George and I both have very small immediate families.  I have just one sister, Courtney (aka Aunt CiCi) and he is a lonely an only child.  That means that the fab four have just one aunt and no uncles (At least not yet….ahem, eligible bachelors).  They couldn’t have a better person for the job though.  If you are going to have just one aunt, Aunt CiCi is the gal for the job!

I often conjure up creative ideas and crafty projects, but execution isn’t always quite right.  I can’t cut in a straight line to save my life and I usually glue my fingers together if adhesives are involved.  When Mom tried to teach me to sew, I ended up with wonky pajama pants that had the drawstring backwards and uneven legs.  Thankfully, Courtney is excellent and executing my next great idea, and she enjoys doing it too  I even have a board on Pinterest entitled “Things Courtney Should Sew” because the heavens know I could never make these fab things come to fruition.  Her baby gift to the crew was sewing their curtains and bedding.  She still has quilts in the works, but they don’t need them for quite a while anyways.  Perhaps they’ll make good first birthday present?

A few weekends ago she helped me alter elastic headbands to fit the girls and hot glue hundreds (well not hundreds, but lots) of flowers to alligator clips.  Every baby girl needs a headband with huge flower to go with EVERY outfit, right?  Well, as our first Halloween is fast approaching I realized we needed costumes of course.  There aren’t exactly tons of cute costumes for newborns so Courtney found a really cute idea on Pinterest.  This particular idea involved sewing so of course that meant this was no task for me.  Courtney couldn’t let her nieces and nephews go without adorable first Halloween costumes so she came over for the day and helped make made the babies costumes.  I have to say they turned out absolutely fantastic!  You will have to wait until our Halloween post to see the final product.  Any guess as to what they will be???

Harper and Rylin made sure to wear shirts showing their love for Aunt CiCi. They figured if they flattered her a bit, she’d keep up all the crafting. Notice the huge flower on Rylin’s head? That is all thanks to Aunt CiCi.

“Team Aunt CiCi” plus one furry fan

While Rylin and Harper wanted to flatter Aunt CiCi, Mason and Sydney gave props to mom.

“Team Mommy”

Courtney’s got all the pieces out and ready to go!

Courtney’s roomie, Carlyn, is kind enough to share her sewing machine with us. When they no longer room together, I’ll have to buy Courtney a sewing machine so she can keep up all her crafting on our behalf.

While Courtney was busy crafting, I realized that Sydney already enjoys being read to. Green Eggs and Ham seems to be a favorite. The limited color palate in the books is probably quite appealing to an infant.

hugs!

Amber

Whac-A-Mole arcade redemption game with dogs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Despite our valiant efforts, the babies suffered their first cold this week.  Our visitors will be relieved to know it came from none other than Papa Bear himself.  That means Mama Bear’s wrath was directed towards him.   It started when George came home Friday night with a burning throat that quickly progressed into nasal congestion. By Monday night, Harper was fussier than usual and ate much less than usual.  Tuesday morning, his eyes were glassy and he was terribly congested.  Being a dutiful first time Mommy, I looked through all of my books to see what to do.  I was on track using saline with nasal suctioning, cool mist humidifier, sleeping upright, and cuddles.  The books all noted that I should go to the pediatrician for a first time cold to rule out anything else (e.g. RSV).  Knowing that we have four preemies, the letters R, S, and V together are very scary.  I was flying solo on Tuesday and wasn’t sure how to manage taking one baby to the pediatrician with three others in tow so I called our “Johnny on the Spot” aka Father in Law aka Grandaddy.  I probably called with a tinge of distress hoping he could help manage the four at the doctor’s office if needed.  Without hesitation, he said, “I’m coming over!”.

Meanwhile, I called the pediatrician and the nurse assured me that I was doing everything I should.  Thankfully, there was no reason to take Harper in for an appointment unless there was fever or dehydration.  Even without having to go to the doctor, I still had one sick baby and three others to contend with.  Remember that arcade game where moles pop up from a box and you whack them down with a mallet?  Just as you take care of one, three more pop up in the first one’s place.  That was Tuesday for me, a game of Whack a Mole.  I was doing my best to prevent cold pandemic with quads by sterilizing bottles, washing hands over and over, disinfecting all surfaces, and separating all baby stuff.  I would get finished feeding the fourth baby as the first began refluxing.  Once I finished taking care of reflux, another one would be wailing of a stinky diaper.  All the while, Harper still fussed of total discomfort.  Amen for Grandaddy!  While he doesn’t generally do diapers or spit ups, it was nice having him there to help console fussy babies and manage the feeding frenzies.   He was so sweet that he stayed with us until George came home late in the evening even though I told him he didn’t have to stay.  By the end of the day I’m pretty sure his batteries were totally drained.  Keeping up with four babies one of which is sick is not for the faint of heart.

You may recall…I worked hard to keep the cold pandemic at bay?  You probably predicted, those efforts were absolutely futile.  Each day this week another baby fell victim to the cold.  Harper then Mason, Rylin and finally Sydney.  As of now, we have four stuffy nosed babies with little appetite and a predisposition to reflux.  I probably shall run, I think I need to whack a mole!

I decided I needed to snuggle all four at once.

My idea worked!  Here they are from my point of view.

Grandaddy consoling a fussy Rylin. Notice there are several Rock ‘n’ Plays? We now have four because everyone needs to sleep upright with all the mucus and reflux we have going on.

Here is my first attempt with bottle propping to feed all at once using props from a triplet Grandpa. Epic fail. The props work like a bib so if a burp or reflux is coming on it’s bad news bears!

Attempt #2 at bottle propping just using towels. This worked for a moment, but we didn’t have much stability. We also tried bottle buddies suggested by another quad mama, but didn’t have much luck yet. We may try again when the babies are tad bigger.

Here’s what it looks like when everyone is wearing their angry eyes.

In honor of the Red River Rivalry we wore our Texas socks for the Texas/ OU game. Too bad our lucky socks didn’t help Texas a bit.

At 3:00 am when George and I stumble out of bed bleary eyed for a feed, we have to pause for a moment.   In the evening when Harper’s colic kicks in and he begins wailing to be held, we have to pause a moment.  As George and I wash yet another batch of a trillion bottle parts, we have to pause for a moment.  At moments like these we feel like we need to escape to a far away place.  We can easily start wishing for our babies to go ahead and grow up, grow out of needing feeds in the wee hours of the morning and stop crying already.    But, when we pause for just a moment, we realize how precious and fleeting these moments are.  Every day there are tough moments, but there are are so many rich moments interwoven.  At the moment, we have babies tiny enough that we can hold more than one at once.  At the moment, they actually like being snuggled.  While we complain that  formula can break the bank, it really only costs about $5/ day to feed each baby.  It won’t be long before teenagers clear out the fridge and it won’t cost just $5/ day.

Sure, we can dream about the days of potty trained kids who partake in family game nights.  We can imagine little girls with enough hair for braids adorned with huge bows and little boys that play catch in the yard.  We can dream about when they are old enough to appreciate the magic of Santa and Disney Land.  Those times will come with different tough moments, and we must treasure them too.  For now we shall embrace every little moment as it happens, even the tough ones.  There will come a day when we will miss having a tiny baby who wails to be snuggled and when we could feed them for just $5 day.

At the moment, everyone seems to enjoy letting Rylin chew on their fingers. Here’s Mason giving it a try.

I said I didn’t want the babies dressed alike so they could be individuals. However, we’ve received quite a few matchy sets.  At the moment, I’ll admit it’s fun to dress them alike while they don’t mind.

Looks like Rylin is going to give Sydney’s fingers a try.

At the moment, they can all fit in one crib. Here’s Harper, Sydney, Mason, and Rylin having yet another pajama party in Rylin’s crib.

Sydney and Mason at the moment.

Rylin and Harper at the moment.

It’s hard to believe that our tiny babies have already outgrown preemie clothes and are stretching out of newborn sizes too.  The boys have graduated from tiny 4 oz bottles to the full sized ones and the girls are not far behind.  Our tiny ones are growing so fast already.  I better get going before I miss more moments.

hugs!

Amber