6 Months Old!

The babies turned 6 months old yesterday! I can't believe how big they are getting and how much they have changed in the last few months. We spent most of the day at home since Pat had a bachelor party to go to for Uncle Chris, in the afternoon and evening. The babies and I, along with Aunt Kathy went to my cousin Anne's house for her daughter Dorothy's 3rd birthday party. We only got to stay for a little while since the babies were fussy but we did get to see their new house and meet their boxer named Elmo. The babies love seeing dogs. I think they miss Titan and Apollo just like we do. I am told that the dogs are enjoying their extended vacation at my parents' house though so it does make it easier. Thanksgiving was really nice. We went to lunch at my parents house and then got to spend some time with Pat's family in the evening. I was one of the crazy people who went shopping at 4am on Friday morning so it was nice to go home and put the babies to bed at their normal bedtime and then relax for a little while. Living so close to both of our parents helps!
Katie rolled over from her back to tummy for the first time yesterday. She finally was motivated enough to do it. I think she was just trying to show off for her Godmother but I'll take it! (Kathy was on the floor playing with her at the time...) Katie has also gotten much more mobile and vocal in the last week or so. She loves playing in her jumparoo and squeals and laughs the whole time. She's is also teething so her moods can go from happy to VERY cranky in just a matter of minutes.
Seamus is still a smiley, silly boy. He loves to eat solid foods and tries to help you feed him constantly which can get very messy. He has gotten a little clingy around people he doesn't know but is usually all smiles again after he warms up to the situation. His latest thing is to try and roll to get to his sisters. He likes looking at them and trying to touch them when they are playing on the floor or on our bed while we're doing Katie's stretches. He and Katie actually were holding their own private conversation today, just babbling away and giggling the whole time.
Helena is still Helena. Nice and cute one moment giving you a silly smile while crinkling up her big blue eyes, and a holy terror the next, screaming until she turns purple and hyperventilates. She still thinks she should be an only child and constantly puts her arms up to be picked up and held anytime someone walks by her. Grandpa taught her that! She's still the smallest and knows how to use it to her advantage. She'll roll right over her brother and sister and end up kicking them in the head while they're playing together. I have a feeling she's going to be our trouble maker in the future.
Today we went to JCPennys and got the babies 6 month/Christmas pictures taken. They turned out pretty cute but wouldn't you know it, Seamus, the one who always smiles was refusing to smile at all while we were there. I think we might have caught a smirk in one of the shots but he was just not into it today. The girls who can be so serious sometimes were all smiles and giggles. I guess 2 out of 3 isn't too bad. Tomorrow it's back to work and then the babies have their 6 month checkup. That means more shots so tomorrow night and Tuesday could be very exhausting! Guess that means I should stop typing and start thinking about getting some sleep.
The first picture is of Katie passed out while eating. I took the bottle out of her mouth and this is how she stayed. The next ones are of the babies in their high chairs on their 6 month day (Helena, Katie, Seamus).

Oops, forgot the title!

My discovery of the week is that there is a whole new level of being tired, way past exhausted, that I never knew existed before I had kids. I hope that this new as yet unnamed discovery will be the only one I have for a while. Maybe I'll name this state of tiredness after Helena since she has been one of the main causes of it this past week. Her new thing is that she wants to get up and play at about 1am and cries until you come get her. Then she'll do it again at about 3am and if we're very lucky she may have a second repeat performance at around 4 or 5am. I'm hoping that it's a phase that will pass quickly. We had a talk with her about spending the night in the pack and play in the computer room if she keeps it up and she only got up once last night. I'd like to believe it was the "talk" that did it but I think she may have just been exhausted from lack of sleep herself. One of the other reasons I haven't been getting much sleep is that we had to move the dogs out this week. Titan and Apollo went to live with my parents for a while. It was just getting too hard to take care of them and give them the attention that they need. We thought for a while that we could do it but now that it's getting closer to winter it was clear that things were just not going to work out. Both Pat and I are really sad that they had to go but at least it's not to a shelter. I think we both just feel like terrible owners for not being able to take care of them ourselves. Titan already had to go through leaving his family when they had kids. That's how we got him in the first place and Apollo we have had since he was 10 weeks old. He was our original baby! It makes me sad to walk into the house and not see them. I keep thinking I'm going to see them every time I look into the back yard from the kitchen. I miss them a ton but I know they're being taken care of and having fun with my parents dog, Venus. The first 2 pictures are of Titan and then Apollo on the day they left.
On a good note, Katie is down to one day a week in therapy! We have really been trying to work with her on stretching and rolling at home so she doesn't have to go back to 2 times a week. We also made the babies an appointment to get their Christmas photos taken the weekend of Thanksgiving. I'm still not looking forward to repeating that experience again but I do want new photos taken so it has to be done. Now I just need to make sure that they haven't outgrown the outfits we bought for them to wear. The last picture is of Katie and Seamus playing together in Seamus's crib. Either that or he's using his sister as a pillow. Not sure which is happening...

One Crazy Week, The Sequel

"Where is began, I can't begin to knowin'..." somehow the lyrics of Sweet Caroline start to run through my head as I think back over the sheer madness of this past week. To start, on Saturday we all went to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Kim get married at St. Basil's. The babies were actually really well behaved, especially since they had to wear their helmets through the ceremony and were still getting used to them. Thanks again Aunt Becca for holding Katie! We then went over to my parents for a little while to visit with family before the reception began. The babies went home to be fed and got to hang out with their Aunt Kathy, Mrs. Trakul, and Mrs. Dressig for the night. Thanks again to you guys as well! It was nice for us to be able to see everyone from out of town and actually have a night out baby-free. On Sunday both Pat and I raked about a billion leaves that we had been trying to find time to do for the last week or so and then I had to go shopping for formula and dog food so at least some of us around here could eat. Monday I had quintet practice in the evening again so we can hopefully be ready to perform in another week or so. Tuesday both Katie and Seamus had physical therapy so all of us had to go. Seamus needed to get his final evaluation done now that he has his helmet. He is officially done with therapy now for good! The only reason he would need to go back would be if he developed some other problems due to his helmet, but his torticolis is gone! Katie is still going twice a week. She's made great progress but is only about 80-85% of the way there with her neck muscles. Since she's been struggling with her neck some of her developmental milestones have been a little lagging so we've been working on things like rolling over the last couple of sessions. She can do it tummy to back but only in one direction, and has never done it back to tummy on her own. The other 2 are rolling all over the place so we want her to try and join the fun! We're hoping the helmet might help with that so she won't get stuck on the flat part of her head as easily. On Wednesday night I had conferences and the babies needed to have baths so Aunt Kathy came over to help Pat. This was a really eye opening experience for me because it made me realize how incredibly helpless having kids can make you feel sometimes. I didn't like the fact (and still don't) that I had to have someone else come over and help my kids take a bath. That seems like something that just should never have to happen, but there was no choice. Because of their helmets, they have to have baths more frequently and I had conferences on Thursday afternoon and evening as well. On top of that I had to ask the one person I feel like I've had to let down the most with this whole baby situation. I'm supposed to be Kathy's Matron of Honor when she gets married in less than a month and I feel like the only thing I've done is NOT do anything at all. I've missed fittings for her dress- when she went to mine, missed helping with most of her bridal shower- when she did a ton for both my wedding and baby shower, didn't do anywhere near as much for her bachelorette party as she did planning mine, and the list just goes on and on. Let me just say that I pretty much feel like the worst friend ever and yet she will still drop everything for me when I call. I don't know what I did to deserve her but I thank God that I have people like her in my life! Thursday was an absolute day from Hell! I'm sure Pat and my dad would definitely agree. As I mentioned before, I had conferences in the afternoon and evening so between the hours of 2:30 and 5 I had to pick Katie up and take her to therapy, then take her to her helmet fitting where my dad and Pat were waiting with the other 2, schedule their next fitting appointment, and somehow make it back to work by 5. I walked through the door at 4:58 so miracles do happen! The babies missed their nap that day so my dad offered to stay and help Pat feed the cranky mess that they had become. Then of course he offered to stay and help with baths which led to their evening feeding. Needless to say, it was around 8pm by the time he finally got out of here. Keep in mind he'd been at our house since about 6:45 yesterday morning. Again, I don't know why we deserve people like this in our lives but we really appreciate it! Today both Pat and I had to take another half day to take the babies to see the cranio-facial specialist at Childrens. Grandpa got to have the afternoon off for once instead of having to work overtime instead! We finally got the results of Seamus's CT scan and everything looked good. He'll have to have another set of x-rays in about 6 weeks but so far no fused sutures which definitely is a good thing! Both of the girls x-rays also came back negative so we had good news all the way around today. They did have to go have their helmets readjusted again though so we got to make the trip through the lovely tunnel system down at the medical center, as we wandered over to Detroit Receiving. That's where the office is for the helmet adjustments. Let me just say, it's such a lovely place. I cannot for the life of me understand how a hospital can NOT have a changing area in any of their restrooms. Seamus got to have his diaper changed on a table in one of the surgical waiting areas because that was about the only place besides the disgusting floor that I could find. Just a word of warning... unless you have some emergency gun shot wound, Detroit Receiving is not a place you want to be!
The babies did get to have squash for the first time today and we're all looking forward to a relatively quiet weekend. Here's some pictures of our super-heroes! Pat and I keep calling them that in their helmets. The first picture is of us the day of Mike's wedding. The others in order are Katie aka Super Bug, Helena aka Super Bean, and Seamus aka Super Tater!

One Crazy Week!

This might just be one of the craziest weeks we've had since going back to work. Or, maybe I just need a break. Not sure which, but I am definitely happy that it is Friday! On Monday evening I started back at my brass quintet. We've got a benefit that we are playing towards the end of the month so we need to get some music worked up. I'm not sure how long I am going to be doing this. I like playing but I just don't have the time or energy to do it every week if we don't have any gigs lined up. I know we were talking about setting some things up at the cancer center at St John's Medical Center. That would be something I would want to do but only if it's a sure thing. Pat and I also had to go get our flu shots so we don't get the babies sick. On Tuesday Katie had therapy and that night I had band practice so Pat was on his own with the babies 2 nights in a row. Not exactly a relaxing evening for him either. Wednesday we both had to take the afternoon off of work to take the babies to go get their helmets. My dad went with us since we were warned in advance that this was going to be a long appointment. We got there a little before 1pm and didn't leave until almost 5:30. The babies missed their naps, were cranky, and had to sit through a ton of fittings and readjustments. As my dad put it... sitting through one movie is one thing but sitting through 3 is too long. We got to watch Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and some Pooh movie while sitting there. Once we got home we had to feed the babies and put their helmets on for an hour. They all screamed for about 45 minutes of that hour. Not sure if it was because of the helmets or if they were just over tired so we gave them their baths, a bottle, and put them to bed. At that point Pat and I were so fried that I don't think we even knew our own names. Thursday Pat had conferences and Katie had therapy so my dad got to work overtime again. Good thing he can stay whenever we need him to because I have no idea what we would do if he couldn't! Katie and I got home, Grandpa stayed and helped me feed them, and Pat came home for a few minutes to say hi and have some dinner. Then he was off again back to work to finish his evening of Hell. Oh, I mean his lovely evening of sitting and talking to parents, yeah right! I was on my own for bed time and bottles but we did pretty well. I wanted to make sure that Seamus actually ate because he's started this new thing with not wanting to eat his bottle out of his bouncer. He'd much rather play and kick his feet than settle down to eat. We've had to feed him by himself recently to get him to eat. Today Seamus had his CT scan down at Children's Hospital. My mom went with Pat who had the day off to help give him a hand while my dad stayed here with the girls. I had to work :( Seamus wasn't allowed to eat after 6:15 this morning so we had to make sure that he ate before then. The babies get up once during the night still anyway so this wasn't too big of a deal. We just had to make sure that they got up early enough so that he was finished by then. The doctors thought that he was going to have to be put under for the test but luckily he feel asleep right before the test and they were able to do it without putting him out. That allowed them to leave the hospital right after the test was done instead of having to make sure Seamus was coming around okay. We should find out at our appointment next Friday what the results are. Say an extra prayer for us!! This evening for dinner the babies had peas for the first time. Up until this point the only solid food they have had is rice cereal and oatmeal. They were too funny! All 3 of them had this look on their faces like...Um, I think this cereal has gone bad! They did pretty good though and all 3 of them ate most of it. I then had to run out and try to find some clothes for me and the babies to wear to Michael's wedding tomorrow. We realized that we don't really have anything for them to wear for it and I still don't fit into most of my clothes. I'm starting to think that I never will. Pat had soccer tonight as well(they won!) so we had to do helmets, baths and bed a little earlier. None of us were complaining though. The babies were cranky anyway and I was just happy that I would have help at bed time tonight. Chances are they'll all get up a little earlier during the night but there's nothing we can do. When they do get up it's helmet time again. I'm not looking forward to that. They're definitely not used to them yet and the schedule they have to follow for wear is no fun. Tomorrow is 4 hours 3 times a day which is more than they are awake. I just pray that they'll sleep a little bit or else Pat and I will be walking zombies at the wedding tomorrow. By next week Weds they will be wearing the helmets full time 23 hours a day. The only time they will be off is for baths and to clean the helmets and wait for them to dry. We also have to take them off at diaper changing time to wipe the sweat out of them. Oh yeah, even though it's not warm out the babies heads sweat like crazy in them. I'm sure that will cause some skin issues in the near future not to mention the smell that I'm sure the helmets will acquire after wearing them for a while. I'm picturing or should I say smelling hockey gloves! Have I mentioned that I already HATE these helmets?? I know they need them but I don't have to like them and I'm already waiting for the day when we will be done with them forever! We haven't taken any pictures of them yet because Pat and I are still trying to get used to seeing them and not being able to kiss their heads whenever we want. It sucks! Oh I almost forgot(don't know how!!), on top of all of this craziness this week the babies have had a cold. Chances are it's from the RSV vaccine a week or so ago. That means that every night this week for at least part of the night, one of the babies has been up because they couldn't breathe. We've sucked boogers, wiped noses, and tried to get them to go back to sleep which usually means one of us is holding them in our bed for a couple of hours. Gee, no wonder I'm so tired right now. If half of this makes sense I'll be doing really well! Here are some pictures of the babies eating their first veggies. Helena isn't sure about the flavor. Katie looks like she's trying to give pea kisses, and Seamus is just hanging out with peas on his face!