Maternity leave over, 3 month pic

Went back to work on Monday. 12 weeks seems way to little to leave a baby but what can you do? I know she will be in good hands with her sisters at daycare but I would feel much better about it if she were a little older. I cried on my drive into work but I really did miss my coworkers, adult conversations and my work. So it's nice to be back to work, though I wish I could be home at the same time if that makes sense.

We had some trouble getting Morgan to take a bottle at first. I waited till 7 weeks to give her one and she really didn't like it at first. I've been giving her an occasional bottle at home and mixing in a little formula here and there with the hope of her sleeping a little better. I guess she's been taking her bottle with the sitter okay. She's drinking only 2-3 oz at a time every couple hours, which is probably about how she was feeding at home. I probably started a bad habit of feeding her when she woke up (eat, play, sleep cycle) but also feeding her again to get her to fall asleep.

I've been debating stopping breastfeeding but am keeping up with it for now. My goal was to make it through maternity leave and now that I've passed that I can't decide. Sometimes I think it would be a lot easier if I could have her on formula. It's hard to nurse a baby when you have two toddlers that need you too! So I'll see how that goes. For now I am nursing when she wakes up, pumping three times at work (which may be an issue once I am ramped up back on my accounts and super busy), nursing at home at night and topping her off with a little formula before bed and then doing one last pump around 10:30. I have plenty of milk stored up in the freezer and I am pumping 13-15 oz during the day at work which I sending with her to daycare. After having horrible supply issues last time around this is a nice change. I pumped 7 oz at 9 am this morning which is my personal best even with twins. I feel ridiculously proud of this, ha. Motherhood changes you!

Morgan is sleeping pretty well but unpredictable. She goes to sleep around 8 or 8:30 and wakes up anywhere between 3 and 7. Luckily when she does wake up super early, she'll go right back to bed after a feed. So by text book definition she is sleeping through the night (defined as only 7 to 8 hours) but waking up at 4:30 a.m. to feed her on my first day back at work hardly felt like sleeping through the night to me! Thankfully the past two nights she has slept till 6:45 when I had to wake her up for daycare. I am so beyond tired. I would love to just sleep for a week straight. I know it won't always be like this (and someday I will miss it) but I am dragging right now. Coffee is my best friend.

Morgan is such a sweet baby girl. She is already laughing out loud. I am amazed at how big and strong she is compared to her preemie sisters. At this rate she'll be walking next month!

Staycation and other summer activities

Our daycare closes two weeks of the year (a week in July and a week in December) so we had all three kids at home all week for a little staycation. Darren took a few days off work and we did a ton of activities around Cleveland. Here's what we've been up to during our staycation and the rest of the summer!

• Visited Darren's grandma's farm and hung out with the cows, great grandma, grandma, his cousins and their kids. 
  
• Took the kids to Bay Village's Science Center and looked at all the animals there and then took a (brief) hike on the nature trail 
  
• Walked around the Botanical Gardens indoor exhibits (darn you rain) and played with their various kid friendly activity centers 
  
• Learned how to make scrambled eggs with toddlers. The lesson went something like this, "good job, keep stiring!" "DON'T TOUCH THE PAN!" "Good job! What a good cook!" "DON'T TOUCH THE PAN!" 
  
• Set up the sprinkler and kiddie pool outside. Despite the heat, I put sun shirts on them because of their vampire skin. Sun is not our friend. 
  
• Ventured downtown to say hi to my coworkers. B&B were fascinated by the big buildings. 
  
• Left the kids with my parents and went on a fun date night with 41 North Kayak. The trip started at Whiskey Island and we paddled to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It was really cool, you can paddle right under the building. We also paddled out to the lake to test our skills on some of the waves which I assumed were four feet high. The instructor said maybe a foot and half to two feet. What does he know? :) 
• Found the best place for kids at Fairview Park's splash pond. What a haven for small children. 
  
• Watched the July 4th parade outside my parent's house (Brooklyn was so scared of the loud noises! We had to take her inside) 
  
• Took the older kids out on the lake on paddle boat at Camp Mackintosh 
  
• Enjoyed an outdoor picnic with the Little Tikes table I bought off Craigslist 
  
• Ate ice cream at the summer social for our Twins Club 
  
• Hung out at the park 
  
• Hiked in MetroParks 
  
• Let the water splash on our toes at the beach
  
• Fed the ducks at the marina 
  
• Hid from the sun (#vampireskin) at a cookout at grandma and grandpa's 
  
• Watched Frozen and Bubble Guppies. So much Bubble Guppies. 
  

Speech progress

So Brooklyn and Bailey have both been seeing a speech therapist since they were 18 months and we are finally starting to have some words! I took the girls in to get their hearing tested (passed with flying colors) and they are adding so many new words now that I am really not worried.

Brooklyn seems to be a few weeks ahead of Bailey. We are finally getting some helpful words/phrases like more milk, up, down, water, etc. Brooklyn is starting to repeat just about everything we say like girl, boy, yellow, purple, door, apple, etc. Bailey seems to pick up words that Brooklyn is using after a couple weeks. So we are continuing with the Help Me Grow program but they are making tremendous progress. They still aren't using a ton of two or three word sentences but we are getting there. A lot less "eh, eh, eh" and pointing and more communication.

Morgan and Brooklyn look like twins!

Morgan looks so much like Brooklyn as a baby! Observe: (Morgan on the left, Brooklyn on the right)

Two month pic and check up

Morgan is now two months old. She is 24 inches long (97th percentile) and 13 lbs 3 oz (85th percentile). Complete opposite end of the spectrum of her preemie sisters! B&B weighed 11lbs 14oz and 12 lbs 2 oz at four months, and both were 23 inches. By six months they were at 15 lbs 6 oz and 14 lbs 15 oz, and 24 3/4 inches and 25 inches. So Morgan at two months is about what her sisters weighed at five months and almost as tall as 6 months. 

She is such a good baby. Always smiling, laughing and cooing. Such a sweetheart. 

I'm still breastfeeding too - she is actually struggling a little to take a bottle so we'll need to work on that before I go back to work. I am on the fence about maybe switching to formula altogether when I go back - I really hate pumping - but for now I am just working on getting her to take any bottles at all so I can have an occasional break. I would like to give her formula as the last feed of the night in hopes of getting her to sleep a little longer. She is still waking up around 3 am most nights (once she slept till 6 am!!!!) and this is making me very tired. I have about 60 oz of breastmilk stored in the freezer too. I think eventually I'd like to do a mix of some formula and breastmilk. I will see how it goes!

Newborn photos

Took Morgan in for her newborn photos when she was ten days old. Bailey and Brooklyn weren't feeling the family or sister shots (Bailey basically cried for two hours straight) but I brought all the girls back with my mom a couple weeks later (my mom is the toddler photo whisperer) and we got some awesome sister shots. 

Love my babies! 

A seven hour stretch!

Morgan went from 9 p.m. to 4:20 a.m. this morning between feeds (and slept from ten till she woke up) I feel awesome. Sleep is so nice! I had been at the zombie phase where I was so tired I was forgetting words and my brain wasn't working correctly. She was seven weeks on Tuesday. 

Bumbo seat!

Busted out the bumbo seat for Morgan already. She has really good head control for only six weeks old. She seemed to like it - but Brooklyn and Bailey LOVED it. haha, all three kids can fit into it...

B&B are obsessed with baby dolls since Morgan was born and they love using all the real baby things for their dolls. Point in case, as soon as I took Morgan out of the bumbo, a doll immediately took her place.

2 year check up

Had the two years check up.Bailey was 25 lbs (30th percentile), 33 1/2 inches, Brooklyn was 24 lbs (16th percentile), 33 inches. About the 40th percentile for height. I also had them weigh Morgan - she is already 11 lbs! Taking all three kids to the doctor was insane, even with my aunt who came with me to help. Luckily the girls didn't need shots but they had to get a fluoride treatment for their teeth and a blood prick to test for lead, neither of which they cared for.

Overall they are doing really well though! I am still concerned with their speech so we are going to follow up with a hearing test (doubt they have issues) and a private speech therapist but more on that later.

Bailey and Brooklyn turn two!

My sweet baby girls are now two! That went soooo fast. We had a Bubble Guppies themed party (of course) and invited both of our families over. I ordered fried chicken and a cake from Heinens and made some easy sides this year (no fancy Pinterest recipes this time! Mama is tired and doesn't have time!)

My friend Laura from the twins group also made them super adorable Bubble Guppies birthday shirts with their name on it. Anyone with toddlers knows how hard it is to get them to sit still for pictures so you can image the impossible task of getting the two of them to take a picture for their bday. Here are the best ones and some recent shots!

Happy birthday girls!