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!!