Happy Birthday Ben

Look at that proud Daddy. He even got to cut the cord this time!

Ben's birth was amazing and everything that I'd hoped it would be. After laying there all day with little to no pain, I had about an hour of feeling pressure, then about five minutes of pushing and Ben was here. Chris barely had time to grab the camera! I needed Chris's help, so one of the nurses grabbed the camera and got some great shots for us.



They put Ben on my chest right away. He was screaming until I said, "hi, Ben." He stopped, turned his head to me, and reached out to touch my face. He immediately stopped crying and just looked at me while I was talking. It was absolutely amazing. It reminded me of meeting Sam for the first time. I remember that look of recognition on his little face.



Dr. Diaz with Ben.



Here is Sam meeting Ben for the first time. Mimi took Sam to pick out a present for Ben, and Sam was very excited to give it to him.



Ben also got a present for Sam. Sam was very happy about that! After a few minutes of playing with his new Spiderman, Sam asked me if Ben got him any other toys. Maybe this brother thing isn't so bad if he's getting presents.



Here's a picture of Ben getting his bath. He has a cute little birthmark on his tummy that you can barely see on the bottom left.



Mimi with Ben on day 2.



Mommy with Ben. This has been a completely different experience that what happened with Sam. I barely got to see Sam the first 24 hours that he was in the NICU, but Ben has barely been out of my sight. I pretty much stared at him all day today.



Pops with Ben.





Our Celebration Dinner! The hospital offers a surf-n-turf celebration dinner for new parents. The nurses were very excited about it and wanted to make sure that we got ours. I really wasn't interested, but Chris wanted to try it out. I called to place the order and about 30 min later my Dad realized they hadn't asked us how we wanted our steaks cooked. Bad sign. I called back and asked them which cut the steak was. She said "beef." I clarified that I was wondering if it was a filet, sirloin, strip, etc. She had to look it up and said it was a tenderloin, so I asked if we could get it medium rare. Nope. They only come well done. Hospital policy. Yuck. Poor steak.



Here's Chris and Pops "enjoying" the celebration dinner. Mimi brought me a burger from Sonic.



Sam came to visit again this evening. He was a lot more interested in Ben this time. He asked lots of questions ... like "does Ben have feet?"

Sam was apparently a real handful last night. He really missed his mom and dad. We decided that Sam needed Chris more tonight so I'm alone at the hospital with Ben. I think Chris is going to enjoy a night at home with uninterrupted sleep. I'm hoping to take advantage of the nursery at the hospital and try to get some sleep myself. We should be going home tomorrow.