Winter weather, Olympics, a new routine and other tidbits

It's a WINTER WONDERLAND outside today! None of the snow is sticking to the roads yet so Thomas went to work, but the effect of snow covered landscape is just beautiful! This is way more snow than we got last time and it's still falling. This is the third time it's snowed this winter. That must be some kind of record, right?

View outside our front door. So pretty! You can't really tell in these pictures but the snow is still falling.

The snow makes me even more excited about the Winter Olympics, which is in Sochi, Russia this year. We watch every night and I watch it some during the day, too. USA! USA! I never really cared that much about the Olympics until probably about 6 years ago and now I am obsessed. I still prefer the summer games, but love the Winter Olympics, too! 

Ok, now moving on to baby updates.

Our new routine...
We stumbled upon a new, different (and much better!) routine. About two weeks ago we pushed the midnight feeding up an hour to 11 pm. The first night we tried it out we weren't sure how it would go over. We braced ourselves for a 3 or 4 am wake up call (aka baby/babies crying), but we were very, very pleasantly surprised when the babies slept until 7:30 am. We were, dare I say it, WELL RESTED. It felt awesome. Based on the 7:30 wake up time we adjusted our schedule to maintain the 3 hour feedings. So instead of 6, 9, 12, 3....we changed it to 7:30, 10:30, 1:30, and 4:30. After trying it that day, we decided to keep it! I don't know why this schedule feels better for me, but it just does. It may have something to do with getting more sleep!!! But apart from that, it works so much better for many reasons. For example, when they were eating at noon, I would have to eat a very early lunch around 11 or so, or more often I wouldn't get around to eating lunch until 1:30 or 2 and by that point I would be so hungry! Now that they eat at 1:30, I can grab a quick bite at 12 or 12:30. Another good point is that we put them down for bed now after their 7:30 bottle, or if it is bath night, it is bottle, bath, then bed. On the old schedule, I didn't put them down right after their 6 pm bottle because that is when Thomas would get home from work. I wanted him to get at least a little time to spend with them each day. So we would wait until after the 9 pm bottle to put them to bed, which always felt a little late to me. Plus we would not be able to work on washing and making new bottles, cleaning the kitchen, etc until after 10 pm most nights. By then we were exhausted! On the new and improved routine, babies are typically in bed between 8 and 8:30 and then Thomas and I can eat dinner in peace and then get all our "work" done. After all the bottles from that day are washed, new bottles for the next day are made, dishes are put away, laundry is folded, and whatever else needs to be done is done, we actually get a little time to relax and watch tv before waking them up for the 11 pm bottle. Relief! 

I am not sure if 11:30ish to 7:30 is considered "sleeping through the night", but it sure feels better than what we were previously working with! Stokes still wakes up most nights once or twice and one of us will go in there to soothe him for a few minutes, but overall the babies are sleeping really well. Sometimes they will wake up a little before 7:30 but I make them wait before I go in there to help with establishing the new routine.

The babies are also eating a little more now. We put about 4-4.5 oz in each bottle and they usually finish most, if not all, of it, with the exception of William, who ALWAYS finishes all of his bottle. We have our 6 month appointment with the pediatrician in about 2 weeks so I will ask then about whether we are feeding them an appropriate amount and about introducing solids. I know 6 months is typically when you would start with solids, but with them being preemies, they might want us to wait a little longer until they are closer to 6 months ADJUSTED, ie 6 months from full term due date which would put them around the 9 month mark.  I try to read their cues about how much to give them in their bottle and I think we will be increasing by an ounce within the next few days. It is such a guessing game because if they don't finish their bottle, you can't save it for the next feeding and you have to dump it out. I HATE wasting any milk...or formula!...so I don't want to put too much in their bottle. On the other hand, I definitely don't want them to be hungry! So we just guess and sometimes I will pour extra milk in their bottle if they finish and still seem hungry.

A few other tidbits...
- Stokes was not able to come off of his monitor following the last reading of results so he is still on it. The doctor still felt like he had too many episodes. The monitor company came out and downloaded the results again about a week and a half ago and I really think he only set off his alarm one time that will show up on that download. Since then he hasn't set it off at all. I will be very surprised if he is not off his monitor once we get these results in the next week or so.

- All three babies are being treated for reflux and I think the meds are working! They still spit up some, which is to be expected, but overall they are less fussy, which makes me feel like they feel better. Now it's rare for them to fight against taking their bottle and that was a fairly regular occurrence in the past.

- They were supposed to go to the Pulmonologist this week to get another synagis shot to help ward off RSV, but there was a delay with the insurance approving and sending out the meds and with the big question mark with the weather so we have postponed the appointment until next week.

- Speaking of next week, my Aunt Mary Nell and Aunt Wanda (the Nanas) are coming for a visit! 

- GranO, aka Peggy, was here yesterday helping out and was such a joy to have around!

Triplet snooze this morning

Signing off for now. I may try to take some baby snow pictures later today or tomorrow. If I get some good ones I will post them. 

My big day

My birthday came and went and boy, do I feel spoiled!!! I slept in until around 8:30 then went and played with the babies a little bit. Morning is definitely my favorite time with them. They are so happy and generous with the smiles. I love it!

My dad came by and brought flowers and some food for us and spent some time with his grandsons. 

After a fairly leisurely morning, I got ready to head out for the day. Here I am with some gift cards to use for birthday shopping.

I confess-I am a gift card hoarder. I receive them for birthdays and Christmas and hang on to them. I am not sure why. It's like I feel like I have to have the most perfect occasion to use them so I am not wasting them on a "not special" shopping trip....or something. I am weird. But on my birthday I decided to throw gift card hoarding caution to the wind and use them!!!! I repeat, I am weird. 

First off I had lunch with my dear friend, Carole. She is like a second mom to me and I love her so much. She has truly been so supportive and awesome to our family. We "lady lunched" at Bacon Bros. 

I decided to take pictures of all the food because it was so good! This place is one of those farm to table, fresh ingredients type places. This was my first visit to Bacon Bros and it did not disappoint. 

Appetizer: jar of pimiento cheese with bacon jam and saltines made in-house. 

For lunch Carole and I split a BET sandwich, which was pork belly pastrami, fried duck egg (we got it on the side in case we didn't like it but it tasted like a chicken egg!), arugula, cheese and some fancy mixy mayo. Yum!

Side item: some sort of brussel sprout, bacon and apple concoction. It was also very delicious!

And since it was my birthday, we just HAD to order dessert! ;)

This was some sort of special that's not on the regular menu. Our waiter compared it to a big Rolo. You know, the candy?!? It was soooo good! The little chocolate dipped pretzel on top had a spicy flavor which was incredible!

I really enjoyed my lunch with Carole! What a treat!

Next up I went to the spa for a 60 minute massage, courtesy of my sweet, sweet friend, Corey. She's Carole's daughter and she's like a sister to me. She made all the arrangements and had everything taken care of and I just had to show up. What an awesome and generous gift! I didn't take any pictures there because pictures ruin a spa ambiance, don't you think? And I also was in a massage haze and forgot! Thank you, Coco, for the fabulous massage. I loved it!

Then I went from massage therapy to retail therapy at one of my very favorite stores. 

Trust me, the gift cards got used! 

Then I went back home to get ready for dinner. Just like I expected, the boys were all well taken care of all day. Dad did great!

Thomas and I both got ready for our night out on the town. Our dear friends Beth and Dom came over to babysit for us. Beth is Carole's daughter, too, and you guessed it...like a sister to me! Notice a theme here with this family?!?! They are incredible and we love them to pieces! 

Beth and Dom are newlyweds and such a great looking couple! It was really awesome of them to give up a Friday night to come watch the boys for us. 

Before we left for dinner I insisted in getting pictures with each of my boys.

Stokes

William

Ryan

Thomas :) (my oldest & biggest boy)

Thomas wouldn't tell me where we were going to eat and drove me around in some weird directions to throw me off. We ended up at Northampton Wines. 

We have been there for wine tasting before but had never eaten at the restaurant. I have been wanting to try it. It didn't disappoint!

Cheers!

My champagne was complimentary since it was my birthday. :)

We had a mussels appetizer, salads, then Thomas got the steak frites and I got grouper. The food was excellent and we had such a good dinner talking, enjoying our wine and eating. 

We were pretty full after dinner, but made one last stop...

It was fate because we were driving down Main St debating whether we wanted to stop and get ice cream. It was cold out and I didn't want to park far away and walk in the cold and voila, a space opened up literally right in front of Marble Slab. We had to go in for dessert. 

We returned home to relieve Beth and Dom and the babies were sleeping peacefully.

What a GREAT BIRTHDAY!

It is crazy to think about how much my life has changed over the course of a year. I was thinking back to my birthday last year. It was spent up in NYC with my cousin and some of my besties. I wasn't even pregnant yet. We were there to toast Jacqui for her bachelorette party. It just so happened that there was a huge winter storm that weekend and we got tons of snow. Us southern girls weren't very prepared! It was such a fantastic and fun weekend. There were late nights, Asian karaoke, dancing, cab rides, wonderful dinners, a swanky loft apartment, great memories, and lots of laughs!

A pic of my birthday/Jacqui bachelorette party weekend in Feb. 2013

Seriously, the streets were deserted because of all the snow. We had so much fun!

My friends and family made me feel like a million bucks yesterday. I had cards, calls, texts, and Facebook messages. Thank you! Cheers to another year! Who knows what it will be like next year with three one and a half year olds. I may request another "Katie day" and put Thomas in charge while I spend the day out of the house, especially since he did such a good job this year. ;)

Guess what day it is

True, it's Hump Day, aka Wednesday...BUT...it's also....

PEERY PLAID SHIRT DAY!

Ryan 

William

Stokes 

So adorable!!! Our little lumberjacks :)

Plus they were all is such great moods this morning. William and Stokes kept smiling at me! Stokes was giggling and "talking" too. I had to try to capture these sweet smiles! They were melting my heart. Btw I haven't showered yet or washed any bottles, but when they were smiley and sweet I couldn't leave the room.

Stokes 

William 

Ryan (not smiling much yet, but still so cute! Although I did see a quick smile from him yesterday)

They got me

Well I went out on the girls night out dinner last night and got surprised! Three of my friends came to pick me up and I thought they might want to spend some time holding and snuggling the babies before we left. They did but only for a minute and then it was time to go. I definitely got the feeling that we needed to be "on time" and figured we must have gotten reservations, which typically wouldn't be needed at this restaurant for a table of 4 on a Tuesday night, but didn't think too much into it. When we got there several other girlfriends of mine were waiting on us. Awesome surprise! It was so wonderful to catch up with them and there were lots of stories, laughs, hugs, and margaritas! It was a great time! 

I had to wear the birthday sombrero for a picture, of course! This thing was pretty heavy - haha!

I love Heather's face in this one...she must be thinking about how ridiculous I look with this gigantic sombrero! 

The girls gave me some cute presents and even brought mini cupcakes from Gigi's. They were the perfect size...just enough to satisfy that sweet tooth without ODing on sugar. Here's the aftermath:

I needed that girls night out. It's good for my soul to spend time with my girlfriends. Thanks, y'all, for making it such a fun night!

Thomas and the boys had a good night as well. Thomas's helpers, Brenda and Paul McCurry, came over with chili and brownies and helpful hands! They fed and hung out with the boys and watched the Clemson/Georgia Tech basketball game. In case you're wondering, Clemson won. Go tigers! 

They reported to me that the babies did great and were sweet. I am very proud of my boys for behaving. Hopefully that means continued opportunities for girls night outs in the future! ;)

It was a great day and night. I am still looking forward to Friday, too! Gotta love birthday week.

My sweet babies this morning...

Birthday week

My birthday week has started! Tonight I am going out to dinner with some girlfriends to celebrate. Thomas will be at home with the boys and some sweet friends are going to come over to provide any extra help he may need. It shouldn't be too bad though because the boys will eat at 7:30, then they go to bed. They've been good about going to sleep easily so I hope they will be on their good behavior tonight! 

I am excited to get out of the house and catch up with the girls! It will be so nice to have some conversations about what's going in in their lives, and hear about things that aren't baby-centered. Ya know...just every now and then! ;)

Friday is the big day and Thomas has even taken the day off work. He's agreed that I can have a 24 hour baby free period, aka giving me a day off work. What that means is that I am not the person in charge of and responsible for the babies for those 24 hours. My only responsibility will be to pump and the rest of the time is mine to do what I wish...take naps, watch movies, eat when I want to, you get the picture! All that said, it doesn't mean that I can't see the babies, or snuggle them, or help feed them. It just means that I don't have to do any of those things and I am not "in charge" of making sure everything gets done. I will get to have my cake and eat it too...hanging out with the babies without having to feed them and change their diapers all day long! I am really looking forward to my "day off"! I hope that doesn't come across sounding cold or heartless, but sometimes you just need a break. Thomas is truly such a sweet, generous and caring Dad and husband. Friday will be a such a gift for me! I can't wait to attempt to sleep in! I say that but know I will probably be awake by 6:30 or 7 and won't be able to go back to sleep. Why does that always happen?!?! When you have to get up, you'd kill to sleep in and then when you have the opportunity to sleep in, you can't actually sleep! Oh well, maybe Friday will break that curse for me. I will update you about how the day goes.

Until then, here's a picture of the babies taken today:

On my own

I completed the first work week all by myself, with no help, since the babies got home from the NICU. Prior to this point, I have taken care of them by myself for a few days here or there, but I have had pretty consistent help from family and friends. My first full week on my own went pretty well. There were some tough times, but we all survived! I was apprehensive about it but knew it was inevitable that we would come to this point sooner or later. How well the days go pretty much depends on how well the babies are eating that day. Good feeds = good days. It's in my head but it stresses me out when they're not eating well. 

I was definitely ready for Thomas to come home each night and was especially looking forward to the weekend. TGIF has a whole new meaning to me now than it did before!

Now the weekend is almost over and we'll start all over again tomorrow morning. I definitely plan to soak in the family time while Dad is home this afternoon and evening. 

A nighttime update

First and most importantly, the boys are sleeping better at night. YAY! Right now put the babies to bed after their 9 pm bottle. Then we wake them up to feed them again at midnight. After they go back to bed following the midnight feeding, we let them sleep until they wake up on their own. The last several mornings that has been 6:30 am. I get in bed around 1:00 after completing the midnight feeding so that's 5.5 hours of sleep for me. It's not my good old 8 hours...yet...but we will get there. Not only are they sleeping for a longer stretch of time, they are going down more easily and I haven't had to go to their nursery several times throughout the night. I swear, a few times it felt like I went in there 50 times. Not too long ago, Stokes woke me up by crying and I went in, gave him his paci, soothed him back to sleep, and went back to my room. No sooner did my head hit the pillow than the cries started up again. Those nights are so tiresome! They are getting much better about soothing themselves so we dont have to get up as many times. Thomas and I will let them cry for a few minutes before going to check on them and they often quiet right down. I am so glad that we are moving in the right direction towards a good, full night's sleep.

The big update for this post though is that we have separated the triplets. Now they each sleep in their own crib. They are growing so much and Thomas and I conceded that it was time to split them up. When they all slept in the same crib, we put them head to toe the width of the crib. More and more often when I would go in to wake them up, someone's head would be touching the railing - not in a dangerous way though! It was becoming apparent that they wouldn't fit very much longer. I decided that we would have to do the big switch on a weekend night so Thomas could help me if the boys didn't take very well to sleeping alone. During the week I try to handle most of the nighttime stuff so Thomas can get decent sleep. Last Saturday, the day they turned 5 months old, we chose to pull the trigger on a whim. We quickly gathered all the toys and things in the unused cribs and put them away. We put the boys to sleep separately and crossed our fingers that it would go okay. Whadaya know...they did just fine! I was so relieved that they transitioned so well.

Here are some pictures I took today of them napping in their own cribs.

William

Ryan

Stokes (he was supposed to be napping, but you can see his eyes are open - but at least he was quiet!)

Proof that they are outgrowing their previous sleeping arrangement. Not that you didn't believe me but I wanted an excuse to take one last picture of them like this! ;)