Happy Easter!!!

This last week my parents came out and we went to NY for the week to visit my brother who lives there. We all stayed together at the Manhatten Club. We had a wonderful time despite the weather and masses of people. Due to the weather I had to get something to protect Monkey from the rain. At Toys 'R' Us on Broadway I found a rain shield for the stroller, which is apparently not waterproof, so Ben was hermetically sealed in it for most of the week.



Our baby boy is working on smiling and it is quite funny. Most of the time it happens when he is sound asleep, but more and more it is happening in his wake hours too. My mom and I were lucky enough to catch a couple of them on film. He is growing sooooo fast! He turns two months on Thursday and I can't believe how fast time is flying. I have to go back to work on Tuesday. It will be a lot of work getting everything back the way I want it after having a sub in my room for 7 weeks. I know the room is a mess and grades are a little screwed up. I feel certain it will be a long week. Lucky for us Conrad's mom is with us for a while while I go back to work to take care of our baby boy. We are so lucky to have such wonderful supportive and loving families. I am not sure how you could raise a child while remaining sane without one!

Happy Easter everyone!

Our growing boy

We are all doing well. Ben is growing quickly and Conrad is exceedingly busy. I get slightly cabin feverish and the weather is rather dreary, but all in all quite happy. We are currently working on getting our little guy to sleep on a schedule, working towards sleeping through the night. If anyone has any tips on what worked for them it would be GREATLY appreciated. Trying to get him on a schedule so that when I go back to work in a couple weeks it won't be so hard on either of us!! We feel very grateful, however, that he is such a good natured baby. He is such a sweet little boy and is already quite a character.

Hope all is well with everyone and thank you again for all of the gifts and well wishes we have received. This is one very well dressed baby boy! love to all

More pictures of Sir Benjamin

Amazingly our little boy started out in Daddy's arms and worked himself into an impossible position!!! Do we have a contortionist on our hands?

Amazing really :)

My students saw Ben for the first time :)

They were soooo excited!!

Tired and dirty parents giving Ben a bath

Ben is doing wonderfully and is an amazing little guy! Hard to believe he is finally here and ours to boot :) We have had so many phone calls, gifts, and cards for little Ben and we can't thank everyone enough for all the love and support. We also have an amazing family. The support and help of my parents, brother, and Conrad's parents and grandmothers has been invaluable. We couldn't have gotten through the first couple of weeks without them. We miss them all greatly, but are doing well with it being just the three of us.

One of the highlights of the last couple weeks was taking little Ben to see my kids at school. They were so excited to finally see him, as were some of the other faculty members:) The kids were very loud and hyper, as was to be expected, but Ben slept the whole time! They never got to see his eyes because they were tightly closed. He didn't wake up until the students left for the day and it got very quiet. I guess after nine months of hearing all the noise in the classroom and me yelling at the kids, um... I mean ... gently encouraging them to be quiet, it was very calming and comforting to him, like a lullaby is to most other children!

Benny: Week One

Here are a bunch of new pictures of Benny. So far things are going very well. He rarely screams and we have been getting relatively good sleep (knock on wood). Grandad Hammack got into town on the 12th, and Abuelita Buck is coming in two days.

And in more important news, Benny also helped root on the US Men's soccer team to a 2-0 victory over arch-rival Mexico in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday. To top it all off, our favorite player scored both of the goals!

Introducing Benjamin David Buck

We have a baby!!!

Benjamin David Buck was born at 3:33 pm on Feb.5. He weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz (thankfully much less than anticipated). 20 1/2 ".

He officially came home yesterday. Gaumie Hammack was there for the delivery, and Uncle Michael came into town today. The rest of the immediate family will be arriving over the next two weeks. In the meantime, we have been doing skype video chats with everyone to see the new baby.

Here are a few pictures. The full album can be viewed here.

2 Days!!

Just got out of my last Doctor's appointment!!! There is a slightly raised "risk" that Monkey will have to be delivered via c-section due to doctor's fear of size and high probability of getting stuck. I figure as long as Monkey comes out safely I am game for anything. My Mom gets here tomorrow and I can't wait to see her. I wish my Daddy could be here for the delivery too, but darn Monkey needs to enter the world a little earlier than expected so Dad won't get here till the 12th (the original flight date). Needless to say we are very excited to meet this little baby.

I had another bout of flu or food poisoning on Sunday and somehow managed to bruise my xiphoid process. Hmmmmm... didn't know that could happen. I am very ready to get my organs back where they belong so strange parts of my body stop getting injured :)

Update

So the time is now set for our Feb. 5th induction. We are to report to the hospital at 4:45am. We are the first scheduled appointment of the day, so at least they can't be running behind :) We'll keep you posted on any updates! Wish us luck :)