He arrives!

Finally, more than a week after his big entrance to the world, I finally get around to documenting the arrival of Benjamin James Davis.  My excuse is that we have been more than a little busy keeping up with our two little angels, but more on that later.

As I was saying in my last post, we last left off with a walk around the neighborhood.  I was determined to yet again, walk this baby out.  (My labor with Evan was precipitated by a 3 mile walk around Green Lake in Seattle.)  The walk was pretty hard, but no definite signs of labor yet.  So, I settled down on the couch, and Dad was busy preparing a feast for dinner, eggplant parmesan.  Oddly enough, I had looked up natural approaches for inducing labor on the internet that day, and in a strange coincidence, eggplant parmesan was on that list.  Apparently, it's a potent technique because I didn't even need to eat it, all I needed to do was smell it.  Dad pulled the casserole dish out of the oven, I got up to head to the table for dinner, and my water broke!

Fortunately, when we called the doctor to tell her, she said that since I hadn't had any really strong contractions yet, we could all stay home and enjoy Dad's feast and then head off to the hospital at our leisure.  This was much more enjoyable than our 1:30 am rush to the hospital during my labor with Evan.  So, after dinner Mom, Ian, and I hopped in the car, and Dad stayed home to put Evan to bed. 

We arrived at the hospital about 9 at night.  They wheeled me in to the emergency room and then, after a little waiting, up to labor and delivery to determine whether I was really in labor.  My contractions were still not all that strong, but I was definitely sure that my water had broken and I was ready to have this baby!  After sitting in triage and having my contractions get stronger and stronger, the doctors soon came to the same conclusion and told us that they needed to get us into a delivery room soon because it probably wouldn't be too long before he arrived! 

We headed over to the delivery room.  By this point, I wasn't quite seeing straight and was in a lot of pain, but I was pleased with the fact that the baby's heart rate was regular and strong.  After a little bit of medication in the delivery room I was in much better spirits.  The night progressed, we all enjoyed a little bit of late night television, and about midnight they told us it was time to push.  With much huffing and puffing on my part and some quick catching on the parts of the doctor and nurses, Benjamin James Davis made his entrance into the world at 1:53 am with alert eyes and a quiet, but very welcome little cry. 

(The obligatory scale shot)

(Ian and I, our new addition, and the doctor and nurse that helped bring him into the world)

(Baby Ben and his record of birth-He seems happy to be here!)

I was thrilled when they were able to immediately put him in my arms, and they pronounced him completely healthy!  Looking at his face, his squally, red, adorable newborn face, I knew that our little family was complete.  It was a wonderful feeling that you really can't quite put into words. 

(Me holding my little angel-Everyone laughs at this picture because I'm still wearing all this jewelry right after having a baby.  Funny, taking off my jewelry just wasn't a priority when my water broke!)

(Okay, this one's just really cute!)

(Basking in the warmer after his first bath)

(A close up)

Starting at that moment, the next few days were a flurry of activity with countless doctors and nurses shuffling in and out of our room examining me or Ben in turn or asking us question after question.  After about 36 hours of that, and some horrible hospital food, we were ready to take our little bundle of joy home.  He had already met his brother in the hospital, and the two were ready to really get to know each other.  The first week as a family has been fabulous, fairly exhausting, but fabulous, and I can't wait to share it with you.

(Evan meets his little brother with a little help from Grandma.)

(Mom and baby get ready to go home.)

(The traditional car seat shot on the way home from the hospital.  Can't wait to see how he grows in these shots!)