It Began with a BBFT

So we aren't new to this parenthood thing--we went through that glorious transition nearly 2.5 years ago with our two wonderful girls--and although we have been eagerly awaiting little Baby B #3's arrival for 9 months I thought I was prepared for the shock and awe of the 'bringing baby into the world' process since it was not necessarily going to be a new experience.  I am not talking about the actual logistics of going from point A (intrauterine life) to point B (extrauterine life)--although that never ceases to be cool and definitely surreal. I am talking about that moment when they hold that screaming, red, slippery little being in front of you for the first time and it hits you that it is your child and life is never going to be the same again--and all the other 'Juno moments' I like to call them--that follow.

I was wrong--It was just as much of a Tsunami of emotion and amazement as it was the first time around.

Let me go back a few hours to our pre-Benson state. We spent our last day as a family of 4 doing fun things with the girls like breakfast together (do you need to even ask where?), reading books (most of the activities had to be sitting down since Benson was using my lower organs as a bean bag chair), and even had time for a dip in the pool (I watched from the sidelines). We put the girls to bed and gave them big hugs and kisses--I had to strongly resist the urge to breakdown and cry (have I ever mentioned that I am terrible with change, whether it is positive or negative?) and then were off for my 'last supper' before the big day.  My parents came down a day early to Columbus to spend this pre-baby time with us (before they became babysitters extraordinaire for a week of twin two year olds) which made it extra special.  We were the only customers in our little local Thai restaurant since the rest of America was engrossed superbowl football or commercials.  

Despite my 2 benadryl (OB approved), sleep was elusive--not surprising. I had super planned for this day (lists were made, frozen meals were prepared, guilt alleviating gifts for the girls were purchased, remotes labeled) but contemplating this new chapter we were about to embark on in less than 12 hours kept my mind whirring. How would the twins take it? How are we going to get him to sleep through the night? Is he going to be a newborn that we are just going to start liking at month 4 when the colic subsides? How am I going to make all 3 feel equally loved? Most importantly--when will the minivan arrive? :)

We arrived to the hospital nice and early and before I knew it Benson made his first appearance into this world (before quite a crowd I might add: 2 nursing students and their instructor, a medical student, 2 anesthesia residents, an OB resident, an anesthesia attending, our OB, 3 pediatricians, a PhD student doing research, and 3 OR nurses) and I was experiencing the aforementioned 'first moments' with our son.  He did wonderfully. He came out peeing and screaming at the same time (I am sure that in the world of infants that means you are a good multitasker) and within an hour I was in recovery and he was in my arms.

We spent a surprisingly calm and cozy first day with him. My parents were able to visit and hold their new grandson in the morning. We spent the afternoon admiring our new little boy and in the evening he met Ryan's parents.

I must say that Benson is adorable. I know I am his mom and part of his genetic material came from me so it might seem that I am tooting my own horn, but I'd like to think I can be objective about this. I have seen my fair share of newborns and they are not all equally cute--so if he was one of those I would just omit this paragraph and hope for the best over the next several months :).  The twins certainly had their 'wrinkled raisin' newborn moments that were not so beautiful and now look at them.  Anyhow, back to Ben. He has great little lips and thanks to the miracle of the C-section has a great looking head too.  Some vital statistics for posterity must be dropped into the post as well. He was 8 lb 6 oz born at 8:45 am on February 7, 2011. He was 20 inches long.

He is amazing and I love looking over at his bassinet and knowing that he is my little guy.


And now for some pics.  I avoided the surgical pics on facebook because I know not everyone is as excited about that stuff as I am but since this blog is written mainly to record my own memories I did not censor anything--don't worry, there are no private part pics, unless you consider the inside of my abdominal cavity private parts.

I love to do lists. I make the lists, and make little check boxes next to them. Now, some things linger on my to do list longer than others. This entry is one of them. It has been present with a wide open little square next to it just waiting for that satisfying little check mark for months, about 8 to be exact. Baby #3 is a huge deal and we're super excited so the fact that I haven't been on top of getting it done in no way means that we are ho hum about #3 (in case my son decides to investigate my blog in the future and wonders why he hasn't been mentioned until he has nearly popped into the world I wanted to clarify this)--parenting twin toddlers and juggling job/marriage, etc has kept me from getting this done--and I procrastinate on blog entries as evidenced by the fact that there are huge gaps between entries at times.  So this entry is a tribute to our first son that is due to arrive in 3.5 weeks to be exact (if he goes along with his mommy's meticulous planning).

Without doling out too many gory details, I must mention that we are not a couple that having kids comes easy to. I guess we didn't jump into the right fertility pool at some point or maybe it has something to do with pursuing a career for quite a while before deciding to have kids but we like to say we have 'expensive kids' (by the way, I could do an entire blog post just on the experience of sitting in the waiting room at a fertility clinic--it's very interesting people watching to say the least). So it was no different with this kiddo (yea science!) and when you use science to manipulate the situation you know you are pregnant nearly from the minute the cells start dividing to form a mini human. So it feels like I've been pregnant for forever since I've known from very early on in the process.  It's been a pretty easy pregnancy (I think God feels bad about the fertility thing so he makes up for it with a smooth pregnancy without nausea/heartburn/swelling ,etc) and I've enjoyed being able to say (finally) to the lovely people who ask 'are you pregnant'? "Why yes I am thank you for asking" (I routinely got asked if I"m pregnant even when I wasn't) so pregnancy has been a nice time to ditch the spanx and let it all hang out :)

 We found out we were having a little boy over labor day weekend when our friend did an ultrasound for us (I have no patience) which was a big shock. We are just used to girls--girl stuff, girls that can sit and color for a bit, girl clothes, girl toys--and the idea of having a boy made both of us a bit nervous at first. I mean little boys are cute and I think I handle that but little boys turn into big smelly hormonal teenage boys and I'm not quite sure about that. This little male fetus is also 4 times as active as the twins were combined which definitely makes me nervous about how active this little guy might be. Those leash things they sell for kids might actually be appealing :).

Compared to the size I was with the girls I am practically a ballerina this time around, although the patients at work beg to differ ('girl, you swolled up, when is that baby comin?').

Lydia and Grace really have no grasp of what is about to happen. They know that Baby b is in mommy's tummy but it pretty much ends there so it should be interesting to see how they react.

So for completeness sake I put some prego pics below so Baby B knows he did reside in mommy's belly for a long 9+ months and that we have been eagerly anticipating his arrival from the minute we saw the plus on the stick :)

So project 'big girl bed' was a success last night--for the most part.  Early in the evening, the girls said 'bye-bye' to their cribs which we captured on an adorable video and then the real work began. Ryan gets most of the credit since he had to tear down 2 cribs,  assemble 2 beds and clean up after it was all done. My part was to create custom made bedspreads, flat sheets and blankets since the beds we chose are 'junior' beds from ikea that are larger than toddler beds but smaller than twin beds and the only bedding that they sell is a fitted sheet that truly fits the bed--It really tested my very crafty side which is nearly nonexistent to begin with. The finished product from both of our efforts combined (building and sewing) was pretty darn cute (see pics below) if I do say so myself.

The girls loved the beds and were quickly climbing on and off and on and off their 'big girl beds'. About 1.5 hours after their usual bedtime we were finally tucking them into their new beds. They have never used blankets so that was new territory and frankly they didn't really get it. Also the standard orientation of how one is to lay in a regular bed was sort of lost on them too--I'm curious as to when they will start consistently figuring it out. These are things that you don't really think about--I mean, it's a bed, you just get in, get under the blankets and lay your head on a pillow, but apparently it's a learning process.

I just put them down for their first nap in the new beds which will be the real challenge. I threatened them multiple times with confiscation of pacifiers, blankets and sneetches (lydia's stuffed bff) but after that I really am not sure what I'll do to reinforce the 'stay in your bed' philosophy. So far things are quiet, but it has only been about 2 minutes :).

Ok, so I've been resistant to this one. We bought them 'big girl beds' a couple of months ago but haven't transitioned them yet but we plan to tonight. I have cited many reasons for waiting on moving them to a crib. Mainly because many a nap often begins by putting them in the crib against their will--how do you do that with a bed???  Also, with two in there I don't know what kinds of things they'll get into!
Anyhow, Baby #3 is coming and needs a crib so we need to move forward. So this is the 'ode to the cribs', written while they are taking their last nap in their cribs. I shouldn't be so sentimental about it because, A: It could be terrible and we might be putting them back up tomorrow night and just buying Baby #3 his own new crib and B: If we are successful the crib will be filled with a new little bundle in about 6 weeks--what could be better than that?  However, I've never done well with change and I can't say that I'm not a little sad about seeing the cribs come down. I can remember renting a truck and driving super fast to pick them up (we only had the truck for 1 hour) and then sweating through the summer heat as we put them together. Well, Ryan put them together, but I broke down and recycled the boxes which was no small feat with my bulbous twin infested belly.  When we brought them home from the hospital they looked so tiny in their cribs--I almost felt bad about leaving them in that big thing all alone. Over the last 2 years though they've spent a lot of time in their cribs--sleeping mainly but also jumping, laughing, babbling/talking with eachother, chewing on the sides (until we finally found some good covers), looking at books, snuggling with sneetches and blankets (see pics below) --and a little crying too :).  So tonight we start the big bed experiment--and in about 4 years when they outgrow their oh so cute ikea junior beds I'll be blogging and misting up about their transition to 'big, big girl beds'.

A little over a week ago Grace and Lydia turned two!  In some ways I feel like the time went fast, but in other ways it feels like decades ago that they were little babies in their matching swings.  This last year has really moved them from infanthood to toddlerhood. They are now little people with clear preferences (Grace: "No birthday!"-in reference to us singing happy birthday to her. Lydia, from her bed: "Pac, Sneetch!" demanding her pacifier and her ratty stuffed sneetch) and personalities. At this point Grace is a talker and quick with a laugh. She repeats everything and loves saying the words of objects (especially body parts) nearby.  Lydia is more pensive and loves figuring out any type of puzzle, buckle or clasp. She's the first to figure out child proofing devices and master them. For example, when the girls got some bristle blocks as a gift, within a few minutes Lydia was deftly making tall stacks and the instant Grace saw them she brightened up and promptly started coming her hair with them. She still can't be convinced they aren't hair brushes of all shapes and sizes.  It is so much fun to watch them learn more and more every day.  I think watching their language develop has been really fun. You can't get much better than when they run to the door and yell "mommy home!" when you walk through the door.  It's hard to imagine that we ever had a life without them!