4.10.2013

{Quad Squad} 10 Month Update!

At the beginning of the month, my adorable little quadlings turned a whopping 10 months old. I mean, I'm starting to think about planning their one year birthday! I can't believe it! Time hasn't exactly flown by (sometimes the slow tick-tock of the clock has echoed in my brain), but I truly can't believe it's nearly been an entire year since I was wheeled into the operating room, nervous of the final outcome, and delivered four beautiful babies. Two months later, we brought the last of them home and completed our new and instant family!


the babes at one month old

Now we have four healthy, happy 10 months old who are getting more and more active every day! Everyone but Kailey has sprouted two teeth and are working on more. Kailey's are just under the gums but have not broken through yet. We're going through a lull in the teething action at this very moment, but I'm sure it'll pick up again soon. When it does, we keep frozen teethers in rotation ALL day long, administer Infant Advil as needed and do a little extra cuddling and rocking throughout the day. Overall, the teething hasn't been as bad or difficult as I imagined it would be—but it ain't always easy!




We've adjusted our feeding schedule a little bit to reflect their growing interest in finger foods and their desire to eat more during spoon feedings and less formula. They get breakfast—oatmeal with greek yogurt and fruit mixed in—at 8am followed by a 6oz bottle. At 11:45am, we feed their lunch spoon feeding (usually a veggie/fruit combo with rice) followed by another 6oz bottle. They get a plain ole 8oz bottle at 3:30pm then a third spoon feeding for dinner at 6:30 or 6:45 followed by a 6oz bottle. We just began this new system a few days ago and they seem to really appreciate that third spoon feeding. We also have been practicing with sippy cups of water during the day, and I predict in a few weeks they'll have those down. They're also really improving with finger foods and their ability to pick them up and put them in their mouth. They love puffs! Every time we put them in their quad table and scatter some puffs in front of them, they squeal and bounce around in their seats then stuff their mouths as fast as they can. Today I gave them each a Ritz cracker for the first time and they loved that, too. I pureed some fajita chicken and Mexican rice the other day then mixed in some rice/formula to weaken it a little and we fed that for dinner. They downed a couple spoonfuls then started getting a little mouthy so we switched to applesauce then finished dinner off with bottles. Soon we plan to puree spaghetti with meat sauce!


Life in an apartment is definitely cramped. Some times the walls start closing in on me a little and the weather has been cold and rainy a lot lately, so walks haven't always been an option. Plus I'm using a lot of my "spare time" (aka, when I have babysitters) to go and view houses for sale. So it's a tight cycle I'm repeating day to day right now. We're in a two bedroom so the babies are in one room and the husband and I in the other. We still only have two cribs and they share those at night and do great. But for nap times, we've set up two pack-and-plays in their room as well, this way they can all sleep individually. A week or so ago, I introduced "mandated nap time" after the lunch feed and it's slowly getting better. At first, they went hog wild and Harrison screamed and yelled so much I had to eventually go get him. Now they're beginning to sleep for 1-2 hours and I'm so glad when that happens! Some days it still doesn't go as well as I want, but I'm sticking to my guns. They occasionally take a nap mid-morning, but other than those two sleep times they are awake the rest of the day and still sleep a solid 12 hours at night. Every evening when we put them down, the husband and I relish the fact that we have a little time to finish chores, eat dinner together or relax and watch TV. 



The babies are definitely moving into explorer modes. They love when we pull them out of the play pen and let them crawl around the (vacuumed and Lysol-ed) carpet! Harrison and Logan have both reached out and pawed at an unsuspecting cat—no animals were harmed in the process—and they're all four pulling themselves to standing like pros. Sitting and crawling has been going on for awhile now, and we're expecting Kailey to take her first steps any day. She's been standing up then letting go of you, the play fence or whatever she used to pull up. She's stood on her own for as long as 30 seconds already! With two months to go until the one year mark, I'm pretty sure we're going to have a walker by then. ;)






We're just now moving into 9 month clothing. My kiddos are skinny, shorty little things! Kailey and Harrison are both very long and need the length, but are so thin there's always lots of spare room. Trystan and Logan can fill clothes out better but tend to be a little short in bigger sizes. Currently, they weigh between 16lbs 8oz (Kailey) and 17lbs 3oz (Harrison).

the perfect faces that greet me every morning!
It's weird to be living back in my hometown and I have to admit, it's extremely nice to be close to all our parents, who've been great in coming by with helping hands or food and supplies. Currently, I also hired a part-time nanny to come help me M/W/F mornings and a friend of mine frequently comes T/TH mornings. It's awesome! Since I'm still recovering from that last surgery I had just over 3 weeks ago, it's great to have help with all the things I have to do every day. Just having help lifting and moving the babies around makes a big difference. My mom often comes to help with baths (those are M/W/F) and the husband's mom will come by and watch the babies if I need to get out or help us in the evening and my dad plans to come a few afternoons when I'm on my own to help now and then. I'm also still making all the quad's baby food myself, running 8 million loads of laundry each day and writing and working with a couple deadlines each month. Whew!


The husband is loving his new job, he's a few days in and it's going great. I'm so proud of him and how he's strived to provide so well for our family and support me every minute that he's not hard at work in the office. It's been a busy few weeks trying to get adjusted in the apartment, loading excess things into storage, finding new doctors for the babies and myself and continuing our house hunt. All in a day's work!

Next up: my newest recipe for spicy garlic lime chicken + funny details about apartment living with quads. Stay tuned...

13 comments:

  1. They are sure getting big, and seem they are doing well. It just seems like it was the other day when ours were that young, and now they are 4 and making it difficult to keep up with. And wow we couldn't even imagine living in an apartment with quads. Guess its not as bad, since they are only 10 months old. We had to stay in a 2 room hotel when they were 2 1/2, because we were without power for 3 days. That was pretty cramped up and we were happy when we got power back one.

    We have a two really good giveaways currently on our blog you may be interested in. One software to make DVD/movies from pictures. We were given 7 codes, and only have 5 people entered. We really want them to go to people we know and would be really beneficial for. Here's the link. Wondershare DVD Slideshow Builder Giveaway

    Hope the house hunt goes well and you find one soon.

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  2. Hi Amber,

    I was so happy to see un update from you this morning (yeah cause it's 08:15 am here in France), and I see you're adjusting quite well to your new life in your appartment. I hope you'll find the perfect house for the 6 of you soon.
    So the quads are really advandced for their age, it's amazing, they're really little champs ! You must be really proud of them and of what they have (and you have) accomplished.

    As I was saying in my previous comment, my second born Ethan, who was born on May 25th 2012 (and who weighed 9lbs) still cannot crawl or pull himself up to a sitting position ! He's a lazy little bear and doesn't understand why he should do this on his own when mommy is here to do it ! : )

    I wish you a very good day (well, night actually), our day will be great since we're goign to Disneyland with the boys.

    Jessica (your N°1 French reader !)

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    1. Thanks for the confidence boost Jessica! Hope your little ones are doing well! (And boys tend to be lazy, Harrison is always pulling on his sisters or laying on his back playing with a toy instead of standing!)

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  3. They are getting so big and just love all their indivdiual personalities that are coming out. There smiles are beautiful. Sherri

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  4. Adorable babies! Priceless miracles!

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  5. I absolutely can't believe how fast they have grown. You are amazing with all that you do.

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  6. Those babies are just adorable! Thier smiles are priceless.
    Looks like you are a little cramped in the apartment.
    Two quick questions is that Logan in the background enjoying the swing? And are the babies still on formula?
    Glad you have alot of help especially 3 weeks out of surgery.
    Thanks for the update, and Thanks for sharing:)

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    1. That was Harrison in the background in the swing. And the quadlings are still on formula, we'll start whole milk around 12-13 months!

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  7. Hi! I found your blog a few weeks ago & was so intrigued by your story that I read from the time you found out you were pregnant to now. You are such an inspiring mom! I just wanted to say keep up the great work & also if you can find Hyland's teething tablets, they worked wonders for my daughter when she was teething!

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    Replies
    1. Glad to have you following along! Thanks for the kind words!

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  8. Adorable! Love reading your posts!!

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