And You Thought They Weren't Amazing...

Today the babies gave me a day off work - for their four month doctor's visit.  While I'd want to go to the appointments no matter what, there's no way to get three babies through the visit without at least two adults.

In preparation for the appointment, everyone got a bath in the morning.  The bathing routine has gotten a little easier now that the babies have decided they don't hate being wet.  The transition into the warm water sometimes takes a little while (and a little screaming), but after that they settle in and seem to enjoy the soapy part and the rinsing off bit.  After baths and new outfits, we were off to the hospital.  We get there early to stake out a good spot in the waiting room for feeding.  A pediatric waiting room is an excellent place to entertain people with your adorable triplet babies.  And we only had to ask two children to please not touch the babies.  While we were feeding Caroline and Daniel in the waiting room, a medical assistant came in to give us a survey (the same one we get every appointment, which basically asks if you're depressed or abusing your child) and to let us know we could go back into the exam room early to get settled if we wanted.  So we packed everyone up and headed back there to feed Max.

At 1:30, the nurse came to start the tour of weights and measures.  This involves stripping a baby down to his diaper, walking the nearly naked babe down the hall to the measuring room where his head is wrapped in a tape measure.  Then I lay the baby down with his head touching a plastic plate at one end of a ruler while the nurse stretches the baby's leg out and slides another plastic plate up to the sole of his foot to measure his length.  And then it's time to strip out of the diaper and deposit the baby into something that looks a little like it should be used to weigh bananas to find out just why these little guys seem so heavy.

Here are the pertinent statistics:

Daniel weighs 13 pounds, 8 ounces, putting him in the 20th percentile for 18-week old babies.  This is up from the 10th percentile two months ago (and an increase of 3.5 pounds in that time).  He is 24.5 inches (23rd percentile), up 2.75 inches and 19 percentile points.  And for those of you who have met the babies (or Joe) it should come as no surprise that his 42.5cm noggin clocked in at the 55th percentile.

Max, who you may remember was the runt of the litter at birth, is now running a close second, weighing 13 pounds, 6 ounces which is the 18th percentile and up 4 full pounds from his two-month appointment.  He's grown just two inches in that time (from 21.75" to 23.75"), which may be why it seems like he's gotten so much heavier than everyone else.  And his head is the same size as Daniel's exactly (though the doctor seemed to question the accuracy of that particular measurement).

Caroline is still bringing up the rear in the growth department.  She gained just over three pounds to weigh in at 11 pounds, 13 ounces (up from the 5th percentile to the 12th) and grew 2.25 inches (from 21 to 23.25), putting her height in the 14th percentile.  Her head was a few centimeters smaller than her brothers', putting her in the 21st percentile.  The doctor remarked that she is quite impressed that Caroline is so evenly proportioned.  All three of them are right around the 50th percentile in their proportion of weight to height and all of them are making steady progress up the growth chart.

But proportions were not where the doctor's favorable impression of the babies ended.  She could not believe they are sleeping through the night (she has a 10 month old who we take it is not sleeping through), though she cautioned that might change.  She was amazed they eat seven ounces per feeding, and thought it seemed understandable that Caroline might be pulling back from feedings that big.  The babies cooed through the visit and giggled and smiled and the doctor commented on how much they "talk", saying it was more than most four month olds she was used to seeing - and laughing at how loud our house is going to get as they learn to talk more.  In summary she told us that they are right on target developmentally for four-month olds, which means they are actually advanced because their "adjusted age" puts them at only three months old.

In terms of the concerns from last visit, she wasn't able to hear a murmur in Caroline's heart this time, but we're supposed to remind her to check on it at future visits to be sure.  She noticed that Max is still "fisting" and encouraged us to try to give him rattles or toys to hold onto to keep his hands open.  This is a concern for all of them, but progress is being made that they only seem to ball up their little fists when they get worked up about something and at least they keep their thumbs outside the fists now.  We're supposed to wait another month or so before we start trying to feed them any solid foods, even though they're advanced for their age, the doctor still thinks it's better to wait until they're "really" four months old.

After the check-up, it was time for shots.  Everyone was asleep as we pulled into the second waiting room and were subsequently taken back to an exam room for the injections.  Caroline was up first, turning her nose up at the oral vaccine, screeching at the three shots in her thighs, and then calming down in Daddy's arms as nurses from along the entire hall stopped by to see her and tell her how brave she was.  This scene was repeated without variation for each of the boys and by the time we'd gotten them all tucked back into the stroller, they were out again.  The nurse who gave them their injections warned that each time they remember a little more about what's coming and before we know it they'll get to the door of an exam room and just start screaming.  But next door there was a Kindergarten-aged boy getting a shot or two who didn't seem fazed.  In fact, we noticed him because he was talking to the nurse about "Buster Posey...THE Buster Posey!" and quickly followed his story by proclaiming, "wow, that didn't even hurt at all!"  I'm sure Buster will be pleased to know he helped this young man through the trauma of his injection. :)