Everyday Miracles: November 2014

4 Months have passed since I have birth to my beautiful princesses. I am alone during the day now. Honestly the stress of worrying how I would make it was killing me, but I am actually doing better than I expected. I still have not ventured out solo with all 3 babies yet. I did take 2 to the doctor alone for reflux (Sophia and Penny.) The zantac and oat cereal has been helping it sooooo much.

Sophia is so vocal now. She tries to talk all the time and is just the happiest baby. She is also trying to flex her stomach muscles to sit up. So far she manages to roll over from back to front while trying to sit up and be nosy. She loves to snuggle. She weighed in at 15 pounds and 3.5 ounces! She is 24.75 inches now.

Merebear is so particular about her bottles and demands a specific temperature. She has the most beautiful chuckle when she laughs, which is frequent lately. She is also cuddly. She can roll from front to back. She is still our middle baby in weight at 14 pounds and 0.5 ounces. She is also 24.75 inches! Meredith also was diagnosed with Torticollis, where her neck muscles need some work. They have referred us to physical therapy for it.

Penelope is way happier than she was a few weeks ago. The colic has severely improved. She smiles so much now and gets so excited. Out of all three she is the one most prone to over stimulation still. We have learned to recognize these episodes and separate her before she has a meltdown. It has greatly improved our life. She is still our little tiny girl at 12 pounds and 14.5 ounces. She was only barely behind her sisters at 24.5 inches!

Each baby eats close to the same amounts each feed. Penny and Sophia get 1 tsp of single grain oat cereal added to each bottle due to reflux. Sophia is now on Gentlease, while Meredith and Penny are still on Enfacare. Morning feeds are 7 ounces, 3 midday feeds are 6 ounces each, and the bedtime feed is 8 ounces. For the most part they sleep through 8pm until 7am.

Our Day looks mostly like this:

6:30 Wake Issy Up
7:00 Allen - dressed, diaper, cup, breakfast, meds
Babies - diaper, feed, back to bed
7:15 Get Issy on bus
8:00 Do learning and hands on activity with Allen
9:30 Babies get meds
Unload Dishwasher, prepare bottles, lay out clothes for baby
10:00 Allen - snack time
Babies - diaper, feed, dress for the day, then on playmats
11:00 Prepare lunch for me and Allen, clean up kitchen more
11:30 Eat lunch with Allen
12:00 Allen's nap time, hands on play time with the babies
1:00 Babies - feed, diaper, baby nap time
2:00 Clean up living room, fold clothes, prep dinner, make any business calls, do any online work
3:00 Allen is usually up, gets a snack
4:00 Babies - feed, diaper, playtime
4:45 Issy gets home, does homework
5:15 Issy plays with babies until dinner is done
6:00 Jerimiah usually home by now
Dinner time
Babies meds
Allen's meds
6:45 Babies bath if bath night (every other day)
7:00 Babies - feed, diaper, dress for bed
7:30 Allen's bath
8:00 Time with Issy and Allen
8:30 Bible story time
8:50 Issy and Allen meds
9:00 Boys go to bed
Laundry, load dishwasher, make formula, prep next days bottles, clean up living room
10:30 Mommy goes to bed

Of course thats the usual schedule, but life sometimes happens and those times are slightly flexible. We have been doing it alone for a few weeks now and I couldn't be happier. My stress levels have gone down so much. We spent so much effort worrying how we would make it and hearing "Well I can just leave." That we were scared of what it would be like. Its busy and chaotic, but its our life. We both have felt better with our current situation and the stress and chaos has been minimal. Its exhausting, but joyful.

My church family has stepped up and taken such good care of us. Whenever we need prayers or company they are there. They have kept the kids, cleaned our house, even brought us meals. They have given us sooooo much in the way of time and gifts. I am not sure how anyone in my situation could get through without such an amazing church family.

My in laws do still help by keeping Allen some days. That is a huge help. Allen loves to go see grandpa and asks almost every single day for him. Every time a loud vehicle rolls by he says I want to see grandpa on the tractor. He loves to be over there!

Lexapro is helping my depression and my birth control is helping get my hormones in check. My hip pain is better than it was but still troubling. It helps to be able to take Aleve now that I am not pumping at all!

Play time!