Happy Independence Day!!

A holiday weekend gives me the opportunity to catch up on things around here.  On Saturday, we returned from a whirlwind tour of McKinney - Norman - McKinney (with Daddy flying and driving back and forth from San Antonio).

On the positive side, the boys got to spend time with all their grandparents, their uncles, their second cousins, and many other "aunts" and "uncles" in Dallas.  On the down side, this was because Great Grandma Kaldahl passed away last Sunday.  Fortunately, Autumn and Jeff were able to spend time with Grandma the week before she passed, and she was able to see the boys several times over the previous six months.

Four Generations of Kaldahls!!

The trip to Norman was an exciting one for the boys.  Besides seeing Granddaddy Greg and Gigi, the boys had their first trip to the zoo.  They didn't really notice the animals too much but they did enjoy splashing around in the water.  It even managed to draw big smiles from the normally stoic Ezra.

The boys also go to run around outside Granddad and Gigi's backyard (a true honor).  They avoided the koi pond and instead, enjoyed bottomless plates of watermelon, cuties (procurred especially by Grandaddy Greg), and picking up sticks!

While the drive home to San Antonio was one of the toughest yet, everyone is happy to be home.  Baby Girl's nursery is painted, the front room was cleared out (at least for a day), and all of the boys' toys were waiting for them.  They have wasted little time getting back into their routine which includes waking up at 7am, milk, playtime, breakfast, playtime outside, nap, lunch, playtime inside, nap, dinner, playtime outside, fruit snack, baths, and bedtime around 8pm.  More importantly, daddy is happy to have his whole gang back together again for lots of wrestling, tickling, and the occasional reminder of discipline!!

We're Back!!

After a 14 month hiatus we are going to try and be better about updating our blog.  It may not be perfect updates, but at least we can try to keep track of things a bit better...and maybe share a story or two!!

This past weekend (Memorial Day) Grandaddy Greg and Gigi came down to visit us and hang out with the boys.  I'd love to say we spent the weekend travelling all over San Antonio, but with the exception of a brief visit to the Alamo (minus Daddy), most of the weekend was spent getting the house together in preparation for Baby Girl's arrival in August.

The first major project was getting the boys' new outdoor play set set up.  Although Grandaddy and I thought it would take considerably longer, after just a couple of hours it was ready to go.

Although they were a bit skittish at first, they have come to enjoy crawling all over the play set.  Ezra and Gideon can already crawl up to the top level by themselves and Caleb only lacks the confidence to do so.

Gideon loves his new playset! 

 Caleb does too!!

Ezra loves playing in the tunnel!

 Everyone gets involved in the action!!

3 1/2 Month Dr Appt

The boys had a doctor's appointment on Wed.  I guess it was their 4 month appointment, but I'm honestly not sure what we call it.  But everything went well...even their first vaccinations :-(  They screamed like you would expect, but they have calmed down and so far are behaving as normal now that they are home.  So far, so good....

Most of all, we were curious about how much they weighed.  I think the last time we weighed them all together they were in the 8-9 lb range.  Today...they were in the 11-12 lb range which is a gain of almost 20-25% in just over a month!!  Pretty exciting.  Most importantly, they are all gaining on the preemie percentile chart.  If you recall...our first few appointments, they were not even making it onto the chart.  Now, their weights are all in the 63-83% range.  Those are still on the preemie chart, though, so most people still consider them small.

That's easy for them to say...we saw these guys at birth and they have more than doubled in size...and it is noticeable.

Caleb is our little heifer.  He weighed 12lb 4oz...almost a full pound more than his "younger" brothers.  But...he is the shortest...at 22.5 in.  The funny thing about Caleb is that his head circumference was in the 94th percentile....you'd have to see it to believe it.  The interesting thing is that during the pregnancy...all three of them measured larger than normal sized melons.  Hopefully that is a good sign of healthy brains!!

Gideon weighed the least...he was 11lb 2oz.  But...he was longer than Caleb at 23.1".  If you put the two side by side you really get the feeling that Caleb is gonna be a football player or catcher...and Gideon is gonna be the runner.  Gideon has long, slender legs.  His head was more proportional to his body too.  He still has adorably big eyes and we always love his smile!!  His reflux is not as bad as it used to be...but he still has moments where he either spits up a lot or is just clearly uncomfortable.  He actually had an ultrasound on his tummy a week or so ago...but all was normal so that was good.

Ezra weighed 11lb 5oz and was 23.4" long.  He hasn't been eating as well as the other two so I wouldn't be surprised if Gideon overtakes him in weight one of these days.  His lack of appetite earned him his own individual trip to the doctor, but they just think it is reflux or colic as well.  The frustrating part about his situation is the variety of advice we seem to get from different docs or PAs.  Some say, "Give him gripe water" other say "Don't give him grip water."  Well heck...we can just go on google to get that kind of advice.  Which we did...and since gripe water seems to work...we do it!!  :-)

We've taken the opportunity to take the boys out in public more.  We take them to church on Sundays which is fun.  For some of the hassle of having triplets...watching people get so excited to see your little boys is a definite joy.  Plus...the ladies there are so willing to help Autumn that in some ways...doing care time there is easier than at home!!  :-)

They also go on daily (sometimes twice daily) walks when the weather is nice...and we even went out for ice cream the other day.  Hopefully, if the weather is nice, Autumn and Granddaddy Greg will take the boys to National Harbor tomorrow.  But unfortunately, the forecast is not too great so that might be a weekend trip or something.

Anyways, that is about it....God Bless!

Meet the family...

Greetings from snowy Alexandria, VA.  We've had more snow this week, but now that Autumn can see it from our house...as opposed to her previous snow experience from her hospital room...she says she is starting to enjoy this wintery weather.  For those of you who know Autumn, I am sure we can all share in our collective WHAT!?!  :-)

I write this watching the boys  sleep in their bouncers.  We are trying sleeping this way because of the past few days their acid reflux has gotten pretty bad.  It is really obvious how uncomfortable they are and it affects two of their three primary functions in life...sleeping and eating.  You can guess what the third function is and they continue to do that very well :-)  But we are trying to keep them more upright to try and use gravity to their advantage.  We'll see how it goes.  The pediatrician warned us about this, and we are likely to get them some medicine to at least get rid of the "Acid" part of the reflux.  Other than that, only time and growing will help them.

The boys had a great couple of days saying goodbye to Granddaddy Greg and hello to Uncle Ryan, Grandma Ruthie, and Grandpa Steve (my parents).  We were so blessed to have Greg here for our first week at home with the boys, and now we are fortunate to have two grandparents here for an extended stay.  More importantly, this means the boys have been held by all their grandparents now!!

 

Uncle Ryan holding Caleb

Ryan came over on Sunday night, resuming our weekly get together.  He got to hold all three of them in various stages.  He even helped feed Gideon and Ezra.  He has even stated that he'd be willing to work towards changing diapers... but we won't hold him to that until he asks to :-)

On Tuesday, Granddaddy Greg left, but because my parents arrived on Monday...he was able to "pass the Grandparent torch" to them.  Needless to say, Grandma Ruthie and Grandpa Steve were excited to meet the little guys. On Tuesday morning, they jumped right into care time!!

 

Grandma Ruthie holding Caleb

 

Grandpa Steve holding Gideon or Ezra (I can't tell!)

It is worth mentioning (after the caption above) that it is pretty easy to tell them apart in person...but quite difficult to tell in pictures.  Since I generally don't have the time to download pictures right away...I forget who we took pictures with.  So...unless I can figure it out...my identifications are "best guesses".  Maybe some day we'll figure it all out...or Autumn will go through and "fix" my identifications!

Speaking of Autumn...she continues to take to this Mommy thing very well.  Even when she tries to get her dedicated sleep...she is often up here within an hour or two checking on the boys or just wanting to see them.  She is most happy holding her little men and they are definitely most happy in her arms!!

 

Gideon whispering to Ezra: "We have such a pretty mommy!!"

That's about it.  Hopefully they will sleep for another 30 minutes or so.  Then it will be time to start our 1200 care time!!

Have a great day!

God Bless!

J

4 Weeks Old!!

Hey Everyone:
Well...it has been a very busy week with multiple sleep cycles for all of us.  Perhaps the only ones who seem to be in any sort of rhythm up to this point are the boys...and that is just fine with us!!

We've been helped this week by Granddaddy Greg (Autumns Dad) who came in from Oklahoma on Tuesday night.  He got right into the care/feeding routine and within a day or so was doing some of them all by himself.

Here's a picture of him with one of the guys.  I think it is Ezra...but quite honestly...the memory isn't so good good with the amount of sleep we've been getting :-)

 

On Friday the boys turned 4 weeks old.  They are officially no longer called "Neonates" which is used to designate babies who are 0 days to 4 weeks old.  It just so happens, this also corresponded to their first follow up visit to the Pediatrician.  As I mentioned on Facebook yesterday...these are not just appointments with triplets...they are entire Events that you plan out in detail the night before.  

Getting ready for our trip meant we had to start adjusting their feeding times so we wouldn't be traveling or sitting in the dr's office on empty tummies, we gave them baths, prepared the diaper bag for any possibility (of which we used many of them), got the car ready, stroller ready (as a back up to carrying the car seats), car seats ready, outfits picked out, timelines coordinated, bottles prepared...I think that paints the picture.  I figure that is probably the same thing every family gets ready for when taking their babies out...with three...it's just all those things multiplied.

As a whole, the trip went really well.  We fed them early enough so we could feed them, put them in the car seats and be ready to go shortly after.  Here's a picture of them all ready to go:

Caleb, Gideon, Ezra

The pedatrician's office was great.  We only waited about 5 minutes before heading back for vital signs...and although we had a wait a bit longer in the actual care room...they let us stay there afterwards to feed them before getting back on the road.

The boys are all doing well. Their weights were:

Caleb = 5lb 11oz

Gideon:  5lb 14 oz

Ezra: 5lb 13.5 oz

I haven't compared them to their discharge weights yet, but they were all making plenty of progress each day and the doc was happy.

They each have little things to pray about though.  Caleb & Ezra both had minor heart murmurs.  They were slight enough that they were willing to let us go Friday evening (we were there from about 1:45p to 5p) and if they notice them again this Friday they will run EKGs.  Because the murmurs were so soft and because this is pretty common and usually turns out to be nothing...we aren't too stressed about it.  But we do ask for prayer that it would just be one of those "routine" things that takes care of itself.

Gideon continues to have bad reflex.  It makes it harder for him to eat and when he is done he is really uncomfortable.  We have started to feed him first so when he is done, we put him in his bouncer to keep him upright for another hour or so.  It seems to work pretty well and his spit-ups have dropped in frequency and intensity.

Lastly...Teddy continues to amaze us.  We had a friend drop by right before we were leaving and Teddy always stayed between John and the boys.  This wasn't at the same time...but here is a picture I took of another "Guard Dog" moment.  

 For those of you who have met Teddy...you'd be amazed how much he has changed in just days.  Pretty much the exact opposite of what he was like before the boys came along!

We hope you have a great weekend!

God Bless,

J & A