Introducing......

BENJAMIN KNOX GARCIA, NOVEMBER 23, 2011

This is the first pic we took of him with his eyes open.  And, yes, he was born with all that hair.  :)

 I thought this would make a cute pic...looks like he's humiliated...that, or hungover.  :)

 Chilling out with PaPa Shields in the rocking chair.

 Meeting Grandma Shields for the first time.

 Chilling out watching the Thanksgiving football game with Daddy.

 I loved this one...this is a shot of him grabbing Chris' hand.  We were still in the hospital at this point, so he was less than four days old.

 This is a shot Chris took of us after I fed him.  He was sleeping.  Not my favorite shot, but there aren't many of he and I since I'm usually the one taking the pictures.

 Momma's sleepy baby.

So, life with a newborn is pretty C-R-A-Z-Y!  But, make no mistake, it's worth every sleepless moment!  He was born Wednesday, November 23, 2011.  Exactly between my brothers birthday (the 22nd) and Thanksgiving.  He weighed 7 pounds, 8.5 ounces and was 19 inches long.  

It's so odd.  For someone that never wanted kids...I never thought my whole world would weigh 8 pounds.  He's my absolute everything.  Everyone always told me that you don't know love untill you have a child, and I understand that now.  

As a rule, he's a really good baby, he only makes noise if there's something wrong with him, and at just under a month old he can sleep mostly through the night.  He wakes up when he gets hungry or needs changed of course.  

Chris and I are just totally in love with him! 

For the most part, the pregnancy was easy and I didn't have too many issues.  I ended up on bed rest for the last 8 weeks.  At first the doc thought I was pre eclamptic, but thankfully that test came back negative.  Because he was so long, the doc thought he was going to a large baby (like at least 10 pounds) so she put me on bed rest so he wouldn't come early.  Turns out he was average, just really long.  And I'm kinda short torsoed, so that's why it looked, and felt, like he was taking up every inch of room I had.   

At his two week check up, he had gained half a pound, so he's was a little over 8 pounds and grew three inches to 22 inches long.  Which the doctor says is great, puts him in the top 50th percentile.   

The labor process was a bit of a hassle.  It's called labor for a reason right?  :)  Actually, I was in labor for three days.  On Sunday night I started having contractions so we went to the hospital, but I was only dilated to a 1 and my water hadn't broke yet so they sent us home, Monday and Tuesday the contractions were intensifying (back to the hospital), but with the same results.  Dilated to a 1, but no water break, so they sent me home again.  Wednesday, the contractions were about a minute long each and 6-7 minutes apart.  So, back to the hospital we went.  Got there dilated to a 1 and an hour later I was dilated to a 3.  They were going to send me home again, due to the fact that my water hadn't broke yet, it actually never did.

That was when I took matters into my own hands.  lol  I told them that I was scheduled for a c section and that my doctor had never planned on me going into labor in the first place.  So I told the nurse that I didn't care if she had to go and knock my doctors door herself, I wasn't leaving the hospital without my baby this time.  Maybe a little rude, but mind you, I'd been in labor for three days by this time.  Who would be cordial?  :)  

Well, that was at roughly 6:30am, by 7:15am I had been admitted, prepped and was on the operating room table, on my way to lala land for them to deliver my baby.  My doc works fast.  :)  And when I woke up in recovery, my wonderful hubby and my perfect baby boy were right there waiting for me. 

Well, I guess that's all I have for now.  Hopefully I'll be able to blog more in the future and be able to keep up with you guys and the events of your lives.  

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.