He's Here! Benson David Baker

Ok, so it's taken me a while to find time to Blog. He actually got here a week ago. How do you Mom's with more than one kid find time to blog??? I probably should be sleeping right now but I've put this off long enough. I'm not ashamed to admit that the primary purpose of this blog is kind of our own family digital scrapbook/journal and the following is a pretty long account of getting Benson here which you might or might not appreciate. There are pics if you want to scroll to the bottom.

Yes. He's here! He surprised us a little by coming a couple weeks early. This is actually a relief for me to have him here because the last six weeks of my pregnancy I was dropping off in my measurements. I'd always measured a couple weeks behind but then it was 3 weeks, then 4. My belly wasn't as big as it had been with Jesse and this was my second pregnancy. You're supposed to be bigger second time around right? We got a couple ultra sounds the last 6 weeks which showed that although Benson was a healthy size he was dropping in percentage. He went from the 44th percentile to the 25th in 4 weeks. My doctors weren't concerned, but I was. I just didn't feel good about it. I still don't know for sure if there was anything wrong, but I was relieved when my body decided it was time to get him out of there on it's own. That process though was pretty long, busy and confusing.

Wed - I stood and sang in an 1 1/2 hour performance with my choir that night.

Thurs - I started having contractions early that morning. Strong enough that they kept me up, Dave stayed home from work, and I went first thing in the morning to pre-register at the hospital ...just in case. They got to be about 10 minutes apart but got further and further apart throughout the rest of the day. False alarm. We hosted a dinner group at our place that evening.

Fri - I was awakened by more early morning contractions that were getting pretty strong and were about 10 minutes apart. Here we go right? Nope, they just got further and further apart. False alarm...again. I had a doctor's appointment that morning where I learned I was dialated to a 4, 90% effaced, and the baby's head was in a station 0. The Dr. thought it wouldn't be long, but who know's what that means. Tomorrow... a week? Later that morning we went to the graveside service for our friends' baby daughter (which was so uplifting and gave us the opportunity to reunite with some friends from our old ward), and I spent the evening with my Mom, Mother-in-law, and Jesse tying a quilt for the baby. I had contractions about 1/2 hour apart all throughout the day at varying degrees of strength. Driving home that night though they started getting pretty strong again, to the point where I hoped I could make it home without crashing the car, and were about 15 mins apart. I arrived home and basically got ready to go to the hospital. I was gathering things and straightening up the house. The contractions stayed strong and got to be 10 mins apart. I decided to see if I could get some sleep before we had to go to the hosptial but my contractions only got further and further apart until they were a couple hours apart. WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

Sat - Still here....no contractions. But when I got on my feet that morning I started having them again. We went to a ward breakfast that morning and hosted an extended Baker family swimming outing at our pool that afternoon. I spent most the time sitting in a chair but I did get in the pool at one point. When I was sitting I was fine, very few contractions, when I 'd stand up they'd start again. What? Can I control my going into labor? Is this for real? After the swim party I decided to see what would happen if I stayed on my feet and walked around the house, the result basically was that the contractions DID get stronger, much stronger and closer together. I walked around for three hours having really painful contractions but they never got closer than about 7 mins apart. I was so frustrated and confused! Was I really in labor? If I sat or layed down would the contractions stop? Is that how it's supposed to work? Can I choose whether or not to have this baby now? Am I supposed to try and stop the labor or bring it on? After 3 days of contractions my body was sore and exhausted and I did want to have this baby and get it over with, so I stayed on my feet and they kept coming. They were never 5 mins apart but I sort of felt like I was going through one long painful contraction that only intensified every so often so we decided to go to the hosptial to get checked and see if they could move things along. I wanted to go through as much labor as possible out of the hospital so I was hesitant to go at this point, but it's a good thing we left when we did because I guess things were moving along pretty quickly. Benson was born about an hour later.

I will never forget getting to the hospital. I could hardly walk down the stairs and was wondering what we were thinking buying 3rd floor condo. I'd never even thought about our car's suspension but I was cursing it with every little bump we went over on the way to the hospital. Once we got there neither Dave nor I thought to drop me off at the entrance (duh!), we parked and walked, ...well, waddled to the front entrance where I could get in a wheelchair right? WRONG! No wheelchair! Ya, I remember the elevator seeming so far away. I know... wah wah.

38 weeks and D-day. I had Dave take this really quickly right after we got to the hospital. I was actually just going for an anxious look. I didn't mean to look so in pain for this picture and I really wasn't at the time.

Anyway, we did make it to labor and delivery where the nurse took her time getting her Cafe Rio order made before she came in to check me in and check me. After she checked me and found I was at a 7, all of the sudden we were rushing into the delivery room. I had progressed to a 9 the next time they checked me less than 15 minutes later. I hadn't had any pain relief yet and I'm so mad at myself because I had to hurry and make a decision when they found I was at a 9 and I wussed out and got the spinal block really quick before I had to push. I really regret not going natural now that I realize I had come most of the way already and it might not ever be that convenient and quick again. Oh well, it made for a very painless, wonderful delivery. I only pushed for about 10 mins. Benson handled the delivery like a champ, and was in perfect health. A good 6 lbs 11 oz and 19 inches.

Meeting Benson for the first time. (so you're the little things that's been beating me up from the inside for the past few months).

Jesse, unfortunately started to get sick the day that Benson came so he had to meet his little bro for the first time through the glass in the nursery.

Jesse stayed with my family while we were in the hospital and the first day we were home while he got over his sickness. I'm so grateful to my family for taking my little bubby so we didn't have to deal with the battle of keeping the sick Toddler away from the new baby. I don't think Jesse even missed us because he was having so much fun at his grandma's house. Jesse's been great with Benson since we've been reunited. I really couldn't ask for him to be better. For the most part he just does his thing and only every once in a while will remember the baby and want to come "help" me with him. I'm excited for Benson to get to know his older brother and I hope that they will be good friends.

I'm especially grateful to Dave for all of his help. He's really stepped it up and done so much to help since the baby's been here. Jesse's usually such a Momma's boy which made me worry about how he would be when my attention was divided between he and Benson, but Jesse's had so much fun with his Dad this week that I don't think he really even cares that I spend a lot of time with the baby now. We'll see how things go when Dave goes back to work.