Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Momma and Little Miss E

Little Miss Natalee

Little Miss Madelynn

Little Miss Claire

 

Trick-or-Treat!

Love, Timmy, Holly, Madelynn, Claire, Natalee and Little Miss E

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee: You are TEN Months Old!

Oh my goodnes, 10 months (on 10.23.11)! I can barely believe it, time flies! This has by far beeen mine and Daddy's favorite month! You all are doing so much, each day new things and we can barely keep up with things! I just love the sweet little girls you are becoming, I mean you have always been sweet, but now your personalities are really starting to shine through, and it is such a blessing to witness each day!

Natalee: You started saying "dada" on 10.20.11. You started pulling up on your knees and rocking back and forth on 10.21.11. Way to go big girl! You can push yourself backwards constantly and roll over of course, and that is your mode of transportation right now! You love cheese and yogurt and you have had so many "real" foods, including steak, chicken, turkey, baked beans, pizza...really, I can't remember anything you haven't liked yet! You have no teeth yet, but you are our best eater! You also eat lots of veggies all by yourself. You love to chat and you love to watch sports with Daddy on the couch, especially when he wraps you in our Eagles blanket. You love it!

Madelynn: By far your favorite food this month is cheerios and puffs! I think you would eat the entire box of cheerios if I let you. You shovel them into your mouth and it is so cute! You started shaking your head "no" (from side to side) for the first time on 10.20.11. Now, when you are eating and we ask you, "Madelynn, do want more bread?", you shake your head "no". It's by far the cutest thing and Daddy could barely contain himself, just asking over and over, "how does she know to do that?!" You love bread, refuse yogurt, and are just in love with trying to feed yourself all of the time! Amen baby girl! You love to use your sisters to help you stand up and brace your falls! They don't apprecaite it very much though. You love to play with Claire especially! You also love to whisper, it's the funniest thing. If I say, "Madelynn, say dada," you will look at me and start mimicking my mouth moving up and down and whisper "dadadadaada," I love it! You have two teeth, the bottom two, that came through on the same night! You take teething seriously, and do not like it at all. You are very fussy, wake up a million times at night and don't want to eat much, you poor girl! Your two top teeth are getting ready to pop through any moment and I hope they come soon because you seem to be miserable the past few days!

Claire: You are still getting up on your knees and hands and rocking back and forth but that's as far as you get, you are so close to crawling though. You do the "army scoot" and are quite good at it because you can get from point A to point B in NO time! You have started attacking your sisters too, but are not the bully that Miss Madelynn is. You and Madelynn love to play together and take eachothers toys and go back and forth all day long. It makes my heart sing when I see you all playing together each day, I just love it to pieces.  You have one tooth on the bottom (the right side) and one tooth on the top (the left side). The other top left tooth is almost through, it's right there and will pop through any day!! You don't seem to be too bothered with sprouting teeth.

This is the first month where you guys have really started playing together.
Madelynn and Claire, you seem to always be next to eachother. It is SO interesting to watch identical twins, I tell ya, I am learning so much. It really intrigues me and the older you get the more and more I see.

You are all in size 9 month sleepers.

You are all wearing size 9 month outfits, but they are getting short in the legs! Size 6 month and most 6-9 month outfits are too small now. All of your "holiday attire/Christmas/winter" clothes I am getting in 12 months. You have long legs, ladies, whahoo, I hope you take after Momma!

 You wear size 2-3 shoes.
You can still fit into some 6 month onesies, but the 9 month ones fit you fine too.

You wear size 3 Pampers Baby Dry diapers during the day, and size 4 Pampers Extra Protection diapers at night.
Your 1st Birthday Party stuff has been ordered, your invitations have arrived and Mommy could not be more in love with it all! I don't know how I am ever going to out-do this year!

You all can sit up just fine. Claire, you have almost made the transistion from sitting to crawling. Our wonderful therapist works with you each week and you're getting closer and closer.
Madelynn and Claire, your voices seem to be completely different.
Natalee, you have really started talking this month!

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Our daily schedule looks like this at this time:

Somewhere between 7:30-8:30: Wake up. I take you all out of your cribs and put you on the floor and you love to play with your books and toys that just stay upstairs. Madelynn, you are always standing up in your crib now when I come in and greet me with big smiles! I love it! I get you all changed and dressed for the day and then we venture downstairs.
Natalee, you are the first to eat breakfast each day because, well, you are most impatient and can barely contain yourself while I am making your cereal. Now, it's a little easier because you eat your cheerios and puffs while I make everyone's breakfast. You eat about 3/4 cup of banana oatmeal without taking a breath most days. And then I go on to feed your sisters. Claire, you eat about 3/4 cup of banana oatmeal cereal and 4 ounces of fruit. Madelynn, you eat 4 ounces of fruit mixed with a grain and then normally another 4 ounces of a fruit. Both of you get cheerios and puffs too, and sometimes dried fruit. Normally, we are done with breakfast, no later than 9:30am.
Then we play, rotate around with toys, the walker (which Mommy picked up at a yard sale for 3 BUCKS!) and the exersaucer. Natalee, you are the only one who gets a 5-10 minute nap around 10:00am in the swing.

Around 11:30am we start lunch. Normally, Natalee eats first again and gets 4 ounces of a veggie and either 4 ounces of yogurt or 4 ounces of fruit. We practice "self-feeding" each day and you do great. You can also eat cheese, bread, peas, ham and turkey lunch meat, really anything as long as it is in small pieces. Claire and Madelynn, I basically do the same with you, 4 ounces of a veggie and 4 ounces of fruit and some "self-feeding" time. Claire, you really want nothing to do with "self-feeding" but we are working on it daily!

Naptime is promptly at 12:15pm and lasts until 3:30pm. You all sleep great and normally do not budge or make a noise the entire time. Natalee you have been in your bed for months now and you love your bed now for naps too!
Once you all wake-up, you love to spend some time with Daddy. Claire, if Daddy picks you up to kiss and hug you and doesn't keep you for a little bit and talk to you, you get very upset. Madelynn, you will stand at the gate and just cry for Daddy. It's all so cute. You are definitely noticing your Daddy this month so much! Claire, you just seem the most attached to Daddy right now! You will actually cry for him in your cries, you cry for "dadada". SO sweet!
Snacks at around 3:30pm of cheerios and puffs and dried fruit. Sometimes a yogurt, sometimes a bottle.
Dinner is started at 5:15pm and you each get 4 ounces of a meat and grain (like chicken and rice), 4 ounces of a veggie and sometimes 4 ounces of a fruit or yogurt (whatever you haven't yet had). Also, we practice "self-feeding" of all the other foods I already listed!

Bathtime, we start at 6:30pm, Daddy and I bring you all up to your room, get you undressed and Mommy gets in the shower and Daddy rotates you guys through the bath tub with me. It works out great, I just put my old bathseat (from when I was pregnant with you girls) and your bathtub goes on it and I just fill and re-fill as each of you come in. It works so well because I don't have to bend over, amen!

After the bath, we play, read books, snuggle with binkis and lovies and then it's bedtime! Bedtime is around 7:15pm, give or take ten minutes or so.

Normally, you all still wake up about twice per night for a bottle (we are working on this despertely!!!!). It has made it much easier since I just give it to you in your bed and you hold it yourselves! Natalee, Mommy still feeds you but you normally only wake up if your sisters are whinning. I really think if it wasn't for each of you waking eachother up, youall would sleep through the night. I wish there were books written about co-sleeping multiples! If I ever wrote a book, it would be on this topic! It's very hard with multiple children sleeping in the same room, believe it or not!

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Mommy and Daddy love you all so much! We have had such a wonderful time with you girls the past ten months and we are so looking forward to the next few months with the holidays and your first birthdays! We can barely believe we have survived a whole year since you were born, however, on one hand it seems like it was just yesterday when we held you each for the first time!

Happy TEN Months Baby Girls!

24-26 Weeks

Goodness gosh, I'm over six months already?!? Phew! I'm loving being pregnant this time around and feel that I can go around and be that "cute little pregnant lady" that I couldn't be when I was pregnant with the girls because I was on bed rest and feeling like a whale, not too mention I didn't want to risk going into labor even earlier than I did!

How Far Along: 24-26 Weeks/6 Months! Here's my post of 6 Months with the girls!
How Big is Little Miss: Still around the size of a papaya! She is settling into sleep cycles, baby snoozes 12 to 14 hours a day. Skin is becoming more opaque and it's taking on a pink glow!

Weight Gain: Maybe +3-5, or as much as 7...not too much! But I have definitely started eating waaaay more and drinking my whole milk with chocolate at least once a day! I was weighed at the OB on Wednesday and weighed 140 lbs...not too bad!
Symptoms: Some back pain, tiredness, easily weak and tired after not doing much, some minor contractions (around 3-5 a day) but I can tell they are getting stronger.

Emotions: Fine! Every time I see a newborn, I squirm with happiness!

Best Moment of the Week: Just feeling Little Miss all of the time. I love every moment of it and cherish it so much! She moves sooo much, just like the girls did! And of course seeing her cute little self on the sonogram!

Looking at us!

Movement: All day, everyday, but most active in the evening and at night! I thought the girls moved a lot, but really, I don't remember them moving as much as Little Miss is!

Maternity Clothes: Oh yes!

Sleep: Going great when I do sleep! Of course loving naps! And the dreams...oh the dreams!

Food Cravings: Hmm...everything! Chocolate, but it gives me the worst heartburn! Apples!
Aversions: Nothing I can think of!

Gender: A Little Miss! And who FINALLY has a name! Well, it's what I have been calling her since day 1, but it was convincing Tim, but finally he said, "we can name her whatever you want!" Duh! So happy though, it's the most perfect name to me!

What I Miss: Wine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I am Looking Forward to: Hmm...the snow that is falling outside right now! Planning the girl's first birthday party! and of course growing bigger and bigger with Little Miss!

Side Notes: One person on the last weekly update commented that I was measuring (or looking like) almost full-term and just as big as I was when I was pregnant with the girls! I couldn't believe it...seriously, LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS! Haha, I am so not as big right now as I was with the girls! At 24 weeks pregnant with the girls, I was measuring FULL-TERM! This pregnancy with Little Miss is completely measuring normal and right on track. She is growing great and I am forever thankful. I may look bigger than I am, but let me ASSURE everyone, that I no way am as big as I was with the girls. Sometimes I look at my belly and really, I could just look a little fat in my belly, and not even pregnant! My belly is no way as heavy or full-feeling like I was with the girls, nor am I having near as many contractions and pain as I did with the girls. With the girls pregnancy I went downhill from Week 24 on, this pregnancy I hope and pray that will not be the case!

Anyway, here are my bump photos for the past few weeks:

Week 25 pregnancy photos with the girls, click on the link above!

Please excuse all my stretch marks...I don't know if I can post the straight on photo of my belly ever again. I mean I know I had triplets, but ugh, I just don't like the way it looks now, and really I guess it's not too bad, but I don't know!

A Few Trips to the Park!

We've been venturing to a new park that's only about a block away from our home, which is awesome, because just maybe I could actually go with the girls and myself. Just maybe. For right now Daddy or Gammy comes with us!
We've had some fabulous 70 degree afternoons, perfect fall weather, so we are getting in some needed time out of the house before it gets too cold!

This was the girls very first time in the baby swings and the LOVED it! Madelynn was laughing the entire time!

Madelynn

Claire

Swinging with Gammy!

Madelynn's face says it all! :)

 

Madelynn: So, let me show you how to do it, Claire. Claire: I'm not listening to you, Madelynn!

I told you I knew what to do Claire!

Then, last weekend, Nana and I took the girls up to Hagerstown City Park where Megan, my SIL is going to take her wedding photos next year in October, so we wanted to scope out some possible places for the photographer to take photos at. We had a fun time walking around and seeing all the geese and swans, but it was a little chilly! We kept talking about how the girls will be running everywhere in their beautiful white dresses, and if it is at all muddy, we are in for big issues. I think we will definitely be getting some boots for them to wear around while we are going from photo to photo. Plus, if it's going to be cold, Momma and her girls will be bundled up over those dresses! Hoping for a warm and sunny day for next October 20th!

My girls!

I can just picture a bride and groom on that beautiful bridge! How beautiful will that be?!