Nine Months have passed since the birth!

The triplets are now nine months old. Wow... Three quarters of a year have passed since they entered our lives. It feels like they've always been here, and yes, they're growing incredibly fast!

All three are now mobile to varying degrees, holding their bottles when they drink, and eating stage 2 baby foods quite well. All three have started practicing making sounds as well.

Tarynn's dad David came for a visit in early January and got to spend some time with the triplets and Kali.

A while back we finally put those stickers on the back of the minivan for the members of the family. Wow. Kinda scary looking when it's put like that!

The whole family went to the North Texas Irish Festival as well, along with the triplets good friend Megan Gilchrist. She, with the triplets help, charmed the stage manager of the children's stage (Who is also an author, and a recording artist!) Rickey Pittman into posing for a picture with them, and gave Megan a free copy of one of his children's books! (Megan promptly donated it to the Ecton Child Library, thanks Megan!)

Kaelynn and Blake both cut their first teeth around 7-8 months old. Kaelynn likes to show her teeth off!

Blake is the first to figure out how to pull himself to a standing position in his crib. However, he hasn't quite figured out how to get back down without just falling, so sometimes gets quite upset when he's been standing there for a while.

My old friends Kevin and Katy Crumpton of Just Have Fun Photography came over last weekend to do a nine month photo shoot of the kids. Here are some samples from that. (Disclaimer - These are the raw, unedited photos, not cropped, color corrected, etc!)

Somehow out of the pandemonium of this:

They were able to distill some shots like these:

Blake, Kaelynn, Brian 

Kaelynn & Kali

Brian

Blake

Kaelynn

Kaelynn, Brian & Blake

Brian & Blake

Blake

Kaelynn

Brian

Blake

Thirty Toes! (Brian, Kaelynn & Blake)

And with big sister Kali, FORTY toes!

Big sister Kali is growing up WAY too fast!

Don't let the halo fool you, it's being held up by horns! ;)

Brian Kaelynn & Blake

Kaelynn grinning

Kaelynn just being cute

Brian has officially worn a tie more than his daddy has in the last five years now!

Another of Brian dressed for success

Blake too!

Blake had people to see and places to go and wanted to get moving!

Thanks again to Kevin and Katy for the photo shoot, they came out beautifully! Also, we have to continue to thank everyone that's helped us in this journey, Megan & Betsy Gilchrist for always being willing to come keep them company (And even change an icky diaper!), my mom Jean for helping out when she's able to, my dad Roger for coming over and helping every single work day, and most of all my mother in law Tarla who gives of herself endlessly. I don't know how we'd make it without all of ya'll's (And countless other unnamed people!) help! 

...and the adventure continues...

Six months!

This Saturday (the 17th) Blake, Kaelynn and Brian II hit the 6 month old milestone. They go to the pediatrician tomorrow (The 19th) and hope to be cleared for "real" food. Grandma Tarla has already bought some rice cereal in anticipation!

Kaelynn - 6 months

Brian II - 6 months

Blake - 6 months

This Saturday was also our annual Christmas gathering at my grandmother's house in Denison. We had to take advantage of the situation and get a picture of Kaelynn, Brian II and Blake with their great grandmother.

Spooky dookie doo!

So the title is just silly. Almost as silly as me walking around in an animal print dress and earmuffs, my take on being a deaf leopard.

Tonight was the babies first Halloween. Kali had fun going to a few doors with the kiddos. She took the invitation to join some kids and we met the parents from down the street, so she enjoyed her first Halloween with friends (not family!) too. Thanks David and Pamela!


Fun with Orthodontics!!
Kali also got spacers for her orthodontics. In a few mnore weeks she will have a top expander for 6 months, followed by top and bottom expanders with front braces for another six months, then a simple retainer until her baby teeth fall out, usually 2 more years. After that she'll get full braces for another year. So... What's that about a lifetime maximum benefit?


Babies and BathwaterBabies took their first showers on Sunday. This was completely new experience and the reactions were fascinating! Brian was first, he was scared and didn't like it. Kaelynn, on the other hand, LOVED it! She played, licked the water, reached into the shower and relaxed the whole time. Blake was last and in the middle. He startled and cried when the water first touched him but by the end liked it.

Brian will come around when we do it again. He doesn't like new things as much as Blake. Kaelynn is the scheduled, self-contained and determined one - she reacts but doesn't show it. Blake is the thrill seeker and attention getter, we worry he'll have a heart attack because he's so high strung! He absolutely has to see what else is going on. Brian is the most sensitive - I've seen him touch his siblings when they're on the play mats together. The others don't reach out on purpose. Brian also started holding onto my shoulder this weekend, felt like a big hug. Melt my heart...

Four Months Old!

Wow... We're up to four months old now. 1/3 of a year. What a whirlwind it's been!

They've had their first colds (RSV Negative as of the test today at least). They were getting better, but had a bit of a backslide in the last few days, so off to the doctor today. Nothing major, but with preemies, we're taking no chances.

On the plus side, since they went to the doctor, we have official weights for their 4th month birthday:

Kaelynn - 10 pounds 12 ounces
Blake - 11 pounds even
Brian - 13 pounds 8 ounces.


And, here's their monthly "Look how much I've grown!" pictures next to their stuffies:

Blake:

Brian:

Kaelynn:

And a group shot:

Three months old!

The triplets are three months old as of this past Saturday (The 17th of September). Quarter of a year down...

Not a whole lot to add text wise. They're eating 4 or so ounces every 4 hours, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. We're all hanging on to the tattered threads of what's left of our sanity as best we can, knowing things will eventually get calmer around here. Some day.

We've been trying to take monthly pictures of them next to specific stuffed animals. For comparison of growth, here's Blake's one month picture:

And his three month picture:

Brian's one month picture:

And his three month picture:

And last but definitely not least, Kaelynn's one month picture:

And her three month picture:

I had planned on taking some group pictures tonight as well, but we just ran out of steam. That's sadly been happening a lot lately. I apologize for the infrequent updates, and for the lack of writing tonight, but we're all just so tired.

Here are a few pictures I took of the "Conference" a week or two ago though, when we tried placing all three of them in their Bumbos:

Making up for lost time

Brian's been after me for a while to update the blog with a post about my recollection of the events surrounding the birth of the triplets. This has been difficult. Why? Because there's so much to remember, write, review, rewrite, delete, etc., etc.. Seems like people know the facts, so what I'm adding are really just my feelings on the occasion. With that in mind, I'll just put the highlights and move on.

Tuesday, June 14th I did something extremely rare: I left work early. Didn't feel good, was tired. It wasn't relevant, really - the diastolic flow problem with Blake had zero impact on me and was completely unaffected by anything I could have done. It was simply funny that I left early the day before, fully planning to be in the office after lunch.

That's why I freaked out when Dr. Rinehardt told us I would be escorted to Admissions. I felt helpless, nothing was ready, I hadn't packed or finished the nursery or watered my plants or anything. It was a shock, still a blur going through Admissions, but walking down the hall towards the north elevators I had a strong desire to go outside. Just for a minute. Maybe go sit in the car for a minute. We did not. Honestly, I believe Brian was afraid I'd run for it. Looking back I wish I had insisted - perhaps I'd have felt more in control.

Ante-partum (48 hours bedrest) was physically uneventful. For the most part I laid there. Mentally it was harder. That first night was absolutely horrible, everything I was afraid of happened - I couldn't sleep, I took Ambien, still couldn't sleep, ate jellybeans, was still up, took Xanax, still couldn't get the f... to sleep. The next night we took care of that - Xanax, then Ambien, then nite-nite pussycat. Slept pretty well, considering.

The room was HOT. I've never been so warm, sweating and sticky, hoping for a relatively cool breeze through to the hallway. Except... everyone else was shivering! WTF? The first dr said it wasn't the steroid shot. Later my dr said it was, actually. I'm sure it was. It might be the last time I'm ever the warmest person in the room, at least until menopause.

We talked a lot about babies. Several times a day they monitored the heartbeats. Fascinating to hear them, to know if they were sleeping, hiccupping, moving, calm, upset. It was hard to be excited, though, because it wasn't time for them to be born. None of us were ready! The steroid shot was to jump-start the babies into readiness for the world. I was so lucky to have Betsy and Megan!

Betsy and Megan finished out the nursery. I'd gotten the big stuff in place the weekend before but it needed finishing, putting up some of the clothes and hanging the boards and getting a glider and organizing anything. One thing I wanted to do were get letters, paint them white, then 'hang' the bulletin boards for each baby. I couldn't find the letters at WM and hadn't had a chance to go to Michaels. They did that. Angels, they are. Thanks. = )

This post is now too long. I'll pick up the delivery next time...

Growing growing growing, keep them babies growing!

The babies had a checkup with their new pediatrician last week, so we have some official size and weight measurements...

Kaelynn: 21.25" & 7lbs, 12oz.  (Birth 16 1/4" & 3lbs, 10.12oz)
Brian:     21.75" & 8lbs, 12oz.   (Birth 16 1/2" & 4lbs, 1.6oz )
Blake:     21" & 7lbs, 8oz.         (Birth 16" & 2lbs, 15oz )


Here are a few updated pics of the kiddos:

Kaelynn:

Brian:

Blake:

All Together Now!

They had their first tub bath last night, here they are all clean and in their new outfits from Aunt Joan:

Blake getting his first bath:

Brian seemed to really enjoy getting a bath!

And no complaints from Kaelynn either...

I even let my guard down and handed the camera to someone else for a few shots!

Here's Brian I holding Brian II

And here I am doing the tricky two at once feeding (Mommy can feed all three at once! THAT's talent!!!)

Mommy getting ready to feed all 3 at simultaneously:

And in other news, big sister Kali has started 3rd grade, and is enjoying being a cheerleader.

With all the commotion of taking pictures in the baby room, Hank just had to come around and stick his nose into the proceedings to see what was going on!

I guess that's about it for this time. The babies are doing just what they're supposed to be doing, eating and growing... We're somehow keeping up with them, although that's getting to be even more of a challenge with my being back to work (And back to a new and far more demanding job) and with Tarynn going back to work this coming week, but we'll manage and get through this.

One final shout out - To everyone that's been helping, but ESPECIALLY the grandparents (Tarynn's mom Tarla and my dad Roger especially!) without ya'll, I don't know how we'd have made it this far. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! Love ya'll!