Four kids!

I can't believe they're mine.

Some Jack for ya

Jack was praying his standard prayer the other night which goes a bit like this:

"Please keep daddy safe at work, please help Ava do good at school, please help me and Jemma not get in any trouble" and then he added this last bit: "and please help mommy's tummy shrink back."

Smart kid, calling in reinforcements.

spoke too soon

So little Henry had the grumps all evening after I typed that last bit. I'm hoping it was just a stomach thing but I'm afraid he's going to have the evening fussiness all my monkeys have had. But I still gotta say he's our easiest transition so far....although check back with me in 6 months when he's loud and mobile!

One week old!

At the one week mark Henry was looking good. A sweet baby who spent his first week just eating and sleeping and very rarely opening one eye to see what was going on. But within the last couple days he has started to fall into a really nice schedule. I hate to even type this without knocking on wood but he should get some credit here, he's been sleeping good chunks at night of 4 hours, 2-3 hours, 2-3 hours and during the day he has two or three alert times of up to two hours. And when he's awake, he is sweet! He just looks around and is very mellow. Yesterday Ed and the kids were busy so I watched an entire movie while he was wide awake cuddling me!

I definitely couldn't ask for a better number 4!

Girly girl

Jemma came across these old boots of Ava's and clomped around in them all day:

My friend Anna made this skirt for Jem (when her own baby was just a couple days old!) and she loves it! She put it on and started twirling right away.

Joy!

Soccer!

Jack has been waiting years to play soccer and it's finally his turn. He ran up and down the field with a huge smile and when he wasn't sure what to do he stuck his hands in his pockets and just grinned. I somehow missed getting any action shots so maybe next week for those!

Henry snuggled right here while his big brother played.

Jack with two of his preschool buddies....donuts and capri-suns for the hard playing boys.

Teeny tiny

Could he be any sweeter?

Ed's two favorite Jacks

Coming Home!

The welcoming committee:

Why I love the hospital:


Why I love coming home:

More from the hospital

mmmm.....so sweet

I knew he'd be a small baby because I was still pretty comfortable up until the day he was born and I've had enough big babies to know how miserable you should feel. But I was not expecting a 6-pounder! Poor little guy had nothing that even remotely fit him until Lauren brought by this outfit that I've had to wash multiple times already because he wears it so much!

First-Time Big Sister

Surprise! Here's the baby we've been talking about:

Poor girl had a bit of a surprise waiting for her but she recovered nicely and has actually adjusted even better than I was hoping for. She doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to him unless he's crying and then she gets really worried and says, "shhh...shhh" She calls him baby He-ry and she mostly just waves to him when she's passing by.

Big Brother.

Jack met his brother later that night and he was soooo happy. I love his face here:

Jack cannot get enough of him. He calls him Little Henry and he begs to hold him all day. He can sit and cuddle him for as long as I'll let him and he's already super protective....he tells people to wash their hands, hold his head just right, and be gentle with him!

Big Sister

Ava was the first to meet the baby...she came in right after school and hung out for awhile. She has responded exactly as we expected--sweet, helpful, and waiting for him to get big enough to feed him a bottle!

Henry.

Ta Da!!!

John Henry Driskill

6 pounds, 19 inches

But first, how he got here.

We headed in bright and early Thursday morning, got all settled and after 5 iv starts (one of the worst parts of the day!), we got started with a very slow pitocin drip (and I mean slow...my doctor had an emergency surgery and didn't want me going till he was here) at 10:30. Slow pitocin means lots of hanging out, with these people:
who were supposed to be entertaining me but were apparently just enjoying their day off.
After a couple hours, my doctor came to start the party and broke my water. We were all pretty sure it was going to be fast (thanks to the last two!) so the nurse and doctor hung close to keep an eye on me. Later they both swore it would have only been 20 minutes or so but the little guy had other plans and decided to hold tight in a posterior position. After a good 40 minutes of torture trying to turn him and lots of heart rate drops (him) and mild panic (me), my body said enough and popped him out sunnyside up.

Tiny, loud, and perfect.

Telling me all about it.

I love this one.

Right after his bath (not a fan!) with some fluffy blond hair and Ed's hand.

Much better when finally left alone!

Tuckered out.