Is it possible to have "Baby Fever"....when you already have a baby?

....I'm beginning to wonder, for real. I am so so stinkin' in love with this guy I can hardly contain it. I can't kiss him enough, I can't smell him enough, I get can't get close enough, I just CAN'T get enough! I seriously wonder how people stop having babies. No worries, Bret can easily and very quickly give me a {long} list of reasons to call 5 the perfect amount for our household ;)

Annnyyyywayys, Blade is now 3 months. Threeee months. THREEE months?! Sheesh it goes entirely too fast!

 Our sweet number 5 is doing great, healthy and growing like a weed. The smiles are non-stop and over the last two weeks he's started giggling too, like belly laugh giggle and I LOVE it! He's currently in a size 2 diaper only because we don't want to waste this last box - size 3 is just right around the corner. He's wearing mostly 6 month clothing and taking a whopping 5-6 ounces every 3 hours or so during the day. At night he'll go anywhere from 4-8 hours between feedings. By two months adjusted the quads were sleeping through the night (a good 10-12hrs between feedings) consistently. Although Blade gives us a really good stretch every so often it's not consistent. Hoping he can knock out night feedings permanently very soon! Bret and I trade off night feedings and luckily Blade always goes right back to sleep. We can be up have him changed, fed and back in bed within 15-20mins or so. 

We fianlly started letting him sleep in his crib about 2 weeks ago - Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin slept in their cribs from the start. Mr. Blade got that special perk of rooming with mom and dad for a while ;) He did great and the transition couldn't have gone smoother! 

Brody & Blade. Brody ADORES this baby more than anything. He HAS to kiss him good morning, loves to talk in a high squeaky baby voice to him and BEGS to carry him around. Although he knows the rule is no trying to carry Blade he asks everyday and says "Mom, Mom,  I carry him to you. I won't drop him. I'm stwong. I can do it, I'll do it, Mom." Poor guy wants to so badly. He even told me the other night I could let Blade sleep in his bed with him. After telling him that Blade has to eat during the night, he told me he could feed him his bottle when he was hungry. SUCH a BIG heart, that little boy!

 Blade gettin' a little tummy time in! He is sooo close to rolling over it's not even funny.I'm afraid once he does he's not gonna know what to do. He's not quite a professional on his tummy just yet so he's in for a sweet surprise once he does flip and realizes he can't roll back! Thanks to stretches and additional tummy time, his head shape is looking much better and his lil neck isn't so tight - based on experience, I *think* he'll dodge the DOC band. - Love you Cranial Technologies, but I'd rather avoid it ;)

 Little dude still sleeps a ton during the day. He wakes up, watches the brothers and sisters for an hour or two then crashes again. This may come as a HUGE shock to some of you, but he's NOT on a schedule! I know, right? Me? Heather Cox? Everything scheduled to a T since day one with her quadruplets doesn't have sweet number 5 on one? Nope! Besides the eating every 3 hrs during the day, he takes the lead. Obviously having multiples on a schedule is a must but I always thought I would be the same this time around. That being said, he's only 3 months, I'm sure things will change as he gets older. 7pm is usually my cut off time in the evenings. Bret and I do our best to keep him up for a good 2+ hours so he's good and worn out before bed.

Here's a good look at his size in comparison to the others. I'm guessing he's getting close to 16lbs which makes him literally half (or over half) the weight of his almost 4 year old siblings!

Sweeeeeet sweeeet babyyyy!

Facebook Funnies

I’ll admit I’m pretty addicted to Facebook. Being at home nearly 24/7 with 5 little people, Facebook has become my main connection to the outside world and it helps me keep my sanity on most days. I can keep up with old & new friends, read the latest news, who got kicked off the latest reality show, what sports team is winning and so on. It’s seriously just an endless resource of  both important and completely unimportant information. I’m sure those of you on Facebook have been seeing these little ecards going around. Having MANY mom friends on Facebook I see a lot of “motherhood/parenthood” type cards so I thought I’d share some of my faves that I’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy :]

I cracked up when I saw this one below. That morning I came out of my room in jeans and a fitted t-shirt because I had a doctors appointment. Upon seeing me Korbin says “Mom, why you so dressed up?”

This is my all time favorite. Some of the most stressful times are getting everyone and everything ready to go somewhere… somehow they know how to make it just a tad more stressful ;)

For all my MoMs out there ;)

Happy Monday!

1.16.13 A Heavy Heart–A Celebration of Life

Today’s been a different one. One that’s been filled with many mixed emotions. I’ve felt ongoing waves of sadness, confusion, thankfulness, relief, happiness, helplessness & hopefulness all at the same time. Most of all it’s left me struggling to remind myself that God is indeed in control and as Jeremiah 29:11 states, He has a plan for each of our lives.

   Today a mother of triplets remembers this heartbreaking day 2 years ago and saying goodbye to one of her three beautiful girls just 2 weeks before her 2nd birthday. Today a sweet little boy, one of quadruplets, received his wings as well. Today that little boy who had struggled his entire life is now pain free & running the streets of gold hand in hand with Jesus.

Today 4 tiny miracles, who beat the odds stacked against them, celebrated their 5th birthday. Today I sat as two of my own precious four were evaluated for preschool. The two that I once didn’t know would make it. Emotions overcame me as I reflected on those first few months of their fragile lives. Having to explain to the therapists and diagnostician what they had been through led me to tears (and them as well). Today my heart aches and my heart rejoices at the same time.

Today I thank God for these precious lives, who are all celebrated in some way. I thank God for their parents, who so many admire, and the special way they’ve touched and will continue to touch so many lives around them. Days like today, it’s hard to understand that we in fact don’t understand. Today it’s so good to rely and lean on a God who holds the world in his hands and who can see the entire puzzle when we only see a small portion of it’s many jagged pieces.

Please keep the Younglove & Barnes families in your prayers <3

Rebecca Riley Photography

We recently had a new twin mom move to our area who happens to be a photographer. After seeing lots of her work I knew I wanted to have her photograph our family. She has tons of experience in photographing kids in general and with 4 rambunctious boys of her own, nothing is too challenging!  To learn more about Rebecca Riley Photography, visit her website here and be sure to get a glimpse at more of her great work by checking out her blog here! Top – Brody & Kylee. Baxlyn & Korbin below.

   

 

I booked Rebecca shortly before Blade’s birth intending on having newborn pictures made in addition to family pictures. Due to sickness between her kiddos and then our own kiddos his “newborn” pictures didn’t get done until he was nearly 6 weeks old. Having been born half grown he wasn’t so tiny and newborn at the age of 6 weeks but Rebecca still managed to get some great shots!

What is this? Four 3 year olds not only ALL looking at the camera but ALL smiling too?!

Thanks so much Rebecca Riley for these precious pictures!

Baby Blade–2 months!

My sweet love is a little over 2 months already! Crazy how quickly they grow. He’s continued to be a ray of sunshine in our busy household. He’s SUCH a happy baby and for that I am so thankful. Besides the challenge of getting out with all the kids by myself, adding a fifth hasn’t been hard at all. He loves to sit in his bouncy and watch his brothers and sisters play, he loves the ceiling fan,  his baths, LOVES to talk and interact with you and enjoys a little TV here and there (I know I know). We’re lucky he’s a great sleeper as well. He sleeps a total of about 10 hours each night with just one small feed around the 7th hour. Hopefully not too long before that last feed is out too!

My four little “helpers” (and I use that term loosely) and I took Blade to his 2 month check up yesterday. I was going to guess that he weighed around 13…mayyyybe close to 14lbs. To my surprise he was just a few ounces shy of 15lbs! The quads didn’t hit 15lbs until 6-8months! He falls in the 90th percentile for weight and at 24 1/4 inches he lands in the 77th percentile for height.

Bret and I had both noticed a little flattening on the back right side of Blade’s head and there’s no denying the fact that he likes to look to his right. As most of you know Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin went through their fair share of DOC bands so Bret and I didn’t know if we were “looking for a problem” because we are used to paying close attention to detail or if there really is a small issue that could be developing. I mentioned it to Dr. Reyes and he said there’s very small but definite flattening as well as a bit of torticollis going on. Grrr. For now we’ll do stretches with Blade, the ones we’re all to familiar with, and hope that it helps the torticollis. With continued encouragement  to look to his left and a little rolling over in the coming months we’ll hope that his little head rounds out and we’re not facing plagiocephaly like before. Worst case scenario, which really isn’t horrible, we visit our dear friends at Cranial Technologies in the coming months to be evaluated for a helmet.

L-R Brody, Korbin, Miss B & Kylee Mae!

Stay Tuned…. Christmas 2012!!!

Christmas Eve 2012

 

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a Quad was stirring, not even a mouse.

The baby was sleeping the cookies set out, what Santa would bring would soon be found out.

The presents we’ll open “Happy Birthday” we’ll sing as we remember and celebrate the birth of our King!

Wishing you all a very Merry & Blessed Christmas!

Bret, Heather, Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee, Korbin & Blade

Holiday Happenings!

We’ve been busy busy over the past week or so. 3 Christmas parties and a beautiful wedding all in one weekend – CONGRATS Holley & Scott!

Each year the company Bret works for has a huge Christmas party for all of the employee’s kids. This was our 2nd time to attend and they loved it! We arrived a bit early and while walking up to the door we heard the fire truck sirens which indicated Santa was nearing! Korbin and Baxlyn were a bit nervous but so excited at the same time. They both ran and stood on a nearby rock to try to get a higher/better look at the jolly ole’ guy as we arrived. I LOVE this picture below of Baxlyn – she could hardly contain her excitement!

Sweet Korbin waving his little heart out yelling “Heeeyyyy Sannnttaa! Heeyyyy!”

As Santa got off the fire truck Korbin and B, along with other kids nearby ran out to greet him. I love how nervous Baxlyn holds on to Korbin as they go together to get a closer look.

Meanwhile, Kylee & Brody and staying clear of Santa. Brody isn’t too sure about Santa but Kylee is terrified of him…and Chuck E Cheese and the Easter Bunny and any other “live” character she comes in contact with.

While waiting in line to see Santa Kylee was able to see other kids sitting on his lap, smiling for pictures, and receiving their candy canes. Thanks to that and us constantly reassuring her he was nice she agreed to take a picture with her siblings.  I could not believe my eyes! She wouldn’t dare sit on his lap but a picture she would do and she walked away saying “I’m not scared anymore!”

Korbin & Baxlyn working hard at making their ornaments while Brody & Kylee watch a puppet show from afar…

Baby Blade snoooozin’ away!

Cookies with frosting. Umm.. frosting with cookies would probably be more fitting :/

Kylee enjoying a show while the others watch the trains go around and around…

My sweeeeet sweeeet boy!

Making their Christmas trees…

Brody proudly showing Blade his work of art :)

“Signing” their names on the “Support Our Troops” sign. While trying to help others write their name I look over to catch Brody sniffing the life out of a sharpie “Ooohh dat smells GOOD, Mommy!” Nice.

The next morning we attended a much smaller Christmas party at Linda’s work. There were just a handful of kids, ours being the majority so when Santa arrived they got some serious one on four time with him! First thing they noticed was that Santa’s beard was about half as long as it was the night before. Santa explained to them how it got caught in the reigns the night before so he had to cut it ;) Nice cover, Santa, nice cover! They all stood and talked to Santa for quite a while. Rather than tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas, they insisted on telling him all of the bad things the others had done. Kylee: “Wast night, Bwody touched the Chwistmas Wights” Korbin: “Kylee was a bad girrl and had to go to time out!” on and on the tattling went!

Sunday afternoon, our Moms of Multiples group went to a local place called Pump It Up. It was a private party where all of our little multiple people could run, climb and jump their little hearts out! While Bret and I were running around trying to keep track of our four, another mom brought me a very scared, very upset and bawling Kylee. Apparently she laid eyes on the Santa who was there and she didn’t fall for him. Although I didn’t see him myself another mom said the dude in the costume weighed about 82lbs definitely not your everyday Santa…come on people, the kids totally notice! No Santa pics that day, needless to say!

This weekend Santa visited our local library. We left Blade home with Daddy and met our friends Anna & Levi there to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Sunday morning all five kiddos were a part of the church play. Blade played an excellent Baby Jesus while the quads each had a different line they were to say. Three of them ended up saying the same line, but they said it and I was proud!

Blade sat awake and content through the whole little program hiccups and all! There was a manger but he was a bit too big for it, go figure, so we laid a blanket over his carseat and it worked just fine!

Korbin saying Kylee’s line loud and proud :)

Brody helping hold the microphone while Miss B says her line…

I had to include this one. They called the nursery and preschool down so the bigger kids could do their presentation and afterwards, called the little ones back up to end in a song. Baxlyn was less than happy she had to leave her Daddy’s lap…hence the attitude she’s sportin’, arms crossed and everything, during the classic “We Wish You A Merry Chirstmas” Ahhh, gotta love her!