14 months 26 days

It's 11 pm, and I'm so tired I can barely function. I'm usually alright at night, able to work into the early morning hours, but not tonight. We had to get up at 7 and leave the house at 8 am, however, I did go to bed earlier, already at 1 am instead of 4 am, and to my greatest surprise, no one needed milk until the morning, though two of them had had their last milk just before midnight.

We both got up at 7, and I think my alarm also woke the little ones, but they were okay talking with each other as long as we were not in sight. I mad their cereal with milk and a little bit of fruit, and then we fed them. Normally they start the day with milk and eat the cereal at 9 am; today it was 7:10 am.

After they had eaten, we put their clothes on that I had chosen and put out last night already. I put Sammy into the swing until we left, which I think is better than the bed. That way he is in the midst of the action - and his siblings made sure of that. They both came to be with him, and especially Tammy spent time right there with him.

We left on time at 8 am, took three subways, and got to the hospital early, at twenty minutes to 9. We still had to go through a container where they asked us health questions, measured our temperature, and gave us hand sanitizer and a little paper to prove that we'd been checked. From there we went inside the building where we had to give them that paper and show them a paper that we had an appointment. Then we had to go to the reception desk, and with three babies, all that took time as well. Then we went to the waiting room that we already know, where they always have their preemie checkups. We got them all out of the strollers, and Randy held Sammy most of the time, while I was running after the other two. There was an open door, which Emmy spotted first of course, and he, and then Tammy as well, tried going in there all the time. Then they started walking and running down this corridor, until we were chased out of there as there were SILENT signs up everywhere, and Tammy was pretty loud when I tried to stop her and turn her around. I pointed them the opposite direction, where they finally found these activity boards on the wall that kept their attention for a short time. However, our explorer Emmy hadn't seen everything yet, and he needed to find out how far he could go.

We waited there for half an hour before we were finally called in, and then we spent two hours in there for their one-year-old checkup with 4-5 doctors, who were all really nice. There was a mat with games for the three, while the main doctor started asking me all kinds of questions about them and wrote down my answers. Then she checked some basics with Tammy and Emmy, and weighed and measured them, and as they now do at the pediatrician's, they started screaming during the measurements, even though I kept tellling them there was no shot after this, which is what is always the case at the pediatrician's.

Then Tammy, Emmy, two doctors and I went to the room nextdoors, while Randy and Sammy stayed with the other two, and they did the same with Sammy, plus talk more. In the meantime Tammy and Emmy had each one doctor doing one test after another with them. They were checking to see whether they master the pincer grasp, whether they could get these little balls out of the bottle, whether they could shake a bell, whether they could uncover where the bracelet was hidden, put a round block into the fitting hole, things like that. They also asked about speech and understanding. Needless to say, they both scored well and high, with Tammy just a little ahead of her brother.

Then we returned to their sibling, and the main doctor gave her assessment of Sammy. Honestly, it was devastating, if we didn't have our God of miracles and the impossible! She said that Sammy would most likely never walk, which was the most shocking for me!!! She also explained the purpose of the special chair they are fitting for him right now, and now it makes sense to me. It will allow him to sit without help, which then frees up his arms so he can use them and develop his manual motor skills, plus he'll be on the same level as his siblings. He's also getting the leg braces for the night. I asked whether he'll be able write and use his hands normally, but she couldn't answer that question at this point. As for his weight, she showed us the graph, that he had a drop of weight between age 3 and 6 months, but has been going up steady since then, and if he continues like that, he'll be fine.

When we were done, they all said to us how impressed they were with all three's friendliness and how social they are. We've heard that before from others.

It was 11:20 when we left there, and I can tell you all three (or five of us) were really tired. Normally they lie down for a nap at 9:30! Needless to say, all three fell asleep in the stroller on the way home.

We got home at noon. Sammy woke up first, when we got off the subway, and the other two woke up not long after arriving home. We were also happy to see Sonja who had come to help us, and come an hour earlier than usual. She had last come on Monday, and it seemed like that was ages ago.

I put their food into the warmer right away, and started making the adults' food. Then we fed them, and I finished making our food. All the plates were ready, and they were ready for a nap, or so we thought. They all went into their beds at 1 pm, and I lay down with Tammy, without even having eaten. We tried for half an hour, but nobody was sleeping, so they all went downstairs with Sonja. I finally got to eat my food, and all I really wanted was to sleep; Randy was pretty tired too.

They were getting more and more cranky, and we fed them their afternoon meal at 2:30 and then put them back to bed. The boys fell asleep, and Tammy fell asleep on me after a while as well, and so did I. Randy went to the grocery store, as they now close earlier because of the lockdown. Sonja was on her own, and reacted right away when Emmy woke up and took him downstairs to play with him. As it was approaching 4 pm, I knew we had to get up too, though I really did not want to, but it had to be done. Tammy had only slept about half an hour. I found Sammy asleep, and had to wake him up too. Together the three of us went downstairs to join Sonja and Emmy.

We then had fun together, though everyone was pretty cranky, including Tammy who had just woken up, and Emmy who hadn't slept long. Sammy was half-okay, and crawled over to their house like he likes to do. Tammy would start crying when I'd just sit up or move just a little bit. I guess she always though I was leaving. Both her and Emmy came to me a lot, putting their heads on me, and I had to keep Sammy happy too. Randy returned just before 4:30, and once he came into the play area, I was able to leave and get their dinner food ready. They did pretty well once Daddy was there.

Just after 5 pm they all came up for dinner. I fed Tammy, Sonja Emmy, and Randy Sammy. Tammy enjoyed eating the soup, but was not eating much else, while Emmy puts the food into his mouth by himself, one piece after another. Tammy then ate the rest of her food once I let her out of the chair and run around, and Emmy finished his food that way as well. Then it was bathtub time, and bed time. Sammy was awake for quite a while, as he always is when he sleeps until 4 pm. Emmy was asleep the fastest. The girl was pretty quiet but not falling asleep, and cried when I finally walked away. However, I stayed away, and she quieted down and fell asleep. That's the second day in a row I was able to do that. Praise God!

And I've been extremely tired since - while cooking, eating, doing office work... I did not want to get up from my chair to clean the kitchen, put everything into the dishwasher, and clean their high chairs. Randy was so kind to clean their high chairs, even though he is tired too. There is so much more to do, but I'm just not up to it tonight and need to go to bed early again.