MoreThanWeExpected.com: July 2008 Archives

Gwen welcomed her second birthday with her typical gusto! We had a party (nothing like her first birthday party, which is more of a celebration for the parents, and was more party than I wanted to tackle at this point) with just family, and Gwen was, of course, in rare form. There was a Carvel cake, Elmo mylar balloons and lots of presents! Tony's parents gave her a swing set and my parents gave her a play house to add to the endless outdoor play-land adventures; but of course, she'll have to share with her brother and sisters next year. Her aunts, uncles and cousins bought her numerous toys which she needed, believe it or not; since she loves books so much she has more books than toys and the toys she does have are mostly for babies. She is having a blast playing with her new dolls, tea party set (she mistakenly got three but we kept two, one for outdoors and one for indoors) and My Little Ponies. I'm sure we'll look like a daycare center in no time, seeing as how that's practically what we're running here, LOL. Gwen also got a big girl bed and pretty new mermaid bedding from Mommy and Daddy but isn't quite ready for it yet. She climbed out of her crib once, prompting us to get her a bed for safety's sake (not to mention that we need her crib for other babies), but she hasn't been a very good girl about going to sleep at bedtime and we fear there would be shenanigans going on all night if she didn't have those boundaries; we'll hold off for now and come back to it when it becomes an issue again.

Other than growing up and being adorable, Gwen has developed quite the bratty streak, um, I mean strong personality. I’ve heard that girls are nothing at two years old compared to how they are at four years old so I’m starting to think I’m screwed. (My payback for my own childhood? No way, I was a sweetheart!) We’ve been trying to set some boundaries (with tantrums as a result almost every time) but are also careful about picking and choosing our battles. She’s very independent and strong willed (gee, I wonder where she gets that from? he-he) so we are trying not to crush her spirit but without caving in on our parenting duties. When she wants to bring a toy to the dinner table we let her otherwise she wouldn’t eat; however, if playing takes president over eating the toys are gone; if she continues to throw a crying/screaming fit and not eat she gets down and goes hungry. No wonder she’s so thin… She’s learning to lie and manipulate (crucial social developments they say, but even at two years old??) to get what she wants or to get around our rules, such as pretending the lamp she’s not supposed to touch is a sugar bowl (pretend sugar she sprinkles into her pretend coffee) just so she can touch it without getting yelled at. While it cracks me up and is wicked cute, we’ve had to become increasingly strict in order to combat her quasi-naughtiness. I never wanted to be, but am becoming one of those “No!”/“Don’t touch that!” parents. SIGH…

She loves her brother and sisters and is always playing with them and helping them (giving them toys or pacifiers or talking to them when they cry). A couple of times now she has brought one of them a toy and demands, “Baby, play, me, now.” One time she brought the girls blocks and said “Nor (Nora), Teh (Tess), play block?” Adorable! She’s going to be quite the control freak/leader of the pack. (I wonder where she gets that from too? LOL)

Gwen had her check-up at the doctor and is very healthy. She is tall and thin, she only weighs 26.5 pounds but is 36" tall, putting her in the 50th percentile for weight and the 94th percentile for height. She hates going to the doctor now since she remembers the shots but she'll get used to it and the less of a deal we make it out to be the more quickly she'll come to think it's no big deal. She only got one shot today and won’t have any more until she’s 4 so that’ll help too.

I’m not typically one of those parents that brags about how “advanced” their child is but our pediatrician told us that Gwen is very smart and is understanding and applying complex reading and mathematical skills for her age. Apparently, it’s not typical for a two year old to not only count to 15, but to understand that each item she’s counting has a separate value (I didn’t realize there was a difference?! LOL). Also, Gwen not only knows her ABC’s but also the phonetic sound each letter makes (with a few exceptions), which is also very advanced. We were a little worried about her speech (while she knows and uses hundreds of words she tends to shorten longer ones down so that she only has to say them in one syllable – ie banana becomes “nan” and monkey becomes “mon”) but were reassured that her vocabulary is also advanced and that she probably wouldn’t know so many words if she spent time learning how to correctly pronounce each one. The pediatrician said at this point it’s more just habit for her and gave us some tips on breaking her of it; by next year she expects Gwen to be able to carry on a conversation like two adults would. I’m so proud that she’s so smart and self-sufficient already. I am a little surprised at it all because I have the mind-set that kids should be kids while they can, and while we point out learning opportunities we never make them our priority or focus our time together on them. This kid is just a sponge!

Enough bragging, right? LOL Here are some pictures showcasing her birthday and highlighting the last few months. She’s such a big girl now…

Birthday Party Pictures!:

The next morning Gwen went straight for her new dolls, Gisselle and Nadia (aka Fairy), and commanded me to take pictures of them. She got quite a kick out of seeing the pictures afterward and talked about Nadia’s pretty hair. They now do everything with her (there’s even pasta mashed into Nadia’s hair from where Gwen was making her “eat” dinner off her plate). She loves those dolls! Good job, Aunt Maureen, Uncle Joe and Meagan!

From a lot of these pictures it’s easy to see that Gwen desperately needed a haircut. In an effort to avoid the “baby mullet” I’ve been trimming the back all along while it fills out, while trying not to cut in bangs. I figured at some point I’d just be able to pin the front out of her eyes with a barrette. HAHAHA! Gwen is more me than I expected and barrettes make it a mere 10 minutes before being ripped out and thrown to the floor. I admitted defeat and after trimming up the length I cut in some bangs. It’s not too shabby.

The kids are doing great, already 5 months old (4 months old corrected) now! Tony and I have been talking about how neat it is to see their personalities as they start to develop because each one is so different. They are all reaching exciting milestones, just all at different times, so it’s fun to see who can do what first. For instance, Nora and Holden both jibber-jabber A LOT but Tess does not; Tess and Nora can grab their toes but Holden can not (his limbs are short and stocky); Tess has developed severe stranger anxiety but Nora and Holden could go either way; Tess can blow raspberries and spit bubbles all day while Nora can only do it once in a while and Holden can’t at all; all three of them are laughing, passing toys from hand to hand, reaching, grasping, and trying to crawl (they inch themselves halfway across the room and I don’t even see them do it), but no one can sit up yet. I have been testing their bottle holding abilities but since we use glass they’re a little heavier and it may be a while longer. Damn; I’m still waiting for that one! :-)

I’ve been trying to get them on a napping schedule as they had been cat-napping throughout the day up until last week. Knowing that Gwen will be staying home with me starting in September, I thought it best to make all major changes to the kids’ schedules prior to. We are trying a 2 hour nap after breakfast, a 2 hour nap after brunch and a 30-minute to 1 hour nap after lunch (which they are still taking while hanging out in swings after eating). This will allow me many opportunities: private time for Gwen and I to play, setting up the day’s bottles, working out, showering, eating lunch, feeding Gwen, etc. Most importantly, it will get the kids used to napping in their cribs for longer periods of time which will result in them napping better now and as they grow up. We’re still in the early stages so the kinks are being worked out (and Tess isn’t taking as well to it as Nora and Holden are) but like everything else, I will stick it out and hopefully it will all fall into place soon.

Another big change we’re working on is switching their formula. They have been on special preemie formula since birth (which has 22 calories per ounce; standard formula only has 20 calories per ounce) but once they turn 6 months old our insurance will no longer cover it so we have to transition them onto a standard formula. Also, I have been dying to get them onto Nestle Good Start Supreme Natural Cultures formula before starting solids. (Recent research has shown that babies who are breast fed are less likely to develop food allergies due to the fact that it is easy to digest and protects the intestinal lining as it matures. The Nestle Good Start Natural Cultures incorporates probiotics, which we all know have been shown to increase intestinal health and appear naturally in breast milk. Yes, I sound like a commercial but I swear it works. Gwen was on the Good Start Supreme after weaning and she never had a problem transitioning. The Good Start is the closest thing to breast milk, hands down. The proof is in the diaper: since we started transitioning the triplets onto the Good Start their poops have changed, becoming more like that of a breast fed baby. Also, since the Good Start is made with partially broken down proteins, it does not stain or stink like other formulas. I should buy stock in Nestle; I don’t know why more companies don’t take advantage of these scientific advances in their formulas.) Our pediatrician gave us the OK to start transitioning them as long as we mixed the Good Start rich to incorporate the extra 2 calories per ounce that were being lost by not using the preemie formula. The mathematical equation I was given was 1 and 3/4 scoops for every 2 ounces of water (typically you would only put one scoop into 2 ounces of water) which I have been using for the last three weeks, but have questioned more than once as it was almost doubling the amount of formula you’re supposed to use. When I weighed the kids, as I do every few weeks, I found that each of them had gained approximately 2 pounds in 3 weeks, which is a lot! As I thought it through, all the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place… the kids have decreased their individual formula intake from 30-32 ounces to 21-24 ounces, their poops had become harder and they were peeing less, and they had gained a lot of weight in a small period of time. I had my mathematician husband do the math and he found that instead of getting 22 calories per ounce they were getting 35!!! (The equation should have been written as 1 scoop of formula to 1 and 3/4 ounces of water, an honest mistake when you’re seeing four kids in the same room in an hour.) I quickly called the doctor who said it wouldn’t hurt them that they were getting so many extra calories and that I could just decrease the amount we were mixing in back to 22 calories or, at this point, mix the formula regularly as their weight is no longer a health issue. So I am spending this week with three very hungry, confused kids as I take their caloric intake down a few pegs each day. Once they consistently consume 28-32 ounces again we will have to start cereal so I’m hoping I can have them on the Good Start a little while longer before going down that road. For crying out loud they can’t even sit up, how are they going to eat off a spoon? LOL By the way, for those who were curious, Holden weighed 14.14, Nora 14.13, and Tess 14.10.

Here are some new pictures! Again, I gave a description to each picture to identify who is who. Enjoy!!! :-)