Turning the Corner & Bye Bye Chesterbrook Academy!

Things seem to be looking up when it comes to the care of the triplets. The pediatrician's advice and prescription seems to be helping out a bunch. Last night the triplets were put to bed between 9 and 10 pm. Shawn and I only had to get up at about 2 am to feed all three. We finished feeding after about an hour, then we got to sleep all the way till 7:15. So, not too bad! 

After getting all three up and out of their cribs, I was ecstatic to find that both crib sheets were clean and dry! No spit up. That is very literally the first time that no one had ruined a sheet since they were born. 

Today is Bridget's last day at Chesterbrook Academy. I'm sure she will miss it, and I know that I will miss sending her there. Not because I want her out of the house, but because it has been a very positive experience for Bridget. She has learned so much and has had so much fun playing with her friends. I don't know that she would be as smart as she is now without sending her to Chesterbrook. Anyone looking for day care...I highly recommend Chesterbrook!

The triplets and I are awaiting the arrival of Auntie Anna. She's stopping by to visit on her way home from EIU. I'm sure Anna can't wait to see the triplets too. They've pretty much doubled in size since she's last seen them!

Bridget and I have been making sun catchers the past several days. It's a fun, quick project that produces pretty cool products. Here's the steps:

1. Get a coffee filter.

2. Color on it with washable markers. (Must be washable or it won't work.) Leaving white spaces is just fine too.

3. Put a newspaper or several paper towels under your colored coffee filter then spray it with water.

4. Let it dry...only takes about 15-30 minutes to dry!

5. Draw a shape on your filter and cut it out.

6. Place clear contact paper on both sides of your shape.

7. Punch a hole in it, put a loop of string through, and hang it in the window!

We've had lots of fun finding shapes around the house for this project. I now realize that we need a good set of stencils for our projects!

A couple of quick notes: Bridget is starting to print her name. Her B's look like 8's and her G's are backwards, but she's doing great! All three babies are starting to smile. Liam smiles the most, followed by Megan, then Holly. I finally caught one on camera!

Two Month Doctor's Visit

First of all, Happy Birthday Tina! Hope it's a good one!

Holly, Liam and Megan had their two month doctor's visit today. It was a long visit; we were out of the house for about 2.5 hours, but everyone is doing well. 

Holly: her ears are still folded over from being "smooshed" in the womb. She is still the peanut of the trio. She eats the least but sleeps the most. 

Liam: he's our big boy! He is the first to surpass the 10 lb. mark. I noticed that his left leg was spasm-ing a few times while I was feeding him. The doctor said it's nothing to worry about, it's just that his nervous system is still developing. He also has a little scab on his belly button from where the cord was attached. Doc said don't pick it, it will eventually go away.

Megan: she's developed a red birthmark on her cheek. Doc said it will probably go away within a few years. Her left eye originally was the one that had the blocked tear duct that sent her back to the hospital. Well, that cleared up and has been doing well. Last week her right eye decided to block up. She saw the eye specialist who said she probably has a blockage in the right eye. We're supposed to massage it for the next 6 months and then go back to the eye specialist. 

The Trio: They've been spitting up quite a bit and not giving us much relief when it comes to spacing out their feedings. Doc prescribed them baby Zantac for reflux and said we'll probably get some more sleep soon. Treating the reflux should allow them to eat more at each feeding, which in turn will space out those feedings. Shawn and I were practically doing a happy dance in his office when we heard that! I really hope it works. We also are supposed to wake them up every two hours and try to keep them awake for 20 minutes. (They can practically sleep all day, subsequently feeding every 3-4 hours around the clock.) That combined with the Zantac and we should start seeing them sleep for 5-6 hours at night.

After the doctor checked everyone out, in came the brigade of nurses with 12 immunization shots and 3 oral immunizations. Of course the babies cried, but they calmed down pretty easily. They've been knocked out from the shots, and spent the rest of the afternoon and all evening sleeping. I figured I'd let them sleep today, and I'll start waking them every 2 hours tomorrow. 

We sent Bridget to Tina's house to spend the night tonight. Shawn's headed to Washington DC for the day tomorrow and having B out of the house will help me out a bit. So, thanks to Tina and Dave for helping me out! I heard that Kaitlyn was waiting all day for Bridget to come over. I'm really glad Bridget has so many cousins close in age to grow up with! 

Tomorrow I have three friends from the math department and neighbor Jeannie stopping by throughout the day to help me survive. Thanks to them too! We've been so fortunate to have help from family and friends. I don't think we'd still be sane without the help.  THANK YOU ALL!

 

A Nice Break

8 weeks old today! Megan, Liam, Holly





Friday

Grandma Joan and Grandpa Bill came over to help out. This gave me some one-on-one time with Bridget, who has been starving for attention. Bridget and I went to the mall for storytime. The theme was bathtub stories.  After, we walked through the mall. We found brand new shoes for $3.99! She got a pink and purple pair of tennis shoes for this spring/summer. I also found 4 pairs of pants for $0.99 each! I love shopping for the kids. I also found Liam a cute little baseball outfit for $2.99. The babies don't need any play clothes smaller than 12 months, but I couldn't resist this outfit...it was too cute!  Bridget told me "Thank you for taking me to storytime at the mall, mommy. I like going to the mall with you. I'm glad the babies are at home." Yah, we needed this time together!

After the mall, we had a nice lunch with grandma and grandpa. Then Bridget played games with grandma, grandpa and me.  She ended up taking a good nap too.

Saturday

Shawn and I alternated between caring for the babies and cleaning up the house.  Squeezed in there was some play time for Bridget. She played outside on the scooter she got for Christmas.  Shawn assembled it while B took a few spins on her trike.

She loved being able to play outside again!! I certainly can't wait for warmer weather!

Later, Grandma Kathie and Grandpa John came over to spend the night so Shawn and I could get a decent night's sleep.  We went to Woodfield, had dinner at PF Chang's, then shopped the mall.  I built Liam his special teddy bear. We named it Billy Jack.  I think he likes it. :) 

We made some stops at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert, Starbucks for a venti decaf caramel macchiato, and Target because it's Target, then off to the hotel.  We spent 15 minutes relaxing in the hot tub, had our dessert, and went to sleep. It was nice to get five hours of uninterrupted sleep. Shawn got a full night's sleep. 

Sunday

Shawn and I rolled out of bed by 8:30, and had a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed home. It was a nice 18-hour break, but we were both glad to see the kids when we got home.  Bridget and grandpa were outside playing and grandma was feeding two babies when we got home.

Not much else went on, we tried to straighten the house, had dinner, the Goode's stopped by for a visit and to borrow our Camry. Next thing you know it's bedtime. How exciting, right?

Monday

Liam slept from 11 pm - 5:30 am and Holly slept from midnight to 7:30. So 2 out of 3 slept through the night. Now if we can only get Megan on board, life would be grand!!

Three Morris's in their Moose outfits.

Check my Mobile Me Gallery for new photos.

Busy, Busy, Week

This has been library week for Bridget. She and I went to Family Story Time at the library on Tuesday night. It was nice. There were 8 kids there, most older than Bridget. The theme this week was Tigers. The librarian read 4 books about tigers. After the stories were read, the children paraded out the room, to the circulation desk and back to the room, playing a variety of musical instruments along the way. Bridget was asked to be the parade leader much to the disappointment of one of the older girls. As it turned out, I recognized one of the dads in the room as a former math teacher from one of our other high schools. So we talked about a bunch of stuff. His wife is the librarian (I don't know her name yet) and two of their sons became Bridget's boyfriends that night. After the parade, the children made a tiger puppet. Then Bridget and the two boys ran around the empty room, giggling, laughing and having lots of fun. Basically Bridget just imitated what the boys were doing, but they didn't seem to mind her hanging around either. Bridget would tell you the one boy's name was Screw, but his name was really Drew. I'll find out more about the boys next week. This week we mainly talked about teaching and the triplets. 

Wednesday morning, Aunt Barb came over to help. Shortly after she arrived, Bridget and I went to Toddler Time at the library. At first Bridget wouldn't sit on the pillows with the other children. She wanted me to come with her so that she could sit on my lab. I told her that this was not Lapsit, and she's a big girl, so she had to sit on the pillow by herself and listen to the stories. Eventually she left my side and joined the other children. This week the theme was polar bears. The librarian read 3 books about polar bears. Then they played with pom pons, then it was off to do a craft. Bridget made a bear mask. She had lots of fun! I found several Disney books with CDs on clearance at Walgreens and Bridget had brought "Finding Nemo" with, so we read that after doing the craft. What a LONG book. It took about 20 minutes to read the whole thing. 

The rest of Wednesday was fun. We always have fun when Aunt Barb is over. Bridget loves to play and read books with her. I enjoy talking with her too. We must have worn Bridget out, because she ended up taking a long nap, falling asleep with the new Disney book over her face! I had added the books to Bridget's iPod, and she was able to listen to the books while taking her nap. She was asleep within a half hour. 

Wednesday night, since Bridget took a long nap, she went to the grocery store with me. Bridget was a good helper, finding all of the items on my grocery list. She even spotted the Nursery Water when I had passed it up twice! She did well too and didn't ask for me to buy her everything she saw on the shelves. The only things she asked for was more fruit snacks (I said no, we have 4 boxes at home) and a kiwi fruit (I got strawberries instead). 

She was in bed by 9 pm but didn't fall asleep till well after 10 pm. That's ok, I'll live with that if she takes a nap and behaves for us in the evenings!

Today she's off at Chesterbrook Academy. Daddy dropped her off, and she requested that I pick her up. It's been sort of quiet at home without her around. The babies acted up around 11 am when all wanted to be fed/held/changed at the same time. Poor Megan hasn't eaten much since 9 am and it's 3 pm now. She whined at noon, I tried to feed her and she wouldn't eat. Then I got her up at 1 pm and she drank about an ounce, then spit it all up. 

Bridget will be happy to learn that Auntie Jo, Matt and Allison are coming over tonight to help while Shawn bowls. I also found out that Auntie Tina, Uncle Dave, Kaitlyn and Ann are also coming over to play! We're going to loan them our Camry since their Prius was in an accident and probably totalled and they need another car while figuring out what to do about the Prius. 

Ok, so I better get going to pick up Bridget. She'll be so excited to hear that her cousins are coming over tonight!