Benjamin Edward Cook

Ok - so it only took about a month, but I'm finally getting a chance to update the blog!!

Benjamin Edward Cook joined us on September 10, 2008 at 10:36 p.m., weighing in at 8 lbs 14.4 oz., measuring 20 inches long. He is perfect!

Labor story (so you can stop reading if you don't want to know the gory details!!) ~ We had gone to the hospital on 9/8 for some gels, basically medicine to try and get my body to dilate and get things started. We went back on 9/9 for more gels but upon examination, I was already 3cm so I didn't need anymore - yay! So on 9/10, we went in that morning at 7:30 a.m. for an induction, since Benjamin didn't seem to want to enter this world without some help. I got hooked up to my fluids, Pitocin, and my Penicillin (necessary for me unfortunately based on some lab tests during pregnancy) ~ then we waited. The contractions were not that bad at first - we watched a movie (Tin Cup, of course!), I updated Twitter during labor, etc. But then the contractions were "clustering" as the nurses called it - I would have 1 contraction, have a 4-5 minute break, same thing again, and then have 4 or 5 contractions back to back without ever really coming all the way down from them.... NOT fun. Made it very hard to cope with them, and breathing and the exercise ball were not working for the clusters. I could handle the normal contractions, but the clusters were a killer. By noon time I was only 3-4 cm still ~ and the doc decided to go ahead and break my water to see if that would move things along a little quicker. Ouch ... and the bad news was it was loaded with meconium.... to the point where they actually did a quick ultrasound to make sure the baby was head down b/c based on the amount of meconium the nurses were convinced he was butt first. But he wasn't - head down and ready, just stubborn. The next time I was checked I was maybe a good 4cm... this was at like 2pm. At some point in the afternoon the clustered contractions were too much for me so I asked for the epidural - so now I had even more tubes running into me! It was crazy - so much for my idea of going as natural as possible!! Things were just progressing very slowly. Got the epidural - HEAVENLY by the way - and got to relax. This was around 5pm or so. They came and also drew labs - as the doctor now on duty was concerned I wasn't progressing and wanted labs ready in case of a c-section. Jerred's mom and stepdad were in town and came by when Jerred said it was ok to do so, figuring one of them could sit with me while he ran to get some dinner (I wasn't allowed to be alone once I had the epidural)... so Mary sat with me while the boys went for food. The epidural never really took on the right side, but it was a lot better for getting through the clustered contractions than nothing. Well - after a little while (30 or so minutes), I was really feeling the pressure with the contractions. When the nurse came in to roll me over (yeah, rolling from side to side is fun when you're huge and have so many tubes sticking out of you!) ~ apparently she saw some bloody show and decided to check me - I had made it to 8 cm!!! Wow!!! I decided not to call Jerred back right away as it would likely be a little while before I was at 10 - well, was I wrong! About 5 minutes later the pressure was so much worse, I asked Mary to call the guys back - and sure enough, about 15 minutes after that, just before Jerred got back, they checked me and I was at 10 cm!! Crazy! So Jerred returned and the fun began - Mary & Michael hit the waiting room and I think we all thought that Benjamin would be arriving very soon given the last hour of progression - boy were we wrong! I pushed for 3 hours 6 minutes.... good times I tell ya. But at 10:36 pm, just when I was sure I couldn't do it anymore, Benjamin arrived!!! The doctor said that I was very lucky - I had been about 20 minutes from getting a c-section when I made that sudden jump in progress to 8cm. So glad I avoided the c-section! I had a few tears but nothing major, and Benjamin checked out A-OK despite the meconium concerns.

He had quite the cone head after spending 3 hours in the birth canal, and some red squish marks on his head - but was otherwise the most beautiful little thing we've ever seen! He was a superstar for all of his tests at the hispital (he had 2 low blood sugar tests and had to get some formula one morning but was cleared from the glucose people a few hours later). He left the hospital at 8 lbs 5 oz., and was back up to birthweight within a week (we had a few lactation consultant appointments so he was getting weighed regularly). His first pediatrician appointment was great - he was up to almost 10 lbs at that point, at 12 days old! He hasn't been officially weight since, but we're guessing he's around 11 lbs at this point - definitely no nutrition issues here!

Unfortunately breastfeeding hasn't gone quite as well as I had hoped - we have some latching issues despite having his tongue "un-tied" (which, by the way, as scared as we were to have it done, he slept through!). So I'm pumping like crazy and he's getting 95% breastmilk by bottle. Not ideal, but at least he's getting mostly good stuff!!! He will eat breastmilk or formula, breast or bottle - he is NOT picky about food as long as it's food! You don't even need to warm up his food that much - room temperature formula is fine for him, and chilly breastmilk is fine with him too - makes things a little more convenient for Jerred and I, that's for sure!

So here are links to some of the 400+ pics I've taken so far :-) New camera, new baby - yep, there will be lots - so I'll just post links and only the occasional actual pic up here.

Enjoy the pictures, hope this finds everyone well - and I'll update with his 1 month pictures later this week!!!!