The Year in Review

2008 was a pretty big year for us! It amazes me to look back and see how our year started and then how it ended. Here are the big dates for the year:

01.02.2008 ~ We find out we're having TWINS!!
01.09.2008 ~ We find another baby and we're having TRIPLETS!!! (This is when Gary decides that we're not going to the next appointment, just in case they find another one.)
02.25.2008 ~ We're having two boys (Babies A and C) and a girl (Baby B)!
03.21.2008 ~ I am put on bedrest at home (at 16 weeks gestation).
03.24.2008 ~ Baby C is confirmed a BOY (Henry).
03.31.2008 ~ Baby B is confirmed a GIRL (Piper).
04.07.2008 ~ Baby A (who was previously believed to be a boy) is confirmed a GIRL (Rosemary).
05.07.2008 ~ I am hospitalized for preterm labor (at 22 weeks 5 days gestation) and spend the next 7 weeks in the hospital.
06.22.2008 ~ Rosemary's water breaks (and during the ultrasound to determine which babies' water broke, was incorrectly positively identified as a boy).
06.25.2008 ~ The babies are here (born at exactly 30 weeks)!!
08.03.2008 ~ Piper comes home!
08.08.2008 ~ Henry comes home!
08.16.2008 ~ Rosemary comes home!
09.22.2008 ~ Gary and Rosemary have a slumber party at Children's Hospital (a/k/a Rosemary's hernia surgery).
10.06.2008 ~ Brooke (the Super-Nanny) starts taking care of the babies.
10.25.2008 ~ The babies are christened.
12.13.2008 ~ The babies start sleeping through the night. Our lives changed that night. . . .
12.20.2008 ~ The babies begin eating solid food.

This year has been amazing -- and although at times things have been unbelievably scary when I was in the hospital, the end result is more amazing and wonderful than I ever could have imagined.

And the babies are doing so wonderfully now. We are so very proud of them. They are definitely developing their little personalities and I can't wait to see them develop more. What is so interesting to me is how they seem to be following right in line with their little personalities when they were still inside. . . .

Piper is definitely our little drama queen. Her daddy calls her "Pumpkin Head." She never halfway cries -- she will either be completely quiet or she will scream. And she doesn't scream in baby cries, she screams at us in unintelligible words. I swear I can hear her calling us names (and not nice names). She is definitely our nosy one. She doesn't want to sit in our laps leaning up against us, she wants to sit on the end of our knees, leaning forward, and looking all around -- especially at the television. She is terrified that she will miss something. She hates going to bed and fights her naps, but she will eventually collapse and sleep soundly. Piper has recently obtained some form of mobility. She will lay on her back and push herself around with her heels so that she is scooting all around the living room. Of course, she can't see where she's going that way and usually ends up screaming when she runs into something.

Henry is our sweet laidback snuggle baby. My brother, Zac, calls him Hank -- so Gary calls him "The Hammer." He is happy just being held and (usually) has a sweet, kind disposition. He loves his mommy, and when I hold him he will look at me with his big, blue eyes and just smile. And if he can't be held, he loves his paci and his blue doggie (or the new green frog that Nana gave him for Christmas). But, oh he has a temper. I often say that it's a good thing that he is as cute as he is, because otherwise we might have sent him back. We call him the purple baby because when he gets mad, he screams so loud and so hard that his face turns purple. But Henry is our good sleeper! He will sleep all morning if we let him, and through the screams of his sisters. He is going to fit in very well with us if he keeps that up!

Rosemary -- or "SweetLittleRosemary" as Gary calls her -- is on the move. She wants to stand all the time and is constantly trying to do new things and has become very vocal lately. She has been doing everything in her power to roll over lately (like her brother and sister), but just can't quite make it, so she screams out her frustration. And she really lets us know when we are running a little late on her bottle -- that child has an internal clock! And she is such a good eater. On a daily basis, she consistently takes in more milk than either Piper or Henry! But at some point during her bottle, she is going to fall asleep in a milk coma! Rosemary is definitely a morning person, but we think that is because if she gets up early she gets to have her mommy and daddy all to herself for a while. She loves the playmat still, and will play under it and squeal (very loudly) for a really long time. She will talk to us for as long as she can. She is so sweet, but definitely has a sense of humor. She is going to be entertaining us in the year to come.

I cannot wait to see what is next!

Happy New Year!!

Six Month Check-Ups

The babies had their 6-month check-up on Friday morning. Here are some pictures of them before their appointment on Friday morning. Because of the great bibs from their friend Kate -- Christy and Rob's daughter -- we don't even have to tell you who is who in these pictures. Well, except that you'd probably know who is who simply because Piper is crying in the pictures (as usual).

The pediatrician said that the babies are doing great and growing really well!! In fact, they are still moving up the growth curve and not just staying on it! Here are the current stats:

Piper: 13 lbs. 3 oz., 23.5 inches long, 15.75 head circumference

Henry: 14 lbs. 2.5 oz., 25 inches long, 17 inch head circumference

Rosemary: 11 lb. 3.5 oz., 22.25 inches long, 15.25 head circumference

Not bad at all, especially considering that the babies would only be 4 months old this Friday if they had been born on time, rather than 10 weeks early.

The babies don't get out very much. In fact, due to RSV Season, they only get out for the occasional doctor's visit. Piper has not been out since her 4-month check-up, and Rosemary has not been out since her trip to the ER the night of the 4-month check-up. Henry has gotten out of the house several times over the last two weeks, but only for appointments related to his reflux (I strongly suggest NEVER witnessing an infant take a barium swallow test). Anyway, I think that getting our babies out is such a unique experience that it absolutely wears them out and they usually sleep for most of the next 24 hours. Whenever we get home from a trip outside the house, all of the babies have a dazed look on their faces. . . .

Santa Was Here!!

On Christmas Eve, after their baths, the babies wore some Christmas PJs that Ricky, Donna, and Kayla sent earlier in the week.



We read "The Night Before Christmas" before the babies went to bed, after we let them play with the book first. . . .

And here are individual photos of Piper, then Henry, then Rosemary:

All of the babies have been doing a great job of sleeping late in the morning, but wondering if Santa made it was more than Rosemary could handle. She woke up at 6:45 a.m. and came downstairs, crawled into our bed and woke up her daddy. . . . While she laid in the bed waiting for Gary to get ready, she sent me to the living room to see if Santa had made his way to our house. And he did! I found stuffed stockings and special gifts for the babies.

Rosemary was soooooo excited when I told her that Santa had visited and left presents for her!

Rosemary immediately had a seat in the chair that Santa brought and opened her gifts. . . .

But after just a little while, Rosemary was all tired out from getting up so early.

Next, Henry got up and checked out the loot from Santa.

Finally, Piper woke up and came downstairs to see what was going on.

Gary and I were very pleased to see that our stockings had been stuffed overnight as well. . . .

Christmas Cards

A few years ago, Gary and I started sending out Christmas card pictures. Since we didn't have children, for the pictures we dressed up the one child that we had -- our cat, Francesca. Lots of people enjoy our Christmas cards and understand the humor, but then lots of people think that we're a little disturbed. . . .

Here are a couple of my favorite Christmas card pictures from the past:

Since our friends found out that we were going to have a (human) baby -- and especially once everyone found out we were having three babies -- we've been asked again and again what we're going to do about our Christmas cards. There was no way that we could leave Francesca out of the picture, but we wanted to include our other new babies in the picture as well. It took a lot of work and involved a few meltdowns by all four of them, but here is the Christmas card picture that we are using for this year:

Solid Foods

The babies have been changing a LOT lately. One of the best changes is that Gary and I have stopped waking them up at night to eat. They seem to love it! They go to bed around 9:00 or 9:30 and sleep really well. Piper occasionally wakes up around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. wanting to eat, but we just feed her a couple of ounces and put her right back in bed. Rosemary sometimes wakes up around 7:00 a.m. and wants to play, but Henry will sleep and sleep and sleep. This morning the babies didn't get up until it was time for their 8:00 a.m. morning bottle. It was great!

The babies will be 6 months on Christmas Day, and they're all eating more than 32 ounces of milk a day and still a little hungry. So, we decided that it's time for solid foods. First up, cereal.



It was pretty clear that the babies had no idea what was going on when we lined them all up in their bumbos. . . . (And yes, I did color coordinate the spoons, bowls, and bumbos -- I've never denied having OCD issues).

PIPER

We usually stick with birth order, so Piper got the first few spoonfuls. Here's Piper's first bite:

And here is what Piper thought about the cereal:

HENRY

And Henry was next. Here is what Henry did when he saw the spoon:

And here's Henry taking his first bite of cereal:

I had really thought that Henry would be all about his cereal, but he didn't seem to be impressed. Here is what Henry thought about his cereal:

ROSEMARY

And then we came to Rosemary. We have learned that Rosemary has a major gag reflex. It doesn't take much for her to act just like a cat trying to spit up a hairball (and that sound she makes is not far off of that hideous hacking noise). So, justifiably, we were a bit concerned about giving Rosemary anything solid. Here's her first bite:

And to our major surprise, Rosemary immediately began gumming the cereal and opening up her mouth for more!!! Here's what Rosemary thought about her first bite of cereal:

And here is Rosemary reacting to her other bites of cereal:

Here are the babies getting ready for the second round of cereal bites. Notice Rosemary's excitement. She actually started fussing while we were feeding the other babies because she was so anxious for another turn! Henry seemed to be bracing himself. . . .

As expected, we were not without some breakdowns. Henry started first.

We thought he may calm down after a bit, but no, he was out of control and started breaking stuff.

So, Henry was the first baby excused from the "table."

Piper started freaking out not long after Henry left the table.

And so Piper was excused from the table, too.

Rosemary was a sweet little girl, and never really lost her cool. She did get through eating after a while, though, and we also excused her from the table.

And how did things look after it was all done? Not too bad, considering. . . .