5.29.10 ~ 11 months (no pictures)

We enjoyed the nice weather a few weeks ago and were able to get out a little more. During the week (when it's not raining) the girls and I will walk around the lake, get a coffee treat for me, or go to a nearby restaurant to get take out for dinner.  We did the March of Dimes walk on 5/16 in Downtown Seattle and then Dan got some fun photos of the girls at EMP.  We also had my first Mother's Day this month.  The girls were really good and Dan let me sleep in.  He also made a wonderful dinner and got me a beautiful personalized necklace (sorry no picture...Dan's sick again and I don't want to figure out his camera tonight). As hard as these pasts 11 months have been, I love being a mom more than anything!

Here's what the girls have been up to this month:
~crawling: Camille finally started crawling (5/6/10)! She's getting pretty fast, too. We've been busy baby-proofing and have to watch her like a hawk now.  Avery is just beginning to crawl (5/25/10) and is really proud of herself when she goes forward. She has been known to stop and clap her hands :) Brelynn is quite the sitter and still really doesn't like being on her tummy. She'll crawl if I help her to get up on her knees and move her legs forward, but that doesn't last long before she rolls over again.
~walking: Camille can pull herself up to a standing position (5/16/10) and get herself into a sitting position all on her own. Once she's up in standing, she'll hold on to furniture and cruise if we help her to balance. Camille even let go and stood in the middle of the room yesterday, or so we thought. Come to find out she was actually leaning up against the couch but she was standing on her own. All of the girls will walk holding on to our hands.
~talking: all the girls imitate sounds and say 'mama' and 'dada' (and maybe even know what they're saying!).  They all now sign 'all done' and we're working on a few other signs. We've heard things that sound like 'all done', 'ball', 'night night', and 'duck' but we're not convinced they know what they were saying. We did hear a true first word from Avery on 5/22/10...she said as clear as day, "banana".  We were eating breakfast and I had said it a dozen times and she imitated it clearly with the same intonation I was using. Dan was doing dishes and he turned and said, "did she just say that?".  They are also showing us great comprehension. I can ask Avery "where's daddy/mommy/ball/duck?" and she'll look at the item. I can say 'do pat-a-cake' and they'll all start clapping their hands. If I start singing row, row, row your boat they'll start playing along without me showing them what to do. Brelynn will give us a High 5 and then she'll give herself one, too. I need to get that on video. They're also starting to waive 'hi'.
~social: Avery and Brelynn will initiate peek-a-boo and all three girls will clap their hands for pat-a-cake.  I can have them sitting facing each other and sing row, row, row your boat and they will rock forward and backward with each other like the boat is rocking. It is quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen!  Something that isn't so cute is the separation anxiety we're seeing here.  If we leave the room someone is bound to start screaming. Sometimes it stops quickly and other times it will continue until we go save them.
~eating: the girls now feed themselves most finger foods and greatly prefer real food to purees.  I haven't let them try with the spoon by themselves yet, but I think they'd do well with it.  They can drink from a straw on their own and a sippy cup if I tip the cup for them. We are even seeing some signs that they may actually hold their own bottles someday, too.  Since Camille didn't gain much weight last month they are all now on a very high calorie diet (aiming for 1000 calories per day per baby) and seem to be gaining weight pretty quickly on this new 'diet'.  They love keilbasa sausages, ravioli, macaroni noodles, animal crackers, bananas, pancakes, peaches, string cheese, and black beans. Oh, and they get butter and heavy whipping cream in just about anything I can get it in. 
~teething: Camille finally got a tooth to poke through today and her second tooth will probably be in tomorrow. Brelynn's working on her first top tooth, but otherwise everyone just has the two bottom ones for now.
~growth: The girls have been growing well this month so I'm not sure if it's all the butter and cream or if there was a scale issue last month with Camille. We saw the nutritionist 5/21 and the girls stats were (for 9 month olds):
     Avery: 16lbs, 13oz (25%ile), 27.25" (50%ile)
     Brelynn: 18lbs, 8oz (50-75%ile),28" (75%ile)
     Camille: 15 lbs, 9oz (10%ile), 26.5" (25%ile)

Thanks for reading my 'online baby book' since I'm too lazy to actually put all this in their baby books each month. I hope computers stay around for awhile so I can get all the info transferred someday!  I'll try to post some pictures again soon. 

5.16.10 ~ Fun in Seattle

Yesterday we went into Seattle and participated in the March of Dimes March for Babies. We took the girls in 'Big Red' which is our big triple wide jogging stroller and my mom and soon to be sister-in-law Jenn met us there. We were quite the sight. Aparently there was one other set of triplets, but we didn't see them (and we were looking!). The walk left from Seattle Center and was a great course down to Pike Place and back. The girls did wonderfully. We fed them before leaving the house at 7:30 and then they ate what we ate for most of the day. We had a pancake breakfast at the March and hotdogs for lunch. When we finished our lunch we walked around and took some fun pictures at EMP and Seattle Center. Then we went to University Village and walked around a bit before hitting up Starbuck's. We fed the girls bottles there and then headed to Lynnwood to Babies R Us where we ordered their new carseats. We got amazing deals on the carseats we really wanted and practically got one for free!  After all this excitement the girls took naps on the way home. It was so nice to be out for most of the day and not have to bring baby food with us!

Jenn, my mom, and me with the girls in Big Red

Dan and I with the girls in front of the International Fountain

Walking downtown

The girls at EMP...'hey, that looks like me!'
(Camille, Avery, Brelynn)

still at EMP (Avery, Brelynn, Camille)

The girls in front of the purple wall at EMP
(Avery, Brelynn, Camille)

5.1.10 ~ Our lil' gangstas

Dan found this fun graffiti wall so we dressed the girls in their hoodies and went and took some pictures. Here's our 'gang' :)

4.29.10 ~ 10 months

Another month down. We went on a hike to Heybrook Lookout near Index last weekend and we're starting to take the girls on more outings. We're almost out of our 'quarantine' as illnesses in the community continues to decline. Our favorite 'date' right now is to go to Starbuck's and feed the girls breakfast while we enjoy our coffee. There's also a new coffee shop near our house that we can walk to and enjoy breakfast. As the weather has been getting nicer the girls have spent more time in the yard. I'm happy to say that Avery is no longer afraid of grass :)  We've even had a few friends over for mini play dates. With our increased socializing, we did get our first colds this month. All the girls got runny noses for about 2 weeks, were healthy for a week, and have a second round of runny noses again. They were nice enough to share with Mom and Dad, too. They've been pretty good through all of it, but we had to suck out their noses all the time and they didn't care so much for that.

Milestones:
~sitting: everyone sits now, yay! Camille is even able to get herself from her tummy into a sitting position (at least once on 4/25).
~crawling: not yet, but Camille's close
~talking: Avery signs 'all done' and 'up' and is learning 'eat'. Brelynn signs 'all done' and 'up' sometimes. Camille is content doing what she's doing, but I think I saw an 'all done' sign the other day :)  They all babble and say 'dada', 'mama', 'nana', and 'gaga' but I don't think they know what they mean yet.
~socializing: everyone is smiling and laughing all the time. Brelynn will clap her hands for pat-a-cake, Avery still loves peek-a-boo. The girls like to play with each other, which looks more like stealing toys, poking eyes, and pulling hair. There have been many times where I'll be doing something in one room and I can hear them start laughing at each other in another room. Very cute. Of course when I get the video camera they all stop. Oh, and the're starting to waive 'hi' now, too.
~eating: everyone feeds themselves finger foods. They love anything they can feed themself. Current snacks are banana, pears, peaches, peas, crackers, cheerios, and sweet potatoes.  With their newfound self-feeding ability, their willingness to eat off a spoon is rapidly declining (causing mom a lot of stress). I haven't let them use a spoon themselves yet because I'm afraid of the mess they'll make. And if you've seen my house you know that I'm no stranger to a mess...they're really messy!
~teething: still only 4 teeth, two for Avery and two for Brelynn but many more are coming for all of them. 
~growth: we had a 10 month doctor's appointment for our final dose of Synagis (immunization against RSV) on 4/27 and the girls stats were (for 10 month olds):
     Avery: 16 lbs, 2 oz (4%ile), 27" (15%ile)
     Brelynn: 18 lbs, 1 oz (25%ile), 28" (50%ile)
     Camille: 14 lbs, 10 oz (<3%ile), 26.5" (9%ile)

and your reward for reading all of this...a picture from Haybrook Lookout :)

Interesting facts

In my last post I announced we would be walking to help the March of Dimes raise money to prevent premature births and treat preemies. Today I came across some interesting information about the March of Dimes (thanks to Helen of Three Times the Giggles).

Even if you don't have a preemie, you and your family have benefited from the March of Dimes (MOD).
~The MOD's first goal was to beat Polio, and it was successful
~The APGAR scoring system for infants became standard practice around the world thanks to Dr. Virginia Apgar's work with the MOD.
~The MOD funded the very first bone marrow transplant to correct a birth defect (1968)
~The MOD discovered that alcohol consumption during pregnancy causes birthd efects (1973)
~The MOD funds first in utero treatment of a birthd efect (1973)
~The MOD launched the national campain urging women to take Folic Acid during pregnancy (1995)
~The MOD led the effort to have newborn screening (heel prick) for at least 21 of 29 life threatening, but treatable disorders.

As of right now, Sweet Baby Rays has three walkers and has raised $125. Thanks to those who have already donated. Can we get more walkers or more donations???  The walk is less than one month away, May 15th...

4.15.10 ~ March for Babies

The March of Dimes has a fundraising walk in Seattle on May 15th called the March for Preemies and we`re walking this year with our girls. Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small, and often very sick. We were fortunate to make it to 32 weeks with the girls and although we spent a long time in the NICU, they were relatively healthy. Still, that was a long nine weeks!

We're hoping to raise money to support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. Would you consider joining us at the walk (it's free) or making a donation to the March of Dimes?  You can do both on our team page at http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1379561.  Thank you for helping us give all babies a healthy start!

Camille





Brelynn



Avery



4.4.10 ~ Easter

We had grand plans of taking the girls to church for the first time (well, Avery went once when she was first home then we had to stop because of cold and flu season...too many people), but that didn't happen this year. All five of us are sick with a cold. We had planned to go to church then to Dan's parent's house for a brunch but we figured the girls only had one event in them for the day so we chose brunch. They didn't nap well but were pretty happy with all the excitement of family and dogs. They are finally big enough to fit into the really cute dresses that our friend's mom got for them a long time ago (thanks Betsy!). Aren't they the cutest things you've ever seen???

Avery, Brelynn, Camille

Dan with Brelynn, me with Avery and Camille