Ready or not, baby Ben is HERE!!

Our sweet baby boy has arrived!  Born at 1:45 AM, Friday, August 16, weighing in at 7lbs 10 oz. and measuring 19 3/4 inches long.  Labor was awesome compared to delivering two at the same time!  It was such a completely different experience, I wouldn't have believed how different it was had I not experienced it myself, and I'm so glad I did.  He came at 38 weeks, and not a moment too soon, since I was SOOO uncomfortable I thought I might DIE.  It feels nice to be able to breathe again.  And the heartburn.. oh, the heartburn!  I think these two pics were about a week before he was born.  HUGE.

Here are some phone pictures for now, of our first week with Ben.  We were in the hospital until Sunday, which was a nice bonding time for Ben and me without the older kiddos (who, by the way, love to smother him constantly!).  Coming home was a fairly smooth transition.  This little fella just seems to fit right in to our already crazy crew.  So far he sleeps a lot, and when he isn't sleeping he thinks he needs to be eating.  Since I am nursing, this is occupying a lot of my time, but I don't mind too much :).  I could sit and stare at his sweet little face all day.  

First picture after he made his debut.

Right after they got him all swaddled up.

 First visit the next day by big bro and big sis.

 First family picture!

 So excited to love on their baby brother

 Not so sure about this..

 Sweet brothers

 Getting ready to go home!

 The only way I can get a picture with him, take it myself!

 They were so excited to take baby home!

 Picture taken by Lilly

 

 We did not like our car seat on the way home from the hospital AT ALL!  First time we had heard him cry like that since he was born!

 

 Getting ready for bed, saying night night and giving lots of smooches

 

 On our way to our first doctor appointment at 5 days old.  He did so good!  Stayed asleep pretty much the whole time.

 

 Play time with Daddy.

 Sleep time with Daddy :)  This is a sure fire way to get Ben to fall fast asleep!

 They love when he's awake so they can have play time with him on the floor!

Our hearts are full with love for our sweet new baby boy. 

Feeling Pretty Lame..

So, I was going through all my old blogs today looking for something, and started feeling really sad at how many pictures I used to take of Nate and Lilly (like real pictures, not phone pictures) and how much I used to post about.  I know, realistically I can't keep writing about every little thing the kids do until they get married, have their own kids and do their own blogs (right?), but there are still so many little cute things they are learning and saying and doing, that I want to remember!  And it hit me that I really need to focus on taking pictures of the day to day stuff with my REAL camera, because when I look back, those are the pictures I really love.  Nate and Lilly playing in the living room, or having a snack in the kitchen, or playing in the backyard.  I just don't really think to do that anymore, and frankly I was too busy editing photos of other families and I just didn't feel like picking up my camera to take photos of my own all the time!! 

Until baby Ben gets here, I'm working on editing the Five year pictures I took of the kids in June, and I'm going to go back and adding some blogs to this past year, but I'm going to back date them to the right dates, so you won't see them unless you scroll back down through the year.

 I can't sleep, and I don't know if it's just because I only have a few weeks left of this pregnancy or WHAT, but I have this major need to tie up loose strings and get things a little more organized before baby gets here, and this blog and the pictures of my own kids are just a few of them!!

Some day I'll be glad I did all this, right?!?  Let the catch up begin!!