The Cauley Triplets: Girls' Week

Ella and Helen napping on the couch on a sunny Saturday morning

For some reason, I did not get any pictures of Alex this week - just the girls! So here they are in all of their splendor :) Alex is not being neglected though; I think he was just asleep every time we had a photo op. He did get to go on a big adventure with me this week though. I took him to church with me on Saturday night. He seemed a little overwhelmed with all the new sounds and sights but overall did very well. And it was nice to spend some one on one time with him. And I'm not playing favorites; I only took him because he was had just eaten and the girls were going to be ready to eat about the time I got to church. I did not think it was a good idea to bring a hungry baby to church on my first go around. I'll try to rotate and take a different baby each week.

Everything is still going really well. They are growing fast and getting bigger every day. Helen is still living life with gusto: eat, sleep, and swing. That is about all she is interested in. Friday night around 2 AM she woke up hungry. Once she wakes up, I have about 2 minutes to get her a bottle before she completely loses it. So I'm frantically making a bottle and she is flailing and snorting letting me know time is running out. I get the bottle in her mouth and the whole time she is eating she is twisting and arching and panting and eating that bottle with every ounce of energy she has. She drains the bottle, I put her over my shoulder to burp her, she promptly lets out a big burp, and then falls asleep and starts snoring. That's Helen, no need to waste time on anything that is not important! She is becoming much more social and smiling and cooing more. Her eyelashes are getting really long and curly. And everyday, she is looking more and more like her daddy. Her hair is starting to grow back and it is sticking straight up just like a crew cut. I told her she even has daddy's hair cut now!

Ella's eyes seem to be getting bigger every day. She is still very much the observer - likes to look around and check out what everyone is doing. She very much likes to be held or just be near people. As long as someone is sitting within eyeshot of her, she is usually happy. If she cannot see me, she fusses. And somehow, she always seems to know when it is dinner time. She can be sound asleep but as soon as we sit down to dinner, she starts fussing and wants to be held. As soon as you pick her up she stops crying and just sits there and looks around like "So, what are we talking about tonight?" Many a dinner has been eaten with one of us holding her. And she especially loves it when Grandpa holds her. She knows just how to cry and stick out her bottom lip to get him to pick her up. It is also neat to see how she can see further away from her now. I set up this floor gym (see picture below) and she seems to really like looking at all the toys. The other morning, my mom was feeding her and once Ella caught a glimpse of the floor gym, she was not interested in that bottle any more - she just wanted to play.

Alex is our frowner. He always seems to be studying things with very deep concentration that causes him to frown. He is still a little noisy when he breathes but he is completely up to speed on his feedings. He can even out eat Helen now which is pretty amazing. It is fun to see how quickly you can get his moods to change. One minute he is sitting there frowning at you, then all you have to do is start smiling at him and talking to him and he will start smiling and cooing back at you. Yesterday he was on the floor under the floor gym and started cooing at the toys. We said we did not have to worry about him until the toys start talking back to him! I think he is going to be tall - he is outgrowing his clothes because they are getting too short on him. So I've started buying stuff without feet in them. The problem is that he is long and lean so the pants barely stay up on him because he has no belly to hold them up!

Overall, it still seems like a miracle to me that they are all doing so well. All through my pregnancy I was preparing myself for the myriad of problems that premies can have. And so far, we have not seen any problems associated with prematurity. How lucky we are.