A Kindergartener, A Middle Schooler & 7 Month Old Triplets

Things have been busy around here for the past month, which is why I am so late with posting 7 month  updates.  Simone has started middle school this year and Noa has started kindergarten.  This has been a new experience for both of them and keeping things busy around here.  Here are a couple of pictures of Noa's first day of school...I have none of Simone because apparently when you are in middle school you are too cool to be bothered with posing for school pics for mom :(

Noa is doing really well in Kindergarten.  All of his weekly reports have come back very good and so far no calls from the teacher.  Thank goodness we put him in the summer school program so that he would be prepared for starting school this year...I think it made all the difference in the world for him being able to adjust so easily.  Plus, he still gets a kick out of riding the bus every day, so that makes things a little easier most mornings!  Simone seems to be liking middle school...although most days she doesn't give me a lot of details.  Oh, the joys of a preteen...can't wait to see what is in store for me during the teenage years.  We just celebrated Simone's birthday last weekend since she turned 12 on September 7th.

My hippie chick's peace sign cake.

The girls have been doing well this month, but Ava has been keeping us busy.  I'm not sure if I have wrote about this in any of my previous blogs but Ava has plagiocephaly and torticollis.  Plagiocephaly is basically a flat spot on the back of her head that resulted from a preference to lay on the left side of her head.  Torticollis is a shortening of the muscles on one side of her neck that causes her to hold her head at a tilt and made it difficult for her to turn her head to the right.  It's not really sure which one of these conditions started first, but they often go hand in hand. We have been going to physical therapy to work on the torticollis for the past couple of months.  She has shown a definitely improvement in her neck mobility since we have started doing the exercises.  In order to correct the plagiocephaly, Ava will have to wear a helmet for the next 3-5 months.  We just got it this past Tuesday, so we are wearing it longer stretches every day in order to acclimate her to it.  By Monday she will be wearing it 23 hours a day.  So, in addition to physical therapy, we have to go to have the helmet adjusted every 1-2 weeks and also go see her specialist every 6 weeks in Columbia.  Hopefully it will resolve quickly and maybe we will have the helmet off by Christmas.  I think it bothers us a lot more than it bothers her!

Other than Ava's minor issues, the girls are all doing good.  They are still taking 4 bottles a day and eating solids 3 times a day.  Breakfast usually consists of oatmeal, yogurt and fruit; lunch is vegetable and fruit and dinner is meat, vegetable, fruit and whole wheat cereal.  Our schedule is still working pretty well for the most part, but we seem to be going through phases with sleeping through the night.  We usually have a couple of good weeks followed by a couple of rough weeks.  We are going through a couple of rough weeks at the moment...so hopefully the good weeks are coming up!  Although we feed all of the girls the exact same amount of food, Lia continues to pull ahead in the weight department.  I don't have exact weights, but last week Lia was already weighing about 20 lbs. when I put her on the scale!  This girls just won't stop growing!  Mya was about 17 pounds and had gained the least of the 3...but that is not surprising since that girl is in constant motion.  Even when she is sitting in her bouncy seat, she is constantly bouncing herself or twirling her feet and hands in the air.  Ava weighs a little over 15 pounds now but continues to put weight on steadily.

All three of the girls are still pretty easy going and are doing more and more to entertain themselves.  They have really started paying a lot of attention to each other.  Wade walked into the room last week to find Lia taking her pacifier out of her mouth, putting it into Ava's mouth, and then taking it back out again.  They both seemed to think that this was just hilarious!  We are trying to work on sitting so that hopefully they will be sitting unsupported within the next couple of weeks.  Ava and Lia are doing pretty good at sitting, but Mya has no interest.  I think it's because it would require her to be still in order to balance and the girl just can't sit still.

Ava and Lia practicing their sitting skills.

Well, it's bathtime around here which means that I am about to have some tired and cranky babies on my hands if I don't get this show on the road.  Here are a few more pictures from the past month.

Lia has always got to have her hands on somebody, or in this case, inside Mya's mouth.

Lia still has her hands on everyone

Ava

Lia

Mya



Sister Rosie meeting the girls for the first time.



Mya bouncing as usual

Ava, Lia & Mya

Enjoying lunch on the back deck

Lia, Mya & Ava

Mya

Noa on papa's Harley

Lia with Aunt Becky at Simone's birthday party

Lia blowing raspberries with every mouthful of oatmeal.

Mya

Lia, Mya & Ava

Mya, Lia & Ava

Happy 1/2 Birthday Ava, Lia & Mya!!!

I am in complete shock that the girls turned 6 months old yesterday.  I don't know where the time is going.  These will quite obviously be my last children and I am a little sad that they are getting so big so fast.  While feeling a little sentimental, I started looking over the girls' pictures from the past 6 months and decided to throw together a little photo montage for fun.  Warning:  this video is a little long and complete with super sappy songs!




Or here is a you tube link to the video also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wPIR4HqeoM

As far as six month weight updates, we haven't been to our checkup yet, but here are their weights this morning:

Ava - 13 lbs. 15 oz. - 15th %
Lia - 17 lbs. 15 oz. - 85th %
Mya - 16 lbs. 1 oz. - 52nd%

They are still growing like crazy and climbing up the growth chart for actual 6 month olds.  The girls adjusted age is just over 4.5 months, so they would really be big if we looked at that growth chart!  Just in the past couple of weeks, the girls have been really progressing a lot.  They have all started rolling over regularly.  Miss Ava has decided that she will no longer be sleeping on her back and flips over to sleep on her tummy every night.  Lia rolled completely across the playroom mat one night.  Mya is capable of rolling over, but she can't kick as well on her tummy so she prefers to stay on her back.  They have also started to enjoy spending time in their exersaucers and  bouncers. 

Mya LOVES her bouncer

Bounced to exhaustion

Lia in the Walker - she can scoot around in it!

Ava in the exersaucer

The other thing that we have been working on this month is eating solids, which we started at about 4.5 months.  We are trucking right along with trying something new every 3 days.  So far we have tried:  rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, green beans, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, applesauce, bananas, peaches, pears, plums, mangoes, avocados.  They have taken so well to baby food, that they are already going through ALOT of jars every day, so I have started to make homemade baby food whenever possible.  Just this morning I made sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, plums and peaches!  There isn't anything that they refuse to eat, but their favorite veggies are peas, squash and sweet potatoes.  They aren't quite as enthusiastic about green beans and carrots, but will eat them.  They love pretty much all fruit, of course.

Preparing to make baby food.

Finished product

Ready to chow down

We have been to a few doctor's appointments this month.  We had our NICU follow up in Columbia, but it was pretty uneventful.  They are a little bit behind their actual age developmentally, but that is to be expected from preemies.  We also had to take Ava to Columbia to see a pediatric plastic surgeon concerning the flat spot that she has developed on the left side of her head.  He has diagnosed her with deformational plagiocephaly (a fancy way for saying flat spot), that has developed as a result of a preference for laying on that side of her head.  In addition, she has also developed torticollis, which goes hand in hand with plagiocephaly.  Torticollis is basically a tightening of the neck muscles on one side which causes her to hold her head at an angle and makes it difficult for her to turn her head to the right.  The dr. in Columbia feels that Ava will need a helmet to correct this flat spot.  The helmet would be worn for 3-5 months for 23 hours a day.  In addition, he had requested that she start physical therapy as soon as possible to correct the torticollis.  We are scheduled to go back to Columbia on August 15th to take measurements for her helmet.

Since that last appointment, Ava has started to willingly spend a lot more time on her tummy, including sleeping at night.  I feel like I have seen a pretty noticeable improvement in her flat spot.  In addition, we saw the physical therapist and she feels like Ava's torticollis is pretty mild and that as long as we do exercises at home, we don't have to go back again for another month.  I am really torn about the helmet issue right now.  The whole thing seems like such an ordeal...I am really hoping that when we go back for measurements, they will tell us that she no longer needs one.  Here is a picture of her head that I took last week that kind of shows the flat spot.

Ava's lopsided head

There is not much else going on around the household.  I am anxiously waiting for school to start...these kids need something to do!  We registered Simone for middle school this week.  I can't believe how grown up she is getting.

Simone with her new haircut in preparation for middle school.

Here are a few more pictures from this past month:

Lia, Mya and Ava

Noa reading to Ava about dinosaurs, of course...

Ava

Lia

Mya

Mya, Ava & Lia

Mya actually enjoying tummy time

Great grandma Kolb with Noa and Lia

Sister Josetta, Sister Bernadette & Sister Laura with Noa & the girls

Remember how little they used to look in this pack and play?

Ava

Ava, Lia & Mya

5 month Weight Updates

I just realized that I forgot to include weight updates in my 5 month update from a couple of days ago.  So, as of 5 months 3 days, their weights are as follows:

Ava:  12 pounds 8 oz. - gained 1 lb. 8 oz. this month - 12th percentile
Lia:  16 pounds 8 oz. - gained 1 pound 10 oz. this  month - 84th percentile
Mya:  14 pounds 13 oz. - gained 1 pound 3 oz. this month - 34th percentile

So, I think that I had written down the wrong info last month when I thought they said Mya was in the 65th percentile.  I think it was more like the 35th or so according to my internet growth chart:

 http://www.infantchart.com/

Is Lia ever going to slow down!?!  84th percentile!  They are all eating pretty close to the same amount these days...if anything, Lia eats less because she always sleeps through the night, so the other girls often get one more bottle than she does.  Yet, she continues to pull ahead on weight.  Mya has stayed at about the same percentile, so she is growing steadily, and Ava keeps getting further up onto the growth chart :)

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that my 34 week preemies would weigh this much at 5 months old!

Happy 4th of July & Happy 5 Months!

It is hard to believe that the girls will soon be 6 months old!  I'm afraid that their first 4th of July will be rather uneventful.  I am not even close to brave enough to take them to the mob scene downtown today & I figure it is not worth messing around with their 8 pm bedtime to take them to see fireworks that they couldn't care less about and would probably sleep through, anyway.  Instead, we will be celebrating by heading to the Lake tomorrow for a couple of days to stay at Grandma & Grandpa's condo.  This will be the girls' first overnight trip anywhere.  Hopefully I will have the opportunity to take Simone and Noa swimming and most importantly, get a little color to my shockingly, blindingly, white skin.  Keeping my fingers crossed that we are able to maintain our schedule with the babies during our little mini vacation.

Speaking of schedules, the girls are 100% committed to their 8 pm bedtime which has been awesome.  It gives me some time after they are down for the night to relax.  I wish!  More like, it gives me time to pick up the house, wash bottles, make bottles, fold laundry, make lunches, etc. etc...  Oh well, it beats trying to do all of that while the babies are awake!  Lia is still my champion sleeper, usually sleeping anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a night.  Mya and Ava are still not 100% on board.  Lately they have been taking turns sleeping through the night.  When they do get up, it is usually a quick change and feed and right back to bed 15-20 minutes later, so we can't complain too much about that.  I definitely can't complain because I still have Mom and Dana each helping with overnights a couple of days a week so I am usually well rested for work. 

We have started baby foods the past couple of weeks.  I was hesitant with as busy as we already are, I just wasn't sure how we would fit one more thing into their schedule, but it has been working out so far.  So far, we have tried cereal mixed with applesauce, squash and bananas.  They seem to like everything, but we are still spending a lot of time scooping it back up off their chins.  It will just take a little practice to learn to eat from a spoon.

Mya

Ava

Lia

Personality wise, they seem to have done a complete 180 from the time they were born.  We used to think that Mya was the calm one, Lia was more on the demanding side and Ava would just kind of go with the flow.  Well, Ava hasn't changed that much actually.  Most days she is content to swing away.  She is the smiliest of the group right now.  If you just look at her and smile she usually smiles right back at you.  And Mya, sure she's still calm, as long as you are devoting 100% of your attention to her 100% of the time.  OK, that may be a bit of exaggeration, but she definitely likes your undivided attention and she wants to be talked to all the time.  She can go from perfectly  happy to hysterical in a matter of a heartbeat if she feels ignored.  She is just a bit of a princess. She is also a bit of a stinker.  If her and her sisters are laying on the floor, she will maneuver a way to turn her entire body around so that she can kick the crud out of the other two.  And Lia, well, Lia is usually just a fat, happy baby.  As long as you don't miss her feeding time, she is usually good to go.  The look of excitement on her face when she gets to try a new food is priceless!

Everybody just hanging out being happy, then...

Mya scoots around and gears up for one of her powerhouse kicks.



 

"Come on, let me have my fun!"

It already looks like Mya is trying to talk Lia into something...

The most exciting event of the past month was the birth of my niece Audrey.  I can't wait for all the girls to start having playdates.  She was born on June 16th (yes, another June birthday) weighing in at 8 pounds 15 oz..  She is definitely a sweetie.  It astonishes me to think that the girls were less than half her size just 5 short months ago.  It's hard for me to even picture anymore!

Matt and Audrey

Another big deal around here is that Noa is now a TV star!  I think that I have mentioned that Noa is a bit of a dinosaur nut.  Well, check out how he managed to turn his news interview about T-ball into the Noa Dinosaur Show!

Noa just had his last day of summer school on Friday, so he has a little bit of time off until his real first day of kindergarten.  This summer school program is awesome because I feel much better about him going to school now and I know that he will be prepared and confident on his first day.

Simone has spent the summer so far doing what most pre-teen girls do...hiding from her parents.  She has spent the vast majority of the summer hiding out in the "cave" in the basement, only emerging when threatened.  She has done a better job of helping with the girls lately, especially when grandma or nana are here.  She has actually even changed a few diapers!  She enjoys picking out their clothes for nana, although I am amazed at how she manages to find something not pink to put on them every day!

Well, duty calls (ie babies scream), so I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!  Here are a few more pictures from the past month.

Lia

Mya

Ava

Ava

Lia - wearing my first attempt at making a tutu

Ava, Mya, Lia

Mya, Ava & Lia - Tummy Time before they start screaming

Ava, Lia and Mya - Happy 4th of July! - decked out in red white & blue