Update

I feel like I have so much to say, but I am making a conscious decision to spend any "free" time resting rather than typing (or thinking), so I will have to wait to give you more details on the delivery and the first few days of Noah's life. Suffice it to say that he is super sweet and very cute, and we love him a lot.

Nathan is continuing to post pictures at the link in the post below, so if you check back, you'll see new pictures periodically. Here are a few, as well:

Noah Thomas Benesh

Noah Thomas arrived at 1:41 am today, January 9! He weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20" long.

I'll write more details later, but in a nutshell, they induced at 2:15pm because my blood pressure was a little high and because the baby was big. My body was ready, though, and they were able to take me off the pitocin after a while. The nurse said she'd never seen anyone contract so often or consistently, so everything was going well, but I still ended up with a C-section after three hours of pushing because the baby was turned a funny way, and that plus his size meant he just wasn't coming. So they did a cesarean and we got to meet our boy! The doctors and nurses could not stop talking about how cute he was. Apparently not all babies are as cute as Noah at birth. :)

I am sure I'll have more pictures to post later, but check out this link in the meantime:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nathanbenesh/Noah_Thomas_Benesh?authkey=_OYvN6bEPq8

Baby Update, 1/7/08

Okay, people, this kid is coming soon!

Here is the update on the doctor's appointment today. I am still 80% effaced, but I am now 1-2 cm. dilated. Yay! I got all the typical questions: Any bleeding? No. Any contractions? No, dangit.

While in the office, the doctor stripped my membranes, which sometimes helps move things along. She also scheduled an ultrasound for tomorrow morning to check on the baby's size.

Then she scheduled an induction for this Friday, January 11! Yay! Finally a date!!

Things got a little more interesting when she said she noticed my blood pressure was a little bit up. That meant that I had a non-stress test today and that I'll go back and see her on Wednesday to have my BP checked again. So they hooked me up for the non-stress test, where they put a couple of monitors on your belly--one to watch the baby's heartbeat, and one to monitor contractions. I've had two of these already, and of course, the contraction line is always silent. While the nurse was reading the printout, she said, "Have you been feeling any contractions?" "No." "Well, you're having one right now."

"What?!?"

They monitored me for about 20 or 25 minutes, and I had at least four or five contractions! And I barely felt anything! (Although I did learn to recognize them a little bit.) Nathan thought it was oh so funny that I had been having them probably for days and didn't know, and I felt like a total doofus, but, honestly, who wouldn't kill to be in my position? Contractions and no pain?! I guess I'm still having them now, three hours later, but I honestly am not feeling them. I just assumed they'd be painful. They're not, for me (or at least, not yet). The nurse said everyone was different in terms of how uncomfortable they feel. Since I just read Michelle's labor story this morning, I had something to relate that to.

What I'm a little confused about is the fact that they told us to call the hospital once the contractions were about a minute long and five minutes apart for an hour. Well, that's what they were in the office (for twenty minutes, anyway), but they sent me home. Not sure what that means. But I'm assuming that it's not as if I'm going to get through labor pain-free and all of a sudden be like, "Oops, there's the baby on the floor." And I WAS only 1 or 2 centimeters dilated. So I guess I have some time.

But I'm glad the baby may be coming before Friday, because I'd rather go into labor spontaneously, if at all possible. If I have to be induced, that'll be fine, but this way it'll probably be an easier labor with fewer chances of complications. But I must say that I am still secretly hoping that I don't have to go to the hospital until after the ultrasound tomorrow morning, because I am still a tiny bit paranoid that this boy is actually a girl, and aside from having a ton of blue baby clothes and a blue cowboy room, the other reason we're not really prepared for a girl is that we have not 100% settled on a girl name (if it's a boy, we have two names that we'll choose from once we take a look at our boy). Okay, I know this is just my own weird paranoia, but I will still feel better if they do a triple-check before he's born. :)

So that's the scoop!

Due Date Belly Picture

Week 40 Belly Picture

How the heck did my belly get so big?!?

I've been tired and kind of blah the last several days, but I decided that today was a good day for a picture, which meant that I had to wash my hair and put makeup on. So ta-da! There you go.

Today is the actual due date: January 4. Right now it's 2:30, and I don't get the feeling this kid is going to come on his due date. This morning, Nathan said he had a feeling something might happen today, and there is certainly still time for that, but even if it started now, I don't think there's enough time to actually go through all of labor and have a baby before midnight.

Everyone's anxious to meet Baby B. My mom keeps speculating about what color and how much hair he will have. Nathan had some brown hair, I was completely bald (not even an eyelash), and today she said she thinks he will have red hair. Who knows?

I have a feeling that, since his profile clearly showed Nathan's nose in the 19-wk ultrasound, he will look like Nathan but will have my fair coloring. The funny thing is, though, that Nathan was fair when he was little, too. In fact, the running family joke is that I maintain that instead of being switched at birth, Nathan was switched at five years old. Up until then, he was a chubby, fair kid with blonde hair and light eyes. Then, all of a sudden, in pictures from when he was around five, he switches to this tall, lanky kid with brown hair. His parents swear he is the same person. :) So who knows what this baby will look like? We are all looking forward to finding out.

Did anyone notice how huge my belly is? Maybe you should all start placing bets on how big the baby will be. In fact, that would be a fun game. Leave a comment with your guess--how many lbs. and oz. do you think he will be? To get you started: the nurse practitioner guessed 8-8.5 lbs., while the doctor is not giving any numbers other than to imply he could be any size up to like 10 lbs. So somewhere between 8 and 10.

I Think This is Funny

I had spicy Thai food for dinner in hopes of inducing contractions.

All I got was a nosebleed.

Baby Update, 1/2/08

I had another doctor's appointment today. I am now 80% effaced, but I'm not dilated at all. So I am making progress, but it's slow. Who knows, though--I could still go at any time! This week has actually been the first time when I feel like things are happening. I had one random contraction, and other than that, I've just been feeling a little funny from time to time.

The doctor did have me make an appointment for Monday in case the baby hasn't come by then so that we can "make a plan" at that time, since they don't want me to go beyond week 41. (My due date is this Friday, January 4.) She might schedule another ultrasound to see how big he is, because she's getting concerned about his size. Looks like we're going to have a big boy.

That's about it!

How Everything Turned Out

Here's how our Christmas tree turned out. It ended up being far too wide to put in the corner of our living room, so we moved it to the dining room. We are still a little short on ornaments, so we supplemented our decorations with Christmas cards and paper stars that Nathan made.



And here is Dad, making the toy box:


And Mom, painting the mural in the baby's room:


While Nathan and I were out volunteering at our church's New Year's Eve celebration, Mom and Dad were busy putting the baby's room together. It turned out so nice! Here's the finished product:

Mom painted the view from the front of Nathan's parents' house in Waco, complete with horses (Red and Leo) and one of the dogs (is it Bear, Bella, or Baxter?). :)

Can't get enough good books! I recommend Library Lion, No David!, and The Velveteen Rabbit. :)