Baby Benson: The First Few Weeks

I am behind on my blogging, time has flown by with the addition of this new little guy. 

I love him so much. I feel like he is the perfect addition to our family.
 He makes me feel complete.

Before I had Benson we planned for Steve to take two weeks off of work so I could recover from my (4th) c-section. As it happens it was a prompting from God. The first week went well. Benson had his days and nights mixed up and so Steve helped a lot at night, feedings were going great, the kids were on their usual school schedule and I was recovering. It was a harder recovery this time, I don't know if it was because I have had 3 previous c-sections or if it's because I'm getting older. (My recovery at age 22 seemed to be easier...) But it was going ok.

Then I got sick. Really sick. I couldn't eat anything, even water made me throw up (which is quite painful after a c-section.) I had a horrible pain, like a ring of fire under my rib cage that would come and go. It was awful. I thought it was the stomach flu and so I tried to just wait it out. After a few days I was a mess. Little sleep, recovering from surgery, and not being able to eat or drink was taking its toll on my body and mind. I had prayed a lot to get through my miscarriage and pregnancy, I had been through a lot the past year, but this brought me to a my knees. I received a priesthood blessing from my husband and our Bishop. I was terrified of Steve going back to work and still being sick, but still I held off going to the emergency room. Instead I texted my doctor and told him I had the flu but no fever, other than that I wasn't sure what to do.

Finally after 5 days I decided to go to the ER. It was the day Steve went back to work. They ran a lot of tests. IV fluid helped and the pain would subside. They gave me a sugary drink to take before my CT scan and it made me shake uncontrollably. I hadn't drank that much fluid in almost a week and I think my body was reacting to all the sugar. The CT scan was normal. Finally they came up with a diagnosis: stomach ulcers. Ouch. That's all I have to say. Medication was all I needed to get back on track and start healing. I was so grateful it wasn't anything serious (at one point they thought it was a complication from my c-section and were going to do a D&C.) I was very glad it wasn't a complication from my c-section and could be remedied without another surgery.

After we got my medication all sorted out I was able to start really enjoying baby Benson. He was quite fussy and usually cried from 8pm to 11pm or midnight but other than that he would sleep well and eat well. I tried to take a few newborn photos of him the first couple weeks. I have a new found respect for baby photographers! It was harder than I thought, but these cute photos capture how little and sweet he was. I'm just so glad he's finally here!