8 Months Old!

Feb. 20 the kids turned 8 months old! It hardly seems possible! It's going by so fast, but we're loving every minute of it! The kids are so fun now! There's so much they can do and so much they're right on the verge of doing! Here's a rundown of our accomplishments so far...

All four babies can roll over; in fact, it's Zachary favored mode of transportation. Why crawl, when you can roll?

All four babies can sit up unassisted, although it's still not Thomas' best skill. He gets better at it every day!

All four babies can hold their own bottle to drink, although I only make them do it if I'm the only one around to feed them, and they have to truly be hungry or they just wiggle and look around and drop the bottle on the floor a lot. This is not a problem with Thomas as he is ALWAYS hungry! Reagan, on the other hand, sometimes just wants to chew on the nipple.

All four babies are sleeping through the night regularly. Sometimes one wakes up if a diaper has leaked or there is teething pain or something, but for the most part there is sleeping. They go to bed sometime between 8:30 and 9 each night and get up at 8 the next morning. Yea!

All four babies know their name. If you say a name, that baby will look at you, as long as what he or she is currently doing is not more interesting than whatever you could be offering!

All four babies can pick up and feed themselves Cheerios, fruit puffs, and wagon wheels. These are the only finger foods we've had so far, and probably will be for a little while yet. Reagan is especially good at it. She easily picks up a Cheerio with her thumb and forefinger and just pops it in her mouth! Thomas is good at leaning way over to steal uneaten Cheerios off of Reagan's tray.

We have a total of 9 teeth: 4 for Reagan, 3 for Jonathan, and 2 for Zachary. Thomas has no teeth yet, although we know they exist because we've seen them in his x-rays! Very weird!

The kids have bottles 4 times a day, for a total of 16 bottles and over 100 ounces of formula.

Ready for the day!

We go through, on average, 15-20 diapers a day, sometimes more, rarely less.

No one is crawling, but they are making efforts. Thomas is trying especially hard to figure it out. He can get up on all fours and move his legs, but hasn't figured put how to move his arms, so his little bottom just goes straight up in the air, and then he usually falls over. We've bought a gate for the playroom door, so we're ready whenever he figures it out!

Zachary and Reagan can both say dada, although it's just sort of in general, not directed specifically towards Jim. Reagan makes a very mama-ish noise, usually in conjunction with crying or whining or complaining. I'm not ready to count it until it sounds as happy as her dada sound.

Zachary has learned to clap and does so frequently, looking around for you to clap along and say, "Yea!!!"

Zachary is also in the beginning stages of pulling up. If you give him your hands to hold onto, he will pull himself to a standing position from a sitting one without any pulling from you. He has not yet transferred this skill to pull up on anything else.

Jane's Pictures

Recently I received copies of a series of pictures that Jane, a wonderful lady from church, had taken of the kids. She did some beautiful candid shots of them, her gift to us. (She's a professional photographer. If you like her work and live here in Knoxville, let me know and I'll get her info to you.) The pictures were taken months ago, from the end of September through Thanksgiving, so the kids are considerably younger, but they're so good I had to share them! Enjoy!

Reagan

Zachary

Jonathan

Thomas

Flirting with Jane's daughter

Visiting our Parkway friends

sleeping Thomas

Aunt Jodie and Cousin Kinley

Uncle Jeff and Kinley

Playing with Jonathan

Daddy Bud and his girls

Zachary thinks Daddy is funny!

KayKay, Daddy Bud, and the boys

All the cousins

Papaw and NeNe

We were delighted last weekend to have the company of Jim's dad Vic and his wife Linda. It had literally been months since they had seen the kids, so we were so glad they were able to come for a visit! We hope it won't be so long before they can come again!

NeNe playing with the kids

PaPaw with the Quad Squad

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day to everyone! We didn't do anything particularly special for Valentine's Day, except dress in red and pink! Each of the kids received two cards each, which completely filled our mantel! I shudder to think what the house will look like when they all get birthday cards! Anyway, this day was special for a reason other than Valentine's. That day the kids were officially out of my tummy longer than they were in my tummy! I don't think that's something most people keep up with. Maybe other people with premature babies do. I don't know, but Jim kept up with it, and it is a milestone accomplished!

Please excuse Thomas' humongous drool spot! It couldn't be helped!

Creative Memories

Feb.9 I had a Creative Memories party at the house. (That's a line of scrapbooking supplies for those of you unfamiliar with the brand.) My neighbor Cris has recently started selling Creative Memories, so I was glad to help her out by hosting a party. Jim's mom and grandmother came in to see the babies and attend the party, since they are just getting started scrapbooking. It was great to have their help with the babies while I actually got to prepare some goodies for my guests! We had a great time at the party! It was so nice to do a little scrapbooking again! Completing a page is part of the party experience, so now the babies' book has one finished page. It's not much, but it's a start, and I'm very pleased with the result. I hope to work in a little scrapbooking time soon!

We also of course, had a really nice visit with Granny Pam and Great-granny Kat! Here are a few pictures they took while they were here...

Thomas

Jonathan

Reagan

Zachary

A Visit with George and Nancy

My aunt and uncle came for a visit Feb.7-8. Uncle George had business in Nashville, so they figured they were halfway here anyway, so why not go see the babies! We were delighted to have them and hope they can come again soon! I can always use extra help feeding those babies!

Our Daily Schedule

Just in case you're curious, here is our daily schedule...

8:00 Wake up, Drink bottles
9:30 Cereal or oatmeal
10:30 Naptime (That's right, they all nap at the same time!)
Noon Wake up, Drink bottles
2:30 Naptime
4:00 Wake up, Drink bottles
5:30 Dinner solid food
7:30 Bathtime followed by bottles
8:30-9:00 Bedtime

In between all the eating and sleeping is lots of playtime! This is about what we've been doing for the last couple of months. There used to be a short evening nap and bathtime started at 8:00, but we cut that nap sometime in January and moved bathtime up half an hour. This schedule is also likely to change more as we try to add more solid food. Currently it's a good schedule for us. The two naptimes and the earlier bedtime are so great for me! Having all the kids sleeping at the same time means Jim and I actually have some time to ourselves to get things done or just relax. It's wonderful!



Here's a picture of what our schedule looked like several months ago when Thomas first came home and was eating at different times from the other three kids:



Notice it's all eating, medicine, and breathing treatments (no naptimes) and stretches from 7:30 in the morning to 5:00 the next morning! Yuck!

Following Seven Months

If you've been reading this blog very long, then you already know that the week after the babies turned 7 months old, they started running fevers. For the full details of this week, please refer to the previous post. I think it was titled "Something Current" and would have been posted sometime late January. Anyway, as a quick recap, over that week all three boys ran a fever at one time or another, Zachary came down with an ear infection, there was much nose running, Reagan stayed well the whole time, there were a few rather sleepless nights, and finally we all got better! Yea!

Feb.2 we had RSV shots again. Zachary weighed 18lb 8oz, Reagan weighed 18lb 1oz, Jonathan weighed 16lb 15oz, and Thomas weighed 14lb 8oz. Only 2 more months of shots to go!

Feb.4 we all cheered the Colts to victory in the Superbowl! Josh, Cris, and Carter spent the evening with us, and we had a blast! It's always fun to see what Carter is doing and know that in a couple of months our kids could be doing the same! Currently, he is learning to stand unassisted! I can hardly believe that he is so big already! And my babies will be that big so soon! It won't be long before they are no longer babies, and I have to refer to them as toddlers!

By the way, the picture is of Jonathan. Jim's mom took it, and it's one of my favorites!

Goodsearch

I'd like to take a moment and tell you all about a new search engine called Goodsearch. It's powered by Yahoo and works just like Yahoo or Google but for every search you conduct it make a donation to the charity of your choice. It's super easy to choose a charity, and the site remembers it so you don't have to keep entering it over and over. We goodsearch for the cystic fibrosis foundation in honor of little Cousin Tyler. Just think how many searches you perform in a year! You could do good with every one of them! If you're interested, there's a link to Goodsearch on the right-hand sidebar. I hope you'll use it!

The Seventh Month

This month began with the end of our night nanny. Bradley had decided to make a change of location and move to Michigan. We were sorry to see her go, but the timing was perfect since the kids were pretty much consistently sleeping through the night. Thank you, Bradley, for all your help! We couldn't have survived it without you! And thank you to everyone who donated money to allow us the joy of a night nanny for such a long time! Thank you!

On Dec.23 we loaded up the kids, enlisted the help of our wonderful neighbor and friend, Cris, and headed to Victor Ashe Park for some family pictures. Cris was nice enough to shoot them for us, and her son Carter was nice enough to sleep in his stroller so she could! We wanted them particularly as Christmas presents for family and were very pleased with the results. Thanks Cris! Here are Jim and I and the kids in birth order: Jonathan, Zachary, Reagan, and Thomas.

The next day we took our first road trip! Matthew and Michele (friends who now live in Georgia) were at Matthew's parents' house in Butler, TN, 2 and a half hours from here, so we decided to take the kids for a visit. They were so good! They slept the whole way there and the whole way back and were just delightful while there. It was such a fun trip! Not only did we get to see Michele and Matthew and their beautiful son Andy and Matthew's parents, John and Sue, but we also got to see Matthew's sister Jessie, her husband Tim, and their little girl Lily, and Matthew's other sister Carrie! It was such fun to watch all the kids roll around and play together!

Matthew and Andy

Jessie, Tim, and me with assorted children

Lily

We stayed home for Christmas which was really nice. It allowed us to have a relaxing day. We opened presents with the kids and took pictures. Later that day, Jim's friends Jason joined us for Christmas dinner. We had ham, turkey, sweet potatoes, dressing, etc., all made by my wonderful and talented husband! That's right, Jim baked a turkey!

On the 27th we had our first overnight road trip! We went to Jasper and spent the night at Granny Kat's house. The drive was great, since the kids slept again. Sleeping overnight was a challenge. We have two Pack n' Plays that we set up for the kids. Jonathan and Reagan slept in one and did okay once Reagan finally quit crying and went to sleep. (They share a crib at home) Zachary and Thomas started out in the other one together, but we eventually took Thomas out and put him in the floor in our bedroom, and later in bed with us when we decided he was cold on the floor. (He and Zachary both move around too much for them to share sleeping space. At home Zachary has a crib to himself and Thomas has a Pack 'n Play to himself.) It was a good experience and we had fun. I'm glad we went!

Granny Pam and Jonathan

Great-Aunt Jayne and Thomas

Cousin Josh and Jonathan

Cousin Caleb and Jonathan

Great-Granny Kat and Zachary

Great-Aunt Jayne and Reagan

Then we had company at our house. Michele and Matthew stayed with us a couple of nights, and we had a blast visiting with them and letting the kids play together!

Michele and Andy

Andy and Reagan

Andy at the park

Reagan's first swing!

Jim plays backup for David

Thomas, Zachary, Andy, Reagan, and Jonathan

Jan 4 we had RSV shots again. But more importantly, Cousin Tyler was born! Aunt Carey's water had broken the week before, and she had been in the hospital ever since, so we had known it was just a matter of time before he was born, and this was the day! It worked out well for us since we parents were already planning to come to Knoxville to help me with the kids so Jim could go to Evansville to help Clay paint the nursery. So Jim got to be there for Tyler's birth! For those of you who don't know, Tyler has cystic fibrosis. Thankfully, his case seems fairly mild so far, and he is doing well. In fact, although he was born earlier than the quads were, he only had to stay in the NICU for 14 days, 2 less than Jonathan, Zachary, and Reagan. (Side note to the day: Thank you Abigail for being brave enough to help me take the kids to get their shots! Such courage!)

Cousin Tyler!

So beautiful!

Proud Daddy!

The next day we had our 6-month checkup. My parents helped me take the kids, quite an experience for them, I'm sure! We create a sensation wherever we go! Anyway, Zachary weighed 17lb 15.5oz putting him at 50%, Reagan weighed 17lb 2.5oz putting her at 75%, Jonathan weighed 16lb 0.5oz putting him at 25%, and Thomas weighed 13lb 13.5oz putting him still at 3%. They had a great checkup, except for Reagan's wheezing. She had been wheezing ever since her bout of croup, but the pulmonologist had told us it was a side effect of her reflux and would go away when the reflux did. Molly seemed to think it should go away now! So Reagan started breathing treatments, and now she almost never wheezes! We also got cleared to move up to stage 2 foods!


On the 20th the kids turned 7 months old! We celebrated with another photo shoot, and Jim and I running away for the night! Wonderful Pam and Gwen came over to keep the kids, and Jim and I went to a dinner with friends from both West End and Parkway. It was great seeing everyone again, and we had the best time!

Here are some of our 7-month pictures. Mom, we did these first ones just for you! I hope you like them!

Jonathan

Zachary

Reagan

Thomas