Meet the New Boss...

Well, it's been 1 month exactly since Miss Caroline Moore Benjamin was brought into the world, and what a month it's been!

Let me start from the beginning.

How it all went down:

So much for thinking I was going to be induced! Ha!

It was Friday, August 29th and I was having lunch with my gal pals and fellow belly buddies, Amy and Kat. A fish taco and a trip to Cold Stone for ice cream must have been the perfect recipe for going into labor because as soon as I got home, I started to feel some mild but real contractions. They continued that night and got a little more intense. The next morning I woke up with continued contractions but they still didn't meet the 5-1-1 rule.

The 5-1-1 rule is: call your doctor and get to the hospital when your contractions are coming every 5 minutes, lasting for a minute, and this has been going on for an hour. Mine were more like 10 minutes apart and lasting not even a minute.

So, I told Corey I wanted to try and go for a walk as a nice distraction. We leashed up Luci dog and hit the pavement. By the end of our 3-mile loop, it was obvious that this was the real thing-- the contractions were coming closer together and with more pain. We dashed home and took quick showers and headed over to St. Mary's Hospital.

Unfortunately, my beloved Dr. Rinehardt was not the OB on call that weekend. Instead, I was greeted by Dr. Wilbanks who determined that though my contractions still weren't meeting the 5-1-1 rule, my water had broken. Imagine that. I had no idea. No gush of water, no trickle either. Oh well. I was immediately hooked up to an IV, put into a hospital gown and we began the wait for dilation.

What a wait it was.

We were admitted around 10am dilated 1cm and it wasn't until about 8pm that I was ready to start pushing. The nurses prepared the room, Wilbanks got into scrubs and gloves, and after about 15min of pushing, our little princess arrived!

(In case anyone was wondering, yes, I had an epidural and it was HEAVEN! Didn't feel a thing!)

The First Month

Everyone says that being a mother is the toughest job there is, and now I am beginning to understand what they mean. It's amazing how much you can love this little baby who does nothing but eat, sleep and poop. Nursing every 2hrs, no sleep, tons of diaper changes, rocking and soothing... you give, give, give. But it's all worth it when you smell the sweet smell of baby, or catch a fleeting smile. I don't know, it's hard to explain, but this has been the most emotionally and physically draining month in my life, yet at the same time, one of the best months of my life.

My Angels

Both my mom, Lois, and my mother-in-law, Nancy, came to help out during this first month, and I really don't think I could have managed without them. Not only did they take care of everything domestic while I was busy with Baby C-line, but they also served as my personal shoppers, took care of poor Luci who I have seriously neglected, and gave me much needed daily pep talks of encouragement. I can't express how wonderful they were and how thankful I am for all they did.

I should also mention how much I appreciate all the gifts, cards, phone calls, emails, text messages, meals, and visits by our other family members, friends, and neighbors. Corey and I both feel so lucky to have such wonderful support, and it's certainly made the transition into parenthood a lot easier knowing so many people are thinking of us and willing to help with anything we need.

The Hiccup

Baby Girl is perfect in every way, except for this little, nagging hole in her heart. She was diagnosed in the hospital with a ventricular septal defect (VSD), which, as I understand it, is actually pretty common. It means that there is a little hole in her heart that is preventing blood flow in the proper direction. The impact is that her heart is having to work much harder than normal to do its job.

Regular visits with her cardiologist and pediatrician reveal there are 3 ways that this little issue can be solved:

1. The hole closes on its own. As Caroline grows, the muscle tissue in her heart will grow and hopefully fuse together.
2. Caroline has a minor cath procedure to put a patch on the hole.

3. Surgery to put a patch on hole.

The biggest thing we need to be concerned about is Caroline's weight gain. Hopefully, we can get her to grow and either this hole will close on its own, or at least she'll be big enough that we can avoid surgery. We've been trying a number of different feeding regimens to try and get the little bird to beef up, and I'm happy to say that after yesterday's weigh-in, she gained 5 oz in 2 days and tipped the scales at 8lbs!

Potty News

Caroline has managed to pee on Daddy twice now, and poop on me once. Fun, fun!