Two firsts

Winston rolled over today! He nearly landed on Charlie, but I was able to move him just in time. I've now successfully missed capturing all of these moments on video...

And today was the boys' first snowfall. I don't think it made much of an impact on them as they were toasty inside. But it was an amazing site to look out the window and see the snow falling on the bright, colorful autumn leaves which were still on the trees.

We spoke with the pediatrician about Charlie and they are increasing his Zantac prescription, thinking that all this lack of eating is due to reflux. We are also trying a Dr Brown bottle and both seem to be doing the trick (for now)!

Happy Birthday Poppa! We'll see you in a few weeks! Thank you again to Nana for coming up again and helping last week and to Grammy and Poppy for your help this weekend! We don't know what we'd do with all of the love and support.

(I'll hopefully post photos tomorrow.)

The Bunn boys

Wouldn't you know that both the camera and video camera were out of reach when Wesley rolled over today! They are inching closer to getting mobile (eeek!).

Charlie continues to refuse the bottle. We have tried everything to get him to eat: swaddling, only breast milk, tylenol, laying down, upright, in between, singing to him, quiet, feeding with a medicine syringe, different nipple size, etc. Our worry is that he is losing weight, but the pediatrician doesn't seem concerned yet (nor does she have any answers). It is slightly improving, but still a major challenge. Even though he struggles through it, he will flash you smiles during this struggle to help relieve the tension.

Win is continuing to give us great big smiles! (He missed out on tummy time today because he fell asleep, but he won't be far behind with his rolling.)

In a wonderful answer to prayers, Rob did tremendously well on the GRE. During the entire test, he felt like he wasn't doing well at all. To the point that he almost didn't submit the test prior to finding out the score. It is a good thing he did. He scored 800 on the verbal and 790 on the quantitative section. He credits God entirely, knowing that this score is in no way a reflection of him and something he himself accomplished.

Smiles and giggles

You know, I leave the house to get a new monitor (ours decided to stop working - not good when you need to listen for babies), and look at how distraught the boys were. Wes was sound asleep, but Win and Charlie were full of smiles and giggles for Grammy, Nana and their Daddy.

Precious!

Gruncle and the Baker

Uncle Raymond came back for his second tour of duty. Not only was he a tremendous help with the boys (he said that the nighttime help is his favorite because he has the boys all to himself), but he managed to befriend folks in the neighborhood. He became a regular at our neighborhood pastry shop a few months back. This time, however, he had an entirely different experience. The baker apparently has a thing about clergy who do not know their Scripture, so he put Uncle Raymond to the test.

Imagine the venerable Bishop of Boykins sitting on a stool in the bakery's kitchen being grilled on Bible stories! Answer a question, get an eclair! Needless to say, he came home with a HUGE bag of goodies for us to share. We are glad he knew who made the axehead float.

Having Uncle Raymond back gave Rob a much needed chance to start cramming for the GRE, an exigency because he takes it on Tuesday. Rob was ebullient to be able to spend so much time studying and the alacrity with which Uncle Raymond tended the boys made it easy to commit them to his care. It is not hyperbole to say that he was indispensable over the last week. [Can you tell who wrote this??]

Gruncle with Win, Wes and Charlie



Floor time for all the boys


Each one is now about the total weight of all 3 at birth!


By far, the funniest photo we've seen of Wes. We swear he doesn't weigh 400lbs...

Bath time fun

I just can't resist their adorableness. (Yes, their Bunn-y towels match their Bunn-y hats...) Bath time was so much easier last week with all the help. When I bathe them myself, just imagine me with one baby in the tub in the sink, while bouncing one in a bouncy seat with my foot, just hoping the third one doesn't start fussing.

On a side note, Charlie had a Dr appointment last week and was weighed and measured. With his clothes on, he weighed a whopping 13lbs 6oz and was 22 inches long. Even if his clothes added a pound, he is still well over 12lbs. This means they more than quadrupled their birth weight in 3 months. Most babies double theirs by 6 months. Our boys are certainly growing!

Wesley

Charlie

Winston

Grammy Spa time Complete with moisturizing massage and manicure (well, an attempt to file down their claws). I try to explain to them how lucky they are to have this luxury!

Poppy holding a clean Charlie

Gigi holding a clean Wes

BOO!

Traci & Gigi

We had the pleasure of a visit from Rob's sister Traci and his Granny (Gigi to the boys - for G.G.=Great Grandmother). The visit was filled with great conversations, delicious hot meals, tremendous help, and SLEEP! Traci tended to the boys overnight so Rob and I could sleep! They will be missed by us and the boys.

Best of all, they got to experience Boston when the Red Sox won the World Series. Hear that Lizzie and Uncle Raymond? What curse? Yankees who? :)

Gigi and the boys


Gigi meeting Win for the first time (Winston was named after Rob's grandfather, her late husband)


Traci and the boys (who apparently wanted to look like jailbirds...)



Enjoying eclairs from our local bakery

Outtakes

The 3 month outtakes are far less amusing now that the boys can sit still for more than 5 seconds (well, not that much more). They have a frightened expression in the first one due to the mobile that Traci was holding over my head to get their attention. Who knew their mobile caused such fright?


Okay, maybe they can't sit still for more than 5 seconds...

3 Months!

The boys celebrated their 3 month birthday yesterday. They are smiling a lot more (though of course this is not evident in any of the photos). And Charlie actually rolled over for the first time today! Win and Wes won't be far behind.

Here are the cuties...
(L-R: Winston, Wesley and Charlie)

We lo-love our Lala

Tanta Lala (Aunt Lori) visited last weekend and again, was just a tremendous help. Having just moved back to the states from England, she taught the boys the rules of rugby as we watched England (lose) in the World Cup. They learned words like scrum, try, grubber, bollocks, blimey etc.

Here are some photos of her with the boys...

Start of something good...

The boys slept through the night last night! They are now 12wks old (6 wks adjusted) and are over 11 lbs. (Yes, they have just about tripled their birth weigh in 3 months...) Their late night feeding was at 11:30pm. They finally went down to sleep around 12:30am and didn't wake until 6:20am! (Well, they DID wake a number of times in the middle of the night, but Rob was able to settle them using all the tricks in the book: burping, rocking, bouncy chairs, swing, etc. But they made it!

Of course, right now they won't settle back to sleep, so this could be a long night...

Everybody point to your left

Winston, Wesley and Charlie at 11wks old (5 wks adjusted)

A day in the life of...

For your amusement, here is what a typical day in our house is like...Of course, all times are approximate since it's all up to the boys!

7-11am: change diapers, fix bottles, Poppa & I feed the boys. We try to keep them awake after eating and play with them, then put them down to sleep before eating at 11. But more often than not, one is awake and two are asleep or vice versa (see below). We take turns watching the boys so I can pump, either can shower, eat breakfast, etc. Think about putting a load of laundry in.

Here's how Charlie really felt about the situation...

11am-3pm: change diapers, fix bottles, Poppa & I feed the boys. They have given us a big long nap at this point, but again, it's a miracle if all 3 sleep at the same time. Poppa gets a much deserved nap at this point. Remember the laundry and actually bring it down to the basement and start a load. Julep, if she's lucky, gets to go out in the backyard for 5 mins while I do laundry. FInd time to pump again. Try to remember to eat lunch. Rob works in the office on his consulting work.
Here's Julep, trying to tell us she needs to go out...

3pm-7pm: change diapers, fix bottles, Poppa & I feed the boys. Again, we try to keep them awake right after and then put them down for a nap before the 7pm feeding. They often have other plans. To keep them awake, I either bathe them (they don't like) or take them for a walk, which of course puts them to sleep. Rob works on schoolwork. Pump, fix dinner, eat in record time. Dinner often includes having each of us bounce a baby in their bouncy seats while eating.
I'm slightly less of a walking freak show when I walk them in a twin stroller and carry one.

7pm-11pm: change diapers, fix bottles, Poppa & I feed the boys, Rob works on schoolwork. We try to put the boys to bed after the 7pm feeding for some nighttime sleep. Sometimes works, sometimes we end up rocking one for awhile. Pump one last time - this allows for the boys to have 2 full feedings each of all breast milk.
9pm-4/5am: Poppa sleeps
11pm-4/5am: Rob & I see eachother for the first time all day. Catch up over a bowl of ice cream. Change diapers, fix bottles, Rob & I feed the boys. Remember there is laundry in the washer. Decide to put it into the dryer tomorrow.
1am-7am: I sleep.
1am-3ish, 6-11am: Rob sleeps
3-4/5am: Rob settles the boys, changes diapers, fixes bottles, he & Poppa feed the boys,
4/5am: Rob takes Julep to the dog park. He has even run errands (no hassle parking in front of the bank at this hour!) and has cooked up chicken for the week to help make dinner prep easier.
5-7am: Poppa settles the boys, naps if they let him
...then we do it all over again!

The day normally contains: 20 dirty diapers, 40ish wipes, 18 bottles, 6 doses of Zantac, 3 crying babies, one neglected dog and a partridge in a pear tree. Things on the to-do list that get moved to the next day: listen to messages on the answering machine, thank you cards, emails/calls, cleaning, our laundry, getting out of the house, etc...

11wks old (5wks adjusted age)

All thanks to the patience of Rob, the boys are starting to extend their nighttime sleep. They currently feed at 7/3/11 am/pm. We've been giving them a little more at 7pm and 11pm in order to try to extend the 3am feeding, and hopefully eliminate it entirely. Last night, Rob was up settling them a few times, but they ending up sleeping until 5:15am!! They slept nearly 5 hours, which I believe the experts consider is sleeping through the night. Granted Rob didn't get to sleep through the night...but we're getting there!

Cousin Alex

The boys had a chance to meet their Sachoon (cousin Alex), Samchoon (Uncle Jimbo) and Seung Mo (Aunt Mi Jung), who were visiting for a few days from Dallas. Time with them is never long enough, but wonderful as always. We appreciate their traveling north, since I have no idea when we'll be able to fly again!

Alex was so good with the boys, holding them and helping with their bottles. Though, I think Julep may have been more fun to play with at this point. Here she is spending time with her Komo and Wesley...