Our crew at 4 months old!
I know the Quads turned 5 months last week, but I need to write down their 4 months updates before I forget everything. It has been a very busy month and all the babies really changed a lot. I feel like the 4th month has been a big step forward for all of us. For me especially, it has been challenging in the beginning because my husband went back to work after the holidays and I am on my own with the babies during the week. We try to schedule help for doctors visits because those are very difficult. Some days are easier and some are SO hard, but this is my life and my family and so I embrace every little bit of it, good & bad. I still have days when I do not get out of my PJ’s until Oly comes home from work, and I probably get to shower at night before climbing in bed. And that’s ok too. I’ve learned to let go and just go with the flow. But I have to say: being organized is the key to success.
The babies are doing so well. I am proud of every single one of them and I get teary even writing about them right now, because I still cannot believe where we were 5 months ago and where we are now! The other night I looked at some pictures from the day after the delivery and I was shocked to see how tiny they were!
I will talk a little bit about each of them and I will do it in the reverse order of their birth because I feel like I always start with our first born.
     Super Star baby Andrew 🙂 This baby has so much energy!!! Usually at the last feeding at night, everyone is passed out, ready for bed. Sometimes Andrew stays up a little longer with us just to get all his energy out. He kicks his feet and wiggles around so much! Also, he loves when I rock him a couple of minutes before I put him in his crib, but I never rock him to sleep. I enjoy it too. Sweetness!He is my snuggle bunny. Smiles and laughs a lot, he is very vocal and VERY loud 🙂 Makes a lot of funny noises and loves it when we talk to him, he baby-talks back. He supports his head very well and enjoys tummy time most of the time. He even naps on his tummy sometimes. Andrew absolutely LOVES his pacifier!!! He always did, even back in the NICU. Now that we have the wubanubs ( the little animals attached to the pacifiers)  for them, it is so much easier not to lose any of the pacis and they like to hug them. He usually has at least 2 around him, sometimes sucks on one and hugs the other while he sleeps. 
Andrew is the first one of the four that rolled over. Actually the only one so far.We call him our athletic baby, definitely Daddy’s boy! His face lights up when  Daddy comes home from work. 
He loves music and he is very playful. Many times he wakes up Isaac during their naps or during the night and then Isaac gets very upset and there we have it : two screaming babies that soon wake up the girls too and then we have a whole choir of screaming babies! During the night, I usually have to pay him a couple of visits to re-swaddle him or make sure he has his pacifier. We even had a routine for a few night in a row. Bed time is usually in between 8 and 9 PM and Andrew would wake up around midnight, screaming bloody murder! I was very tented to offer him a snack but I decided not to because I wanted to test him and see if he is able to sleep more or he really needs food at that time in the night. He slept until 3 AM without a problem before so I knew he could do it. I had a few hard nights but I think he saw that I am not playing around and that night time means sleep, so he gave up. Once they reach a certain point I would hate to go back and create bad habits. Because bad habits are hard to be fixed. Sometimes he can be a very stubborn baby but his Mommy is even more stubborn. Loves bath time and splashing water all over the bathroom! Usually cries when bathtime is over. He definitely is the joyful energy ball of the crew 🙂 He measures 24.2 inches long  and weights 13 pounds 12 oz. Diaper size 3 and he is on Gentlease formula from Enfamil (between 120 -150ml every 3h during the day); still on Zantac for re-flux (1ml). He is the biggest out of the 4.
    Sweet baby Alexis 🙂 She is so unique and special. She will ALWAYS be the puzzle piece that completed and made our family perfect the day she came home from the Hospital. My heart was heavy all those days when she was by herself in the NICU (she had wonderful nurses that loved her and cared for her) and I was not able to go and visit her because I had the trio at home. But Daddy really stepped in and decided to go and spend time with her every night after work. That was a big sacrifice but worth every second of it. Alexis always had her own pace. Nothing and nobody can rush her and that is perfectly fine with us. As the time passed by, we were able to witness a big transformation. Ever since she came home, she turned into a beautiful and precious little lady! She is very delicate and sensitive.
Alexis used to be our serious baby, she would never ever smile. But that changed too and in the last week or so, we have been able to steal a smile from her. She is not very vocal, except when she decides not to nap and her cry is so loud!! 🙂 Recently she started a little bit of baby talk and cooing so I am assuming that we’ll hear/see more of that in the next month. As I said before, when it comes to their development and milestones we have to be patient and sometimes give them extra time, because they were born almost 3 months earlier. Alexis is a very good night sleeper. She never wakes me up during the night and I always have to wake her when the others are ready for the first feeding of the day. 
She loves her pink teddy wubbanub and holds it with her arm. If she is awake when I go into the girls room in the morning, she gives me the biggest smile and she gets very excited. And that is pretty much the only time I see her doing that. It makes my day! There is so much sweetness in my little baby girl! During the day, she doesn’t need as much sleep as the others. Sometimes she does get very tired and she cries before she falls asleep so I put her in her Rock & Play and move her into our bedroom so she won’t disturb the others. Andrew gets the same treatment sometimes, if he gets too crazy. Alexis doesn’t usually give us any trouble, she is a pretty content baby, enjoys music and when I read them stories she looks at the pictures with her beautiful big blue eyes. Bath time is a very relaxing time for her; loves it! She is very strong when it comes to pain or unpleasant things like taking that yucky Zantac medicine for re-flux. She swallows it like it’s the most delicious treat while the others cry and fuss and spit it out 🙂 She loves to sleep through her feedings, so funny! it is very unusual for her to be awake while she takes her bottle. She measures 23.4 inches long and weights 12 pounds 10 oz. Diaper size 2 and she is on Enfacare formula from Enfamil (between 90 – 130ml every 3h during the day). Still taking Zantac for re-flux (0.9ml).
   Happy face baby Hannah 🙂 Oh my goodness!!! I never ever imagined my Hannah being the smiley one of the quads! Back in the NICU days she used to frown so much and now it’s exactly the other way around. Our little peanut has a smile on her face most of the time and since she discovered the baby talk, it is the best combination ever. You turn around and there she is smiling ear to ear 🙂
She is the tiniest of the family and light as a feather. Hannah has a mind of her own. She used to be very laid back and just go with the flow. Not anymore. When I put her to bed, she fights it so much and even though she is so little, she wiggles a lot and she’s probably the hardest to swaddle. I should not even be bothering too much because 2 minutes later her arms are out, above her head. That’s how she likes to sleep. She likes to touch everything with her little hands. She can’t really grab things yet, although she grabs our shirts and hold on pretty tight sometimes. Such a cutie-pie, she pats her head and puts her hand on her face while she’s having her bottle. She has the funniest gestures. But most of all, she LOVES to put her hands in her mouth. They all do that but Hannah is a pro. She could give her siblings some lessons of how to suck on their fingers 🙂 She is our little Kitty, we even got her a kitty cat wubbanub. At her last doctor checkup, I told our pediatrician that her skin is very sensitive and dry. The Dr. told me that we should bathe Hannah just like we would bathe a cat. That was hilarious! Even though she loves bath time, it has to be very quick for that reason. And it’s a workout to give her a bath, she moves so much!!! 
Of course she loves music and she really likes it when Daddy plays the harmonica. She is mesmerized! Little Hannah took me for a quick trip to Children’s Emergency Care one night; she had a terrible diaper rash that was getting worst and worst by the minute. It ended up being an yeast infection along with a bad diaper rash. That’s when I decided to make my own wipes,because commercial wipes can be very harmful sometimes. Every now and then I still use some commercial ones ( just because I have some left from my baby shower) but the ones that I make, I use even for wiping their faces and hands. Hannah usually goes to sleep pretty easily, sometimes she hangs out in her crib making sounds or winning a little. But there are times when everyone is sleeping and the house is so quiet… and she decides to start fussing and not only that but this loud voice comes out of her little body and that’s how she wakes up Alexis, Alexis wakes up Andrew and of course he wakes up Isaac. And so I am standing there in between their rooms thinking where to go first. Nap time is over, all thanks to my petite munchkin, Hannah 🙂 She measures 22.7 inches long and weights 11 pounds 8 oz. Diaper size 2 (although it’s a little big on her) and she is on Gentlease formula from Enfacare (between 90-130ml every 3h during the day). She’s also still on Zantac for re-flux (0.8ml).
  Big boy Isaac aka Mommy’s boy 🙂 And I am proud of that. Let’s get things right. They are ALL Mommy’s babies and always will be. But he just wants mommy sometimes and nobody else 🙂 He is not the biggest ( Andrew is just by a few oz ) but he acts very mature sometimes. Loves to be held and sometimes if that’s what he wants, then he will cry until he gets it. Doesn’t really care for a pacifier; his puppy wubbanub has been sitting in the living room for the last few days and he really doesn’t want it. 
He is very happy with his friend, Monkey the taggie blanket. He has been going to sleep with it and really loves it. He chews those tags like crazy 🙂 Issac is also very vocal, loves to baby-talk to you and to show the lip when he is upset. Enjoys musical toys and anything with lights, just like his siblings. I can tell that soon he will be able to grab things and toys, he’s been trying a lot. When he eats, he holds the bottle with his chubby hands, but he can’t do it all by himself yet. He is also a very happy baby and usually mornings are the best, everyone is in a good mood and things run pretty smoothly. A few weeks ago he went through a phase when he refused to eat or only ate a little bit. That’s when the Zantac had to be increased for everyone (they gained weight and the dose was too small for them) and also we switched 3 out of 4 babies to Gentlease formula. Even though they need a high calorie formula for being preemies, we had to do the switch because they couldn’t tolerate the Enfacare. The Zantac helps with the re-flux, so the babies don’t throw up their food. Well, at that point the low dose didn’t help anymore and so Isaac would projectile throw up sometimes and he would get so scared. Other times I was able to hear his stomach growling like he was about to puke, but he controlled himself so much not to do that. I felt so bad for him, he was not the happy boy he usually is. But everything got fixed and we are back to normal. He eats like a champ and sleeps well. 
Isaac is very sweet, loves one-on-one time (all of them do, of course) and it is indeed a very special time whenver we are able to do that with each and every one of them. At night, when I put him to bed and kiss him goodnight, he has the biggest and the most content smile on his face… that to me is amazing and it just gives me peace of mind and tells me that I did a good job that day. A smiling angel going to sleep 🙂 Isaac measures 23.2 inches long and weights 13 pounds 9 oz. Diaper size 3 and he is on Gentlease formula too (between 100-150ml every 3h during the day). He gets Zantac too, for re-flux(1ml).
Every night, before I get in bed, I like to make the rounds. I go and check all the babies, I give them soft kisses and pray for them. It fills my hear with joy to see all four of them sleeping so peacefully and in the same time it still amazes me that all four are ours! I am so grateful once again to have everyone home, safe and sound.
Isaac & Andrew
Hannah & Alexis
We started spoon feedings right about a week before they turned 5 months. Everyone is doing surprisingly well and even though it is pretty hard to feed all at the same time, it is fun. They get very messy but they are so cute! The carrots, so far, were the biggest hit, they all loved it. Actually Isaac and Andrew were crying while I was feeding them, because I wasn’t fast enough! Once again, I wish I would have an extra pair of arms.
Out for a stroll in the neighborhood
Our hard work of sleep training them is finally starting to pay off. They’ve been sleeping about 9h at night and that is amazing to me. I still wake up a few times to re-swaddle some of them or give Andrew his pacifier but nothing major. During the day, they take about 4 naps, we are still on the eat/play/sleep pattern. It’s been going well. Of course some naps are getting shorter and that’s fine, I know we’ll end up cutting some soon. I am happy to say that we are over the colicky stage, thank God! The boys were very colicky and I am glad it’s over. I am also not pumping anymore, it was my decision to stop and it was a hard one.
If you are interested in making your own wipes, please check out Amber’s homemade baby wipes recipe. She is one of my quad Mommas friends and she has a bunch of tips and fun ideas on her blog, Four to Adore.
I will gather some cute pictures of the Quads eating solids and post them soon.
Lori.
QuadsFromHeaven 