Summer Fun with Austin

Our thomas the train outing referenced in a prior post went well.  We had a great time and Austin still talks about riding that train.   A big part of the outing was to give him some time with just mom and dad.  That being said, Courtney and I couldnt help but laugh about what happened shortly after arriving at the event site.  We sat down to eat lunch in a tent where a magician was performing.  The crowd was very, very sparse....excluding us, there were about another 5 adults and 5 kids.  The magician first pulled a girl from the crowd to assist him....she was named.....Kayden (sp).  A few minutes later he pulled a little boy......he of course was named Cayden too.  We got the heck out of there at that point, before a Riley and a Gabe were introduced to the crowd. 

Today we took Austin to the Cincinnati Zoo.  While it was sort of a gloomy day, the rain held off and we had a great time checking out a large variety of animals. 

Sleeping like Babies

In the day or two after the last update, the early, early morning bottle was successfully eliminated for all babies.  A typical night is usually as follows 90% of the time:

• Last bottle starts at 7:45pm, and all babies asleep in their cribs by 8:45pm
• Anywhere from 3:30am to 4:30am - Cayden and/or Gabe cry out and need turned from their backs to their bellies, but are back asleep in minutes.  There was a period of 5 or 6 days where it was so consistent, it was scary, 4:28, 4:30, 4:32, 4:29, etc.
• Anywhere from 6:00am -7:15am - Ryleigh is the first awake and in need of some attention.  

They have followed Austin's lead in being great sleepers for us.   Although we worked really, really hard in getting them on the above schedule, with much pain along the way, we know we are very lucky.   This is reinforced any time we talk to other parents of infants and hear some of the horror stories.   The book "12 Hours Sleep by 12 Weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano was a great resource for us.   I'd recommend it to anyone having trouble getting their infant to sleep through the night.  Many great principles to consider, even if all aren't implemented.   

While the above may make it sound pretty easy, the hours of 6:00pm - 7:45pm are generally pretty, uh, challenging.  The triplets take the opportunity each night at this time to let us know they are still running the show. A lot of fussing, whining and crying during this time frame is normal as they wind their day down and wait on their last bottle.  This time period usually coincides with Austin's second wind for the day which just adds to the fun.  

We haven't weighed the babies in a few weeks, but I'm certain each are between 11.5 and 12.5 pounds.  We will get some official results tomorrow morning. 

Is this thing still on??

The triplets will be four and a half months old this weekend.  Their belated 4 month check up was Monday, and they weighed in as follows:

Gabe  11 lbs, 6 ozs
Cayden, 11 lbs, 6 ozs
Ryleigh, 10 lbs, 11 ozs

They are all healthy with no major concerns by the doctor. 

The boys have now joined their sister in sharing many smiles.  There is also frequent cooing amongst the three of them.  They have all rolled over, with the slimmer Ryleigh the most frequent.

6oz-7oz Bottles are now given at 800am, noon, 400pm, and 800pm.
They get a 3.5 oz bottle in the middle of the night anywhere between 4:00am-5:00am. 

Courtney took some video of the babies and Austin yesterday while I was at work.  The highlight was Austin climbing on top of the TV stand (who is in charge when I'm not home?) and at one point falling off pretty loudly and out of sight, but unhurt.  As Austin witnessed this on video, he got a tremendous look of concern on his face and pointed to the TV and exclaimed, "He got hurt....he got hurt."  It took several minutes to explaiin to him that the little boy was okay....and, indeed, the little boy was him.  I suddenly don't find him to be so smart.

Gabe and Ryleigh had their longest stretch between bottles last night....making it from 7:45 to 5:30am  I guess that could be considered making it through the night, but we are waiting until they make it to 8:00 a.m. to declare that.

We are taking Austin to Lebanon, Ohio this morning to take a ride on a real life Thomas the Tank Engine.  He has been looking forward to it, and we are happy to be able to get away for a few hours with just him for some extra attention.   

Have a great weekend !

The Help

As we near the end of summer, we near the end of a lot of our overnight helpers. Thankfully this coincides with the babies getting down to one nighttime feeding which is currently 4 am. Aunt Abby (self-proclaimed 'Favorite Aunt') has headed back to college but not without a couple weeks of diapers changing and middle of the night wake up calls. We will definitely miss her help! We are hoping to see her back occasionally because, lets be honest, 3 babies has to be less stressful than studying optical engineering.

This blog would not be complete without a major shout out to Nana Sowers, who has spent multiple weeks in our zoo, helping to tend to our little monkeys. Here she is basking in the summer heat. Hopefully she will keep coming as often as she can, as we have greatly appreciated her help.

Nana is perhaps the smartest of our help, occasionally bringing back up in the form of Great Grandma Yoakam. Great Grandma seems to have a nack for keeping the natives calm.

Thank you to all of our friends, neighbors, and family who have provided meals and a helping hand with bottles and entertaining Austin. We greatly appreciate it and it has helped to make this challenging time a little easier.

---Courtney

Got Milk?

The answer is a resounding yes, as you can see below. The babies will turn four months tomorrow. After much debate, I have decided it is time to slow down the milk factory. As you can see below, we should have enough to keep us going for at least a little while ;-) Anybody thirsty?

- Courtney