Meet Benjamin

Now that we are home and getting settled in, I thought I would take a few minutes to post some pictures and write about our new little man. I know some people like the details but if you're not one of those...skip the next paragraph :)

We went in for a scheduled OB appointment at 11:30 on Wednesday. At that point I was 6 days overdue. The doctor did a quick ultrasound in the office to check fluid levels since they tend to go down as you get past your due date. She decided they were low and called the on-call doctor to see if we should just go ahead and induce at that point. He agreed, and we were sent straight over to the hospital (a short walk away). Matt went home to grab our things and I took the walk down to the OB unit. On the way there I felt my water break (not dramatic like you see on the movies, but something was definitely up). The nurses got me strapped on to the monitors, etc (I really hate being plugged in to all that stuff!) and they started the pitocin drip. The doctor suspected that maybe I had a leak in my water already that morning and that was why the fluid levels were down. Either way, this baby was going to be out pretty soon! It was about noon at this point I think. We were pretty sure things would go quick once they got started. Once contractions started coming on pretty good I was getting tired. I didn't sleep very well the night before and was starting to question how ready I was to go through with this at that point. I decided to get some IV pain meds so I could relax a bit before it got more intense. Once that kicked in I was feeling okay, I was able to rest between contractions but didn't feel too loopy. It seemed to be just what I needed. I was stuck at 5cm for a while which was discouraging, but baby's head was getting lower. Then rather quickly I felt like it was time to push. The midwife was called in, they quickly set up, and after two pushes he was out.

Throughout the pregnancy the doctors were predicting a 8+ pound baby (bigger than the girls), but once he was out we looked at him and thought he didn't seem that big. He weighed in at 6 lbs 15.9 oz. The nurses were kind enough to round up :)

7 lbs
22 in
5:40pm

Although they measured twice, I'm not completely convinced yet that he is a full 22 inches, but he IS rather long and skinny. We'll see what they say at his one-week checkup.

So far Benjamin's been a good little eater and sleeper. He still spends most of his time with his eyes shut but his sisters seem to be enjoying their new brother.

The consensus seems to be that Ben looks like his Dad. What do you think?