Saturday, 16 February 2013

All about Dylan David

It may come as a shock to some, but I really had a funny time bonding with Dylan in the beginning. I honestly didn't think he was very cute! I know that sounds terrible, but you also know I'm a pretty honest person, warts and all. In hindsight, I think that he was the 'easiest' of the 3 and he really got  left to himself so much that I didn't get any time to bond with him very well.

But now, he just melts my heart. Do I have a favourite? No. But there are certain things about each baby that make me favour them more based on those traits. Dylan is my giggler. He will laugh at just about anything. Tap his nose, shake him, make a silly face, wiggle his legs, make him dance.....the list goes on. And he really does laugh, he also has a tickle spot, which I frequently use!

You may remember that he was the easiest. He fed well, burped great, played happily, self settles and slept the longest. Not so much now. He's still the best feeder, but he has this little pattern when it comes to burping. He has a good 3/4 feed, then a medium sized burp. Then you keep him upright for another 5 minutes and he'll do 2 more small burps, then finish the last 1/4 of his feed.This is honestly what he does 90% of the time!

He still plays happily, his favourite toys are the cloth books, rings, Sophie the Giraffe, and my hands. He could probably play with my hands all day. He now has what some call a 'sookie' or a 'blankie' as he just loves touching material. If he doesn't have material in his hands he'll hold his own shirt. When you put him to bed he caresses the sheets, and his blankie. For the record, this is just a small muslin wrap tied in a knot! He is a very touchy feely  baby and you can just see his mind ticking over when he's touching a new object.

And then we come to the self settling and sleeping....not so good anymore. He got sick and both him and Ailah were admitted to hospital for Bronchilitis, we stayed overnight for monitoring, and came home the next day. Ever since then, he has been harder to get to sleep and sometimes only has a 20 minute sleep. He takes ages to get back to sleep, and dare I say it....yes, I've resorted to a dummy for him in times of desperation. His latest is waking up at 2 or 3am and if I try to get him back to sleep without the dummy it may take 30 minutes of re-settling, or 5 minutes with the dummy. I've been averaging 5 hours sleep a night lately, it sucks!

He is finally on the mend now, and his sleeps are getting long again, as well as only needing the dummy if he's really cracking it when I put him to sleep, but otherwise he self settles.

Dylan's hair is starting to grow back, which I am just loving! He looks so grown up! I think he'll be the first one to roll from their back to their tummy, he's soooo close, but just needs to push that shoulder over. He absolutely loves nappy free time, and does 360 degree turns on the mat, leaving little wet spots here and there!

I'm sure there are more things about my little man,  but this mumma is off to bed. So here are some pics instead! (Not in chronological order - sorry!)



He loves leaving his mouth open in photos - no matter how many times I close his mouth!





Awwww, look how much he has grown! He was a week and 1 day old in this pic



This was the first pic that I saw of him, I only saw him briefly after he came out, then before they took him to the SCN. Daniel took this and showed me while I was still in birthing suite.


Where did all that hair go?





Dylan caressing my wrist during a feed the other night. Melted my heart!


Taken today. Jailbird!



Tuesday, 5 February 2013

5 Months Already!!

Apologies, it's been a while. It seems that although I have the worlds best nanny, I still struggle to get on here, so I'm going to try to get on at least fortnightly from now.

Seriously? 5 months! I have just seen a new triplet mum's first scan at 8 weeks. It honestly made me a bit teary! I know I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but it really seems like only yesterday that they were born.

We are in our 'new norm' now. The logistics in having triplets and 5 kids all up are becoming easier to deal with (most days!) and it's ok. We're coping (most days!). I'm going to blog about each child over the next few weeks as they each have their own personalities that shine out.

As you'll see from the photos below, they love their food! They have had pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, cauliflower, banana, pear, apple, rockmellon and paw paw (papaya). Isaac is generally the one that makes the least mess, but sometimes even he has his days. Ailah loves her food and likes to suck her fingers as she's swallowing! Dylan can either love his food or not want it at all. Maybe the other 2 can catch up to him now.

They now weigh:
Isaac - 5.05kg/11lbs1oz
Dylan - 5.45kg/12lbs
Ailah - 4.65kg/10lbs2oz

 Isaac (messy)

Dylan (messier)

 Ailah (messiest!)

They are still fully breastfed, they are pretty quick and efficient now, although I really hate twin feeding with the pillow at the moment. I can't wait until they can sit on my lap and feed sitting up. They're almost ready for this, but they find it hard to keep a good latch. Practise makes perfect.

We have a fairly good routine:
Approx 4:30am - wake, breastfeed, back to sleep
7am - wake, play, breakfast (fruit), then they play in their highchairs while I breastfeed
8:30/9am - sleep
10:30/11am - wake, play, breastfeed, play
12:30/1pm - sleep
2:30/3pm - wake, play, breastfeed, play
4:30pm - dinner (veges)
5pm - sleep
6:30pm - baths, breastfeed, bed - hopefully by 7:30

But as of course, things happen and some days are different, and just as you think they're in a good routine.....BANG.....they change it on you!

Here are their 5 month photos, I got all teary when I looked at these, they just look soooooo grown up!

 Isaac, Ailah and Dylan

 Little Miss Ailah

 Mr Dylan

Mr Isaac

Thanks for our outfits Grandi!!!!

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

I've been trying to write this all day!


They are eating!!
Some may not like 4 month olds eating solids, but each to their own, mine are.
We started with banana.
Isaac loooooved it.

And then did this in between spoonfuls as I couldn't get it in quick enough!!
I swear he shouldn't have been a triplet - no patience!

Ailah and Dylan weren't as sure, but have since improved greatly! 

 

 They've had banana, avocado, pear, rockmelon (not a success) and sweet potato.
After 2 weeks of having solids in the morning and no problems with their poos, they had their first lot of afternoon solids as well today. I can see the change in Ailah's weight already. 
A tip for those with multiples - put an old sheet over their bouncers!

We've had 2 birthdays. Jordan turned 6 on the 1st of January. He got this scooter as a late present.


And Amali turned 4 on the 7th of January. This is her new bike as an early birthday present. Jordan ran into her previously new bike on his motorbike and demolished said bike. Needless to say, this one is much more liked as it has a special bag, water bottle, streamers and a baby seat on the back.

 

I love how much time Jordan willingly spends with his baby brothers and sister. He is amazing and is often found lying on the floor with them or chatting away to them. They really love it too!

 

They had their first triplet bath last week, Ailah and Isaac love kicking and splashing with their legs while Dylan is more subdued, but still loves it.

 

Isaac, Dylan and Ailah
I had them weighed this week at the doctors when they got their 4 month needles.
Isaac was 4.7kg (10lbs3oz) - at birth he was 2.4kg (5lbs3oz)
Dylan was 5.2kg (11lbs4oz) - at birth he was 2.8 (6lbs1oz)
Ailah was 4.2kg (9lbs4oz) - at birth she was 2.3kg (5lbs2oz)
And still no formula!! Go boobies!


No, they are not ridiculously long, we just have a teeny bath!

Of course we had a big birthday for the kids, to help them remind them how special they are to us too. They wanted a disco dance party. So we gave it to them! We blacked out all the windows, hired a disco light (I bought one off ebay and it is still yet to arrive), downloaded songs and made a playlist just for them, had glow stick bangles as wristbands that the kids got on entry and played lots of games.
Just don't try playing pass the parcel with 27 kids. Trust me.


It was really dark, but this was taken with the flash on. And yes, I did do Gangnam Style with the kids.


Their cake looked fairly plain (thanks to my amazing Nanny who did the rainbow for me as the bubbas had to be fed), they were happy with it......


.....until they saw the inside of it! They loved it and everyone commented on it. Thank you Fiona! I stole this idea off you! See Fiona's blog at Cattle Kids and Chaos - cake pic here I am a teacher so I had to do ROYGBIV. You know, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Except that I did pink, not red. And I only did one shade of purple. You get the picture!


Amali's beautiful dress was made by Sarah at Born Gorgeous. It was a custom, I love the skirt of the dress, it's in the bubble style. Jordan chose his own clothed just from Target.


Lastly, here are some pics from today.
Ailah, Dylan and Isaac.


Dylan and Isaac


Isaac


Dylan


Ailah


See ya!


 PS: A shout out to the wonderful Heidi from Selkie Designs where I get my Amber teething necklaces from. She has so many colours and designs to choose from. Tell her I sent you!







Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Our Big Year

Thank you 2012.

You shocked us with such a life changing event. We weren't shocked for very long! Honestly, I couldn't imagine life without them, and Jordan and Amali.

So of course we had our wonderful triple blessing, we also had our first born start school. Jordan did such an amazing job of prep, he has made some lovely friends and really made us proud. I'm amazed at his Maths brain. He must get that from his Grandfather who was a Qantas accountant all his life! His teacher was wonderful, and as long as she stays at their school, she will teach the other 4 too! It has been lovely to see Jordan with his little brothers and sister these holidays. He is often found lying on the floor with them chatting away to them and showing a beautiful interest in them.

Miss Amali sure has grown up! She is loving her big sister role and is very good at it, but I had been noticing how she is very much over people saying 'oh wow, you've got triplets!' and 'aren't you lucky you've got 3 little babies'. She has heard it too much! I have made a conscious decision to make sure I invite her little friends over often. We recently did a cupcake decorating morning. Lots of fun and lots of mess.

In other 2012 events, Daniel went to Thailand with his younger brother, we bought (another) new car, we WON our amazing kitchen, we gained lovely new friends and lost some old ones, and Daniel and I notched up another year together :)

Here's a quick flick back through some favourite shots of 2012.

 The photo that turned our life upside down!!

 Yet another flood! Lets hope this summer is drier!

 5th of May 2012. My Dad's birthday. My wonderful friends Wedding Day. The day we won our kitchen!
Before

After

 My little soccer star!


 Profile pics. Around 19 weeks

My favourite maternity shot

One of my favourites

The first time I saw this image it made me cry, they were coming to meet their new babies


 She was soooooooo excited. Can you tell?

 Triple cuddles. We made the front page of the paper

 Taking our pumpkins home

 They were so teeny!

 My older pumpkins x

Pure love. The way they were in the womb. Dan will be getting this image tattooed
Photo courtesy Anya Maria Photography
 Amali at the start of 2012 and towards the end of 2012

Jordan at the start of 2012 and the first day of 2013

 Me with my girls 

My life xxx

Wishing everyone a happy, safe and healthy 2013, thank you for ALL your support in 2012!