(personalized swaddle blanket from here)
And just like that... He's here!
Bennett David Rumple was born on June 28th at 8:43am. He was 6 pounds, 15 ounces and 20.25 inches long. He was a pound heavier and almost 3 inches taller than his brother was! But, he had a few more weeks in my belly than Cam did. Most importantly, he was perfectly healthy! Praise the Lord!
We are slowly coming out of the newborn cocoon we've been in over the past week. I have to say I don't know what we would have done with out both of our parents (Bennett's grandparents) help! Especially with watching Camden while we were at the hospital and continuing to help with him while we are home and I am recuperating from the c section. Honestly, it really does take a village... especially when there are toddlers and newborns involved!
Here's a quick recap of our time at the hospital last week...
(The morning before going to the hospital)
My c section was scheduled for 8:15 am Tuesday morning. We had to arrive 2 hours early to check in and get ready. Needless to say I didn't get a great night's sleep the night before and you can totally tell on my face in the photo above!
Driving to the hospital and sitting in the triage room before surgery I was filled to the brim with nerves. I pretty much knew what to expect since I had had a c section with Camden, but I was still so nervous about what could potentially go wrong. After they got my IV in (which was one of the worst parts, I swear!) and got me all ready for surgery, we still had about an hour to just sit there! It was torture! My doctor and the anesthesiologist came in to talk to us and that helped a lot with my nerves.
Finally, at about 8:10 the nurses walked me into the OR and prepped me for my spinal. The spinal was pretty rough (not gonna lie) and I think it took her a few times to get it right (they numb the area first, but you can still feel pressure). Once it was in, they laid me down for surgery. The spinal kicked in pretty quickly and I could feel my legs and my whole lower half start to get very numb and heavy. The anesthesiologist was so great and stayed by my side the whole time just talking me through what was happening before Bill was allowed in the room. Once I was prepped for surgery and the curtain was up, they brought Bill in. My tactic to not think about what was going on was to stare at Bill and talk about what Bennett was going to look like, what Camden was doing right now, what we plan to do when we get home from the hospital... Basically, any random subject that would keep my mind off what was going on behind the curtain. I couldn't feel any pain, but I could feel some pressure and slight tugging here and there.
Then, all of a sudden... we heard a cry! "It's a boy!" was yelled (even though we already knew, it's always nice to be reassured!).
They cleaned him up a bit and brought him over the curtain so we could see him! Immediately, I thought he looked very similar to Cam did when he was born! But, of course all squishy little newborns look similar. I just remember seeing his cute little nose like Camden's.
The rest of the surgery took about 20 minutes or so. While they were finishing, they checked all of Bennett's vitals and let us know he was all healthy. They swaddled him up and brought him over for Bill to hold. Bill then held his cute little face against mine and it was the best moment! Of course, I started crying right away! (Unfortunately, at this particular hospital there are no pictures allowed in the OR)
After they were done with the surgery, we headed to recovery. Once we were there, I was able to do skin to skin with him and start breastfeeding. Bennett actually latched pretty quickly, which was quite the opposite with his brother. We were in recovery for 2 hours before heading to our permanent room. The time in recovery was so relaxing and a great way for Bill and I to spend quality time with our new baby, just the three of us.
My recovery and stay at the hospital was pretty similar to what I remember with Camden. The nurses had me get out of bed only 8 hours after my surgery. The first time out of bed is always the worst, but it got better each time. The only visitors we had were both our parents and Camden. I was so excited to see Camden's reaction to meeting his little brother. I didn't want to make him jealous right away, so we had Bennett in the hospital basinet instead of me holding him when Camden came in the room.
(Our first picture as a family of 4!)
I think Camden kind of knew what was going on, but was a little confused on why mommy was in bed and couldn't hold him. Cam kept pointing to Bennett and saying 'baby!' which was adorable. I tried to teach him to say Bennett, which he is pretty close to mimicking now!
We stayed in the hospital until Friday morning. The rest of our stay pretty much consisted of working on breastfeeding (which is going great I'm so thankful to report), baby snuggling and resting.
(the best post baby/hospital stay PJs here)
Bill was so great the entire time and pretty much did everything else for Bennett besides feeding him since I wasn't really able to get out of bed too often. He handled all the diaper changes, helped with burping him and changing his swaddles, etc. He is such a great dad and I am so lucky to have him as my partner!
By the time Friday rolled around, we were so ready to bring baby Bennett home and start our new adventure as a family of four!
Of course, I had to get Bennett all dressed up for the ride home...
(Bennett's personalized beanie is from this etsy shop)
Welcome to the world, Bennett! You are so loved already!!
Can't believe baby B will be one week tomorrow!!
I'm still working on a good schedule for finding the time to blog, but I'm hoping to post another update by the end of the week. Hope you all had a happy 4th of July weekend!
