Bea's first playdate- April 16th.

Bea had a weight check at her doctor's office the day after we got home from the hospital.  (A few ounces under her birth weight, but on her way back up.)  It was a very nice April day and I knew that our Moms' Club Easter Egg Hunt was just down the road, so I took Miss Bea out for her first playdate.

And to our luck, my friend Gabriela was their with her camera and caught some very nice moments. This is Bea with my friend Emily.

I call this the "I'm so happy I'm not pregnant!" shot.

Hugs from Zuzana.

Barborka meets Beatrice.

Charlie is quite excited about the baby.

I'm not going to lie, it was pretty fun being a celebrity.

It's not often you get a sweatshirt worthy day in April in South Carolina!

My very good friend, Zuzana and I.  

Barborka and Magdalenko are expecting a little brother of their own soon.

3/4 of our Tuesday morning playgroup moms.  Zuzana, me, and Pam.

Meanwhile in North Carolina...

Don't feel bad for the girls that they weren't home to meat Beatrice right away.  

They were having a great time in North Carolina with Ant Jill and Grams.

They got to try out all of the great playgrounds near Aunt Jill and Uncle Phillips new house.

Aunt Jill took them out for pancakes.  They fabricated a story about mama not packing them underwear, which resulted in a new pack of Hello Kitty underpants.  (Look in the pocket, June.)

Aunt Jill is so lucky to live right next to the beach!

Even if it was too cold to swim, they had a good time playing in the sand.

And they got some big sister training with Sam, who was at the perfect age to adore the girls like crazy, but not ge into any of their stuff.  

And he even posed for pictures with June's dolls.

And when the weather didn't cooperate, they taught Sam about how awesome My Little Ponies are!

And spent hours on end coloring in their jammies.  

Thanks for the awesome week, Aunt Jill and Grams!!

Week 1- April 16- 19th.

Our first week home was rather nice.  Brandon would get up and take Henry to camp. (He got to go to the pool, play laser tag and miniature golf and go bowling.)

Meanwhile, the nightwaker and I would sleep in until at least noon.  

 We think Bea looks most like June as a baby.  That's June on the left. 

 Our friends Maddie and Katie came over to visit Bea.  We were surprised Katie even wanted to hold Bea because she has very little interest in babies.  She didn't even notice I was pregnant until about a month before Bea arrived.

 Maddie also got in on the cuddling.

 One afternoon, I received a skype call from Uncle Kevin's account.  Uncle Kevin was out hanging laundry, but these two stinkers apparently figured out how to use the ipad to call up their newest cousin. 

 The newest cousin who mostly still sleeps all the time.

Except when she's being dressed up like a little doll-baby.  Thanks for the new clothes, Aunt Molly and Uncle Michael!

Heading home- April 15th.

The hospital let us take our new baby home, despite the fact we had a hard time figuring out how to get her strapped in the car seat. (How long has it been since we had a baby?)

 Look at how excited she is to be home!

 With the big kids gone, the house was a little lonely.  But no worries, we both can sleep even in the quiet. 

We received our first guests.  Our neighbor Andy was excited to hold little Bea.  We think maybe he'd like a little sister, but his mom said no.

His brother James also did a great job holding Bea.  

 One Bea's first day, Brandon said he'd get me anything I wanted.  I responded with "ice cream and the new Hobbit movie on DVD."  Maybe I should have asked for more, because Brandon had them both for me almost instantly.  We settled down to watch it and Henry insisted on cuddling with his little sister.

He held her a good 60 minutes (that's about the first quarter of a Hobbit movie).

And in case you're wondering, she does have eyeballs, we just don't see them very often.

Bea Day 2- April 14th.

We spent most of our second day sleeping.

Will this baby ever wake up?

When we did wake up, we spent our time eating the very delicious Southern (though maybe not healthy) hospital food.  And taking pictures of ourselves to text to dad.

Every once in awhile, she would let out a few little squeaks and invariably fall back asleep.

 Henry came down to meet his newest little sister.  If he was upset about not getting a brother, I think having another little sister to protect and boss around consoled him.  

 Henry is our 3rd little parent.  He's already quite in love with his littlest sister.

 Brandon left to take Henry home and we were on our own for the first time.  Of course, that night was when Bea finally decided to wake up.  She nursed and fussed non-stop for a good 4 hours.  Finally around 2am, I called a nurse in and asked for formula.  The baby was nursing fine, but my milk had not yet come in and I was tired and sore. They really resisted, but as a veteran mom and nurser, I was feeling confident (and cranky enough) to demand a few ounces of formula.  

Ahh, sweet wonderful formula.  A half ounce in and Bea started feeling a little punchy.

Another ounce later and she was straight up milk drunk.  I do love a milk drunk newborn.  Try as they might, they just cannot stay awake.  Since the hospital nursery is now a thing of the past, all babies sleep in the same room with their moms, which is nice, except when you're trying to recover from childbirth and someone is in your room every hour checking stats, administering shots or something.  Since the nursing staff was already upset with my poor judgement as a nursing mother, I gave another decree that no one was to bother us until we both woke up again.  The hearing evaluation could wait until past 7am.  Then we settled in for a nice 5 hour nap.

And in case you're worried (because the lactation consultant was), Bea nursed just fine and didn't suffer any  major consequences of my one time indiscretion.  But we sure did feel better the next morning.

Welcome Beatrice Douglas!

Well, we didn't ship all of the kids off for nothing.  After 3 overdue pregnancies that ended in induction, mama finally gave up and asked the doctor to induce her at full term.  Sorry little baby, but this was not a fun pregnancy and I sure like little babie a lot more than being huge and sick.  

 We were supposed to be at the hospital to check in at 5am, but were a little late because we'd been out at friends' house until after midnight and then I insisted on stopping for a chicken biscuit on the way because I knew they wouldn't let me eat once I was checked in.  Like a wimp, I wouldn't let them amp up the pitocin until my epidural was firmly in place.  (Been there before, thanks.)  

 Finally, the epidural was in and things started moving.  The epidural worked so well I couldn't neither feel nor move either legs, which made things fun.  The pitocin started at 10am.  At 1pm, we settled in to listen to the Reds game.  The Reds had a bit of a slow start. We joked that maybe a new baby would bring them good luck.  Right around 2, Doctor Hearn decided it was time to start pushing.  The game stayed on and in the middle of my first push, Joey Votto (our favorite player) hit a home run.  I'd say that's a good sign.  

Then a few short pushed later, we welcomed our fourth child into the world- another girl! Beatrice Douglas Turner was born at 2:10 pm on April 13, 2014, weighing 8 pounds 7 ounces and measuring 20 1/4 inches long.

This sweet little girl was placed straight into my arms and immediately got down to cuddling and nursing.  What we really noticed was that she immediately wanted to look in our eyes.  (She continues to be a very attentive little girl who loves attention.)

  Immediately after her birth, Devon Mesoraco hit another homerun for the Reds.  We don't want to speak too soon, but Miss Bea seems to be pretty good luck.

 Beatrice was delivered by the wonderful Doctor Hearn, who also delivered Georgie.  He was a wonderful presence through my whole pregnancy and delivery.  

 Mama, papa and sweet Beatrice. Papa seemed pretty confident he was going to get another daughter.  He was right.

 We had a nice time just relaxing in the delivery room before we had to be moved.  Probably because I still couldn't move my legs.

 And, as only the parents of 4 kids could do, we all immediately fell asleep.  

 Once we got to our room, we got down to getting to know our little girl.  She's named for both of her grandfathers, Tris Cooper and Douglas Seibert.  And much like Georgie acquired the personality of her namesake, Bea seems to have inherited her grandpas' relaxed and calm manners.  

For example, when they came into the room to give Bea a bath, she didn't much mind.  

 In fact, she fell asleep when they put her in the tub.

How cute is that?  She slept most of the first 24 hours, giving mom and dad a chance to rest.  We tried to wake her up around 2am to nurse and did all the things you're supposed to do- undress her, rub her with a wet cloth, and she would not wake up.  Then, as only 4th time parents will do, we looked at each other and said "What are we doing?  She's sleeping and surely won't starve in the next 3 hours at 8 1/2 pounds." Then we went back to sleep.  

 The next day, the hospital photographer came by to take some pictures.  

She seems to have inherited the Seibert widow's peak.

This is a nice picture except I am clearly quite low on iron at this point.  Looking back, I think I was probably anemic through most of my pregnancy.  

Sweet little girls fits quite nicely into her newborn jammies that June picked out.  We don't know how to have small babies in this hours.

 And a very serious look.  But we think that it is attributable to the huge cheeks she got from her dad.  So far they are her defining feature.