Welcome to our famliy Benjamin!

I don't know when this will get posted but I will work on adding to this post over the next few days as I have time!

Monday, July 14- Early in the morning I went to the hospital to pre-register and to do lab work. I ran into my cousin in law Angie, her son Rylan and her Mom. Rylan is such a happy little boy! When I was done with my errands I visited my office and then went to lunch with two of my friends. When I got home it was time for Mike and I to spend time with Zachary. It was his last day as an only child and we wanted to make is special for him. We went to lunch and then to Wal-Mart to get him a putter and then went to the free putt-putt course. I played one round while the boys played two rounds. After we went to dinner and then came home to make sure all of Zachary's things for a few days were packed up. We dropped him off at Mike's parents house around 8:00 that evening and then headed home to an empty childless house! It was weird, knowing that in 12 hours our new little son would be born. We couldn't sleep, I paced and cleaned my ass off around the house. I was driving Mike nuts!! Finally aorund 3 a.m. I fell asleep only to have to wake up at 5 a.m to shower and get ready for the hospital!

Tuesday, July 15- We woke up at 5 a.m. to start getting ready to head to the hospital. Mike wasn't nervous at all, he was cool and calm. I don't know how, I was a nervous wreck! Mike took one last belly shot of me and we took one shot of us together and then we loaded up the bags and headed to the hospital. We had to check in at 6 a.m. and then head to the 2nd floor, the OB ward. When we got there they gave us our room number so we could drop our bags off and then I headed to the observation room to get prepped for my c-section. I got my IV (which I hate getting), my cathedar and was put on the monitors. Around 6:45 I started I having off the chart contractions they were pretty painful. I was told to breathe through them that I was defiently going into labor and it was a good thing I was scheduled for my c-section! My contractions were less than a minute a part when I was finally taken to the OR to get ready for surgery! My parents showed up around 7:15 and Mike's parents showed up with Zachary at 7:30. I was glad to get to see him before I went back to the OR.

I was wheeled back at 7:50 a.m. to the OR to get my spinal. All I have to say is OUCH! I wish I could have had an epidural. The spinal hurt like hell, I am sure it didn't help that there was a student doctor doing my spinal and they had to poke me three separate times!!! I have the brusies to show it. I didn't like the numbness feeling of the spinal either, it numbs different parts of your body at different times, my left side first, then my right side then the middle. After they finally got it figured out I had to lay back on the OR table fast to get ready for surgery. I was also having pretty strong contractions during the spinal so it made it difficult for me to focus on staying calm and steady while breathing through contractions.

Mike wasn't allowed in the room with me until right before they made the incision. I wish he could have been there with me through it all I kept asking for him but they wouldn't let him come in. Dr. Clark and the resident doctor at the hospital, Dr. Patton, delivered our baby boy at 8:20 a.m. At first I didn't hear him crying, it was very faint, then I heard his loud cries. I didn't get to see him right away because they were cleaning him up. When I did see him I noticed his long dark hair and how little he was - not the 9lb baby that we thought he'd be!!! The nurse invited Mike over to the incubator to help clean him up and to cut the cord but he decided to stay next to me, he didn't want to see my stomach pried open with my guts hanging out! LOL

The doctor had some problems getting me closed up, my bladder wasn't in the right spot and I had some scar tissue from my previous c-section and also some scar tissue from my ectopic pregnancy 2 years ago. I also had bleeding issues that they needed to control so I was in the OR a little bit longer than expected. Because of that my spinal started drifting past my waist and my arms and chest started getting numb. They had to lift the head of the table up to work the spinal back down towards the lower part of my body. During all of this Mike went to the nursery with Benjamin and also to be there when Zachary met his baby brother for the first time. I finally was wheeled down past the nursery so I could see my new little boy and was greeted by my family.

When I got to the room I had about 15 minutes by myself which was needed. Then they brought Ben into the room with me and he and I had about 1/2 hr of time (Mike was there also) to cuddle and to start nursing right away. Zachary finally came into the room and brought Mommy three red carnations he picked out with a card that said "I love you" - Zachary! They were beautiful. Our family then was invited in to meet Ben and to spend time with all of us. I was in and out of it as the spinal was wearing off.

My friend Ann arrived around 10 and took a bunch of pictures for us, thank you dear!! By noon it was just Mike, Ben and I at the hospital. We had a few visitors Tuesday night. I started feeling pretty good and was even up out of bed moving around slightly by that evening. I still had my IV and cathedar I had to deal with so I didn't leave our room. I didn't get much sleep Tuesday night, Ben was up most of the night wanting to feed and since I'm breastfeeding I was also up with him. (This hasn't changed, he nurses every 1 1/2 hrs!!!!)

(That's all for now, I'll update with Wednesday and Thursday's posts soon...Ben's calling it's his dinner time!!!"