Easter!!! 

So here I am at square one, about to start sorting through the thousands of pictures I took since March, and to start posting again.  The posts might be short, but I promise to make them sweet!  There is a lot to cover and a lot to catch everyone up on, not to mention A LOT of pictures!  And tons of new DSLR pretty ones!  :)   Please be patient while I work on getting everything up; it may be a week or two, but I promise to do it.  Cross my heart.  :)

So let’s get to it!!!  Talk to you all soon!!!  YAY!

Tess is 21 lb, 9 oz (57th %) / 2' 6.5" (88th %) / 46 cm head circumference (75th %)
Nora is 21 lb, 13 oz (61st %) / 2' 6" (76th %) / 46 cm head circumference (75th %)
Holden is 20 lb, 2 oz (12th %) / 2' 4.5" (11th %) / 47 cm head circumference (67th %)

Each of them has tripled their weight and height since birth, which is exactly where they should be.

Tess is starting to babble A LOT, and starting to try to form words, and copy us when we say things.  She did say her first real word, one that blew us away as it was a two syllable, 7 letter word…

Without further ado, here they are…  80 pictures this time; out of ~600.  Let’s get to it, since that’s what you all really want, and the faster I get this post finished the more quickly I can move onto catching up on the rest of Spring, LOL!

Here are the pictures from their very first birthday!!!  It was a great, though intimate family-only, celebration.  The pictures are way cute, so enjoy!  Who doesn’t love pictures of little kids covered in cake???  : )

Okay, milestones…

Tess is: clapping, pointing, saying mamma and dadda, saying other incoherent babblings including consonant sounds, reaching her arms up to be picked up, giving kisses, stacking objects, putting things inside a box or similar item then taking the things out of the box or similar item and repeating if necessary, eating finger foods, dancing, waving bye-bye,  bringing me things she wants to initiate play with (like a blankie for peek-a-boo, or a stuffed animal so that I can make the appropriate animal noises and make the animal kiss/tickle her, or feeding me pretend plastic food and then taking a “bite” herself and then feeding me again, or she’ll come over to me and straddle my ankle and then bounce a couple times so that I know she wants me to bounce her up and down – that one blew my mind the first couple of times she did it), oh, and she’s walking.  She has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

The High Five...

More Tess Walking

Nora is: pointing, saying mamma and dadda, reaching her arms up to be picked up, giving kisses, stacking objects, putting things inside a box or similar item then taking the things out of the box or similar item and repeating if necessary, eating finger foods, waving bye-bye,  bringing me things she wants to initiate play with (all the same stuff as Tess; Nora actually “fed” me with one of the plastic spoons from the kitchen once – so cute!) , and she’s walking too.  In fact, she was the first one to walk (Tess was the last) and is practically running now.  She does pacing laps back and forth in the living room, sometimes waving her arms in the air gorilla-attack-style.  It’s hilarious to see.  She has 6 teeth right now too, the same 4 on top and 2 on bottom as Tess.  Also, she said “nite nite” (well, it was more like “nye nye”, to be honest) once, while waving to me as Tony was bringing her up to bed.

Nora's First Steps!

This next one's a little longer, just over 2 minutes, because the video started out as Holden doing something cute that he didn't end up doing, so you don't see Nora walking until about 30 seconds in. She does a great job though, taking 20-30 steps to get from Tony's recliner all the way over to the chair I was sitting in! The other two are trying to catch on and are taking risky launches to walk; it's like a competition! :)

Holden is: saying early variations of mamma and dadda, reaching his arms up to be picked up, giving kisses, stacking objects, eating finger foods like a pro, bringing me things he wants to initiate play with (all the same stuff as Tess and Nora; he likes for me to put things on the top of his head to wear like a hat, like a play kitchen pot or a FP Little People Bed or even a block – he sits perfectly still and thinks it’s hilarious), walking (but not as well as the girls; it’s taking him longer to get good at it, I think because of his stature – bowed legs and pigeon toes), and climbing everything he comes into contact with (I’ve found him on the gates, on the toys, on his sisters, on the furniture, and about five times at the top of the stairs).  This little shit is going to be the death of me.  Or at least keep my hairdresser in business with dye jobs.  He just got his 2 top front teeth in the last week, so he has 4 in total now, but there is another bottom tooth making it’s way in.  And lastly, the other day he said “light.”  Again, it was poorly pronunciated, something like, “ite,” but it was adorable none the less.  We’ll see if it was a mimicking fluke, or if he starts saying it more and I can count it as his first word!!!

I apologize that this video is so long; I think it's about 5 minutes in total... I don't know how to edit videos.  BUT, 2:20 seconds in, Holden walks!!

Holden's First Steps!

Gwen is doing great staying at home, though a few times she has gone to Jackie’s house for the day, which she loves (so do I!).  It gives her a change of pace and she gets to see Jackie and her family, plus spend time playing with Emily.  She’s talking up a storm now, asking lots of questions.  The other day while it was snowing and we were having breakfast, she asked about the snow and icicles.  I told her that the snow sticks to the top of our house and when it gets warmer outside the snow starts to melt; when that happens the snow drips off our house and when it gets cold again at night the dripping turns into an icicle.  Her response was, “Yeah, snow melts and makes water.”  She’s so smart!!  She’s started fibbing, which is an important milestone, and does so by blaming naughty things she did on the babies, or by saying that she wasn’t standing on the toy box when I was right there and saw her standing on it.  She is starting to push my buttons more and more as she matures into pre-schooler-hood.  Not just with the fibbing and the “Me help you, Momma?” and the “What you doing, Mamma?”  She whines and cries a lot to try and get her own way, and after I started ignoring it she’s started re-strategizing.  Now she says she’s “sick",  LOL.  “Me feel sick, Mommy.  Me no take nap.”  Or, “Me feel sick.  Me don’t want to eat my sandwich.”  Of course, if asked if she wants chips or chocolate what do you think her answer is?  “Yeah”, of course!  LOL  She’s hilarious.  And Queen of the Castle… or so she thinks.  :)

Okay, enough, enough, of the boring talk, let’s see the pictures, right?  LOL  We’ll be going to the pediatrician’s office for a well-visit after the triplets’ 1st birthday (I can’t believe they will be 1 in 3 weeks!!!) so I will post more stories and all their updated stats then.  Here you go, the last 2 months in pictures:

December

          ,              

January

As Holden got more daring and acrobatic with his climbing attempts, I began researching safer ways to satiate him (so he didn’t kill himself, and I didn’t feel like killing him).  Enter the Step 2 Kangaroo Climber.  Some of the other triplet mommies recommended it, having used it for their own monkeys.  I found one on Craig’s List for $50, which is $80 cheaper than if we had purchased it brand new.  It was used outdoors, so I had to suck it up and clean off a LOT of spider egg sacks and lots of dirt, but it was worth the effort.  It came out great, and the kids totally love it!  I only pull it out a couple times a day for an hour or two, first so it seems more interesting (you know how kids are – leave something out for 2 weeks and they are totally bored with it), and second so the living room is still livable the majority of the time.  It takes up a good chunk of space but just look at how much fun they have with it ~

See ya next time!!!  :)

Born July 1st, 2006 at 7:46 pm, she weighed 9 lbs., 1 oz. and was 21.5" long.

Her APGAR scores were 8/9.

Gwen was always a big baby, which was evident even before she was born.

THE TRIPLETS

~ TESS OLIVIA (aka Baby A) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:55 am, she weighed 4 lbs., 14 oz. and was 17.9" long.  Her APGAR scores were 6/7.

Tess was the lead baby, at the bottom of the uterus, and therefore was the weakest because she bore the weight of her sister and brother for 8 months.  Tess began her life in the real world on a C-Pap machine for apnea in the Elliot Hospital's NICU where she gained weight and got strong enough to come home just 2 days after her little brother and sister, on March 13th, 2008.

~ NORA PAIGE (aka Baby B) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:56 am, she weighed 5 lbs., 8 oz. and was 18.5" long.  Her APGAR scores were 7/8.

Nora is Tess' identical twin but spent most of her time in utero hanging out with Holden.  She was the biggest and strongest baby but also needed help breathing and was on an C-Pap machine for apnea and needed some photo-therapy for jaundice a few days after she was born.  She did great in the Elliot's NICU and came home March 10th, 2008, exactly two weeks after being born.

~ HOLDEN ANTHONY (aka Baby C) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:57 am, he weighed 4 lbs., 13 oz. and was 17.9" long.  His APGAR scores were 7/8.

Holden was the most active in utero and was no exception after being born.  He was the only one I heard cry in the delivery room and needed the least amount of oxygen supplementation and help breathing as his apnea episodes were infrequent and often self corrected.  Holden did have jaundice and needed to spend several days under the UV lamps while it improved.  Holden spent his time with his sisters in the NICU but overcame his jaundice and his apnea to come home on March 10th, 2008.

My belly stretched to planetary proportions; believe it or not I was actually all belly, not much fat (well, not much fatter than when I started anyway, LOL).  Here is what I looked like, at around 33 - 34 weeks, about 1 week before going into labor.  I would never have shared this picture with the world as I think it's a little personal but since my mother has shown pictures of my belly progressing to gigantism to everyone she's come in contact with since I got pregnant it's a moot point.  Oddly enough she thinks breast pumps and nipple shields should be kept private but my naked belly is good enough to share with strangers at the grocery store.

So in planning my first Thanksgiving feast at my own home, I realized I was in way over my head.  Besides, I would miss all my mom’s perfect Thanksgiving food!  She is the best cook ever, unless she burns something, LOL.  After a lot of discussion, she decided to sleep at our house on Wednesday night and help me prepare, clean, cook and share her secrets.  Wednesday night she made the stuffing (my favorite!) and we brined the turkey and made our pies.  The next morning she woke up at the crack of dawn with us to feed the babies and we got to work, cleaning and stuffing the bird, which mostly she did alone because I can’t stand touching meat.  Most of the time when I make suppers I have to listen to the radio or gaze out the window and let my mind wander so I don’t gag while cleaning up regular chicken or pork chops.  After we got the turkey in, we worked on squash, mashed potatoes, carrots, and of course, the green bean casserole.  My dad came early and then my brothers and we sat down around 4 o’clock (which, believe it or not, is early for my family).  We had a great time, eating and visiting (two things my family does best) and Tony and I had everything cleaned up and packed away by 8 o’clock.  It was a great day and we all had a wonderful time.

On another note, a lot has been going on, even though my last post was only 3 weeks ago.  We have a new tooth count: Tess is still in the lead with 6 (!), Nora has 4, and Holden is holding steady with just his 2 bottom front teeth.  All of the kids are standing and cruising the furniture, and Nora can even stand herself up in the middle of the room – without holding onto anything!  In fact, today she tried taking her first step, but of course, she fell.  The important part is that she tried; A for effort, kiddo!  A step in the right direction… bad-da bum!  LOL   Holden has let go of the furniture a few times after he’s pulled himself up, but can’t stand unassisted for minutes the way Nora can.  But just this evening Tony did find him 3 steps from the top of the staircase, that little s.  Who knew he could scale the stairs?  We do now!  I have been saying for months that they’ll be walking by Christmas and I’m sure they will.

Gwen is doing great, using whole sentences and developing her imagination and feisty little personality.  She doesn’t throw tantrums because we don’t pay any attention when she does, but she has learned how to whine and make herself cry instead.  I find myself thinking the same thing my father used to day to me, “I’ll give you something to cry about!” but remember I never understood what it meant and I was like 10 at the time, so how could Gwen know at 2 years old?  LOL  She’s also taken to constantly getting in the way, I mean trying to help, which really pushes my buttons since I don’t have the time in my day to placate her and let her help.  I’ve tried getting imaginative with it, saying things like, “Honey, you know you’re not supposed to touch the dishwasher.  Put that knife down.  I know you want to help.  You know what would really help Mommy?  I said ‘put it down’!  Go play with the babies while I load the dishwasher.  That would be a great big help.”  But she sees right through me.  Or maybe because she doesn’t want to play with the little kids in the asking her to play with the babies while I load the dishwasher otherwise she would have been playing with them already.  She’s so smart and already quite manipulative, which we are trying to figure out how to break her of.

The big deal I had to pass along though, is that she used the potty!!  was going to go poop she said, "Me poop in me potty too." We've had the potty out for about a year now for her to get used to it and familiarize herself with it, but she's never truly attempted to use it. So when she said that I jumped right on board. "Okay, you can try too," I said, thinking there was no way. She asked me to take her diaper off and then went and got her potty out of the corner and put it directly across from the toilet. She sat on it and farted twice. She was so excited she thought poop came out but I had to break it to her that while something came out of her bum, it wasn't poop. She tried again on the potty a couple of other times during the day, always when I was going too. At 5 o'clock I had to go out to physical therapy and Tony was feeding her dinner. Immediately after dinner she said, "Daddy, me go poop." His reply was the same one I would have made, "Did you already go poop or do you have to poop?" She said, ON HER OWN, "Me go poop in me potty." So off they went to the bathroom. She demanded Tony sit on the can too, and she wanted a magazine - LOL, that's my girl!! She was quiet for a few minutes and then looked in between her legs, jumped off her potty and proclaimed, "Me poop come out! My poop come out in me potty!" And sure enough, there it was. Of course, even though I had laid the ground work, I was not present for this exciting event, so Tony took pictures. LOL Gross, I know... but you moms hear me, I'm sure. She was excited and proud and got herself a ton of praise and hugs. And, of course, 5 M&Ms for her first poop in the potty.

Then the very next day I decided to keep a good thing going and asked her if she needed to pee as soon as she got up in the morning. She said she had to use the potty so we put her on it, only half expecting anything to happen. Well, wouldn't you know it, she peed. Right then and there in the potty. Like a good little angel of potty training. We shouted and cheered and gave knuckles and she was so happy and proud. We even let her dump it into the toilet to flush it away. What a good girl!! And of course, she got her 2 M&M's for a pee in the potty.

She's only used the potty to pee twice since then, but a good amount of that is my own fault, not having the time, especially over Thanksgiving, to ask her every hour if she had to go and why don't we go try just in case. We have been trying, when I think of it, but that isn't reliable. I don't think she's totally ready since she calls her pee "poopie" and doesn't recognize when she has to pee, only when she has to poop, but we are getting there. Every little bit is progress and it was my intention to work on potty training over the winter when we're not going out anywhere anyway, so hopefully it will be easy. I say this now but we all know how it will play out... LOL

Okay… where do I start?  I guess I’ll think way back to September and go from there (I’ll use my pictures as reminders because I have very little real recollection and what I do remember is fuzzy).  After the kids all mastered sitting up, they wasted no time getting started on standing.  They are now master standers, as long as they have something to hold onto.  Nora and Tess have tried letting go a few times but that only lasts a couple of seconds.  They are all starting to cruise the furniture in small steps, mostly shuffling to the side, but if they find something to stand up on but need to get closer they will walk in to it.  I swear they will all be walking by Christmas, and then we will really be up the creek!  LOL  Holden and Nora have become climbers, mostly climbing on to the seat of Gwen’s little armchair.  Holden has also become quite a PITA with sneaking behind furniture to try and get into trouble, mostly trolling for small electronics and papers, like my shopping and to-do lists, or the remote control or camera.  He is constant work, that kid. 

Holden’s back is almost all healed up from the Carter’s tagless blanket sleeper incident, thank God.  Last week we were feeling brave, and driven by necessity, we headed to the outlet stores to buy shoes for all the kids (poor Gwen was still running around in sandals with socks since her feet have grown so much and we didn’t have sneakers for her yet).  We got the babies each a pair of Robeez and Gwen a cool new pair of sneakers that light up when she walks.  She’s hilarious with them and will run a few steps then stop dead in her tracks and lean over to check out the flashing lights.  While Gymboree is a store that’s usually too expensive for me to shop at unless there is a sale or a coupon or something that’s just so darn cute I have to have it, there was a new Gymboree outlet so I decided to check it out.  Their clothes are adorable, but spending $35 for a sweater and $30 for the matching jeans is just insane, so I was stoked to find the outlet.  I was hoping that there would be good deals, or at least a sale or something, and was pleasantly surprised.  Some of the clothes were still too expensive, but they all had SEWN-IN TAGS (!!!) so I decided to ignore the prices (which I still couldn’t do completely), shop mostly on the clearance racks, and bought Holden a whole new wardrobe that wouldn’t leave him with a 4” scar.  YAY!  I spent $150 and got about 8 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, a hat, a sweater, and 3 one-piece long sleeved/long pants play outfits.  A good deal for safety and quality, in my opinion.  I also bought all the kids a plethora of footed pj’s from The Children’s Place (an even mix of lighter-weight cotton and fleece blanket sleepers).  While all the blanket sleepers have sewn-in tags (YAY again!!!), the cotton pj’s have a stenciled tagless design, and so I am worried that Holden might react to it (he continues to react to the Carter’s new stenciled tagless label design).  I will try one pair on him and if he has a reaction I will have to return the rest.  What a pain in the ass this has all turned out to be.  If that is the case, I sure hope Gymboree has pj’s with sewn-in tags.

The kids are eating all sorts of yummy foods now (all still pureed, since I’m a worry wart about choking) including rice, turkey, bananas, pears, carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, peaches, prunes, squash, chicken, apricots, yogurt, green beans, oatmeal, blueberries, corn, peas, plain potatoes, onion, beef, and tomorrow we start barley/mixed cereal.  They love most of the foods but have favorites like pears, blueberries, apricots, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and meat.  I am hoping to start them on some finger foods in the next month because they are getting to that point where they have better coordination and control and look interested when they see us eating stuff so it is time.  By the time Thanksgiving comes around, I think they will have been introduced to enough foods that I will feel comfortable giving them Gerber Puffs or Cheerios without worrying about them causing an allergic reaction.  Besides, they are getting teeth now so they will be able to bite through veggies and meats so real food won’t be as much of a choking hazard anymore.

Speaking of teeth, Tess currently has 3 (two bottom front, one upper to the left of the front), almost 4 (the upper front next to her other top tooth has broken the skin but hasn’t come in yet), and has 2 more ready to come down (the other two top front teeth).  Nora has her 2 bottom front teeth (no more yet), and Holden finally got his first tooth on Halloween.  His other bottom front tooth is ready to pop through though so it’s going to be a tight race between him and Nora to see who gets what first from here on out.

At 8 months old, we are dealing with the kids’ first cold.  Ugh.  Gwen woke up with a head cold on Halloween.  The next day we dragged everyone to the outlets and that evening Tony and I had big plans (so sad on a Saturday night…) to put away the laundry that has overtaken our bedroom.  Or to at least get it sorted and folded, anyway.  We started in on the laundry at about 8 o’clock (after we had put the kids to bed and finished up the clean up and prep for the next day chores) and got through the sorting stage before we heard Nora crying in her crib.  At 8:30 I got Nora up, who was inconsolable, and tried laying on the bed with her, patting her bum, patting her back, singing to her, but nothing worked.  I had Tony make me a small bottle thinking maybe she was hungry, which she wanted nothing to do with.  She was congested but I just thought it was because she had been crying so much.  I laid her in my lap and started rubbing her belly thinking maybe it was just gas and had Tony go get the Mylicon and Tylenol.  After we loaded her up with meds, Tony knelt down next to the bed and started stroking Nora’s hair.  That did the trick!  She calmed right down and started to fall asleep but as soon as we moved her back to her crib she was up screaming again.  As fate would have it, Tess started screaming too, so we just decided to bring them both into the bedroom (so as not to wake up Holden too) and work on them there.  I started thinking, maybe they are getting sick and because this was their first cold they were freaking out at the feeling of being congested, not to mention colds always make you achy and crabby anyway.  At that point it was around 10 o’clock so we decided to call it a night and just sleep with the girls to keep them quiet and happy and so we could get some sleep.  Two hour later Holden was up, congested and crying, so Tony went in to get him and bring him in to the mix.  Of course, Holden being a boy, wanted to steam roll over his sisters, pull their ears and hair, pull out their eyes, etc. so he made our happy little sick bed miserable.  After about 15 minutes of him not settling down, and now that the girls were also awake and crying, I told Tony to take Holden somewhere else to sleep with him, and I would stay in charge of the girls.  We parted ways and were able to get in about 4 more hours of sleep before waking at 5 AM due to daylight savings time ending and the kids all being on an earlier schedule.  Ugh!!  They are still sick, but colds tend to linger in babies, and they are making progress.  They aren’t as snotty as they were last weekend, but they have more of a cough from all the post-nasal drip.  They are still eating and drinking, and they have gone back to sleeping through the night (the humidifier really helps), and since they don’t have any fevers we’re confident that in another week or two they will be back to normal.

Besides all that fun stuff, the kids are becoming more adorable and interactive on a daily basis.  They’ve lost that newborn look and are even almost past the infant stage.  By the time they’re toddling around I’ll barely remember the past year and will be too busy trying to keep up with them to make new long-term memories so I am trying to make the most of each day as it comes.  My pictures are so important to me for that, it’s like scrapbooking my memories without taking a lot of time or wasting paper.  Already we look back at some of the photos and say, “Remember when…?”, but we barely do.  Here are this month’s pictures, showing the good, the bad, and the ugly of raising 8 month old triplets with a two year old:

My Aunt Laurie had sent us these adorable matching Elmo outfits when the kids were born.  They are finally big enough to wear them so when we put them all on it was hilarious and surprising to see their reactions.  They ended up chasing each other’s bums, trying to kiss/eat/lick the Elmos on the other’s bums.  The following shows the progression from initial interest to full-blown obsession pulling off each other’s pants.  LOL!!

I had run to the baby’s room to change a diaper and left Gwen with her markers.  Good thing they’re non-toxic because this is what I came back to find:

I took these pictures tonight when Tess was all smiley.  I needed to come back and post them to help illustrate what I was talking about with Tess’ teeth coming in.  If you click on the pictures you can view them enlarged and in detail to see that she has the one top tooth that’s already through and at least 4 more ready to pop through any day.  Tess has a tendency to stick her tongue out when she smiles so it’s difficult to get a good toothy grin out of her.  LOL

I had fun chatting with the girls I used to work with and they were amazed at how good the kids were and how big they had gotten.  We left there at 5, which was when I was supposed to meet Tony at home, as he was taking the kids out for Trick Or Treat from 5-6 so they wouldn’t be too thrown off their schedule (our Trick Or Treat is always on Halloween proper from 5-8 PM; I love that!).  I got home at 20 past 5 with four kids passed out in the van.  We loaded the babies up into the stroller and figured Gwen would want to walk.  Not so.  She was revolting against Trick Or Treating.  Being sick, tired, and seeing all the kids walking around dressed up really threw her for a loop I think.  After much ado about nothing, a lot of, “No!  Me go inside!”, tantrum tears, and so forth, Tony managed to get Gwen calmed down enough to plop her in the stroller and leave.  We didn’t get very many good pictures out of her though, which I was bummed about, it being the triplets’ first Halloween and all. 

Oh well.  They still looked absolutely adorable and they were the hit of the neighborhood, after we’ve kept them locked up inside for so long.  I stayed home to hand out our customary full-sized candy bars and Tony took the kids out.  It’s weird going to people’s houses you have never met and having them say, “Oh!  So these are the triplets!”  There’s a Brangelina quality to it, neither of us is really all that comfortable with the constant attention we get when we go out, but I guess it’s the price we pay for being so awesome.  LOL

Holden has had a patch of what I thought was just eczema in that same spot for the last few months (no irritation, just flaky, dry skin). After we gave them their baths last Thursday, we put Holden into an older cotton footed pj that we had leftover from Gwen, which had sewn-in tags.  When they got their baths this past Monday, we put all the kids into fleece blanket sleepers, as the temperatures are starting to drop into the 20s at night. In hind-sight, I am assuming that the eczema he had before all this was from a reaction to the tagless imprint, just that the ink in the label on that 2007 model was what really got him.  I also am thinking that his skin had probably started to heal while wearing the jammies with the sewn-in tags, and so it reacted strongly when that type of label was reintroduced (like any other allergy would).

I took him to the pediatrician yesterday afternoon and they were shocked at how awful his back looked (which looked better than the day before, even though it was all crusted over).  The nurse actually brought in another nurse to look at him and said they were going to go online and print out some of the info on the tagless label injuries to make the other docs, nurses, and parents aware.  The pediatrician said it wasn't a chemical burn, but a serious reaction that caused the topical dermatitis eczema (and she said eczema can be horrible, with open wounds,etc. - not to gross anyone out) and gave us some steroidal gel to apply 2x a day.  It is already looking better, and it doesn’t really seem to bother him, thank God!  I asked her if he should stay away from any kind of tagless heat-applied tag imprints from now on and she said it probably wouldn't be a problem but to put medical tape over the tag imprints on the clothes we have for him for now, until the wound he has was all healed up and gone, and then to try again.  I love her.

Carter’s can kiss the fattest part of my ass right about now so I am taking a stand.  I am making sure to spread the word via my big mouth and my blog, so that everyone I come in contact with will know what is happening with these labels and what to look out for.  Please join me in my efforts and tell other moms you know so that this won’t happen to their babies.

Finally, here is the photographic evidence.  My poor little man…

Here is Holden’s tagless injury 3 days after it happened.

Here is Holden’s tagless injury 4 days after it happened.  As you can see, it looks much better but is still very badly irritated.  We’ve been using the steroidal gel as instructed for 3 days now and his skin is continuing to peel and starting to heal:

Carter’s should definitely issue a recall on these items (recalls are usually issued when the cost to pay injuries or suits out of pocket exceeds the cost of the recall) but I will take a Warning Notice from the CPSC for now: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09023.html  At least it’s something!  YAY!

We’re writing regarding a very important matter: RSV. For those of you who plan to visit us over the next few months, and even if you are not, please take a few minutes to read this letter.

We want to start by saying thank you for the outpouring of support we have received from everyone. So many people have done so much for us, and every bit of help we have received truly is appreciated. We are experiencing the biggest challenge of our lives, and we’re lucky to be surrounded by so many family members and friends who have shown us so much love and support.

We’d also like to share an important topic that we recently discussed with our babies’ pediatrician. If you are not aware of RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, you are among the majority. Most people have not heard of RSV, even though nearly every child has had the virus by age two. For full-term babies, RSV typically is not any worse than a common cold, but for preemies, the virus can be quite different. Babies born earlier than 36 weeks are at the highest risk for serious complications like pneumonia, bronchiolitis, and other sometimes fatal complications. Our babies were born premature (at 34 weeks), are multiples, and had low birth weights (under 5.8 lbs); these are among the highest risk factors for contracting RSV and developing serious complications. This website offers a great visual comparison of a preemie’s lungs compared to the lungs of a full-term baby: http://www.preemiecare.org/LungsTrees03-4.pdf  Preventing the spread of RSV is very difficult. Thus, we must be vigilant about keeping our children safe during RSV season (October through April). The virus is spread through physical contact, in the air via a cough or sneeze, or by touching an infected object. The virus can live as long as six hours on hands and up to twelve hours on objects, and it spreads very easily, especially from child to child. Studies have also shown that infants pose an even higher risk of spreading RSV to others. You may ask, “Can’t they fight it off and build up their immune system? Kids need to get sick, right?” The simple answer is NO. Since our babies were pre-term, they did not acquire the necessary immunities to fight off infection. If they contract RSV, they could be hospitalized and develop serious complications.

We’ll be asking our visitors to follow a few guidelines to help prevent the babies from contracting RSV or any other illness. We ask that all visitors do the following:

1. When you arrive, please wash your hands and use hand-sanitizer as needed before touching the babies.

2. Please, if it is possible, get a flu shot.

3. Please refrain from coming over if you are currently sick and have not been symptom-free for at least 5 days, if you live with someone who is sick, or have been in close contact with someone who is sick.

4. If you smoke, we ask that you change your clothing and refrain from smoking prior to visiting, as a preemie’s lungs are very sensitive to smoke. Most RSV sites recommend against passive smoke exposure.

5. If you are parents to a baby or toddler, please refrain from bringing them to our house during RSV season.

Unfortunately we will not be attending many events during RSV season. Our goal is to make it through this and the next RSV seasons without the babies contracting RSV or any other serious illness. Their lungs are still very fragile until they are 2-years-old.  Please understand that this letter is not meant to offend anyone, just simply to provide an explanation. We hope you understand, and we appreciate your help keeping our babies safe.  Please remember that while they are big and healthy now, it wasn’t long ago that they were not.  Here is a reminder of how far they’ve come in just 8 short months:

We are also providing several resources with additional information about RSV below:
http://www.preemiecare.org/rsv_resourceshtm.htm
http://www.preemiecare.org/rsvfaq.htm
http://www.preemiecare.org/rsv2.htm
http://www.mostonline.org/preemieBB/viewforum.php?f=82

Love and best wishes to all!
Tony, Mandie & all the kids

The weather couldn’t have been any nicer.  Gwen and Kenzi had a blast playing and picking apples and Aaron lived vicariously through our trio, carrying Holden in the back pack all day.  We brought the quad stroller, in case Gwen and Kenzi got tired of walking, but it worked better to contain Tess, Nora, and all our apples.  It was fun showing the kids that there is a world outside our house filled with beauty and wonder.  Not to mention giving them their first taste of real, fresh apples!

And naturally, what blog post wouldn’t be complete without a ton of pictures?  I guess it’s to be expected when you have a ton of kids that you’ll be taking tons of pictures… LOL!  Here are the photo highlights:

Wow, what a month – or two!!  Things have been happening so fast that I haven’t even had a chance to sit down and post an update, let alone finish all my Thank You cards (which I am still working on, LOL… I figure there has to be a “within 1-year is okay” allowance after triplets, similar to after a wedding).  Here’s a synopsis of what we’ve been up to for the past several weeks…

The triplets are getting so big!!  Now at 7 months old, (5.75 months corrected), Tess weighs 17.8 pounds; Nora, our little piggy, is 17.9; and Holden is our little guy at 17.2.  They were measured for length at their doctor’s visit on  9/10 and were 27.25”, 27.5”, and 26.5”, respectively.

We’re finally getting into somewhat of a tolerable daily rhythm.  There is always someone who wants to buck the system of course, whether at nap time, meal time or play time, but we go with the flow as much as we can without ruining their schedules entirely and we usually do okay.  The kids are sleeping through the night with only the occasional mid-night cries, generally from teething.  They are also doing fairly well napping, right now doing 1 hour in the early a.m., 2-3 hours in the late a.m., and 30-40 minutes in the late afternoon.  They go to bed for the night at 7:30 and sleep through until 5:30 (I wish it was longer!).  They are all on regular formula now and take 4 8-oz bottles a day, and have solids twice a day.  So far they’ve had rice cereal, turkey, bananas, pears, carrots, applesauce, sweet potatoes, peaches and prunes (out of necessity), but they all take to eating solids very differently.  Of course, if you think about it realistically, each baby is an individual and naturally one will be ready to start solids before the other, just as with any other milestone, but we try anyway, as getting them used to food and practicing eating can’t hurt.  Nora is a natural, Holden is coming along (doing much better than when we started), and Tess still has a pretty good tongue-thrust reflex so she doesn’t get much down into her belly, besides which she is very picky and will only open her mouth for about three different foods.  She’s even become savvy to my attempts at getting her to laugh so she opens her mouth and now only smiles with her mouth closed when we’re at the table… little shit!

Some of the funniest things to watch with the triplets (and even with Gwen) are how they interact with each other.  They already fight over the same toys and love to touch each other, even though they haven’t quite learned yet that pulling your sister’s hair is unacceptable and grabbing someone else’s ear is a no-no.  The girls are especially close and I will often find them holding hands or touching each other’s faces or chewing on each other’s hands and feet.  All three of the babies are sitting up (usually assisted, for a couple of minutes before toppling over) and are propping up on one arm learning how to get into a sitting position.  Nora is already sitting up on her own all the time and thinks it’s great fun.  You can tell that the other two are like, “Hey!  How’d you do that?  That looks like fun!” then they all smile at each other, obviously sharing a private joke.  All three are crawling already, though they tend to do so commando-style, with their bellies on the ground, pulling with their hands and lurching with their feet.  Very recently all of them have been perfecting their crawls, getting their bellies off the ground and supporting their weight on their hands and knees, rocking and even kicking off with a foot, which usually sends them sideways and over, much like a turtle.  LOL  Holden actually gets up on his hands and feet!  Tess has just found her voice and has started babbling some constantans (“da-da-da-da”, “na-na-na”, “ah-goo”, that type of thing).  Tess and Nora both cut their first tooth (Nora has two!), about 3 days apart, and Holden isn’t far behind.  The biggest differences between their first teething are that Tess never complained about the pain while Nora whines and pouts endlessly.  Holden is going to be like Gwen I think, where he has the same tooth “ready to cut through the gum any day”; he has had the same three or four teeth visible just under the gums for a few weeks now and has been drooling and chewing and whining about them for months.  Typical male…  LOL

While we don’t have the time to do all those things you always think about when you dream of how you’ll teach your baby the new things in every day life on an individual basis (i.e. “Where is your nose?”, “Look at the tree; trees are very big and help keep our air clean; let’s touch the bark and see how it feels.”, etc.) or encouraging them to crawl, sit up, say “ma-ma” and “da-da”, etc. we do our best and they are learning a lot on their own too.  Our pediatrician actually just said that even if we ignore them they will thrive and learn everything they need to know on their own (all on the basis of necessity, I’d guess).  She also reassured me that if we don’t have the time to do all the little things we did with Gwen to not sweat it because we are good parents and if we’re not available, they have each other.  Good news since I’m wracked with Mommy Guilt 95% of the time…

Gwen is done with daycare now, and it is definitely more challenging having a toddler around full time.  She’s pretty much stopped taking naps (a lame attempt, I think, at exerting her independence and pushing her limits to see what the outcome may be at home versus what she was used to at daycare), and has become more interactive with the babies (Tess is her favorite), even if it’s not always appropriate (tackling Tess pig-pile style, covering up Nora’s head with a blanket that she can’t get off, stealing toys away from Holden that she wasn’t interested in until they were in his mouth, etc.), which feels to me like she’s missing having kids her own age to play with.  I’m trying to have more play-dates for her at home, at least until we are more mobile this spring where we can hit story hour at the library and such.  She is such a good girl otherwise, though.  I hate the fact that I have to use the TV to keep her occupied while I feed the babies, or that we only get outside to play two times a week, but she is good about it and takes everything in stride.  It’s fun having her around the house though.  She is so funny and has such a great personality.  She will be ready for potty training soon, though she still denies when she poops.  If we catch her crouching in the corner or smell the tell-tale scent, we’ll ask to check her diaper she will say, “No poop.  Jus fah-ting.”  LOL  She is showing lots of other readiness signs though so we will work on it over the winter, when everyone is holed up inside.  She is in a real bed now, which was a bittersweet and heartbreaking transition for all of us.  We need her crib for Holden, and she has climbed out of it twice now, so the time was right.  The night we made the transition we left her crib in her room with the front railing off so she could crawl into it if she felt like her new bed was too scary, we talked about her new Big Girl Bed all day, and she helped us while we baby-proofed and brought up some low-key toys and board books to make it more comfortable for her.  When bedtime came she ran upstairs and I thought we were going to get lucky again.  Nope!  Soon after the picture-taking, the reality of the situation set in and she wanted nothing to do with it.  We offered to read her a story, to lay in bed with her, to tuck her in, and all the other things we would have done anyway, and she melted down.  I left her screaming and sobbing while I put the safety gate over the stairs; I turned around at the bottom of the stairs to shut off the light only to see her with both hands up on the gate, still yelling, “Mommy!  Please!  Nooooo!”  I shut the door to her room but felt like I had trapped her in the basement.  By the time I was done crying, so was Gwen, and 40 minutes later when we went up to check on her we found her sound asleep in her bed, not her crib.  She’s gone right to sleep in it ever since and we’ve moved her crib down to the babies’ room.  Holden has graduated from the ghetto Pack-N-Play to a real crib (finally!) and he LOVES it (and is sleeping much better too!).

Here are some of the latest and greatest pictures, which I’ve tried to whittle down to less than a hundred…  LOL  Each picture has a description; just hover your cursor over the picture to see the description.

August:

September: