Yup, I jinxed us...

After stating that we had "turned the corner", we had a pretty rough evening and night last night - I think I got a total of one hour of sleep in the bed and about an hour in the rocker with my neck all torked... Here's hoping for a better day today (with naps!).

4 weeks old!

Ben turned 4 weeks old on Sunday!

We had a nice weekend, and I feel like we have turned the corner on figuring out Ben's needs (although, I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this...) Lately, we've had a few good nights and days, too. We're just starting to see the signs of a pattern developing. He's now back to about 3-4 hours between feedings, with definite periods of sleep and alertness. It sure helps having Andy around on the weekend. We made a venture to Babies R Us last night to pick up a few remaining necessities (more burp rags! diapers, a mobile, some good socks that will hopefully stay on, etc.)

Here is Ben enjoying his swing (thanks, again to Jim and Deb - and Levi!) Look how tiny he looks!


Daddy reading Richard Scarry to Ben

Ben at 4 weeks
In his little slugger outfit (Grandpa Ron should be happy)

We thought we were getting the first signs of smiles from Ben, so out came the video camera... I don't think that they are "real" smiles yet, but based on what we've seen, he sure will have an incredibly adorable smile once they do come! We can't wait!

Congrats to Ami and Riad on the birth of their son, Dylan, last week - We can't wait to meet him!

Anybody need a pile of honeybees?

So, yesterday, I'm doing laps walking around the outside of our house with Ben, when I hear a commotion in our next door neighbor's yard (not the meth house ones, the other side - the neighbor that looks like the Incredible Hulk - pre-green). The Hulk and some guy in a bee suit jump up on the fence to say "Hi!" and explain that there is a massive hive of honey bees in our neighbors tree, right next to our fence. It's about the size of a sack of groceries. The bee guy planned to climb up a ladder, place a bee-box (I'm sure there's a more proper name for it than bee-box - is it an apiary?) under the hive and knock the bees into it - He said that the rest of them would enter on their own because there was already some honey inside. I filmed this from our yard about 25 feet from the tree.

The bee guy came back at about 10:30PM when the bees were "sleeping" and took the bee-box, presumably to some orchard nearby. Crazy days in Oregon...

On the baby front - I've had a couple of pretty good days at home with Ben. He's continuing to eat about every 2 1/2 hours - although last night I think he had a 4 hour stretch... Yeah! I even made it to the grocery store in the evening for a huge $175 trip - we were long over-due.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to All!

Let's see - Ben turned 3 weeks old on Sunday, and we went to a family picnic about an hour away at a State Park. Ben did very well for the family - slept through most of the picnic, but awoke for the last 1/2 hour with open eyes. We did pay for that later, as Ben was awake and fussy for most of that night.

Here are some pics from the picnic and the past few days...

Here is Ben - Post-bath, pre-spit-up..

Ben's first drive-thru car wash! (He slept through it)

Here is Ben wide awake on his way home from the Father's Day Family Picnic

Here's How He Stands

At his well-child visit yesterday, Ben was

21 inches (40th percentile)

8 lbs 4 oz (50th)

Head circumference of 14 inches (25th)

All is well with him - he cooperated well for the doctor - (except for peeing all over the scale!). They did not take his second heel stick for the PKU tests because the paperwork had not made it over from the doctor in McMinnville yet... We'll have to go back soon for that not-so-fun visit. :(

Today, I have MY follow up appointment with my doctor - Another car ride for Ben. He is being very kind this morning and let me take a shower and eat breakfast while he slept the morning away in the crib. Thanks, Ben! Andy had to go into work today - kind of the first real day at home for me by myself. Andy has been working half days and doing some work from home so far, but soon enough, he will have to be back at it full time...

We have had a few rough nights with very little sleep, but lucky for Ben, he's so darn cute. He makes up for it all with his cute little face and squirming random arm movements. Can't wait until we get the first "real" smiles!

You can see in the pics that Ben's cheeks are certainly filling in!

2 Weeks Old!

Yesterday, Ben was 2 weeks old and he had 2 firsts:

1. His first big-boy bath in water (since his umbilical cord stump fell off on Saturday). He didn't even freak out about being in the water, and actually seemed to enjoy it.





2. He also had his first stroller ride. It was a nice day out here (finally - after days upon days of drizzle and cool temps). He seemed to like the stroller as long as we were moving.


When we stopped to take a photo - he woke up (and was not happy).


Thanks Hope for sending the care package of clothes - Here is Ben in one of the outfits.


Also, here is a clip of Grandpa Ron coaching Ben on the finer points of throwing the left handed pitch. You see, Grandpa and I have decided that our little Ben should become a left handed relief pitcher... That way he gets paid the big bucks just to come in and make 3 outs in the bottom of the 9 ninth. Also, that could save his parents a lot of college money, seeing that he will receiving many offers of full-ride scholarships to the college of his choice. :) When grandpa was here, he was working on keeping the right arm inside the swaddle and the left arm out and active... We can dream, right??? He-he.

We're Flying Solo Now at 11 days

My parents just left to head back to MN. It was so nice having them here to take care of us while we took care of Ben. They fed us, mowed our lawn, cleaned up, held Ben when Andy and I wanted to nap, and provided moral support along the way. Now we get to see if we can do this on our own...

I know I promised details of the delivery etc. in an earlier post, so here goes.

My last full planned day of teaching was Friday the 23rd. I taught all day and ended up staying very late to get my final sub plans and grading together. I hit the wall about 6:30PM and decided I needed some food, so I headed home with a bunch of work in my bag for me to grade with a plan to return to school on Saturday to tie up a bunch of loose ends. That night (well, technically Sat. AM) my water broke at 4:04AM. We putzed around the house getting our bags packed, grading last minute tests, and generally picking up, and left for the hospital at about 7:30AM.

We stopped at school for about 15 minutes to enter grades and print out my final sub plans, then arrived at the hospital about 8:30AM or so. They hooked me up to a monitor that showed I was having slight contractions, about 10 minutes apart, but I was not feeling them. I was still only dilated about 2 cm. They started me on Pitocin about 10:30AM and slowly began increasing the dosage to encourage my contractions. Once your water breaks, the general rule is that you want to deliver the baby within 24 hours to reduce the risk of infection, so they wanted things to move along... The waiting game began. I was still barely feeling the contractions, until about 3 or 4PM. Then they started really increasing in intensity and I ended up getting an epidural at around 7PM, when I was at about 5-6 cm dilated, 100% effaced. I started pushing at about midnight and continued for 3 grueling hours until our beautiful Ben was born at 3:30AM on May 25th!

It's all a blur from there. The pain is already almost forgotten. The feelings you feel are indescribable! It's so amazing knowing that Andy and I made this little life together! We spent 2 nights in the hospital with very nice nurses that took wonderful care of us. We had many visitors that got to meet Ben for the first time. It was tough leaving the hospital knowing that we were now responsible for this little man.

We arrived home at about noon on the 27th to the smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies a la Jan... My parents had made what should be a 3 day trip from MN into a 2 day driving fest, getting in at midnight or so the night before we came home. They had already stocked up on groceries and had bagels and turkey sandwiches ready for us to chow down on.

The next days are all a blur - I can't believe that Ben is 11 days old already! Before we know it, he will be 11 weeks old! We had some good nights and some bad ones, but in general Ben is a happy baby, eating every 3-4 hours. We are getting some good stretches of sleep, and Ben sure looks like he is growing - His cheeks and chins are filling in nicely.

This is Ben at 5 days old

This is one of Ben at 10 days old.