Ben's 3 month update!

Ben is already a quarter of a year old! He is growing so fast. He truly is an beautiful gift. He started smiling and cooing this month. He squeals when he's happy and it's the best! He sleeps through the night which Mama and Daddy love and he loves when people talk to him.

Exciting Times in Ben's Life this month:

I've been loving all the sun and the warmth because I get all kinds of baby skin! We love sitting on our porch and soaking up the sun. So the last several days this had been my view! :)

Lovin' the sun

We've had an exciting month. Grandma Lovey and Funcle came to visit for almost 2 weeks and he loved it! I had to work full time to wrap up a project so they stayed with Ben during the day, he loved all the attention and play time. Just looks how he looks at his Lovey.

There's a small smile hidden there

We went to the zoo over the weekend and Funcle carried around Ben like the great Uncle he is. We wet a light blanket to keep him cool and he was a happy camper. Kinda  looks like St. Joseph and Baby Jesus right?

Daddy's Favorites:

Making Ben smile

Finding new tickle spots

Cuddling Ben

Mommy's Favorites:

Ben's face of wonder

Listening to him talk

Singing with Ben

All the cute faces and smiles

Ben's Favorites:

Kicking things

Talking

Facing the world

His Duckie

My labor story (pt 2.)

Welcome back for part 2 of my labor story! Hopefully part 1 was helpful and not too scaring.

So after meeting our nurse I labored for an hour or so on my own in the shower before deciding to get Nitric-Oxide (laughing gas). I breathed this in during each contraction to take the edge off. If you are hoping to do a natural birth I would recommend this. It was really helpful for the majority of my labor. Because Baby was posterior I couldn't labor laying down so I labored on the ball most of the time, a little while on my side in the bed and in the shower again. The contractions in the bed lying on my side were the worst, they seemed to effect my whole body. Our nurse Angie came in for a while during these horrible contractions and massaged my back to try and give me some relief. Tim kept working on my back during each contraction and even during the pauses the back pain was pretty bad. Towards the end of this stage of labor I was breathing in so hard on the Nitric-Oxide I couldn’t tell if I was high on the pain or the meds. Finally around 10:30 P.M. I started to realize that the Nitric-Oxide was working anymore and I got pretty emotional. I got checked and still had only dilated to a 6 but I was 100% effaced. They started trying to encourage me to break my water but informed me that since this was my first baby the contractions would intensify and become more frequent but it might not speed up my labor at all. This made me very nervous knowing that I could hardly handle the pain as it was and I could potentially have up to 9 more hours of labor (5 hours of labor after my water broke and 4 hours of pushing possibly). I really wanted to have a natural birth but I felt that was slipping away from me.

I decided to not break my water but I needed more help with the pain so I got a dose of Staydol. I was told that while Staydol stayed in your system for 4 hours it really only helped for 90 minutes and you couldn’t get any other medication for 2 hours. The Staydol put me in a weird dream state for most of the 90 minutes. I could feel the strong contractions but it was like having contractions while I was asleep and they didn't really hurt. Tim said that my response time was really slow while I had the Staydol. Unfortunately the worst part  of the Staydol was the 30 minutes between when the Staydol wore off and before I could have any other medication. These contractions were so intense. I couldn't focus on anything else. After my 30 mins were up I had Nitric-Oxide again. At this point it was 12:30 P.M. I had been in labor for over 24 hours at this point and active labor for 12 hours. I had not dilated any further. My OBGYN discussed with me that labor was not progressing and I was slowly wearing out. I needed to seriously consider breaking my water. I realized that I could not handle worse contractions without more medical aid so I decided to get an epidural and have them break my water. I felt really discouraged because I had waited so long and wanted to have a natural birth. I felt like I had failed. Nurse Angie and Tim each said something that brought me a lot of comfort. Nurse Angie reminded me that I needed to have enough energy to push and that with the epidural I could sleep and get rest to push my baby out safely, if I didn't I might run the risk of needing a C-section. Tim told me that all I truly wanted was to see how far I could go and I had proved that I could go a really long time. I was really worried about getting an epidural because I had heard how big the needle was and how painful it was. However the great thing about being in labor for so long was the epidural didn’t hurt at all compared to the contractions I had been having. With the epidural I finally got some sleep and really couldn’t feel the contractions for a while. I could feel pressure but no pain.

I slept for a few hours until around 5. A.M. on Sunday morning. I started feeling like I could push so I woke Tim up and the doctor came in. Pushing was kind of a blur but this was probably the best part because I was actually working with the contractions instead of against them. They kept trying to get Baby to turn but Baby would turn 90 degrees then turn right back! I pushed about 8 times when Baby’s head starting crowning. My OBGYN asked if I wanted to feel the head! I said, "no thank you!" (Actually I think I just looked at him like he was crazy). He apparently then proceeded to make Mohawks in Baby's hair in between contractions!  I pushed a few more times and then they asked me not to push too hard for the next 2 contractions because Baby was coming! After my second push my baby slipped out sideways with his eyes open. We had a baby boy!! He was perfect and after getting all checked out and after we cuddled he nursed right away! I had 2 incisions and had to get stitched up but it was worth it. Baby Thomas Benedict was born at 6:05am on March 19^th at 6lb 11oz and 22 in long.

Thomas Benedict

Tired but happy

Would I have another baby? Absolutely. I was so happy with how my pregnancy went and while my labor was very different than I imagined I did it! My baby was safely born into this world and he is perfect. So if you are expecting your first baby and you're nervous, just remember to pray and breathe. Baby will be here soon and your life will be forever changed!!