In honor of Ben's upcoming 5th birthday, the next few posts will be all about Ben, my "baby" boy, my babyBen, my Benny boo, my Benny booski, my middle child.
(I will warn you here - bare with me - I'm taking a little stroll down memory lane - feel free to skip to the pictures - I totally understand).
Ben's original due date was October 7th, his scheduled c-section date was October 4th, and his actual date of birth is September 25th. True to form, Ben did not listen to what he was "suppose" to do and he arrived early. I always thought he'd come early. A week or two before he was born, I was getting uncomfortable. I was hurting. But, I had a 20 month old that I was still toting around so I thought that was par for the course. One year ago today (the 23rd) was my last day of work before having Ben. Luckily, I had been prepared for awhile - I had written down plans, schedules, etc. The last day I was there, my long term sub came in and I went over with him everything that I had written down. He was planning to come back the next week to "shadow" me, to get to know the kids, to get to know my schedule. But, it never happened, because Ben decided to show up a little early. The Friday (24th) before I had Ben, I remember going to the Outlet Mall, walking around, shopping, carrying Tate, thinking, I shouldn't be doing this - I'm going to end up going into labor early. That night, we had Tate spend the night with his grandma. We went to a friend's house to eat. She served these southwestern eggroll type things that were spicy. I think they put me into labor because the rest of the night I was having pains. Lots of pains. I called the nurse who told me if I could walk and talk through the pains, it wasn't real labor. She told me to take a Benadryl, take a bath, and go back to bed. So, I took the benadryl, I took the bath, and still I could not go back to bed. I had a bag already half packed but not completely ready. I woke Craig up for like the 3rd or 4th time (I woke him when I took a bath to tell him I was taking a bath and to listen for me in case I needed his help... he didn't even remember I took a bath the next morning. Can you say deep sleeper?) I told him I felt uneasy, that I was sure it was nothing but let's go to the hospital anyway. I didn't even take the bag with me because I figured they would send me home. I called my parents on the way to the hospital and told them the same thing. An hour later, I was calling telling them that I was staying and they were doing the c-section after shift change. We had NOTHING with us, no clothes, no camera, nothing. Evidently the nurse was wrong. You can indeed be in labor and still walk and talk through it.
A few hours later, we had a healthy, baby boy that we named Ben Elias.
(Full disclosure here: this picture was not taken right after the birth - note the date on the pic - this was the next day, AFTER I had a chance to clean up, brush my hair, and put on a gown that did not open in the back - the pics of us right after having Ben were not pretty and that's all I will say about that.)(A few more things that come to mind when I view this photo: look how young Craig and I are, look how much dark hair Craig has, and look at how little Tate was - he was just a baby and we had just had another baby, what were we thinking???)
Here is little Ben in his car seat for the first time when we were leaving the hospital. If my memory serves me correctly (and I'll have to check the video to make sure, if we have a video, that is) Ben cried the entire way to our car, down the hallway, down the elevator, down another hallway, all the way to the car. The entire time.
Here we are a day later at home. Notice I still have on my hospital bracelets. I guess I just didn't have the energy yet to cut them off. This is such a cute picture of the boys. Ben was sleeping beside me and Tate had come in to check things out. Look how little Tate still was! I can't help but look at these pictures and get a little wistful at how quick they grow up. And, I also look at these in disbelief of how we ever did it. Tate was just a baby and there we were with another one. I wouldn't have it any other way, though!
Ben often slept this way with his hands on his head. Look how itty bitty he was!
We moved this recliner in our bedroom so we could watch TV and rock the boys at the same time. It was also easier because Tate could sleep in the bed while we fed Ben or rocked him. I can't tell you how many times Craig and I sat in this recliner with both boys while they fell asleep.
Ben was just over a month old for his first Halloween. He had gotten so skinny by this time. We had quite a time getting him to gain weight but eventually we were able to fatten him up.
We went with easy costumes that year. They were puppy dogs (just in case you can't tell). Ben thoroughly enjoyed his candy that year (Craig and I can vouch for the goodness of the candy).
Stay tuned for more Ben pics and more strolling down memory lane....
Lolly
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