I can't believe the girls are 8 months old today! Moreover, I can't believe how proud I am of these three little beauties. They are all three more perfect than I would have ever imagined them to be. Certainly that is just my Mommy bias, but I really feel so blessed to have given birth to my daughters. Just knowing them makes my life complete.
Makenna is sitting on my lap right now, just chatting away as I type. This girl gives me the biggest open-mouth, wide-eyed smiles every single morning. Incidentally, she also cries big, huge elephant tears every single afternoon. She just melts down throughout the day, and let's everybody know. But she goes from tears to smiles in an instant...and as frustrating as it can be, we love that she wears her heart on her sleeve. We also love how much she absolutely adores her two sisters. Makenna is the one who giggles with delight everytime one of her sisters is close enough to touch. She's just so much fun!
Livy is perfectly precious. She is quiet, happy, and always content. If she cries, it's for a very good reason...and usually due to physical pain. She does have a bulshit hour every evening. But that's it. The girl just goes all day, as content as can be...and then has an hourlong breakdown every night. It's like she just saves it all up for one big blow-up, and then she's happy again. She's just a doll, though, and her strength amazes us. And we love that no matter how much she has to go through medically, she still has an angelic spirit about her. Livy is simply an absolute pleasure to be around.
Lauren is just a cuddly little bear and she LOVES her mommy. I think Paul might be a little jealous over that one, but I need to revel in this because soon enough they will all be daddy's girls. Lauren is a lot like Livy in that she just doesn't cry and fuss unless she is really pissed off. In fact, sometimes when Makenna cries, Lauren just gives her a look as if to say "Are you freakin' serious, drama queen?" I think the best part of Lauren's personality is her sense of humor. She just lets out these neverending guttural laughs that can't be topped. And when she smiles, her whole face just lights up. How can you help but fall in love with 17 pounds of cuddly, smiley baby?
So I'm trying to remember dates of our recent milestones, but my memory fails all too often now. Thus, I'm using this blog as a diary of such events:
May 8 - Lauren rolled over for the first time
June 4 - Makenna rolled over for the first time
June 25 - Livy rolled over for the first time
June 27 - Makenna started army crawling
June 28 - Lauren and Makenna ate their first meat: Chicken...actually, it was Chicken and Apples...and ohmigod, did they LOVE it! Steak and taters, here we come!
Lauren is now waking up from her morning nap, so it's time for all of us to head downstairs and eat some brunch. I'll try to add some new pics later.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
We Ferberized Them
Shout out to fellow triplet mom, Megan, who directed me to her description of the Ferber Method on her website: http://johnsontripletgirls.blogspot.com/2009/03/sleep-training-update-ferber-method.html My husband and I owe you a debt of gratitude, not only for saving us cash and hours of reading Ferber's sleep training book...but for giving us the gift of sleep!
We ferberized the shit out of our girls this week. It all started last Monday when I told Paul "ef it...we're putting them to bed at 8:00. I don't care if they cry. We'll just walk back in a few times and reassure them that all is good." Well, the joke was on us because both Lauren and Makenna wanted to eat again by 10pm. Same thing happened Tuesday night. Wednesday night the girls stayed at Paul's mom's house and although she tried to put them down by 9, they all kept waking up until midnightish. On Thursday Lauren and Makenna cried for an hour straight, but finally slept until 6am. On Friday, they drifted off to sleep without fussing, but woke up for a 3am feed. On Saturday I realized that something wasn't working and I asked the triplet moms for help. Alas, Megan showed me the light. She directed me to her website, which gives a brief description of the Ferber Method.
Saturday night they went down at 8pm and fell asleep without a fuss. Then, when they awoke for a 3am feed, we ferberized. We went in after 1 minute of crying to reassure them, then went back after another 3 minutes, then went back every 10 minutes therafter. It took about an hour and a half. They finally fell back to sleep until somewhere between 6 and 7am. Then Sunday night they went to bed with about 15 minutes of fussiness, but slept all night. And last night they went to sleep with about 2 minutes of fussiness and slept all night...actually, they slept for about 11 1/2 hours!!! It's amazing...and it took only about a week. And since this is my blog and I can say whatever I want to say, I would like to say "why in the hell don't more of you mothers try this?????????????"
I just read about a mom who "doesn't believe in 'cry it out'" so she lets her kiddos climb in bed with her every night if they wake up. She's prepared to allow them to do this until they sleep through the night on their own. I suppose I don't really believe in "cry it out" either, because I would never just let my kid sit there and cry and cry and cry without addressing her needs. But I sure as hell would try the Ferber Method if it meant my kids would get a great night of sleep nearly every single night...and I would get a great night of sleep, too.
So, yeah, we're all very happy in our house with this new schedule. Just thought I'd share...
We ferberized the shit out of our girls this week. It all started last Monday when I told Paul "ef it...we're putting them to bed at 8:00. I don't care if they cry. We'll just walk back in a few times and reassure them that all is good." Well, the joke was on us because both Lauren and Makenna wanted to eat again by 10pm. Same thing happened Tuesday night. Wednesday night the girls stayed at Paul's mom's house and although she tried to put them down by 9, they all kept waking up until midnightish. On Thursday Lauren and Makenna cried for an hour straight, but finally slept until 6am. On Friday, they drifted off to sleep without fussing, but woke up for a 3am feed. On Saturday I realized that something wasn't working and I asked the triplet moms for help. Alas, Megan showed me the light. She directed me to her website, which gives a brief description of the Ferber Method.
Saturday night they went down at 8pm and fell asleep without a fuss. Then, when they awoke for a 3am feed, we ferberized. We went in after 1 minute of crying to reassure them, then went back after another 3 minutes, then went back every 10 minutes therafter. It took about an hour and a half. They finally fell back to sleep until somewhere between 6 and 7am. Then Sunday night they went to bed with about 15 minutes of fussiness, but slept all night. And last night they went to sleep with about 2 minutes of fussiness and slept all night...actually, they slept for about 11 1/2 hours!!! It's amazing...and it took only about a week. And since this is my blog and I can say whatever I want to say, I would like to say "why in the hell don't more of you mothers try this?????????????"
I just read about a mom who "doesn't believe in 'cry it out'" so she lets her kiddos climb in bed with her every night if they wake up. She's prepared to allow them to do this until they sleep through the night on their own. I suppose I don't really believe in "cry it out" either, because I would never just let my kid sit there and cry and cry and cry without addressing her needs. But I sure as hell would try the Ferber Method if it meant my kids would get a great night of sleep nearly every single night...and I would get a great night of sleep, too.
So, yeah, we're all very happy in our house with this new schedule. Just thought I'd share...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Up and Running!!!
I'm the type of girl who can do without television...primarily because I can watch everything I want online. Take away my internet, though, and I'm not a happy camper. Don't get me wrong, I am quite content to leave technology at home while visiting my favorite little island (shameless plug for St. John), but I just don't like to be on the mainland sans google. Thus, I am happy to announce that our internet has been restored. All is right in my world. Paul is currently downstairs watching television while I sit on the floor of an empty office...Jake lying on my right, his monkey on my left, and Paul's computer on my lap. A cushy chair would be nice, as would a desk; however, it won't fit in this office. Rather, it won't fit through the door. It will, however, fit nicely on Craigslist now that we have internet again.
Oooooh! Just heard a baby burp. Paul must be putting Makenna back to bed. So tonight we tried the whole "in bed by eight o'clock" thing...and it worked soooooooooo well...for about 45 minutes. Let's just say that Makenna has a set of lungs, and quite possibly a tapeworm because she won't shut up and she won't stop eating. Is it too much to ask to have all three babies in bed at a decent hour? We are just so tired of ten and eleven o'clock bedtimes. The worst part is that it's different every single night. There's no consistency. It really doesn't help that we have had such an erratic schedule since the girls came home from the NICU, but I think it's time to create a routine. So today was day 1. I think we're allowed to fail miserably on day 1, right? Tomorrow will be better. I'll just go ahead and keep telling myself that.
For those of you with an interest in such matters, I took the girls to California on the 19th to visit my mom and grandparents (yes...I flew alone with 7-month-old triplets). I am so relieved to say that the flights went quite well. We flew nonstop and the girls behaved perfectly. I mean, they were so content on those flights that people were complimenting us as they walked off the plane. I won't lie, it was hard work. I had to figure out a way to feed all three at once, change diapers without leaving the seats, play musical carseats, and keep those girls happy...but they were all three so content and we were a fantastic team.
Our visit went very well and we all had a really nice time. Olivia had so much floor time that she can now roll onto her side. Makenna is still working on the whole rolling over thing. I'm thinking she's going to me more chatty and less athletic since she's quite happy just lying on the floor and making loud noises. Lauren is totally opposite. She wants to move and hardly makes a peep. They are all laughing, giggling, and engaging us more and more each day. We did have some professional pictures taken during our trip, but I'll have to load them another day.
In the meantime, all is well and I'm loving my internet.
Oooooh! Just heard a baby burp. Paul must be putting Makenna back to bed. So tonight we tried the whole "in bed by eight o'clock" thing...and it worked soooooooooo well...for about 45 minutes. Let's just say that Makenna has a set of lungs, and quite possibly a tapeworm because she won't shut up and she won't stop eating. Is it too much to ask to have all three babies in bed at a decent hour? We are just so tired of ten and eleven o'clock bedtimes. The worst part is that it's different every single night. There's no consistency. It really doesn't help that we have had such an erratic schedule since the girls came home from the NICU, but I think it's time to create a routine. So today was day 1. I think we're allowed to fail miserably on day 1, right? Tomorrow will be better. I'll just go ahead and keep telling myself that.
For those of you with an interest in such matters, I took the girls to California on the 19th to visit my mom and grandparents (yes...I flew alone with 7-month-old triplets). I am so relieved to say that the flights went quite well. We flew nonstop and the girls behaved perfectly. I mean, they were so content on those flights that people were complimenting us as they walked off the plane. I won't lie, it was hard work. I had to figure out a way to feed all three at once, change diapers without leaving the seats, play musical carseats, and keep those girls happy...but they were all three so content and we were a fantastic team.
Our visit went very well and we all had a really nice time. Olivia had so much floor time that she can now roll onto her side. Makenna is still working on the whole rolling over thing. I'm thinking she's going to me more chatty and less athletic since she's quite happy just lying on the floor and making loud noises. Lauren is totally opposite. She wants to move and hardly makes a peep. They are all laughing, giggling, and engaging us more and more each day. We did have some professional pictures taken during our trip, but I'll have to load them another day.
In the meantime, all is well and I'm loving my internet.
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