Happy Valentine's Day!!

Our little Valentine's wanted to wish you all a happy day. I know it's been FAR too long since I have written and I apologize for that. I am not going to write a lot now, but am planning on catching everyone up on the girls progress in the next few days. They turn two months old on the 16th!!!! For now, just a few pics to hold you over. Top to bottom... Reese, Maizie, and Charlie

More pics...

Ok- So I know all you want to see is more pictures, so here you go!
The three sleeping beauties all in a row.

Miss Maizie during Tummy Time

Miss Charlie

Merrill and Charlie, having a nap

Chubby Cheeks Reese

Reese and Maizie

One Month Old!

A little late, as usual, but... the girls are one month old (as of a week ago)!! Can you believe it?!?! They are all doing so well. We are currently dealing with some night time sleep issues... in that they think it's ok to be awake and chatty/cranky at 1am and keep their tired parents awake for hours at a time. I mean really, they sleep like the living dead during their daytime naps. Oh well, nobody said this was going to be a breeze. It's all very manageable, just requiring cat naps and/or passing out on the couch at 8p. We really can't complain because they have really been good babies and they seem to get better at it every night.

Let's see...new things to report. The girls are starting to be awake a little

more these days. We try to have

"tummy time" each day on the living room floor and they are getting really good at lifting up their heads and moving around. It's nice to have them awake and interact with them. It's not often that all three are wide awake at the same time, but when they are, we take advantage and have photo shoots. :)

We have managed to give the girls baths, but it's not nearly as often as I would like. It seems to take a few days longer to do everything! If I say on Monday that the girls MUST get a bath, it's usually Wednesday or Thursday before it actually gets done! It's just amazing how little time there is in a day when you aren't really doing much of anything except eating and sleeping.

A few weeks ago, we got some Moby wraps

which allow us to essentially tie the girls to our bodies. It's great to be able to strap one of them(or two) on and get chores done around the house. It also

allows us to get outside when the weather is nice. We take walks

around the park with Wakefield on weekends and a few weeks ago

even ventured to Willard Beach which was awesome!

Sadly, Nathan had to go back to work this week, after a nice 10 days off after Maizie finally came home. It was so great to have him home to spend some good quality time (QT as Pop would say) with his four girls. We made some great memories. It was hard not to have him home all day with us, but we managed to survive the week in one piece... thanks to all the wonderful friends and

family we have. I want to say a special

thanks to Jennifer and the ladies from St. Alban's (our church) who made such an effort this week. We are so lucky to have

you!

Our visiting nurse came on Wednesday and

checked the girls out. They are doing great and gaining weight really quickly! Reese is now 6lbs 7oz! Maizie and Charlie are weighing in at 6lbs 1.5oz. Charlie has slowed down a bit in her weight gain which I think may be due to two things...one, she is a messy eater and a decent amount of her bottles goes down the side of her face (We got some good hints at preventing this) and two of the three girls she is our spit up queen. She is getting enough to gain weight at an acceptable rate, but if she slows down any more, we may need to add some rice cereal to her bottle to thicken it up a little bit to help keep it down.

We also had the PT nurse come this week. She was here for a few hours yesterday to evaluate the girls and see if they have any developmental deficits from being premature. She was happy to report that they are all doing really well! No problems whatsoever. She will be back in 3 weeks to check in on them again.

I just can't believe what a blessing these three are. I am amazed every day at how healthy, strong and perfect they are! Hope the pics help to quench your thirst for cuteness. :) Sorry for some of the positions of the photos... this blog is annoying to post pictures and it has a mind of it's own, rotating photos when not asked to do so. Anyway, for those of you on Facebook, you can see many more photos of the girls there.

Finally...our Family is complete!

We are happy to report that as of two days ago, Miss Maizie graduated from the CCN and we now have all three girls at home. Maizie, like her sisters, excelled in her progression in the CCN and was home much faster than anyone(except her parents) predicted. It is an amazing feeling to finally be at home with our babies and not have to go to the hospital every day.

Life with three babies is... well... I'm not really sure how to explain it. I can't really say what it's like compared to having only one because other than the first 24 hours when Charlotte was home, I have no idea what it's like to have one baby. We do a lot of bottle

feeding, napping, snuggling, swinging, pumping, and staring at our gorgeous girls! It's amazing how fast the day can go by doing these simple tasks... and as I sit here trying to write this post, it's amazing how tiring these simple tasks can be. If I don't get this done in a matter of a few minutes, I'm going to fall asleep and not get it posted until tomorrow. (This indeed happened and I am finishing this Sunday morning). Below are the highlights of the week...

Mom and Porter came into town just in the nick of time

(the day/night before Maizie came home). Not only did they help with feeding babies

and offer lots of quality nuzzle time with the

girls, they made a project list for around the house and worked their butts off!! Our garage is now spotless and the downstairs "guest room" is fit for a king/queen!! I

can't thank them enough for all their hard work.

We had our first pediatrician appointment Thursday. We really like the girls' doctor. He is young and very laid back. It was cute to

see everyone in the office so excited about our babies. I, of course, was somewhat paranoid and wanted minimal contact with the public. Their doctor found them to be totally healthy, and luckily the girls didn't need any vaccinations on their first visit. Their weights are as follows... Charlie and Reese are both 5 lbs even and Maizie is 4 lbs 12 oz (1/4 lb behind her sisters). They are growing like weeds!!

We finally had tubby time yesterday. That was quite a project, getting them all three in the tub

and cleaned up before the water cooled down. Other than that, I can't think of anything else big that has gone down in the last week.

Oh! Except the fact that after such a short time at home, we have been able to cut out one of the night feedings. These girls are over achievers and like their sleep!! Instead of feeding every three hours during both the day and night, we are now able to feed every three during the day and get a few four hour stretches at night. It's pretty great!

I'm sure that this posting was all over the place and I apologize for that. I know that really you all just want to see pictures. :) We have taken about 10,000 pictures because they are so cute all the time! I picked out a choice few to share with you.

love, Nellie

And then there were two...

It's kind of hard to transition from my last post to this one, but now is when I have the time to catch everyone up on the goings on here at the Savage Compound, so I must take the opportunity to do so. By now we have all three girls home, but I wanted to dedicate a post to Reese's arrival since all must be fair in the Savage world (I am trying to avoid meltdown drama in 13 years when the girls are reading this blog for themselves!)

After 24 hours of experiencing the life of a

singleton parent with Charlie on New Year's Eve, we welcomed Reese home on New Year's Day. I can't think of a better way to start the new decade. Once again we were saddened to be leaving Maizie at the hospital, but we were somewhat relieved to know we had a few days to try our hand at two babies before the third came home to complete

the trifecta.

I have to say, two really wasn't much harder than one. Due to the fact that the girls are only 36 weeks along in gestational age, they are pretty mellow. We have kept them on the NICU schedule where they get changed and fed every 3 hours, 24 hours a day. In between feedings, they sleep. We may get 15 minutes of awake

time where they look around for a bit, but otherwise it's quiet around here. We are trying to enjoy this time, because I am sure at some point they will stay awake longer and find their voices.

For now, we enjoy the bliss that is life these days.

An emotional loss...

Although most of you probably already know, I couldn't create another post about the girls before dedicating a post to our dear Jack. Jackman Fox was my brother Porter's 14 year old yellow lab. Although his soul always belonged to my brother, for the past nearly 5 years Big Jack lived with Nathan and me and became an important member of our family. He lived with us in Brighton, MA, moved with us to our tiny apartment in Portland, Maine and then moved again with us to our first home in South Portland. He was the epitome of a loyal and trustworthy friend... even if his favorite past times were getting into the trash and disappearing in the blink of an eye to find the nearest compost pile. It was uncanny how the oldest, slowest dog on the block could manage to disappear on you when you weren't looking.

We lost Jack this past week. His old and tired body just couldn't fight anymore. We all knew his time was coming, but it's still never easy to say goodbye. We will miss him dreadfully. He was an amazing companion to all whose lives he touched. Although our girls didn't get the chance to know him, I believe that their coming into this world and bringing us such joy allowed Jack to exit silently. He never was the type to be the center of attention.

We love you old buddy. You will be missed by us all...

Wakefield has fallen in love...