Best Friends in the Making!

Sam and Jack came over to hang out the other night and we couldn't resist getting pictures of Henry and Ajax side by side for a size comparison. Ajax is 3 weeks younger than Henry, but consistently is a good 2 pounds heavier. Sam had gotten 2 pairs of the same outfit, one in newborn size which no longer fit Jack, so she had given it to Henry to wear. we decided the matching outfits would make the picture!



we were trying to get a good shot of their feet and how much bigger Jack's are!



I love this photo, it looks like Jack is yelling at Henry. "Hey now, let me show you how it's done!"


I'm sure the two of them will get a kick out of these videos when they are older.

Great-Grandma Doris

Henry got a chance to meet his great-grandma Doris for the first time when she came out to visit for a week in March. Her visit overlapped with Hahn's Spring Break and along with Ann, we spent a lot of the week passing around Henry while playing card games.

It was a pleasure to spend so much time with her and it was nice to have an extra set of hands around to watch Henry so I could get some errands done.




The last night she was here she took out us, Ann and Jerry and Darrow and Tera for a nice 'adult only' dinner. It was a blast to go out with just the adults, and my brave parents stayed behind to watch Henry AND Mason. I honestly think they had almost as much fun as us!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Henry received these adorable Irish gifts at the baby shower and Hahn and I couldn't resist getting several pictures of him all decked out for the holiday! (Complete with his green SnuggleSaurus onsie)

Henry cuteness

Just wanted to share a few photos of the many visitors that Henry has had over the last 2 weeks.



Proud Uncle Grant!



Samy is getting anxious for her little one to arrive. She's due on the 22nd!


Carleen made this hat for Henry, it's the only one he has that is small enough to fit him!



Grandma Ann ended up getting home from her vacation 5 days early just to see little Henry!


At home at last!

The arrival of king Henry

It's a boy!

Henry Dewey Ainsworth V
Born February 1st, 2009 at 10:56 pm.
4 lbs. 15 oz and 17 inches long.

For those who are interested, here's a quick account of the arrival of our little Henry V.

Even though our due date was not until March 4th, our little baby seemed to have another plan in mind. After staying up the latest I had stayed up the entire pregnancy watching 'Zach and Miri Make a Porno' and 'Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist', I had gone to bed around 2 am after having strange Braxton Hicks contractions and baby kicking my ribcage non-stop all night. I tossed and turned until morning, waking up every couple of hours with baby reminding me he was there. I finally got up at around 8am and decided to take a shower and see if the hot water helped sooth my contractions. By the time I got out of the shower, my contractions changed from weird to mildly painful.

It was Sunday morning (Superbowl Sunday) so I called my doctor's Urgent Care office and made an appointment to come by and have them look me over. They were definitely giving me the 'This is your first baby isn't it?' And downplaying the fact that I was now having contractions every 3 minutes. The nurse actually asked me, "Well, did you WANT to come in and have us look at you?" I was like - you tell me, that's why I called! So I dragged Hahn out of bed to go with me to get checked out. They had me take a non-stress test and hooked me up to monitor my contractions, and even after 40 min of that the doctor came in telling me stories about how it was likely just false labor and how some women will experience it for weeks. Once he actually checked me, even he couldn't hide the surprise on his face that I was apparently already dilated to 3 cm!! From there the doctor wanted us to go straight to the hospital and try to stop the labor before it progressed any further.

Hahn and I were a little freaked out, the doctor told us that there would be a room waiting for us at the hospital and sure enough there was. They got me in a gown in bed and within minutes they were giving me a shot of adrenaline type medicine to relax my muscles and try and stop the contractions. The medicine made me super shakey which did not help my nerves. After the adrenaline wore off, they brought me a new medicine to try and we spent most of the afternoon, just relaxing and watching TV. Every couple hours they would bring me more medicine assuring us that we would probably be discharged within the hour. (Hahn and I were starting to have our doubts after the first couple times they said this.) We just kept saying, 'We're not going to have a baby today, right??' and we kept joking that we better not because Hahn's mom Ann was on vacation until the 16th and we promised her we would not have the baby until she got back. "You're mom is going to be so pissed if we have this baby today!" was our line of the day.

By early evening, the doctor on call stopped by and after another assesment they realized that I was still progressing and that nothing we were trying seemed to be stopping the labor and it was decided that we were going to be having a baby that day. Hahn and I could hardly believe it! We started calling people and a few came and stopped by. Sam and Ed packed a quick bag for us since I hadn't gotten around to doing it yet. (I had ALMOST done it the night before and was really mad at myself!) Darrow, Tera and Mason stopped by and brought Hahn some dinner since we had been there all day. At that point I had gotten an epidural and was feeling pretty good. (And boy was I glad I got one, as the strong contractions had been making me nauseous and the pain relief helped wonders!)

Around 9 ish our doctor arrived and ushered our visitors into the hallway so that she could examine me. After taking a look she decided that she may as keep things moving and break my water. And we went from about 8cm to 10+ in a matter of minutes! Before I knew it, the nurse was prepping the room and talking about getting ready to push. We were like, 'We're having this baby NOW??" It happened so quick that Hahn realized we still had people waiting out in the hallway and had to go let them know that it was time.

About 25 minutes of pushing later I got to hear the words I had been so excited to hear Hahn shout "It's a boy!"




Because he was about 5 weeks early they had to whisk him away to the incubator in the room as several nurses were standing by to care for him and look him over. Hahn got to go stand near him and watch as the doctor helped finish up with me. Those few minutes of not being able to hold him were the hardest. That evening they took him to the NICU and Hahn and I were taken to go visit him. For the first night he had a central IV through his umbilical cord stump and we were unable to hold him. He was also getting room air oxygen, and nutrients through his IV and his temperature was being controlled for him.







Henry's health progressed very rapidly after that night. By the next evening his central IV was out and we were able to hold him. Within the next couple days he no longer needed the incubator to control his temp and his oxygen was taken out. A few days later he was moved to the other side of the NICU for the non-critical patients. The last week and a half was just waiting for little Henry to gain the energy to eat on his own. For a while he had a gavauge tube that went into his nose down into his stomach and that was used to feed him when he didn't have the strength or energy to do it himself. Around the 12th (his 11th day in the NICU) he remarkably finished his first bottle on his own. By the next day he had finished a breastfeeding on his own and within a couple days we had weened him off the gavauge tube. In fact he declared himself done when he ripped it out for the upteenth and final time! ;) By the evening of the 15th they were talking about discharging us and by the morning of the 17th we were actually bringing him home!

Yet again we held the annual Pumpkin Carving Party with record breaking numbers of people attending. I think when it was all done and over at least 41 people came by to carve pumpkins! (A few people just opted to hang- out **cough** SAM!)

This year also seemed to break the record with the number of kiddos attending. Just a sign that we've hit that point in our lives when our friends are all having kids! Plus Sam, Jessica (Micah's wife), Marion and I were the 4 pregnant ladies Due Feb 24, March 1, march 2, and March 4th in that order! So I guess there will be even more kids next year!
Penelope was too cute, I wish I had gotten a picture of her and Isaac, they were best friends within minutes!
Mason seemed to think this whole pumpkin carving business was a little too messy.


As always, Emily seemed to be having a grand time and got along great with Colin (My boss' son) Look closely at his pumpkin, it reminds me of the little kid in Nightmare Before Christmas that gets the severed head from Santa Jack. :)

The unfinished basement proved to be a great "gutting" room. Elisa is showing off the automatic gutting tool!

Hahn was so excited to get started, he was the only one carving for a little while.


And a few of the finished pieces!

Nic & Carleen had their annual costume party for Halloween and this year the theme was 'Award Winning Movies'. Hahn and I decided that it was the perfect year to go as Juno and Paulie Bleeker. (I didn't even have to stuff my belly - it popped out just in time!)


There were a lot of good costumes at the party, but I think my favorite was Nic & Carleen as Sweeney Todd and Ms. Lovitt. (Of course Alexa was a wonderful Yoda too!)

Joe and Natasha as pirates!

Doug the gladiator and Kate.

Phil and Kristi - I was impressed - he stayed in costume all night. It had to be hot!