In love...

Benson Christensen Wood

January 30, 2010

7:24 pm

5 pounds 7 oz 19 inches

Love at first sight

Our Family

SO stinkin' cute!

Just a little guy!





Jamie and Benson

Emily and Benson

The smallest outfit we had...not quite small enough!

Benson and Grammy



First sponge bath

First pediatrician appointment

Benson surprised us and arrived 2 weeks early! Yay!

Ready for the birth story? Here it is... Friday night we went to dinner with some our besties to Red Robin. I was having some pretty painful contractions in my back, but totally thought it was more Braxton Hicks. I had gone to the doctor on Wednesday and was told I wasn't dilated at all. We got home and the contractions kept on coming. They were 20 minutes apart, then 15, and when we finally went to bed at 1:00. I was pretty much up all night, labor is pretty painful stuff! In the morning they were 5 minutes apart. I was SO worried about going to the hospital and being sent home. When I would have a contraction and would be in so much pain; I was ready to go to the hospital right then. When it was over I would change my mind. Finally around noon we decided to go. When we got to the hospital around 12:30 I was dilated to a 4. Within a couple hours they finished my blood work, hooked up an IV and gave me the best thing that ever happened...an epidural. Love me some epidural. I watched a little TV, hung out with Brandon, took a nap, facebooked. I have to give a shout out to Dr. Maser- love him. He hung out all day, he doesn't force pitocin, doesn't try to make you push before your ready, and is super patient. I was ready to push around 7:00 pm and everyone got set up, I pushed for about 10 minutes and our little angel face was born! He is perfect!

So far things have been mostly amazing. My mom came on Sunday and has been incredible. I really would not have survived these first few days without her. Brandon is the BEST daddy, I knew he would be a natural, but seriously. He has taken such good care of me and Benson. We've been visited, fed dinner and treats, came home to flowers and balloons, given preemie clothes for our little munchkin...I'm telling you, the works. Our friends are a blessing, we love them, ya'll know who you are.

The not amazing part is that Benson does not want to breastfeed, I'm determined to breastfeed. He is so, so tiny so the problems we're having are normal, but completely frustrating. So say a little prayer for us about that. I've never seen a tinier baby. We are so happy, he is absolutely precious.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Everything In Between!

If I had done a Christmas card it would have said what a busy/awesome/exciting year we've had! We feel so incredibly blessed to be in Michigan in law school, to have the friends we have, and especially for our families. We've hit the half way mark of school and I'm a little bit sad, we're really enjoying this stage of life.

The highlight of the year was obviously Benson, we can't wait for him to join our family (we got a sneak peek at our 4D ultrasound we got for Christmas)...



I've spent most of the winter in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years and have loved every second of it, which is possibly why I abandoned my blog for so long!

Thanksgiving was just how I like it, traditional, good food, and the whole family together...

At Christmas time this year we had our semi-annual soup party and made 8 different kinds of soups and treats, threw a big family Christmas party, shopped and shopped, spent Christmas Eve with Brandon's family and went to a late dinner at Lawry's with my family, opened presents (Benson even scored a few), and spent some quality time with our families...

A few days after Christmas my aunt threw me a dang cute shower and lets just say, Benson is going to be decked out. I can't get over the quilt my aunt made- it's amazing, Brandon's mom put together the cutest diaper cake, and we pretty much got spoiled!

We rang in the new year with Katee's 20th Birthday and a big party...

We're definitely looking forward to 2010 and what the new year will bring!

To Do

Time seems to fly by these days. I'm in my third trimester now if you ask one book, and will be on Friday if you ask another. I'm starting to feel like I have so much to and not enough time to do it. Nesting is not good when your Type A!

We leave Friday to head to Vegas and I can't wait. I'm feeling a little homesick and I can't wait for sunshine 7 days a week. Finals are coming up already and I think Brandon is feeling the pressure.

Want to hear my "To Do" list? It will make me feel better so here we go:

• Clean my house, I refuse to leave town with a dirty house
• Put my fall decorations away
• Doctor's appointment tomorrow (glucose test- ugh!)
• Make some yumminess for my friends shower on Wednesday
• Do all the laundry so we can pack
• Pack
• WORK! I'm so behind.
• Deliver our guest bedroom bed to family that doesn't have one (to make room for a crib)
• Buy a crib and changing table and get Brandon to put them together
• Build shelves in Benson's closet
• See New Moon
• Plan the ward Christmas Party (yay for my new calling!)
• Find the perfect birthday present for my niece that's turning 4
• Find curtains, a rug and mobile that match Benson's bedding

What? Who does that? I do feel a little better though :)

Good Stuff

It's been far too long since I've blogged about good stuff I found at the grocery store, but food is a funny thing when you're pregnant. Lately it's been slightly more appealing and I've found a few things that must be tried. First, these...



The lemon ones are SO delicious- and only 100 calories! And these...

Equally as good, but not exactly 100 calories. And my mom sent this in our Halloween package...

I cannot get enough! Try it all!

Last weekend we headed to Ikea in Detroit to get some inspiration for Benson's room. We remembered some outlets on the way and took a detour. It's funny, the kid isn't even here yet and I already gave up on shopping for myself. I never understood how moms did that, but I found myself going from Baby GAP, to Gymboree to Children's Place. There was a massive sale at Children's Place with the CUTEST clothes on racks there were .99, $1.99 and $2.99. We had arm fulls, then a lady in line handed us a coupon so we ended up spending $25.00 on about 25 things. We were pretty dang proud of ourselves! A few of my favorites...

Blocks, Benson and a Bird

Martha Stewart talked me into making these blocks. Aren't hers cute?

My crafts never quite turn out the same as hers, but here they are...

You'll notice there is a name on these blocks- finally!

Isn't this bird random?

I saw him at Meijer (think Super Walmart if you're not from MI) and thought he would look cute on a shelf in my nursery, but now I'm thinking it might be a little creepy!

Go, Go, Go

We have been go, go, going lately. I hear the baby might slow us down a little and I have a fear of missing out on anything fun so we've been cramming it in.

A few gals and I threw a "Lil Pumpkin" baby shower for our friend Riley that turned out darling! I was in charge of the cheeseball and I really wanted it to look like a pumpkin, after calling my mom 85 times and consulting my friend Emily, I ended up rolling it in crunched up gold fish crackers to make it orange. Crafty right?



We hit up the homecoming parade with a few friends...

And seriously- one of the funnest things we've done in a long time- midnight madness! The NCAA says when teams can start practice for the season and MSU throws a huge party to kick off the season.

The players were introduced and walked right by my seat. It was so awesome to give them all a high-five!

Raising our final four banner...

Last but not least, we could not be more thrilled to have scored a signed basketball by Coach Izzo. Brandon has been wanting one of these babies, and he can't wait to display it in his office one day. We were pumped!

Love This

There are about a million things I could spend my free time on, one thing I choose to make time for is to catch up on my blog reading, I LOVE to know what everyone is up to all the time. I mostly read people I know, stalk a few acquaintances, and I read C Jane. I loved one of her recent posts so much that I have to share. She seriously speaks to me. Makes me think. You can read the whole thing here, or my favorite part...

“…My season is not about house decoration. It is not about glass vases on low centered tables (as lovely as it looks, and it looked lovely). I need a simple house without toddler traps. Good organization and lots of cues from nature.

A clean house.

My season is not about fashion. It is about picking a few items, showing off the best part of my body. Easy laundered shirts for the inevitable snot trails that end up on my shoulder area. Look nice, but not encumbered.

Clean clothes.

My season is not about cooking elegant meals. I do not have the heart to treat food the way it should be treated. It is okay to eat peaches, apples and toast. Pirate Booty and Lorna Doones.

Just eat something.

My season is for babies. For sleeping when my baby naps and early morning bottle swapping. For belly and breast expansion and retraction. Music in the nursery and afternoons in the backyard. A season for schedules and predictability. A quiet time, a time to be at home, a time to focus on growing and gathering.

Love this season.

(I don't want to ask my energy to do more than this, though some women can.)

Then, then, then! I will start to dream again. I will dream of the season of glass vases and vacuum lines in my carpet. The time to cultivate a more sophisticated wardrobe and mornings to stay in bed until noon. I will earn my way to a kitchen full of spices and surprises. Parties, gatherings, social outings.

First this. Then the gold living room.”

I love it. Sometimes I think I can have it all, and I can, just not all at once.

Sell-Outs

We are officially sell-outs. I hate to even admit it, but we and sold our tickets and made some serious cash instead of going to the biggest game of the season against our biggest rival.

So we went to Babies-R-Us to start our registry (which I did not enjoy by the way) and I was coveting this chenille glider and ottoman when the manager said she had one in the back that had just been returned because it didn't fit in someones house. We got to buy it for half of what it originally cost and exactly what we sold out tickets for. So happy.

Can I Just Complain For a Sec?

My trustee MSN weather ticker says there is a freeze warning for tonight…can’t we at least wait until October for that nonsense? It also says it’s going to rain starting Friday, for 7 days straight! Luckily the one thing I’ve learned to trust about my trustee weather ticker is that it’s usually wrong.

I also want to give a shout out to GAP for making me a little more excited about the baby boy clothes situation. Seriously? Look how cute their new stuff is…

Speaking of GAP, my mom (also known as Grandma in the near future), purchased the little guy’s very first outfit while we were in Chicago last weekend…

Speaking of Chicago, we got to join my mom, dad, and little sis Kenzie for their first trip to Chicago. They came to East Lansing first and we showed them the sights. Obviously MI is about as different from Las Vegas as you can get so we loved showing them the nature, Lake Lansing, Hawk Island, campus, the law school, all that good stuff. We went to the Cider Mill and rode on the tractor and ate buttermilk doughnuts and drank cider. The weather was beautiful; it was a perfect couple of days. Kenize's pictures are amazing...

Then we crammed as much of Chicago as we could into Saturday and Sunday. Chicago will always be one of my favorite places…

Thanks for the fun times fam!

It's Officially...

a boy!

The doctor said everything looks perfect. We're happy, especially Brandon.

I feel like we can finally get started on things, but we honestly don't really agree on names. I love Benson, Brandon isn't a fan. He likes Caden, I'm on the fence. Then the issue of spelling, I think K's are masculine, he think's they're femine and that C's are more masculine. We have issues!

My parents and little sister are in town and they got to see the little guy going crazy, he would NOT stay still. It was awesome.

Pics...