Bumbo Time!

The babies had their four month check-up on Friday and the pediatrician pointed out that they are ready for Bumbos! I was all ready too with three Bumbos at home just waiting to be used. They look like such big babies sitting in them. The girls get a little slouchy but Payson looks so stiff at times. He often awkwardly puts his head back and won't relax into the seat. With practice I am sure he will be a model user in no time!

The babies weighed in at:

Hayden: 10 lb, 15 oz.
Payson: 11 lb, 9 oz.
Madison: 11 lb

We were surprised to see Payson hadn't hit 12 lb yet because he sure feels like it! And we were also surprised that Hayden was the lightest - though only by an ounce. (Five more minutes and one dirty diaper later Madison could have been the lightest!)

My birthday was last week and our dear friends, Justin and Stephanie, hired our night nanny to come in the afternoon (6 hours early) so I could have time off. I was thrilled and since the time was so valuable I couldn't decide how to spend it! It had been almost 9 months since I'd been to the mall so I decided to head there before Keith and I went out to a nice dinner. In between the mall and dinner I had to come home to pump, of course (and was bummed that I had to spend 45 minutes of my "time off" pumping), but it was nice to be at home and know that Doris was in charge and I didn't have to unplug every 10 minutes to get a crying baby. Thanks Justin and Stephanie! It was a wonderful day and Keith did lots all week to make my birthday extra special.

Twice in the last week Payson has slept through the night! And I mean really slept through the night feeding at 8 pm and not waking up until after 7 am! Hayden has slept until 6 am several times, only needing a light snack to hold her over, and Madison is feeding just once or twice, though still needing a full feeding. She too was proud of herself for sleeping over 8 hours the other night.

Tonight is our night nanny's last night in the Melker house. We had her 3 nights a week for the last 3 months (it's that "3" thing again) and it is time for her to move onto another sleep-deprived multiple family. She has been wonderful, especially at the beginning when it would take 6-7 total hours to feed the babies between the hours of 8 pm and 6:30 am.

New Friends!

RSV season is winding down and the babies have finally been able to meet some of their new friends!

The babies and I visited Amy and her 2.5-month-old triplets for our first play date which was a little crazy but lots of fun! You may remember that we were both on hospital bedrest at the same time and our babies' stay in the NICU overlapped a few days too. We both have our feeding, playing, and napping systems down pretty well so it wasn't quite the chaos you might expect - until we started stacking the babies for pictures! We both successfully stacked our babies for beautiful pictures while in the hospital but trying the pose with all six didn't quite go as planned. She had a volunteer over for the last part of the day so she took a picture of the 8 of us.

We recently received a visit from Robin and her darling 5-month-old, Charlotte. Charlotte loved the babies, especially Madison, and even appeared to want to take her home. Look at that grip she has on Madison's sleeve!

Anni and her sweet 2-month-old girl, Ella, also visited us. Though my babies are a few months older they are very close in actual age, size and development. Ella is the beautifully tanned baby in socks disguised as shoes!

4 Months Old!

The babies are 4 months old today and they have begun to give us hope that one day we will sleep again! After just 5 days of feeding the babies at 11 pm and then letting them sleep as long as they could go, Hayden surprised us and slept until the 8 am feeding and Payson did it just two nights later. We are thrilled and hope this becomes a pattern. I gave them lots of praise in the morning and they responded with proud smiles.

Although I am still providing the babies with expressed breastmilk, we are trying out different formulas on Madison. We know she has some reflux but there seems to be something going on with her digestive system that is making her uncomfortable. Unfortunately the formula that we might go with is one of the most expensive but it is worth it if it helps her feel better. I guess she isn't thrilled with the taste because she has started this thing where she won't take the bottle again after we stop to burp at the halfway point unless I rewarm the bottle. Now if that isn't high maintenance then I don't know what is!

The babies like to challenge me the most starting around 6 pm before Keith gets home. Those few "witching hours" are very difficult and the other day I tried to take them on a walk to get through it. Unfortunately, once again, the relentless Dallas winds were too strong for their liking so we headed back home. In desperation I spent the next 45 minutes sitting on the back porch pushing the stroller back and forth while I caught up on some phone calls. A few days before I coped by piling them on me. They all just wanted to be held!

This weekend the babies met their Great Grandpa Irv who visited from Indiana and also went to their cousin Addison's 1st birthday party.

3 Months, 3 Weeks and 3 Days Old

Today the 3 babies are 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days old. Good things do come in 3's and ever since we found out we were pregnant with triplets, I've naturally gravitated towards the number 3.

Breaking news: We dropped a night feeding! We were feeding the babies at 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. but they have merged these two feedings into a 4:30 a.m. feeding only! Now we are working on stretching the 4:30 a.m. feeding by using the strategy of offering them 1/2 oz. less at that feeding every three days. We'll see out it goes as we are merging the strategies of several different books. We are still doing the "dream feed" at 11 p.m. but every step towards them sleeping through the night is a big step in our eyes!

This is long overdue but I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from the triplets' 2-month-old photo shoot that took place just 10 days after they were all home from the hospital. Photographer and friend, Sandra Edwards, did a wonderful job and we think she captured their newborn moments perfectly. Thank you for sharing your talent with us, Sandra!

Beautiful Blooms

Keith has been working a lot lately and when he works a lot then I "work" a lot. So today we took a much needed adventure to the Arboretum. It was sunny and beautiful outside and felt like a dream.

This was our first time out in a big public place and the number of comments we either received or heard was amazing. We had strangers taking photos of us and at one point Keith said, "I feel like a freak show!" We probably heard the saying, "You've got your hands full" at least 50 times or more. But out of hundreds of onlookers I only had to ask people not to touch about five times so people were definitely respectful which was good and unfortunately not always the case.

And of course we put our camera to work. Here are just a few of our favorite photos of the day. The flowers and landscaping was beautiful but we think the subjects are the best part!

Not Enough Hours

I read this week that a study by the Australian Multiple Births Association showed it took 197 hours per week to care for baby triplets and to do the household chores alone. The problem is that there are only 168 hours in a week! This is a perfect illustration of how I feel and what my life is like.

Earlier this week the emergency siren alerted me that there was more than just a storm outside and that a tornado had been spotted in the area. I quickly called Keith and turned on the TV to find out more. The siren continued so I gathered up all of the babies (who had just gone down for naps) and blankets and pillows and we headed to the pantry. The girls fell back asleep but Payson was upset - surely because he is the man of the house while Keith is away and he didn't like the situation! After about 15 minutes the sky was blue again and life returned to normal. Thankfully we were safe and I was happy to practice our emergency plan. It's not easy gathering up three babies quickly let alone trying to remember where they are all sleeping during any particular naptime!

For April Fool's I led Keith to believe that he left the garage door open and that someone stole our lawn mower. The following day while I napped (for only the 3rd or 4th time since the babies came home!!) Keith dressed Hayden in blue and Payson in pink so that I would get them confused even for just a moment when I first saw them napping. It worked at first until I got closer and quickly saw that not only did "Payson" grow more hair while I napped but he also picked up his big sister's mannerisms. I wasn't fooled for long!

I got to be a somewhat normal mom this week and try out a Mommy & Me Yoga class. I took all three babies but only did the activities with Madison while the others slept and watched. They did really well and I plan to stick with it for a few weeks and rotate the babies to let each one participate. Madison loved it and did so well that I decided to put part of it to practice at home.