First Bath

"Look Mom!" Charlie loves it when Ben holds his fingers. Charlie also loves to read Benjamin books and still loves to give kisses when he runs by. Sam is more inclined to want to hold and kiss still.
It looks like Ben's eyes are already turning brown.

Ben had his first bath on Friday. He was unsure if he liked it a couple of times, but never cried. Today Ben met his Great Grandma and spent time with his cousins. He slept through the whole encounter. He is still sleeping most of the day. He is awake 3 times a day now and still does well most nights. He eats at 10:30 most nights and then 2 more times before the boys get up for the day around 6:30. We feel like we are getting more sleep than we expected at this point which is nice. It's been so fun getting to hold Ben in our arms and cuddle. There's nothing like cuddling a newborn!

One Week Old

Ben is one week old today. He has slept through most of his first week of life. He is usually up a couple times a day for about 45 minutes. He has been a very mellow baby which has been nice for this first week. He had an appointment this morning and he is almost back to his birth weight which is great news. He was born at 7lbs 12.8 oz and he is now 7lbs 12 oz. He got down to 7lbs 3 oz at 2 days old which is too low so it's nice to see him gain.

Charlie is so in love with his new baby brother. Today at dinner we (Charlie) were having a conversation about things firemen might step on (who knows how we got to this conversation???) . They could step on the table, chairs, cups...then Charlie said what if they stepped on our baby? I said oh that would be really bad. We never put a baby on the floor because they could get hurt if somebody stepped on them. All of a sudden Charlie's lip quivered a little and he got tears in his eyes thinking about Ben getting hurt. I ,of course, cried because I thought it was so sweet that Charlie was so concerned about his baby brother.

All Sam has wanted to do all week is hold Ben. "I carry him." He has also been the kiss king. He wants to give Benjamin kisses whenever possible.

Chris is off to work tomorrow for the first time since Ben was born. Wish us all luck....

Coming Home

A little brotherly love time. Sam and Charlie couldn't get enough of holding and kissing Benjamin on our first days home.

2 days old and going home with an

official name:

Benjamin Francis Tripp

Benjamin has always been a favorite name of ours and Francis

is Chris' grandpa's name.

Meeting the other "babies" in the house.

We've had a couple busy but fun days with everyone home. We've been out for a couple of walks around the neighborhood. The boys are both "nursing" their stuffed animals and love to watch me nurse. Benjamin has slept a lot and has started to gain weight again after border line losing too much the last couple. He was also borderline jaundice so we've had a home health nurse check in on him the last two days. It's nice that he has turned the corner towards chubbiness that will overtake his little body in a few weeks. Sam and Charlie were both 20 pounds by 6 months so I'm guessing Ben will be the same way. His bilirubin is also with in normal numbers now as well.

Benjamin was actually awake a couple times today. It was fun for the boys to see him watching them and I think they felt like he was listening and understanding their conversations.

Thank you everyone for all or your well wishes.

Our New Arrival

We were all excited and surprised (relieved) when our newest arrived this past morning at 3:07a.m. He was due in 9 days. Thank you Benjamin! What a thrill to meet a new baby! Contractions started a little after 1 a.m. and Benjamin was here 2 hours later...luckily we live 5 minutes from the hospital. (There has been 7 nights of false labor in the last 2 1/2 weeks that moved the process along quite quickly in the end.) We have had a wonderful day cuddling and watching his every move. Charlie and Sam came up this morning and enjoyed meeting their new brother. They were so excited he was a boy. Charlie told us we could even call him "Ben" sometimes. The boys were thrilled by the Lego cars Ben gave the them. He kept asking how Benjamin knew he liked Legos. What a wonderful blessing to have 3 healthy boys! We are overjoyed.

Benjamin Tripp

11/11/08

7 lbs 13 oz

20 inches

middle name coming soon....stay tuned

Charlie really enjoyed holding Benjamin. He wanted me to feed him. "I really think he's hungry mom. You need to feed him." He was such a loving big brother to both of his brothers today. He kept telling Sam little tidbits about Benjamin. It was fun to see the boys all interact for the first time.

Sam was very excited to see his baby. "He's so tiny!" We asked Sam what the baby's name was and he still insists it's "Baby". It will work for now.

OBAMA!

Just read this on a friend's blog and had to share:

someone on the forum posted this (author unknown):

Rosa sat so that Martin could walk.
Martin walked so that Barack could run.
Barack ran so that my children might fly.

After 8 years, at last some hope ahead for our children!

Happy Halloween

A little fun in the leaves before trick or treating. We enjoyed being outside all weekend. Tomorrow is suppose to be 70! I love this bonus nice weather in November.

Charlie and Sam had fun trick or treating with their friends Johan and Gus.

The "workers" checking out their tools.

The boys had to carve our littlest pumpkin after reading the book "The Littlest Pumpkin". They enjoyed trying to get the seeds out.

A little trick or treating fun.