Baby Ben

Happy Big Sister, especially because of the sibling cake the hospital offers.


Double Chin!!!




Some pictures from Wednesday morning. I woke up with contractions about 1:30 am, that were manageable, but noticeable, and finally decided to get to the hospital. I was dilated to an 8, got an epidural after consulting with Gary, which was a bit of a double edged sword. It slowed down everything and made me very anxious and jittery, but I was able to get a whole IV bag of Vancomycin at my doctor's insistence which took FOREVER (4 hours), I was grateful in the end for epidural when my almost 9 lb baby emerged. He was huge, full of hair, and had a double chin. Compared with Miss L and lil' G he was ginormous!

He is beautiful, happy, and loves to nurse.

I couldn't be happier. Just gotta get home from the hospital, I am a little stir crazy, but Baby Ben has a few more tests to run...and minor surgery (I feel sorry for all boys at this stage). I am thinking tomorrow morning we can come home, we'll see.

Benjamin Edward Walker
3/24/10 08:08
8 lbs 15 oz
21 in

Mom and baby are doing great. More later from a real computer

Strawberry Pickin'

We went strawberry picking with Grandma today. We are slowly trimming down the list of things that need to be done around here. We'll clean out the boxes that I have been saving to move tomorrow, but then I am about out of chores. Mom and I both like good projects, we need to find another one I think at least until baby emerges.



The Doctor has decided that I won't be induced until 41 weeks. The hospital will not consider me high-risk induction, and therefore not admit me until next Monday. I had planned on being induced a couple days early like Lil'G, so it is more than frustrating, and I know I need mom's help once that baby is here. So the sooner it comes, the more help I get. But I have to just count my blessings that this baby is healthy, and I was able go on a 3 mile walk today, prune and plant my garden today, and make about 15 little bottles of strawberry jam.

The fields are not quite at their prime for picking, but we all really enjoyed it, and both kids did great with instructions not to pick the white berries. We ate a delicious strawberry pie for dinner

Match Day !!!!

So....Gary matched to MD Anderson Cancer Center as a Radiation Oncologist. Five more years in our current location. I am so proud of him. This was our first choice, and a very competitive program. He has worked very, very hard the last four years. Way to go G!!!!

Grass in one hand, acceptance letter in another.

This housed all the match day letters.
The two Mormon Baylor 4th year Students (and probably the only two with 2+ children)

Brownies and Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate chunks made the day so much better.

Rodeo

We had fun at the rodeo last night. Lil' G loved the pigs, especially the big ones. Miss L loved baby pigs, baby sheep, and baby cows. I definitely learned you have to adjust your expectations when you are with kids. We didn't stay for the Gary Allen concert, but we did have a really good night, and most of it was due to a giant bag of skittles Gary brought in to bribe the kids into good behavior.

Green Eggs and Ham

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am not celebrating as much as some years (I am foregoing the cornbeef and cabbage and green rolls in favor of attending the rodeo tonight), but we did have the green eggs and ham for breakfast and then had to read the story. The kids loved it.

Miss L was very particular to make sure she had green on otherwise she'd get pinched. I on the other hand am having a harder time considering I have about 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants that actually fit/cover my Buddha belly. So we'll see if it'll be green tonight for the rodeo.

We are sick.

We have been invaded... by some virus. This was this weekend's progression.

Friday...

Here is my sweet boy who has discovered how fun it is to be outside by himself, dig in the garden, and swing on the swing. He has to do it himself, because I just can't pick him up at this point. He still has fun though.
Miss L pulled out the tea party table outside and set it up for her brother. She is so creative, and has an amazing imagination. It is fun to see her grow.

The cough started Friday, but we still had fun Saturday morning.... we got a kite of $1 at Walmart and had a very fun picnic at the park feeding the turtles and flying our kite.

This was Saturday afternoon though. The cold hit Miss L the strongest. Just a cough, nothing else.

Saturday Evening...dinner time...for a girl who doesn't take naps.

Sunday Morning, everyone was happy again. We tried to go to church, but my the end of sacrament meeting both children had runny noses and momma had a bad headache.

This is our current status. We gotta get through this cold before the baby comes...which is hopefully this week.

Baby Prep Work

The belly, by request, I think of myself as Humpty Dumpty these days.

The baby is coming. I had a scare Thursday evening and thought I was in labor, which put me into a panic, because Gary had his boards Friday, and of course could not be reached for like 9 hours, but it was nothing. I didn't want Gary to miss another birth, but I decided I would be okay with it if I had too.

The scare was more to the extend that I hadn't washed my baby carseat, hadn't packed my hospital bag, hadn't vacuumed, stuff that is not so important, but nonetheless put me into a frenzy to get my house in order.

Today we laid mulched, pruned thoroughly, fertilized, and cleaned out the beds. So nice to have a nice day outside. The kids rooms are spotless, the laundry is done. My room needs some work, but that would a require my husband's help and he has agreed that after match day, he will work on cleaning out of this medical school stuff, so I can wait. I still have a list, but it is getting shorter. Hopefully, I will have at least one more week to accomplish everything.

Here is the baby's room finally. We got a new crib, and I painted the diaper changer white, we moved around the furniture a bit too. With every child I have has a little different room set up.

Here is Little G's baby's room.

So I am thinking Benjamin, Christian, or Andrew (and call him Drew). Gary doesn't like Drew (which is my favorite), so it'll probably be one of the other two. What do you think?