Ben & the pumpkin

6 Months Old

I can't believe my little man is going to be 6 months old this month! He has been growing so fast & it has been fun to watch him hit his milestones. Sitting up, crawling (all be it backwards), getting that ever important first tooth & starting solid food. The solid food was exciting at first & he LOVES it. The problem came when we had to change that first baby food diaper. The smell was like nothing we had ever smelled before. And coming from a former zookeeper & a garbage man, that is saying A LOT! I'm sad to report that it does not get better. Yesterday I gave Ben sweet potatoes & bananas (2 of his favorites) and put him in his bouncy activity center. He bounced happily, stopped, faced me, grunted hard, smiled & went back to bouncing. That's when the stink hit me. I picked him up & went to lay him on a blanket to change him. Why is there poo on the back of his neck? My son shit with so much enthusiasm it shot up his back. I had to clean thick, pasty horrible smelling poo off the back of his neck & out of his hair. He laughed the whole time. Perfect.

Labor Day

The day I went into labor with Ben was actually night. 12:08am to be exact. Shawn was still sleeping (he had to get up at 1am to get ready for work). I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I yelled for Shawn to bring me my phone to call the birth center. We were so excited we grabbed the baby bag & ran out the door. I had not started contracting yet but anticipation of what was coming woke me up fast. Shawn...not so much. In the excitement of the arrival of the kiddo we took a wrong turn & got lost on the way to the hospital. When we finally got there we realized we not only forgot my purse with my ID we also forgot the camera. ooops! We had time & lived close so Shawn went back for it. Around 1 am nothing was happening & I was only dilated 5 cm. Shawn felt it was a good time to go raid the pantry that the birth center kept for the parents. Around 5am contractions were getting...shall we say...God awful! I thought I was tough (LMAO!) & was trying to go med free so I was put in the whirlpool tub to ease the pain. I sat there about 3 min & decided drug free was NOT the way to be! The nurse asked me if I wanted a spinal block or an epidural.  I said yes! She asked again which one I wanted. BOTH! A LOT OF BOTH! That's what I got. It was nice! I was able to nap for about an hour. When I woke up I was fully dilated, my doctor had arrived & it was time to push. Dr. Tan said Ben should be out in about 30 min. Not my kiddo! I pushed hard for 2 hours with no baby. I pushed so much I pushed the epidural out of place. I couldn't take any more. I told the doctor to GO GET HIM! So a C-section brought my little man into the world. They got him out & cleaned him up & handed him to Shawn who was beaming! Benjamin looked at his daddy & smiled. Ben then looked over at me & stuck out his tongue. Yep. That must be my baby. :)