Introducing....Gavin James

Well, it only took 5 weeks to update, but here is Gavin's blog debut....

Gavin James was born on September 6, 2011. He weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. (For those wondering Ava was 6 lb. 12 oz. and Ella was 7 lb. 6 oz. and both were 20.5 inches long) He has 10 fingers and 10 toes and is perfect in every way. The girls couldn't wait to come to the hospital and meet their new brother.

Everything went smoothly at the hospital and I soaked up as much attention as I could on my 4 day stay. I will miss having everyone wait on me hand and foot, it's one of my favorite things about having babies.

By the second day Gavin was opening his eyes and although they say they can't see anything yet, he really did appear to be looking right at us. He of course spent 99% of his time asleep, but he tried to catch a glimpse of the action when he could.

The girls have been really good with Gavin. Ava is gentle and willing to help whenever I ask. Ella is a little rougher and more hands on, she is continually surprised to learn that "the baby has toes" just like her and "the baby has ears" just like hers...etc. Neither of the girls are big fans of holding him, which is fine with me. Both request to hold him, but after a couple seconds, they say "I'm done, he's heavy".

Dan is excited to have some more testosterone in the house. I thought with having a boy this time he would be more into the diaper changes, but no such luck. He still claims to "not know what to do" or "that it takes a motherly touch".....ridiculous?--yes!!

A week or so after the hospital Dan tried to keep the girls occupied by taking them to the Forest Park Balloon Races. Unfortunately, there was some wind so the balloons didn't have their typical start. And they didn't make it there in time for all the festivities, due to Ella's nap, so most of the pictures consisted of just walking around the park. Ava is finally mastering smiling with her eyes open. Don't think we needed the flash...oops.

Ella....not so much.

While the girls are keeping busy outside, Gavin is usually back home with me, where we have had a few of our own photo sessions. Here are a few of my favorite "Gavin expressions".

"I'm ready to eat!!!"

"What!? We're out of milk!!??"

A few weeks after the balloon races was the annual Vehicle Day at Ava and Ella's school. One of the main attractions was a real helicopter, which landed at the school and blew debris all over the camera lens, so not many pictures were taken. Here is Ava in what I'm sure Dan thought was a pretty cool go cart.

And here she is in a vehicle that is much more my style. Ella choose not to be in any pictures and was having a pretty cranky day.

After feeling guilty one morning about the lack of pictures I've taken of Gavin, we had another short photo session. Here he is about 3 weeks old.

I'll have to find a good picture of Ava for you to compare, but so far he looks the most like Ava. His nose is a little bigger, he is kind of a male version of Ava. He is a healthy beautiful baby so I shouldn't complain, however, he is five weeks old now and still having a hard time sleeping. Like Ella, Gavin has Acid reflux and some digestive issues, nothing serious. We have tried 4 different formulas and I tried breast feeding for awhile and reflux medicine, but nothing seems to be helping. Right now we're just hoping he grows out of it sooner rather than later....I could use some serious sleep!

Back to the girls...one thing they have enjoyed lately are baths. Here they are cheesing it up for the camera.

And here they are after they didn't listen about putting bubbles in their mouths!

The girls were excited to go back to school with the news of their baby brothers' arrival. Not sure if you can tell, but their shirts say "big sister".

I've been asked numerous times what is it like with three now, and I usually respond with "exhausting". One thing that would make it easier is if they didn't come home from school covered in their lunch which required to be washed off and a wardrobe change. It was ravioli day and they said they couldn't tell if she liked it or not.

I'll end the post with one last pic of our precious baby boy.