Month 8: Growing!!!

This past month has been an exciting one! Caitlyn and Brittany has each gotten a tooth and their second tooth is popping through now! Ashton doesn't have any yet!!

We had to lower the mattresses in their cribs last night. It was getting to where they were be on their knees and grabbing onto the rails. They like to pull the bumpers down and look over them.

We spent the evening over my parents house last week and we had all of them on floor to play around. Well, Caitlyn tried to crawl! She moved each knee once! I think once she realizes that she can move around, she is going to take off!! Ashton and Brittany haven't moved forward yet. They both are moving backwards. Ashton got himself stuck under the end table in the living room and couldn't go anywhere!

We had an Easter brunch at my parents house with my sister and her boyfriend and took a nice walk around my parents neighborhood. Then we went to Kevin's parents house for Easter dinner with his family.

Next week they have their 9 month check up! Then we have 2 camping trips planned for May!

Almost crawling...

The babies are so close to crawling. I think Caitlyn will be the one that will crawl first though. She is always getting on her knees and hands and rocks back and forth.

While Caitlyn is the only one that looks like she is ready to take off crawling. Brittany is mastering the sitting up on her own. She does get a little excited sometimes and falls over, but she is definitely getting stronger at sitting up.

Ashton is too excited to sit up. Every time we try to sit him up, he arches his back and falls over. But, he is just a happy little man! This week he has been trying so hard to crawl.

They are also starting to get their little attitudes. This picture I took of Brittany at my parents house made me laugh. It was like she was saying, hurry up and take the picture!!

Eye see you....

Since the babies were born, they had to see an eye doctor when they were released from the hospital. They want to see preemies or preemies that have been on oxygen because there is a higher risk for eye development problems since they did not get a chance to fully develop. There are risks for crossed-eyes and lazy eyes and chance for glasses at an early age.

Brittany and Ashton had their first appointment before Caitlyn came home since they were released before she was. It wasn't a pleasant process. We were not aloud in the room when they did their exams because of what they had to do since the babies couldn't focus or move their eyes around yet. They would have little broken blood vessels in their eyes because of the process. But we were told that would happen. Caitlyn was seen a few weeks after. Everything looked good, so they didn't have to come back for another 6 months.

Ashton and Brittany went back a month ago and they had a great report!! Everything was developed the way it was suppose to. Caitlyn had her appointment today and she got the same report. So now they don't have to go back for another 2 years!! That was great news for us!

Little of this... Little of that

Since the last post, Caitlyn has started saying "Daa Daa!!" and "Baa Baa" Ashton has said "Maa Maa" "Baa Baa" Caitlyn has also started to get on all fours and rock. It's only a matter of time before she is crawling.

Our camping trip went great. The babies did awesome! They went to bed every night about 930pm. We took walks around the campground with them and took them to the camp store to see the ladies down there. The weather wasn't that bad, a little chilly at times.

Caitlyn has her first tooth coming in!! Man, that thing is sharp!!

Brittany had her first tooth pop up a day after Caitlyn. So now im just waiting for Ashton to get his! Looks like they all will be getting teeth at the same time. Lucky for us right?!

Caitlyn is most likely going to be the first one to crawl. She get's up on her hands and knees and starts to rock. She tries so hard to move!

Month 7: Starting to Talk

The babies are a little over 7 months old right now. They are eating a lot more baby food now! I haven't found anything that they didn't like! Makes it easy for me to feed them when they will eat anything! They usually eat a vegetable and a fruit each day. I will probably start to make that 2 a day soon! They are getting so big, I can't wait till there 9 month appointment so I can see how much they have grown.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before or not, but my parents bought the babies a Scout and Violet dogs. They are the best thing!! You hook them up to your computer through a USB and customize everything. You add babies names, favorite color, animal and food. It has songs that use that information and then at night there is a sleep button. It plays night time music for either 2,5 or 10 minutes. Usually by the 10 minutes, the babies are fast asleep! I definitely recommend them. We were in Target recently and they had baby Scouts and Violets. They didn't have all the other songs and games as the bigger ones did, it just had the lullaby music.

Ashton has started to figure out the "Daa" sound now. He loves to say "Daaa-Deee". It is so cute to listen to him call for daddy!! He loves to roll over a lot. I would lay him on the living room floor and he would just roll around everywhere! For some reason, he loves to just lay in his crib! He will play with his glow worm or his Scout dog! He will put his feet in his mouth, even if he is wearing socks or the footie outfits!

Brittany is saying "Daa Daa Daa" a lot. She looked up to Kevin and said "Daa Daa". She made him smile so big!! Brittany still doesn't like to be on her tummy that much. She does love to play in the Jumperoo and the Step 'n Play Piano. Brittany loves to play with her feet and legs. She will grab the bottom of her foot and just move her leg back and forth. She likes to put her feet in her mouth and stick out her tounge.

Caitlyn is stuck on the "Baa" right now and hasn't started the "Daa" yet. I think it might be because she use to have a ladybug on her car seat and I would always tell her to look at the bug. Caitlyn loves to sleep on her belly now and just loves to be on her belly anytime. She loves to play in the jumperoo and play on the floor with Ashton and Brittany. There is a little play microphone on it and she will put her mouth up to it and start moving her mouth, its so cute! Caitlyn loves her daddy too!

We upgraded our carseats recently. They are no longer in the baby carriers. We went to Babies R Us and purchased the Britax Marathon car seats. I love them!! It makes it so much easier to get the babies in and out of the truck. It also makes it a little easier when we go somewhere and have to feed them, we dont have to deal with buckling them in their carseats everytime, we just have to strap them into the stroller! We bought a shopping cart cover so we can take the stroller and use a shopping cart. Ashton took his first ride in the shopping cart and loved it!

Kevin had his St. Baldrick's head shaving in Richmond March 12th so I decided to dress the babies up in their St. Patrick's Day outfits.

We are getting ready to go on our first camping trip of the year in a few weeks! I'm sure the babies will do a lot better this time than they did in October and November since they are a little bit older now!

Month 6: Starting to move

We are 6 months old!! We have been eating solid food for about a month now and we love it!! Caitlyn's favorite is Sweet Potatoes, Ashton and Brittany love just about anything. I started mixing a little bit of cereal in with the fruit since they really love to eat the fruits. They eat 5oz of baby food with cereal almost 3 times a week.

At their 6 month check up this month, everything was right on track. They are gaining weight and growing great. The doctor was very pleased with what they were able to do at this age, considering they were born 2 months early! She told us that they weren't behind developmentally at all! That made us feel good because we work with them so much at home to get them where they need to be. Kevin works so great with them trying to get them to sit up and getting strength in their arms and upper bodies!

After our lunch time feeding, we go down for our afternoon nap. We usually sleep 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Since Caitlyn was always rolling over, we stopped swaddling her at 5 months. By the time Ashton and Brittany were 6 months, we finally got them to stop using the swaddles. Brittany took a little while longer to adjust to not being swaddled than it took Ashton. We are now using the Sleep Sacks so their arms are still out and they can move them.

The babies have started to scoot around while they are playing on their tummies. I think it's just a matter of time that they will be crawling around. We have started to baby proof the house and put things away that are low that they could possibly reach and grab.

I'm pretty sure they are getting ready to teethe. They are drooling a lot and aways chewing on something. We tried to introduce the teething ring to them, but they didn't want it. Ashton loves to chew on his taggie blanket. He loves to chew on tags! I did finally get Ashton to start chewing on his teething ring last week!

We bought a Jumperoo for the babies to start playing with. Ashton LOVED playing in it. When we took him out to put Brittany in, he cried! He wanted to keep playing and not let anyone else play in it. We had him in their one night while we were eating dinner and it was very quiet in the living room. We went in there and this is what we saw...

Little man was passed out in the Jumperoo!! So far, all of them have fell asleep in it! I don't think that is the purpose of it! But as Kevin says... he exercises like his father!


We had our first Valentine's Day as a family. We went to Olive Garden for dinner. Olive Garden was the last meal we had before the babies came home and it was first meal we had as a family alone. I had the babies dressed up in their Valentine's outfits and we had them sitting at the table with us. It was perfect!

We turn 7 months at the end of this month!!!  I keep asking Kevin, if there is no 29th of in this month, how do we know when they turn 7 months. He just says, well, I guess they don't turn 7 months until March! Haha!! Yeah right!!!

Month 5: Starting Solids

We started feeding the babies baby food!! We started them with Apples and Carrots and they loved them!! Ashton absolutely loved the Apples. You couldn't feed him fast enough with them. It was a long process to feed them because I would do it around lunch time so it was just me and they were just learning how to eat baby food.

Caitlyn started to consistently roll over from her back to her stomach. When we would put her down to sleep at night, in the morning she would be on her stomach. At the time we were swaddling them, but somehow she would always get her arms out. Since she was always rolling over, we stopped swaddling her.

They love to play in their Bumbos. Most of the time Ashton gets fussy and the girls will sit and laugh at him. It's cute to see the expressions on their faces when he is crying. We will sit them in a circle so they can see each other. Usually they will giggle and talk to each other.

They get a lot of tummy time during the day. I think Caitlyn is the only one that really likes it. Brittany and Ashton will start fussing after 10 minutes of being on their tummy.

They got an activity gym for Christmas, so now they each have their own. I set all of them up one day in the living room and they played all day on them. Our living room looked like an amusement park!

Month 3 & 4: Growing up

The next 2 months seemed to fly right on by. The babies started to sleep through the night which was great for us! I would feed them around 11pm and then put them down for the night. There would be times where Brittany or Ashton would wake up in the middle of night, but go right back to sleep. Caitlyn was our best sleeper! She hardly cried when we put her down to sleep. Brittany would cry and just want to be rocked back to sleep. We tried not to do that too often because we did not want to get them use to be rocked to sleep.

They started to eat a lot more formula throughout the day and we started cereal in the formula when they were 4 months old. I was a little nervous to get them cereal at night before going to bed because I wasn't sure if they would spit up in the middle of the night if I would hear it. I would give them about 2Tbs of cereal at lunch time. At first it would make them go a little bit longer between feedings, but after a week or so, it was back to the every 3 hours. I did try to give them cereal not in the bottle, but they refused to take it that way.

Around 3 1/2 months, we took away the sleep positioners because they started to move around more often in their sleep. We would wake up in the morning and their faces would be in the middle of the sleep positioner. Then an article came out that they were taking them off the shelves because of infant deaths. We took them out of the cribs immediately! They were still getting swaddled at night, and it was like they knew it was time for bed when they were swaddled.

We would do about 15 minutes of tummy time everyday. They would get real fussy on their tummies. But, it was something that had to be done. By the time they were 4 months old, all 3 of them have already rolled over from tummy to back. The pediatrician was surprised of the progress the babies were making since they were born almost 2 months premature. They were doing things that shouldn't have been done yet.

We had our first Christmas!! Christmas Eve we went to Kevin's Aunts house for a little while, then off to my parents house for family gift exchange and the first time meeting a lot of the family. We woke up about 8:00am on Christmas day. The babies opened their presents from Grandpa and Gramcracker first. They got their first piggy banks, some DVDs and some clothes. The piggy banks stay at Grandpa and Gramcracker's house so they can fill them up!! We ate a good breakfast, then headed over to Kevin's parents house. We decided to open up the babies' gifts first. They got Bumbo's, clothes, books and activity gyms.  We had a great First Family Christmas.

It started snowing Christmas day! The babies first Christmas, was a white one. We ended up getting about 12" of snow over 2 days!! I wish they were a little older so we could have went out and played in it. Hopefully there will be many more winters that come with snow!

Month 2: First month home

Their first month home was difficult for us. Since Kevin had to work, I did not wake him up in the middle of the night to take care of the babies. I did not want him to be tired and sleepy at work while I was able to take naps during the day. It took a few weeks, but I ended up having it all under control. They were all on the same eating schedule because of being in the hospital for a month. I did get lucky that only one baby would wake up in the middle of the night and not all 3! Once one woke up, I would feed then wake the next up to fed, and did the same for the 3rd. Usually it was Ashton that woke up in the middle of the night to eat. He seemed to be on schedule for every 3 hours! Which was good because I didn't have to set an alarm to wake up. Brittany and Caitlyn wouldnt cry or wake up in the middle of night if they were hungry. They seemed to wait for Ashton to cry.  There were many nights where I would come to bed around 1 am. I think the whole first month they were home, Kevin and I did not go to sleep together. There would be nights that he was getting up to go to work and I would just be getting into bed to go to sleep.

Every night, we would make the next day's bottles so they would be all ready to go when it was time to feed. Sometimes it was very difficult to go out somewhere because usually as soon as we got to where we were going, it would be time to feed the babies. That usually took about an hour because it was just the two of us and three babies. Then, its not everyday when you see triplets so we would always get stopped by people because they wanted to see it. An hour trip to the mall turned into a 3-4 hour trip. Of course, we would always get asked the same questions over and over again. It did get a little annoying because we couldn't go anywhere without being stopped.

Other than feeding them, changing diapers and putting them down to sleep.. that's pretty much the whole 2nd month for them!

First Blog

Well, im starting my first blog. Thinking about it, I should have started this a long time ago!

6 months ago, I gave birth to triplets (2 girls, 1 boy).

The Wednesday before they were born, I was actually admitted to the hospital for a steroid shot. The steroid shot was because they knew the babies would have a chance of being delivered early. The shot was to help their lungs develop a little faster. While I was admitted, I was not allowed to get up and walk around. By Friday, I was so ready to leave! I was suppose to be discharged Friday. I figured I would be discharged early in the day, but that was not the case. I finally was able to at least take a ride in the wheelchair, so Kevin took me around the Maternity floor. We stopped by the nursery and looked at all the babies and then around the corner was the special care nursery. We talked to one of the nurses in the regular nursery and when we told her that we were having triplets, she mentioned that they would most likely be in Special Care Nursery. We knew going into the hospital that there would be a chance that they might have to go to CHKD, so the Special Care Nursery didn't sound so bad. We actually got to tour the Special Care Nursery that afternoon... and let me tell you... I was a little scared. Seeing all of these little babies in incubators and all these tubes and wires were a little scary for a new mom to be. Around 6pm, I was finally released from the hospital, but I was then put on moderate bed rest. I could still get up and do things, but I couldn't drive and I couldn't walk around for a long period of time.

I had a NST Monday and a doctors appointment on Wednesday and everything was looking good. Kevin could not go with me on Thursday to my NST so his mom took me. He told her that nothing exciting will happen, there will just be some machines on my tummy and you will hear the heartbeats. Little did we know! Well after 30 minutes (which was not normal for me) the girls still haven't passed their test. So the nurse called my doctor and asked what we should do. She told her to do a full BPP on me (which is and ultrasound to check the fluids around the babies). When she did the BPP, there was hardly any fluid around Caitlyn, but she was still breathing. My doctor (who was working in the hospital that day) told the nurse to send me to Labor and Delivery to be admitted. My heart was POUNDING now. My husband who was in Williamsburg at the time had to rush back to Norfolk before I was going to have these babies. I think he made record time! My doctor decided that she didn't want to risk anything and was going to take the babies out that day. I called all my family and friends and even my boss to let them know that today was the big day!

Me before going back to the O.R.

July 29, 2010 about 4:00pm, they took me back to the O.R. They got me on the table and started to give me the good stuff! My leg jolted out because they hit a nerve and then the weirdest feeling of numbness took over my lower half of my body. Felt so weird that I couldn't lift my legs up or move them. I see Kevin come in and sit next to me. I ask Kevin if they have even started doing anything yet and he tells me that they are about to pull a baby out! Well, I guess that medicine worked! I didn't feel anything at all!! Caitlyn Marie was born at 4:42pm weighing 2lbs 7.5 oz. Ashton Thomas was born at 4:43pm weighing 3lbs 7oz and Brittany Lynn was born at 4:44pm weighing 3lbs 12oz. They were all taken to the Special Care Nursery and did not have to go to the NICU at CHKD or need any help breathing!

 Caitlyn Marie

 Ashton Thomas

Brittany Lynn

The nurses that worked in the Special Care Nursery were great! They taught us so many things and took excellent care of our babies. Ashton and Brittany were released 3 weeks later on August 24th. Taking 2 babies home was so hard because we had to take care of them and also make sure we spend time with Caitlyn in the hospital. On August 29th, Caitlyn was released! I finally had all of our babies home!

Our first family picture