Abbreviated Birth Story of Benjamin

leaving for the hospital... no time for a retake :)

Phew... what a week!  Benjamin is one week old tonight which is incredibly hard to believe.  I feel like this past week has passed by like a dream! 

Thought I'd give a little wrap up of what went down.

BIRTH DAY-
This birthing thing was amazing and crazy...  if you want the full story I'll be happy to tell you in person, but I'll give a quick summary here-
Thursday morning I woke up with a contraction at 5am and some pain in my lower back.  That morning I watched Pride and Prejudice (thanks to Amy) while sitting on my birthing ball, went for a mile walk, ate some left over fajitas (which I regretted later), etc.  About 2:30pm rolled around and I noticed the contractions about 7 min apart.  I called Joe to come home and by the time we were walking out of the house they were about 2-3 min apart and getting pretty darn painful, mostly in my back.
At the hospital they assessed my progress in the Triage area at 6:30pm and told me that they were pretty busy that night.  At this point lets just say that things went quickly- because of the position Benjamin was in to say that there was pain in my back is a rediculous understatment.  Fast forward (water breaking, lots of contractions and breathing, oxygen mask, concern for baby's heart rade, etc.)
At, I think 9pm or so my midwife checked the progress and said that I was 5 out of 10 cm dialated (meaning about half the way ready to deliver).  I will admit this was not the news I wanted to hear, to think that all of this pain and I'm only half way there!  Well Ben caught my drift because on the next contraction my body pretty much said it was "go time."  The midwife came back and realized that somehow in the last 5 min I was fully ready to push!  Being that I was not yet in a Labor and Delivery room there was great commotion as people raced in to help out in the Triage area of the ward.  Ben made his fast and furious arrival about 5 minutes later at 9:16pm.  The whole experience is so surreal to me, it was like a dream because it caught me so off guard.  I was then moved to a real delivery room with Benjamin.  I did some fist pumps down the hallway and the nurses laughed at me.
Joe, Benjamin and I got to spend an amazing hour together bonding before he was off to the nursery and I to the recovery room.

Not home yet

Dearest friends and family, we have been so overwhelmed by the amount of well wishes and prayers for the delivery, Benjamin and our little family.  I ask that you keep those prayers up for just a tad longer.  There's no huge cause for alarm, but we've had a little different stay than we thought we would have.  Some initial blood of Benjamin's came back that signaled a possible infection, so yesterday he was started on an antibiotic IV and monitors.  With this meant that he was upped to "level 2 nursery" and had to stay there.  We've been making the trek to the nursery to see him for feedings and visits.  While the IV was started other tests were begun that need 48 hours to complete so we're here for at least an extra day.  We will update everyone as soon as we know more.

The Baby is here!

Benjamin Daniel arrived at 9:15pm on Aug. 5. He was 6 lb. 11oz. And 18.5 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well!

Learning to surrender

Beware of random musings about life... :)

<-- which color will we need!!?!

So often in our lives we are given opportunities to surrender our wills to that of our heavenly father or to the will of another.  I don't know a better chance than with giving birth.  There are no guarantees in anything with having a baby and in that lies both the beauty and frustration.  For some reason I had it in my mind that Tiguester would come this past weekend, but I was wrong. :(

What I find most interesting about this waiting game is that one minute I feel ready and the next I start to freak out about being a mother for the first time.  It's no longer just me, or even just me and this belly, but me and a baby.  I know most of you mothers who read this are probably like... "yeah, that's how this whole thing goes." but sitting at the top of this roller coaster hill leads to a very once-in-a-lifetime perspective.  The thrilling, wind in your hair, exhilaration of beginning my life as a mother and the gut wrenching anxiety, don't look down moments, all lay on the track ahead.  To think I thought that finding my vocation was going to be the exciting step of life, that which would lead me to heaven.  Well, heaven is both being in the roller coaster car at this moment and hopefully waiting for me a the end of the ride, both the journey and the destination.  There's much to do, much to be thankful for and much to just accept as the merciful love of God.  Who am I to get to ride this roller coaster?  It's just the beginning of this next segment of track and I'm so glad to have my husband beside me for this amazing, for better or for worse, ride of our lives!  I love my Joe, bring it on life.  I've got my hands in the air!

(for Emperor's New Groove fans- Kronk, on the 'coaster' to the secret lair: "Eezma, put your hands in the air!")

39 weeks along -->

In the meantime...

While I wait for Tiguster to make his/her appearance... I feel like it might be close but then again, God only knows when we'll get to meet her/him!

Our big July adventure/project was the front yard landscaping.  As I previously posted about, we had a company come and rip out the massive bushes and then we set to work deciding what to do with the space.  My mom helped us to come up with some ideas that we formed into our plan of action.  All of the bushes are pretty young right now so they're small, but I think that just makes the house look that much bigger and give us that much more time before trimming :)  We picked some hearty, slow growing plants so that we could keep up with them and make sure that our house did not get taken over like it was when we bought it.

We were extra blessed in that both of our sets of parents were able to help us get these bushes in and the mulching and grass seeding done.  If anyone is worrying, I did not overdo it :).  It would have taken us so much longer to get all of this work done without family help!!

Here's some pics, more on picasa.  Home sweet home...

 The line of light grey next to the mulch is actually grass seed.  We decided we didn't need to use all of the space that used to be covered in bushes.

38 weeks

Yay for the Burger Barge and good ice cream!  Joe and I joined his parents and aunt and uncle for some great food tonight.  Baby and I can't get enough hamburgers and fries. :)

We had a wonderful weekend!  Friday, Joe hosted some guys for a grill out and I got to go hang out in a pool with some great girls.  Saturday we had chocolate chip pancakes and ran around town a bit.  We got a camcorder at Best Buy and some curtains for the nursery.  We had a movie date that night to see Despicable Me which I thought was very entertaining and funny.  Sunday we went to Mass, did some little things around the house, went to dinner and now here we sit.  Well, sit and lay... we're watching the Goonies- I've never seen it before... I know... I know, how was I born in the 80's and have never experienced it.  Better late than never right :)

I'm trying not to get ahead of myself waiting for Tiguester to come, after all, due date's still a week and a half away.  It's just hard not to anticipate meeting him or her and finding out who it is I've been carrying around with me for the last 8.5 months!

Waiting Game

Well, we're almost there... 13 days til the due date.  I had an appointment on Tues where I learned that all systems were go- Tiguester is head down, healthy and approx. 7lbs 1oz. 

Today was a nesting day, or at least one of the few days I've felt any type of "get up and go."  I'll update with more pics and stuff tomorrow, I gotta get off of Joe's computer.  (mine is taking a LONG nap until I get a new power cord)

This is my first mobile post. Getting things set up so i can give updates from the hospital.

Family Fun

What an amazing week!  Last weekend was the last weekend I was able to travel.  Being 36 weeks now, I'm to stay in an hour radius of the hospital, just in case.  A part of me is so ready to give birth and meet this little one finally and a part of me is really fine with waiting a little longer :)  I guess it's good I've got about 3.5 weeks left. 

Last weekend Joe and I travelled to my aunt and uncle's in Michigan.  They are always blessing our family with their hospitality.  To stay there means great food, swimming, games, fireworks and lots of family catching up.  I was able to swim a little bit which was a blast.  I felt more like my more svelte self when you have lots of water to hold up this ever-growing belly of mine.  I also was the recipient of much generosity as my sister-in-law Jill helped hold a baby shower with the women of that side of the family.  If you were there and are reading this... again- thanks!  Now I know how many toilet paper squares around I am. (answer: 12, which equals about 48 in, wow)

This week I've been able to have my sister stay here at the house with me.  I have LOVED having the company and to get to hang out with her.  It's so much fun to see the woman that she is growing up to be and I couldn't be more proud.  She's been so helpful and up for anything!  We made Lava cakes last night and they turned out! (you know the kind that has the chocolate sauce center.)  MMMmmmmm! 

Well, I should run, I've got a dishwasher to unload, thank yous to write, a house to clean up, etc.  More later :)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch changes...

We have a crib!  Because of the generosity of so many family and friends in the form of gift cards we were able to go to Target and purchase the future bed of our little one!  We're looking forward to using this crib for each of the future Tiguesters so we're sticking with the green and white theme in the room. 

Preliminary picture of the nursery: 

Is it odd that the nursery green matches the blog color :) I promise more nursery pics as it gets closer to finished with better curtains and pictures on the walls.  It's nice to have all the big pieces in place though.  Also the pack 'n play that we received from my mom's family will go to good use as a bassinet in our bedroom for the first couple of months so I won't have the walk so far for midnight feedings.  Cool fact- the medium colored wooden bureau was used for Joe's grandfather's clothes when he was a baby.  How fun is that!

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See the difference between this sunny photo from last year and this sunset pic from last night?  We're very excited about our outside upgrade.  Trying to slowly bring our home from 1957 to today :)

The awning on the living room window comes down tomorrow and we're hoping to get some simple landscaping in next week.  It looks a bit bare at the moment but we're just so excited to be able to see the house now instead of it hiding behind the yews.  I think the front door looks so much better this way. 

Eventually a porch may be in the works, but that would be years away.