Ben's Birth Story

We have survived the first month of parenthood! We did it!

Since it has been a month, I finally have decided to share our birth story. 

I went to my last doctor's appointment and we decided to schedule an induction date (something I thought I would never do). I decided this would be the best choice considering I only had 7 weeks of summer left and I wanted as much time with baby as I could before school started back. 

We went to the hospital on Sunday, June 8 at 8:00 pm to start cervadil. The next morning at around 6:00 the nurses started me on pitocin and at 8:30 that morning the doctor came in to break my water. This was by far the worst part for me, I hated that! Soon after, I got the epidural. I am a baby when it comes to pain. The rest of the day was pretty smooth. I was progressing nicely until about 3:00 that afternoon. I made it to 5cm and then stopped. I was feeling pretty good and was

pretty much clueless it seemed. At 10:45 that night the doctor came in and said that I had not progressed in 8 hours. I was still at 5cm! The pitocin was not helping either. My contractions were slowing down.

Wilson came to visit!

I remember this moment very well. Chris had left the room for a moment and the doctor suggested a c-section as she did not think baby was going to come on his own. I just melted. I was scared and a c-section had never crossed my mind. I was not prepared for that news at all. Chris came back in the room and he could tell something was wrong. For a few minutes I didn't even share with him what the doctor had said. I finally told him. My parents came into the room. I was so torn on what to do. A c-section just sounded absolutely terrible! Keep in mind, we had been there since the night before, so far it had been 27 hours, we were exhausted! We prayed together and finally decided to have the c-section. Within minutes, I was whisked away in the OR. 

I remember feeling pretty good and loopy. The anesthesiologist was pretty amazing by the way. She was with us through the whole process. I remember asking her if she had done the test to make sure I would not feel the c-section. She said she had already done it. I must have felt pretty numb. Chris sat by my head and was encouraging the whole time. He was a trooper through this all! He said the worst part was all of the sounds in the OR (yuck!). All I could feel is tugging and pulling, no pain at all! 

And the best part....

at 11:36pm our sweet baby Benjamin Jack was born.

He weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces and was 21 inches long.

He came out screaming...a beautiful sound!

We went to the recovery room afterwards for an hour. By the time we got up to the postpartum floor, it was 2:30am. My parents and sister were still at the hospital! They came in for a few minutes to see Ben and hold him. Of course, they were exhausted too! All I wanted to do was sleep. 

We ended up staying 4 nights in the hospital and went home on Thursday, June 12. The nurses and doctors were wonderful and so attentive. They took care of Ben and me so well. The hardest part of the c-section was walking afterwards. But once I got up to walk, I eventually felt better and better each time. I finally felt myself (if that's possible after having a child) after about 10 days. 

Baby Ben with his pediatrician

Bringing Ben home

There are a lot of things that no one could have prepared me for. A lot of things that did not go as planned. A lot of things Chris and I have learned over the past month. It has not been easy, but it has been a sweet, sweet time for our family. I wouldn't change a single thing about it. It was all His perfect plan for us. 

By the way...Chris has totally rocked being a daddy and taking care of his hormonal wife.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Ben.

Happy One Month Baby Ben! You are so fun and precious. You light up our world every day.

You love smiling and we love seeing you smile! You also love to sleep and eat and eat and eat. 

You are starting to make sweet cooing noises and lately you have discovered your fingers. You will occasionally put them in your mouth when you are hungry. We started tummy time and you love it too. You try to pick up your head to look at whoever is with you. We can also tell that you recognize mommy and daddy by our voices and by sight. You have just melted our hearts. 

You currently weigh about 9 pounds, 2 ounces but still wear newborn size clothes and diapers. You are also a pretty calm, easy going fella so far.

 We love you stinky!