Finally Got the Girls' Birth Announcements Made

Better late than never!

First Easter

Last weekend we celebrated the first family holiday with the babies.  This resulted in us making two outings to grandparents houses over the weekend and I have to say that it went pretty well.  The babies are good in the car and they are always happy when we visit others because they get held way more than they should!  This weekend is the first time the babies got to meet Uncle Craig and Abbie.  I was pretty proud of the girls that they did not snot, spit or puke on Craig.  I think they sensed his fear and rather than acting on it, they decided to behave themselves ;)

Uncle Craig with Mya, Lia and Ava

Nana with Lia

All my gorgeous kids...and me with my eyes closed, of course!

Ava,  Mya and Lia....Thanks Robin for cute matching outfits!

Mya, Lia, Ava

Aunt Dana with Ava, Lia and Mya

Grandma, Grandpa, Ava, Mya and Lia

Uncle Codey and Ava

There really hasn't been much else excitement around here.  The girls are getting bigger and bigger all the time.  As of yesterday their weights were:

Ava - 8 lbs. 12 oz.
Lia - 12 lbs. 7 oz.
Mya - 11 lbs. 5 oz.

Everyone is putting on about half a pound per week.  Maybe someday Ava will catch up, but for now she is gaining weight at about the same pace as they are.  They are getting closer and closer to sleeping through the night.  We usually have at least one good 6 hour stretch out of all of the babies.  We have stopped waking up all three to eat when the first one wakes up and just doing demand feeding at night.  Some nights it works out great and other nights not so much.  The past three nights we have had at least one baby sleep through the night so hopefully they are starting some good habits.  It would be nice since I will sadly be heading back to work next Tuesday.  I know that after 6 months off it is time, but I can't imagine how much I will miss being home with the kids.  It will take a big group effort to keep things going once this happens.  Hopefully we don't all fall apart!  I'm sure it will be fine!

I am sure there are plenty of other things I should talk about, but they are all escaping me at the moment.  We have been working on getting responsive smiles out of everyone.  It doesn't happen easily, but with lots of attention and talking we are usually able to pull a smile out of them.  They are starting to be awake more during the day which is more work, but hopefully it means that we are getting closer and closer to sleeping through the night on a regular basis.

I guess my next post will be as a working mother of 5 so wish me luck!  Here are a few more pictures of the cuties..enjoy!

Lia, Ava, Mya

Mya

Ava

Lia

Mya and me with a new haircut (finally!)

2 months old...A week of firsts!

Ava, Lia and Mya - 2 months old

Well, believe it or not, the girls are already 2 months old as of last Monday!  In celebration, we have decided it is time to start tackling the world outside of our house.  Believe it or not, we have not taken the babies anywhere since they have been home!  We have been unbelievably fortunate to have an awesome pediatrician who made house calls for us for the first couple of months so that the girls did not have to be exposed to any unnecessary germs.  But, since two months old brings with it a plethora of vacccinations, it was time for us to head to the doctor's office.

We decided to do a dry run on Sunday and make a visit to Great Grandma Kolb's house.  All in all, everything went very well.  The girls were out cold the second the car started moving.  And, all of the carseats fit nicely across the middle seat of our SUV, so that was a relief as well!

All strapped into the truck - Ava was happier once we started driving.

Noa now climbs in through the tailgate.

Snoozing after the car ride.

Great grandma Kolb and Mya

4 Generations

On Monday, we made our trip to the pediatrician.  Between filling out paperwork times 3, weighing, measuring, examining and vaccinating 3 babies, we were there for 2 and a half hours!  But, we were declared to have 3 perfectly  healthy babies...2 of which you would never know were preemies!  Little Ava is still not on the growth charts quite yet, but is much closer than when she was born.  Miss Lia, however, is already at the 50th percentile in weight for a full term 2 month old baby and Mya is at the 25th percentile for a full term 2 month old baby!

Ava - 7 pounds 2 ounces; 18.5 inches
Lia - 10 pounds 13 ounces; 21 inches
Mya - 9 pounds 8 ounces; 20.5 inches

Our big adventure of today was our first walk outside in the triple stroller.  I'm not sure what exactly motivated me, but I got the girls strapped in and we headed out for a walk around the block.  Anyone who has been to my house knows that is not quite as easy as it sounds.  Not only do I have an extremely long, steep driveway, but our entire street is hills.  After nearly 6 months of complete inactivity, I was completely wiped out by the time we got home.  I am sure that I will be sore for days!

First walk in the stroller

Ava

Lia

Mya

So, the babies are doing great.  They are starting to sleep longer stretches at night.  The past week or so we have had 4 or 5 hours between feedings most nights, especially for the bigger girls.  They are still napping a lot during the day, but they are starting to have a little bit more alert time.  Lia and Mya are both doing really good with holding their heads steady, and Ava is starting to work on it but is still pretty wobbly.  We are trying to do more tummy time to practice, but these pictures show how that usually ends up:

Lia

Mya

 

Lia comforting Ava during her tummy time.



Have you ever seen such big eyes in such a little face?

And last but not least, every child has to be embarassed with infant bath pics, right?

Ava

Lia

Mya

All I Do Is Feed Babies!

I have realized that my days revolve around feeding babies.  Every three hours like clockwork they are ready to eat.  If I am by myself, it takes about an hour to feed them.  Then I wash bottles, pump, pick up dirty bibs, burp cloths and outfits, clean up the inevitable spit up off myself, rest for a few minutes and start all over again...

12 hours worth of bottles - yes, this is only half a day's worth!

But, the results are obvious!  Yesterday's weights are as follows:

Lia - 9 lbs. 13 oz.
Mya - 8 lbs. 15 oz.
Ava - 6 lbs. 11 oz.

I like to say I have babies in all sizes...small, medium and large!  But, everyone has at least doubled their birthweights already.  They will be 2 months already on Monday!  We will be making our first ever outings this week with a trip planned to go see Great Grandma Kolb this weekend to meet Uncle Bill and Aunt Loretta.  Then we will make our first trip  to the pediatrician on Monday.  So far, we have been fortunate that she has come to us to make house calls, so this is the first time we will be going to see her.  Wish me luck!

Full Term Babies!

As of Monday, March 14th, the triplets were officially full term babies.  So, today, their actual age is 5 weeks and 6 days, but their "adjusted age" is just 3 days old.  Adjusted age is often important for developmental milestones in preemies.  It can be expected that they will reach many of these milestones such as crawling, walking, etc. about a month behind other babies.  We will see...they seem awfully advanced to me:)  All three of them seem to have really strong necks and are already lifting their heads alot.  They are becoming more and more alert all the time and are following objects and turning to voices.

As for weights...these girls are getting huge! 

Ava - 5 lbs 15 oz
Lia - 8 lbs 4 oz
Mya - 7 lbs 14 oz

Here is a picture of our two sumo wrestlers Lia and Mya, and then a picture of our little peanut Ava who is still working on catching up.

Lia and Mya

Ava

I thought this picture was funny.  Obviously they are getting used to cuddling with each other in the pack and play at nap time!  During the night they sleep in their own cribs, though.

Mya, Lia and Ava - getting close while napping

Closer shot of Mya and Lia snuggling up

The other exciting event of this past week is that the girls had their first photo shoot.  I think we got lots of great shots of the triplets.  We also got some pictures of all the kids together, which is the first time we have been able to do that.  I can't wait until we gets the pics...I will post them as soon as they come in.

1 Month Old - Where is the Time Going?

This blog is a lot harder to keep up on than I thought it would be!  For those of you who don't know, Lia and Ava both came home from the hospital on Saturday, February 26th after 22 days in the NICU and 6 days after Mya came home.  The difference between having one baby at home and having three babies at home is beyond words.  I can't believe that I ever thought that having one baby was hard :) 

We are fotunate, however, that we have really good babies who pretty much sleep between every feeding...but it feels like feeding is pretty much all we ever do!  They are on a self-imposed 3 hour feeding schedule for the most part...I can't wait until they start going 4 hours!  At least one baby usually wakes up like clockwork at exactly 3 hours.  In order to keep some sort of a schedule, once one babies wakes up to eat, we wake them all up to eat. Otherwise, we would be feeding babies around the clock and would never get any rest.  It usually takes at least a good hour to feed the babies, even with two people.  So, on a good day we spend 1 hour feeding and up to 2 hours pumping/sleeping/cleaning/doing laundry/washing bottles etc...then start all over again.  Since Wade works nights, I have had lots of overnight help to make sure that I don't have to take care of them by myself.  The days go pretty good, even when I am by myself, but the nights can be rough.  I am getting better at feeding multiple babies at one time.  Maybe once I get that perfected I may be able to attempt to do a night without help. 

At the moment, we go through about 24 bottles every day.  I was able to stay ahead on pumping until they were a month old, but the past week or so I have had to start adding some formula to their bottles.  Lia and Mya are each taking 4 ounces a feed and Ava is taking 3 ounces, so they are already taking 11 total ounces every 3 hours, which is a couple more ounces than I pump on average.  But, I am going to keep at it so that they get at least part of their feedings as breastmilk.

I definitely underestimated the number of diaper changes we would be doing daily.  I figured a diaper change every three hours for a total of 24 diapers a day.  So, we always change their diapers to kind of wake them up and get them comfortable before their bottles.  However, they seem to find it amusing to let it rip during their feedings...so we usually go through more like 30 diapers a day at least.

All the feeding and diaper changes are paying off, however, because they are growing like crazy.  Today's measurements are:

Ava - 5 pounds 4 ounces  17.5 inches long
Lia - 7 pounds 3 ounces  20 inches long
Mya - 7 pounds 0 ounces 19.5 inches long

Next Monday would have been their actual due date so it will be interesting to take measurements on them then!  Well, I'm sure I am leaving out lots of info, but I have reached my limit of free time...the fussing has begun.  Here are some recent pictures...enjoy!

Grandma with Lia, Ava, Mya, Noa and Simone

Lia, Ava and Mya

Lia, Ava, Mya

Gifts made by Aunt Dana

Ava

Mya

Lia

Ava

Lia and Daddy

Lia and Mya

Lia, Mya and Ava

Last Born...First Home

On Sunday, February 20th, Miss Mya was the first of the triplets to come home after 16 days in the NICU.  She is now up to 5 pounds and is doing great.  We are adjusting to having one baby at home now and still visiting the other two in the NICU.  Fortunately, it doesn't sounds like we will have to be running back and forth for long.  If all goes well, Ava and Lia will likely be home by the end of the week...then the real fun begins!

Mya's first car ride

Going home outfit - preemie clothes were too small!

First night in her crib.

Big brother Noa.

Great-grandma Kolb with Mya and Ava

First time holding all three babies - and no feeding tubes!

Mya, Ava and Lia