Just slow down for a second.

I guess it’s because these babies were tiny for so long, without a lot of rapid progress, but now everything seems like it’s happening so fast. They discover something new almost every day, and it just makes me so happy. KC and I usually have a little slide show of the day when he comes home. I love this age the most so far (besides their 4 lb.stage, I would love to visit that age again if I could).

As you’ve probably noticed, they are all great sitter-uppers. I really can’t believe our Bumbos are in storage now. They were our friends for so long that it seems almost sad to put those out of view. Though, my living room feels more spacious because of it. Oh, and look at those cute bibs my mom made for us.

Along with feeding themselves with their bottles, they can also pick up little pieces of food with their chubby little fingers and feed themselves. We’ve been practicing with little puff snacks for a while, and one day last week, they just got it. The boys first, and the next day, Ruby joined right in. It’s so weird that I can just put a little pile of snack on their tray and they are content to just sit and eat by themselves. We even were able to eat our Sunday dinner while they sat in their little booster seats eating away (we usually wait until they are in bed to eat). Alex likes to hold it right where he can bite down with his two little teeth. I think he likes the crunching sound. Bennett can usually be found with both of his hands in his mouth while he tries to find the puff in the middle of his fist. And Ruby eats a lot with her left hand. Hmm. . . do we have a lefty? Anyway, this is a big development that just kind of snuck up on me. Definitely a plus.A BR

We don’t use swaddles at all anymore. Just straight into the cribs with a little blanket. They look like such big kids sprawled out in their cribs. I love when I lay them down and they start immediately rubbing their eyes and squirming around to get themselves into their favorite sleeping position. Speaking of sleeping, we are cutting down to only two naps now. They were waking up way too early (4:30, ugh) and after a few days of that, we knew a change must be put into action. They still need a third catnap from time to time, but mostly can stay awake for longer periods of time without becoming crazy people. This is good and bad. I loved having those three time slots of me-time to look forward to, but it was also limiting. Now we have more time to play with friends, or go out as a family on the weekend. And maybe we’ll even make it to church more than once a month.

They are scooting and rolling around the room a lot these days. Ruby mostly. She prefers going in reverse, especially on the slippery wood floor, and has gotten herself into a few predicaments. I am going to be really glad we have our big play yard now. And no more casually playing on my bed. They can go in too many different directions for me to feel safe about that. I’m not looking forward to baby proofing the house, but it must be done.

A (Trying to roll around while eating doesn’t work too well.)B R

Another change around here is that I discontinued pumping about a month ago, and nursing a few months before that. Nursing was just too hard with me here by myself, to be strapped to a baby when the others might need me. I have heard of those die-hard, exclusively breastfeeding, triplet moms out there, but I just couldn’t do it for my sanity’s sake, even though I loved it, and worked really hard to get the babies to learn when they were born. I kept up the pumping as long as I could. (It’s not the same as nursing when you are solely pumping, so it wasn’t productive enough to keep going.) I wish I could’ve gone longer. I’ll probably always wish that. I wish they could’ve had pure breast milk for their whole infancy, but that just wasn’t in the cards. I did pump several times a day for nine months, and that was a sacrifice, especially in those difficult first months. But it wasn’t even an option for me to not do it. There were three main reasons to make pumping/nursing a priority in my hectic life. For the babies’ health, first and foremost (especially with them being preemies in the RSV season), to help me lose weight secondly (oh, it was nice eating whatever I want, and still lose the baby weight), and to save money on formula. I made the bittersweet decision to stop pumping when the winter was over, the doctor said they could go on a less intense (and less expensive) formula, and when I reached my target weight. It’s the end of an era, for sure.

Other goodies:

Grabbing (anything that we are eating, holding, or using.)

Wrestling

Smelling good after baths (KC’s mom made these fun towels. We are definitely growing out of the little ones.)

ABR

And we do find time for some good snuggling.

Wow, do you think that’s enough? For now anyway. I’ll be back soon, I’m sure.