Five Months of Henry

My optimistic Henry,

Hang with me while I explain why you’re dressed like an American football coach who is leading a soccer team in the UK: When we found out about you and presented our family to your birth mom and dad, we were full of hope but also knew they would make the best decision for you. We realized that may not be us, and for whatever feelings we had, we were okay with it. We learned all about you over a phone call and loved you so much already. We prayed for you, for your family, and for us as lots of big choices had to be made. With the other cases we presented to, we found out the same day. With you, that wasn’t the case. The time between the first call and the second passed at a snail’s pace, with almost a whole week going by. It was a hard week with no news. In that time, your dad and I were watching the last season of Ted Lasso. It’s a show about an American football coach who gets hired to coach a soccer team in the UK. He’s going through his own hard time, but through it all, he is realistically optimistic. Ted is full of silly sayings and his American-ness and optimism make him stick out like a sore thumb. As he coaches his team and makes all of these wonderfully complex relationships with people, his hope weaves in and out of every conversation. He’s full of optimism and joy but also understands reality. In the final episode that your dad and I were watching, Ted was making a huge decision about his life. He finally landed on it, and it was a really nice depiction of how you can make a choice but still feel sad about some things. While some of the final scenes were playing, people were loving on Ted in the sweetest way. I started to sob. Poor Dad! He has his hands full with me! But while I was crying, I asked God in the silliest way if I could just have this one win just like on the show. That win being you. Hearing about you stuck to my heart in ways the other cases never did. I had so much hope but as each day passed, reality set in more and more. Just two days later we got the call! It felt like we scored the winning goal all while knowing it came with loss too. So, all of that to say, my buddy: we love you. We were full of hope for you and now we are full of hope in even bigger ways. Hope for your future of living a happy, healthy, loving life, one that’s filled with God, friendships, and more giggles than you ever imagined.

Milk:

You’re still drinking 4 ounces each bottle. Mostly, it’s every 3 hours but sometimes you like a snack. As soon as you start sitting up on your own, we’ll start food!

Sleep:

You’re slowly but surely getting the hang of a nap in your bed. It’s been great because you aren’t as easily woken up by the noise that comes with having a brother and sister. You take about 3 naps a day, sometimes 4 if we’re out and about in the car. I’m still trying to figure out how to get your naps on track so you aren’t going to bed so early, but that will come eventually. You are back to waking up once a night, so dad and I still trade nights. I know soon you’ll be able to sleep train, but I can’t quite muster up the courage to do that yet so we’ll keep rocking this system for now.

Growth:

At your last check up, you weighed 13 pounds putting you in the 9th percentile but you were 26 inches, making you tall at the 83rd percentile. You are so long! Even though you are in a lower percentile, you still have plenty of chunk. You have some wrist rolls and a little arm dimple. I love it! You fit in clothes of all sizes: 3-6 months and 6 months being the majority of them. Maybe one day, clothes will all be uniform in size.

Yesterday for the first time, you rolled over from your back to belly! You were in your bed for a nap, and I got to watch you flip over. You did it again when we were upstairs sewing. You’re learning and growing every day!

Favorite moments:

Halloween: if you need to know anything about your mom, it’s she loves a homemade holiday. I don’t mind store bought things at all, but there’s something special about a hand crafted decoration or costume. That’s the direction we went for Halloween this year. Sully decided he wanted to be a ninja turtle and that you should be one too. Sully requested that Dad be Master Splinter from the show, too. Eloise was a strawberry, so she and I were fruits. I sewed your costumes together, thankful for the opportunity. We did lots of fall things leading up to it like going to the pumpkin patch and carving pumpkins and making spooky snacks and dinners. For the day of Halloween, we went trick or treating with Brittany and Alex and our friends. We stopped by church, got some yummy treats, and enjoyed being around everybody.

Out and About: we’ve done some fun regular life things lately. We’ve gone to Home Depot for the first of the month kid build, Angel’s Antiques for browsing, Cracker Barrel for Mom’s birthday, and the library. You fit just perfectly into the family.