Home with Ben

Hello everyone! If you haven't heard, Nick and I welcomed our son Benjamin Alan Vollmer into the world on Thursday, March 18th at 11:05pm. Ben weighed a whopping 9lb 3oz and was 21.5 inches long! We had a very eventful 8 days in the hospital, and let's just say we are so very thankful to all be home and healthy.



We left for the hospital Wednesday afternoon, the 17th, to be admitted. We had an induction planned for Thursday morning, and they like to get you in the night before to start some medicine to help move things along. That night we watched American Idol and shared our excitement to finally meet our son the next day! We both had a pretty tough nights sleep- Nick with his first on the fold out cot and me in a hospital bed with monitors hooked up all over.... we had no idea it would be the first of 8 long nights. I will spare you all the details, but here's how it all played out.

The next day, 7:00am, nurses were in and out of the room, buzzing around to get the medicine started to induce labor. Nick and I were so excited- today was the day!! We had some anxiety about the whole labor process, but it wasn't long before anxiety didn't matter- labor was full force. Nick coached me through the first 5 hours of contractions, but eventually an epidural was the route to go... and let me tell you I LOVE that decision! And luckily for us, it didn't slow down labor at all. About 5 hours later, around 6pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push. Remember me saying earlier that Ben weighed 9lbs 3 ounces... well, needless to say, 2 hours of pushing, and his 14 1/2 inch head wasn't budging. The doctor delivered the sad news that we were going to need to do a c-section. Nick and I were pretty upset at the idea of surgery, but knew that it was the only safe way to bring Ben into the world.

The surgery went well- it was a very emotional experience for the two of us. I will never forget hearing Ben's little squeals and cries and seeing the look on my husbands face as he held our son. Then on the way out of the OR, being wheeled to our room, Ben was laid in my arms for the first time. I love him more than I thought possible.

I always said I would never show people the scary looking hospital pictures of me after giving birth... but I think it's just too precious.

The next 3 days were spent with lots of visitors and recovering from surgery. By Sunday, things looked good and we were ready to take Ben home! Unfortunately, when we were about 10 minutes away from leaving the hospital, I experienced unexpected complications. I had severe abdominal pain that came on pretty quickly, and it was soon apparent that I had internal bleeding. The next 24 hours are pretty blurry for me, and I know I gave my husband and family a big scare. I had another surgery on my abdomen, and they were able to find the source of the bleeding. Most likely, during my c-section, a blood vessel was somehow cut and I had been bleeding internally for a few days. I needed a transfusion of almost 5 units of blood after all that I had lost. I spent the night in the ICU after surgery, and then several more nights at the hospital after that. Nick took over feeding and care duties for Ben in a family room that was provided to him by the hospital.

I am so thankful that I have made so much progress in my recovery, and I was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Nick and I were finally able to bring our son home, and we are loving every minute of it. I am still not very mobile, so I have good helpers (Mom and Nick) here with me. Thank you to all of our friends and family that have been saying prayers for us over the last week, and through the scary uncertain times.

Now that we are home, I am just enjoying my precious little son! Ben is a GOOD eater (coming in over 9lbs, what do you expect), and we just spend all day loving on him and taking care of him. It's a great way to spend our time! We think he's pretty much the cutest thing on earth! Gunther is also adjusting pretty well... although we think he is jealous:)