Baby Tunes Play List

Further to my last post, I wanted to share the playlist I put together right before the babies came home. It's divided into Wake-Up and Sleepytime sections, and I spent a lot of time choosing the songs because I wanted them to be meaningful (once a DJ, always a DJ!); these were the days before sleep deprivation, obviously, when I had the luxury to contemplate such things. They're downloaded onto the Ipod that we have in the nursery.

1- Vivaldi: Cello Concert in C - Allegro

2- The Beatles: Good Day Sunshine

3- Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Big Chief

4- Bruce Springsteen (off the album The Seeger Sessions): Mrs. McGrath

5- Mark Haines and Tom Leighton: Old French Medley

6- Bruce Springsteen / The Seeger Sessions: My Oklahoma Home

7- The New Pornographers: All Of The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth

8- The Pogues: If I Should Fall From Grace With God

9- Bruce Springsteen / The Seeger Sessions: Pay Me My Money Down

10- Mark Haines and Tom Leighton: Point Du Chene Girl

11- The Dubliners and The Pogues: The Irish Rover

12- John Prine: Grandpa Was A Carpenter

13- Mark Haines and Tom Leighton: Gumboot Clogeroo

14- Derrick Harriot: Monkey Ska

15- The Pogues: Sunny Side Of the Street

16- The Skydiggers: This Old Town

17- The Beatles: Here Comes The Sun

18- Billy Bragg and Wilco: Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

19- The New Pornographers: Challengers

20- The Beatles: Oh! Darling

21- Bruce Springsteen / The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome

22- Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water

23- John Prine: Angel From Mongtgomery

24- Mark Haines and Tom Leighton: My Father's Kindness

25- Bruce Springsteen / The Seeger Sessions: Shenandoah

26- Billy Bragg and Wilco: California Stars

27- Louis Armstrong: What A Wonderful World

Wherein Keith Dances a Jig

Taken this afternoon.... everyone is muuuuch happier! The music in the background is performed by Edward's uncle Tom Leighton and Mark Haines, a piece called "Old French Medley" off their album "Hand To Hand".

Happy Four Months, Babies!

Keith, Evelyn and Colin with Grammy a week ago

Today marks their four month anniversary, which we celebrated by going to the doctor's for a check-up and booster shots! Keith is 22 inches long, and weighs 13 lb 3 oz. Evelyn is also 22 inches long, and weighs 11 pounds 4 oz. Colin is 22.5 inches long, and weighs 13 pounds even. The doctor was really pleased with their progress, as are we!

In other news, this past Sunday was probably the most challenging day we've had since the babies came home. Colin was literally up and crying from 9am to 10pm. There was very little respite, and he was absolutely exhausted. He was screaming at every feed, demanded to be held at all times, and was obviously in serious discomfort. The new antacid medication we got from the doctor on Friday was doing nothing, and his shrieking was setting off the others. Not sure if it was sympathy crying, or if he was just keeping them up, but EVERYONE was crying, myself included. My parents came over in the bitter cold with Sunday dinner as per usual, and it was a much needed breath of fresh air. Things seemed a lot more reasonable and tolerable; a desperately needed shift in perspective. And a tasty meal, too!

On Saturday, we had described Colin's behaviour to Edward's father who is a GP. He surmised that the oat cereal we had given Colin on the gastroenterologist's orders may not be agreeing with him, and may in fact be making his reflux a lot worse. Many of the medical professionals we spoke with were a little surprised we had been told to start with oat, because babies tend to do better with rice as their first solid. We decided the stop the oat and start rice cereal immediately. We were losing hope on Sunday, as noted above, but kept the course. On Monday, Colin was a changed baby. He started sleeping better during the day, and settling a lot more easily. Today has been, well, amazing. We had a bit of an altered schedule due to the doctor's appointment, but the improvement has been nothing short of incredible. He still has reflux - he had a huuuuge spit up at the doctor's office - but the writhing and screaming has stopped almost completely, and more importantly he is sleeping in his crib (swaddled, which he seems to need) as I write this. We are so relieved, and hope that he will continue his transformation back into our Mr. Smiley!

The moral of our weekend: Thank GOD for our parents... I only hope that we can provide our little ones with the same amount of support and care.

Of course, the babies are still all up crying from 6 to about 9, but we can handle the fussiness that almost all babies seem to go through at that time! I've gotten quite adept at eating while rocking a carseat with one foot :P

When You're Smiling... well, most of the time...

Colin!
Colin having a good belly laugh
Evelyn burst into tears a few seconds later (we had stopped singing Old MacDonald, which is cause for great distress in Evelyn's world!), but Keith is feeling the love!

Down In The Trenches

From left to right, Colin, Evelyn and Keith wearing their sweaters knit by a friend of the family... oh, and Puppy. Colin is no longer my strawberry-blonde baby! His hair is growing in ash blonde. (PS: you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

We had our second Home Visitor appointment this morning. This is a free service provided by the City of Ottawa Public Health to provide assistance to parents who have additional challenges such as um, drug addiction and/or triplets. We really like our Visitor, Gina. We are her tenth set of triplets - eight from her work in daycare, and her second since starting with the City.

Our Public Health nurse accompanied her. This is another free service provided to all new parents in Ottawa in the days following every baby's release from the hospital. If you think you need an extra visit all you have to do is ask, and they'll be more than happy to see you again. We saw our nurse on several occasions for help with pumping, baby weighing and just to check in to make sure we hadn't fled for the border. She is also amazing and very reassuring.

They confirmed that Colin has colic. This is a little amusing, because colic isn't a medical condition. It is just something that drives parents to the brink of insanity for several months until babies mysteriously grown out of it. There is no cure per se, other than time. The other day, Colin and Evelyn took turns caterwauling from 11am to 9pm. We think Evelyn wanted nothing more than to keep Colin company, because she isn't usually the instigator for all day screaming. Keith is oblivious to most things, including two howling siblings. He likes to stare at his unhappy nursery-mates with a mixture of wonder and disdain - he loves his naps waaay to much to give them up for the sake of solidarity. All in all, the colic should get better in the next few weeks. Should.

Happily, we have had a TON of help, from friends and neighbours, parents, sisters and cousins. Poor Sprocket (never the most social of animals) now has an over-developed sensitivity to any noise that resembles knocking (we have no doorbell) as a result of our Revolving Door reality. I was scraping a spoon against a bowl in the kitchen the other day, and that sent him careening to the front door ready to keep the latest round of invaders at bay. I honestly think the dog takes Edward and I to be more than a little slow. He finds room in his furry little heart to love us regardless, but he simply can't understand why we throw our door open to so many strangers and actually let them in. Surely a sign of stupidity that he has to work very hard to counteract.

Edward and I think the antacid medication is helping Evelyn, but we're not so sure about Colin. Keith is on an over-the-counter medication, too, and he seems to be happier. Happier is a bit relative, however, when babies are fussing for hours on end... but hey! We'll take it :) We are keeping our fingers crossed that things will improve over the next few weeks. But the new smiles and chuckles we are blessed with certainly go a long way to make life in the trenches a lot more tolerable! Pictures to follow.

Pictures!

Jeannie, Edward's grandmother, spends time with her great-granddaughter Evelyn during her trip up from New Brunswick in mid December... more pictures of this extra special visit to come.
Our first Christmas tree, on Christmas morning. Conspicuously absent are the babies, who gave Edward and I exactly 35 minutes to unwrap the presents before they demanded to be fed. Such is life!
From left to right: Colin, Evelyn and Keith wearing sweaters knit by a patient of Edward's father. This was taken almost a month ago, and they've grown even more since...

We're off for our third RSV shot tomorrow morning, and then to the pediatrician to discuss some medication to soothe a few unhappy innards while we wait for the diet modifications to kick in.