Boys' First Christmas

The babies are 15 weeks old today.  Can't believe how time flies... they are huge!  Here are their stats from Saturday's Synagis injection...

Evan 13#, 23.5" long, head 41cm
Ryan 13.3#, 23" long (don't know if I buy that), head 41cm
Collin 13.2#, 24.25" long, head 41cm

 We had the second white Christmas that I've been able to remember in Oklahoma.  Actually, it was a little more than a white Christmas... it was a record breaking blizzard!  Oklahoma City had 14.1" of snow in less than 12 hours (some reports said 8, I don't know, it was a lot) on Christmas Eve.  Aunt Steph was at our house, Dee and Harold and Mike were driving in from KC, and Grammy, Daniel, Marmee and Bear were at their house.  We had plans to head over there for dinner and church, but then church got cancelled and dinner got postponed.  Sean got the fire going and cooked a lovely Christmas Eve dinner for Steph and I while we sang carols to the boys.

Christmas morning we got up and took photos of the boys with their stockings...

Evan, Ryan, Collin

Then braved the roads to get to Marmee and Bear's and see everyone.

Evan

Ryan

Collin

Ryan

Evan

We had a lovely Christmas and dinner, and the next day got to repeat the festivities when Grandma Susie and Grampa Pat, Uncle Eric and Aunt Kathleen came over here.  Definitely not the usual Christmas celebration, but fun nonetheless.  We can't wait until the boys are old enough to understand the holiday and enjoy the celebration, but on the other hand there were many comments about how different it would be with 3 toddlers...

Collin

The babies are such fun right now.  They are pretty much smiling non-stop, cooing, and even giggling or laughing a little.  I was nostalgic about their newborn stage, missing their tiny sleeping bodies, but I love this stage too!  They are still major cuddle bugs and just melt into you when held, and we still take naps together on the couch or pull one or more into bed with us when they wake up early.  I love the cuddles and snuggles!  And the smiles just melt your heart.

They are getting better at holding their heads up, they can sit when supported, or spend some time in the jumperoos, but it still has a short timespan.  The head issue caused me to pick up on something that I hadn't, Evan has Torticollis.  His head is always to the right.  He can move it to the left, he just doesn't.  And if his head is straight, or he is trying to hold it up, it eventually moves so he is facing right.  He has a very mild case, but his head is a little uneven from it already.  We're very optimistic that now that we have recognized it and can work on it he won't have any lasting effects.  When we went to the doctor about the Torticollis, I also asked him about the puffiness under Evan's left eye.  About 3 weeks ago it came up and looked like a bruise, so we put him on the far right in the crib to protect it from his whacking brothers.  It looked better, then worse, then better, etc. but never went away.  The doctor thinks it is a deep hemangioma, similar to Ryan's superficial one but underneath his skin.  Since it may be obscuring his vision he wants to address it by getting an ultrasound of it and then start him on medication (propanolol) for it.  We go in on Monday at 7:30 for the ultrasound downtown at Children's Hospital.  Good news is that both of these issues are pretty benign and once we address them shouldn't cause him any long term problems.  Especially important is that he is not in any pain or experiencing any discomfort from them... except for maybe now since I am constantly adjusting his head to look left!

Collin

Collin

That's the latest, the babies are enjoying their Christmas presents (thanks everyone!) and we are now officially in 3-6 months clothes and frantically using the last of our Size 1 diapers.  I put together a couple bags of their preemie, newborn, and 0-3 month clothes to take to Mercy's NICU where Collin and Ryan were for 8 and 9 days.  We were so excited when they could start wearing clothes after being under the bili lights and in the bili blankets, I hope other parents will think their babies are as cute in the clothes as ours were!

Likes

In honor of Christmas, the boys' current "likes"...

Evan - cuddling, kisses, his fist, sleeping, bottle
Ryan - bottle, his binky, his swing, the mirror on his swing, the mobile on his swing
Collin - the monkey on his playmat, smiling, mirror behind the bath tub, bottle, the binky

and "dislikes"...
Evan - binkies (I prefer my fist)
Ryan - being burped (gimme back my bottle!)
Collin - sleeping (he is often the first to wake up and usually the last to fall asleep)

On our way to the work Christmas party last week...

Evan is in front, Collin on the left and Ryan in the back :)

3 Months Old...

Yesterday!  These babies are getting BIG!  We have to be 12 pounds now... We'll get official stats next week when they get their next Synagis injections.  Here are some updates...

The biggest news is that we are getting some smiles!!  Everybody has smiled at least a few times at various people.  I think I am behind in getting the smiles :(  Here is Evan on one of the first times Sean got him to smile...

They now go to bed around 11pm and wake up between 4:30 and 6.  They are excellent self-soothers and will cry for a little while and put themselves back to bed.  This morning we woke them up at 7am!  We know all this because we have bought the most wonderful device, a video monitor.  The receiver has a video so we can carry it with us, but we use it the most plugged in to our tv in the bedroom.

These are larger than life babies!  Now when I wake up in the middle of the night I look up at the tv and watch them breathe, move, etc.  And if they cry, I can look up and see who it is and whether it is anything to do anything about.  It's great.  But as you can see, we may have to move them to separate cribs earlier than I hoped.  We set them down at least an arm's length away, but they move and snuggle together, the other night Collin kept smacking Ryan in the face with his fist, and Evan has a bruise under his eye that won't go away.

They are still getting rice cereal in their bottles, right now they are eating 4.5oz at 6am, 10am, 2pm, and 6pm.  At 10pm they get 5oz.  The first bottle at 6am is breastmilk, but that will only be for the next 2 days :(  I am still glad I was able to pump as long as I did, and I'm glad I stopped when I did.  The frozen supply has lasted almost a full month and I have so much more time without pumping.  Thankfully, we also haven't bought formula in a while thanks to free samples from our pediatrician and some formula companies.  We just switched from soy-based (the NICU had started the boys on it) to regular formula.  Our pediatrician doesn't think they should really need the soy-based, and we have the spit-up MUCH better controlled with the rice cereal so it's a good time to try the switch so that we should notice a difference if there is one.  Also, we've been off of Axid for a couple weeks and we're still doing ok.  Collin had two bouts of reflux at first but none in over a week.  We still have one more bottle in case we need it, but I'm glad not to have to deal with it if we don't have too.  Twice a day medication for 3 babies isn't easy, and it was $6 a day!

The babies aren't getting swaddled anymore!  The babies immediately freed their arms when swaddled regardless, so they weren't helping much with that.  Then they kept wiggling up so they were just around their waists and then kicking them off.  So now we are in Sleep Sacks.  They are working great!

They spend at least a little while on the play mat or on a blanket on the floor almost every day now.  They love to kick their legs and wiggle around!  Still no interest in toys yet... Although I did get Evan to hold a rattle the other day... he just kept whacking it on his head!  And I wonder where the bruise came from...

We've done a few outings with the babies.  Of course they still go through drive-thrus with me, such as the pharmacy, bank, dry cleaner, etc. and they are excellent in the car.  Hopefully we'll have a new car for them soon... And over Thanksgiving we went to dinner with them!  They did great!  So now they've been to lunch and dinner with no problems.  I took them to the dentist with me, where they were a huge hit.  They also went to visit one of the veterinary hospitals I filled in part-time at while I was pregnant.  After Christmas we may try an OKC Thunder game when we have Aunt Steph to help :)  Should be fun!

Here are their 3 month pictures...

Evan at 2 months...

Evan at 3 months!

Ryan at 2 months...

Ryan at 3 months!

Collin at 2 months...

Collin at 3 months!

Look at how much better we are at sitting up!  And how we are all bigger than our stuffed animals now!