Erik sometimes wishes Emmett would stare mindlessly at the lights and sounds of the tv.  But he is much more interested in Daddy's wiggling thumb and the controller that keeps waving in his face.

Six weeks in.  This is our life.  And we are still adjusting.  To say the least.  I feel like I should have the hang of it by now.  I definitely don't.

Over the summer I got so used to doing posts about all the things we DID.  Well, we aren't really DOING anything these days.  These long, never-ending, tedious and tiring days.  Yeesh!  

But I still take pictures.  And have to blog them.  So here they are.

I set down the little chub monster for a minute, and was surprised to come back and find him asleep.  He's cute.

Samuel is a very kind and attentive older brother.  He loves doting on Em, and he is great at teaching O a thing of two.  Like how to turn anything into the drums.

Finally got some chubby smiles on camera.

Samuel has been fascinated by climbing trees for a long time.  He has expressed often how disappointing it is that we don't have any climbing trees in our backyard.  One afternoon, he came running inside bubbling over, "Mom, Mom!!!  I finally learned to climb one of our trees!!  Hurry, you got to come see.  But first, I need to get some protection for my eyes.  It's very dangerous work to climb trees."

Owen loves to "cuh-der."  This day, he was seemingly inspired by my spray painting mat on the driveway.

I love those smooshy cheeks.

Chubalubs still hurts a lot.  He has good days and very very bad days.  Erik is good at calming him down and comforting his bubbly little tummy.  But you can still tell he hurts.

Did I mention he's chubby?  Scrumdiddlyumptious.

August 9 – August 11, 2011

38 weeks 5 days.

So Erik wrote a great account of the birth day.  If you haven't read it yet, CLICK HERE.  He did a great job with all the details.  When Erik gave me a blessing the night before, he mentioned that I would be able to get through the trials of the day.  I figured it meant the trial of birth, not the trial of sitting around waiting to give birth!  It was a long day, and so different from each of the other two experiences, but I like that each boy gets his own special story.  It was really strange to be prepared for it and not be going to the hospital in the middle of the night.  My body is pretty speedy at this labor stuff (once I'm getting my pitocin) so again, they took me off it.  With the other two births, things stopped moving along, though, so they put me back on.  This time, I didn't need it once I went off.  So the last little bit was all me.  Also, this time around, they put Emmett on me right away, and Erik got to cut the cord.  Niether of those things has happened before, so that was really neat, too.  We had some really nice quiet time in the delivery room afterwards, just the three of us, before we all took Emmett to the nursery to get cleaned up, and then got myself dropped off in our new room. 

Snuggles, before and after a little clean up.

Getting a bit cleaned up, and weighed.  He was so so tiny to me.  I thought he was like 6 pounds.  I couldn't believe when he weighed in over 8!

I did it!  And look what I got for it!

In the nursery.

Sweet moment.  Love this new baby.  Love this man.

I really enjoyed the hospital stay.  In fact, I was really looking forward to that special time.  With Samuel, we booked it out of there pretty quick.  No reason for us to stick around.  With Owen, we took our time, recovered and relaxed a bit, then headed home after our 48 hours were up.  I wanted to do the same thing this time around.  Erik was so great complying with all my requests and sleeping on that horrible pull out chair for two nights.  My mom was spectacular to care for the two olders.  The boys visited me both days in the hospital.  I can't tell you how amazing the moment was when the door opened and Erik walked in holding a big bunch of balloons (that my mom and the boys had gotten the night before), and each boy came bouncing in with a present for the baby (also something my mom did with the boys) just grinning and staring at Emmett and me with big wide eyes and huge grins.  Each boy got a chance to hold the baby, and we visited for a bit before Emmett had to head to the nursery and Erik took Sam and O home for lunch and a nap.

O wasn't quite sure what to think at first, but once he saw Sam totally comfortable and at ease, he was ready for his turn.

Very interested in the diaper change.

Quiet time with Mom.

Erik went home and brought the boys and Mormor by to visit me in the hospital again the next morning.  Then we spent the afternoon checking out, and getting a nap in ourselves before leaving the hospital.  The evening was pretty low key at home.  And dare I say, normal.  Emmett is really such a good little baby.  And a sleepy baby!!!  He is sweet and snuggly and oh so kissable.  Both of the boys are smitten by him.  And so are we.  Happy little party of five! 

Several times I would need to pass off Emmett, asking Erik to either hold him or put him in the baby bin.  Erik always chose to hold him.

First photo of the FIVE of us.  Pretty sure I love how crazy and not perfect this picture is.  That's just who we are.  And I love it.

Getting dressed!

Just waiting for the nurse to discharge us.

Going home!!  Hope you're ready for this, Emmett M!