8 Months Old

Friday the 25th marked the babies' 8 month birthday. That makes them 5 months adjusted. We had an EEG for Ryan that morning and in the evening, MaSha, Ashley, and our nieces, Taylor and Anna, got here to spend the weekend with us. More on our awesome weekend in a future post. ;)

All the babies are growing well and gaining weight...especially William! We got updated weights this past week and here you go.

Stokes - 15.2 lbs
Ryan - 15 lbs
William - 18.4 lbs

L to R: Ryan, William, Stokes

Here's a snapshot of what is going on with each of the triplets.

Stokes
Stokes continues to be a smiley, giggly and happy baby. He can light up a room with his sweet, toothless grin. I say toothless now, but I think he may be approaching his teething phase. He has started putting everything in his mouth and loves to gnaw on whatever it is. I can't feel or see any teeth just yet. His laugh can be pretty shrill but he has also started on his belly laugh as well. It's awesome. His mood can change on a dime and he can go from crying one second to laughing and cracking up the next...and vice versa. As my sister in law Ashley said this weekend, "he's going to be the social chairman for his fraternity". He just seems to be a people person. He loves grabbing on to stuff and is so funny because he'll hold your shirt or your hair when you pick him up or are holding him. Stokes has starting sitting up for a few seconds on his own. Then he topples over to one side or face plants, but he's very close to being a real full-time sitter! He has found his feet and just loves to grab them and put them in his mouth. He almost always has a hold of his feet or ankles and it makes me laugh when I see him with his legs and feet straight up in the air. He has begun to babble a little and will blow raspberries with his mouth. Stokes sometimes sleeps really well for us but he will go through short phases lasting several days at a time when he wakes up a few times throughout the night. We still swaddle him at night but this little Houdini manages to get an arm or 2 out pretty much every time! Stokes is wearing 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers right now.

Ryan
Ryan has been going through a rough patch lately and I think it has a lot to do with reflux. Poor baby usually has at least 1 big spit up each day. His dad and I are following the advice from his pediatrician and trying to change things to help him out. Right now we're adding rice cereal to each bottle to thicken it up and we're using a faster flow nipple. We've also been skipping the Poly-Vi-Sol with iron that we put in the morning bottle each day to see if the iron is hurting his stomach. Sometimes he just gets so upset and I can't seem to soothe him and it makes me feel so bad to think that he is in pain. He's also not smiling and laughing hardly at all anymore, which makes sense if he doesn't feel well. Thomas and I both are anxious to get this issue resolved so that he'll feel better and act like his sweet, calm self. Ryan is starting PT (physical therapy) later this week and I think it will be a big help towards reaching some developmental milestones. We realized this weekend that he loves the great outdoors. When he was crying, we took him outside and he seemed to really calm down. I think now that it has warmed up we might be spending more time on the back deck during the evenings. He sleeps really well throughout the night and I usually even have to wake him up in the morning for his bottle. Ryan's hair is starting to come in a little more and is getting a little thicker. It's kind of a light brown shade...much lighter than either of his brothers. His beautiful eyes are still blue. He is really such a handsome little guy! Right now Ryan is wearing 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.

William
William has turned into quite the talker. When he gets going, he will talk your ear off. He makes all sorts of "word" noises and blows raspberries. He loves to laugh and has started chuckling and he also has an adorable belly laugh that he'll do every so often. He really gets a kick out of it when I wipe off his hands with a washcloth and he will start cracking up. William smiles a lot and can be a bit of a flirt. He is probably not too far away from sitting up but isn't quite there yet. He loves his hands and spends a lot of time chewing or sucking on his fingers. If his hands aren't in his mouth, he'll put them together at midline right at his chest. He has so many rolls! He is definitely chubby and so much fun to hold and squeeze! We were able to take him off the high calorie formula. Since birth, all 3 babies were on high calorie formula (24 calorie instead of 20 or 22) to help them gain weight, which is really just a different ratio of formula to water than what is printed on the can, but William has gained enough that he gets to have regular calorie formula. He sleeps really well and rarely cries. You know the saying...a fat baby is a happy baby! I love holding him because he will just lay his head right on my shoulder and it feels like a perfect fit. William, our big boy, is wearing 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.