Here comes the Sun

My Spring babies hatched in the middle of the Winter, but all they knew about climate was the dry constance of seventy degrees, set up in the incubator and, later on, in their house. Three full moons later, all buds had shown up in the garden and I had taken off most of my sweaters. It was time to show them the Sun, I thought, feeling the balmy light. It was not the intensely hot, almost heavy sensation I remember from Brazilian mornings, but definively not cold.
I brought the babies out, one by one. The final destination was a tent made of an old comforter. Only their legs were to be exposed. I was very cautious with their eyes, used only to the filtered lights of blinds and night lamps.
Cecilia was the first one. She made a strong move with her head, blind with the omnipresent clarity. Five seconds later, she blinked tentatively and that was it: she stopped winning and stared looking aroundl. Could she listen to the many sabias chirping nearby? I want to believe so.
I brought Evelyn down, a crancky seven pownder, ready to dislike even the warmest bottle. She curled into my chest and yelled a bit. Little by little, the warmth penetrated the layers of her clothing. I could see her bald head sweat. She relaxed and felt asleep. Didn't wake up when I placed her on the bouncing seat, her tiny bare legs taking in all the vitamin D she needed to grow.
Then it was Jessie's turn. Jessie, the easy going, no-fuss baby was waiting for me with her big honey-glaze eyes sweeping the ceiling. I told her she was about to see the most beautiful ceiling ever - a clear sky. Cecilia turned her head to the left (she does have a low muscle tone in her neck and I still worry about it) to avoid the harshness of the light and stood there, looking up the sky. I'd have to work for decades to achieve her peaceful contemplative state.
I took their clothes off and left each one at their private Paradise: Cecilia investigating the infinite variety of Nature, Evelyn being a living growing miracle and Jessie enjoying the blissfulness of that morning to the fullest.
I would love to stay there - but they needed to have the next feed ready for them. I kept an eye on them - we never know when starving wolves will invate the yards of Framingham - and went to the kitchen, a busy mom.

No longer the youngest

 It's hard to give up the 'baby spot' but at least there are compensations. You can spend the afternoon making bright renditions of Charmander.

Play time

 The girls are enjoying this cheesy brightly colored play mat. I don't like the electronic aspects (you pull a handle and music plays, etc.), that has nothing to do with the physical reality we must master. But they are enjoying it. Clockwise, from upper right: Evelyn, Jessie, Cecilia.

Smiley

 Apparently there are some Glazier genes that have been passed along for another round on the life cycle.

Cecilia

 Cecilia is very awake, very related these days. She is the middle girl, in my mind -- not as easy as Jessie, not as touchy as Evelyn. She is very amusing and intense in her own way. 

Lucy's visit

Lucy spent the weekend with us too, the first time in a few months. She held her sisters, and comforted them, and spent time with us. Progress. She also taught me how to play Resident Evil 4, and worked on some Pokemon pictures to decorate my office.

Happy together

 

Happy Sunday

 We had a good Sunday together. The girls are growing a great deal. For about an hour all three were lying together on a play blanket banging their hands against the hanging toys. Evelyn weighed in at 9.5 pounds this morning on our home scale, a big step up from birth weight of 2.5 pounds on Feb. 27th!

Lunch

Had the chance to get home for lunch today, and fed Jessie. What a sweet little girl she is. Doesn't even have to wake up to take her bottle, but partway through opens her eyes and regards me for a couple of minutes, calmly. Closes her eyes and smiles as if laughing to herself.

Rough night

Another rough night. Don't know why, but by 10 pm Evelyn started to get unhappy. We had gotten her to sleep and then she woke up screaming. Went through several cycles of calming her down to the point of sleep -- and then she woke up screaming again. Kind of rough. She seemed better this morning. We are sort of worn out, though.

All over the map

How funny to be staying up nights with babies while I have a son about to graduate from high school...

Tired but getting there

The girls are doing well. Lately I have heard from a couple of people that babies need to get to 10 pounds, and then they have the strength and capacity to sleep for five hours or more through the night. We must be getting close, because Cecilia and Jessie both seem to me to be in the 10 pound range. I'll have to put them on the scale with me. Evelyn is smaller but looks quite well. Still, she can get quite overwhelmed. A couple of nights in the past week she has woken up screaming with hunger and by the time we have the bottle ready she is so overwhelmed that she can stop screaming long enough to take the bottle. It takes me a lot of interesting juggling and holding and calming to help her get a few pulls of the bottle, then she falls back into screaming. After several cycles of this there is enough milk in her belly, and maybe the repeated experience of calming enough to feed helps too, and she begins to feed in earnest. The whole process took 45 minutes each time, and she needed to be held and patted for a long time after the feeding was over so that she could calm down and sleep. All this at 3 in the morning. What joy! I have visions of doing a very similar dance of reassurance and demand when she is in grade school regarding homework.