Back to Blogging!

Okay, okay......I know it's been a while. Did I mention before that I have two mobile babies and one learning to eat? Plus a 4 year who's pining for entertainment? Needless to say, it's becoming quite busy around the McCann house. You may not believe this, but having triplets is actually getting harder as they get bigger. In a good way though :-) I happy to report that at the moment, everyone here has their health and we are doing well. Andrew continues to be as busy and trouble-seeking as ever!Attempting the stairs...something they do in therapy but are not quite ready to tackle on their own. This exercise is intended to help them practice the reciprocal motion for crawling, plus it helps with upper body strength.
I'm pretty sure at this point, Andrew must have a minor concussion. He manages to fall about 10 times a day, bonking his head on the floor or whatever obstacle happens to be in his fall path. Boys truly do behave differently girls!

Hailey has mastered the art of pulling up to standing, but still wants to combat crawl rather than the regular way, even though she can do it quite well! She has started shaking her head
"no, no, no" like Molly, and is making lots of new noises. We've also discovered that she knows how to play the "snuggle" game when she wants attention. It's pretty irresistible, especially for Dad.

She also loves feeding herself. If she has a choice between something spoon fed or a finger food, she clearly prefers the finger food. And boy can she eat. I have to cut her off, otherwise she would fill up on solids and not drink her milk. She's practicing using the spoon here. It can get quite messy :-)
Molly is also doing well.. As I said before, she is learning to eat and is coming along nicely. She had a follow-up appointment at Children's yesterday and we pretty much got the thumb's up on everything. Other than her weight gain, everything looked and sounded great. She had really good linear growth, which is wonderful for her lungs, and they were quite impressed with her overall condition. They said we can continue to keep her off the feeding tube and just work hard at getting her to take more volume. We also are going back to increasing her calories per ounce, which is no big deal, and hopefully that will help with weight gain. It has been so good for her to be down on the floor with her siblings, free from any tubes that can get in the way or be pulled out. I think she will learn a lot from watching the others and how they play. Of course, training a 13 month old to act like a newborn with eating and sleeping can be a challenge, for both her and the parents. But we are managing. Every ounce of effort is worth it on our part to keep that tube out. And to think, 6 months ago the docs thought she would need a g-tube!

Here she is enjoying meal time with everyone.

I know this picture is blurry, but see the fingers in the mouth? Ya, well, they are covered with melted butter and seasoning salt from corn on the cob! A girl after my own heart :-)

You might remember me mentioning a while back that Megan would be testing for kindergarten. She completed that a week or so ago and did pretty well. It looks like she will begin kindergarten in the fall in the Dieringer School district. This is exciting and a bit sad at the same time. It will be wonderful for her to have that special time for herself, but I'm sure I will miss her during the day. Being home this past year has given us lots of time together. A weekend or so ago we got out and enjoyed the beautiful Saturday afternoon. Megan had fun collecting sticks to make a bird's nest.



.....while the others played on a blanket and had a stretch break from the stroller
We also discovered the babies love playing on the couch cushions. Megan and her cousin Jake made this big bed out of the cushions and all the babies had a great time on it.
So, overall, the McCann household is happy, healthy, and hoppin'!

You may be wondering how the MOD walk went for us?? Well, due to the freezing cold we decided to skip the Tacoma walk and just do the Seattle one. So all of you who donated, we are still walking for the cause, just hopefully in nicer weather :-)

Here a few more pics just for fun!

Molly sitting pretty!
The Whole Gang!

Andrew used to be too small for this onsie! Can you believe it?

Have a great day everyone :-)

Bottles, Babies, and Brunch

So, it seems I've picked the absolute worst time to try and wean Molly from the feeding tube. With Hailey continuing to need around the clock TLC and Andrew deciding he needs middle of the night Mommy visits again, it's turning out to be quite difficult finding the time necessary to feed Molly! You would think a 2 am feed would be no problem, other than losing sleep. Wrong! It begins with Hailey screaming and wanting to eat, then I finally get her back down and start with Molly, only to be blessed with Andrew's second round of screaming. His first was at 11 pm. I'm not sharing this in search of sympathy! Just thought I'd slice off a little cross-section of our lives for you :-) However, on to more exciting things.....when I started this weaning deal, it was kind of on a whim, thanks to Andrew pulling Molly's tube out yet again. I've known for some time now that she can drink beautifully from the bottle and was waiting for, I don't know, a hunch or something?? Well, with permission from the dr. to give her a couple of days to get up to volume, I decided that this time around, I was going to win the battle. Molly, much to everyone's benefit, has won every battle thus far. So, I felt like it was our turn. And it seems, based on her last 5 feedings, that we are doing just that. Since 11 this morning she has had 5 feedings and each time she took 3 ounces! That is cause for celebration and motivation to persevere through whatever other challenges present themselves over the next few days! Amazing to think that just 5 months ago we were happy if she took 5 mL! And a month prior to that, we were still being told she would need a g-tube! Way to go Molly! I still don't fully understand why God thinks we can handle all of this, but we are getting through it one day at a time, one prayer at a time!

Thanks for sticking with us :-) More pictures to come next time!

Oh, brunch you ask??? Well, as I was settling down to fall back to sleep earlier, I started thinking about Mother's day and how I might feel this year, which led me to think about food. Well, when do I not think about food? Anyway, a strange realization came to me....I LOVE brunch! Breakfast is good, and I eat it because it's good for you, but my breakfast fare is pretty standard-cereal or an egg sandwich. Lunch is okay, but kind of a pain to fit in sometimes. Dinner is nice too, but way too much work and clean-up. But then I thought of brunch and what's better than a spread of breakfast, lunch, and in-between fare such as pastries, fruit, and pasta? And better yet, you can go back again and again! Now that's my kind of A meal!

Anyway, just a tidbit from my strange, late-night, pass-the-time thinking! It's true that you learn something new everyday! Even about yourself :-)

Spinach anyone?

Well, it seems I have 3 out 4 kids who will eat spinach! Not bad I say :-)

Hmm, can you tell whose not hip on the idea?

It's been awhile since I last updated. Things have been pretty tough going for the last week. Everyone came down with another virus and this time Hailey took it the worst. She and Molly both had fevers a week and half ago, but then Hailey started fevering again this past Thursday and didn't stop until Sunday. I'm thinking she may have Roseola, as she now has a rash on her face and trunk. Or, it could be hives or a heat rash. At any rate, her test for the flu came back negative and her white blood cell count was normal, so no action was taken other than lots of TLC. Now the real work starts, trying to get her back on the program of eating, napping, and going to bed on her own! We're getting there. The rest of the kids are doing well. Andrew is up to lots of trouble, as usual, living up to his status as the only boy in the family. He's really gonna keep me moving! Molly is currently off her feeding tube for a trial run. Keep your fingers crossed and prayers going that she'll get the hang of feeding without the tube! It's becoming a hassle and if she can get rid of the tube, she can spend more time playing with her siblings. Megan is heading into her last month and a half of school and will be testing for kindergarten in couple of weeks. If she doesn't qualify, she'll be placed in the pre-K program, which will be just fine. All in all, we are hanging in there and looking forward to some warmer weather!Apparently we don't feed Andrew enough. He constantly finds his way to Molly's tube and tries to get the milk out!
I found this hat that Megan used to wear all the time when she was a baby. Hailey actually tolerated having it on so I had to take a picture!
Face off! Can you see the determination on Molly's face? Very telling of her personality :-)