Triplets make first Friday visit to Mexican

As many of you might know, Melissa and I have had a long standing tradition to eat Mexican on Friday nights. Just about every Friday night we go to Las Palmas. The tradition started 4 or 5 years ago as Las Palmas was right around the corner from the old house. Now, we either drive back to the Leesville Road location, or occasionally we go to the Wake Forest location to eat with Matt & Jennifer (and Bise & Meredith) since they live up that way. Regardless we rarely miss a Friday night eating Mexican. Well, we've missed a few lately. Melissa, Chase and I did manage to go two weeks ago as Grandma and Nana stayed with the triplets. Then, last night, we decided it was time for the triplets to see what Las Palmas was all about.

Some family friends (Missy & Jill Rolewicz) are in town for the weekend from Delaware. Jill is staying with us, so Missy & Leslie went out for dinner by themselves. Jill and Melissa fed the boys at 5 pm, swaddled them up and loaded them into the car. I picked up Chase from daycare and we met the girls (with the triplets) at Las Palmas. We intentionally went early to avoid any huge crowds...plus we knew we needed to get the one big table that they have. With a table for 7, we parked three car seats at one table (one in a chair, one on the table, and one on the bench side). Melissa, Jill, Chase and I sat at the other table. The great news is that all three boys literally slept through the entire dinner. We had lots of visitors of course. All of the waiters/waitresses/hostess came to see the boys. And of course some of the other patrons wanted to stop and gawk a little. Ironically, many of the patrons walked right by without even seeing all of the car seats. But virtually all of them who actually noticed the car-seats stopped to look and chat with us.

Anyway, even I have doubted whether we could have some semblance of a normal life, but I think we even surprised ourselves at how easy dinner out was with all four boys!

And now, in the blue corner, weighing in at...

Today was another weight check for the boys. They all had gained between 15 and 17 ounces since our last check-in, which was 12 days ago. The pediatrician had told us last time that they should be gaining around an ounce a day, so being of a 'slightly' competitive spirit, all three boys topped that goal!

Here's where we stand:

Jack
Birth (1/27): 4 - 9
Hospital Discharge (1/31) 4 - 2
1st Appt (2/1) 4 - 4
2nd Appt (2/4) 4 - 5
3rd Appt (2/9) 4 - 10
4th Appt (2/21) 5 - 9

Graham
Birth (1/27): 4 - 7
Hospital Discharge (1/31) 4 - 0
1st Appt (2/1) 4 - 3
2nd Appt (2/4) 4 - 3
3rd Appt (2/9) 4 - 8
4th Appt (2/21) 5 - 7

Anthony
Birth (1/27): 4- 0
Hospital Discharge (1/31) 4 - 3
1st Appt (2/1) 4 - 4
2nd Appt (2/4) 4 - 6
3rd Appt (2/9) 4 - 10
4th Appt (2/21) 5 - 11

We didn't even see the doctor today, since it was just a weight check, but he got the report and was obviously pleased.

The boys have been eating really well. They are up to 75 mL (or 2.5 ounces) per feeding (still eating 7 times per day).

So, you might ask, how much should they be eating at this stage/size anyway. Well, infants should eat about 50-55 calories per pound, per day. At 5.5 pounds, that's about 290 calories per day. Breast-milk and formula both have about 20 calories per ounce. So, they are getting about 50 calories per feeding, times 7 feedings per day = 350 calories per day. I guess that's why they're growing so well...because they're getting more calories than the pediatricians say they need at this weight. But they are all eating well and are getting hungry before the next feeding typically, and also never seem content until after the bottle is finished.

And this concludes today's lesson on feeding babies!