Benjamin is Born

Our little Benny came over a week early, on April 9th. My 9 day old baby was actually due today. We had my parents and Jeremys parents over for dinner on April 7th, for my mothers birthday. But that afternoon I started getting really frequent Braxton Hicks contractions almost every 4 minutes, and they just persisted for almost two full days. They weren't painful, but there was just so many of them and so often that I figured I'd go into real labor very soon. Luckily I had already had a week off of maternity leave, so I had had time to prepare his bassinet and wash clothes, and set all the baby stuff up.

On Thursday night I actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking that this might be it, but then fell back asleep. It wasn't until Friday night/Saturday morning at 4am that I realized I was in real labor. I downloaded a contractions app and saw that I was having them 6 minutes apart for a full minute already. I woke Jer up and we called his parents around 6am to come over to watch Mackenzie. I was glad to have no traffic on that rainy Saturday morning. We made it to Alta Bates hospital in under 20 minutes. It was so early and quiet and it seemed like nobody was around. When I checked into triage I was only 3.5 cm, which was a bit disappointing, but all the nurses kept saying how fast a second labor would be, especially given that Mackenzie came in 12 hours, which is pretty fast for a first baby. I was really fortunate that my Dr happened to be the one on duty. I had a great team of nurses too who were very pro natural birth. I had decided not to get an epidural, but as the labor progressed and got really intense, I was quickly changing my mind and wondering why I wasn't getting one. Everyone kept telling me I could do it. Believing it when I was in such pain was another story. When I got checked at 7cm the pain was bad, and I asked (begged) for one. But the terrible part about epidurals is how long they take. From the point you ask, they have to give you an IV bag of water, and then call the anesthesiologist, and then the drugs have to actually take effect. It's about a full hour between the time you ask and the point of relief, and I just didn't have that kind of time anymore. By the time the anesthesiologist actually showed up, I was ready to push, and the Dr told me I only had 10 minutes left before the baby would be here. She was right. In less than 10 minutes, and 3 pushes, Ben was born. I think the speed of the labor was the reason it was so much more intense (and painful) then Mackenzie's birth. With M, I had a full 12 hours for my body to get her out. Ben was born about 5 hours after I started having real contractions. I was grateful in the end that it was over so soon, but I'll be glad if I never have to feel that again!

Mackenzie meets Benjamin

Two different looking babies! M on the left, B on the right


I stayed in the hospital two nights. Mackenzie was our first visitor. She was so excited to meet the baby. We are very lucky she is so close with Rob and Judy because she wasn't disappointed at all to find them there when she woke up that morning. I think she was happy to see them and didn't miss her parents at all! She stayed with them all weekend. Rob and Judy we are so grateful to you for taking such good care of our little girl!

M is super into her baby brother. She imitates everything I do, and always wants to know what we're up to. When I change him she makes sure she has her stool so she can climb up and see me do it. She's been playing a lot more with her dollies lately. When B cries, she rushes over to him and says "it's ok baby!" and "shhhh!!!" and pats him. She's an extremely attentive big sister. Luckily she has had practice being gentle with our cats and I think she's pretty good at being gentle with him. Now that it's a week later I am feeling more comfortable when she rushes over to "comfort" him. Before it was hard not to hold her back of fear she'd wake him or hurt him or make him cry.

B has been a great newborn so far. But he's still a baby, so I haven't been sleeping much! But he's easy to tend to. He cries, I feed him, and he stops. He sleeps almost all the time. But when he's awake he mostly just looks around and makes funny baby faces until he decides to let me know it's time to eat again. I forgot how many adorable sounds newborns make. All the snorts and coos just melt my heart. He's letting me put him down a bit now but in the beginning all he wanted was to be held and nurse. But I don't mind, he's so much fun to hold and I could stare at him all day. I'm in love already! 

M helps "comfort" Benny

Kick Kick Kick!

M feeding her baby bunny with her boobies, just like mommy

My cutie!