All We Want For Christmas Are Our Six Front Teeth!

I thought the girls were going to get their six front teeth for Christmas but I was wrong. Christmas has come and gone, the triplets are ten months old and no teeth. This is amazing to me since older brother Caden got his first two teeth at four months old.

Our family had such a sweet Christmas. It was so special to spend time with our extended families in Rockwall and with Greg's family in The Woodlands. We enjoyed not having to get on an airplane with a four year old and three babies. The girls loved climbing all over the presents under the tree and loved the wrapping paper and boxes as much as the presents. Caden asked Santa for a "sharp teeth truck" and it was a Chrismas miracle that he got one and we have some very special elves who helped make this happen!!! Santa surprised Caden by leaving a red bike on the roof. It wouldn't fit down the chimney, so he had to leave it on the roof! His face was filled with amazement and truly priceless!!! Along with toys galore and the first of many baby dolls, the girls will enjoy their choo choo wagon and diapers (one of our favorite presents). It was a very Merry Christmas at the Mathews house this year.

Christmas decorations and lights were taken down today and there is always a feeling of a bit of sadness that the magic of Christmas is gone. With the new year fast approaching, it has me asking what's next? Since I love planning parties, I am starting to think about the girls first birthday in February.

Our family has been blessed in 2007 beyond words! Every day has its own challenges. People are always telling us that we've got our hands full. Yes, it is true... and I am so thankful our hands are full rather than empty.

August 2007

We took the girls for their 6 month check-up today, Aug. 16. Here are the results.
Addison weighs 13 lbs. 2 oz. and is in the 5-10% for weight. She is the tallest at 24 1/2 inches and is in the 10-25% for height. The only concern for Addison is that she isn't rolling over yet, so we'll see if she can master this skill in the next couple of weeks. If not, she will have to do some therapy with ECI. Addison is very dramatic and has this wimper cry and really wants to make people feel sorry for her when she is crying. She just started to try and talk and sounds a bit like a roar. Caden thinks it is so funny and wants her to do it over and over and laughs so hard. She is so happy and just started to reach and pick up toys for the first time last week, Aug. 6. The BIG NEWS is on Monday, Aug. 13 our doctor told us she could come off of her apnea monitor! She is our last one to come off the monitor so now we have three wireless babies. It was wonderful taking all three girls in the stroller and we didn't have to worry about the wires getting tangled or alarms going off.
Emery weighs 14 lbs even and she is 24 inches long and in the 5-10% for height. She is rolling over and loves to sleep on her side. She looks so much like Addison that people have a hard time telling them apart. It is fun to have people guess which baby is Addison and which one is Emery. She loves to be held and is so happy. Sometimes she only likes to be held standing up and when you try to sit she starts to cry, so you end up holding Emery until your back hurts and you just want to sit down. Addison does the same thing sometimes, but that doesn't surprise us. Emery was the first one of the girls to reach for a toy and hold it on July 30. Emery came off of her apnea monitor Aug. 1.
Harper started out as the smallest and has caught up and passed her sisters. She weighs 15 lbs. 10 oz. and is in the 50% for weight. She is the same height as Emery at 24 inches long and is in 5-10% for height. Harper is the only one of our girls who will take a pacifier- and she LOVES her paci! We love to see her smiles through the pacifier and when it falls out because she smiles so big. She is rolling over a lot now and loves to watch the fish spin on the aquarium swing above her head. The only concern with Harper is that the doctor told us she has a mild case of torticollis. Our doctor said it is common with multiples and babies in the NICU. She tends to turn her head more to the right and her neck muscles are a little wobbly when she is sitting up. She will be evaluated and begin physical therapy on Tuesday. Our doctor said she will probably only need a couple of sessions and we can work with her at home. Please say a prayer for Harper.
Caden is getting so big we can hardly believe he is going to be four-years-old this fall. He is such a great pretender and loves to go, go, go- just like his Mommy. We were making lunch last week and asked him if he wanted his sandwich cut in triangles or squares. After thinking about half a second, he said "well, probably rectangles." He says funny things to us all the time and has a great sense of humor with telling knock-knock jokes and singing. We are enjoying our summer and looking forward to school starting Sept. 4 and his first season of playing soccer through the YMCA.

July 2007

We can hardly believe it is mid-summer with July 4th right around the corner. We took the boat out Sunday and Caden rode on our new big tube with Mommy, then wanted a turn with Daddy and then wanted another turn with Uncle Steve. We think he would have stayed on it all day if we let him, but we needed to get back home to Aida who helps us watch the girls.
The big 4 month doctor check-up was today. They were given the okay to go on normal baby formula and not the preemie Enfacare since they are growing so well. We had expected to be on that formula for 6 months so this is great news. The doctor also told us we could start rice cereal in the evening two weeks after we give the girls the new formula. Roll out the high chairs! Yikes... that will be messy fun. Dr. Chandler doesn't want us to start stage 1 baby food until after their 6 month visit in August. Here are the official stats:
Addison is the smallest at 11lb. 2 oz and is in 5% for weight, She is 21 3/4 inches tall and in the 3% for height. She has had the most apnea and bradycardia alarms and needs to go until Aug. 18 without any episodes for her to come off her monitor. That seems like forever but hopefully time will fly by quickly.
Emery is 11lb. 12 oz and is in 10-20% for weight, she is the tallest at 22 1/2 inches tall and in the 3-5% for height. She has to go until July 18 without any episodes to come off her monitor.
Harper started out as the smallest and is now the biggest at 13lb. 2 oz. and is in the 25-50% for weight. She is 22 1/4 inches tall and in the 3% for height. She was given the green light and can be taken off her monitor! YEAH- one down two to go... we can hardly believe it.
We are feeling a mixture of emotions because these monitors are such a blessing and curse --- usually a curse as we trip over the cords and the alarms go off and we try not to curse! It seems like we always do this when the girls are crying and we are in a hurry to feed them and the loud alarms are going off--- just a little chaos from time to time.
They also had their shots today so they enjoyed a long nap... when do we get a nap?

Summer is Here- June 2007

Summer is here and Caden is becoming quite the swimmer. We try to let him swim at his Gran and Pop's pool a few times a week and he loves it. Caden started summer preschool at Stonebridge Church and he likes his teacher Miss Heather. They have a big castle in his room and he thinks that is fun.
The girls are still on their apnea monitors. It has been awhile since their last episode, so hopefully their pediatrician will let them get off the monitors soon. We'll know more at their four month appointment at the end of June. Harper is getting so big compared to Addison and Emery. We think Harper looks so different from the other two girls and she is the first to show her independence by rolling over. On May 31, Harper rolled from her tummy to back for the first time. She seems to be the strongest. They are all melting our hearts by smiling more often. They still haven't discovered their hands yet.
We celebrated our 9th anniversary June 6 and got last minute tickets to see our favorite comedian Jerry Seinfeld then went for some dessert with our friends Mike and Bryana at Hard Rock Cafe downtown. It was nice to have an evening out without children. On our anniversary, we bought Greg's dream boat. Greg is calling it our fifth child. We are trying to come up with a name for the boat... "Life after Triplets" or something funny.

Separate Beds

The title above does not refer to Mommy and Daddy even though having three babies in the house is sometimes stressful. Instead, we have moved the girls into their own cribs. We began to notice last week that the baby that was still in the crib when the other two were being fed was pretty content and appeared to be stretching out. So we tried putting each girl in their own crib. The transition was pretty easy.
The girls are almost 14 weeks old and are getting bigger. We are constantly asked how much they weigh now, but we haven't been to the doctor since their 8 week check-up and won't return to the doctor until their 16 week check-up.
Mommy, Daddy, Caden, Addison, Emery and Harper have made several excursions outside the house now. We have eaten with their Gran and Pop at the Carlton Woods country club three times (once for Easter, once for Mother's Day and once for dinner). We also went to our friends' house (the Meredith's) for dinner.
About two or three weeks ago, the girls started making eye contact with us and this week, the girls started to charm Mommy and Daddy with their smiles. It is a lot of fun to hold the girls and see a toothless-smile being shared with us.
Our efforts lately have been to try and get the girls to sleep as long as possible at night. Addison seems to be our best sleeper as she consistently sleeps over 6 1/2 hours each night and has slept over 8 hours a couple of times. Emery is doing great too. She also sleeps over 6 hours most nights and has reached 7 1/2 a couple of times. Harper has been too interested in eating to worry about sleeping a long time. It appears that she has hit a growth spurt as she now looks bigger than the other two (not combined, just bigger than each of her sisters). She routinely sleeps 4 hours at night but sometimes sleeps 5 or 6 hours in the morning. So, maybe her internal clock is a few hours off.
While their sleeping times above might suggest that the nights are uneventful, please remember that there are still three babies and that their schedules have not been synchronized just yet. This means that a baby is still being changed, fed, or burped most hours of the night. Mommy and Daddy are very thankful for our night help that ensures we are still able to sleep in one bed.

Triplets 2 months old

On Tuesday, April 17, the girls had their follow-up appointment to the neonatal optomologist to ensure that their eyes were developing normally. While all three girls passed, the experience was not a pleasant one to witness.
On Thursday, April 19, the girls had their two month old appointment at their pediatrician. We were very interested to learn their weights since Mommy and Daddy were used to receiving daily updates on their weights when the girls were in the NICU. Addison weighted in at 6 lb. 8 oz, Emery at 6 lb. 14 oz and Harper at 6 lb. 10 oz. What a surprse! We were expecting the girls to be right around 6 lbs.
Up through today, the girls had to be fed every three hours. The doctor now cleared the girls to start sleeping as long as possible between feedings at night. This will be an interesting transition as we will have to wake up the other two once the first one awakes.
Reinforcements arrived on Monday, April 16 as Misty's aunt Sandra (Nina) came in to assist us during the week. She came at a great time as she helped with both of the girls' appointments. Caden had a lot of fun with Nina and kept asking about Dude (Misty's Uncle Albin). She knows that she is welcome back anytime.
Also, Misty's Grandma Billie arrived on Wednesday and helped us with the girl's second doctor's appointment. Caden enjoyed playing catch with Great-Grandma and showed off his singing by performing a few of his favorite songs.

Home Sweet Home

The girls came home April 1, so they have been home a little more than a week now and we feel so blessed to be home as a family. The girls are all on apnea monitors, so we are dealing with all the cords and loud alarms. We have to pick them up in one arm and carry their monitor on the other shoulder like a purse, so it can be a little tricky.
Caden keeps saying he is so glad his sisters are home. He is a great big brother and is very gentle with them. His playroom is being taken over with baby swings and bouncy seats, so he probably isn't too happy that he now has to be more careful in the playroom. He is such a good helper and we are very proud of him.
April 3, the girls had their first big outing to the pediatrician's office. Dr. Chandler was very pleased the girls looked so healthy and she is treating them as regular newborns rather than preemies. Addison weighed 4 lbs. 15 oz., Emery was 5 lbs. 5 oz. and Harper was 5 lbs. 2 oz. Mommy packed the diaper bag with six diapers and used all of them at that appointment!
The main question we get asked is if we have family or friends to help us. Greg's parents, Richard and Fran (Gran and Pop) only live about a mile away from our house and help play with Caden and now come over to help with the bottle feedings whenever we need an extra hand. Misty's mom (Grandma) lives in Rockwall outside Dallas, so she came for the babies first week home and played with Caden. We hired two great nurses from the hospital to help us at nights so we can try to keep our sanity during the day and rest at night! The nurse on duty comes around 10:45 pm and stays until 6:45am. Michelle has experience with triplet girls as a night nurse and is a baby/mom nurse at the hospital and also teaches classes. Ryan is our other nurse and he helped take care of our girls in the NICU. So far, it is working out great.
We've had lots of family visit this week. Greg's brother Steve came from Denver for Easter weekend to meet his new nieces and introduce us to his girlfriend Meredith from Kansas City. Greg's other brother Danny, wife Wendi and their three boys Taylor, Bailey and Avery came from Virginia and are here all week. Caden has had so much fun playing with his cousins. It won't be long before there will be three little girls running after all their boy cousins and big brother.