Baby Benjamin is here, and he is perfect. He was born May 16th at 2:16 pm, and was our smallest at 7 lbs 6 oz, 21" long.
He is seriously cute and the best baby ever (so far).
The girls seem to be adjusting well.
Anda loves to hold him.
And Lilah is very interested and gentle (although occasionally jealous of the lap he is occupying at the moment).
His adorable allure is so strong, Dan's parents even made the 4.5 hour drive (one way) on Sunday to come see him, even though they had to turn around and go home that same evening.
My mom has been amazing--she came down at the drop of a hat to take care of the girls and the house for a week, then left today to take the girls back to Virginia for another week.
My dad came down too after a few days, but I guess I was too tired to take any pictures. That just means we will have to have more visits!
So far, Ben does a lot of sleeping. I am very supportive of this hobby, since it is one of my own favorite pastimes.
He is such a handsome little guy.
Here comes the birth story. (I know it's boring to read other people's stories, but I want to be able to remember mine, so I'm writing it out here.)
He was due May 14th, so my Dr. ordered an ultrasound on May 15th which showed the amniotic fluid was low, meaning we would probably need to get him here sooner rather than later. My mom rushed down from Virginia and Dan and I were at the hospital that night to start the induction process.
The first step of the process had started natural labor with Anda, so I had high hopes that this baby would come along in a similar fashion. Sadly, it was not meant to be, so after a long and uncomfortable night, they started me on the pitocin around 8:30 am. I'd heard horrible things about pitocin, but a call for positive stories on Facebook calmed me down, and it turned out to be not bad at all. I even got the epidural started before I'd had more than three mild contractions, so I felt pretty good almost from the beginning. After that, it was just a matter of waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
Nothing seemed to be happening--the contractions weren't getting stronger or more regular--although I did feel really light headed. Like, really light headed, which I told the nurse when she came in to have me shift to my side. Then the other side. Then back to the other side. Then another nurse came in. Then another. They put something into my IV to get my blood pressure up and put an oxygen mask on me, and I realized that the baby's heart rate was plummeting with every contraction, and they were very calmly trying to get that business to stop, immediately.
After a few minutes, the anesthesiologist came back in, and finally, the delivering doctor herself. That was when I started to get a little panicky. Everyone used their very calm, nonchalant voices, which I'm sure they're trained to do, but I started tearing up and craning my neck to see the baby's heart rate on the monitor whenever they shifted me.
I don't know what did it, but finally they got us into the right position so that his heart rate shot back up and stayed there, and my blood pressure seemed to slowly improve. After that excitement, I didn't mind the waiting so much anymore.
Around lunch time, I started to feel some pressure, so I told Dan to go grab something to eat, since no one wants a hangry dad in the delivery room. By the time he got back, the pressure was starting to get painful and much more frequent--the contractions were picking up in pace and intensity. After about half an hour of breathing through some extremely painful pressure (even with the epidural, it was really starting to hurt), the nurse came to check on me. I told her how I was feeling (ouch) and she said she'd be back in about fifteen minutes to check again.
As soon as she left, I felt something shift and the pain became almost unbearable. I told Dan to "Push the button! Call the nurse!" At that point, I was doing everything I could to NOT have the baby until everyone was ready. He had other plans, though. The nurse hustled back to the room and I told her he was coming. She started getting things ready and I said, "He's coming NOW." She checked me then, then immediately put on her gloves and called the doctor. She used her calm voice again, but it was obvious that it was going down immediately and she wanted the doctor there five minutes ago.
I was really hurting by now, so I had to verify with Dan what happened next. There was no time to break down the bed or do any preparation. The doctor arrived just in time to the nurse saying, "Just gloves. You only have time for gloves." The moment the doctor had situated her (gloved) self, I couldn't take it anymore so I pushed and out came the head. Then, while she was adjusting his head to guide the rest of him out, I had to push again, and out spilled the rest of his body. Apparently he kind of fell onto the bed (like I said, no one was really ready), but that was it! Two uncoached pushes and he was out, just like that.
I was used to the nurses whisking the baby away immediately for washing, weighing, etc., so I was staring at the ceiling, panting in relief, when they plopped him right onto my chest. I always thought that would gross me out, but after having my other two babies basically taken away for an hour or more directly after birth, I loved having some time to sit and cuddle with him right away. He was wide awake and bright eyed and perfect and finally here. Everything went great, and we were home by the next afternoon.
Welcome to the world, Baby Benjamin!
