8 months old: Jude and Lucia

Things are changing so fast around here. When I wrote my update on Isaac and Dahlia a couple of weeks ago, Jude and Lucy were not even close to sitting up by themselves. Now, although neither can get into that position alone, they can both remain seated if someone puts them that way. This is revolutionary for life around here because it means that, despite their acid reflux, all the kids can play somewhat independently without needing to be propped up in a bouncy seat or swing. Woohoo! Here's more on what's been going on with our "middle" children lately:

Jude is a very sweet little boy who loves to observe the world around him. In the past week or so, he has started to show affection by putting his arms around my neck and giving me wet, sloppy kisses. It's a good thing he's so darn cute during the day because he's long been the main reason I can't get any sleep at night! Since his sleep study back in July turned out normal, we are thinking that he might just be a light sleeper; with that in mind, we moved him into a pack 'n' play in the guest room a few weeks ago, and he's been doing much better.

Jude, hooked up to a bunch of sensors but very
happy to see me after his 3-hour sleep study!

Jude cracks us up because he loves people, but he hates it when any of the other babies touch him or even get near him (not that he has a problem touching them!). I keep telling him that he's just going to have to get used to being crowded all the time! Fortunately for him, he has recently started to army-crawl; the newfound mobility seems to have ease his frustration somewhat. And I know that real crawling is not far away because he will occasionally get on all fours and rock now. Or perhaps he will just skip crawling altogether: A couple of days ago, he surprised us (and himself, I think) by pulling up to stand in the playard—go, Jude!

"Whoa, what did I just do?"

Lucia is pure sunshine: She wakes up happy, loves to talk (she can say "ba," "da," "ma," "na," and "nigh"), and is generally a very content baby. Unfortunately, Lucy hates taking her bottle, which has caused her to fall behind the other babies in the weight department. Thanks in part to Abuelita Joanna, however, Lucy has finally started to fill out. During Abuelita's recent visit, she used her grandma magic to get Lucy to drink everything—all the time! It also helps that Lucy loves her solid foods. As soon as you give her a bite, her little mouth is open and ready for the next one!

Lucy, sitting just as pretty as her sister does

Lucy also loves to stick out her tongue. It's always out there, sometimes with its tip curled up. That little tongue is so cute that we often find ourselves sticking out our own in response (a habit we should probably try to break before the babies start thinking this is a socially acceptable greeting!). As adept as she is with that muscle, however, Lucy is the only baby that hasn't yet attempted to get on all fours. In fact, if you even try to put her in the position, she will absolutely refuse to bend at the hips (stubborn!). We are working with her on that, since she can clearly be quite flexible when she wants to be:



Oh, and I happen to have some news about the other babies, too: Dahlia has mastered crawling, and Isaac cut his first tooth the day before yesterday! Yep, things sure are changing fast around here!

We're singin' the acid blues

Feedings have been rough around here for the past couple of weeks. Not only have the babies started to exhibit "stranger anxiety" (occasionally screaming when someone other than Mom or Dad picks them up, refusing to let anyone else feed them, etc.), but also we are still dealing with the dreaded acid reflux.

I don't remember exactly when reflux entered the picture, but I do know that it manifested itself early on as projectile vomiting. Lots of it. In addition, Dahlia would scream during feedings, and she would only eat if I walked with her while singing. Our first plan of attack involved placing wedges in the cribs. We also kept the babies at a 45-degree angle while feeding, and we made sure to sit them up for a while (in swings or Boppys) before laying them down. When these measures weren't enough, the pediatrician put all of the babies on Zantac (periodically increasing the dosage to adjust for weight gain). Because Isaac continued to exhibit nearly constant discomfort, the doctor eventually added Prevacid to his treatment plan.

This regimen seemed to be doing the trick. Projectile vomiting? Hadn't seen it since Johnny and Holly's visit in late March. Crib wedges? We removed them several weeks ago with no apparent ill effects. Screaming during feeding? Not anymore.

But about a month ago, things suddenly changed. Jude began moaning all night long, while Isaac tossed and turned and grunted in the crib across from him. Lucy started refusing to drink more than half her bottle without a lot of coaxing (again, walking and singing proved helpful), and the boys soon followed suit. In the past couple of days, even Dahlia (our most consistent eater) has stopped taking a full bottle. And Lucy has projectile vomited twice in the last 24 hours.

Since the current treatment has clearly ceased to be effective, the pediatrician is recommending that we take Jude and Lucy off of Zantac and put them on Prevacid. Isaac is going off of Zantac and Prevacid and starting Prilosec. Because Dahlia's issues are so recent, she is sticking with Zantac for the time being. I am desperately hoping that this new treatment plan will make a difference. If you've had a baby with reflux, you know how frustrating it can be to deal with this condition. Now multiply the exhaustion and feelings of helplessness by four, and you'll have an idea of what we're going through!

At least the reflux doesn't seem to be affecting the babies' growth or development. And I am grateful that we aren't dealing with anything other than relatively mild acid reflux—from what I've heard, things could be so much worse! I thank God every day for giving me such beautiful, healthy, rock star babies:

Isaac, Lucy, Jude, and Dahlia (clockwise from bottom left),
modeling the outfits my cousin Tiffany gave them

3 months old ... and smiling!

It may be hard to believe, but with four 3-month-olds, Ted and I have now officially changed a year's worth of diapers, fed a year's worth of bottles, and burped a year's worth of babies. We do not, however, have a year's worth of parenting under our belts, so we are muddling our way through it all like any sleep-deprived new parents and just doing the best we can.

Fortunately, though, the lack of sleep did go down a notch last week: Little Dahlia has slept until approximately 7am for the past 6 days in a row! Our brown-eyed girl is also eating as much as her big brother Isaac, and I have a feeling that it won't be long until she catches up with our current heavyweight. Here she is cracking up at her silly mommy:

Isaac is still struggling a bit with fussiness related to his acid reflux, but it's not affecting his weight at all: He was 11 lb. 14 oz. when I took him to the doctor a week ago! He slept until 6am one day last week, but usually he's clamoring for food at 4am sharp. When Isaac gets your undivided attention, he gives you a big smile, and his beautiful, blue eyes light up as he says, "Ah-woooo!"

I call Jude a "lump" because he is usually just content to slump over on your shoulder and sleep all day. When he's supposed to be sleeping, though, he's wide awake and kicking the whole time, taking in everything in the room with his big, gray eyes. Jude is still taking forever to eat, and I've given up on trying to get him to eat as much as Isaac. When he laughs, he likes to say, "Goo!"

Lucia is still the littlest one (Ted describes her as "dainty"), but I think she may be entering a growth spurt: She's now eating as much as Jude! Blue-eyed Lucy rarely cries, and she was the first to smile. I am going to have to be careful with her because I think that smile could get me to do just about anything she wants!

Lucy also got her first acting gig on Sunday, as the Baby Jesus for a Christmas DVD (another baby was also filmed, so we don't know whether Lucy's footage will be used, but she's still a star in our eyes!). Here she is smiling up into Mary's face:

This post would not be complete without a big thank you to all of the wonderful people who have helped us out over the past 3 months, and especially to those of you who answered my S.O.S. call for help last week—for the first time in a long while, we have coverage for the entire work week! This is a big deal because it means that Ted will not have to take time away from work to help me feed the babies, which in turn means that he will get done working at a decent hour (rather than as late as midnight), and he can actually do something other than work or feed babies. I am in no hurry for the kids to grow up, but I will be so glad when they can hold their own bottles!

Lookalikes and more

As I promised to do a while back, I scanned a baby picture of me to compare it to a photo of Lucia at the same age:

Suzanna at 3 weeks

People tell me all the time that Lucia is my mini-me, but looking at these photos together, I'm not so sure anymore:

Lucia at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

I wish I had a 3-week photo of Ted to post for the sake of comparison, but the earliest one I have of him is his 1-year portrait. I did take pictures of the other kids when I took the one of Lucia, though, and I can't decide which one (if any) most resembles my own baby picture:

Jude at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

Isaac at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

Dahlia at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

In addition to posting new pics of the kids, I wanted to give everyone an update on Jude's echocardiogram: As I suspected, it showed no signs of a hole in his heart! Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that all is well with the little guy. For the past few days, both he and Isaac have been constipated, probably because of the rice cereal we'd been giving them to combat acid reflux. Since Jude no longer shows signs signs of reflux and Isaac's seems to be under control with twice-daily doses of Zantac, we've stopped the rice cereal on the boys (as well as giving them sugar water and using the infamous lubricated Q-tip method) in an effort to get things moving again. No luck yet, but I figure it's gotta come out sometime, right?

Despite the boys' troubles, the girls are still on rice cereal (and Zantac in Dahlia's case) for their acid reflux. Their systems seem to handle it just fine, and although they do eat less than the boys, they are steadily gaining weight: At the girls' 2-month appointment yesterday, Lucia weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. and Dahlia was 8 lb. 8 oz. Yes, the little runt has surpassed her sister by 2 ounces! I think that Lucia is going to have to stop looking in the mirror and get serious about eating if she is going to keep up with Dahlia.

Lucia admiring the baby in the mirror

As for me and Ted, we are exhausted but seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in the sleep-deprivation department. For the past week and a half, the babies have been sleeping at least 5 hours in a row, and on two nights, three of the four slept 7 hours! If we could just get all of them to agree to sleep that long at the same time, we'd be all set. I didn't let the lack of sleep prevent me from meeting with my Moms of Multiples group last night, though. I had such a great time talking to and laughing with them that I didn't get home until just before midnight (just in time to prevent the Civic from turning into a pumpkin!). The babies even got a play date out of it: This morning I met one of the triplet moms at a park, and we sat with the babies (making sure no one got too close to them) while her kids wore themselves out on the playground. It was exhilarating to be in the outside world and know that I can manage four babies somewhere else besides home and the pediatrician's office. I need to stop procrastinating and get around to ordering a quad stroller soon!

First trip to the park
(left to right: Lucia, Isaac, Dahlia, and Jude)

2 months old!

Yes, believe it or not, the babies turned 2 months old yesterday! They are growing and changing so much every day, though, that it seems they've been around much longer than that. I wish I had the time to post more often, but since I don't, here are a few pics along with some quick tidbits about each baby:

Isaac doing what he does best: eating!

Isaac is a bright-eyed and alert little cuddler. However, he's been having a rough time over the past week. Not only has he developed some baby acne, but also it seems that the soy formula made his reflux and gassiness even worse (we now have him on Alimentum, a hypoallergenic formula). Despite his digestive issues, Isaac has succeeded in overtaking Jude to become our big boy: At the boys' 2-month check-up on Monday, Isaac weighed 10 lb. 3 oz.! He is definitely our most demanding eater, and I think he's probably the only thing keeping the rest of the kids from sleeping through the night at this point. He's getting better, though: Last night he (and, therefore, everyone else) went from 8pm to 3:30am between feedings!

Jude snoozing on a Boppy
(froggy cover made by his great-aunt Priscilla!)

Jude is much quieter than Isaac, taking in everything around him (especially the TV!) with his big, serious eyes. He is a very sweet, laidback little boy who only fusses when we forget to give him his gas drops on time. Jude is the same length as Isaac but weighs "only" 9 lb. 6 oz. (probably because he takes forever to eat, usually falling asleep as soon as the bottle hits his mouth and remaining dead to the world until you finally give up). Because the pediatrician detected a slight murmur in his heart on Monday, Ted is taking him to get an echocardiogram tomorrow. The doctor told us that it's more than likely not a problem, so we're just waiting to see the test results before getting worried.

Lucia living up to the claim on her sleeper: so pretty!

Lucia is our princess. She has a dimple in her cheek and loves to look at the baby in the mirror. Lucia thrives on praise and is overall a very patient and pleasant little girl, but make no mistake: She knows what she wants and how she wants it. Whenever anyone tries to force her eat more, she gags dramatically and sometimes even brings everything back up. The spitting up hasn't impacted her weight too badly, though: At her weight check last week, she weighed 7 lb. 8 oz. We're not sure why she's lagging behind her brothers, but the pediatrician isn't worried since her weight is within normal range for her adjusted age of 2 weeks.

Dahlia on her knees
(is she praying ... or begging her daddy for mercy while he burps her?)

Dahlia has been growing furiously and has almost caught up to her sister: At the girls' weight check, she weighed 7 lb. 4 oz. Dahlia is strong and very squirmy; she is happiest when we can help her sit up or stand like a big girl. She gets so frustrated with being a baby that I would not be surprised if she is the first to crawl, stand, and walk. Like her sister, she has a dimple, and her eyes are always smiling. I can't wait to see her (or any of the babies, for that matter) smile for real! I wonder if any of them will have their daddy's beautiful smile ...

Proud daddy with his brood
(left to right: Isaac, Dahlia, Lucia, and Jude)

Lack of sleep = sick mommy

Yep, I'm sick. It started with a sore throat on Monday night, and things went downhill from there (runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, achiness, etc.). I went to the doctor yesterday hoping for some heavy-duty meds to get me well in record time but, since I don't have a fever, he just prescribed an antihistamine and told me to get plenty of rest (yeah, right!). I am really hoping I didn't contaminate the kids before realizing that this was more than just an allergy attack, especially since our insurance did not approve them for the all-important RSV shot (believe it or not, the babies would have been covered if they'd been born at 32 weeks, which means that we are basically being penalized for making it as far as I did!).

We certainly don't need another source of discomfort for the babies. In the past couple of weeks, all of them have exhibited signs of reflux to some degree, including spitting up the entire contents of their stomachs, arching their backs, gagging, and/or having difficulty sleeping. This condition is not unusual for preemies (sometimes the valve between the esophagus and the stomach doesn't close properly), but combined with their pre-existing gassiness, it's contributed to an unusual amount of fussiness. We've switched to a soy formula and placed wedges in the cribs to keep the babies' heads elevated while sleeping, but since these measures haven't completely solved the problem, we started them on Zantac tonight. Hopefully this will help them keep their food (and stomach acid) down so that they can be more comfortable.

I don't really have anything to complain about, though: The big news is that the babies have been sleeping for two 5-hour stretches at night for about a week now. Here's hoping that they make it to 6 hours in the near future!