Benjamin Kenneth Roelofs!!

Hi everyone

Yes...it's sad that I haven't posted anything since September. The last post talks about assembling nursery furniture......and now we actually have someone using that furniture but better late than never! On October 30th we welcomed Benjamin Kenneth Roelofs into our lives and hearts! Life will never be the same...and that is a really really good thing. I'll backtrack a bit and fill you in on the goings on over the past few weeks.

Benjamin put up quite the battle to stay in utero. He fought and fought until the very last minute when he was literally evicted. I started having contractions in the beginning of October. We took a trip to labor and delivery just to be told to go home and wait for the real thing to begin. But since I work in DC and that's almost an hour drive each way, I was home bound for several weeks before his due date. I didn't want to get to work, have my water break and then have to find a way to get to Baltimore. Luckily I have a job that is very accommodating and let me work from home the last few weeks. There were many times where contractions would start, go strong for a few hours and then just quit....very frustrating to wait and wait and wait. I never thought I'd sit around my house and want to be in the greatest pain of my life but that's what it boiled down to. I walked 5-6 miles a day, ate spicy food and did just about everything in my power to get things going. I learned a lot about patience and waiting on the Lord. His timing is always perfect....and in this instance it definitely was.

October 22 came and went. After having that date circled on the calendar for 9 long months it was really hard to have it come and go and still have no baby. My OB set the date for induction a week later on the 29th so at least we knew he was coming out at some point in time! On the 29th we went into the hospital at 6:30 p.m. for an overnight induction. They start at night hoping you can get some sleep during the early part and then be laboring during the day instead of the night. We arrived at labor and delivery only to be told that the floor was full and there were no empty beds! They asked us to come back in the morning but after a bit of pleading they sent us out for dinner and told us to come back in a few hours to see if anything opened up. By 8:30ish there was a bed available and we got ourselves all checked in. They started induction meds around 9:30 and by 10 I was having tons of contractions....so many that they had to change medications and slow things down a bit.

At 10 the next morning after contracting every few minutes for 12 hours straight and only being 3 cm, I gave in and went for the epidural. I had kind of hoped to go natural but had heard not so great things about induction so was open to drugs if need be. After 12 hours it was time.... too bad they missed. Either the anesthesiologist missed or I moved the catheter out of position...but either way it did very little to help with the pain. I kept wondering....why do people love these things so much when they don't really help? Is it normal to still be able to move my legs and feet? Water broke at 1 and contractions really got bad. Had it not been for Brian, my mom and the nurses I definitely don't think I would have made it. Without their encouraging words and support I would have just given up...not that that was an option but still...not fun. Around 4 the nurses figured I had enough and called anesthesia back to re-evaluate. After a few tests and attempts to stop the pain the realized what was going on and pulled the first epidural and put in another. Good thing I'm not too freaked out about needles....it took 4 tries to get the IV in and 2 to get the epidural. The second one kicked in right away and brought instant relief. The doctor came in to check again about 5 minutes later and said "woah....there's the head." It took 12 hours to get to 3 cm but only 3 to get the remaining 7. So I basically got the epidural just in time to start pushing. After 2+ hours of pushing I admit I was really glad I did have it but still....ironic.

At 7:30 we welcomed Benajmin into the world. He was a little stunned when he came out and wasn't breathing right away so they whisked him away to get him going. It was hard to not be able to hold him and even worse to not hear him crying. By then there were half a dozen people in the room running around tending to him working to get him breathing on his own. Poor Brian was torn between wanting to be next to me to reassure me that things were going to be ok and wanting to be over near him actually making sure this was the case. But they got him breathing and brought him over to us and he was PERFECT. Yes I know I'm biased....but he really is perfect. Even now at home, he is the perfect baby. For the most part he sleeps, eats constantly and is very healthy. He's 6.5 oz up from birth weight already and doing well. He's happy and almost never cries. He weighed 7 pounds and was 21 inches long.

We're settling into life at home and life together. Praise God for this wonderful blessing and miracle! To echo a friend...there is no experience like creating and bringing a child into the world with the person you love and being able to see traces of both of you in their face. I marvel at God's amazing work in little Benjamin! Thank you to everyone who has called, brought food, sent gifts and prayed for us. We really appreciate everything!

We'll keep you posted with pictures!