Christmas Eve

We were so excited about our first Christmas as a new family.  Ben could not hardly wait until Christmas day.  Christmas Eve is almost as good as Christmas day in our family.  We were excited to have the Daniel side of the family to our house for a big family meal and festivities.

Ben's new Spider Man!

Cousin Natalie (Nat-Nat) and Ben

Tyler is so excited about his first present

Daddy with Ryan and Chase

The cute wagons Papa and G-mama gave the boys
with a little monogramming help from Mommy.

After our big, delicious meal, opening presents and spending time with our family, we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church.  It was a wonderful service.  My only regret is not taking a picture of Ben and the babies in their matching Christmas outfits.  We rushed out the door to make it to church on time and one of the babies had a blow out while at church.  Oh well can't get them all!

My four Christmas babies in their jammies

After the church service, we headed back home to have Christmas with Derek's parents and sister.  Ben had already had a full Christmas by this point and Santa hadn't even come yet! We started a tradition last year to open one present on Christmas Eve.  Their Christmas jammies!

Our first family Christmas picture

Cookies for Santa

Ben had a blast making cookies for Santa.
We put them on his special plate and sat them by the tree for Santa. What a wonderful day it was! I look forward to many more with my family.

Can't forget the milk!

Ready for Santa!

Ben's Special Outing

Derek and I took Ben to Santa's Village and the Galaxy of Lights.  It was a special outing.  The babies stayed at home with some of our family who was in town for Christmas.  We try to find opportunities to take Ben on special outings such as this so we can give him special one-on-one attention.  It's hard to go from an only child to suddenly sharing attention with 3 other siblings who can be very demanding of our time.  He has been such a trooper sharing his parents with the babies.

In Santa's Sleigh

Ben loves Christmas time and Santa.  We have watched the Polar Express for months now.  We surprised him by taking him to Santa's Village first.  There he was able to visit Santa's workshop, sit in Santa's sleigh, see real reindeer, write a letter to Santa, make an ornament and visit Santa and Mrs. Claus.  He gave Mrs. Claus a hug and she pulled out a book to give him.  She said, she only does that for the ones that give her a hug.

Thinking about sitting with Mrs. Claus...

Hugging Mrs. Claus

Giving Frosty a high five

We stood in line for almost an hour to see Santa for the second time this Christmas.  The day before, Ben decided he no longer wanted a blue bike for Christmas, but a blue race car instead.  I was sure he was going to tell Santa this when he saw him.  Fortunately, when he got in Santa's lap he confirmed that he still wanted a blue bike. Whew! That was a close one.  The last thing I wanted was a disappointed little boy on Christmas morning.

Writing a letter to Santa

He had an amazing time at Santa's Village.  He can't wait to go again next year and take his brothers with him.  Next, we were off to the Galaxy of Lights.  It is a huge Christmas light display that you drive through.  It had 180 light displays.  Ben loved seeing all the different animals and characters.  It was a wonderful night full of great memories.

5 Months

Wow!  I know I say this a lot, but time is flying by so fast.  How can my little babies be 5 months old? They are not little newborns anymore. This month has been a little challenging as we are transitioning into a new phase.  Beginning solids has made feeding time a little more complicated, now that we have to do bottles and then go to the highchairs to eat solids.  I tried to prop bottles in the highchairs, but it doesn't work very well.  The highchairs recline, but not enough to easily prop a bottle.

Our living room looks like a daycare.  It is baby central filled with pack-n-plays, swings, bouncy seats, exersaucers, jump-a-roo, bumbos, play gym, highchairs, etc.  We will eventually gate this area off to create a baby safe zone when they become mobile.  The babies also got foam tiles to create a large, soft, play space on the floor.  It won't be long and they will all be mobile.

We are now on the go quite a lot.  Thanksgiving was our first trip to Chattanooga.  We have taken 3 trips to Chattanooga in the last 4 weeks and two times we stayed over night.  The babies did wonderfully.  Ben got sick with a fever and cold on our first over night trip to Chattanooga.  This made things a little more difficult, but we worked through it.  The next week the babies all caught Ben's cold, too.  It was inevitable.  It made me very nervous, especially since Derek was also out of town and I was on my own with 4 sick children.  I set the babies bouncy seats in the bathroom for nap and then I would turn on the shower and steam it up.  They took all their naps in there for the entire week.  It might sound crazy, but it really helped their cough and congestion.  I was glad to get them back healthy again especially with Christmas around the corner.  We are so excited about our first Christmas with all four boys, but Ben is the most excited of all.

Chase

Chase is our thinker and observer.  He also keeps everyone on schedule.  He lets me know when it's nap time and time to eat.  He loves to grin and laugh.  He is not a big 'talker', but when he does he is very soft spoken.  He is trying so hard to roll over from back to front.  He just can't get his arm out from underneath himself.  He gets very frustrated that he can't do it.  I love his chubby checks!

weight: 15 lbs. 6 oz

Ryan

Ryan was our feisty one, but he is now the most laid back of the three.  He is usually happy and the most patient.  When he is ready to go to sleep it does not matter where he is.  He will just quietly drift off to sleep.  I often find him asleep in the bouncy seat or swing. Don't let this little bit fool you though! He may be the smallest, but he loves to squeal loudly when he is happy.  He also loves to suck his thumb.

weight: 14 lbs. 2 oz

Tyler

Tyler is the sensitive one.  He cries the most out of all three.  He loves to eat and is usually the first one awake to eat.  He is also the talker.  He is almost always talking. He loves to lay beside his brothers and play with them.  He loves to rub their heads and feel their hair or hold their hand.  It's adorable to watch.

weight: 14 lbs. 4 oz

Ben

Ben is a great big brother.  He loves playing with and entertaining the his brothers.  He has just recently been able to identify each baby and is almost always right.  Sometimes he is still not sure between Ryan and Tyler, just like us all, and ask us for confirmation throughout the day.  He loves to talk about what they will be able to do with him when they get bigger.  He loves to play patty-cake with his brothers.

Back to Reality

Ever since I was put on bed rest, I have felt as though my normal every day life was put on hold.  I was stuck in my house while the world went on living their lives as normal.  It was hard to know I was missing out on family and social gatherings with friends, church and things as simple as going out to eat or shopping.  Things have slowly returned to normal or the "new normal" for us, but total normalcy would not return for me until we were able to attend events with our friends and family, return to church, and go out to eat as a family. This past week we got the ball rolling with a trip to Chattanooga and our family outing to see Santa and eat dinner. We continued the momentum and took the babies to church for the first time.  It was hard work, but we were able to make it to the 9:30 am service on time. Everyone at church was so helpful in getting the boys unloaded, signed in, and into the nursery.  They were all well behaved in the nursery during the service, too.  It felt so great to be back. It is possible to live a normal life with 4 children 2 years old and under although at times I haven't been so sure it would be.

Bumbos, Swaddles, & Solids

We just keep changing things around here and there have been a lot of changes just this week.  The babies are growing and getting stronger every day.  Now they can sit in their Bumbos!  Yes, we are still using our Bumbos despite the recall.  Bumbos are great as long as you use them with some common sense. They love to sit up and look around.

We no longer have to swaddle the babies before they go down for nap or bedtime.  We have swaddled them since day one.  They sleep so good when they are swaddled.  At first, we used blankets and when they got too big and strong for regular blankets we used the SwaddleMe blankets with velcro closures.  The velcro made it harder for them to bust out. They were getting too big for the SwaddleMe blankets so I worked them out of them by first only swaddling one arm, then swaddling them with both arms out, and then we moved to the zip up sleeper blankets at night.  I am so glad because it cuts down on my laundry and I don't have to swaddle babies 15-20+ times a day.

We started solids.  For now, we are only eating rice cereal.  They definitely aren't crazy about it, but who would be happy about eating bland rice cereal.  I can't wait to start adding in more foods.  I plan to make baby food for the boys because buying baby food for three would be quite costly. More to come on that later.

Meeting Santa

After a great Thanksgiving day out of town, Derek and I were feeling brave and confident about taking the babies out.  Derek was asked to help take Santa pictures at a local tree lighting celebration in town. I did not want to pass up the opportunity to get the boys picture taken with Santa, especially if Daddy was the one taking the pictures.  Derek's parents came to help me with all the boys while we were there.  It was great to get the boys out and do something fun.  They had their picture taken with Santa.  He was awesome.  He didn't even blink at the idea of holding three babies all at once.  He said he had experience with triplets.  The best thing was no one cried.  This is a big deal because Ben has cried the past two years.  This year Ben was all business.  He climbed up next to Santa and was on his best behavior.  After the picture with all the boys, Santa took Ben in his lap and talked to him.  He asked him what he wanted for Christmas and Ben told him a blue bike.  It was so sweet!

We had a great time at the tree lighting festivities.  Still feeling courageous, we decided to take the babies out to eat for the first time after the tree lighting.  I'm not sure what the hostesses thought when we walked in with two double strollers, a single stroller, two toddlers, and 4 infants.  It took us a few minutes to get everyone situated around the table, but we managed it.  The babies were on their best behavior at dinner.  We had great time eating dinner with our friends and it was nice to feel normal again.  Another successful first!

Thanksgiving- The First Out of Town Trip

My little turkeys
Tyler, Chase, Ryan

 I have been mentally preparing for this day for months.  Just the thought of loading all four children up in the car, travelling two hours in the car to Chattanooga, visiting both of our families and then loading back up and driving two hours home was exhausting.  We were determined to have Thanksgiving with our family.  I packed everything the night before.  The babies had two large diaper bags to hold everything they would need plus extra (I did not want to run out of anything) and one small backpack for Ben.  We woke up around 6:00 am, fed the babies, got everyone ready and were out the door by 7:30 am.  Luckily, we had an extra set of hands because my sister had spent the week with us. The babies were amazing in the car.  We barely heard a peep from any of them.  Ben watched a movie during the drive.  He loves mommy's new van.  Derek and I were able to enjoy a two hour car ride together like we were the only ones in the car.  Derek even joked that we forgot to put the kids in the car.

The entire day was wonderful.  It was so great to visit with family.  I enjoyed all the extra help.  I don't think I fed a baby all day!  The babies did awesome away from home.  I think they enjoyed the change of scenery and all the special attention.  They could hardly eat for wanting to see everything around them.

Ben, watching a movie in the van.

Playing at Uncle Jason's and Aunt Jen Jen's house

Tyler checking out cousin Cooper

Uncle Scott and Aunt Chrissi

Ben and Uncle Scott

Nana Bell and Chase

Cousin Sarah and Tyler

Chase, playing at Pops and Nanny Jeffery's house

Ryan, hanging out at Pops and Nanny Jeffery's house

Nannie Daniel and Tyler

So, from the pictures it looks as though Tyler was held all day while the other two played on the floor.  I can assure you this was not the case.    They all received attention.  Tyler must be more photogenic than the other two.  We are going to have to make it a point to make sure we get pictures of each of them.

Pops Jeffery and Tyler

Ben pretending to talk to Santa at Pops' house.
He knows Christmas is coming...

The car ride home was just as peaceful.  All four boys slept the entire way home.  When we got home we put Ben in his bed and left the babies in their car seats and placed them in the nursery.  We didn't hear a peep until 6:30 am the next morning.  If out of town trips are this easy, we can do this a lot more!

4 Month Check-up

The babies' four month check up went great today.  They are all growing and healthy!  Since we haven't been out in public a whole lot, it still makes me laugh to see other peoples reactions when we come strolling in with three babies.  I just smile back my proudest mommy smile.

Stats:   (Percentiles are based on a full term baby and remember my little guys were 5 weeks early!)

Chase: 14 lbs. 13oz   50th percentile!!!
            25.5 inches    75th percentile!!!!

Ryan:  13 lbs.            15th percentile
           25 inches        50th percentile

Tyler: 13 lbs. 5 oz    15th percentile
           25 inches        50th percentile

4 Months

Wow!  Whoever said it gets easier after the first three months is right.  It has been so much easier and a lot of fun.  Their little personalities are really coming out now.  They all love to smile, coo, and laugh.  They are so ticklish, especially on their necks.  Ben has become a great source of entertainment for the boys.  They love to watch him.  It's fun to watch them as their eyes follow him around the room.  They grin from ear to ear when he gives them attention. All of the boys are now rolling over from front to back.  Chase mastered this skill last month. Ryan about a week before they were four months. Tyler mastered it about a week after they turned four months old.  Chase is already trying to roll from back to front, but has not been able to master it yet.

The best news is the boys are now sleeping through the night!!!!!! It took some encouragement on my part in the beginning to get them to sleep 8 straight hours.  I was hoping they would start sleeping through the night on their own, just as Ben did, but it became clear that one of the babies (who shall remain unnamed) was waking the other two up.  On the weekend of the time change, I decided it was time to cut out the middle of the night feeding.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...no more than 15 minutes of fussing and everyone was back to sleep.  Then a few weeks later, Derek and I were sooo tired one night that we couldn't find the energy to do the 11:00 pm feeding.  This feeding had become very tough.  We were having to wake them up to feed them and they did not like it.  They were very grouchy, but we were scared to cut out the feeding and have them waking up in the middle of the night to eat again.  Our exhaustion gave us courage to see what would happen if we didn't feed them at 11:00.    
Can you believe they didn't wake up until the next morning?  This has been the biggest relief to us.  Now Derek and I can get all the kids in bed by 8:00 pm and enjoy our evening.  I am starting to feel human again!  The other bonus to cutting out 2 feedings a day means 6 less bottles to make and 6 less diapers to change.  That's over 40 diapers a week that I no longer have to change.

 4 Month Weights
Chase: 14 lbs. 9 oz.
Ryan: 12 lbs. 11 oz.
Tyler: 13 lbs. 1 oz.

There are not any 4 month pictures for this month.  :( We got busy and never found the time.  We will do better next month.  Here is the family picture that we did take.  This will have to count for this month's picture.

The Daniel Family
From left to right: Ryan, Chase, Tyler, and Ben

Typical Day

At any given time, on any given day this is a typical sight you might see at our house.  One of the easiest ways to feed all three at the same time is to lay them in their boppies and prop their bottles with blankets.  After they eat we stay on the floor to play.  I try my best to take turns holding them.  I love watching them smile, wiggle, and coo.  Maynard likes to supervise.  Derek happen to come home for lunch today and this is what he found when he walked through the door.

The Week of Firsts

Everyone loaded up in the van

This week was a big week of firsts for us.  The week started with  our first overnight trip away from the babies.  We went to Chattanooga for the UTC game.  It was great to get back and see my friends after not being able to go to Chattanooga for 7 months due to bed rest and 3 newborn babies.  I missed the babies terribly and was ready to be back on Sunday.  We also had our first outing as an entire family on Halloween.  We loaded the entire family in the van for the first time and went to our friends' house for dinner before going trick-or-treating.  It was so nice to get out of the house with the whole family and have some fun.  It felt so normal.  It was also the triplets first holiday.

Our First Holiday, Happy Halloween!

This week was our first week at home with no help.  I am so proud of myself for being able to take care of all four children without any outside help all week. Derek even worked late one night so I had all four children from the time they woke up until they went to bed.  Our routine helps to keep everything orderly and under control.  Don't get me wrong though, I love when I have help.  I am always up for someone to stop by and hold/feed a baby or for adult conversation during the day.

Our First Walk as a New Family

Our week ended with our first walk as a new family.  It was nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Ben has been looking forward to riding in the new stroller and this was his chance.  We walked around the neighborhood and stopped at a nearby playground for Ben to play before heading home.  We hope to do this a lot more in the future.

Happy Halloween

I love dressing up the kids for Halloween.  This year I wanted to do a group theme while I still can.  I'm sure they will all have a mind of their own in a few short years and want to pick their own costumes.  Ben loves fire trucks, so I took the idea and ran with it.  Ben's costume is a fire chief raincoat and rain boots, black pants with duck tape stripes, and a fireman's hat.  The babies costumes were made from white onesies and hats with felt for the details.  Thanks to G-mama, Nannie Daniel, and cousin Ashley for putting the fire puppy costumes together and making my idea a reality.  There is no way I could have done all that by myself.  We are looking forward to going trick-or-treating with friends tonight.

The Daniel Fire Department at it's finest.

Fire Fighter, Ben

Chase, the Fire Puppy

Ryan, the Fire Puppy

Tyler, the Fire Puppy

The Joys of Potty Training

Yes, I know I'm probably crazy for trying to potty train Ben while taking care of three infants, but it has to happen sometime.  Four children in diapers is not easy on the pocket book.  Ben is now two and a half years old and ready.  Had it not been for everything that has gone on in our house the last eight months he might have been potty trained well before now.  Potty training takes a lot of time and energy, something I haven't had a lot of lately.  We have had the little potties out in our house for months.  Ben has used them from time to time when he gets the urge to go, but nothing consistent.  We have tried several times to wear underwear for the day or just go bare bottom to help him potty train.  The trouble is he usually loses interest after several hours or begs to have his diaper put back on him.  At school, they put him on the potty and he is happy to sit, but he hasn't actually used it.  So I had to figure out a way to get him interested and keep him interested.

Ben and I went to the store to get some bribes.  We bought Toy Story underwear and lots of snacks and juice to give him for using the potty and staying dry and clean.  Last Tuesday, when Ben woke up we began.  He got up took his diaper off, went potty, and put on his new Buzz Lightyear underwear.  All day I rewarded him not only for going to the potty, but randomly for staying clean and dry.  He only had one accident the entire day.  That night he was upset that he had to wear a diaper to bed, so we compromised and put the underwear over the diaper.  The next morning, he got up and wanted to go potty and put his underwear back on.  He also insisted on wearing underwear to school.  I didn't want to dampen his spirit so he went to school with it on. It didn't end well.  He came home with a bag of dirty clothes.  He was so disappointed.  Luckily his teachers were very good sports about it.  Now, he wears pull ups while he is at school, but I don't think he can tell the difference between them and a diaper.  When he is at home he wears underwear.  He is doing great.  He knows when he has to go and sometimes he goes potty without telling me he has to go.  He has had very few accidents.  Today, just a week later he was able to keep the same pair of underwear on all morning before nap time.  Not one single accident!  I put a diaper on him to take a nap. However, I just found his diaper in the bathroom floor.  He decided he had to go potty, took his diaper off, went potty, and got back in bed with no diaper.  I will have to wait to see if he makes it the entire nap time dry or if I will be cleaning up a mess when he wakes up.  I am so proud of him and the progress he has made in a week!

Update:  He woke up dry and brought underwear out so I could help him put it on. :)

Outing

The boys and I made it out of the house today!!!  We went to visit the Bible study group I have been involved in for the past year and a half.  It was so good to get out and spend time with some great ladies.  The boys enjoyed it too.  They were very well behaved.  

Aren't they cute in their matching overalls?  I wish you could see the
cute little lions on them.  Very appropriate for the Daniel's Den.

3 Months

Another month has passed and the boys are now 3 months old.  As with any baby, the first three months are usually the hardest and the same is said to be true about multiples.  Hopefully, things will continue to get "easier".  We now have a good routine and schedule down.  The boys eat at the same times every day starting a 7:00 am.   During the day they eat every three hours and they usually start waking up right around feeding time.  We also have the eat, play, sleep routine down now.  They were so sleepy at first they would eat and usually go right back to sleep.  Now after each feeding they like to "play" before going down for a nap.  The only feeding that varies in time is the middle of the night feeding when I wait for them to wake me up.  Derek feeds them around 11:00 pm before he goes to bed and they are now sleeping a 5-6 hour stretch before waking up to eat again.  I can't wait for the day when they start sleeping eight hours straight.  Hopefully, it won't be much longer.  We follow the Babywise plan.  It helps you to set a routine for your baby's day and teach them how to sleep.  I used this with Ben and absolutely loved it.  This time I actually read the chapter for multiples.  I skipped it the first time I read it thinking that doesn't apply to me...ha ha!  Goes to show you never know what God has planned for you.

I can't believe how they have grown over the last 3 months.  They have all doubled their birth weights!

                    Chase               Ryan               Tyler

Birth:           5 lbs 12 oz       5 lbs 0 oz        5 lbs 7 oz

1 month:       7 lbs 2 oz         6 lbs 5 oz        6 lbs 12 oz

2 months:     9 lbs 14 oz       8 lbs 14 oz      9 lbs 2 oz

3 months:     11 lbs 14oz      10 lbs 7 oz      10 lbs 13 oz

Here are our 3 month pictures.  Look at all those smiles!  

3 months old: Chase, Ryan, and Tyler

Chase

Ryan

Tyler