10 Years, 3 Nights, 6 Hours

Hello friends, family and blog lurkers!  I know that many of you enjoyed the video post but did not receive a fully satisfying helping of triplet awesomeness from that post alone.  In order to make up for the fact that it has been about 6 weeks since the last "real" post, I have included A LOT of pictures this time around.  (Seriously...there a lot of pictures...I tried to cut them down but there are just too many cute pictures to choose from!) Before we get to those however, we need to quickly cover all of the big events that took place since the last update.

The kids are getting bigger everyday and it is amazing to watch them progress.  We had their 6 month checkup appointment last week and the current heights/weights are listed below:

Nadia - 25 inches     12lbs 13ozs
Ryan - 27 inches     17lbs 8ozs
Andrew - 26 inches     14lbs 10ozs

Just today Andrew and then Ryan both rolled over from their backs to their tummies.  While they have all been regularly rolling from their stomach to their backs, today marked the first time for the other (and more difficult) move.  Today Nadia was also observed "scooching" herself forward on her stomach in her crib.  I am pretty sure that these kids will be fully mobile before we know what happened.

Probably the biggest change since the last post is that the triplets are now "sleeping through the night"!  By that I mean that we don't get up to feed them during the night.  While Nadia and Andrew quickly adapted to the new schedule and regularly sleep 11-12 hours, Ryan still remains the true drama queen of the group.  Some nights he sleeps the whole night with no problem...and then some nights he wakes up at 10pm, 2am, 5am, etc... screaming his head off.  Since Ryan is the only one that still requires some fashion of swaddling to sleep, most of the time we can just tuck his arms into a blanket to get him calmed down and back to sleep.  However there have been a couple occasions when that didn't work and Ryan proceeded to continue crying.  Since I had read a lot about the "cry it out" method (CIO) which a lot of parents of multiples swear by, we tested it out.  The first night Ryan cried for about 40 minutes before finally settling down.  (When I told my mom about this I think she almost called child services to report us for child abuse.)  But believe it or not the next night it only took him 15 minutes to settle down and then after that he either slept through the night or when he did wake up he was able to calm himself down quickly.  Since I said at the beginning of this paragraph that some nights he wakes up multiple times, you may be asking yourself what happened to cause Ryan to revert back to his old behavior?  Grandma's house happened that's what.

You see the title of this post comes from Julie and me celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary last weekend.  We spent 3 nights away from the triplets at a resort in Pennsylvania while the triplets stayed at my mom's house in Maryland.  We actually went to PA to attend a wedding and just turned it into an anniversary trip as well.  The 6 hours represents approximately how long it took us to get from our house to Grandma's house due to traffic and having to stop to feed the triplets.  It actually worked out really well traveling with three infants as we were able to find good places to stop to feed them and they basically slept the whole rest of the time.

We are very grateful and appreciative of my mom and the many other friends and family members who helped take care of the triplets while we were off enjoying our freedom for several days.  Remarkably the kids did awesome with the travel and the experience of being in a new place with all new people for 3 days.  However when we got home it was a bit of a rough transition as the triplets were understandably out of sorts from the whole ordeal.  The first night home was REALLY rough with everyone awake and mad during the night, but Nadia and Andrew have since reverted back to their normal sleepy ways.  Ryan on the other hand has not had as much success.  We are trying different tactics with him (CIO, swaddling, etc..) to try to get him back on track but it has been a struggle.  Regardless of how long it takes to get him back to "normal" it was worth it to have 3 whole days of no schedule, no 6:00 am baby alarm and no dirty diapers!  We want to thank everyone again that helped out while we were away as it was truly the best anniversary gift we could have received.

Well I think you all have suffered through enough text so now on with the pictures!

Why are we on a pink blanket?

The shirt says it all

Ryan about 50% of the time

Nadia after a rough day of being a triplet

Ryan goes gangsta

Many important things are decided at the Triplet Roundtable

Mommy gets creative with picture time

Ryan's current favorite place to "hang" out (sorry I just couldn't help myself)

Andrew is starting to play with all of the toys on the exersaucer

I believe I can fly!

The cutest Strawberry Shortcake ever...seriously...ever

Ok...maybe this one is cuter....just maybe

Nadia does her best impression of her "pea"

Little Sprout and her friends

Tell me again Dad the one about how Mommy couldn't do this without you...it's my favorite!

I'm sure this picture will make me cry in 20 years

Why are we taking pictures with the peas?

Andrew does his best "whatchu talkin' bout Willis" impression

Ryan asks the crystal ball when he will get to start eating "real food"

Andrew says "finally an angle that makes me look bigger than my brother!"

Let's just say I'm photogenic

Holding hands :)

In my dreams I am Superman!

All eyes open? Check.  No one crying? Check.  Everyone looking in generally the same direction? Check. Odds of getting all three in one picture? 1 in 50

Give me all your money!

Yes he does.

Check out my bunny slippers!

Andrew does his best "Wilson" impression (mid 90's sitcom reference anyone....anyone?)

The ladies won't stand a chance

Major cutie reporting for duty

How will I ever say no to that face?

Andrew's newest favorite toy

Nadia loves to "fly"

Tired of looking at pictures of me yet?

Flashing my baby blues

Andrew is not sure about his new hairdo

Ryan rocking his "grown up" 'do

Ryan is his first real set of PJ's....thanks Timmy!

I make a fricken cute frog...that's all I have to say