Sleeping habits

My boys crack me up with the ways they sleep. I guess it factors in to their personalities. Different personalities = different sleeping habits.

I've taken the liberty of capturing some of these moments with my camera.

First thing in the morning

Morning is my favorite time with my boys. They're all so happy, cuddly and sweet.

When I walk in now, Stokes is usually awake and sitting up in his crib. The moment he sees me he will break out an enormous grin! He wants me to come pick him up right then. He is not happy if he has to wait. A lot of times he will have his little blanket or wubbanub in his hands.

Most of these pictures were taken a few weeks ago before he figured out how to sit up.

Weird kind of tripod position

He sees me!

Big grin!

Taken more recently...

Now I find him sitting up in the morning

Happy to see me

 

Ryan usually used to still be asleep when I came in their room in the morning. I would go over and gently try to wake him up and his eyes would pop open and he'd have a startled look on his face. The times he was already awake, he would just lay there kicking his legs and waiting. He's usually so patient. He doesn't move much overnight, other than to kick his legs, but sometimes I will find him perpendicular from where I left him. We have his crib elevated with a wedge to help with his reflux and I think he must find a way to slide down the wedge and go sideways.

We are dealing with new circumstances now that he's back on ACTH though. The past several days he has been waking up early, between 4 and 5:30 am. I will hear him whining and moaning on the monitor. His diaper and pajamas are soaking wet, despite the fact that I change him right before I go to bed, usually somewhere between 10 and 11, and we use overnight diapers for 12 hour protection in one size up. Poor little guy. I can tell he's hungry, too so I'll change his diaper, take off his wet pjs and give him a few ounces of Pedialyte. Then I just hold him until it's time to give him his ACTH injection and start the day. The past several mornings, he has been able to fall back asleep while I hold him.

Again, these were taken a few weeks ago.

Awake and perpendicular

He sees me!

Big smile!

 

Action shot: kicking his legs

 

William is almost always still asleep or in between sleep and being awake. He has his face buried in his crib. I'll call his name and he will turn his head around towards me and give me a huge open-mouth smile. He is in such a good mood! 

On his tummy in the corner of his crib

Nobody puts Baby in the corner!

"Time to wake up..."

Smiles begin

Taken more recently...

 

First smile of the day!

Happy baby

Nap time

When I lay Stokes down, he just rolls right over or rolls onto his side and will put his blanket and/or wubbanub in his mouth. He continues to watch me until I leave the room. Sometimes he will manage to get himself into some sort of a tripod position that doesn't look comfortable at all! When I come in to get him, if he is still asleep, he's never in the same position in which I saw him last. If his head was towards the window, now it will be towards the wall. If his back was to me, now he'll be facing me. He is such a little man on the move! 

Just put down in the crib

"Here's your blanket"

The immediate roll

I'm not sure about what he's doing here

Fighting naptime...pitiful

Foot on the railing

 

Ryan will go down for his naps without much ado. I don't think he can sleep as well on the ACTH but he is content to just rest quietly. We give him his blanket but he doesn't really "hold" it yet. We pretty much just tuck it under his arm.

"Here's your blanket."

Not quite ready to go to sleep

Zonked out and on his way to going perpendicular

Wakey, wakey and in a good mood

 

William lets me put him down and as soon as I hand him his blanket he will start flapping his arms. It is hilarious! I think he must like to feel his soft blanket grazing over him. After I leave the room he will put the blanket over his face. Whenever I come in to check on them in the middle of the nap, William will just be lying there with his hands by his side and his face covered with the blanket. He will move around at some point because when nap time is over, I will find him on his tummy, sometimes with his head in the corner and other times with an arm or a leg hanging out of his crib rails. When I pick him up, his face will be red where he was laying on it and will have marks from his crib sheet folds. He will be a little sleepy and disoriented but will immediately start smiling at me.

"Here's your blanket"

Starting to flap it around

Rolled over and totally asleep, head in the corner again

Flapping arms with the blanket

Blanket partially covering his face

Putting them down at night
This is surprisingly easy. Their nighttime routine consists of putting on pjs, brushing teeth (for William and Stokes), a bedtime story, then we put them in their cribs, turn off the lamp and walk out. It's as easy as that. They rarely ever cry or fuss.

Nighttime story

 

We're ready for bed, Mom!

Stokes is so funny. We lay him down on his back and he will immediately roll over to his belly. He loves having his little blanket in his hand and he will sometimes pull another blanket off his crib rails to play/snuggle with. He loves to rest his head on his arms and hands with his hiney in the air and falls asleep fairly quickly. Whether he will stay asleep...well, that is anyone's guess! Every now and then he will have a cluster of nights that he wakes up but then he'll start sleeping well again for a while.

Not ready to go to bed yet...

...so I'll play with my wubbanub!

Much later...weird position but at least he's asleep!

Ryan is so chill and he just lays there and will peacefully close his eyes and fall asleep. If he's not tired yet, he will kick his feet for a little while first. He's happy after just having finished his bottle and perfectly content.

Just put down in his crib

Thinking about whether he wants to go to sleep

Yes, sleep is a good idea

Much later...asleep and hasn't moved much!

William is usually pretty tired at night and will sometimes begin closing his eyes during the story. Picking him up to put him in his crib will wake him up a little and once I hand him his blanket, he will start flapping it and covering his face, the same way he does at nap time. Sometimes when the blanket is on his head he will rub his big belly. I love that!!!! It's so cute. He will typically roll over at some point in the night and I'll find him on his tummy if I peek in later to check on him and his brothers.

Blanket on face

Blanket on face and rubbing belly

Took blanket off face for some flapping

Blanket back on face

Much later...he rolled over and wedged himself into the corner

Hopefully my sleep habits post hasn't bored you too much. I want to be able to remember all these mundane details about everything they do while they're still so little. These three sweet, sleeping babies are just amazing.

A naptime surprise

Stokes is really putting a lot of effort toward checking off several more milestones! I walked into his room this yesterday to get him up from a nap, and this is what I found.

I knew it was coming, but I was so shocked and surprised to walk in and see him sitting up! Two of my aunts were here so I made sure to ask them if they moved him to verify if he had done it by himself and he had!?Thank goodness that Thomas lowered the crib a few weeks back. 

We then saw him sitting up again in the afternoon. None of us saw how he actually did it though. 

Not only has he figured out how to sit up on his own, he has also figured out how to hold his own bottle. I've been waiting for this since the day the boys came home! It's really helpful, especially in the morning, which incidentally, is the only time of day I can really count on him to hold it himself. For the first bottle of the day, I get him up from his crib, change his diaper, put him on a boppy, give him a bottle. Done. He's self sufficient with that feeding. Then I have 2 free hands to get his brothers, change their diapers and start feeding them, all while he's eating. The frustrating thing is that I know he can do it, but he refuses to hold his bottle himself for any other feeding. I guess he's just not as hungry then as he is first thing in the morning!

YES SIR!!!!!! :)

I can't believe all my babies are growing up, but Stokes is really blazing the trail! I wonder if he'll continue to hit the milestones first....

A recurrence

I'm behind on my posts, but wanted to let you know the latest about Ryan. It's not great news. He's having a recurrence of his infantile spasms. I saw a few alarming things over the last several weeks and talked to his therapists and neurologist. When I talked to Dr. Hunnicutt (neurologist), and explained what I was seeing, she said she felt good about the progress she saw in his last EEG in early June and it might not be anything. She said we could come in for an EEG to check it all out if I wanted to. My hesitation and concern was that the EEG has to capture the actual event or episode in order to do any good. Ryan's events that were concerning to me were very infrequent and sporadic. I felt like it would be very difficult to know when to schedule the EEG and be able to actual capture them. As time went on, however, they were becoming a little more frequent and I was finally able to get two of them on video and emailed the video to the neuro. She agreed that they looked somewhat alarming and we needed to get them on the EEG to confirm what was going on. We had a previously scheduled follow up EEG set for Wednesday, July 2, which was just a few days away from when this conversation took place.

I went to the EEG that Wednesday and Ryan slept so well. After he woke up, we kept him hooked up to the EEG to try to get the events recorded (these episodes only happen when he's awake). We had some time before they needed the EEG room for another patient and took advantage of the time we had. Unfortunately and fortunately we were able to get 2 episodes on the EEG. I say unfortunately because they were happening (not just 1 but 2!!!), but fortunately because the timing worked out to get them recorded so the Neurologist could see it and confirm what was going on. We ended up staying there for about 3 hours, which is much longer than a typical EEG would last. I'd like to thank Lisa Frampton for coming over to keep Stokes and William while Ryan and I were at the appointment. You were such a big help, Lisa!

We got a call from Dr. Hunnicutt the next day and she said that she saw the 2 events on the EEG and although they weren't a "slam dunk" to classify them as infantile spasms, they correlated with a slow wave on the EEG. Basically, it was not "nothing" and my concerns were valid. She told me to put him back on the ACTH (a steroid medication for infantile spasms) injections twice daily. You may remember that Ryan responded very well to his first round on ACTH and we were able to wean him off after 4 weeks, which is considered quick in terms of this medicine. Dr. Hunnicutt said she would try a slower wean this time and possibly use an oral steroid during the weaning process in the hopes of resetting his brain so that we don't see the spasms anymore. We also were instructed to continue the Topamax sprinkles twice daily. In addition, she wanted to do some blood work to get a metabolic panel on him.

We stated the injections that evening (Thursday, July 3) and have been following the twice daily instructions ever since and a continuation of the Topamax. I saw 2 spasms on the 4th, 1 spasm on the 5th and 1 on the 6th.  I haven't seen/noticed any more since then. We went back for a follow-up EEG yesterday, which was a week after we started the ACTH. Ryan's EEG looked good and it appears that the ACTH is once again working. Thank God for that.

We had a pretty easy go of it for our first round of ACTH, in terms of negative side effects. Although Ryan's handling it like a total champ, we are seeing more side effects this round. He isn't sleeping as well, he's hungry all the time and wants to eat so much, and is fussier and irritable more than what is typical for him, which also may tie into the fact that he's constantly hungry. I'd rather not have to deal with any side effects (duh), but you know, we're still lucky that he does as well as he does.

We've already begun to see his cheeks getting puffier and I think he's gained some weight in just the last week. I'm not able to give him a bottle of formula whenever he's hungry because he would gain an unhealthy amount of weight, so we've taken the doctor's suggestion of giving him some Pedialyte to help fill his tummy in between feedings if he acts really hungry.

On a positive spin, and you know I like to try to find the positive somewhere, Ryan does not spit up at all when he's on ACTH. It usually makes reflux worse, but it has the opposite effect on Ryan. He keeps everything down and for that, I'm thankful. I'm getting a little break from the daily projectile spit ups and constant laundry for spit up on clothes, bibs, burp cloths, boppy/nap nanny covers, high chair straps, play mats and mattress covers. Another good thing is that we really haven't seen much, if any, developmental regression. He still isn't rolling over, sitting, reaching/grasping on his own, but he's definitely made some progress and is in about the same place he was when the spasms started again. We've gotten some positive feedback from his therapists on what they're seeing from him. His head and neck control has definitely improved.

I do worry about the "zombie-like" state, for lack of a better phrase, that we saw in him last time. He isn't smiling and laughing as much as he was, but I can still get a smile and a little giggle out of him every now and then. I think that his withholding all those beautiful smiles may have something to do with his overall irritability. I do feel confident, however, that we'll see that shining, crinkly nose smile and hear that soft, shy laugh once again when he's done with the ACTH.

I probably sound like a broken record, but please, please continue to pray for Ryan...and throw in some prayers for Stokes and William as well. While you're at it, please pray for Thomas and me! We could all use them! I pray that Ryan's infantile spasms will go away for good and that God will continue to shape and develop his brain to get him on a good developmental track. That He will allow Ryan to lead a healthy, full life. And yes, I know I'm supposed to pray for him to be the perfect version of himself for whatever God has in store for him, but I admit that I pray every single day that he will be able to walk, talk, drive a car, all sorts of things like that and that he'll lead a "normal" life. I pray that He will keep Stokes and William on a good track and that they can continue to develop until they catch up to the milestones for their actual age. I ask God to help them to be supportive and loving brothers to Ryan. I pray that God will bless Thomas and me to be the very best parents to Ryan, Stokes and William that we can be and that we'll know how to take care of them to give them the best chance at health, happiness and a good life. Please join me in my prayers and add in any others you can think of. You are probably a better pray-er than I am. Thank you, family members, sweet friends and blog readers.

A sweet picture of smiley Ryan, taken Sunday, June 29

Here are some links to previous blog posts about Ryan's infantile spasms, in case you want the background or have forgotten what we were dealing with in May.
News about Ryan
Coming to terms and being optimistic
Done with ACTH

Patriotic trio

The 4th of July, aka Independence Day, always seems to bring out a sense of all things Americana: fireworks, food from the grill, lake/beach, our favorite national colors - red, white and blue, watermelon, and of course, the stars and stripes. It's a time to reflect on our great nation and enjoy summer. Americans are proud. And we like to show it!

Last July 4th we were basking in the glow of the beach. We were loving being "arrogantly shabby" at Pawley's Island, SC. My family has been vacationing at Pawley's since my dad was young (or maybe even longer..??) and it's one of my very favorite family traditions. There are so many wonderfully fun memories that I equate with Pawley's and I consider it my happy place. Truth be told, if my memory serves me, we had pretty bad beach weather last year. There was lots of rain and clouds for quite a bit of the week. Not only that but I just happened to be 20 weeks pregnant....with triplets. I couldn't move fast (or much) and it was difficult to get in and out of the beach chairs. I was worried about going out in the ocean when I would get waist deep and the waves would hit the big ole baby bump. Still, despite all of this, we had a great time and made more family memories. When it comes down to it, I think I might choose to be at Pawley's Island over just about anywhere. Ahh, all the reminiscing that is going on in my head right now. When I think back to that time last year, I had no indication that I would end up in the hospital a few weeks after this and deliver my sweet babies about 7 weeks later.

July 4th, 2013

Waiting on the annual 4th of July Parade!
 

Two Five (counting the fetuses LOL) proud Americans on the beach!

This year we stayed home and had MaSha come down from Virginia to spend the weekend with us. Once again we had several more "firsts" with the babies.

On Thursday the 3rd we attended a Red, White and Blue neighborhood party. All the kids in the neighborhood were invited to dress in their patriotic colors, have a little bike/wagon/stroller parade and then feast on some firecracker popsicles. It was fun to go out there and meet more of the neighbors. We also had a reason to take out our triple stroller! It was a hand-me-down from a friend of a friend. How awesome is that?!?!?! Anyway, I digress. Back to the neighborhood party. I'm ashamed to admit that we've lived in our current house for 3 years and know very few of the neighbors. Are you in the same camp with me that thinks it's wayyyyyyyyyy easier to meet people when you have a child/children with you? You have an automatic icebreaker and topic of conversation to talk about the kid(s). Here are a few pictures of the neighborhood party!

Our little family

MaSha with the boys

My beautiful, patriotic triplet babies

Neighborhood kids with popsicles

I'm a proud mama!

On Friday the 4th, we took advantage of what we assumed would be a lot of holiday sales and took the babies up to the outlet mall about 45 minutes away. Hello, what's more American than shopping?!?! Haha! This was one of our first really public outings and I've heard horror stories from other triplet mamas about rude comments or stupid questions. I wasn't sure what to expect. We also interrupted naptime to some degree...so it was a total guess as to how this outing would go. I thought we'd be fighting the crowds at the outlets, but when we pulled into the parking lot, I was pleasantly surprised at how empty it was. I guess all the normal people went to the beach/lake/pool to spend the 4th of July! We pulled in, unloaded the babies into two strollers (a double and a single) and found a bench to do a bottle feeding.  After the feeding, we started shopping! MaSha and I took the strollers and separated from Thomas so he could find some ways to spend his birthday money. For MaSha and myself, it was a bit of a challenge to try to hold doors for each other while trying to get both strollers into each store. We went through several baby stores and just walked around the outlets before meeting back up with Thomas. Stokes, Ryan and William were patient and quiet and good and just wanted to look around and take in all the sights and sounds. I think it worked in our favor that it wasn't very crowded there but we did get several surprised reactions, murmurs of "there are THREE of them" and "wow, triplets!" and even a few questions. I'm glad to say that we got ZERO rude comments. Well done, fellow shoppers! Please note that the boys are wearing their red, white and blue and we have little American flags on their strollers. Holiday festive attire for the three Peerys in a pod!

Feeding the boys when we first got there...

The babies and me

 

 

Thomas and the babies

 

 

Outlet shopping consumed a big chunk of the afternoon but the rest of the afternoon we spent hanging out with the babies, swinging in the hammock and spending some time on the deck.

 

William and Stokes in exersaucers having fun

Happy Ryan on his playmat

MaSha with William and Esso

William, Stokes and Ryan on the hammock

Don't you love the serious look?!?!?

Peery family picture!

Da-da with William

Goofing around

Stokes trying to feed himself and his Da-da

Me feeding the boys

MaSha and William having a heart to heart

That evening after we got the boys in bed, Thomas, MaSha and I had an all-American 4th of July dinner that included burgers, potato salad, baked beans and brussel sprouts. I admit that the brussel sprouts are a little unconventional, but we had them and needed to make them before they went bad! Then I had a surprise patriotic dessert for us!

 

Is it weird that I feel the need to take pictures of food and include it on the blog? :)

Thomas, General and MaSha

red, white and blue dessert - ha! ;)

 

 

After dinner, Thomas pulled out a surprise for us....some sparklers! We didn't have any "real" firecrackers, but had to have some sort of fireworks for the 4th!

 

 

On Saturday, we had another fun-filled day. We took the triplets to the downtown Farmer's Market. There were quite a few people there but we had 2 strollers and walked single file due to the crowds so most people didn't notice (or care?) that we had triplets and we were pretty much incognito. We did, however, meet some 11 year old girl triplets that were cute as can be! We had a fun little conversation with them. I love the Farmer's Market and MaSha had never been so Thomas and I were glad to get to show it to her.

 

Pushing strollers into the Market

Beautiful flowers

Fresh produce

South Carolina peaches

Thomas and his boys

They wanted to stop and listen to the bluegrass band for a minute!

MaSha with William and me with Stokes

Stokes and me

MaSha, William, Stokes and me

As we were moseying through downtown, I happened upon this gem. Just in case you were wondering...

GO TIGERS!!!!

Later that afternoon, we took the boys to the pool and swam for a little while. Sunday we decided to go to church and take the boys to the nursery for the first time. I called a few days ahead to give them a heads up about all the babies that would make an appearance in the nursery and to get the details, since I've never used the church nursery before. The ladies there were so sweet and took great care of our boys! We gave them Thomas's cell # so they could get in touch with us during the service if they really needed to and we both checked the phone several times. Luckily, they didn't need us and everything went smoothly. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of our pool or church adventures but using the nursery gave Thomas and me some confidence that we could go to church by ourselves and take the boys to the nursery. We typically wait until we have some willing family members in town before venturing to church with all 3 babies, but using the nursery makes it totally do-able. And now that the boys are older, not quite so immuno-compromised (is that a word??) and out of flu season, we feel good about it!

Although we weren't at the beach for the 4th this year, you can probably tell by my rants and tons of pictures, we had such a fun July 4th weekend. I hope you and your family had a great time as well. 

THERE AIN'T NO DOUBT,

I LOVE THIS LAND.

GOD BLESS THE USA!

Love, 

A proud, patriotic, American triplet Mama

 

New schedule

I made mention in a previous post that we were going to move to a new schedule. Today marks 2 weeks since the schedule transition took place. It was pretty much like ripping off a Band-Aid. We just did it one day. I was kind of nervous about it but it really wasn't a big deal. The boys did just fine. No issues at all. It was harder on me to try to remember what time to do everything! Here's what our current schedule looks like at 10 months.

7:30 - bottle #1 (7 oz)
8:30 - Solids breakfast (usually just some fruit - they aren't fans of any type of cereal!)
9:30 - nap #1
11:00 - wake up from nap and have bottle #2 (7 oz)
12:30 - solids lunch (vegetable and/or fruit)
1:30 - nap #2
3:30 - wake up from nap and have bottle #3 (7 oz)
6:00 - solids dinner (vegetable and/or fruit)
6:30 - bath every other night
7:00 - bottle #4 and bed

This is an abbreviated version of the total schedule that includes diaper changes, medicine administration, clothes changes, bottle washing, etc. but you get the gist. We work around all of our weekly appointments and therapy sessions to make it as seamless as possible. I like that the new schedule has 2 nap times and only 4 bottle feedings. Things I don't like as much includes 3 feedings with solids and the amount of times I'm bringing them up and down the stairs. But on the positive side of the stairs issue is that I can use the exercise and have a built-in Stairmaster workout! The babies still don't love their solids. I've been assured (and reassured and reassured.....and so on) by the nurses at my pediatrician's office that it's totally fine. They're getting all their nutrients from their bottles and the solids are just extra little snacks. I can typically only feed them 1 small jar of food total, split between all 3. And let's be fair, William is eating 90% of that jar. He's such a good eater. The times that Stokes and Ryan actually eat and are taking good bites make me nervous. Shortly afterwards there is usually a big spit up. It's not pretty. They're still only 7 months adjusted, so I'm sure they will come around and begin to like solid food at some point!

So there's the update on our new schedule. Overall it's going really well. I want to thank Corey for going to the effort to create this new routine for me. She thought of everything! ;)

Just playing around and thinking about how much they like their new schedule