Giving Thanks

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We have three beautiful girls who we love and adore. We have a special and incredible marriage that we strengthen every day. And we have a fantastic and large extended family that love and support us every step of the way.
We spent the past few days of our Thanksgiving with our family. Thanksgiving Day was spent at Gran and Grandaddy's house with Brent's extended family. We had a houseful and they all got to see the girls up close and in person. We had great food and a wonderful time catching up with everyone we haven't seen in quite a time.

Grandaddy holding Baylee...a regular occurrence

Addison getting ready to go for Thanksgiving...

Baylee...cutie with her headband on

Reagan sleeping sweetly in her car seat

Mommy holding Reagan baby...

On Friday, we took the trip up to Pop and Grammy's house in Gunter, TX. My grandparents were there visiting for Thanksgiving and this was the first time my Mamaw had seen the girls. I was so happy we got to spend time with everyone and get some great pictures of the girls with their great-grandparents.

Mamaw holding Addison...with Peyton crawling over for some attention too :)

Mamaw holding Addison

Mamaw and Papaw holding all three girls

Aunt Missy brought over two of her boys, Mark and Peyton. We missed seeing our sweetie CJ so much, but we will spend some time with him during Christmas that we are looking forward to. Peyton thought the girls were pretty funny and he got a kick out of Addison. Peyton is such a big boy...look at these feet! :)

Addison's foot compared to Peyton's

Peyton touching Addie's foot

Peyton getting a kick out of Addie

Marky enjoying a cinnamon roll :) and some milk

Aunt Missy holding Baylee

Pop holding Marky

Aunt Mandy holding cutie Peyton Daniel

We had a great time during all of our outings for Thanksgiving this year, but it takes a lot of planning and packing :) to function wherever we go. Three pack n' plays, three bouncy chairs, three swings, formula, formula, formula, bottles, bottles, bottles...the list goes on and on. Also, we still aren't getting much sleep at night I'm afraid and when we have traveling or plans during the day, we don't have time to nap and catch up on our sleep so all of the lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I went through our entire fertility process and my entire pregnancy without so much as a cold, so it was my time I guess. I started feeling pretty bad Saturday morning and it just got worse as the day progressed. I finally had to take some medicine and go to bed and try to sleep. Brent braved the night dealing with the girls and feedings all by himself, such a great hubby and Daddy. He did mention today, though, that he has a new found empathy and understanding of what I go through each night with the girls by myself. You have to do it all alone before you really understand how hard it is. Also, Baylee's reflux is really not improving, we think maybe her dosage needs to be increased since she has grown sooo much since it was prescribed. We will see what the pediatrician has to say tomorrow.

Also, we recently decided we needed help from a professional to get us on a schedule and figure out if we are on the right path to getting the girls to sleep through the night. We have a sleep specialist coming tomorrow who will stay with us all week for two weeks and help me through the day with the girls to schedule us and also help me during the night with feedings. I am looking forward to all of the advice she has to give and I am hoping to learn as much from her as I can while she is here with us. I will keep everyone updated on how things are going while she is here. Since the girls were premature, we have to look at them as their an adjusted age instead of actual age. So, for instance, their actual age would be from their birth date (Sept. 5th...3 months old yesterday) but their adjusted age would be from their original due date (Nov. 4th...4 weeks old this Wednesday). The girls won't be expected to sleep through the night until they are 12 weeks old "adjusted"...so we have about another 8 weeks before we can even consider them developed enough to sleep 12 hours straight. Our sleep specialist will be here for two weeks to get us on that path and then come back when the girls are 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks and 12 weeks "adjusted" to help us get to STTN (sleeping through the night). Our sleep specialist also has tons of experience with multiples so I am sure our controlled chaos is nothing new to her.

I will try to find some time during the week to blog and post some more pictures...Brent has a new toy (camera :)) he is learning how to use and the girls will be his favorite subjects. Love to you all!

So Much to be Thankful For

I can't help but think back to this time last year. Brent and I were in the middle of fertility treatments and our first IUI had failed. We had been hoping for a pregnancy for so long that the disappointment of that first failure was devastating to me. It took me a few days to get my head back together and push forward with our next step toward a pregnancy. What a difference a year can make! Just a few months later we were celebrating a positive pregnancy test and now we have three beautiful girls we thank God for every day. We have been through so much this past year and it has definitely strengthened us to get through anything we may come across in our future as a family of 5. :)
There's no doubt that we were in love with our little girls well before they joined us in the world, but we are falling more and more in love with them every day. Especially their Daddy. :) Brent had his first heart melting moment the other night with Addison. We seem to have a difficult time each night getting the girls to go to sleep after their 8 o'clock feeding. I was in the living room calming Baylee down while Brent was in the nursery tending to Addison and Reagan. He picked up Addison and she had her head on his shoulder and she moved her face into his neck so she could snuggle up close. So sweet! They have him wrapped around their little fingers and they don't even know it yet...he's a goner. :)
We are also so thankful for our family. We could not have gotten through all of this without their help and support. The holidays are coming up and we are looking forward to spending this time with all of our family so they can get to know our girls.

Brent talking to Baylee before bedtime...

Reagan after her bath...

Our three little sweeties sitting in their boppies...

2 Month Checkup and Visit from "Aunt" Jill

Well, it has been a while since my last post. Time just flies by and after the bottles are washed the laundry is done, folded and put away and the girls are all sleeping at the same time all I want to do is lay down and sleep. Today is the first day I have had a chance to sit down and put some thoughts down on the page.
Nights have still been pretty tough. I had to call Grammy in for reinforcements this week after a couple of nights with absolutely no sleep. Hopefully, the girls will get on a better sleep schedule soon...it is just taking a while.
The girls had a visit from their "Aunt" Jill last Saturday. Jill is my BEST-FRIEND and I don't get to see her enough so I loved it that she was able to come down on Saturday to see all of us and spend time getting to know the girls. She also braved her first diaper change EVER! Addie was nice to her. :)

"Aunt" Jill holding the girls!

Jill also took our most recent family pic

Also this week, Grammy and I took the girls for their 2 month checkup. They are getting SO BIG! Addison weighs 9 lbs. 2 oz and is 20.5 inches long. Reagan weighs 9 lbs. 3 oz. and is 21.25 inches long. Baylee is 9 lbs. 4 oz. and is 20.5 inches long. They also had to get their 2 month immunizations. I can't even express how hard that was to watch. They had to get 5 SEPARATE SHOTS EACH! Plus a heel stick to draw blood for some testing. It was completely brutal. This was the first time I actually saw tears streaming from their eyes and I just started crying with them. Next time Daddy gets to go and be the bad guy. :)

First Trip to Grammy and Pop's House

We took the girls on their first trip to their Grammy and Pop's house last weekend. We loaded up the car...and it was loaded. :) Brent said, "I don't know what we are going to do at Christmas...we are going to need a trailer." Maybe, but I have confidence in his car packing skills. We left the house right after their 5 pm feeding and we were able to get to my mom and dad's house right around 8 o'clock for their next feeding. The girls didn't fuss at all in the car which was great. But our sleeping success has taken a step backwards. The girls are still having rough nights; more rough nights than smooth ones at this point. We are staying the course and hopefully this babywise stuff will kick in before we all lose our sanity.

This weekend was the first time the girls met their cousins, CJ, Mark and Peyton. Baylee got hugs and kisses from CJ. :)

Hugs from Sweet CJ

Kisses from her oldest cousin

CJ is used to having baby boys around and he kept saying "him" or "he" when referring to the girls. His mom kept correcting him and telling him that these were little girls...but oh well, he loved them just the same whether they are he's or she's.

This was also the first time my mom has had all of her grandchildren with her at the same time. A noisy house but very fun.

Grammy with the grandkids

We had the girls all dressed in their little Halloween outfits on Saturday. We didn't do costumes this year because we knew we wouldn't be able to find anything to fit them and we weren't going to brave flu season with babies.

We also got a chance to spend some time getting to know our newest nephew, Peyton. He's just the cutest thing...such a big boy :).

Sweetie Peyton smiling at Uncle Brent

Peyter-Tot...sooo cute!