The Miles' Trio: Smiles, Talking, First Family Outing...

   Boy are the girls getting fun - not that they weren't fun before - but they're really starting to respond to us and it's so fun to see them develop! They're all at different stages - it's kind of interesting to watch the progress and see who does what first. As we were told in the NICU, Ryann often does things first, but the other two are sneaking up on her quickly (and not so quietly). Some highlights from the past couple weeks...
   We've switched to a 4-HOUR feeding schedule!!! WooHoo! Though you might not think there's a big difference between a 3-hour and a 4-hour schedule... when you're feeding three babies it makes a world of difference! We actually feel like there's some time in the day - aside from feeding babies. We decided to make the switch a little over a week ago. The girls weren't finishing their bottles and diddling with them half the time - figured they weren't all that hungry, and we don't have time for three little snackers! So we thought we'd try stretching them a bit... and so far it's worked well! We're tentatively following a 10-2-6-9 schedule with the two evening/night feedings only three or three and a half hours apart. However, with them all on different sleeping schedules getting them on the same schedule proves difficult most days!
   The next big change is that they're each starting to sleep a bit longer throughout the night. Most nights they each do a 5-6 hours stretch at some point... Unfortunately they don't all do it at the same time, which means we get up a little more often at night. However, since we're only getting up with ONE baby and not 3, the time we're up is much shorter. At any rate - we'll just say that light at the end of the tunnel has gotten brighter, it's no longer a dim speck! Now to figure out how to skip the crying jags before that last feeding... as Gama says - at times we have surround sound!
   Morning time is always the most fun - the girls are smiley and amused by almost everything. They've really started to enjoy their play mat and both Brynley and Ryann bat away at the different animals hanging down. I haven't seen Hadley bat at anything yet - but that's not to say she hasn't done it - it's hard to keep track of all three! Ryann is almost laughing - she cracks herself up, but the sound she makes isn't quite a laugh yet. Hadley is our big talker... she's really starting to coo and sigh - too cute. Brynley's smile in the morning is enough to light up any room! She just grins from ear-to-ear at nothing and everything. They all are enjoying the swings now - Brynley absolutely loves the fish swing while Hadley prefers the starlight swing. Ryann isn't as big of a fan, but she's getting the hang of it. They're also liking the bouncy seats a bit more (thank goodness). We take those outside and they love to feel the wind on their faces in the afternoon - our girls like the outdoors! Walks are going better as well... Hadley hasn't had a screaming fit for over a week now (knock on wood). All in all, the days fly by as the girls focus on growing and playing.
   We had our first family outing last weekend. The NICU holds a reunion every year for all the babies that frequented the NICU... It's fun for the nurses and doctor's to see the kiddos they took such wonderful care of - and it was fun for us to see some of those nurses and show off the girls! There was one family there with triplets who'd flown in from New York! Their trio is 3 years old... I think the girls would have a lot more fun in a couple years - this time around it was a little too warm for them (and us) to just hang out. Still, it was nice to get out as a family... but boy was it exhausting! The logistics of it all is a bit taxing - and we'll just say that I don't think we'll be making family outings a weekly occasion quite yet! All in all, the trio is doing well! We're looking forward to the 4-month doctor's visit next month - aside from the shots that is! We're hoping to get off the Neosure (formula especially for preemies) and maybe think about introducing rice cereal??? Based on our scale, we think the twins are at least 9 pounds now, and Ryann is at least 10 pounds!
   We've also had some visitors this month... Grandma and Papa Miles were here for a little over a week during Grandma's spring break. Gama enjoyed her vacation while Grandma and Papa were here helping! I think the girls enjoyed the extra attention as well. Papa got our lawn looking pretty, as well as our fence (he painted it for us which spiffed it right up). The realtor was even impressed with his work! Grandma enjoyed her time with her grandbabies and I think they enjoyed their time with her. They'll be back for Easter along with Aunt Hilary! Uncle John and Rae arrived the day Grandma and Papa left - which worked out nicely for us... I needed the help on Monday since Gama didn't get back until that night! The girls were a little more vocal for Uncle John this time around - definitely nothing wrong with their lungs! They were a lot of help since it was month-end and Travis had to work late most of the week.... Plus they cooked for us! We were sad to see them go - they were really good cooks! ha! Who knew that all we needed to do was have triplets to have so many people come see us here in Texas?! We're looking forward to seeing Chuck and Lana this weekend who are swinging through on their way back to Iowa and then Easter is already next week!

Hope you all are now enjoying some nice weather...

Happy Spring and Happy Easter!