Cooper has changed a ton in these 17 weeks. He is talking a ton. He is able to put two words phrases and simple sentences together. “Mama sit”, “Cooper eat”, “Baby cry”, “blue car”, “cold water”. He has learned his to recognize all of the letters in the alphabet from a DVD called “Meet the Letters” by the Preschool Prep Company. He knows all his colors too. He can count 2,3,4. For some reason he refuses to say the number one, haha. He does occasionally count 5,6, and then skips to 9. His potty training is coming along well. He is finally starting to ask to pee in the potty and he is still pooping in the potty. I am so proud of him. He never regressed with the potty training when the babies were born. He is also a big help to me now. He will bring me a burp rag or a diaper. If one of the babies cries, he will go over to one of them and say, “it’s okay” and put a hand on them or try to make them smile. He is such a good big brother. He loves his sisters (most of the time).

I wanted to also publicly thank my in-laws, Ken and Margie Foley. Without them, I am not sure I would have made it through these first 17 weeks. They took Cooper for a day, a night, or a weekend here and there to give me a much needed break after sleepless nights and illnesses. Thanks you Ken and Margie! I am so glad to have at least some of my family near by. It would be even better if my father, step-mom, and sister were close by too because I know they would help out like that too, but I am grateful that I at least have Chris’s parents so close. They are only 10 minutes from us. Thanks Ken and Margie!!

Molly

Anna May

So that is my life with two month old twins and a 20 month old toddler. I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that things will improve over time, but right now I feel like I am muddling my way through in the dark and just hoping that I stumble across the light switch one of these days. You know I cried when I found out I was having twins, not tears or joy, but tears of fear and sorrow. I knew how hard it is to take care of a newborn, but to take care of two newborns, I knew it would be hard. AND IT IS HARD! I think one of the hardest things is getting them down for their naps and also trying to make sure that Cooper is safe and not getting himself into trouble while I am soothing the girls and laying them down for a nap. Poor Cooper has spent many a start to a nap in his playpen so that I know he cannot harm himself.

I have been shedding a few tears the past two days feeling just overwhelmed with life. You know, Chris and I have been married for 3 year on June 2nd. Last night I looked up at Chris and just laughed at our life. Never in my wildest dream would have ever imagined being married for only 3 years with 3 children. You can never predict the future and what God has in store for you. I just pray that God gives me the strength to muddle through the next few months.
P.S. Chris says we are averaging one kid per year. So how many kids will we have in 10 years? Any bets?

I am still breastfeeding the girls. That has been a real challenge. I am using a special pillow designed to help twin mother’s breastfeed, but still it is quite the challenge. The girls spit up a lot and I never know when I am going to get soaked by one if their projectile spit-ups. Sigh! They are growing a ton. Molly is still larger than Anna and both girls are finally out of their preemie clothes and wearing newborn clothing. They have lost most of the hair on top of their heads, but it looks like it might be growing back finally. They sleep pretty well at night. They go to bed around 9pm and sleep until 2/3am. Then they wake up between 6-7am. So there is really only one middle of the night feeding, which is not that bad if you ask me.  Some nights are better than others, but for the most part that is not bad for almost 6 week old babies.

Outings: Well, we made it out of the house on Mother’s Day with all three kids. We went to the Zoo. It was a lot of fun. Cooper loved it and the girls napped in their strollers. We also made it over to my in-law’s house for dinner one night and that went pretty well too. Then finally this week, I took all three kids to the library so Cooper could go to Toddler Story time. Everything went well and Cooper had a great time.

I think the hard part is that I feel like I have not bonded with the girls. Cooper demands so much attention and you really cannot ignore him so I have to pay him more attention. So I feel like I never really spend any time with my girls unless it is to breastfeed or diaper change them. I do get some on-one-one time with each of the girls, but it is limited. When Cooper was an infant I had all the time in the world to just soak him up. I guess with your first you have that luxurie!
Cooper keeps getting cuter and cuter each day. I find that he says a new word all the time now. He is also very obedient and I am so grateful that he is such a good listener! For example, when we went to the library the other day, I told him to hold onto the stroller and to not let go as we walked from the parking lot into the library. He held onto the stroller and never once let go. Such a good boy! He loves playing outside and now that the weather is warm, well hot, he is outside a lot in the evenings. He loves to follow the other kids around that live on our street.

Here are some pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Molly 4 Weeks Old

Anna 4 weeks old

Cooper 19 Months

Mommy with her 3 day old twin girls!

Please pray that I am able to get over my current infection and fever.

Thought I would also include another picture of the girls until we finally get an album of pictures up and running. They are one week old here.