but the neonatologists are their own practice employed by the hospital. We are, however, no closer to resolving the issue of our out-of-pocket maximum being met; it's a joint medical-prescription out-of-pocket max. But, that would require the insurance company communicating with the prescription drug company. And it's not working. No matter who I call.

At the end of May (so the girls were a little over 4 months), we went and had some pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. The girls did really well, and didn't really get cranky until the very end. Some highlights:

From L to R, Julie, Rebecca, Emma

Rebecca

Julie

Emma

Emma & Julie

Emma

Julie

Rebecca

Julie, Emma, Rebecca.  I don't think Em appreciated being in the middle...

Julie, Rebecca (in yellow), Emma


All 3 girls are sleeping through the night now, probably for over a month now, and all 3 cribs are in the nursery. The problem, though, is that they don't all choose to sleep through the night on the same night. Maybe 2 or 3 nights a week they'll all sleep. But usually someone is either up early or wakes up in the middle of the night. And yet still a million times better than it was.

We managed to make it out of the house in early June for a picnic for my department at work. It went well, though feeding 3 babies and trying to grab something to eat doesn't leave much room for socializing. I am very lucky for how well it has worked out being back full time, and am lucky for the flexibility I have in my job. Not to mention just thankful for a job in this economy...

Julie and I at the picnic:

We haven't been brave enough to take them all out anywhere else recently. We do have a rule, though, that if you are leaving the house, you have to take a baby with you (so that whoever is at home only has 2), so we have been trying to get them out to the grocery store, running errands, etc. Babies need input. :)

Our poor dishwasher:

A self family portrait:

And of course we celebrated Greg's first Father's Day. We thought about doing a picnic, but it was blazing hot that weekend. Then we considered a brunch picnic, but it rained that morning! So Julie and I went out and got some bagels and the newspaper and we had a picnic in the living room. It did clear up later, though, so we got some daddy pictures for Father's Day.

Emma

Rebecca

Julie

We bought an exersaucer a few weeks ago, after getting a note that Emma was really enjoying the one at daycare. (We of course had a guard kitty when the box came.)

(She also guards diapers.)

All the girls have been trying it out.

Julie

Rebecca

Even on the lowest setting, they are all still a little bit too short for their feet to reach. We put some phone books on the bottom ... but then Julie discovered that the phone books were more fun than the exersaucer...

I think Julie still won...

Julie was the first to roll over, starting about 2 weeks ago. One night, she went back to belly, and the very next night she went belly to back. She hasn't been rolling a ton since then. Mostly she gets up on her side and gets about 3/4 over and then comes back. She woke up congested on a Friday about 3 weeks ago, and being new parents, Greg stayed home with her and took her to the doctor. She's fine - no fever, no ear infection, etc. But that was the start of my cold, and now all 3 girls are still sharing this congestion/coughing thing. Julie's our champion sleeper. I don't think she has waken up in the middle of the night since she started sleeping through.

Julie pictures:

Julie in bunny slippers

Reading the comics with dad

Julie and dad

Rebecca has been very talkative! One of her teachers at day care wrote a note a few weeks ago on her daily update sheet that said "I love talking to her!" She smiles a lot, too, and really likes to smile at her sisters when she sees them. We took Rebecca to the opthamologist last month, because her eyes had been lazy and crossing since birth. It has definitely gotten much better, but we wanted to make sure there wasn't anything to worry about, and of course there wasn't - she got a clean bill of health. She's still just growing and developing to overcome her prematurity. And we're beginning to realize that Becca is on her own timetable. She's perfectly normal, just very relaxed and easy going. We started to worry around 3 months when she wasn't smiling and trying to talk like Emma and Julie, but sure enough, she now talks and smiles as much, if not more, than her sisters. Rebecca rolled from her belly to her back on Father's Day, and wants desperately to go from back to belly. She gets up on her side all the time and yells and yells as she tries to get over. It'll be soon.

after the eye dr.

Rebecca (on left) and Julie

Rebecca (on left) and Julie working on tummy time

Kind of a bad hair day for Bex

Emma has pretty much given up the pacifier for her thumb. And when she can, it's double thumbs. :) She had been seeming kind of grumpy for a while, like in those portraits we had taken, I don't think there's one where she is smiling. But in the last couple of weeks, she has been the happiest, smiliest baby ever. She gets these big cute goofy grins on her face that can't help but make you get a big goofy grin on yours. She didn't really seem all that interested in rolling over, but she went from her belly to her back last weekend, and just went from back to belly on Friday. She seemed more like she was going to crawl before she rolled, but when she saw her sisters, she must've changed her mind.

Emma pictures:

Emma and Rebecca

Em in the swing with Sophie the Giraffe

Em in the Bumbo with Sophie

My brother Steven and his girlfriend Stephanie are with us for the weekend, so more pictures coming soon! It's so nice to see them, and of course to have the extra hands. We aren't doing much for the 4th, beyond cooking burgers and corn on the grill. And we've been eating watermelon all day. I made some fresh squeezed lemonade yesterday, and I think it has ruined me on lemonade forever. So good!

Happy 4th of July!

Julie, Rebecca, Sophie, and Emma