Lucas Benjamin Henry

August 9, 2010 (8/9/10)

at 3:33pm
8 lbs. 10 oz.
19.75 inches

This little one was determined to come on his due date!Sunday, August 8:
3:00 am -- Contractions start
9:00 pm -- Finally go to the hospital
9:30 pm -- Devastated to hear Vanessa is only dilated to 1 cm
10:30 pm -- Vanessa only dilated to 2 cm

Monday, August 9:
12:30 am -- Vanessa still only dilated to 2 cm, so we are sent home
6:00 am -- Contractions extremely painful and Vanessa gets sick so Ben calls the doctor
6:30 am -- Back to the hospital
7:00 am -- Vanessa has finally progressed to 4 cm and can now be admitted
7:30 am -- Pain medicine to help Vanessa stop shaking
9:00 am -- Sweet relief from an epidural
I wanted to have a completely natural delivery, but after more than 24 hours of labor with no rest my body needed the reprieve that the epidural offered so I could sleep.
2:00 pm -- Vanessa is dilated to 10 cm and can start pushing
3:33 pm -- Lucas Benjamin Henry is bornHe struggled with Jaundice for the first week, but after some tanning under the Bili-Light, supplementing with an ounce of formula per feeding, and some time sleeping in the window at home, he worked it out.
We love him so much and are so glad to have him home with us!

Dear Baby,

Please come soon. Daddy and I want to see you so badly!

We washed all of your new clothes and blankets and put them away in your room. Your bed is all ready to go when we bring you home from the hospital. Mommy's feet are swelling and her ribs are really sore. I'm sure you're feeling kind of cramped in there. You should join us out here where we can hold you, cuddle you, and kiss you.

Waiting for you to come is like sitting at the top of a roller coaster. I know that the huge drop is coming, but I don't know when. So my body is tensing up in anticipation. The initial drop will be a real shock and I may not like it, but once things get going I'm sure I will be able to relax and enjoy the ride. :)

Constantly thinking of you and loving you,
Mommy and Daddy

New Shoes

Ben plays a lot of basketball. He just got some new shoes. He had to take some pictures.Can you tell he's excited to have a son to play with soon?

36-week Ultrasound

Since I was measuring two weeks small at my last appointment, my doctor ordered an ultrasound just to check things out. She wasn't worried, she just wanted to see what was going on.

So I got the rare experience of seeing my baby boy in an ultrasound at 36 weeks. I was really excited for this because I knew that I would be seeing more of my formed, almost complete baby. At my routine 20-week ultrasound, most of what we saw just looked like a blob and it wasn't super exciting. I wasn't even sure I could believe her when she told us that we were having a boy...

This time around, the nurse asked if I knew what I was having and I said, "Yes, a boy." She replied with, "Honey, you're having a MAN! No doubt about that!" And we got a great visual confirmation. Unfortunately, our little drama king made the rest of the ultrasound difficult. He had his hand over his forehead in an "Oh woe is me" pose and it took some prodding to get him to move his arm out of the way. But we finally got a good profile of his head:
Here in Texas many of the ultrasounds are equipped with 3D capabilities, so the nurse tried to get a 3D shot of his face for me. Again, he was being difficult. He had his face smashed up against my uterus, so most of the images were kind of squished and blurred (think mashing your face up against a window...). This is the best shot we could get with him being so stubborn and refusing to back up a little:
All of his measurements came back just fine and the doctor said he is right on schedule. They are guessing that he is about 6 lbs 4 oz right now, which seems hefty to me, but they say is normal. So as far as we can see, our baby boy is right on schedule: only 4 more weeks to go!

Happy Independence Day!

The Fourth of July being on Sunday this year, we enjoyed a fun evening at home with some friends.

But the Fourth of July just wouldn't be complete without fireworks. Ben and I went to see the fireworks show last night at Sea World and got most of the show on camera. So we hooked up the laptop to the TV and watched the video of the fireworks with our friends today.

Here is a short clip of the end of the show. It was very impressive. I was extremely pleased and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sea World

Being residents of San Antonio, we decided to get Season Passes to Sea World so that we can go anytime we want! This is the best deal because we can go for just a few hours and see a couple of things and then go home and come back another day. Perfect for the pregnant lady as well as for going with friends who have little kids that need to take naps...

First order of business: pictures in front of Shamu!

We visited the Dolphin Cove and got to see these beautiful and intelligent creatures up close.

We also viewed some high-flying talent from these amazing water skiiers.

We can't wait for our baby boy to come because Ben was feeling a little left out being the only guy in our group of friends that didn't have a stroller to push.

We discovered that strollers can be a nice transportation device not only for our baby, but for the many bags that come along with attending a water park...
Next week: actually hanging out in the water park and viewing some 4th of July fireworks!

We have been so blessed to be near close friends in our move here to Texas and we are super excited to be able to go to Sea World with them as often as we want!Micah, Katy, & Madison in front of Shamu with us

Pink Ladies

Because of our proximity to both USAA campus and the nearby University of Texas at San Antonio Medical Center, there are a lot of USAA new-hires freshly graduated from college and med school students. This means a lot of young couples in our ward that are just starting their families, like us! My first Sunday here, about five new girls introduced themselves in Relief Society and most either have a toddler or are pregnant! We are certainly enjoying the atmosphere and the abundance of new friends that are in the same stage of life as us.

Tonight our Relief Society Presidency hosted a welcome dinner for the new sisters in the ward. It was pretty hilarious when three of us showed up all wearing the exact same pink maternity shirt and then two more pregnant friends showed up, also wearing pink shirts!

My new friends: Adrienne, Aubrey, Karen, Lisa, and Me

It will be really fun when all of our babies are here (we're all due in July and August) and we can learn and grow together as new moms! I'm so excited and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to make new friends. :)