It's Friday night. 9:45 p.m. I'm tired...really tired. Jeff's been gone since Monday at a meeting and with the exception of two 5-hour breaks from a sitter, the kiddos and I have been on our own. But tonight I suddenly found the motivation to update the blog for the first time in about 6 weeks. I was procrastinating because it had been so long and I didn't know how I'd fill in all the gaps of what's happened in all those weeks. But, I was reading about the Morrison family in Minnesota who delivered sextuplets t just 22 weeks into her pregnancy. They've already lost 2 of the babies. Standing at the sink in my bathroom washing my face, I started thinking about the beginning of our journey with this family, and how incredibly blessed we've been. An uneventful "high risk" pregnancy, three healthy babies, and a very healthy first 9 months of life. Before I came to the computer to write this entry, I snuck into the nursery and watched Sean, Luke and Charlotte sleeping. God, they're beautiful!!!
So the latest: We just had our 9-month check and everyone's doing well:
Sean: 16 lbs, 14 ounces (~5%) and 28" (50%)
Luke: 16 lbs, 9 ounces (~5%) and 28.5" (50%)
Charlotte 16 lbs, 2 ounces (10%) and 27" (25%)
We've delved headlong into the world of finger foods and boy is it an adventure! It's messy but they get the job done. They are quickly losing interest in the jarred stuff as they figure out they can do this for themselves. Now if only they'd hold their own bottle/sippy cup, we'd really be in good shape! :-) Luke cut the first two teeth - and the funniest part of that is that I was convinced one of the others was due for teeth because of their fussiness, while Luke's been in a great mood! He's also the fastest "crawler," although it's more of a commando crawl/scoot thing. When he sees something he wants, watch out. Charlotte does scoot around, but I think would much prefer to just skip it and go straight to walking. She spends most of her day completely vertical, pulling up to stand on anything that she can grab onto, and lifting one tiny little leg like she'd really like to climb even higher. I've had to removed at least one piece of furniture that she managed to pull over on top of her a few days ago...other than that we're completely babyproofed in the family room and kitchen. Cabinet latches, outlet covers, gates, etc. Sean, our first scooter, gets around quite well, is pulling up to his knees and saw him briefly pull to stand the other day. They're all on their way to full mobility!
We have a pretty good schedule going, except that with the long summer days, daylight comes early and I have three very awake babies every day by about 5:30 a.m. (sometimes earlier!) I try not to go in to the nursery before 6:00 if possible...but sometimes they just won't wait. Down for a nap around 9:00...usually about 90 minutes...and a second nap around 1:30 for another hour or so. No lounging here...nap time is reserved for cleaning up from breakfast or lunch, making formula, prepping other meal foods, washing bottles, trying to read mail or pay bills, throw in a load of laundry...and there's plenty of work left after they go to bed at 6:30 each night too. I still manage to drop in to bed at a decent time, around 10:00 or so, and thank my lucky stars that I have good sleepers. No matter how tired I am, it's nothing compared to the early days when we "napped" for an hour or so at a time between feedings, around the clock, for days at a time. Every day that the weather permits we get out for walks which the babies LOVE...if I time it right they'll let me walk for over an hour on the trail near our house. That's really the only exercise I can squeeze in these days, other than carrying two babies up and down stairs at a time (for an arm workout) or each one individually (three trips up and down = leg and moderate cardio burst!). Daddy is also incredibly busy, enduring a very long month of travel this month. It's hard for him to be away and miss some of the milestones that have been happening, but I try to email or text him with news as it happens so he feels a part of our day.
These days, everything is about efficiency. There can be no wasted effort here. While bottles are warming, wipe down counters. After mixing formula and waiting for the foam to go down, load or unload the dishwasher. If I make a trip up or down the stairs, make sure to take something with you to put away! While waiting for the water to run and get warm to wash my face, put the toothpaste on my toothbrush...I'm not kidding! I NEVER stand around waiting for anything...there is always a way to multi-task.
It's actually Saturday morning as I finish this up during the a.m. nap. I'm off to make formula and then work on moving all of our medicines, etc. out from under bathroom cabinets into storage containers that will go on a top shelf in a closet. If there's time left, I'll work on uploading some photos...the are TONS I'd love to share but have to resize and upload them - a project for another day I think. I did manage to get one uploaded from my birthday recently. Much love to all of you from Illinois!
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