Bennett Frederic Webber

As much as we hoped our little boy would make an early entrance, it just wasn't meant to be! His Thursday Feb 28 due date came and passed and we knew no matter how long he took he would be worth the wait. Although waiting for the inevitable is hard. We spent the weekend trying some of the old wives tales to get things going, went for a 4 mile hike around Tiger Mountain, got a Chinese reflexology foot rub and ate spicy burritos, but he was just on his one schedule.

On Monday morning (4 days overdue) I woke up and though I might have sprung a leak. So we called the doc and they said to come in and get checked out just to be sure. The tests showed my water was still intact and baby's monitoring looked good. So the doc said go home and take it easy and get lots or rest because she could be seeing us later that night. I had had a few minor, nothing frequent, contractions over the previous few days always wondering "is that something" so we debated on staying up on capitol hill "just in case" things started happening, but it was definitely pre-mature so we headed home. (we were only a little excited to meet our little man)

At 11pm on Monday he finally decided he was ready. We were just getting into bed when the first contraction hit and I was thinking, okay that was a little more intense. Then 5 minutes later another one hit. We both were thinking is this it? The next 45min was intense! The contractions hit fast and furious they had gone from 5min apart to 2min apart within 45min.  We called the doc to see if we should come in and didn't hear back so we said forget it we're going in (come to find out the doc had slept through our page so good thing we didn't wait). At 12:30 we were admitted and I was dilated 5cm. The triage nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and without any hesitation or pause I said yes, now :) It took about an hour before the epidural was finally administered and based on how my labor was progressing we think I may have been a 6 or 7cm by the time it was in. Labor is no joke, I am so thankful for the epidural is all I can say. I think my favorite moment leading up to the delivery was Blane pushing me in a wheelchair flying through the empty halls of Swedish trying to get me from the entrance to triage as fast as possible because I was in so much pain. I'm amazed that I didn't fall out or get sick from the journey, makes me laugh just picturing us!

After the epidural it was heaven. By 3am I was fully dilated and they had to break my water. Good thing they did as Bennett couldn't hold it until he came out so they had to have a NICU team come to the delivery room to check him out first thing to make sure he didn't breath in any of the meconium. From 3-5am they had my body to most of the hard work and "labor down" using the contractions to slowly move the little guy through the birth canal so I didn't have to push for a couple hours.  Come 5am we started doing some practice pushes to get him ready for delivery and on the second practice push his head nearly came out so the nurse quickly had me stop and called the doc as he would be here soon. Around 6am the doc was there, suited up and ready. One long push and baby Bennett made his arrival at 6:17am. He came out like a shot and the doc's first words were "this is a big baby!" We knew he was going to be big, we thought maybe 9.5lbs to 9lbs 15oz, but 10lbs 8oz was a shocker! He checked out fine with all the assessments and he and I were able to snuggle. It's overwhelming the emotions when they first put the baby in your arms - you've been cooking this little one for months (not to mention the months trying to create him), you just labored for hours all along hoping and worrying that everything will be ok and now you're holding a small little piece of you and your hubby. I cried :)

We were moved a bit later to our recovery room and were able to stay in the hospital for two nights to help with my recovery. We had lots of visits from family getting to meet Bennett for the first time. Our delivery and recovery nurses were great and it was a little scary leaving the comforts of the hospital, but we've made a smooth transition home. Blane has been amazing. He makes all our food, ensures I have enough water, changes all the diapers, gets up with the baby at night when he's fussy so I can sleep, and on and on and on. I'm nervous for him to go back to work, but savoring every moment we have for the next week. We head to our second pediatricians appointment this morning and will see if Mr B has gained any weight. I would expect no less than tipping the scales in the positive based on how he eats, constantly, but we'll see.

We have been blessed with so much love and support from our family and friends over the years and it just continues and we couldn't be any more grateful. The amount of photos we've accumulated in a week is amazing, here are a bunch just from my phone.