The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #5

February 28, 2013Amber 9 Comments

You guessed it, it is time for The Little Things Thursdays again! I just love doing these posts because it captures the snippets of our daily lives perfectly. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

1. Rylin is not quite ready to roll over, but she began tolerating tummy time really well! She will stay on her tummy for at least 10-15 minutes without protest and pushes up on her arms. She is also sitting up with minimal support rather well.

This is an odd camera angle, but I had Rylin supported by my leg, and took the picture myself. The pink pacifier looking thing is AMAZING. It is a RAZ- Berry teether. Everyone except Harper has been gnawing on it all week. Harper doesn’t like it because he still thinks it is a pacifier.

Rylin is rocking tummy time!

2. Harper doesn’t care about rolling over either, but he thinks he may want to scoot away! When on his tummy, he also pushes up on his arms, but kicks his feet and pushes back a bit. In other news, Harper started cutting a tooth and boy did he have something to say about it! He’s been extremely vocal about his displeasure with this new tooth. Orajel is amazing stuff!

Notice the green ball to the left of this picture, that is where Harper started!

3. Nisey brought a Jumparoo over and it is Sydney’s new favorite past time. That girl LOVES to jump. She seriously jumps with enough force to get a bit of “air”. While jumping she giggles and grins the entire time. The other babies have given the Jumparoo a spin, but could take or leave it. Sydney being the quirky girl she is found a way to get around a bit too. Instead of scooting on her tummy, she inchworms backwards when laying on her back! I attempted to record this, but of course she was too camera shy to demonstrate.

It was incredibly hard to capture Sydney smiling in the Jumparoo because she moves so fast in it the camera blurs most of the images!

4. Mason is a man on the move too. He’s been kicking and pushing while on his tummy enough to get a bit of locomotion. He can turn around from one place to another and often tries to nap toys from siblings.

Hmmm, looks like someone is headed under the coffee table.

5. With spoon feeds we’ve accumulated new gear and have zero storage space left in our kitchen. George snagged an old microwave cart from his dad and re-purposed it. He sanded it down and re stained it from blonde to a deep espresso. We then bought several yards of fabric and made panels to go around the bottom and conceal the clutter. We store it in the dining room, but can roll it into the kitchen as an island.

Look at all the clutter we can hide now! The cart was a different color before, but I forgot to snap a picture. The basket on the top contains snacks for our helpers.

6. My hands have begun taking an elderly appearance in recent days. I wash A LOT of bottles, wash my hands a bazillion times a day, and slather hand sanitizer all over them too. At one point, my knuckles started cracking and bleeding. I began using thick moisturizers and wearing gloves to bed. Crazy, I know, but I was desperate. Then, Mom had some great advice. When I wash bottles, I now put a little Aquaphor on the dry spots before gearing up with my handy dandy kitchen gloves. It has worked wonders! Just as I figured this little trick out, I have four fewer bottles to wash per day. With all the spoon fed calories the babies take, they started refusing a bottle. We’ve officially gone from our original eight feeds (total of 32 bottles) to just four bottle feeds (total of 16 bottles)! This means we can probably toss bottles in the dishwasher from time to time too.

This stuff works wonders! Just don’t put it on the palms of your hands, ONLY the dry spots.

7. Our blog reached over 100,000 hits this week! Thank you for keeping up with our shenanigans in quadville. We just love getting feedback from our readers so don’t be too shy to share. We hope to bring smiles to your face, laughter to your day, and maybe even inspire you from time to time.

HUGS!

Amber

Lessons Learned re: Spoon Feeds with Four

February 24, 2013Amber 11 Comments

Just like with everything related to the quads, spoon feeds have been a lot of trial and error. We’ve been working on spoon feeds for about a month now and the babies are finally getting the hang of it. They now take in enough calories from spoon feeds to reduce their formula intake. Along the way, I learned a few things to help make it all a bit easier.

Try, Try, Try Again!

Pretty much every time we introduce a new food, one or more of the babies rejects it. The first time they tasted avocado, Harper began screaming as if he were in pain and Mason yacked up carrots when he first tasted them. For years, my Dad has touted that you may need to expose babies and children to new foods up to 18 times before they decide whether they like them or not. I don’t know about the magical number 18, but one time is never enough to make a determination. Usually on the second try a new food seems significantly more appealing to the babies. Naturally they have favorites, but eventually eat pretty much anything we dish up. On the top of the favorites list are bananas, butternut squash, pears, and mango.

Harper was totally distressed by the avocado!

Mix it Up

Once the babies developed a larger repertoire of safe foods, we began introducing hybrids. It really helps make some of the less favorable foods more appetizing to them. For example, Mason choked up plain carrots, but carrots + apple were a winner! He practically cried for me to feed this combo to him faster. Some favorite hybrids are avocado + mango, apple + banana, avocado + banana, and apple + carrot. As they expand their palates, we will have new creations to try.

Even though we like to mix up hybrids, I keep all pureed food pure. First, I blend up a single veggie or fruit in the ninja then pour it into silicone ice cube trays (each cube is one ounce). When they are frozen, I pop them into gallon size bags and label them. Voila! If I want a baby food cocktail, I pull out whatever cubes of puree I want, toss them into a bowl together, thaw them, then stir well. It leaves a lot of flexibility to what we serve.

Frozen avocado cubes plus frozen mango cubes become a baby delicacy.

Use Heavy Bibs

We started spoon feeds using large plastic bibs that could be easily wiped clean. However, Rylin (and sometimes Harper) found it highly entertaining to wear their food. Rylin would literally pull her bib over her face and smear the food all over. She ended up with food caked in her eyebrows and eyelashes. I quickly replaced the original bibs with heavier silicone bibs. I still tuck the bibs into their seats, but they have much more trouble pulling them up and smattering food everywhere. Also, the new bibs can be rinsed in the sink with warm water…no rag needed!

Rylin just loved rubbing food all over her face, especially with airy lightweight bibs.

Here is Rylin after a feed with her new bib! She’s still trying to grab it, but she can’t smear her food like before.

Create a Diversion

It can be tricky spoon feeding four babies alone and even situating everyone in their seat takes a good five minutes. The babies tend to become antsy and fussy if settling in the table or getting the next bite takes too long. Harper becomes especially impatient when he’s ready for more food. I found that diversions work great! Sometimes, Elmo provides a bit of table side entertainment and sometimes my off-key singing does the trick. I am totally tone-deaf and perhaps the word’s worst singer, but the babies don’t care a bit. They LOVE hearing my rendition of Cum Ba Ya!

Elmo is one talented little monster. It is a bit irritating when he starts demanding his bongo drums instead of his tambourine though. At least he says, “Please”.

Keep Little Hands Busy

With spoon feeds, babies just love to grab at bowls and spoons. They see something novel coming towards them and they simply must grab. Babywise recommends teaching them “no hands”. I have two problems with this 1. Try telling eight hands controlled by four independent thinkers “no hands” as they all grab simultaneously. (Unless you are an octopus yourself, it’s tricky!) 2. We want to foster independence in the babies whenever possible. There will be a day not too far away that we want the babies to feed themselves. So, instead of saying “no hands”, we give the babies a short-handled plastic spoon to hold. They enjoy gnawing at them and sometimes practice feeding themselves. I also help them take some bites from the spoon I’m holding. They no longer grab the spoon used for feeding without help.

The boys are notorious spoon grabbers. They enjoy teething on a plastic one though.

Color Code

I am not in the least bit concerned about the babies sharing germs. It’s pretty much a given that pacifiers, bottles, and even spoons will get swapped from time to time. However, when we spoon feed the babies we use individual bowls and spoons. This helps us make sure they are given equal opportunities for spoon feeds. If we used just one bowl and spoon, some babies (ahem, Harper) would get the lion’s share while other babies (Hello, Sydney) would get one bite at best. In order to keep it all straight, I use a color code system. Each baby has a color or two that is always used for that baby and not the others.

I am always trying to figure out the best way to do this, here are some options I’ve tried:

Here is my twin feeding tray. It does a good job of housing all four bowls, but I don’t like that you have to use baby food tubs since we make our own food.

George helped me with this feed so we each kept track of two colored bowls. This is some of our mango avocado medley.

Here is a divided plate with different colored spoons. It works relatively well, but of course I can’t find a plate with FOUR sections.

Once we’ve fully mastered spoon feeds with purees, it will inevitably be time to start finger foods!

Of course, all spoon feeds with the quads are much easier thanks to our Quad Table! I thought this angle was hilarious.

Hugs!

Amber

Good Night, Sleep Tight!

February 20, 2013June 4, 2013Amber 17 Comments

A few days ago, a friend with preemie twins asked if I could tell her how we sleep trained the babies. Of course I can!!! I believe every parent and baby deserves a good night’s sleep; however it doesn’t generally happen naturally. It takes effort and time, but it is all worthwhile. There are no books available for sleep training high order multiples. Thus, I started out by consulting fellow quad mamas then reading On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the GIFT of Nighttime Sleep and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins (there is a singleton version available too). I adapted my findings the best I could to quads and it’s served us well. Here’s what worked for us:

Follow a Feed Schedule

When the babies came home from the NICU they were on a three hour feeding schedule (6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm, 12 am, 3 am) and mostly slept between feeds. We quickly learned that no matter the number of feeders available, the babies had to be fed together (or as closely together) as possible to maintain that schedule. That meant tandem feeding when they were tiny enough to need a side lying position. We used a firm memory foam pillow and laid the babies back to back to accomplish this. With two people all were fed together, if it were just me, I fed the fussiest two first then the other two. Between feeds there were tons of chores to be done from bottle washing to well, taking a shower. George and I snagged a few hours of sleep here and there between those feeds. It was excruciating to get tidbits of sleep here and there. We lived in a fog for weeks. Incoherent conversations were held and bloopers ensued (I only wish I wrote them down because I don’t even remember much of that time anymore). The first few weeks, we set alarms for ourselves to feed the babies in fear they were too tiny to alert us. After a while (I think they were about nine weeks old), we stopped setting the alarms and let them cry to wake us. The rule was if one woke, they all woke to be fed and kept on the same schedule. One night we ended up with an extra bottle at the end of the day and were baffled. After reviewing our feeding chart, we realized the babies slept through their midnight feed: they slept from 9 pm to 3 am! We logged six consecutive hours for the first time in months. Yippee!!!! We felt so much better finally getting that six hours, but we knew the babies could go beyond that. When the babies were twelve weeks old, sleep boot camp began. About this time, the babies were getting big enough to sit supported in Boppy Pillows with bottle buddies. This allowed a successful quad feed and maintain better adherence to the feeding schedule. As part of sleep training, we adopted a few tenants:

Set the Stage for Sleep

We bought sound machines for each nursery to muffle foreign sounds and the cries of siblings. Most sleep training books (and some parents of multiples) say that multiples don’t wake each other, but ours do! We invested in diaper booster pads to help absorb more moisture in the night and keep them from waking to wet diapers. Now that they are bigger we may try overnight diapers. Additionally, we set up a going to sleep routine (for all naps and bedtime). We put each baby in a sleep sack, turn their mobile on, and hand them a WubbaNub. They now use their WubbaNubs as security blankets and self soothe with them during naps and bedtime.

We also follow both book’s advice of where the babies sleep. They are not allowed to sleep in contraptions such as swings or bouncy seats and they NEVER sleep in our room. They are put down for all naps and bedtime in their cribs. However, we sometimes deviate from the books here. If a baby wakes up and is getting loud enough to disturb siblings, he or she is relocated to a Rock ‘n’ Play either in the laundry room or bathroom. Rock ‘n’ Plays are probably “contraptions”, but we use them solely for sleeping so I consider them sleeping places. I am currently working on teaching them to sleep in a Pack ‘n’ Play instead. When they can sit up they can no longer safely sleep in Rock ‘n’ Plays and I’ll be up a creek without a paddle. The idea is moving an upset baby away from siblings to maintain good naps for all. If they didn’t wake each other up this would be unnecessary. At night, they go into a much deeper sleep and don’t bother each other.

Rylin has been stirring the pot during naps so she’s taken to bathroom naps. She has a weighted neck wrap on her tummy for cramping. Works wonders!

Watch for Signs of Drowsiness

When we put the babies down for naps or bed, we try to catch them in a drowsy state. This is the time when they start relaxing, but before they nod off or get a second wind. They tend to slow down their movements and eyes start looking heavy. If we catch them at this opportune time, they go to bed content and go right to sleep. If we miss it, they inevitably get revved up for more play then crash and get incredibly grouchy. It can be difficult to find this “sweet spot” so I watched the clock and developed a nap schedule that works pretty well. It also helps caretakers to watch the clock rather than for sleep cues.

This is how the babies should look when they are put to bed.

This is how they look about 10 minutes after being laid down. Looks like Sydney’s eyes are getting heavy!

Follow the Sleep-Wake-Sleep Cycle

In the day, we follow the Babywise method of following a feed-wake-sleep cycle. After finishing bottles, the babies stay awake for “playtime” before going down for naps. In the early days, wake time was quite short. Sometimes they struggled to stay awake to finish their bottles let alone play. Over time, they have extended wake time to 90 minutes and sometimes two hours. For our babies, this cycle is apparently important. Anytime we deviate from that order, things go awry and babies get cranky.

Plan for When Babies Wake

As part of sleep training, we moved our baby monitor out of our room to the den. We were a bit nervous about this at first, but babies make tons of little noises all night long that disturb our sleep. If a SIDs monitor alarms or if a baby truly needs intervention, we always hear them.

If a baby is crying loudly or getting noisy during a sleep, we give them a few minutes to settle on their own. If they can’t settle, we listen to the cry to infer the meaning. Having multiples means we must know the unique cries and the meaning for each baby. For example, if Sydney fusses she is usually settled by her WubbaNub. However, if Rylin begins escalating, she does not self soothe well and often needs a burp. Whereas, Harper can escalate if he sees a caretaker nearby so he’s best left alone. Mason rarely cries or fusses so if we hear him, it’s likely a soiled diaper or a stuck arm. Of course, they all have a specific, unmistakable cry for discomfort that requires immediate intervention no matter what. Every few weeks, Harper wakes up in the night with his hunger cry. We give him a “snack bottle” of about 2-3 oz and he goes back to bed. We believe these are growth spurts that work out within two or three days and he does not continue feeding at odd hours.

If a baby wakes up cooing and happy, we let them entertain themselves and enjoy alone time until the next feed. It is not unusual for the girls to wake up about 6:00 am, happily chatter to each other for about 20 minutes then go back to sleep until 7:30.

The Result

With sleep training in place, our feed and sleep schedules evolved into longer stretches at night and fewer feeds. By three and a half months of age, the babies started sleeping from 10:30 pm to about 5 am (You may notice we adjusted their feed schedule so the final feed was when we wanted to go to bed ourselves. This allowed us to get a good stretch of sleep too!). At this point, we started adding 1 tablespoon of rice to their final bottle to add extra calories to sustain them. They would wake again about 9 am and we would start our 3 hour feed schedule from there so it was: 5 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm, 10:30 pm. After a week or so of that, I noticed we were routinely waking three sleeping babies because Harper was waking. This is when tough love came into play. Over a weekend, when Harper woke up we did not wake the others. Instead, I got up with Harper and soothed him with some rocking and his WubbaNub. It took three nights and he started sleeping until 6/ 6:30 with the others. By four months our schedule then went to 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm, 10:30 pm. We maintained that schedule a few weeks when Mason began refusing the last bottle, but still slept all night. Although we worried about dropping the late bottle, we gave it a whirl and it worked! Babies were sleeping from 9 pm to 6 am. In time, they began to sleep longer and woke at 7/ 7:30 for the first feed. Over a few nights, we gradually backed the last feed up so their bedtime became 8 pm.

By the time the babies were six months old, we adopted this schedule:

7:45 am feed
9:15 am nap
11:00 am feed
12:30 nap
2:15 pm feed
3:45 nap
5:15 feed
7:45 pm feed
8:00 pm

Notice how naps are about 1-2 hours long and occur after about 90 minutes of wake time. We recently attempted moving to a four hour feed schedule, but were not ready because the babies become too sleepy and grouchy if wake time is extended too much. As they can tolerate longer wake times (we push them about 5 minutes here and there to experiment), we will revisit the coveted four hour feed schedule, which will result in two longer naps and dropping the third one.

Since Mason can roll over, he’s a tummy sleeper.

Our little side sleeper, Harper.

Resources:

I found this blog: Chronicles of a Babywise Mom that is a great place to go for troubleshooting and other Babywise implementation ideas. The author uses the principles of Babywise, but bends them to fit her family’s needs.

BabyWise Mom

Fellow quad mama, Amber, wrote about how she got her crew to sleep 12 hours at night on her Blog, Texas Tales.

Here are the books I read.

On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the GIFT of Nighttime Sleep

On Becoming Babywise, Book Two: Parenting Your Five to Twelve-Month-Old Through the Babyhood Transitions

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins: A Step-by-Step Program for Sleep-Training Your Multiples

I would also like to give a special thanks to my cousin, Lindsay, who is my go-to gal on sleep training all things Babywise. She may not have quadruplets, but she does know a thing or two about sleep training, schedules, and babies in general!

So there you have it, that’s how all six of us get a good night’s sleep! What would you do for a good night’s sleep?

Hugs!

Amber

Coping with Baby Gear x Four

February 19, 2013Amber 11 Comments

With four babies in our house, we have a colossal amount of baby gear. It’s not that we have four of everything, but we have everything one baby would need plus multiples of many items. George and I both like things tidy and organized and we pride ourselves in having a cozy home. Having enough baby gear to rival the nearest Children’s Courtyard would cramp our style; if we let it. After all, it is our home; we just happen to share it with our four babies and two fur babies. We’ve gone to great lengths to maintain some semblance of decor and normalcy for ourselves. We tend to become overstimulated by too much stuff, especially obnoxiously bright baby items that become eye sores. When registering for large items, I chose neutral colored swings and bouncy seats rather than the bold traditional ones. I prefer for those things to sort of blend in with the rest of our furniture rather than taking center stage. We started out with a few primary colored loaner items that I just could not handle so we promptly returned them. I’m sure our visitors would agree our home still resembles a home daycare center, but I think we do a decent job keeping things comfortable for adults too. We’ve found a few ways to cope with all the new gear inhabiting our home.

Before the babies arrival, George expanded a tiny linen closet to go underneath our stairs. It’s become a haven for baby toys and gear. During the day, I rotate the babies toys so that there’s never too much out at once and to keep things interesting and fresh for the babies.

This is the closet where baby toys find sanctuary. During naps, I store previously used ones in here and take out new ones for the next play session. The closet may be jam packed, but at least we don’t have to contend with ALL of the contents ALL day!

I LOVE baskets! Whenever I find a several of anything, I usually find a basket to contain them. Baskets keep things tidy and camoflauge unsightly clutter. Notice I actually have a basket for booger removal tools!

Here’s what you might see unfolding during a typical day at our house:

Here, we have three play mats out so everyone can bat and kick toys. I don’t like these out too much though because they seem to discourage rolling.

Here everyone except Rylin is trying tummy time. That chick still hates being on her tummy!

I find that the babies explore more and have more opportunites to roll and scoot if I spread out a variety of interesting toys on the quilt. I don't think it was concidental that Mason began rollinw when I left more space on the quilt.

I find that the babies explore more and have more opportunities to roll and scoot if I spread out a variety of interesting toys on the quilt, but not too many. I don’t think it was coincidental that Mason began rolling when I left more space on the quilt.

We only have two saucesrs and babies take turns in them. There is no need for everyone to be in a saucer at once.

We only have two saucers and babies take turns in them. There is no need for everyone to be in a saucer at once. I also stash several of our bouncers and small swings away so we never have more than a few out at once. I set up Boppy pillows at the end of play time for the next feed.

Below the television used to house fragile knick nacks and picture frames. When the babies came home, we replaced all of them with baskets. This allows us to store bibs, burb cloths, and toys without anyone seeing all that clutter. Also, when the babies are mobile all items in the baskets are safe for them.

Below the television used to house fragile nick knacks and picture frames. When the babies came home, we replaced all of them with seagrass baskets. This allows us to store bibs, burp cloths, and toys without anyone seeing all that clutter. Also, when the babies are mobile all items in the baskets are safe for them.

After the babies go to bed, we put away all of the toys and roll up the quilt. I just love seeing our beautiful rug and cozying up on the couch with Sasha and Lily. When all of the baby clutter is stowed away for the night, Sasha and Lily dart around as if to say, “We’re free!” They romp around and bark at each other. Don’t get me wrong we love the babies and playing with them, but we also love having a den where we can retreat and unwind at the end of a the day where we don’t feel boxed in by baby gear.

Of course the large baby gear is still out, but see how nicely all of the toys tuck away into the baskets?

What would you do with baby gear multiplied by four?

hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #3

February 14, 2013Amber 5 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s been another whirlwind of a week, so much happening in such a little bit of time! This week we celebrated a few little things so we’re linking up with Rebecca at A Beautiful Ruckus again for The Little Things Thursdays.

1. Here is the artwork that’s been decorating our hallway this month.

A little heart art courtesy of eight baby feet!

2. The babies received their first Valentine’s Day cards from our friends Billie and Bob. They enjoyed ~~looking at~~ eating them.

3. We introduced the babies to bubbles this week. They tried grabbing them and were dismayed when they vanished. Can you figure out which baby is missing from this picture?

4. For the first time ever, Sydney put her hands ON her bottle. She of course has not done it since this photo was taken, but hey she can do it.

5. Spoon feeding proved a bit treacherous for Rylin this week. We suspect she has a carrot allergy or sensitivity. We introduced carrots to the babies Sunday and Monday evening she had red splotches on her face. She hasn’t had carrots since Monday evening and the red splotches have since disappeared. She also started a habit of rubbing her bib on her face during feeds, which becomes rather messy. When I put her to bed Tuesday evening, I realized she still had butternut squash in her eyebrows! We tried tucking her bib into her chair, using a smaller bib or a larger big, and clipping it to the seat, all to no avail. I eventually bought her a silicone bib and we tuck it into her seat. It’s enough heavier that it stays put and her face is much cleaner!

6. Since Mason is the master of rolling over, he’s begun a few other tricks this week. He started pushing up on his hands and wiggling his feet, he practiced being Super Baby, reached out to the toys on the Exersaucer, and today discovered he can grab things with his feet! He’s been demonstrating how to roll over for his siblings, but they don’t seem to have any interest in that trick. If they don’t get busy, Mason will literally be crawling all over them!

Here’s Mason showing off his new skills.

7. I just love it when the babies “share” toys. It looks like Harper is thinking about pushing up on those arms…almost!

Brotherly love

What little things did you do this week?

hugs!

Amber

How do you do it?

February 9, 2013August 16, 2015Amber 12 Comments

Whether we are out with all four babies or going about or daily lives alone, we are often asked, “How do you do it?” or are told, “You are amazing!” I’ll admit, we love the flattery and ego boost. Yes, we were given an amazing challenge and blessing of raising four same age children, but that doesn’t mean we are amazing. We are usually just doing what needs to be done to the best of our ability everyday. With that in mind, I began wondering what helps us accomplish all of the things that must be done on a daily basis while maintaining some degree of sanity. I chalk it up to these things:

Organization & Planning

George and I are both Type A personalities. Long before the quads, we kept everything well-organized. Our house is by no means spotless, but it is organized for the most part. Everything has a place and we try to keep all things in place (we get out of sorts if things are left out). We have systems for the most efficient means of accomplishing daily tasks from bottle washing to feeding four simultaneously. Some of our systems took a bit of ingenuity (e.g. quad feeding table and diaper chute) and time to figure out the logistics. We’ve also learned to triage our to-do lists. Somethings are non-negotiable such as preparing feeds, but other things like laundry may take a back seat. Sometimes we take short cuts such as cleaning with Clorox wipes and the Swiffer Vac too!

Mason, Sydney, Rylin, Harper trying the quad table for the first time.

I started creating pages explaining some of our systems in case other parents of multiples want to give them a whirl and so someday we can look back at all that we’ve been doing to stay afloat. Yesterday I found a purple funnel in our kitchen cabinet and told George, “Hey, I didn’t know we had a funnel. I could have used it a few days ago.” He said, “Oh yeah, we bought that when the babies came home.” Neither of us have a clue what that funnel is for! I guess it was for some system we had a while back.

Here are a few resources:

Making Formula by the Batch- https://fourtoadore.wordpress.com/resources/making-formula-by-the-batch/

Feeding and Developmental Charts- https://fourtoadore.wordpress.com/resources/charts/

Must Haves for Babies (Multiples Edition)- https://fourtoadore.wordpress.com/resources/must-haves-for-babies-multiples-edition/

Sleep Training

We could not survive with round the clock feeds every three hours and stealing sleep in 1-2 hour increments for long. We soon learned how to sleep train the babies. I read two books about how to this, Babywise and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins. We adopted concepts from both books, talked to other parents, and melded it into something that worked for our quads. Having babies that nap relatively well AND sleep all night is the secret to accomplishing anything besides direct baby care. They generally take three 1-2 hour naps. At this point, the babies take their final bottle at about 7:45/8:00 pm and sleep 10-11 hours. Very rarely do we hear a peep out of them in the night. The only downside is that after they go to sleep for the night, we get a bit overzealous and try to tackle WAY too many projects. I often notice it’s midnight and I’m yet to go to bed myself. That’s when the Keurig is a handy tool. I now understand what people mean when they say, “I NEED my coffee!”

HoM MoMs and DoMs

Wonder what that means? It’s some cute little acronyms for High Order Multiples (HoM) Moms of Multiples (MoMs) and Dads of Multiples (DoMs). Connecting with others raising high order multiples (triplets or more) absolutely keeps us sane. We are both part of online forums for moms/ dads of quads or more. These other parents help normalize raising quads, encourage us to try new things, give us great tips, and give us good laughs too. It’s not uncommon for me to shoot a text or email to another MoM about a frustrating day or to ask about a feed or nap. Because of these people, we often forget that it’s atypical to do things such as make the entire can of formula in a day. And…sometimes we are able to buy secondhand gear for multiples such as our Runabout from them!

The Village

Whenever people discover we have quadruplets, they often snidely say, “I hope you have A LOT of help.” I smuggly reply, “Not as much as you think.” That is mostly true. We do not have an entourage, a nanny, or an army of volunteers, but we do not do this completely alone either. Three to four days of the week I am on my own. George and I are always home together on Sundays, but I go to work two days a week too. Those two days per week are when the reinforcements come. It takes two babysitters each day while I work to manage the fort. One day per week, my father in law and aunt in law come to the rescue while the other day my mom and her sidekick, Terri (or sometimes Billie) keep tabs on the babies. Recently, my friend, Jen started coming every other Tuesday evening to help me while I’m here. It’s usually the time when we are managing a spoon feed, baths, dinner, and other pesky chores. In addition to our regular baby wranglers, we sometimes find friends or relatives who babysit so we can go on dates! Those times are few and far between, but greatly appreciated. I am constantly baffled when these people leave our home and thank us for letting them come. Thank us??? I always reply, “NO THANK YOU!!!!”

Carol feeding Harper
George feeding Mason

Left: Nisey with Rylin
Right: Billie with Mason

Terri & Rylin

Teamwork

George and I are a team in this journey. Neither of us could manage it without the constant support from the other. We each have our specialty baby care tasks. For example, I tackle baths while he makes all of the feeds. We both work in tandem do the other stuff. George never complains about changing the millionth diaper or managing tiny clothes, and he doesn’t grumble when I leave him alone to run errands. Sometimes to keep it interesting, we “race” each other to complete baby cares. For example, one time we each took a nursery and raced to see who could change their babies first. I won that one, but he wasn’t far behind. George works full-time and I work part-time so we aren’t together 100% of the time, but we love the days best when we are home together.

Faith

Before we knew we were expecting quads, I often made comments such as, “I think we would be fine with twins, but anything more is SCARY!” It never occurred to me that we may have high order multiples. Despite that sentiment, I was oddly calm the day we saw all four heartbeats on our first ultrasound. I somehow knew He was taking care of us and had bigger plans than we ever imagined. Throughout the entire pregnancy and probably far beyond, everyone around us seemed to do all the worrying for us. For the most part I never worried and never considered that all four babies being anything other than healthy. I adopted this quote during the struggle with infertility, “Worrying does not empty today of it’s troubles….it empties tomorrow of it’s strength” – Mary Engelbreit. Remembering that served me well then and continues to. Many others around us continually worry about the financial burden four babies bring. However, He always sees that our provisions are provided. Thanks to the generosity of those around us and even some strangers, we have bought very few diapers, wipes, or cans of formula to date. We’ve probably spent the same amount parents of a singleton or twins may, but not what we anticipated for having quads (thankfully!). With each passing day, we give thanks to God for the gift of our precious babies and know we’re never alone.

Sydney, Harper, Mason & Rylin

So there you have it. If you wonder how we’re still standing, these are the reasons why.

hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #2

February 7, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 20 Comments

This has been a BUSY week in Quadland so it’s our first post since last Thursday! I’ve been working on another post, but I’m yet to finish that one. We’re linking up with Rebecca at A Beautiful Ruckus for The Little Things Thursdays again. If you have spare time, don’t forget to check out what little things were happening around the blogosphere this week.

Reflecting on our week, I realized I’ve been doing a good bit of online shopping and quite a few boxes arrived at our house this week. Prior to having the babies I loved to bargain shop and would jaunt here and there seeking the best deals. That is a bit tricky since it usually requires two babysitters for me to leave the house. Hence, online shopping gets the job done. I still bargain hunt just in a new fangled way. I often check pricegrabber.com to see who has the best prices. Waiting for all of our boxes of new stuff to arrive is plain fun! Here’s what was new at our house this week:

1. One staple of our babies’ wardrobes is Baby Legs. They are FANTASTIC! Every time we make a trip to the doctor, the babies don Onsies with coordinating Baby Legs. When they need shots, we just pull the Baby Legs down a bit without having to finagle miniature pants and socks. After the shots are done, we load them up and leave. I’ve also figured out that Baby Legs work as lightweight jackets when we stroll around the neighborhood in our Runabout!

Harper and Sydney are modeling their Baby Legs here.

2. Now that the babies are eating real food, we have to prepare said food. We’ve been experimenting with existing kitchen equipment including a Baby Bullet gifted to us, our old Magic Bullet, rice cooker, blender, and food processor. These gadgets got the job accomplished, but very inefficiently. For example, the Baby Bullet took 13 minutes to steam a single pear where we had a five pound bag to puree! After some research we added two new appliances to our arsenal: The Ninja 1100 and 20 cup Aroma rice cooker/ steamer. Both appliances are multi-purpose and we hope will grow with our family. We gave them a test run last night and were able to process the pears in about 25 minutes, including cook time.

3. Sunday afternoon, I left George in charge of the babies and headed to Costco. I picked up organic produce for baby food as well as a few other essentials. Today the babies gave butternut squash a try and LOVED it! I think we have a new family favorite along with bananas. Rylin took thirds of this yummy concoction!

Sydney & Rylin

4. When the babies were in the NICU, the occupational therapist there introduced us to Wubbanub pacifiers. Since then, each baby has used the same Wubbanub. Recently, they have become sort of “security blankets” as the babies enjoy holding them and rubbing them on their faces or gnawing on the limbs. One day I washed them and left them out to air dry. This did not bode well with Mason who refused his nap until given a damp Wubbanub. Thus, I ordered a second set for backups!

Top: Sydney & Rylin
Bottom: Mason & Harper

5. As the babies began expressing interest in holding their bottles, I thought it might be time to try trainer cups. I ordered a variety of different ones to experiment with and also pulled out some the babies received for Christmas. I’ve been putting about an ounce of water in them and letting the babies try to pick them up.

Mason was the only one who seemed interested in the sippy cups today.

6. The weather here has been absolutely lovely. Despite being February we had highs in the 70’s this week. We’ve logged more time in the Runabout with this weather. We use the sun shade, but the babies heads and faces are usually exposed to the harsh sunlight. They have plenty of winter hats, but no sun hats. So, I ordered some from The Children’s Place. George chose a fedora for Harper and military hat for Mason while the girls got floppy sun hats. They each modeled their hats today. Sydney was a bit perplexed at the size of hers. Apparently she will be able to wear it all summer long!

Clockwise from top:
Harper, Sydney, Rylin, & Mason

What little things happened in your week? Is there anything new at your house?

Hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment 1

January 31, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 10 Comments

Fellow quad mama, Rebecca, invited me to join her “The Little Things Thursdays” over at her blog, A Beautiful Ruckus:

http://www.abeautifulruckus.com/

During the week with quads, Rebecca realized there were numerous little moments that made the week special. However, these moments weren’t always worthy of a full blog post. Nor, is there enough time in a day to blog about every little moment that transpires in a day. Hey, it’s challenging enough to post a full post on a weekly basis! Thus, the idea of The Little Things Thursday emerged. Every Thursday she posts snippets of the week’s happenings as a quick way to share with others and document for her family. She also links up with other bloggers who do the same thing, document little things. I’m so excited she invited us to join! We’ve got plenty of these moments and no time to blog them all fully! Here is our first installments of little things from this week:

1. Mason has become a Holy Roller! He’s mastered the skill of rolling tummy to back and back to tummy. If you put him down, he rolls. He rolls on the floor, he rolls in his crib. He rolls into things, including siblings. So far, he’s the only roller in the bunch, but Sydney and Harper have been spotted rolling onto their sides.

Now that Mason is rolling over, we’re having sibling tangle ups! Rylin took the opportunity to kick her brother.

2. All of the sudden, the quads have an interest in holding (sort of) their own bottles! YAY! They don’t quite have the dexterity to hold a full bottle of formula. However, they can hold bottles when the majority is drained. We give Rylin about an ounce of prune juice in a NICU “kitten bottle” and discovered she can hold it herself. Big girl!

Rylin learned to hold her own juice bottle in the morning.

Rylin demonstrating her mad juice drinking skills.

3. We started spoon feeds at the quad table George built. We introduced a few fruit purees over the week with rice or oatmeal. Spoon feeds were a bit daunting at first, but the quad table makes it so easy!

The taste of avocado brought Harper to tears!

4. The babies usually wear Baby Legs or leggings. However, we have all of these precious jeans we never seem to wear. I broke them out for Aunt Cici’s visit on Sunday.

Everyone wore Baby Gap jeans for the first time.

5. Mason has always been a social bug who loves to chat up everyone from visitors to siblings. Today, he rolled over and discovered it’s just as fun to chatter with himself!

Mason discovered he’s a dapper little fella!

6. Now that I am home with the babies most days, I spend A LOT of time in the den and so do the babies. I realized that we’ve been living in a sea of brown. We have a brown sofa, brown chairs, a brown coffee table, and of course brown hardwood floors. For evenings after work it’s one thing, but ALL day in the brown was just too much. This week I took charge of the brown. I grabbed some paint and did a few DIY color splashes to brighten things up a bit. I bought sea shells at Hobby Lobby and painted them chrome to fill a hurricane jar. Then I took a beat up looking end table that was of course, brown and distressed it with a cheery aqua. I also found a nice cream lamp from Home Goods for that table. And, finally I spray painted a the brown picture frame above our mantle white. I just love using paint for quick changes!

Here are the results.

What little things did you do this week? Don’t forget to drop by A Beautiful Ruckus to see what little things happened across the blogosphere.

hugs!

Amber

What’s in a Name?

January 21, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 15 Comments

When George and I considered potential names for the babies, we mulled over them for a while. We wanted names that we thought weren’t too common nor did we want unusual ones. I had a laundry list of “NO” names due to seeing kids with particular names at work (there are names common with behavior problems, learning problems, and even particular disabilities!). We considered names that would be cute for babies and children, but could also grow with them. We wanted the chosen names to sound respectable in a board room or office. We also thought it was important for each name to be unique from the others because the quads are individuals after all. However, we wanted cohesive middle names chosen from earth elements. All of those considerations and we didn’t put any stock into the meaning of each name! In fact, I don’t think we even looked up the meanings of their names. Today the babies turned six months old and each of them has a unique personality and temperament developing. I find it funny how the meanings of their names do seem to matter after all. If we’d considered the meaning of their names beforehand, we may have ended up with Serenity, Calm, Patience, and Peace. Sure, our house would be very zen, but also boring! Instead, these are the little people who fill our home with love:

Rylin (little princess) Skye (head in the clouds)–

Rylin is our little princess no doubt. She is incredibly social and loves to coo and babble to her parents, visitors, siblings, and even some toys. She has the most adorable rasp in her voice. I just know she will have the cutest raspy voice when she starts talking. Each morning, Rylin wakes with a huge smile plastered on her face as she coos to her sister and bats her luscious eyelashes. She often brings her hands to her face as if she’s brushing hair from her eyes. Miss Rylin has a way of charming caregivers with her smiley eyes and often delays naps and bedtime. She is a dainty girl who is long and lean, but she doesn’t much enjoy physical activity. She loathes tummy time and tolerates it only if a mirror is adjacent to her. She LOVES to admire herself in a mirror as if she knows she’s pretty. She’d rather not bear weight on her legs and melts into a welcoming lap instead. Rylin loves to chatter to her siblings and smile brightly at them, even if they are disinterested. She has a streak of independence and attempts to hold her own bottle most of the time. For the most part, Rylin is a delightful little girl. However, she IS the princess in this house. When she wants something, she demands it! Rylin is known for having a piercing scream when she is hungry or bored. If you aren’t prone to migraines, Rylin can certainly help you find one. I remember when I displayed a temper as a child, my mom would say, “I hope you have a little girl just like you when you grow up.” Rylin may well be that little girl with a fierce temper!

Rylin is chatting up the other social butterfly of the family, Mason.

Who’s that pretty girl?

Harper (musical) Stone (athletic)-

Dating back to his days in the NICU, Harper has always been the most vocal of the group. He babbles “meh”, “mamamma”, and sometimes even “hi”. When he giggles there’s a little underlying snort and he crinkles his nose. He is never shy to let his needs be known, especially if he is hungry. There are many nights when Harper is protesting his nap or bedtime and we say, “Well, Harper is harping!” Just like his sister, Rylin, Harper tends to demand things he wants and wails quite loudly. He earned the nickname “Captain” early on as he tends to be the boss who sparks feeds or naps. George recently added the nickname, “Mr. Giggles” because Harper will giggle when he wakes up in the morning. Of the group, Harper is by far the strongest and largest. I would expect the most athletic also. He loves to bear weight on his legs and feet and sometimes it’s difficult to get him to sit. If I were placing bets, I would say Harper will be the first to walk. Despite his innate ability, Harper tends to avoid initiating activity and prefers to observe his siblings in action. He CAN roll over, grasp objects, push buttons, and probably even sit up. However, he often does none of these things until cajoled. He has a precious smile with a huge dimple in his right cheek, but you have to entice him to show it to you. Harper has huge dreamy eyes and luxurious eyelashes that are certain to break a few hearts.

Harper thought this table was a nifty way to stand.

Lily snuggled up with the casual observer.

Sydney (enthusiastic) Raine (helpful friend)-

Tiny Sydney is incredibly curious about everything in her surroundings. Her huge brown eyes hone in on even the tiniest of details. She was the first to notice a new lamp and crinkled her brow at it. She could track her mobile in the NICU when her vision should have been about equivalent to a bat’s. When she sees something of interest, Sydney insists on observing it even if you move her. We’ve noticed that if you turn while holding her, Sydney will turn her head and keep her eyes fixed on the thing of interest. She will make an excellent dancer or ice skater because this skill prevents dizziness while turning! Sydney has a sweet coo and smile, but often reserves them for special moments. Her favorite person to talk to is Rylin. Whenever she sees her sister, she almost always smiles and coos at her. She also enjoys interacting with her brothers, but seems especially close to her sister. Despite being so small, Sydney is surprisingly strong and seems to be in constant motion. No matter where she is, Sydney kicks her feet and flails her arms with enthusiasm. She stands with support for balance and controls her neck and head independently. She is starting to really enjoy the exercsaucer because she can stand up in it and punch buttons. We always say she’s little, but mighty! Don’t be fooled by her petite stature; Sydney has a temper too! When she’s mad, Sydney turns deep read and she wails! Unlike her bigger siblings, Sydney is calmed by a swing and neck wrap spread across her tummy. Thank goodness for that!

Sydney loves to stand, but poor baby can’t reach the floor in these standing toys.

Sydney always enjoys Elmo’s appearances more than anyone else.

Mason (reliable) River (trendy, hip)-

Mason is by far the most predictable of the group. He has an even keeled temperament and reserves his tears for good reason like a foul diaper or wicked burp. Mr. Mason is usually a happy-go-lucky little guy that melts the hearts of everyone around him. Actually, he’s been wooing others since he was only about four weeks old and my dad nicknamed him “Slick” then. He’s quite empathic to others and gets rather upset when his siblings cry, especially if they are in pain. When the others get vaccines, we have to take Mason out because he becomes distraught and almost inconsolable. While he’s smaller than his brother, he works twice as hard to accomplish physical milestones. He was the first to discover his hands and now uses both together to grab and munch toys. When he wakes up from a nap, he often puts his Wubbanub back into his own mouth! He is also the only one who can roll over front to back and back to front. Mason is almost always in a good mood and coos saying “ah ooooohhh”, especially when he awakens. We love to tickle his ribs to hear his little belly laugh and to see his huge dimples, one in each cheek. His smile is contagious! We often say the operation is possible because Mason is so easy-going and just plain happy. I don’t think we would fare half as well if we had four demanding babies.

Mason always makes good use of his two hands. He especially loves to grab a sibling's arm or hand.

Mason always makes good use of his two hands. Here he has a toy in one hand and Sydney’s hand in the other.

Well, I captured one of Mason’s two dimples at least.

While the babies never sleep together (I am terrified one might roll on another), I love putting them into one crib while supervised. I’ve been snapping pictures of their crib parties each month to see how they grow. By the end of the year, I doubt they will fit in a single crib!

hugs!

Amber

Maiden Voyage

January 19, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 18 Comments

When we purchased our Runabout stroller, we anticipated not being able to use it until the spring. We figured the babies would need to sit up without support and the weather wouldn’t be appropriate until the spring. However, today was an absolutely lovely day in Texas! If I didn’t know better, I would say it was April. The sun was brilliant and it was temperate; the perfect day to head outdoors. Normally we would use our twin strollers, but I saw that the Jones Quints (who live nearby) were using their Ruanbout this week. If they could Runabout why couldn’t we? Our babies may not be able to sit independently, but they have reasonable neck and trunk control. So, we took our Runabout in the neighborhood for it’s maiden voyage!

The entire family, including the furbabies, loved it! I think the babies enjoyed being able to sit up and see what was in front of them. When we got back, they were all relaxed and in a great mood. The stroller is so easy to maneuver and we even took turns jogging with it. After all, it is a jogging stroller than can go up to 10 mph. Not that I envision either of us ever running 10 mph with our without a Runabout. It was easier for one of us to wrangle the dogs while the other pushed the stroller. As far as neighbors and onlookers they were all so nice! We got plenty of marveling glances and a few cute questions from kids, but not one rude remark. One little boy asked if it was heavy to push because it was so big while another inquired about Sydney’s hemangioma. When George explained it was a birthmark, the boy replied, “Like Harry Potter?” Too cute! We live in such a great place for the quads to grow up.

I like the babies to wear sunglasses to protect their peepers. Sydney’s glasses were too big so she wore Mason’s. He wore his Build A Bear’s aviators!

I think George looks handsome with his Runabout!

hugs!

Amber

PS- the best part about the Runabout is that I can now walk the babies solo!

Four to Adore

a slice of life with quadruplets

quads

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #5

Lessons Learned re: Spoon Feeds with Four

Good Night, Sleep Tight!

Coping with Baby Gear x Four

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #3

How do you do it?

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #2

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment 1

What’s in a Name?

Maiden Voyage

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