Happy Half Birthday, Collin!

HELLO BLOG READERS! I'm sorry that I have been on a blogging hiatus pretty much since our baby, Collin, was born back in July. It has been hard to find the time to blog while taking care of four children two and under! I'm going to try harder to stay current with my posts but along the way, when I find the time, I'll be posting some links to the blog posts from the past six months as I get them written. Thanks for reading!


It's hard to believe that Collin is already 6 months old! He has been such a blessing to our family. Collin is such a happy, sweet baby and is very laid back. Honestly, I do not know what I would do if he wasn't because I obviously have my hands full!

I took him to get some pictures taken for his 6 month birthday. He recently began sitting unsupported so we tried to get some pictures of him sitting up. That worked briefly but he was too excited by the flash and ended up rocking himself backward where he hit his head pretty hard on the floor! Needless to say, he wasn't very happy for the remainder of the shoot. I think we got some good ones anyway.






Now Collin has been sleeping through the night since he was 5 weeks old. However, he has started to wake up now, sometimes multiple times in the night, which makes for a very sleep deprived mama! I think he's been getting up for a variety of reasons. First, he's getting his first two teeth. Secondly, he's been swaddled since birth using a miracle blanket but he has long outgrown it. We've tried putting him in a sleep sack or in the crib without being swaddled but he immediately rolls onto his stomach and then forgets how to roll back over! After many sleepless nights, I discovered something called Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit. I was all set to place my order when I realized that they were sold out of the blue and yellow ones. In desperation, I ended up getting a pink sleepsuit. Real men wear pink, right? Plus, it was 20% off on the pink ones so I bit the bullet and got it. Luckily for me, it came within 48 hours because it was coming from Pennsylvania.


Here he is all decked out in his "Magic Sleepsuit." I was praying that it truly was what it claimed! I put him to bed in the suit, drowsy but awake. Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep and managed to stay asleep for 9+ hours! Amazing! So for anyone who is looking for something that will help transition your baby out of a swaddle, this is a great product!

Collin had his 6 month well visit and he's no longer my BIG baby, he's my LONG baby. He weighed in at 16 lbs. 14.5 oz. (30th percentile) and measured 27.75 inches long (95th percentile).
The doctor was impressed with his development and how personable he is... no surprise there!

The time is passing so fast, he'll be one before we know it!

Collin's 1st Week of Life

Since I had a c-section, I stayed at the hospital for three nights after Collin's delivery. Most would probably be anxious to get out of the hospital but I actually welcomed the longer stay because it allowed me to rest up before going home to the chaos. Fortunately, my parents were kind enough to take care of the triplets the whole time I was in the hospital and Eric was able to stay with us.

On Friday, two days after the delivery, I had my parents bring the trio up to the hospital to meet their baby brother for the first time. This was the longest amount of time I'd been away from them since birth and was excited to see them! The nurses all gawked at the kids as they came into the Mother/Baby Unit and presented them with "I'm a big brother!" and "I'm a big sister!" stickers.

For days, the kids have been calling for "mama" over at Nonna and Poppy's house so when they toddled into the room and saw me sitting there, they were very pleased. Kiera was the first to notice Collin and she exclaimed, "Day-de! Day-de!" (translation: Baby! Baby!)


Krista and Jamison were a bit apprehensive at first but didn't take long to show their affection to Collin, giving a hug and kiss.



Here is a picture of the proud big brother and sisters once they got back from visiting us at the hospital:


They had to wait one more day until it would be time for "mama", "dada" and "bubba" to come home to join them. The next day, we got Collin dressed up in his take-home outfit. He really is "unbearably cute!"

Then it was time to head home!

When we arrived, the trio came right over to the baby to check him out again. It took several days of adjusting and realizing that mommy has to devote a lot of time to the baby for feeding, changing, etc. but overall, the kids are really enjoying having a baby brother.


I have been fortunate to have the help of my wonderful mother, who took off a month from work to assist me with taking care of the kids, as well as my father, who also helps out a lot. Since our home has so many steps, they allowed the kids and I to stay at their home while Eric completed some home improvement projects with the house being vacant. It has been nice to have him come over to visit in the evening after working to spend time with us and the baby.



Here are a couple other pictures from Collin's first week. He is such a good baby! People are always asking me if I'm getting any sleep. Lucky for me, he only gets up once in the night to eat so no complaints here! I guess this is one of the perks to having such a large baby.

Baby Boy has arrived!

Well Baby Boy held out until his scheduled c-section date at 39 weeks. Eric and I headed up the hospital at 8:30am for the big delivery with a surgery time of 10:30am. This is what I looked like upon arrival:


After getting prepped for surgery, it was time to head over to the operating room. Since I had a c-section previously with the triplets, I knew what to expect but was still nervous and just ready to meet our baby! Fortunately, I was able to also have the same doctor who delivered the trio so that helped to put my mind at ease a bit.

As I was laying on the operating table anxiously awaiting the cry of our baby, it was pretty surreal. I remembered the last time I was in the same situation and how life changing that day was and how today was no different. We were bringing another life into this world!

One of the doctors, as his sac was being cut open, exclaimed, "Holy mackerel!" Apparently, there was a huge gush of amniotic fluid, more than the normal amount. Then they got to the baby and as they pulled him out of me, everyone started to say things like "wow" and "he must be 10 pounds!"



I heard him cry for the first time and I was so relieved. He made his arrival at 11:05 am. I was also very curious to find out exactly how big he was since the doctors seemed to think he was huge! The nurses whisked him away to get him cleaned up, assessed, as well as weighed and measured so Eric accompanied him. Any guesses? Watch the video to see!



When they came back, Eric wanted me to guess the baby's weight and I said he just needed to tell me!Now you have to understand, Eric has been joking with me the whole time we've been married that we would have a 10 pound baby. He was 9 pounds, 12 ounces himself at birth and his sister just delivered a 10 pound baby in April. Let's just say I'm glad that I opted for a repeat c-section rather than a VBAC delivery because he weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds, 13.7 ounces with a length of 20.87 inches! Eric was even surprised by his size and thought he'd weigh in between 8-9 pounds. Apparently, not only was the baby big but his placenta was big as well. The doctors also estimated that there was almost 4 liters of amniotic fluid!

People had been asking me throughout my pregnancy, especially in the last trimester, if I was sure I wasn't carrying twins and I would reassure them that there was definitely only one baby in there and that I knew what it was like to carry multiples. The funny thing about his size was that he weighed less than an ounce different from what the triplets weighed at birth combined! No wonder people thought there was more than one baby in there!

They brought him over to me and I got to see him for the first time. He was so big and beautiful!


You're probably wondering what we named him, right? We were wondering that ourselves throughout the entire pregnancy. A list of names that we liked was created pretty early on in the pregnancy but we kept having a stupor of thought on most of them. In the end, we decided to name him Collin Reid. Collin is a good Scottish name and with both Eric and I having Scottish ancestry, we thought it was appropriate. Reid doesn't really have any significance other than the fact that we liked the name and that it has 4 letters in it as both Eric and Jamison have four letter middle names too.


When I finally was able to hold him for the first time, I was just in awe that we created this precious gift! We feel so blessed to have him as a new addition to our family and to share his arrival with all of you.

Water Babies

The triplets have been having some fun experiences with water lately. On Memorial Day, we had a little pool party with a blow-up pool we got from Freecycle. The kids had a great time splashing around and spending time together, as well as with their friend, Raya.

Kiera wasn't sure what to think at first.

Getting sprayed by the hose was a big hit!

Jamison had a blast filling cups with water and dumping the water out!

More hose action!

Krista getting surprised by spraying water!

Triple the fun!

The kids have also been enjoying their new water and sand table. Because our back yard is not conductive to play, we set up a gazebo tent with netting on our deck so that we're able to enjoy the nice weather and have a safe place for play. They love playing with the cups and boats in the water and getting soaked along the way.

The three musketeers playing together.

Kiera putting on a bridge!

Jamison tickled with his new water table!

Krista splishing and splashing!

Water is so much fun, especially in the hot, summer sun!