Seven Months

Chillin with Daddy

Well I missed the six month mark so I'll just pretend I did seven on purpose. Lucky number seven, right? And we are lucky. Very lucky that these kids are getting easier and easier to take care of. Here are their stats from their check-up:

Charles: 17 lb 4 oz, 27 1/4 inches

Eddie: 16 lb 12 oz, 27 inches

Lucy: 17 lb 6 oz, 27 inches

That's right, Lucy has passed her brothers and is now the heavyweight. No surprise there, right?

Miss Piggy

The babies are sleeping through the night. (Insert screams of delight and sobs of joy) They are early risers, though. Sometimes I wake to hear Lucy talking to herself at 5:30 in the morning. If I can, I just roll over and go back to sleep. If she's too loud, I stuff a binky in her mouth and then go back to sleep. They're all sleeping in the master bedroom, and Adam and I have moved into Elizabeth's old room. They also each have their own crib. Well, technically speaking, Eddie is in a pack n' play, but don't tell him when he's older that he got the shaft as a baby. He was just already in one at the in-laws and didn't seem to mind the hard, cold, low . . . ah! The Guilt! Anyway, so yes they sleep around 11 hours and if they get up much before 7, which they do most days, we give them a bottle and try to convince them to go back to sleep.

Mommy's favorite time of the day!

Having them all in the other room does present it's own problems, however. It's great at night that we don't have to hear every little peep. But for naps, it can be pretty maddening. Lucy is the biggest trouble-maker. Without fail, she'll wake up one hour after she fell asleep and proceed to gibber gabber and do this really annoying droning thing until she's woken her brothers. For the nap all four take together after lunch, I've had to learn to time it juuuuuuust right so either all three babies are dead asleep by the time I take Elizabeth in, or put Elizabeth in early and make sure she's soundly sleeping before I put the babies to bed. Otherwise I find her standing in her crib, laughing and talking to Charlie and/or Lucy, who moments before were peacefully sleeping. Oh, and did I mention that Elizabeth figured out how to climb out of her crib? Yeah. Good times.

What I usually see when I peek in during their nap.

Look what I can do, Daddy!

I ♥ my jumparoo!

The babies are rolling all over the place and they all three are pushing up on their hands and knees and rocking. Lucy, the strongest, even goes so far as to push up on her feet, downward dog style. And just today I saw her army crawling to get at something. Probably somebody else's binky. She is the biggest bully. She'll roll on top of one of the boys and grab their binky right out of their mouths. Or I'll hear crying and come in to see her gleefully kicking her brother's face. And every time she has the sweetest, most innocent smile on her face.

Lucy's favorite victims, ready to hit the town.

The other big development is that they're eating solids now. It took them a while to warm up to it (and to not hate sitting for more than a minute in their bumbos) but now they go gangbusters. The only thing I can't figure out is how much formula to feed them and when. I know they say to give them solids before their bottles, but at 6 AM, it's not gonna happen. And for dinner, we're good about giving them solids first, but then they don't want much to do w/ their bottle, and will only take 5-6 oz where they used to take 8. And some days it's a fight just to get them to take that. So it's been a rocky transition as we've tried to figure things out. Just the logistics of feeding them all at the same time took a lot of thought. And spoon-feeding them is quite the workout, shoveling food into their mouths as fast as I can while keeping an eye on Elizabeth ("Don't take the sandwich apart!")

Please, Sir. We want some more.

All in all they're much happier, mellower babies than they were a few months ago. Does that make for a happier, mellower mother? I wish. My anger and depression has gotten worse. But I'm looking for help (both physically and mentally speaking) and hoping that will make a difference. In the meantime, Adam and Elizabeth put up with me as best they can and life just goes on.

Love this guy.