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 :)

I Plead the Fifth

So after a few consults with our OBGYN and the latest ultrasound, we have officially scheduled the inducement for February 5th, time unknown.

At the ultrasound on Monday, we found out the baby is already estimated to be 8 pounds. Monkey already has daddy and mommy beat as far as birth weight. When the OBGYN found that out, she highly recommended inducing before the due date to avoid the complications that can arise from having a very large baby. As Meghan has been miserable for the last few weeks (months?), she jumped at the chance for an earlier birth.

Oddly enough, the third trimester ultrasound looked the least like a human child (or alien overlord) out of all of them. The baby is so big that each angle was generally either "stomach," or "head." the technician eventually had to stop due to a "bladder emergency" (in case you weren't aware, ultrasound "victims" are told to drink 24 oz. of water an hour before the appointment).

See if you can guess what view this is...

Probably the last two belly photos... The USA soccer jersey has never looked better :)

Let the countdown begin!