August is officially Baby Boot Camp month in the Jones house as we launch an assault on the Fab Five and begin the reclamation project…at least that’s the plan any way! Maybe we’ve completely lost our minds or maybe we’ve been sipping from a few bottles of our own as the babies gently nipple their daily nourishment, but we have decided that this quintet of crazies can no longer have control of our lives…at least not total control!!!! And so it begins…

There are three goals for the months: get all five sleeping through the nights, get them into a night-time routine and down by 9:00, and get them all eating cereal with ease (ok, relative ease)…stretch goal – naptime routine. It’s ambitious, we know, but something must be done! Well, it’s August 5th and I can tell you that we have opened all three fronts of this baby battle with some early success to report! Four out of five slept through the night for two nights in a row, but then the babies launched a counter-attack on night three, waking us up SEVEN times in one night…aaaaaggggggggghhh!!! We’ve actually had them all down between 8:30 and 9:30 on all four nights (it’s 9:55 as I type this…yeah!!). And as you can see from the pictures, the cereal feeds have begun. As you can also see, Jack and Brooklyn just LOVED it… I’m pretty sure that if Brooklyn could speak, she would have been saying something along the lines of, “Just what the……….do you think you’re putting in my mouth????!!” :)

So here’s the battle plan for the night time routine, with a huge thank you to the Wilkinson’s, victorious veterans of their own quintuplet home dominance battle, for lending us their expertise! First, we hit them hard with the ultimate baby killer – low lights and classical music! Ruthless, I know…we mean business here! Next, a new diaper, a change of clothes, maybe a little lavender lotion and then we hit ‘em wear it hurts – right in the belly with a big, warm bottle of the good stuff! After that, we continue the assault with story time while their food settles and the classical riffs softly lead them to lullaby land. Finally, we go in for the knockout blow by zipping them up in their sleep sacks and topping ‘em off with another couple ounces of the frothy goodness. It’s a combination they can’t resist…well, almost…but it is working pretty well so far!! I mean, why wouldn’t it…who wouldn’t be ready for a long night’s sleep after that kind of treatment??

Seriously, Jack and Ryan LOVE the new routine! Jack goes into smiley, happy chill mode while Ryan thinks it’s party time and she’s the star of the show…it is the cutest thing ever! She smiles, she gurgles, she laughs, she screams a little bit, then does it all over again…hilarious!! Britton is the biggest fighter of them all and doesn’t go down without a scrap-fight every time. Generally, that’s how Britton is all of the time these days…never sleeping unless she’s being held, never happy unless she’s held, never content unless she’s…yeah you guessed it, being held and walked and bounced…for hours on end…not fun!

Brooklyn and Lila are battling it out for the sweetest of the bunch. We thought all along that Brooklyn had it, hands down, but Lila has shown a sensitivity in the last few weeks that we didn’t know was there. She got so upset with me two times, I thought her little heart had broken right into a million pieces. Once, I was tickling Eliot and Lila did not like it one bit! The other time, she and Ryan were in side-by-side bouncies and both were fussing. Since Ryan was making more noise (no surprise there), I picked her up to calm her down…bad move! Lila was crushed and she let me know about it!! Really sweet, but broke my heart as well! Don’t get me wrong, Brooklyn is still our little sweetheart, but Lila is positioning herself right alongside her in the sweetness department.

One other quick note – Jack loves the bouncey seat these days and all of them love their activity tables. Jack will bounce and laugh for the longest time, happy as can be. I loaded up a short video of him getting a good laugh at some of my antics and you can see it here:

So there you have it…the battle has begun! Pray for us, my friends, we may not make it out of this in one piece, but we must prevail…no matter the cost!!!!!! ;-)

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/

Updates, updates! I have updates! We took the amazingly unintelligent decision to take the babies to the doctor last week…all five at the same time!! It was chaotic, stressful, crazy, but totally fun and something we’ll remember forever…though we probably won’t be pulling that stunt again any time soon! Imagine five babies and five adults in a room about the size of a master closet…for two hours, complete with two shots for each baby…aaaaggggggghhhh!!!! Imagine five little wigglers all wearing nothing but their diapers on an examination table at the same time, then imagine Ryan trying to crawl over the other four to get to who knows where while Jack keeps rolling to his tummy, steam-rolling Britton in the process! Then imagine giving them all two shots!!! At one point, they all decided it was time to eat so we had two nurses plus Dr. Ma each feeding a baby while Casey and I handled the other two…too funny! Though it was relatively normal for Casey and I, I think it was a bit stressful for the doctor and her staff. As we were leaving, she said, “I think I liked it better when you brought them three and two.” I think we’ll take that as a not-so-subtle hint as to how she would like the next visit to be structured… :)

The babies are all doing very, very well and are mostly ahead of where they should be developmentally. They are officially six months and a few days old, but their adjusted age (based on their actual due date) puts them around three months developmentally. Here are the new stats (% based on adjusted age):

- Brooklyn Faith – 24″ tall (50%), 12 pounds, 7 ounces (25%), 41 cm head circ. (50%)

- Britton Grace – 22″ tall (8%), 10 pounds, 0 ounces (3%), 41 cm head circ. (50%)

- Jack William – 24″ tall (50%), 15 pounds, 5 ounces (55%), 43-1/2 cmm head circ. (90%)

- Lila Addison – 23″ tall (25%), 11 pounds, 12 ounces (20%), 41 cm head circ. (50%)

- Ryan Elizabeth – 24″ tall (50%), 12 pounds, o ounces (25%), 39 cm head circ. (10%)

They are definitely hybrid babies – doing some of the things six monthers do (crawling, for example) and doing some of the things three monthers do (like not sleeping through the night!!!). Ryan is the most striking example of this mix as she is fully mobile now…just put a toy a few feet in front of her and watch her go! This is definitely not something most three monthers are doing by this age! Here is the link to the video of her making her way across the three activity gyms to get to some toys:

None of the babies made a peep on the drive to and from the doctor’s office so I guess they enjoyed it – it was the first time The Fab Five was all together in the car at once. And since we dropped Eliot off at school on the way, it was also the first time all eight of us together in the car. And let me tell you, we were CRAMPED!! Thank goodness none of them fussed because there would have been no getting to them!

Our next venture out as a family is on the schedule for August 16th. We are very excited for this day as it is the day we dedicate the babies to the church at Riverbend. We’ll be on stage (yes, all of us!) for both the 9:45 and 11:15 services to introduce the clan to the congregation that has been so supportive of our family since before the babies were born. What a day that will be!

I want to take a quick moment to thank Jan (one of Grandma Stevie’s good friends) for making her third trip from the Dallas area to our home for the weekend to help take care of the babies. She has been so awesome to help out and really works hard to give us a break when she comes! Because of her and Grandma Stevie taking care of the Six Pack last night, Casey and I actually got to go out on a date!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Thank you also to all of the volunteers for their continued support and to everyone out there praying for our family! Life continues to be in a constant state of change and mostly entrenched in chaos, but you all have helped to make it a very rewarding time for our family!!

God Bless,

Ethan

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Sorry for my absence – school has been working me over lately! Summer session is in full swing and is every bit the wall that everyone told me it would be. The work is intense, the topics are complicated, and the summer school blues are in full effect!! I’m ashamed to admit that for the first summer ever, I didn’t get a sunburn until this past weekend…pathetic, I know! I’m used to having my first burn no later than April 1st so this is a bit tough for me to accept! Alright, onto what you really want to know about…The Fab Five!!

The babies are all doing really well and have started to calm down after sufficiently punishing us for being away for a couple of days. The original three – me, Casey, and Eliot – headed south to spend a couple of days at the beach last week and get some much needed time away from Babyville. We had a blast!! We put the little one in charge of the agenda and she wasted no time lining out the plan, complete with a list of events in order of priority! We spent time at the beach, in the pool, in the ice cream shop, and at the movies and even managed to get two solid night’s sleep!! It was really good to be back in the normal world even for just a bit and remember what our life used to be like, but it was also good to get back and see the babies.

Obviously, we had loads of help from several different volunteers with the Harrison family staying over at the house to coordinate everybody and handle the night shifts. We can’t thank all of you enough!!!!! Supposedly, the Fab Five took it easy on them while we were out, apparently saving their energy for when we returned. We got back on the fourth and spent the next two days mostly without volunteer help as the babies took turns seeing which one could chug the most formula then scream the loudest. I think they set it up as a double-elimination tournament format because the competition, which began around 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, didn’t wind down until around midnight on Sunday evening.

As expected, Ryan the Lion took the prize for longest period of unstoppable screaming fit throwing. Brooklyn and Britton came in a close second while Lila took the trophy for loudest mouth of the south though it must have taken all she had because it didn’t last very long!! Brooklyn was the formula eating champion, putting on an amazing display of back-to-back full bottle chugs several times during the tournament! Even Big Bad Jack had to pay his respects to her bottle management mojo. Let’s just hope she doesn’t carry that skill with her to college life… :)

All of the babies are rollers now, though only Brooklyn and Ryan can do so from their backs to their tummies. Jack is trying for all he is worth to get the back-to-belly roll down, but his big ol’ dome just won’t cooperate! They are all smiling with great regularity and Lila, Ryan, and Jack have started to laugh from time to time…it is too dang cute!!! They are also starting to grab toys and interact with the different dangley things that hang from their bouncey seats and other rest stops. Ryan appears to be the strongest right now – she stands all the time and holds her head up for long periods of time when she is on her belly. I guess that’s the benefit to her regular screaming fits – strong back and neck muscles from arching and flexing all the time! She’s building some serious core muscles in the process as well!

Other than that, they are all still acting like normal babies – restless, hungry, and inconsistent. The longest stretch of sleep we can expect out of them is about five hours, but that is a pretty rare feat. Most nights, one of them will wake up after about 3-1/2 or 4 hours and we wake the rest up to feed at that time. Dear Lord, we are looking forward to them sleeping through the night! Consistency to the schedule is still little more than a dream that can’t come soon enough!

I did a very unscientific weigh-in of everyone about a week ago using a bathroom scale. Here are the weights (the scale only reads in whole and half numbers):

- Broolyn Faith – 12 pounds

- Britton Grace – 9 pounds

- Jack William – 14 pounds

- Lila Addison – 11 pounds

- Ryan Elizabeth – 11.5 pounds

In the personality department, Ryan and Britton are the stars of the show for the time being. They are both bursting with smiles, coos, and other flashes of personality while Jack, Lila, and Brooklyn are still pretty laid back. It’s so cool to watch their personalities develop and to see how they differ from each other. From their cries to their smiles, all of the babies are incredibly unique from each other! Here is a short video that the Harrison’s took while we were gone of Britton saying hello and showing you why we call her Bobbles:

So life continues to roll on in this crazy new world of ours. We’re still one day at a time and finding that some days it can be a lot easier to keep it all in perspective than other days. We laugh, we cry, we get really stressed and frustrated, then we laugh some more…and we can often cycle through all of that in about an hour or two! If you’ve been praying for us, please keep us on the list! And if you haven’t been praying for us, why not? Kidding!! Y’all take care!

God Bless,

Ethan

Well, I’m back from DC…what a great trip! For those of you who do not know, part of the curriculum of my MBA program is a week-long trip to DC to learn about how daily life in that town effects business in America. It wasn’t a very restful week as I was hoping, but it was an incredible experience! Our schedule was packed all day, every day with lectures from various politicians, former Treasury Department staffers from the Bush administration, lobbyists, Chinese and Japanese Embassy officials, and various other “in-the-know” types who gave us a crash course in the ways of Washington. We got a private tour of the Capitol (AMAZING!!), attended a committee hearing on foreign government corruption, sat at the conference table at the Fed where the Fed board meets and decides how much more money to print that day for bailouts, and watched Bay Buchanan hammer her Democratic challenger in a debate put on just for our group. We got the inside story (at least inside the media curtain) on Nancy Pelosi’s current troubles, the various reasons for the financial meltdown on Wall Street, the decision making that went into the economic stimulus packages and the bailouts, the pending battle over nationalising health care, how decisions are made at the highest level, and the transition from the Bush to the Obama administration. It was a fascinating week filled to the brim with a few of my favorite pastimes – education, high level debate of multi-faceted issues, and political maneuvering!

In between all of this, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Arlington National Cemetery to watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Memorial Mall where I saw the Lincoln, Jefferson, World War II, and Korean War Memorials, the Washington Monument, and the White House. Washington is an incredible town with an energy to it like no other and I have to admit that I came away with a little more respect for those who devote their lives to carrying on the business of running this country.

While I was away, Casey kept the machine well oiled and running smooth with a little help from the normal carousel of volunteers along with her mom, Aunt Ricki, and cousin Kim…thank you, ladies! It was a wild week for them all, but that’s nothing new anymore. The babies all made their third trips out of the house to visit the pediatrician and all received a clean bill of health. Eliot had a blast with the family in town – cousin Kim kept her running (or vice versa) and made it really tough on the little squirt to say goodbye when it was time to head back to Pennsylvania where she and Ricki are from. And Casey actually got a sliver of a chance to get out of the house on a couple of occasions for some free time!

The Fab Five continues to amaze with their health and persistent growth. Jack, the beef cake, is now over 12 pounds and is built like a bowling ball, literally – his head size is in the 75th percentile while his height is only in the 10th! Britton is still our little baby, but she is well over 7 pounds now and continues to pick up about an ounce every day. The quints cruise through over 100 ounces of formula and 50 diapers every day as they continue to dominate every aspect of life in the Jones home!

Here are the latest stats – height and weight with percentiles in parentheses. The percentiles are as compared with a 6 week old baby which is basically what they all are if you go by their original due date.

Brooklyn: 22 inches (25%), 9 pounds, 4 ounces (10%)

Britton: 20 inches (10%), 7 pounds, 9 ounces (10%)

Jack: 22 inches (25%), 12 pounds, 1 ounce (50%)

Lila: 21 inches (10%), 8 pounds, 4 ounces (10%)

Ryan: 21 inches (10%), 9 pounds, 4 ounces (10%)

*It doesn’t seem right that the girls are all in the 10th percentile with the range of weights they are, but that is what the nurse wrote.*

Eliot just graduated from pre-k and also put the wraps on her first soccer season with a Memorial Day tournament…they won! She seems to really enjoy soccer and does really well when she’s not too busy being the team clown and giving Mason, one of the boys on the team, mid-game live action hugs! She’s growing up so fast! She is really doing well with all of the comings and goings in our new, little world. She has not complained about the babies one time, though she definitely has had her moments of major need of attention and clinginess…very stressful when that happens! She is helping out with the babies and helps to “entertain” the volunteers when Casey and I are downstairs catching up on bills, laundry, etc. Please continue to pray for her…this has got to be difficult for a little girl to understand. I’m a little worried about how the summer is going to go with her love of the swimming pool. It is almost impossible to get out of the house so I have no idea how we are going to keep her entertained on all of those hot summer days that are headed our way!

Casey and I are still very much in survival mode. We have more than our fair share of frustrating days and sleepless nights as we continue to try to navigate this crazy, mixed up world we are living in. It will be really, really, really nice when the babies sleep longer through the night and begin to settle into some sort of consistent schedule – who knows when that will be, but it cannot come soon enough! The health of the babies, the steady flow of loving volunteers, the prayers and support from friends and family, and the knowledge that it won’t be like this for long provide the relief and encouragement we need to keep a smile on our faces. Keep it coming, people!!!!! :-)

God Bless,

Ethan

http://www.joneslife.net/