Reagan's Shiny New Helmet

I think people who say their kids don't mind their helmets at all are LYING. Reagan instantly had issues with this thing and she let us know about it. She looks happy in this picture but this is after a few hours of having it on and off and getting to roll around in it and have Mommy dance and sing and do tricks just to get her mind off wearing it. She seems okay now, still not great with it, but we will see what tomorrow brings. ;)
As many of you that read my blog know, Reagan has a flat spot on the back, right side of her head. This spot was caused by torticollis which was caused by being a squished triplet in her Mommy's tummy. She has had physical therapy to correct the torticollis, but that darn flat spot is still there and not diminishing as much as we had hoped. So, this leads us to the helmet.
I took Reagan to Dallas this morning to pick up her shiny, new helmet and Grammy met us at Star Cranial for the appointment. We were trained on how to put on and take off the helmet, how it should be worn and how to carry Reagan so we don't accidentally get a bloody nose if she decides to throw her helmeted head into one of our faces. :)

Reagan was not too keen on anything to do with the helmet. She didn't have to wear it home but when we got home, I left her with Brent so I could run out to get us some lunch. When I got back, Reagan was in Brent's lap and she didn't look pleased. He said she had been crying the entire time. I went to take the helmet off of her and I forgot (bad Mommy) to make the Velcro sound in her right ear so that when I took the strap off of her left side it wouldn't scare the crap out of her, welllllll, since I forgot to do that, she freaked out when I removed the strap and started bawling. It was terrible. I got her calmed down and put her down for a nap and she slept solid for 2 hours. I don't even think she moved at all. When I went to get her up, she still had her paci in and was snuggled with her lovie just like I had left her. Poor baby Reagan! I felt so terrible, but I had to put the helmet back on for another hour this afternoon. She didn't seem to mind it as much until she started getting tired and she was mad at me so I had to hold her for the last 30 minutes of their awake time. She will get used to it I am sure, I just hope there isn't any major, irreversible, physiological damage.

Reagan Baby is mad at her Mommy!

I picked out a cute heart pattern for her helmet, she didn't seem to care how cute it was though.

Annoying Things Strangers Say

This morning, I took my precious angels for a walk around the neighborhood. The weather was perfect and the girls were loving the fresh air. We passed a house down our street where an older lady was out in her front yard gardening. After our second pass in front of her house, she ran over and asked if she could see the babies. I stopped and she ohhhed and ahhhed over the girls. She asked how old they were and I told her they are almost 8 months old. She then said that she had a friend who had quads. As we were resuming our walk, she said, "Bye, boys!" Now, would any mother in their right mind dress their little boys in onesies with PINK AND PURPLE HEARTS?! I wouldn't think so, but stranger things have happened. This isn't the MOST annoying thing a stranger has said to us about the triplets, and I am sure that mothers of singletons get this too but come on people! At least take the clothing into context. If I was dressing them in little 3 piece suits with a stripped tie, then I wouldn't expect people to know that they were girls just by looking at them.

Here are the girlies on our walk...

Granted, ALL of the people we know that have had babies lately have had boys...I am still waiting for some little girls to be born so our trio will have some girls to play with. Hasn't happened yet. Let's see, Matt and Becky Kudelka - boy, David and Pam McKown - boy, Ray and Leslie Dulock - boy, Todd and Erin Ivy - having a boy, Aaron and Laurie Maler - having a boy, Brian and Liz Muska - having a boy, My sister, Mandy, and her husband Tim Payne - having a boy, Brent's cousin, Denise, and her husband Jason - just had a boy last week...it goes on and on...not a girl in the mix! Maybe my sister Missy's next baby will be a girl to give our honeys at least one female cousin. ;)

Also today, I was trying to get through with feeding and changing Baylee in the living room because she napped longer than her sisters. This girl just wants to roll over, she is rolling all over this house! I turned my head for one second and this is how I caught her...

"Oh! you caught me..."

"HeeHee! Catch me if you can!"

Justice Served?

One day in September of 2007, I was driving to our home outside of West, Texas after work just like any other day. I was talking on my cell phone with Brent while he drove home as well, like we did everyday. I got home first and when I opened the garage door and walked in I noticed that all of the cabinet doors in our garage were standing wide open. I then turned and noticed that the door to the house from the garage was standing wide open as well. All I said over the phone to Brent was, "Honey?" and Brent immediately knew something was wrong. He started yelling for me to get back in the car and not go inside. I took a step closer to look into the living room and this is what I saw....

Living Room

I immediately started crying and ran back to the car and waited for Brent to drive up as he was only a few minutes behind me. We called the local sheriffs department and allowed them to search the house. Our home had been broken into and vandalized. We felt like all of the security of our home had been stripped away. Our house was in shambles. It took us the entire evening and next day to get things cleaned up and back in order.

We filled out a police report and made a list of things stolen for our insurance company. We always suspected that it must have been some young kids that didn't go to school who must have noticed that Brent and I were both out of the house during the daytime hours and only returned home each evening. We could see that they took their time going through the ENTIRE house, room-by-room, drawer-by-drawer, pulling everything we owned out and throwing it around the house. Holes were punched in the walls, random items were thrown into our wedding pictures on the walls. They even threw one of my free-weights (an 8 lb. weight, I believe) through the sheet rock in one room.

The Hallway

One Guest Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Closet in Master Bedroom

All the typical things were missing: DVDs, digital cameras, our laptop, Brent's old xbox...the list went on and on. The sheriffs office focused on some specific items that had serial numbers attached that they could track if they were pawned. Those items included a 9mm handgun Brent kept in a case under our bed, our laptop and also Brent's Baylor Ring which had his name and a serial number engraved inside.

We moved very soon after the break in and never heard anything about the case....until last week. Brent was home sick and the sheriff in charge of our case called. I gave the phone over to Brent and the sheriff told him that an arrest had been made in our case when the person that broke into our house pawned Brent's Baylor ring. The sheriff also told Brent that the 9 mm handgun that was stolen had been used in a homicide in Austin, TX. I immediately felt very, very sad. We were happy to hear that the person responsible had been caught and was serving time in jail (they were only able to charge him with Possession of Stolen Property and not the actual break-in because too much time had passed, but they did charge him with multiple other break-ins in the area), but we were so sad to hear that the stolen gun had been sold on the street and used in a homicide.

So, we really don't feel like justice has been served.

My Happy Girls!

Many of the visitors we have had over to our house are pleasantly surprised to see how low-key our home really is. It might get a little crazy when the girls are tired, but for the most part we have happy babies and a calm home atmosphere which we all enjoy.
I have to sheepishly admit that I did watch the Oprah today with the Octomom interview. They showed 24-hours of footage in the Octomom's house and whew! I was exhausted after watching 20 minutes of that chaos. It made me so happy to be able to devote myself to each of my girls and make sure they grow up happy and healthy even as a set of triplets.
This is what I get to wake up to every morning (the girls are sleeping 7pm to 7am)....

Happy Baylee, always smiling in the morning

Morning Hair! Sweet Addie
Morning hair for Reagan!

Our morning playtime...

Baylee loves her Exersaucer

Reagan baby!

Sweet Addie Bear!

Reagan having some floor time

Reagan's turn in the Exersaucer

Addie in her bouncer

Baylee having floor time

Reagan again...

Beauty baby...our Baylee

There's that smile!

Such an adorable, happy girl this Reagan is!

Amazing Addie...those eyes get me every time

Emergencies and CPR

We have had quite a few emergencies lately, either within the family or with friends of our family. These events have reminded me how much we need to remember to rely on our instincts when we feel something isn't quite right. Often, we rely on medical professionals to tell us, often over the phone, whether we need to be worried about something, or if they think something might be serious. We trust these people to take care of our children and ourselves. As a mother, I know that sometimes a nurse or doctor can make you feel like you are exaggerating or making too much out of small symptoms. I am writing to remind all of the mothers out there that if you feel in your gut that something isn't quite right push to get help from someone that will listen.

The girls' babysitter, Sarah, had quite a weekend with her family in San Antonio. When she got here today she told me all about the scary weekend they had. Her niece, Harley, was having her 1 year birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Sarah and her boyfriend, Trent, drove to San Antonio Friday after she left our house to be with her family for the weekend before the party. Harley had just had her 12 month shots on Wednesday and was still showing signs of some fever and some other small symptoms on Friday. Her mother, Stephanie, had called the 24-hour nurse to discuss her concern with the "low-grade" fever and they told her they don't usually get worried unless the fever is over 100.4 degrees. I've heard this from nurses as well. So Stephanie put Harley down for her afternoon nap just like she would any other day. She took her temperature and gave her some Tylenol before leaving the room to let Harley sleep. About an hour and a half later, Harley's Dad, Keith, heard something over the baby monitor and went to check on Harley. She wasn't breathing and her face was blue. He started trying to clear her airway and do baby CPR while Stephanie, Sarah and Trent tried to keep calm and call 9-1-1 and help Keith with Harley. It took Keith a few minutes to get Harley breathing again and it took 30 MINUTES for the ambulance to arrive.

After a weekend spent at the hospital doing tests, the final diagnosis from the doctors was a febrile seizure which is common in small children when they have a spike in fever very quickly. In Harley's case, in just an hour and a half her fever went from 99.0 to 102.0 maybe higher.

Sarah said that all of the people there had been trained, at one point, in infant CPR but when your child or your niece is blue and not breathing, you can easily forget everything you have been trained and just freak out not knowing what to do. Brent and I, along with the girls' Gran and Grandaddy, were all trained in infant CPR before the girls left the NICU, but I have often wondered if I could remember everything we were taught in an emergency situation.

I felt it was important to post a video demonstrating infant CPR for anyone that reads my blog. Watch this over and over, I might even keep it handy and watch it once a week just to keep it fresh on my mind. A lot of our friends and family are having children and I would hate for something to happen to one of those precious babies because their parents' didn't have the information on how to perform infant CPR. We always think that when we call 9-1-1 they are minutes away, well, what if it takes them 20 minutes, 30 minutes to get there. You need to know what to do to save your child.

Infant CPR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6LChzoO4c8&feature=related



Child CPR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dua7fsICRWw

Cousins! Cousins! Cousins!

Well, the babies just keep on comin' in the Chambers Family. My oldest sister, Mandy, is currently pregnant with her first baby boy, Luke Slater Payne. Luke made grandbaby #7 for my parents in the past 4 years. We recently received news that our middle sister, Missy, is pregnant again with her 4th! That makes 4 babies for her in 4 years and grandbaby #8! for my parents. 6 of which have been born in the past 2 years. Wow! Thank goodness mom and dad are adding the "grandbaby" addition to their house or else they would run out of room at Christmas. I can't wait to watch all of our kids, my nephews and possibly a niece (if Missy's next baby is a girl) grow up together and love their cousins! Since they will all be so close in age I am sure they will love getting into all sorts of mischief together. ;)

We can't wait to meet Luke in July and we can't wait to find out what Missy is having and welcome their new baby at the end of 2010.

Pop Holding Addison, Reagan and Baylee

Peyton meeting Addison for the first time

Pop holding CJ and Mark Robert

CJ, the oldest, with his guitar

Grammy holding baby Mark Robert

Girls Weekend!

This weekend Brent went to Lake Fork to fish in a tournament and left his girls to find our own fun. I decided to bring the girls up to their Grammy and Pop's house for the weekend!
Friday, Pop went with me to take Reagan to Star Cranial to get her head assessed for a cranial reshaping helmet. Reagan has a flat spot on the back, right side of her head. Flat spots in multiples is very common. Since the babies have been squished in close quarters for so long in the womb, sometimes it can cause one or all of the babies to have some stiffening on one side of their neck (torticollis) which can cause them to favor one side of their head. They sleep on that side, lay on that side and it is difficult, if not impossible for them to fully rotate their neck because of the stiffness of those neck muscles. Physical therapy can correct the torticollis, which Reagan has had with success, but the flat spot doesn't go away very quickly, if at all, without help. There is a window of opportunity in which you can have a child's head shape corrected, usually before 12-18 months old.
We took Reagan to get assessed and she does have moderate brachycephaly (flat head) and it can be corrected with a cranial reshaping helmet. She will have to wear the helmet for maybe 3 to 6 months. We aren't sure. It really depends on how quickly she grows. If she grows quickly, the helmet will reshape her head more quickly, if she has steady, slow growth it will take longer for the helmet to reshape her head. Now the fun begins to try to get insurance to approve the helmet to help pay for the cost.
On Saturday morning, we took the girls to watch their cousin CJ's t-ball game. CJ definitely had the most fans in the crowd. Lets see, Grammy and Pop were there, Aunt Mandy and Uncle Tim, myself and Addie, Reagan and Baylee, CJ's Grandma Dorothy, not to mention CJ's mom and dad and his little bothers, Mark Robert and Peyton. So a total of 13 fans, wow, what a cheering section! And we were LOUD! Haha!

The girls watching CJ play t-ball...it was a little chilly this morning

CJ up to bat!

And he smacks it!!!

Running to home base!

Posing with our BIG LEAGUER! Baylee was ready for a nap :)

We got home from the game and the girls had a LONG afternoon nap and had a great time playing with Grammy and Pop. They loved spending time with Aunt Mandy and Uncle Tim when they came for dinner after their house hunting adventures.
After all of our fun, I am sure that the girls will be happy to see their Daddy again and hear about his fishing adventures.

The Flu in April

Addie and Reagan hadn't been feeling very well the past couple of days. Easter Sunday they both had low-grade fevers but didn't seem too fussy or upset about it so we just dosed them with Tylenol and that seemed to do the trick.
Today, Addie was so fussy, she would cry whenever I picked her up from her crib or moved her in the living room. I thought she might have an ear infection and Reagan has just been so congested the past few weeks I thought she needed to get checked out.
I called the doctor and they worked me in this afternoon. Grandaddy met me at the pedi's office so I would have help and thank goodness he did. We had to do so many tests and I had to leave the room to get a chest x-ray of Reagan, so I never would have made it without him to watch the other two.
After a multitude of tests and 3.5 hours at the doctor's office - FLU. Reagan tested positive for flu, Addie didn't but our doc thinks it may have been a false negative because Addie's bloodwork shows that she has something viral going on and there is no other explanation for her fever and why she is so upset and fussy. No ear infection, no UTI...so our best guess is the flu.
So most likely Reagan and Addie have the flu, Baylee doesn't have it yet...but she most likely will get it unless we keep her quarantined. Ha! In this house, yeah right.
Reagan's chest x-ray showed a spot on her lungs, so our doctor is treating her with antibiotics for pneumonia even though it isn't full blown. So we are doing breathing treatments every 4-6 hours and antibiotics 2x a day and Tylenol as needed for discomfort and fever every 4-6 hours.
For babies this young, they don't have anything to treat the flu, so basically you just treat the symptoms until it passes.
And, for those of you wondering, yes, all of the girls had their flu vaccine. It isn't a 100%, but our doctor said that typically those kids that do catch the flu after being vaccinated have less severe symptoms. Here's hoping that is correct and our bunnies are hopping around the house again in no time!

Hipity Hopity

The Easter Bunny visited us at Gran and Grandaddy's house today!

Our morning started out a little hectic. The girls slept later than normal (why am I complaining, right?!) so I ended up having to shower and get ready for the day after they had their morning bottle and were dressed for the ride to Gran and Grandaddy's house. I ended up not having enough time to get dressed and get everyone packed and in the car so I had to finish getting ready at Gran and Grandaddy's house when the girls went down for their nap.

Disappointment 1 for today: I was really looking forward to some outdoor pictures of us with the girls in their little outfits. I walked outside this morning and it was doom and gloom. Misty, rainy, nasty weather. So disappointed.

Disappointment 2 for today: After we arrived at Gran and Grandaddy's house (me - halfway ready) we realized we left the deviled eggs I made for Easter lunch in the fridge at home...35 miles away. Ugh. I decided to make the drive back home just to get the eggs because Grandaddy loves them just like I do and now we have a fellow deviled egg-eater in the family (Adam) and for me, it just isn't Easter lunch without deviled eggs. :) So, an hour later, I made it back in time to get the girls up from their nap and feed them before we had lunch.

The rest of our day was great! Great time with family and a wonderful first Easter with our girls! We even got some great INDOOR pictures :) of everyone with the girls.

Cute little bunnies...

Holding their first Easter bunniesWith Gran and Grandaddy...

Baylee bored already, Reagan - "Is it over yet?", and Addie touching Uncle Adam's face...

Take 2 with Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Adam...

Our precious girls will be 7 MONTHS OLD TOMORROW! I know, I can't believe it.

Here is a little about each of our sweethearts:

Addison - Addie remains to be very laid back, sweet all the time. She still likes to hold everyones' hand, touch faces and grab onto clothes. She has also started blowing bubbles at us all the time, it is so cute. She talks to us and loves to smile and giggle. She is a great eater and loves peas, sweet potatoes and applesauce. Addie is rolling from side to side and front to back but is very close to rolling back to front. Last time we weighed her she was 17.9 lbs.

Reagan - Reagan is my lovable, cuddler. She is also a sweetheart but can get her feelings hurt easily. She likes to be near everyone and she loves to touch and grab mommy's hair. ;) She is also a smiley girl and I just love to listen to her entertain herself in her crib in the morning before everyone else is ready to get up. She stays very quiet but will start to make little humming noises and when I go get her up she is always cuddling and playing with her lovie. Last time we weighed her she was 17.10 lbs.

Baylee - Baylee is also a cuddley honey and she already knows how to get what she wants. All she has to do is flash that wide grin at us and we're goners. She's our little Miss Priss and has an adorable little laugh when you get her going. She loves her bouncers and was the first of the girls to roll over back to front. Baylee is also a big talker. She likes to mouth sounds and look at her sisters and they just stare back in wonder. Last time we weighed her she was 16.14lbs.

Mommy holding the girls at 9 days old...

Mommy and her girls at 7 Months Old!

Only 5 months until their 1st birthday! It is going by so fast!