Maternity leave should be 12 months not 12 weeks

Well, after 12 weeks of bed rest followed by 12 weeks of maternity leave I go back to work tom arrow. My employer has been more than kind about my absence and it is time for me to get back to them. I feel very thankful to still have a job given this economy so I am not complaining. But, I will miss my 3 doodle bugs while I am at work. Thankfully, I will be working from home for the next 3 days.... so I can start transitioning from Mom to working Mom slowly. Alex has clearly gotten the memo that Mommy is heading back to work so sleeping through the night is a must. Lila and Brandon must have not checked there e-mail because they are not making it trough the night. Lila is close... Brandon... well... he is a cutie :)

The Perry Boys after hearing that Mommy is heading back to work :(

Who are you, small child? And what have you done with our Alex?

It was a banner night, as Alex slept from about 11:30 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. this morning. While this was not unwelcome, it was unexpected.

I hypothesize that, at some point in the time-space continuum, Future Alex is working on his Ph.D. and has sent a Cyberdyne Systems' InfantBot 3000XL back in time to record the kids' early, formative months. I can not yet guess as to how this information will benefit Future Alex, but we may come to find out at his commencement ceremony.

Present Alex is probably safely ensconced in a bubble of frozen time-space, to be released and re-inserted into the continuum at a predetermined moment.

Future Alex's only flaw (there's always one, isn't there?) is that he should have programmed the InfantBot to wake up at least twice in the middle of the night, cry like a tornado siren, and spit up at least once. Details, details.

Only time will tell if my hypothesis comes true. But if I'm right, and if Future Alex has access to this blog archive and is reading this message, I hope he'll at least send back some useful information next time. Will IU ever win another NCAA title? Will the Cubbies ever reach the Series? (Notice I said "reach.") Will I ever get the lawn as green as the ones on the Scott's commercials or am I just wasting my time??

At this point, I should mention a few things:

1. I watch too much television.

2. Actually I don't watch as much as I used to, but what I do watch tends to lean away from the traditional.

3. Specifically Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and LOST .

4. Also, the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was on Family Guy last night.

5. I own the Back to the Future box set.

Have a great day!

Great photos

Jennifer Driscoll came by the house last Saturday morning to take the kids' pictures. I met Jennifer through work and continue to be impressed by her work. If anyone needs portraits or a wedding photographer, I would highly recommend her. You can visit her site here. And check out her blog, where she posted a few pics of the kids. We can't wait until our next photo shoot... Thanks Jennifer!!

Making weight

As of yesterday, Brandon weighed 10 lbs, and Alex and Lila both weighed 9 lbs 12 oz. Progress! I’d write more, but I have a fussy Alex to contend with!

One-handed blogging

Hi world, long time no post. Tonight has been a challenge thus far, as it seems we are 3 for 3 in the "Hold Me or I Will Cry (Loudly)" department. So I've got Alex in my left arm and Brandon on my lap. Mom is elsewhere occupied with Miss Lila, who is only happy when being escorted up and down the stairs. And up. And down. Again and again. But hey, at least we've figured out a system!

On another note, we wanted to thank the anonymous formula angel who sent us several containers via eBay. If you're reading this, tell us who you are!

Lastly (because my right hand is tired of hunting and pecking), here's a picture of the kids wearing little jackets that Grandmom Deb made.

Our big adventure

So it was finally warm and sunny enough to take the kids out for a walk today. So I pulled the triplet stroller (thanks, Joy!) out of the garage, and we loaded everyone in. It takes a little while to warmly dress and carseatify (car-seat-ify - definition: to turn one's child into a car seat; no, wait, that's not right; to put one's child in to a car seat; yes, that's better) them all, but Abby handled that while I extracted the stroller.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and none of them woke up once during our 20-or-so-minute walk. We definitely got a few double-takes from people driving by, but all in all did not seem to attract too much attention. I mean, no one ran screaming out of their front door, half dressed with their camera phone out, or anything like that. Then again, it's not even spring yet. It should be interesting to see what a walk is like when there are lots of people outside.

I think the kids enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. As I said, they never woke up, so it was at least relaxing, if nothing else. We sure liked it; poor Abby hadn't been on a nice walk outside in months!

The stroller is, umm, large. Yep. Sure is. Daddy is 6'6" tall, if that gives you any sense of scale.

Alex says, "Hide my fair skin from the sun!"

Brandon says, "Let's get moving, green means go!"

Lila says, "Where are my fans? Where are all the cameras?"

Cruising!

Back at home, Milo completes the post-race inspection.

Happy Birthday Daddy

Today is Sam's 31st Birthday. The cockapoo has been on the Internet again. He and the babies ordered Daddy a Birthday present.

Lila helped wrap the gift. It was children's music book so we can have more guitar rock jam sessions. The book is full of children classics, so we hear daddy playing something other than The Beatles. We like The Beatles, but we also like the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

The babies are wearing matching outfits. Hard to see, but they say "I Love Daddy"

Also, I wanted to share a picture of this beautiful necklace Sam got me for the babies due date. It is a silver family tree pendant with a garnet (babies birthstone) for each child. What a great hubby.

Happy due date and a day in the life

First off, I would like to say "HAPPY DUE DATE BABIES". That is right, today is my actual due date had this pregnancy gone to term. Hard to believe.... They are due today but we already have such a routine down. Here is what we have in a typical day:

24 bottles

1 and 1/4 cans of powder formula

3 doses of vitamins and 4 doses of Prilosec

About 24 diapers

1 super nanny, Casey

30 minutes of tummy time (Clearly, Milo is in charge of supervising tummy time)

2 or 3 loads of baby laundry

and 30 to 45 minutes of rock out guitar jam with Daddy before bedtime

1 tired but happy Mommy (no pictures of tired Mommy, please)

Nobody can call Brandon a runt

We had our 2 month Doctor Jarvis visit. The babies are doing great. Our little Brandon, who was the smallest at birth, is now 8lbs! Miss Lila Joy is also 8lbs. And Alex is right behind at 7lbs13ounces. They got lots of shots today so they are a little cranky. Also, Lila sleep for a 5 hour stretch last night! Unfortunately, this did not help us get more sleep because the boys were up every 2 hours!

Before our doctor visit


Do you like our overalls? Okay, we are off to plow the fields.

New weights coming soon

We’re really excited for our doc’s appointment on Friday morning. We’re pretty sure that Lila, at least, will hit 8 lbs. Maybe one of the boys too. They’re taking as much as 4 oz per feeding now – sometimes falling short, but I think at this point it’s better to give them the opportunity. No sleeping through the night yet, but they did have a 3 hour 45 minute stretch last night, which was impressive. Since I’m back to work now, Abby has been going to bed early, then handling the middle-of-the-night shifts, and then getting some rest during the day. She’s a trooper. 

Thankfully we still have lots of help in the afternoon/evening, and Grandmom Deb came back to stay with us for a few days too. Speaking of work, I have to give a big shout out to everyone at my office who’s made us dinner for the last couple of weeks. Everything’s been great! We really appreciate it!!

Sadly, poor Abby has to join me in the ranks of the working class in less than a month. If by some miracle we can get the kids sleeping even for 5 hours at night, that would be phenomenal. I’m curious what kind of sleeping patterns any of you other preemie parents experienced, so feel free to leave a comment. We’ve heard that the 10 lb mark is key, and we’re not all that far from there. Oops, it’s almost feeding time, so I have to run. Until next time.

More thanks

Also a huge thanks to Justin, Jessie, Susan, Brian and Megan for spending so much time with us *last* weekend -- particulalry in light
of our little parenting adventure with Alex!! You're all welcome any time!