4 Month Check-up Complete

Hello everyone! Let's start off by sharing a priceless photo of big brother Brenden with a mouthful of Readi Whip!

Now --- for the update you've all been waiting for...Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan had their 4 month check up last week. And the results are in. Ethan weighed 12 pounds, 6 ounces; Zayne was 15 pounds, 7 ounces; Tristan was 13 pounds, 13 ounces! How's that for big 'ole boys!

And, on July 13, they'll be 5 months old. Time is flying by and we're getting a ton of photos and video. Also, Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan are loving the rice cereal. They are captivated by it and look forward to eating their bowl every night.

Also --- Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan are doing fantastic sitting up in their Bumbos. They're all doing wonderful with tummy time and look forward to evey bath they get.

Ethan had his first in home physical therapy session today and did fantastic. He got an A+. The therapist coached us on some exercises we can do to relax his back muscles as well as his upper body. We are so excited.

Special thanks to Megan for spending all day long with us every week day since she's been out of school. Megan, you're awesome. And, we absolutely must mention Kayela (Tanya's mom) and Rosemary (Jeff's mom) for coming over literally every day after work.

Jerry, Susan, Mary Lee, and Glenn Landrum are rock stars. They dropped off completely refinished wooden high chairs for Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan this past weekend. All came with custom name plackards. What a wonderful gift!

Here is a fantastic photo taken just yesterday as Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan were on their way to cousin Dylan's family birthday party. You can clearly see Ethan having a melt down on the right, Tristan not happy at all on the left, and Zayne just kinda hanging out in the middle. Taken in our kitchen....

Huge round of thanks - and a quick update

SEE PICTURES BELOW :)

Hi everyone, we continue to receive tons of help and we cannot thank you enough. Tanya's Aunt Linda, Lisa, Tanya's mom Kayela, Elizabeth, Jeff's mom Rosemary, Jeff's sister Kara, Jim, Dianna, Dylan, Jerrod, Kerri, Kenna, Brad, Jeff's dad Tom, Tanya's dad Terry, Christine, Shirene, Lauralee, Patrick, Katie, Amanda, Jordan, Megan, Heather, Melissa, Lilly, the list goes on and on! We get so much help it's amazing to sit back and think about it. Thank you - everyone! You are what makes this possible.

Tanya is an absolute rock star mom. She cares for the boys each and every day and makes it look easy.

Ethan will be getting a little occupational therapy soon. He tenses up his muscles and his doctor has referred us to a group of folks who work for the county that make house calls. This is all to make sure his slightly tense arms and legs don't impact his ability to start crawling.

Zayne is typically the happiest baby. He's always in his bouncy, lying on the floor, lying on the changing table with a huge smile. He's so big - probably more than 15 pounds now.

Tristan's left eye is getting a lot better. Tanya works with him every day and puts on his medicine. His face is not as red as it used to be and it's amazing how, as he gains weight, he looks just like Zayne.

Brenden continues to be the most helpful little boy. He loves to help feed "my babies" and Brenden is showing remarkable skill with his numbers. He will walk into the play room and see only one baby with Tanya and say "one baby awake!" Then, he follows that up with "two babies sleeping?"

Here is a priceless shot of Aunt Linda juggling all three babies - feeding Ethan in her lap and Tristan in his bouncy while Zayne chills out in his bouncy.

Brenden making a cake with cousin Jordan

The boys are doing great

Hi everyone --- quick update. Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan are doing great.

They're sleeping through the night for the most part and everything is going wonderful. Here are some photos....all boys love to smile and talk. They're getting so big!

And, they're four months old!

Tristan, Ethan, and Zayne

By the way, Brenden caught his first fish on June 18. It was a spectacular day.

Big Big Big Update

Ethan (left) Zayne (middle) Tristan (right)

Zayne (left) and Big Brother Brenden

First off --- happy happy birthday to Mason Cauthen; our nephew! He just turned 10! Congrats Mason!

Ok--- we have a pretty big update on our triplets; Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan. They're all getting so so big. Zayne's already in 6-9 month clothes. Ethan and Tristan are hanging in 3-6 month clothing.

Breathing! You may have heard both Zayne and Tristan are now on breathing monitors. That's true and they're doing fine. We're very lucky - the monitors help keep peace of mind. And, they both visited the Ear Nose and Throat doctor today and got a clean bill of health. They'll stay on the breathing monitors but we're elated they're doing well.

Ethan continues to ravenously eat. He loves to smile and chow at the same time.

Happy Smiles

Ethan Smiling

Tristan Smiling

Zayne racked out sleeping through the whole thing

Another week has passed and here we are..typing this update to our wonderful friends and family. Just yesterday Jeff snapped these photos of Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan. Ethan and Tristan were exceptionally happy. Zayne slept through the whole thing. So, we absolutely had to publish a photo of his slumber.

All of the boys are wonderful. And --- wow they're getting heavy! Ethan is at the ENT doc today for a follow-up. And, his prevacid prescription seems to be working well on his reflux. Zayne and Tristan are elated with the concept of eating.

Here's some news --- last night Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan all slept from 8:30 PM until 4 AM! How cool is that!?

Brenden has figured out how to open his bedroom door so each morning, when he gets up and lets himself out of his bedroom, he runs down the hall to check on the babies. He then comes into our room with a full report --- something like "baby's sleeping" or baby's awake!" It's precious.

Brenden feeding little bro Ethan

Many thanks, as always, to everyone who comes to our house, helps around the house, rocks babies, drops off diapers, drops off dinners, etc. etc. You all are amazing. We could not do this without you.

Jeff, Brenden, Tanya, Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan

Thee Months Old!

Zayne (middle), Tristan (left), Ethan (right)

Hi everyone, Tuesday of this week, May 13, Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan will be three months old! Incredible.

All three of these little guys are developing their own unique personalities. Zayne loves momma and cannot stand to be away from Tanya. Tristan is a close second in that regard. Matter of fact, if they're fussy, Tanya will stretch them out on her as she watches TV and they completely snuggle in and fall immediately to sleep. Ethan is completely attached to Tanya too. When he is fussy, all Tanya has to do is walk back into the room and Ethan completely settles down.

Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan are all starting to sleep through the majority of each night. If they eat about 8 PM, they typically sleep until midnight. They all eat from about midnight until 1 AM. Then they generally sleep until about 4 -5 AM. We hope to get them in their cribs soon --- their acid reflux seems to be getting better. Tanya has the triplet's room all cleared out and it has two of the three cribs already in there. Jeff will be putting the third crib in the room this week.

We're already in 3-6 months clothes! The boys are growing so incredibly fast. We put Zayne in a 6-9 month outfit just for grins yesterday; it swallowed him.

Also, Tanya and I took Brenden to the NASCAR races when they were in town recently. Check out these photos! Brenden had a complete blast.

That is all for now...as always, thanks for all of your support.

Tanya, Jeff, Brenden, Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan

It's been a while - Here's a fantastic update

Zayne (middle), Tristan (upper left), Ethan (upper right)

Hi everyone - it's been too long. Sorry about not posting in recent past. So, going forward, we'll be sure to update our blog once a week. It's the least we can do --- your support has been amazing.

The boys had their two month doctor appointments this past week. All of them weigh over nine pounds! How cool is that! And, all are doing great on their growth curves. This means they're all showing up on the graph. The doctor said we have short babies with big heads. LOL. All are in third percentile for height and 10-15% for head size. That's hilarious.

Ethan, Zayne, and Tristan are a full time job 24 hours a day. They're eating about every three to five hours and if they eat by about 11 PM, they sleep until about 3 AM. That's very cool. Also..we find ourselves getting up between three and five times each night depending on dirty diapers, hungry babies, etc.

So what's a day like here? We get that question a lot. Jeff is back at work and Tanya is home caring for the triplets. We all get up about 5 AM for the first feeding. Brenden gets up about 6 - 6:30 AM and we start his routine simultaneously. Jeff gets ready for work while Brenden drinks chocolate milk and watches Diego or Sprout in mom and dad's bed. Then we get Brenden dressed for school and Jeff drops him off at the most fabulous place called Darcie's on his way to work. Now that the day is off and running - that marks the start of all 30 bottles! That's right - 30 bottles a day! 30 diapers a day too get changed. The boys get about two or three clothes changes each day due to spit-up usually. They're so cute. This means about one laundry load a day of just baby clothes and one dishwasher load a day of nothing but bottles and bottle parts. It's amazing.

How do we handle everything?

Lots of planning and organization. Also, we have a calendar on our kitchen counter top depicting one month at a glance. Jeff's mom comes every day at 3:30 PM and stays until about 6:00 PM. Jeff's sister, Kara, has spent many many hours at our house while recovering from ankle surgery. Kara has been instrumental in keeping sanity levels normal; she's a surpurb asset and we think that's got to be from her NICU nurse experience! Tanya's mom comes about four times each week; often about noon and stays until the early evening. Kerri and Jerrod Jenkins come every Monday about 6 PM and stay until about 9 PM. Jean Wiles comes about one to two times each week and stays throughout the day. We leverage Jean on days where we have no or limited help committed and she's wonderful. Also, our neighbors Donna, Christine, Shirene, Zora, and especially Lisa all help fill in gaps each week. We are so tremendously fortunate to have help. And, even though this sounds like a lot, each week we struggle to find help at the house. So, if you're ever interested in rocking babies please let us know.

Ok - that is all for now. Thanks for checking in on us and we'll write more soon.