Welcome Ben

Well, little Kenneth Benjamin Dick is 3 weeks old today. The time has already just flown by. He was very slow ab out getting here, but we are delighted that he finally came. On April 4 (I was 9 days late by then) I went to the hospital to get a non-stress test - to see if everything was going fine with the baby. The nurse found out how late I was and said that she would look for the lightest thing in order to have a reason to induce me. Unfortunately (and fortunately depending on how you look at it), she finished the test and said everything just looked too good. She called my doctors anyway just to check with them about when they may schedule me to be induced. She talked to Dr. Thorpe who said, "why haven't we already delivered that baby?" I was schedule for an inducement the next day at 6 AM. I woke up on Tuesday, April 5 at 4 AM and realized that my water had broken (after several minutes of not being quite sure). I also started to feel some contractions. I woke Sean up and we headed to the hospital at 5 AM. After being there for an hour and a half I had only progressed 1 cm (from a 4 to a 5). So, I asked for my epidural. The same thing happened with this epidural as with Caelan. They had to give it to me in the lowest part of my back (because of my back surgery) which caused my legs to go completely paralyzed, but I could still feel hard contractions up until about 20 minutes so before it was time to push. The anesthesiologist kept coming in and increasing my medicine dosage and giving me different combinations to try. He was quite surprised I was still in pain, but he said that I have scar tissue back there which doesn't allow the medicine to distribute as it should. Anyway, it finally kicked in shortly before I was ready to push at 9:15 AM. The nurse came in to check me and said that I was fully dialated (which totally surprised me considering my first check). She said she could feel a water bag (or what felt like one) in there. She had the doctor, Dr. Reese (who was in our ward, by the way) come and check me, and he barely touched me when my water bag burst out all over him (it literally sounded like a gush of water and it was all over his scrubs). I guess my water bag ruptured twice. Anyway, the doctor had to go assist with a C-section so we just hung around for about 40 minutes. Then he came in and we started the pushing process. I am a pretty strong pusher. Dr. Reese had me go a little slower than I did with Caelan just to help get me stretched out, but after 25 short minutes little Kenneth Benjamin made his appearance. The doctor had me push out his head so that it was partly showing, and then he had me lean over and feel it. I could feel all the skull bones overlapping on top of each other - it was crazy. He was perfect when he arrived (I guess that has something to do with how quick the labor was - no mishapen head or anything....just a perfect little boy). He was 8 lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches long. They cleaned him off a bit and then gave him to me. I decided to nurse him right then (or at least give it a try). He latched on perfectly and ate away. He has been a little eating machine ever since. He gets up like clockwork every 2 to 3 hours to eat. He must be a growing boy. We stayed at the hospital over night and then went home by noon the next day. The nurse said that he took a pacifier in the nursery that very first night, which is quite unusual for brand new babies. We were discharged the next day, by our own request. Caelan came with Grandma Dick to see him in the hospital. She kept saying "baby, baby, baby. The pediatrician, Dr. Adams, saw him before we left and said that he was good and healthy. His Bilirubin score was slightly questionable (probably as a result of having a different blood type from me), so he told us to come and have him get checked again the next morning (which we did and he was completely fine). We took him home and started to get used to having a newborn baby in the home again. Grandma Dick was in town for close to three weeks (which was a wonderful help....especially with Caelan - I think it helped her get accustomed to having another little body in the home that required some attention). He has been a pretty good baby. The first few days he slept A LOT, but never missed a meal (was up every 2 to 3 hours to eat) and when he decides that it's time to eat.....he loudly lets us know. At about 2 weeks old he started to have a little tummy trouble (problems with gas), which is pretty normal for babies, but it is still the pits when it sets in. He would get pretty fussy at around 9 PM, and usually it would let up around 12 AM. I don't mean that he was screaming or even crying that entire time - he just required a lot more attention and holding (with extra crying). At night he has been fairly good once he falls asleep. He still gets up every few hours to eat, but he usually just eats and then goes back to sleep. We are just in love with him. He is quite the handsome little man. I have started calling him "Little Dude" or "Mister Dude." Dad has referred to him as "Dudicus" a couple times, which is pretty cute, The time is flying by already.