Week 10

Helen sitting up in her Bumbo

Ella is Daddy's Cupcake

"What do you people want from me???" -Helen

One set of their Valentine's Day outfits (I should have just said no to going into Old Navy...) Alex is a "Stud Muffin" - clearly he is thrilled by the prospect.

The girls' first jeans. "Do these make my butt look big?" - Ella and Helen

Ella and Helen hamming it up for the camera

Our other "babies" - Indi

and Jule

Helen has to really work to lift that big noggin of hers - but she does it!

Here she is looking quite smug after she just rolled herself over for the second time in her life

Everyone is looking cute and cuddly after their Saturday afternoon bath - Ella, Alex, and Helen

"Why is it so quiet all the sudden? Oh, my sisters are gone..." - Alex

It has been a bit of a long week. Two of the "regulars" who help out a lot were on vacation this week so mommy was flying solo for much of this week. I have a newfound appreciation for all the wonderful people who come and help out. There were several times that I found myself with one baby strapped to my chest in a sling, another on my lap, and the third within reaching distance to keep the pacifier in. We survived but there were definitely days where I felt like crying right along with them!

Alex is still struggling with his eating. The thickened milk keeps him from aspirating, but now he has to work so much harder and it takes him so much longer to eat that he gets very frustrated. Sometimes he will spend an hour sucking on that bottle and only get about two ounces - he should eating about 4 ounces every feeding. So it has been stressful trying to get him to eat and trying to calm him down when he screams with his frustration. Hopefully it will get better soon.

Cecil is doing well. He is able to call or email almost every day. He is still really busy and working very long days. He said the temperatures are in the single digits now. I can empathize! He also greatly appreciates everyone who has been sending packages. He wishes he could send everyone a personal thank you but just has not had the time. So thank you to everyone for your thoughtfulness and generosity!!!

I finally got the baptism scheduled - April 20 - the day after Daddy's birthday! Hopefully we will be out of the subzero temperatures by then and will have a nice day for the baptism. I am really looking forward to it because this is the church where my whole family has been baptized - aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins. Not surprisingly, the church agreed to let us do a private baptism so that our three ring circus would not hold up a regular weekend service.

Other good news is that the babies are sleeping longer at night. One night, Alex and Ella went six hours straight. God bless them! Of course Helen was still up every three hours because she would never miss a meal so I still did not get much sleep. I think Helen has a hollow leg.... But overall, it is still good news that they are getting their days and nights straight. And it looks like I have a good lead on another night nanny so hopefully soon we will have someone here 5 nights a week so we can all get some more sleep.

That's all for this week. Hopefully we will have more milestones to report next week!