Home Sweet Home

We got to bring our Henry Bear home on Monday night, and man was it good to get home! It's just hard to get some quality sleep when you have a little dude who needs to eat every 2-3 hours, a nurse who has to check in every 2 hours, and a visit from the OBGYN & anesthesiologist, and no one wants to coordinate visits. Since we've been home, Henry has been doing great! He is pretty good about 3 hour eating stretches, sleeps like an angel, and is a very happy and content baby when he's awake. He really just has one rule, which involves never changing his diaper...

We went in at 7:00 Sunday morning, after a night and morning of contractions. I thought I might have been having some, but I wasn't really sure until they got me hooked up to the monitors and I was able to ask. We thought I might be able to skip the pitocin, but it turns out I needed it afterall. Labor was quite similar to that with John Dickson - weirdly so. We got to the hospital at the same time, had my water broken around the same time, got the epidural at the exact same time... so I thought perhaps Henry would be born at 3:59, just like John Dickson. My doctor came in to check on me at 4:01, and I joked with him that we were already 2 minutes late. He wanted me to push a couple of times, and then all of a sudden yelled at me to stop, warned me not to laugh, and he ran to throw on all of his baby delivering gear, have the bed transformed into delivery mode, fetch a 2nd nurse, and at 4:07, 6 minutes later, Henry was born. I knew 2nd babies were supposed to be easier, but I never thought laughing him out would be a problem... what do I know?

Side note: Henry's best friend, Brody, arrived the very next day, courtesy of my friend Karin. We tried our best to coordinate our babies' birthdays, but planning only goes so far! Henry cant wait to meet his new buddy!

So how is John Dickson handling all of this? Well, he's currently on a sleeping hiatus, and has subsequently been a bit on the grumpus side, but otherwise, he is embracing big brotherhood. He loves his little brother and loves to watch out for him. If the music goes off on the swing, he immediately notifies us. He likes to make sure Henry has his blanket, and today when Henry got an adorable lion in the mail (courtesy of the Mameles), John Dickson immediately identified it as Henry's and took it to him. He has gotten to hold Henry a few times, and he very gently pats Henry on the head. He also loves to give him kisses. He really is a great big brother! He went back to school today, to try to get back on a normal routine, and his teachers said he talked a lot about Henry. What can I say? We make some sweet kids. Sweet and big. 8 lbs 5 oz at 11 days early... sheesh.

And how is the Ad-man handling all of this? I'd say he is very much made for fatherhood. He's amazing with John Dickson, but its been a while since we've had a newborn around here, and parenthood is very different with a 2 year old than with a tiny baby. It's fun to start over again, and nothing makes me melt more than seeing him with our little ones.

Pictures to come - in the meantime, thank you to everyone for all of the love, support, gifts, visits and cards! We definitely feel very blessed.