Arrival

Ben surprised us by coming a few weeks before his due date! My water broke around midnight Saturday night. We weren't convinced that's what it was so we went to bed to get some rest. When I woke up at 6:30 the next morning I was pretty sure we should head in to the birthing center so I called the doctor. He confirmed that we should get in, so we headed to the center at 7:30 am. A nurse confirmed that my water broke and that we would likely have the baby late that night or early the next morning (commence freakout).

Labor was relatively short and "easy" (no labor is easy - it just wasn't as bad as I was anticipating!). Thankfully I didn't feel any contractions until ~11 am. By 2 or 2:30 pm the contractions were painful enough for an epidural and by 5 or 5:30 pm I started pushing. Craig breathed along with me in between pushes. I didn't realize that's what he was doing, so (in between pushes) I kept asking him if he was going to pass out. He was fine :)

Although we didn't quite have everything ready for Ben's arrival, we're thankful that he was born healthy. He was born at 6:10 pm on April 23rd, 2017 at the Scottsdale HonorHealth Osborn Birthing Center. He was 7 lbs, 8 oz, 20 inches long and had an APGAR score of 9/10 - pretty good for 38 weeks gestation!

Mom made it to Phoenix by 9 pm. The picture of her was taken on the morning of 4/24.

My favorite moment: Immediately after he was born they put him on my chest and I said "Hiy-a booger!" to him - he stopped crying to look up at me. My second favorite moment was Craig changing his first diaper ever.

Craig's favorite moment: After they put Ben on my chest he grabbed Craig's finger and wouldn't let go.