This is what you all care about

Everyone asks me to post new pictures constantly so here it goes:


Here is a picture of our squirmiest child, Will, in his favorite position. He wiggled his way into this position on his own. We placed him in the crib the same way the girls are placed in there.

In this picture, Winnie is guarding the babies. I think she's actually just exhausted after hearing them cry all day, but I like to say she's being the protector.

How cute is this? Marie has her little arm around Will's back during tummy time, but Abby is grabbing him from the other side. The girls love their little brother!

Here is a close-up of Marie's little face.

Here is one of Will's face.

Last, but not least, here is Abby.

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I'll post their new weights and lengths tomorrow. I also had a request for a blog entry about our daily schedule. I'll keep track of a "normal" day and give an account.

So thankful

I was writing thank you notes between feedings yesterday, and I just started thinking about how really thankful I am for all of my family and friends that have been so incredibly generous, loving, and supportive throughout the pregnancy and now into motherhood. When I think about not only all the gifts the babies have received but also the food, hand-me-downs, visits, calls, texts, e-mails, hits to the blog, etc., I am amazed. There are so many people who care so much about our new family.

First, I want to thank our immediate families. Alice stayed with us when we first came home from the hospital, and Teri followed her. Mems was next. Bill has also spent some long nights with us, and my dad stays every Tuesday and Thursday night. A side note on that...he stayed this past Tuesday, and Abby was up all night. My dad patiently rocked her from 1 a.m. until 5 a.m.! Every time he tried to put her down, she would scream bloody murder. I was scared to ask him if he was going to be back again on Thursday. I guess I'll find out.

Maureen has also come to help. In fact, she's watching the kids with my dad when Billy and I go out for my birthday. We are going to Season's 52. Yummy!

Vivian stays Sunday nights, but she's unavailable for 2 weeks so we are going to be missing her. Winnie especially will be sad since she enjoyed snuggling with her. Vivian said that if it wasn't enough that Winnie hogged up the whole bed, she also woke up in the middle of the night to Winnie staring at her, panting heavily. I guess she thought it was time to play.

Liane, of course, gave us the best gift of all--these babies. She has come by on several occasions to bring me baby stuff. She can't really spend the night since she has 2 young ones of her own and a bun in the oven. However, she still stays very involved in the babies' lives, and I can tell by the way she interacts with them that she feels a special bond. Carley loves the babies and has even named 2 of her own baby dolls Abby and Marie. She sleeps with them at night.

My step-sisters have also been amazing. Laura made a delicious chocolate chip pie for us that I'm sure is part of the reason I haven't lost some of the my baby weight. That thing was so good! She also has given me a bunch of hand-me-down clothes and baby supplies. She has everything you can imagine! Erin has come by a couple of times with gifts for the babies and additional baby supplies and hand-me-downs. Noelle came to visit at the hospital and brought diapers and has provided some great advice on caring for multiples. Caroline has given us bags and bags of matching girls' outfits.

Our extended families also deserve some thanks. Our aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. have been sending us gifts and calling to inquire about the babies constantly. Some have brought over good Cuban comfort food, like black beans and rice and pork. Good stuff!

Finally, we very much appreciate all the support from our friends. They have been instrumental in keeping us well fed and visiting me to keep me from going insane. Becky's food calendar has worked beautifully. I think after this month, we'll have food prep under control, but Billy said he was going to miss the deliveries of all kinds of different foods. It was always exciting to see who and what was going to show up at our doorstep for that night.

I don't know how I can thank you all enough for what you have done. Just know that if there is anything you should ever need, please do not hesitate to ask. I love you all dearly and am thankful to have amazing people all around us. Our children are so lucky to have you all in their lives!

I'm so sorry about that

Liane has been working on potty training Cooper for several months now, but he still has accidents. He's just too lazy to take the time to actually go to the bathroom. I think he's afraid he's going to miss something important in those few seconds it takes to pee and/or take a dump.

When he came to visit me at my house a few weeks ago, he went out in the backyard. I was watching him from the sun room, and I noticed he was taking off his pants. I asked Liane if we should be concerned about that, and she said that he sometimes likes to pee outdoors. However, he then began to squat, and we soon realized he was actually pooping in my yard! I'm not sure what made him thinking that was okay. Billy said that when Cooper grew up and had a house of his own, he was going to go over there and take a crap in his yard to get him back.

A few days ago, Cooper pooped in his underwear, and when Liane took them off him to clean him up, he saw that he had been wearing Spider Man underwear. Cooper looked at them and said, "I'm so sorry about that, Spider Man." Hilarious! He was actually apologizing to his underwear for pooping in them. Liane put a pair of Thomas the Train underwear on him, and he looked back at his butt, and told Thomas, "I won't pee on you, Thomas. I promise!"

What you've all been waiting for

Abby is pictured above. We call her our "one-legged baby" because she loves this position.

Here is Will. He's our little chicken. Billy said we have to be careful about calling him that because the nickname may stick, and he could be 15 years old, and we'll still be calling him chicken. His friends would have a field day making fun of that!

Here is our threesome dressed up for their 2 week doctor's appointment. The girls have on their matching outfits. I don't always dress them alike, but I have some matching clothes that I do put on them.

Sometimes when Abby gets hungry, she will suck on her brother or sister's forehead, if she can get to it. It looks like she's trying to make a move on Marie's face here.

This is our reserved parking spot when we go to Papa and Maureen's house. Dad wanted to make sure that the kids felt welcome, and that we would have easy access to the door when toting around 3 car seats.
Our threesome is all swaddled up and cozy in this picture. Look how cute to see Abby and Will touching heads. Marie is kind of hanging out on her own.

Personalities

I now have a new system that will allow me to keep up with the blog a little better. I hooked up my breast pump right next to the computer so that whenever I pump, I can type. I've always been into multi-tasking. So when you read my blog entries now, think of me hooked up to a torture machine that pulls my nipples in and out to extract milk.

Since I've had a special request, I figured I would write a little about the babies' personalities today. It's so funny to see how their behaviors in utero still exist outside the womb and how much they are each becoming their own little person.

Will is probably the best behaved and most patient. He loves to be held and will just snuggle for hours without getting upset. However, he is the most active. He squirms around like crazy. Just the other morning, we found him in the crib with his feet pushed up on Marie's stomach and his head on Abby's belly. He had squirmed around to that position after we put them all lined up. Billy thinks he was trying to get back into the position he was in when they were inside of me. How does he move so well at this age? I'm afraid he's going to be a little daredevil when he's actually mobile.

Will may also be a prankster. He seems to really like to pee on people when they change him. Sometimes, though, he must get his aim a little off because he has shot himself in the face on several occasions.

When Will was in my belly, we would often see his movements from the outside. I said I felt like he was always moving around his hands. You should see him now. He's constantly moving his hands in front of his face and all around the place.

Abby is incredibly impatient. When she wakes up and wants to eat, she starts to scream. Then, she gets so into having a screaming fit that she can't even see straight to be able to latch on to my breast. She also likes to suck a pacifier and the moment it falls out of her mouth, she screams bloody murder. This is the worst at night because I think she's asleep and content, and I leave her room to go back to sleep. The moment I get back in bed and get comfortable, she screams, and I have to run to her to get the paci in her mouth before she wakes up the neighborhood.

Abby also likes a lot of one-on-one attention. She loves to be held and once she gets used to being in your arms, she does not want to be put down. She's easily spoiled.

Abby always made big movements when she was in my belly, and it often felt like her and Will were fighting each other. Now, she still moves around a good bit, and a couple of times when she has been placed next to Will, they will throw punches at each other.

Marie is sweet and a great sleeper. I always have to wake her to feed her. It's rare that she wakes up on her own to complain about being hungry, but when she eats, she's a little sucking machine. She can definitely put down the breast milk.

Marie was probably the most laid-back baby in utero. She hung out on her side (far right), and I didn't feel her nearly as much as the other two. In life outside the womb, she continues to be chill and fly under the radar.

I'm about to stop pumping for now, but I'll try to get our newest pictures downloaded off the camera at the next pump time. Then, I'll post them the pump time after that.

My fat babies

We had a doctor's appointment today, which means we have updated weights for everyone:

Abby-She's still in the lead at 6 lbs 1 oz
Marie-She has gained the most at 5 lbs 13 1/2 ozs
Will-He's our wimpy, white, chicken, old man, and he's 5 lbs 13 1/2 ozs

Abby has the most gigantic boogers come out of her nose when I suction it. How can a little person with such a tiny nose have such large boogers? It's a medical mystery. Apparently, that's pretty normal. I just have to suction her out a few times per day.

Marie is in good shape, besides her vomiting episodes. We just need to burp her more often during feedings. She may be getting air bubbles. She also has a blocked tear duct in one eye. I have to massage the duct 4 times/day.

Will has cradle cap so we have to wash his hair with special shampoo daily. He also has a slightly flat spot on the right side of his head. We have to make him look left more. He has some dry skin on his face that needs to be exfoliated. He also had a little extra flap of skin under his tongue that the doctor snipped off today. It will help him feed better because he can now get more of his tongue out. He cried when they did it, and I almost started to cry also. He was fine within in a minute, and he got to suck my boobie to make him feel better. Boys are so easy to please.

I've gotten a request to blog about their budding personalities. I will start that the next post. If you have any special requests for updates, just leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. I would be happy to oblige my readers!

First really bad night

It's the first of many to come, but we had our first terrible night on Monday. Will and Marie projectile vomited a couple of times, and we didn't know what was going on. We called the pediatrician's office, and they said that if the vomiting didn't subside, we should go to the emergency room. Obviously, I was panicked about that scenario.

The nurse recommended that I only breastfeed the babies, since breast milk is easier to digest. She also suggested that I feed every hour, but only enough to satiate them, not fill them up. Billy and I decided to sleep in the family room with the kids in the pack 'n play so we could stay close and monitor any problems.

Well, the babies cried almost all night. They were hungry and wanted to eat more every time I fed them. I felt awful each time I had to pull one off my breast as they were sucking away. I felt like I was starving my little people. They were so pitiful.

The good news is that they did not throw up any more the whole night, which meant we didn't have to go to the hospital. The next morning, I resumed their normal feeding schedule, and they did just fine with it. It took about 1/2 the day to get them back to every 3 hours, but we did it. My dad came over and helped me, and he spent Tuesday night with us. He's our Tuesday/Thursday night nurse now.

Speaking of night nurses, Vivian is our Sunday one. She spent her first Sunday with us last weekend, and when she went to get in bed, she found a surprise waiting for her-Winnie! I think Winnie has been feeling neglected by me and Billy since the babies arrived, and she sticks like glue to whoever comes over to help with the babies. Vivian was the victim of the day. I was in the kids' room, and I could hear Vivian talking to Winnie. She was asking her to "please move" and "scoot over." When I walked in the room, Vivian was pushed up against one side of the bed with Winnie sprawled out on the rest of it. She said, "Could you do something about the dog? I've got half my ass hanging off the bed!" Billy pushed Winnie to the side, and they were able to sleep happily ever after...at least until each of the night feedings.