Holly: Perfect! Still the peanut of the group. She's weighs exactly 2 lbs. less than Megan. Doc said that she has the red bumps on her lower gum line where her first teeth will be making an appearance within the next month or two.
The exciting news with Holly is that she is now getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, just ready to go. It won't be long before she's crawling. If her favorite Kangaroo toy is across the room and she wants it, she'll find a way to get to it in no time at all. She has mastered rolling, pivoting, STRETCHING out her long arms and scooting to navigate the floor.
Liam: Doing great! Megan surpassed him once again in weight, but that was no surprise. The growth of his head is well within normal range and is following the growth curve appropriately. Liam is still not bearing his weight on his legs yet, but the doctor wasn't very concerned at this point. The doctor lifted him up, and Liam is doing a stepping motion, which is good. I guess if he didn't do that, then the doc would be more concerned. For now, we're just supposed to keep an eye on his progress. His muscle tone in his legs is not as defined? developed? as his sisters, but still falls within the normal range. You can also see his two bottom front teeth just below the gum. Shouldn't be long before those teeth pop right out!
The exciting news with Liam is that he has begun to show his first baby sign: milk. At first I thought it was a coincidence, or that he was just scratching at his shirt or bib, but now I'm pretty convinced that he is trying to communicate with us. He will sign milk when the bottle is in his mouth. He has also signed milk when I was feeding him peas and he wanted his bottle. He looked right at the bottle, and did the sign for milk. It's absolutely amazing that someone so small can already begin to communicate! I'm a BIG fan of baby sign language, and have been extremely pleased with how signing worked with Bridget, and now with the triplets. BTW, there's a video of Liam signing "milk" on my Mobile Me Gallery, the link is at the right.
Megan: Wonderful! Megan is the heaviest of the bunch, but we knew that would happen. She usually eats the most at each meal, and she wiggles around the least. When she's put on the floor, she will maybe roll to the left, back to center and roll to the right, but that's about it. She's content to just watch Holly and Liam play. When we were in the waiting room, I noticed that Megan's right foot seemed a bit odd looking. There seemed to be a bump on her arch. We showed the doctor and he said that the bump was actually a muscle, and that her muscle was really developed probably because she curls her toes tightly. Pair that with her crazy double-jointed right elbow, and the doc said she seems to be favoring her right side. Again, nothing to worry about, just something to keep an eye on over the next couple of months. We never noticed that Megan favors the right side, but then again, we weren't looking out for it either. During the rest of our stay in the office, she definitely looks to the right more than to the left, but I doubt there's a problem. She turned to the left when I called her. She watched Bridget when B was on her left side. The doc also said Megan's probably not moving around as much as the other two because her muscles aren't as developed enough to carry her weight around. (Poor Meggie...our little fatty!) Again, he said she's fine and there's nothing to be concerned about. In fact, he said they've thinned out quite nicely since their 4 month visit. Megan also has the swollen gums, and doc said she'll probably have 2-4 teeth before her 9 month visit.
Overall, I'm really trying NOT to compare the babies. It's pretty hard though. I think it's instinct: when one baby rolls you work a bit harder to get the other two to roll. Or when one baby signs, you work a bit harder to get the other two signing. On the other hand, it's fascinating to watch three babies who are growing up in the exact same environment develop at different rates. Nature vs. nurture at its finest.
It's getting rather fun around our house now. The babies are moving around and interacting with everyone. Bridget is playing with the babies. Shawn and I are in a routine and more is getting done. Life is good.
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2 comments:
What I learned from Allison...muscle tone is something you are born with. You can't define it or improve it. You are either born "floppy" or not. Muscle strength can be "defined" or "developed". And being what we used to call double-jointed really just means you have low muscle tone (your joints move beyond where they should naturally stop if you were born with typical muscle tone). Flexing the joints beyond where they should be is not something you want them to do because it can cause joint problems later in life.
Ok, thanks. We'll see what happens. Doctor isn't too worried at this point. Liam's beginning to bear weight now.
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