Progress and All Kinds of Great Things!

We are making progress with the babies during the nighttime hours. We have started the babywise method and I am schedule feeding during the day and demand feeding at night. Brent gets up around 11 pm when the girls start getting restless and hungry and I do the 2 am and 5 am feedings as they demand. Well, last night, Brent woke me up at 12:45 am and said, "Did you get up and do the 11 o'clock feeding?" I said, "No, were they crying?" The girls were sound asleep. Wahoo!!! They dropped a feeding and made it from 8:30 pm until 1:00 am. AWESOME! While we were trying to figure out how long it had been since their last feeding we heard little whimpers over the baby monitor so we got up to feed. We put the babies back down in their cribs and I they didn't wake up again until 5:00 am. So another 3 and 1/2 hours! I fed them at 5 am and then started their schedule feeding at 8 am. We are moving down the road to sleeping through the night!

Also, this week, I got a new REFRIGERATOR! Brent said, "You know you are getting old when you get excited about a new fridge." :) Well, I may be old but my new fridge is AMAZING! Our old refrigerator was leaking water and about once a week I would walk into the kitchen at any time of the day or night and step straight into a pool of water on the floor. Brent spent the entire afternoon Saturday taking apart the old fridge to get to the root of the problem and he finally determined it was something that could not be fixed...meaning NEW FRIDGE FOR ME! Our old refrigerator was freezer on top and refrigerator space on bottom and I have always wanted the fridge on top and freezer on bottom. Plus, our old fridge was getting cramped from bottles and such and we really needed more space. Our new fridge is HUGE! Check it out!

Bottles and bottles lined up nicely on the top shelf...pitchers of formula ready to be dispensed on the bottom shelf...

Also this week our great friends, David and Pam McKown, welcomed their first child into the world. Matthew Ray McKown was born at 11:27 pm, Tuesday, October 27th, 2009. He weighs 7 lbs. 7 oz. and is 20 and 1/4 inches long. Such a handsome boy! Gran and Grandaddy came over last night to watch the girls so we could go visit the McKowns at the hospital. He's so precious! This is a picture of me holding Matthew...Jess, I poached this pic from your Facebook page...hope you don't mind. :) I can't wait for play dates where our girls can get to know Matthew. I still have friends to this day that I have known pretty much from birth and I know these babies will be the same way.

It has been a great week and it is only going to get better. We are taking the girls on their first trip to Grammy and Pop's house in Gunter, TX. This will be our trial run before our day after Thanksgiving trip to see the whole family. I already have a packing list a mile long and I haven't even started listing the things that Brent and I will need to take...you can imagine.

Our Babies :)

Well, things have been hectic to say the least. The girls are still not sleeping well at night between feedings. Baylee is fussy most nights because of her little diaper rash we are diligently working to get rid of but after trying numerous home remedies, creams, etc. we are finally trying a prescription medication for diaper rash. We will see how well this works to clear up that little problem. The girls' Aunt Mandy is here this week helping me and I am so happy she is here. I had to take the girls to the doctor this morning to get their RSV vaccine and it is just ridiculous how difficult it would have been without her. It has been raining all day today and things are just that much more difficult when the weather is crappy. We got to the doctor's office and got the girls unloaded from the car and loaded into the triplet stroller. When we were taken back to the examining room, we had to get each girl undressed so they could be weighed then redressed before they could get their shot. It is hard for people to imagine how much work it really is unless you go with me and see it first-hand. Baylee weighs 8 lbs. 2 oz. today! Reagan and Addison weigh 7 lbs. 6 oz.! Our big girls! It was the hardest thing to watch them get their shots. They just wailed and screamed and had the most painful face...I wanted to cry right along with them.

We also received the pictures we had taken of the girls a few weeks ago. I am only going to post a few here since I will be sending out their birth announcements soon and I am using a few of the pictures on those.

"Glee" or Sleep

Brent and I have the night routine down, but it is a tight schedule. He gets home around 5:45 pm or 6:00 most nights and we have just an hour to eat dinner before we start baths at 7:00 pm. Takes us about 45 minutes to do baths for everyone and then we start their 8 pm feeding when baths are finished. After that, the girls go down for bedtime. Last night they did pretty well. We were shocked when all three girls were zonked out right after their 8 pm feeding. Brent and I had a moment of discussion in the living room when we realized they were all asleep and no one was fussing. It was 8:30 pm, do we sit down and watch our new favorite show "Glee" that we have taped from Wednesday, or do we take advantage of the situation and go to sleep. We chose sleep. :)

You could offer me $1,000 right now, or 6 full hours of continuous sleep, and I would take the sleep, hands down...no hesitation.

Yesterday was kind of a rough day for Baylee. I took her for the follow up head ultrasound (everything came back normal, by the way) and she did great through that, then when we got home she was fussy the rest of the afternoon but she didn't seem to have as much reflux which is good. After every feeding and awake time, I would try to move her from the living room where she had fallen asleep to her crib and she would wake up and start crying. I would try to soothe her, play her music, cuddle her back to sleep, nothing worked. I guess she just hates being in her crib. I brought her into the living room and put her in her swing and she calmed down. Then a few hours later she was fussy again. I ended up getting her out of her swing and laying down on the couch with her on my chest and she was out like a light. Maybe she just wants to cuddle with Mommy. :)

Also, last night it was Zaky to the rescue! You may remember my post about my baby shower where my Aunt Susan gave me the Zaky hand. Basically, it is a bead filled hand that you can place with the baby to make them feel like you are there with them with a hand on their tummy or back. Early this morning, around 4 am, Baylee was fussing and wouldn't stop crying after her feeding. I was out of ideas until I remembered the Zaky. I placed Baylee on her back with the Zaky hand across her chest and she calmed down and went right to sleep. Then I was able to go back to bed. Thank you Aunt Susan!

I am looking forward to the weekend when Brent will be home with us and the girls' Aunt Mandy will be coming to stay with us for a week. So excited!

A Much Better Night...

Maybe the scheduling is working...I'm not totally convinced yet. Last night was a much better night. We got the girls fed at 8:00 pm and put them down immediately afterward and there was a little fussing but no screaming. Baylee still had her reflux issue which kept her up a little past 9:00 pm but other than that, the girls slept well between feedings. I was even able to go to bed after their 11 pm feeding. We have started to demand feed the girls at night instead of schedule feeding like we have been doing since they were released from the hospital. Last night was the first try and Baylee still woke up exactly at 2:00 am ready to eat, and then again at 5:30 ready to eat. So we made it another 30 minutes between night feedings, and hopefully their sleep time at night will continue to increase between feedings. Once they reach a certain weight and their 2 month birthday, we will start trying to eliminate night feedings all together. I think I will have a little party when that happens. :)
I also took Baylee back to see the pediatrician today for bloodwork. Her iron level has decreased, even though we have been supplementing her with iron in one feeding each day. Her doctor decided to send her for a head ultrasound just to ensure that there aren't any issues we can't see that might be causing her iron level, hemoglobin, to decrease. Baylee, and her sisters, had head ultrasounds done multiple times while they were in the NICU, so they have been through this before. We are also still trying to find a solution to her reflux issue. Her doctor prescribed her Reglan (this will be our third prescription to try) so we will be giving her this 3 times a day and I really hope to see some improvement. Bless her little heart, she just cries and cries after each feeding because she has that reflux coming up.
While I took Baylee to the pediatrician, our friend Erin Ivy came over to watch Reagan and Addison. Thank you again Erin! You can't imagine how much stress that took off of my shoulders.

This Is The Hard Part

Well, this is definitely the hard part. Last night was the first night that we have had two upset, crying babies at one time and that makes things very difficult and stressful. I kept the girls on schedule yesterday, hoping that they would have better sleep patterns last night and that didn't really go as planned.
After their 8 PM feeding, Baylee and Reagan were awake and fussing the entire time. We changed diapers and tried to soothe them with pacis and nothing was working. I kept thinking, "You just ate an hour ago, are you hungry already?!" Reagan has never fussed like that; where it is just extreme crying. Baylee cries because of her reflux issue and that was her problem last night. We checked Reagan's temp to see if maybe that was why she was so upset, but it was perfect.
We finally brought Reagan out of the nursery and she fell asleep on her daddy's chest. Baylee was crying too and I was trying to do some research on her anemia online so I brought Baylee out and let her sleep next to Reagan on their daddy.
When we started getting them ready for their 11 PM feeding, Reagan and Baylee woke up and started screaming again, wailing crying. It was awful. We finally got the bottles in their mouths and they ate and seemed to be settling down.
After their feeding, Baylee's reflux started up again and she would not go down in her crib for anything. I tried everything. When she settled down enough, I left their room to go get ready for bed and by the time my head hit my pillow, Baylee was screaming again. I decided just to bring her in the living room and let her sleep with me in the recliner. Once I did that, she was fine.
But, that wasn't the end of it. I had Baylee asleep, finally, with me in the recliner and Reagan started wailing again from their bedroom. I didn't want to wake Baylee up again since it took me so long to get her to sleep in the first place that I decided to call Brent on his cell phone and get him to help me with Reagan. He was trying to sleep through all of this, and was doing a pretty good job of it. He got up to give Reagan her paci and soothe her until she was settling down and then he went back to bed. Not 5 minutes later, Reagan was screaming again. I tried calling again. Voicemail. Again. Voicemail. Again. Voicemail. I started thinking, "Did he turn his phone off?!" Then I tried yelling at him from the living room, hoping I wouldn't wake Baylee up. No answer. Again, "Brent! I need your help!" No answer. By this time, I was frazzled, tired and near the end of my rope. Brent used to be a very light sleeper, the slightest thing would wake him up. But I guess if you are tired enough, you can sleep through just about anything. I couldn't believe that he was sleeping through Reagan's screaming over the baby monitor which is on his nightstand. I got up out of the recliner with Baylee still asleep on my chest and walked to our bedroom where I opened the door and yelled, "Brent! I need your help!" He got up. :)
I went back to the bedroom and got Baylee settled again and Brent went to tend to Reagan. He gave her a paci and she settled down and then he came into the living room and settled into the recliner next to me in case she got upset again. I fell asleep with Baylee and eventually Brent went back to the bedroom to go back to sleep.
I woke up around 1:45 am when Baylee started to stir on my chest. I got up to get the girls fed and hope that they would sleep after this feeding without any problems. They did okay, a little fussing but not screaming, crying.
I woke up again at 4:45 when I heard the girls starting to fuss over the monitor. I got up to get them changed and get bottles ready. By the time I had them half way through their feeding I started feeling sick to my stomach but I couldn't leave them by themselves. If I stopped their feeding for too long, they would fall asleep and it would be next to impossible to get them to finish the rest of their bottles. So, I went back into the bedroom where Brent was sleeping to ask him to get up and help me until I could get back to the living room. I stood at the edge of my side of the bed and said, "Honey, I need your help." No response. "Honey, can you wake up and help me for a minute?" No response. So I figured he was just sleeping hard, so I walked around to his side of the bed and pushed on his leg a little while saying, "Honey, I need your help." Well, this wasn't a very good idea. Brent was in such a deep sleep that I guess he thought I was an intruder or something because he shot up and reared back like he was about to defend himself. I yelled, "HONEY! It's me! Chill out! I need your help." He calmed enough to settle down and realize what was happening and who I was. So, I won't be doing that again. I think I will stand back and poke him with a stick or something next time. :)
I finally got some good sleep between their 8 am and 11 am feeding this morning. They didn't make a peep. I am keeping them on their schedule again today, hoping that something starts to change at night. Baylee's reflux issue is really what keeps her from getting to sleep and we haven't found a medication yet that seems to help at all. I am taking Baylee back to the doctor tomorrow to see what we can do about that.

Our Saturday

We've had a rough couple of nights. The girls seem to want to sleep during the day and then be wide awake during the night. We feed the girls at 8-11-2-5 around the clock and right after their 8 pm feeding they are awake and fussing. Brent and I have tried to get to bed early around 9:00 pm, but with the girls being awake it is impossible. So we have been up until their 11 pm feeding and then sometimes even later than that if one or more don't want to go to sleep after their 11 pm feeding.

Friday night was more difficult than most. The girls were fussy and Reagan just wouldn't let me put her down. I finally fell asleep with her in the recliner and woke up around 1:30 am in time for their 2:00 am feeding. I got a little sleep between 3:00 am and 5:00 am when we had to get up to feed again, but we were exhausted by the morning.

We ended up sleeping between morning feedings this morning, but still have red, bloodshot eyes. :)


It has been nice, though, to have Brent at home this weekend and lay around with the babies, watch movies and be a family. :)


We had bath time tonight. Brent bathed the girls and I dressed them and got them ready for their 8 pm feeding.

Addison lookin' at Daddy during her bath...

Baylee getting her back washed during bath time...

Our little lambs...Reagan after her bath...

Triplets Hearing Re-test---All A's!

Yes...people stare at us everywhere we go. Yes...we just pulled three car seats out of the backseat of my car. Yes...they are all mine. No...I don't have anymore children. Yes...I have my hands full.
Today we ventured out of the house with Grammy's help to take the girls to get their hearing re-checked. I've learned that there just isn't enough time in the day. We got up, got the girls fed, down for a nap, fed again, dressed and packed in the car for the outing. I barely had time to grab a granola bar and shove it into my mouth before we dashed out of the house to drive across town. When we arrived they took us, and our massive stroller, back to the audiology room to check their hearing. We had to take the long way around to accommodate our massive stroller and avoid the stairs. The audiologist started with Baylee. Let me tell you something, it is next to impossible to keep a baby quiet for a hearing test. Even though Baylee was sleeping, she makes noises when she sleeps, she grunts and groans when she stretches out. Through all of that I was shushing and soothing, trying to get her to be quiet just so she would pass this hearing test. We know the girls can hear, they jump at loud noises and open their eyes when we are talking to them, but they failed their hearing screens in the NICU and thus, had to go for a re-check a few weeks after they were released. Which puts us at today and me shushing the girls to try to get them to pass their re-check. Reagan was second to go and finished her recheck very quickly. While she was testing Reagan, Addison got the hiccups. I said a little prayer, "Please Lord, take these hiccups away so she can pass Addison and we don't have to come back." As soon as I picked up Addison, her hiccups stopped and she slept somewhat peacefully in my arms while she was tested. A few minutes into the test I smelled something....yep, dirty diaper. I made a face at Grammy sitting across from me. We couldn't stop in the middle of testing to change Addison, so I just tried to breathe through my mouth as the stench kept getting worse. A few minutes later I saw Grammy make a funny face and she said she could smell it all the way out in the hall. :) All three girls were stinkin' up the place. It was bad. By the time she was finished testing Addison, all of the girls were stinky and hungry so Grammy and I changed dirty diapers in the testing room and then fed the girls from their car seats.
EVERYONE PASSED THEIR HEARING TEST! So we are happy we don't have to worry about that anymore.
When we finally got the girls all loaded back in the car and ready for the ride home, I was worn out. Last night was a rough night because the girls have their nights and days mixed up right now. After their 8 o'clock feeding each night they just don't want to go to sleep...at all. So Brent and I are up with them until their 11 o'clock feeding. Then after the 11 o'clock feeding, Baylee was fussy because of her reflux issue and just didn't want me to put her down. I finally ended up putting her in her swing in the living room about 12:30 am and crashing on the couch until their 2 o'clock feeding. So after a full night and the outing today, I was tired, hungry and I'll admit...irritable. Just don't cut me off on the interstate...I might lose it!
I got the girls home and in their cribs for some rest before their 5 o'clock feeding. I have been trying to rest a little as well. Tonight, Brent and I are having a date night. Dinner and a movie. Gran and Grandaddy are coming over to watch the girls for us. Brent and I love to go to the movies and we used to go all the time. I haven't seen a movie in the theatre in MONTHS. So it will be good to have some time together as a couple and relax.

Visits from Family and Friends!

Today we had visits from all kinds of family and friends. The girls' Aunt Elizabeth and her fiance, Adam, came by this morning to see the them before they headed back to Fort Worth.

Aunt Elizabeth holding Baylee

Then the girls' Great Papaw and Aunt Susan came to see the girls in person for the first time. We enjoyed seeing our family so much this weekend. :)

Great Papaw holding Addison and Aunt Susan holding Reagan

Great Papaw holding Reagan and Addison

Brent hanging out with Reagan during "tummy time"...

Then, my good friends from high school, Chad and Rahul came by on their way through town to see us and the girls. They got to see the whole triplet set up and watch us get ready to feed everyone at 5:00 pm. We had a great time visiting and catching up. Thanks guys for coming by, it was great to see you both!

Professional Pictures of the Triplets!

We had the girls first professional photo shoot about a week ago. Our photographer, Nikki, posted some sneak peaks on her blog for us to look at. WE LOVE THEM! Go check them out! Leave a comment on her blog and you could help us get a free gift with our order of prints from Nikki! :)

www.redbird-photography.com/blog

Tim & Kim's Wedding

This Saturday our great friends, Tim and Kim got married. We were there for the proposal on New Years Eve of this year and it seemed like the last 10 months just flew by! Brent was the best-man in the wedding and all of his good friends from West were groomsmen and ushers. Getting those guys together is always a fun time. We had a wonderful time at the wedding hanging out with all of our friends. It was good to catch up with everyone and spend a night out dancing and eating cake. :) We are so happy for Tim and Kim and we hope they are having a great time on their honeymoon in the Bahamas...jealous! See you two when you get back.

Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

Kim getting ready with the help of her sister and mom...

Brent and I before the ceremony...

The Groomsmen and Ushers taking pictures before the ceremony...

Brent Kolar, Brent Huse, Cody McCauley, Todd Ivy, Jeff Zimmerman, Justin Slovak, David McKown

Kneeling: Ray Dulock and Matt Pavlicek

Brent and Pav before the wedding...

The McKowns...:) only 18 more days Pam! Such a cute pregnant lady!

The Bride and Groom at the reception...

The Huses and The Paynes!

Brent giving his best-man toast at the wedding...

Brent and Tim

Supper Club Pic!

The McKowns, The Kolars, The Paynes and The Huses

Pictures of Daddy and Our Famous Girls!

I took some pictures of Brent with the girls tonight and some close-up shots of the girls and their cute, chubby faces :)! Addison was awake, Baylee and Reagan were not.

Daddy with Addison, Baylee & Reagan

Our Addison

Our Baylee

Our Reagan

Daddy mimicking Reagan

Next week will possibly be the girls' television debut! As many of you may or may not know, when the girls were born, Reagan was low on blood. She was pale in color whereas Addison (her identical triplet) was bright red and seemed to be getting most of the blood from the placenta. Due to this, Reagan was given 4 blood transfusions over the course of her time in the NICU. Because we weren't prepared for the possibility that a blood transfusion could be needed, Reagan received donated blood. A few days after the girls were born, we found out that Addison would also need a blood transfusion to help clear up a small heart murmur. It turned out that Brent was an exact blood type match to all of the girls so he went to Carter Blood Care to do a direct donation of blood for her and Baylee and Reagan as well if they needed it. In a direct donation, you can pay to donate blood to a specific person, or persons.

Because Reagan received donated blood, the hospital and Carter Blood Care asked us if we would be willing to let them have the girls as their "poster children" for their next blood drive. They will hold the blood drive in honor of the girls in the hopes of getting more people to donate blood. We agreed since we feel strongly that blood donation is important, even more so now that one of our children needed a transfusion at a moments notice. We thought that the girls' picture on a flyer around the hospital would be the end of the story...not quite.

Carter Blood Care wanted to promote the blood drive and in doing so, requested to submit our story to the local newspaper and television stations for publicity. The PR person at Carter told us that the story may or may not get picked up, we will just wait and see. Well, the story has been picked up by two local television stations in Waco. The nighttime news anchor from channel 25 will be coming by tomorrow afternoon to do the interview herself. Then on Monday, one of the reporters from Channel 10 will be coming by around lunchtime to interview us. We hope that our story will help bring out the blood donors to Hillcrest on Tuesday of next week. The story should run during the 5 or 6 o'clock news on Monday of next week on channel 10 and 25. Set your DVRs people :)!

Brent can't take off more work to be here for the interview on Friday, so we took pictures of him with the girls for the reporter to use in the story. He will however, be able to make it home for the Channel 10 interview during his lunch hour on Monday.

Many of you that know Brent and I very well, know that we aren't keen on bringing a lot of attention to ourselves, and having triplets to us is our blessing, not something we would ever use to get attention. The only reason we are doing this is to help promote blood donation, and not to get the girls on the news. :) The last thing I want is for someone to stop me in HEB because they saw me on the news...but if it can do some good for others by encouraging people to donate blood, I can deal with it. :)

A Few New Pictures!

Here are a few pictures that Grammy took of the girls. Hard to believe they are already one month old.

Pop's Visit

The girls' Pop came to visit for a few days and he finally got to hold all three girls! You can already tell, they love their Pop. :)

Addison & Reagan's 1st Doctor's Appointment

Today was Addison and Reagan's first doctor's appointment with the pediatrician. Addison is now 5 lbs. 4 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. Reagan is 5 lbs. 2 oz. and 18 1/4 inches long. They are both doing great and only cried a little when they got a heel stick to check their iron levels. They sound like little puppies when they cry, just a whimper not quite a wailing cry. So cute!

I felt like I needed help taking both of the girls at the same time, so mom came with me and we took all three to the doctor's office. We got to use our awesome triplet stroller for the first time as well. It definitely got attention from people in the office and people in the parking lot. I am getting pretty good at lifting the stroller in and out of the car. It weighs about 50-55 lbs. by itself. The hard part is getting it positioned so it fits in the back of the Expedition. Here is a pic of mom driving the stroller, I say "driving" because it has a steering wheel on it...and there were many three-point-turns made to get around the doctor's office hallways. :)

The Poop Post

Never in my life have I been so concerned about POOP! It takes becoming a parent for this to be a major issue. How much of it, how often, the color, the consistency, the absence of poop, it goes on and on. I have also never had my sister call and inquire about my ability to poop, but I have had my sister call and inquire if one of the girls had been able to poop yet. Our pediatrician told us if the girls go over three days without pooping, we can try a few things to get the poop rolling. So one of the girls hadn't pooped in 3 days and we started to get a little concerned. It was also a concern of their Aunt's. :) So concerning that she asked about it during a call to my mom. My sister is a mom of three, so of course, she knows about the importance of poop.
I also received my first text message about poop today. Mom was watching the girls while Brent and I ran some errands between their 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock feeding. She sent me the following text while we were out..."Guess who just had a HUGE poopy?!" One of the girls had finally pooped. I sent back, "You know you are a parent when get a text message like this and you are happy about it.:)" I actually was a little sad that I wasn't here when it happened to get excited about it.
Also, as a parent, you don't seem to mind getting poop on you near as much as you would pre-parenting. For example, during the girls' photoshoot Friday, they were between shots and were without clothing and a diaper at the time (have to get those cute naked baby shots, right?!) and one of the girls decided she needed to go #2 (all over the photographer's nice drop cloth :)) and mid-poop Brent snatches her up off of the set-up and cups his hand under her to catch the rest of the poop. He said, "I was only able to do that because it is my kid. It is different when it is your kid." True. It is different. And the trifecta was achieved...Brent got pooped on. :)

New Pictures!!!

Here are some pictures I took today after one of their feedings. All three girls are doing great. They love to make noises (they are definitely Brent's children :)) and grunt and groan while they are looking around and especially when they are all in one crib together. I guess they are already talking to each other.
So far, Brent has been the first one to get peed on and the first one to get puked on. :) I am waiting for the trifecta at some point before his time home with the girls is over.

Addison Ann - Sleeping away...

Baylee Brynn - Stretching out again...
Reagan Riley - Wearing the cute hat her Great-Mamaw made for her...

All three lounging in their swings...

The girls' first professional photo shoot is tomorrow! I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out.