Gymboree

Last week we went to Gymboree while my sister was in town and the triplets loved it! Slade especially loved the bubbles and parachute games. However, it was a trial run and there is no way we are signing up. For 1xweek (45min class) it costs 72$...for one child. So basically to sign all three up it would be about the same as a small car payment. However, I learned some fun ideas and will try and create my own Gymboree classes at home for now!

Hip Hip Hooray!

So today we got the go ahead from the pedi to stop our night feeds, HOOOOORAAAAYYY! We have to gradually decrease it but by Tuesday night, we should be getting a shot at 8 hours at least. Slade & Claire are still in the 0% for any age above 6 months but she is confident that they will make up the calories during the day now that they eat 2 meals of solids a day as well. So yipppeee for us, now lets just hope they agree with the new situation!

Here is a picture of the trio with Grandma & Granpa at their new house!

Segway

So a little non-baby info for today. My dad and I decided to take a Segway tour of downtown and it was GREAT! I know what your thinking, bicycle helmet, super dork, right? Well I thought so too but I was so wrong. It was so fun and such a weird experience for your body to gain the right equilibrium to drive one of these things. At first I was terrible at it and very wobbly but by the end I was zooming down hills at 12mph.


On another note, Ella has a tooth! Good for eating...bad for the arms of her brother and sister!

Spaghetti and Pools

So this week we have had a lot of fun already! On the few sunny days we made a couple trips to the local pools to the joy of the babies. Well, only Ella actually LOVED it, but the other two enjoyed the outings as well! On the rainy days we tried to find fun indoor activities and the highlight was our spaghetti bonanza! Not only did they work their motor skills by playing and transferring it from hand to hand, but they also got to eat some as well. It entertained them for a full 1/2 hour, which for us is wonderful!

The girls are ready to head out!

Ella is ready for the pool...or Hollywood...

Claire enjoys a splash with Grandma

Ella & Slade explore in their floaties

Ella didn't quite make it to her crib afterwards...

"Hmmm do I like this or not?"

Oh yes, I do!

Rolling in it is fun too!

Mom's best shot at a panoramic view

Lurking Night Monsters

So, I broke my children. I turned them into lurking night monsters who thought that at any peep they should wake up and begin crying. Since I thought that a baby should never cry, I rocked them over and over again for 8-10 hours at night, because I thought it would get better with time. It got worse. I started to find myself with no more than 30 min. at a time at night with silence...all night. Thirty min. of rocking turned into about an hour of sleep per baby. I slept a few hours around 7pm before Brian went to bed and then for a couple more when my mom came in the morning, but overall it still didn't amount to much. Then last Sunday night I finally broke. After hours of quick rocks I found myself rocking Claire in the living room and listening to Ella cry in the bedroom. When Claire was finally asleep I moved her in the playpen and then went and rocked Ella in the bedroom. When she was just about asleep, I began hearing Claire cry in the living room. So I repeated the process only to have Slade wake up to eat. With both girls asleep, I fed him. But then I heard Ella again. So I put Slade in the swing and got Ella. Oh but Claire didn't want to miss out so she began to cry as well. So I put her in the large pen to play while I rocked Ella. Yet, no one liked this arrangement. So hear around 4am I found all three babies crying and I gave in as well. What is wrong with these kids? They are 10 months, even 7 months adjusted and refuse to sleep more than 1-2 hours at a time. That's when I realized that we were the problem, not them. We catered to every need at every second and with three babies, that is exhausting. So I decided that they were old enough now to try out some sleep methods and hoped that one would work. So I put the girls in their cribs and began researching. I liked the no-cry methods but they seemed impossible with three babies, plus isn't that what I've been doing for the last 7 months? But I hated to just let them "cry it out."

So I found a happy medium with what is called "The Ferber Method." Yes this is very controversial and I understand. But until you go 7 months with 25 old week triplets crying all night, I hope people will refrain from judgement. So I bought the book. Basically, you put your kids on a strict bedtime and nap schedule and stick to it. You lay your babies in their cribs asleep drowsy but not asleep and leave the room. They cry. You wait about 3 min. and then go and rub their backs, tell them you love them and leave the room within 60 sec. Then you wait 5 min. and repeat. Every night you increase the visiting intervals. In the middle of the night if they wake you do the same process. I will admit, it sucks. It sucks to hear your babies cry because all they want is to be rocked. But I said I would try this for a week. The first few days we ended up with usually about 30min of crying before all three were asleep. We had about 3 wake ups at night but they never hit 4 min. After about day 4, while we still had about 25min of crying at bedtime, we barely heard a peep from any of them except when we wake them up to eat at 10 and 2. At this point they easily fall back to sleep.

I didn't want to have to do this and every night I still hate the part of myself that doesn't rush in their and rock them to sleep even if it means I only get a couple hours per night. But what makes me ok is that now every morning when they get up, they wake up talking, not crying. They smile all morning and stick out their tongues. They are happier babies. We are still working on the naps but in general, they are doing great. Slade is talking and moving around more than ever and the girls laugh all the time and are way less grouchy in the early evening.

So after 1 week on this program, I am happy to say that not only have the babies mastered their nights, I was able to get just about 7 hours of sleep and am a happy and better mom today!

If your kids are lurking night monsters and you have been broken, I highly recommend this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Solve-Your-Childs-Sleep-Problems/dp/0743201639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275395379&sr=1-1