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This week has been very busy. Somehow its already Thursday!

Yesterday Vanessa and Lucas got their report cards. Vanessa is our exchange student from Germany. She is a junior at the local high school. She is on the honor roll and having a really great time here with us this year. She is very busy rehearsing for the school musical that will be later this month. We don't see much of her at all during the school week and she has been missing the triplets. They are all in bed before she gets home. We are looking forward to seeing her perform.

Lucas is in 6th grade and is doing enough to get by, but not too much more. He has really had a rough year. He went from elementary school to middle school and then from an only child to having three siblings. It has been a rougher transition than we were prepared for. I think that we are finally back on the same page and he assures us that the rest of the school year will be better and that his attitude will improve as well. Only time will tell.

The triplets are all doing great. We had our last nurse home visit today. The weighs are: William 12 lbs 6 oz
Logan 12 lbs 15.5 oz
Jessica 10 lbs 13.5 oz
They are growing by leaps and bounds. They are all eating and drinking very well. Logan is still having major reflux issues and spitting up a lot, but his medicine is working and he seems much happier. They all love to eat their "dinner". I line them all up in their highchairs and just go down the line. Everybody waits very patiently so far. They have all had rice cereal, oatmeal, several different veggies and a few fruits. Jessica and Logan eat very well. Will does well to, but he is also the messiest. The second the spoon is out of his mouth- the fingers go in! It takes more time to clean him up then it does to feed him sometimes. LOL I am really enjoying the faces they make when they get to try a new food. Jessica loves to talk while she eats. (have to wait a few years for mom/daughter lunches though)

Ok, that is the latest and greatest with all the kids in the Dudley house.

Just a quick post

Monday was my day to play "catch up" from the extra busy weekend. In between feeding and playing with the triplets I must have done four loads of laundry, washed dishes and vacuumed most of the house. It was not much fun,but had to be done. I am really trying to stay on top of the housework and ahead of the laundry, but some days it gets to be too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. After dinner last night Dave went out for a Dad's night out. He played poker with a few guys that have twins in Groton. He had a great time and said that next month they may go bowling. I was very happy that he got to go out - I know that he works hard all day and then I make him work even harder here at home! Now if we can just find time to go out together. LOL!!

Today was the triplets last Synergis shot.YEAH!!(to protect against RSV) The nurse could not believe how big everyone is getting. We planned to go before morning nap and it worked out perfectly. They slept a little on the way down to Groton and then were very pleasant for us during the whole visit. They all did not really cry much at all when they got their shots and were quickly over it. We scheduled their 6 month appointments for April 30th. I just can not beleive how quickly these first months have flown by. It seems like only yesterday we were bringing them home from their NICU stay and now they are going to be 6 MONTHS OLD !!! I have started to realize that we are so busy that sometimes the days blur into one another and that I really need to take time everyday to realize how special this time with them is. I have been a bit behind and really need to take more pics and video of them now to remind ourselves later.
Anyway, back to our day. After shots and a few quick visits to people on base, we had another nap on the way home. We got them up at 10 to stay on schedule and SueAnn came for her weekly visit. Everyone is really doing well. We are practicing rolling over and trying to learn how to sit by ourselves. Jessica is realy close to holding her own bottle with only minimum help from a prop. Logan is also trying hard to hold his bottle, but Will is very happy that the prop does all the work! They worked really hard, had their bottles at 11 and everyone ate 7ozs. By the time noon came around they were very tired. I am letting them sleep now until 2:30 to help get the schedule synchronized into two shorter naps and one long one. They have really been doing great and Dave and I are enjoying our sleep. We just need to get them past this waking up at 4:30-5:00am bit. Somebody usually sleeps until 6:30-7:00, but they have all been waking at the early time lately. Luckily they go right back to sleep afterwards. I have tried to wean them off this bottle and we are now only offering 2 ozs instead of 4ozs. I really wish they would just sleep for those last two hours, but then I also thank God that they are sleeping as well as they are. I realize that some singletons don't sleep this well at 5 months let alone triplets who have to share a room!
Ok, the post turned into a longer one, but I hope you enjoyed it. I'll try to blog again tomorrow.

Busy Weekend & Weight check

It was yet another very busy weekend at the Dudley house. How does the weekend fly by so fast?

Friday was a very busy day. SueAnn, the kids birth to three teacher, was here after morning nap from 10 - 12. Birth to Three is a Connecticut program to help kids that may have developmental delays catch up and stay ahead. The trio qualified for the program because they don't age adjust during the evaluation. While they are almost 5 1/2 months old, their adjusted age is only 4 months old. Now, they can do some stuff that 5 month old babies can do, but in a lot of ways are still very much closer to their adjusted age. Anyway, SueAnn was very happy with everyone's progress. Jess is tolerating tummy time a lot better and is holding her head up and starting to figure out the tummy to back roll. When she gets tired she just lays on her tummy and sucks on her thumb. We have noticed that she is really chomping away on her thumb lately. I think teething is going to be in full swing any day now. (Lucas had teeth at 7 months so who knows.) Logan is also working hard on rolling. He can do it, but he gets frustrated and after the first 2/3 times just won't do it and he lays on his side and watches what everyone else is doing. William is the best roller! He will roll from tummy to back both ways almost as soon as you get him on his tummy. He loves it! All three of them are really starting to grasp for toys and chew on them! Eeverybody luckily has a different favorite for now!
After a nice two hour nap - they always sleep great after a visit from SueAnn - the visiting nurse came by for a quick check. I was concerned since we dropped a bottle from the schedule but upped the ounces per bottle- that everyone was handling it.
The new weights:
William 12 lbs 2oz
Logan 12 lbs 9oz
Jessica 10 lbs 5.5 oz

The nurse looked over my schedule and was pretty happy. She even wants to borrow my book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child for her twins since they are not sleeping and napping as well as my trio and they are about 15 months old!!! Her only concern was that maybe I offer the solid amount over two feedings - lunch and dinner instead of all at once and then offer bottles right after. We are going to see what the weights are this week and perhaps add lunch next weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Friday night was my MNO. (Mom night out) I met a couple other triplet moms for dinner and talking. It was great to get out of the house- I was starting to go stir-crazy- the new schedule has me pretty home bound for now. I got home late and eveyone was sleeping.

Saturday just seemed to fly by. Dave was adjusting to the new schedule. He has only seen the evening rountine in action, not the morning. We did get out to the store to get diapers and a few other items . We worked around the nap schedule and kept to it as best we could.

Today was another first! We attended our very first triplet event!!! Luckily it was very schedule friendly and we were able to keep the kids right on track. It was an event with Triplet Moms and More (TMM). They are a New England parents of multiples group. It was awesome to see all the older triplets and there were even two others there with babies. One set was 5 months like ours and the other set was 3 months. Two of us had the kids in the triple decker strollers. It was fun and everyone kept coming over and saying hi and admiring the kids. Lucas was a great big brother and even took Jessica dancing! Logan was prety happy and loved the music and was smiling. William was the most unsure. He spent a lot of time in my arms and took a while to warm up. He seems to be the one with the most stranger anxiety. They even had a photograper there for $15 we got a family pic. Once I get it I'll post it here on the blog. It was alot of fun and we even won a basket raffle - a chocolate basket - Lucas was very very happy.

Big sister Vanessa has been sightseeing in Washington D. C. this weekend with a school group. She left on Fri and will be home very late tonight. Her scheule now has her home most weeknights after the babies go to bed so she is really looking forward to the weekends to spend time with the triplets.

OK, I told you this weekend was busy and this week is pretty full so check back often as I plan to update the blog almost daily (at least every other). I usually update and check email during the long nap from 12-2. Be well.

The New Schedule and Latest Weights

Who knew that my last post was soo long! Oh well, I guess it felt good getting it down. I have been very busy the past few days with the help of some other great triplet moms (you know who you are) working on the latest and greatest schedule. It turns out the babies were not really sleeping enough and going to bed too late. This past weekend we instituted "baby boot camp" with the new schedule and things have been going great! So for those who are interested here it is:

somewhere between 6:30-7:00am wake up and play in crib (usually happy)
7:00 diaper change and medications - Logan and Jess on prevacid
7:30 bottle #1 (7oz)
somewhere between 8:45-9:00 down in crib for nap #1 (one hour max.)
10:00 up from nap and playtime
10:45ish bottle #2 (7oz)
somewhere between 11:45-12:00 down in crib for nap #2 (I shoot for 2 hours hopefully this will lengthen into closer to 3 hours)
2:30 bottle #3 (70z)
3:45 down for nap #3 (this one is the one I am going to shorten to 1/2 hour -closer to 5:00- as they get bigger, but right now to catch up on sleep )
5:00 up from nap
5:15 dinner - cereal and a veggie with little fruit for dessert ( I hope to move this up a little as they get bigger to closer to 6:00)
5:45-6:30 playtime
6:30 baths
7;00 bottle #4 (7oz)
7:15ish Bedtime

It looks a lot more daunting than it really is ! It is a work in progress and it seems to be going well. The kids have really been doing great and are much happier.

The visiting nurse came on Friday. Here are the latest weights for everyone.
William - 11 lbs 14.5 oz
Logan - 12 lbs 10 oz
Jessica - 10 lbs 1 oz
They are all growing at great rates and I am looking forward to the next doctor's visit. April 25 means they will be 6 months old !!

Birthday Reflections

OK, so its my birthday today. I am now 36 years old. That just doesn't seem possible. What a wild year it has been! It was on my birthday last year that we offically found out I was pregnant. We didn't find out about the triplets until a few weeks later. After trying for so many years and all the fertility treatments - it was finally going to happen. We were going to have another baby! Dave and I were so excited. Lucas was too- he had been waiting to be a big brother a long time. I had all but given up hope. We had even started the paperwork to go thru an adoption. For those who know what a roller coaster ride fertility treatments and failures can bring - you can understand my hopeless feelings. I was really down to "one more try". When I found out I was pregnant I thought it was the best birthday gift in the world. I was WRONG! The best gift came on Oct 25th 2007 ! I would never have dreamed in a million years that I would be sitting here adding a post to a blog about our family life with TRIPLETS! It has been a year filled with surprise and worry. I spent the first few weeks not really believing that our dream of having another baby was going to come true. I kept waiting for something bad to happen. Then we found out at 10 weeks that it was triplets. I was in shock. I was really nervouse then. I kept waiting for the proverbial" other shoe to drop." I spent countless hours worrying about how we would handle things and praying that everything would turn out for the best. Then the morning sickness kicked in. I never had it with Lucas but the trio decided to gang up on me. I was very greatful when that stage passed. However, I was always bracing myself - after so long it just didn't seem possible that we would have not one healthy baby but Three !! But as I sit here- three healthy, happy babies are napping upstairs! Will, Logan and Jess are absolute miracles to me! The first few months have been going by in a blur. The lack of sleep was hard to handle. But now they are mostly slepping thru the night (7pm - 7am) and when they smile and laugh at you - it is the absolute best feeling in the whole wide world! I would not switch places with anyone. I now have 4 beautiful kids that mean the world to me and a great husband who was and is always supportive of whatever decisions I had to make. I LOVE YOU DAVE !!! Right now I feel like I am on top of thw world. I can't wait to see what this year will bring!