Happy Valentine's Day!

The triplets are four months old! Wow, how fast/slow time has gone by.  Fast because it can't be that long since we were all living in the hospital.  And slow because every day and night can sometimes seem like it goes on forever. 

But on a good note.  Max, Olivia, and August are all basically sleeping through the night.  Sometimes we get up to give Max a pacifier and flip Olivia for an hour or so, but other than that, we are all sleeping.  At night that is.  Daytime naps seem to be a foreign concept some days.  Those are those long ones we were talking about. 

We went to the high risk clinic last week also.  Olivia and August were growing as expected and doing well.  They are in the 10th to 25th percentile for weight and height gain.  Max is in the...you guessed it...90th %tile.  They said it was ok and supposedly normal.  We're supposed to see him "level off" soon.  We'll see how that goes.  I hate to think where we'd be had he been a full term newborn.  

We're pretty open in our house about bodily functions and our babies are no exception.  All three have been having the hardest, we'll call them poop nuggets, to date.  We stopped the iron supplements, and have added Karo syrup to some bottles, but the pain that goes across their faces is still just heartbreaking. So we're looking for any suggestions anyone has.  We heard prune juice is good, but I'm not sure we're quite their yet.

Mike has been working on getting the garage more able for baby delivery into the house. AKA Garage Loft.  So far we've been parking out front, but now I can get them out in the garage.  Hallalujah!  We also had another on the couch photo shoot for Valentine's Day.  I took some more blanket pictures of the babies too.  Max and Olivia did pretty well, but thank goodness for digital cameras.  I must have went through about 30 frames with August to get a good one.  He's not really into smiling yet.   

Happy Valentine's Day!  

Weight Updates

August: 13lbs 6 oz

Olivia: 12lbs 7oz

Maxwell: 16lbs 7oz

The kids got their Synergys shots (RSV protection) today from our visiting nurse so the babes got weighed.

We're just happy they're growing!

Video: Max's first cereal...around mid Jan, '09

Video: 

I Want My For-mu-la

Let's go back to the early 80s.  Dire Straits put a video on MTV called 'Money for Nothing'.  Anyway, if you know the melody, apply it to the title.  It goes, I promise. For those of you too young, old, or that never heard the song, here it is: 

Anyway, the babes have been voicing their ever-emerging feelings more than ever.  Especially at feeding time.  I won't say we're immune to it, but we're taking it better than before.  Now we know they are not in immanent danger - but just really hungry.  Still, there is only so much wailing you can take before it's Captain Similac to the rescue.  

We've settled into a pretty good routine since both of us have gone back to work - thanks to our child care team.  Sunday night - Tuesday afternoon Grandma Kuhlenbeck (Kelly's mom Diana) arrives and gets us pumped for the workweek.  And then she does more than anyone could expect and keeps coming back despite our irascibility after work sometimes. 

Wednesday - Friday our nanny (or au pair for you of the upper-crust) Shana comes from 730a-400p.  She's reliable, on-time, and is great with kids.  She even gave Augie the baby heimlich last week when he choked on some spit up.  Yep, she's on the ball.  

We have help five days per week during the day and two nights.  I don't know what we'd do without it. 

The young 'uns are sleeping almost through the night now.  Our book we are loosely going by, called 12 Hours in 12 Weeks said the kids would start sleeping 12 hours at 12 weeks old as long as the kids are 10lbs and eating 24oz per day.  We're closer to the 17-week mark but the general principles we've stuck to in the book seem to be working. Granted, we are blessed that the kids don't have colic or another situation that would prevent them from sleeping...but we are only getting up maybe 3 times a night now, and if we do have to feed the babes it's only a couple ounces.  So things are getting better for sleep.  

Pictures: 

We've had visitors nearly every weekend. Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa Norris and Great Grandma Norris stopped by for a morning visit. This weekend, the Schwartz's dropped in from Iowa City for a mattress and a quick chat. Their girls, Annie and Josie are in the slideshow. Our friends Jason and Tami from Des Moines made a run today for some baby time. Visitors make us feel like we're still part of the world and that's usually a good thing.

We'll keep on going in our routine until June, when school is out for Kelly. Then, Grandma K will stop coming during the week and we'll have a new routine to start. However, nothing about caring for three babies is routine.

Our new activity at night is giving everyone rice cereal. It looks like paste, tastes a little better and is really hard to clean up. So then it makes sense why the kids like to put it everywhere except in their mouth. It's seriously funny to see a baby with cereal all over their face laughing. Life is really simplified at that moment and no matter how much crying or poopy diapers you've dealt with that day, the dirty face, laughing, pushes the reset button and makes everything all right again.