Tuesday, July 12, 2011

A Little of This, A Little of That

Exhausted seems to be the overwhelming feeling these days. I know I’m running on fumes when I start to feel nauseous. I’m not sick, just so tired that I feel sick. Blah. Sean and I pretty much live from caffeine dose to caffeine dose (iced coffee, sweet tea, diet Dr. Pepper) these days. I have this theory that our moms purposely withheld information from us about morning sickness, pregnancy pains, and post delivery exhaustion in an effort to increase the population and get grandbabies. Hmm…and I have every intention of doing the same thing to my daughters. :-)

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I can’t wait for when the babies start talking. I LOVE the cute things that kids say and how literally they take everything. Until then, I have Sean to provide the humor. Here is an example of conversations that happen at our house:

Me: Caleb, you smell. You need a bath.
Sean: Maybe your mom can stay an extra 20 minutes tomorrow and help you give the kids baths.
Me: Wow, you really have no idea how long it takes to give all of them baths, do you?
Sean: It takes longer than 20 minutes??


Hehe! Sean always keeps me laughing, no matter how tired I get!

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The babies’ personalities are continuing to develop. It is pretty amazing to me how different they all are being this small. In fact, Sean and I even gave each of the babies one of the seven dwarves’ names.

Caleb is Happy. Always okay with whatever we throw his way whether it is sleeping, eating, lying awake in his crib, or looking up at his jungle gym. He is so cute when we wake him up to feed him! Most people do that squinty-eyed, blinky thing to try to wake up. Caleb’s eyes shoot wide open and he stares around him like he can’t quite place where he is. Hehe!

Abby is Sleepy. Definitely our baby who sleeps this most. She’s also the quietest and most content to wait her turn to eat or have her diaper changed. She has had us worried since we brought her home because she tires out while eating and won’t finish her bottles. At the suggestion of one of our nurse friends who comes to help me, we switched her to a higher flow nipple on her bottle. It’s done wonders! She is able to get through a bottle without falling asleep now. That is a huge sigh of relief to us. She is also completely mesmerized by her daddy. All he has to do is walk into the room and start talking and you can tell that she cues right into his voice. Earlier today, he started reading Cinderella to her when she was a little upset and she calmed down to listen to him talking to her. Such a daddy’s girl! She also surprised us with her first smile on Thursday! Her first smile went to Grandmacita (my mom), but we’ve been able to get a couple out of her for ourselves since then.

Elijah is Doc. How did he end up with that dwarf? Mostly because all that was left for us to choose from by the time we gave him a name were Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, and Doopy. The last three didn’t fit him, so Doc it is. Elijah is a little bit more high-strung than Caleb, but still the most laid back when it comes to medical procedures…and that boy has certainly had his fair share. Really, as long as everyone respects his personal space, he is pretty content. The little cutie gave me his first smile on Thursday morning as well. We haven’t really been able to get much more out of him since then, but I’m pretty sure it was a real smile and not just a baby twitch. I think Eli is the most bored of all of the babies at this point. I’m excited to be getting some crib toys in the mail from Kami, one of my fellow quad mamas, this week. I think all of the babies, but especially Eli will enjoy them when they get here.

Ellie is Grumpy. She looks like such a little cherub in the pictures, but if she wore panties, they would constantly be in a wad. She’s generally only happy if she is asleep or eating. My favorite nickname for her is The Little Tomato. It is amazing how fast that little girl can scrunch up her face and turn red when she’s upset. A couple of days ago, she was squawking about something in spite of Sean trying to feed her. Finally, he picked her up, held her directly in front of his face and said, “Those two extra minutes in the womb did wonders for your personality!” Ellie makes us laugh the most because there is just no middle ground with her. She’s either completely happy or completely upset. Hey, we have to take the laughs where we can get them in our situation!

Which leaves me with the big question: Will they follow the stereotypical birth order types? Since they were only one minute apart (except for Ellie who got stuck and took two whole minutes to make her appearance), will it even apply?

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Around Christmas time, Abundant Moments was having a gift certificate drawing that people could enter. Low and behold, I actually won! I never win anything! We won a newborn photography package where they take photos 4-5 times during the first year of the baby’s life. The only problem I had with the package was that we had four newborns. They were kind enough to work with us and include all of the babies in the package. Yay!

A couple of weeks ago, Debra came out with her assistant to take the first round of photos. Debra gave me written permission to post a few of my favorite photos to our blog. How cute are these little people??

 


The Babies: Caleb, Elijah, Ellie, and Abby 


The Girls: Ellie and Abby 


The Boys: Caleb and Elijah 


The photo of all four babies was taken right after Elijah peed on Ellie, Abby, and photographer. And the only baby that is really asleep in these photos is Abby. Debra is a very good photographer to get quadruplets to hold still, act asleep, and put herself in the direct line of pee in order to get some cute photos of the babies. We are due for our second session in a couple of months when we get to do a family photo!

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And our last update, but certainly not least is that the Kansas City Star contacted us last week about writing a follow up article about our family. Jenee, who wrote the first article, came out to the house to meet the babies she wrote about back on January 1st. She wrote another very kind, very well-written article about our family. If you would like to read her article, you can see it here.

Each baby has a memory box that we like to add special things to. Their micro-preemie knit hats, tiny blood pressure cuffs, articles written about them, and onesies with their names on them will all end up in their boxes. Hopefully, someday they will enjoy reading the blog about their first months of life and seeing the little things that we are saving for them.

4 comments:

  1. Adorable pictures! I can't even imagine how tired you are. I'm exhausted with just 2 babies lol. But you are also so extremely blessed. :)

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  2. Don't give up on Ellie yet. My daughter was a pill for the first 6 weeks she was out. She would get mad and it would elevate to "the goat cry". She sounded like she was bleating. A couple of times she even reached "Donald Duck" stage. Yeesh! Such drama. She's very pleasant now. Life just has a steep learning curve. You all will make it!

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  3. Oh how I love the blogs and the stories. You will make it and it does get easier. Unfortunately I will say that it may get rougher before it gets better for you guys because you have four. Eventually they will be self sufficient two year olds that walk and talk back at you, look forward to those days. I know your still worried about germs but please call if you need help. I could almost use a baby fix right now.

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  4. [...] were taken by the same photographer, Debra, from Abundant Moments Photography who did the babies Newborn shoot. We are super lucky to have won that gift certificate! Woot! We now have a large print of our [...]

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