Ben comes home

On Friday morning, Ben and I were given permission to go home! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, but we were both ready to get back to Holly Ridge. Zach was feeling much better so he came down to pick us up around lunchtime.

When we got home, Dan was napping but he quickly woke up when he sensed that something exciting was happening outside of his crib. We got him settled on the couch with his trash truck DVD, mostly so he would sit still long enough to safely hold Ben. So far, Dan is really good with him. He keeps saying, "Kiss, kiss" and trying to give him a little smooch on his head. Which is all very nice and sweet, until he congratulates himself with a really loud, "YAY!" immediately afterward and directly in Ben's ear. Oh, well! Last night, when I was nursing Ben on the couch, Dan brought over the baby toys (little rattles and stuffed animals) one at a time to present them to Ben. So he's a good sharer already!



For comparison, here's Dan coming home from the hospital:

Ben, Day 2

We spent the day getting to know our little guy, just hanging out in the hospital room, resting and relaxing! My mom came down to the hospital with Dan (thanks so much to our neighbor, Robyn, for bringing them down to Wilmington!) so the two brothers could meet for the first time. Dan was decidedly underwhelmed by Ben. He was much more interested in the hospital bed and the rolling bassinet cart.

Zach went home in the afternoon. He had either eaten something bad the day before or had contracted some kind of 24-hour bug because he was not feeling so hot. So Ben and I spent a quiet afternoon napping and catching up on the Real Housewives of D.C. Quality time together!

Pictures from the day:

Ben's First Day

On Wednesday, August 25th, 2010, at 6:33 pm, we welcomed our second son, Benjamin Philip Rashman, into the world! He is already a sweet, calm baby who is fitting right into our lives just like he was meant to.

I started having contractions about 3 am on Wednesday morning but they weren't too intense and the timing was very irregular, so I just tried to sleep until we could wake up at a normal time. When Zach and I got up and showered, it was about 6:30 and the contractions were a little more intense and a little closer together, but still nothing crazy. I called the OB and described what was going on and he said to come on down to the hospital, considering that this was Baby #2 and we live an hour away. Plus, I needed to take some antibiotics before delivery so they wanted to make sure I would have enough time for that. Little did we know that we would have all day long.....

I was only 2-3 cm in the morning, so I walked around for an hour in the halls, trying to get things moving, but no luck there. About 10 am, the nurse checked me again and I was still at 3 cm, so they gave me the first dose of antibiotics and sent me on my way. Zach and I didn't want to come all the way home, so we turned the day into a Date Day and went out to lunch, did a little shopping and saw a movie. I was having contractions the whole time, but they were manageable. About 4:30 pm, we decided to head back to the hospital to get checked again (plus I needed the second round of antibiotics by 6 pm).

When we got settled into Triage, the nurse checked me and was happy to see that I was between 5 and 6 cm. Progress, finally! I was admitted into Labor and Delivery and we got settled there around 5:15 pm. We requested a room with a tub because being in the water really helped me the first time around with Dan. I got in the tub about 5:45 and that's when the real fun started!

At this point, I assumed that I was still only about 6 cm so I figured that I had at least a few hours before pushing. So I couldn't quite believe it when the contractions became extremely intense with a lot of pressure right after I got into the tub. They were still about 3-4 minutes apart but I thought I was going to die during each one. No way could I keep that up for hours without any drugs! Then I felt like I had to push (isn't the human body amazing--mine knew exactly what it needed to do while my brain was still a few steps behind) so Zach and the nurse (the only two people in the room) were trying desperately to get me out of the tub and onto the bed. The hospital doesn't allow water deliveries and they didn't want me to be the first!

I fought against getting out of the tub because I really felt like the baby was going to fall out as soon as I lifted my leg over the edge. Zach managed to help me while the nurse was paging the doctor and yelling down the hall for help. As I was standing between the tub and the foot of the bed, I reached down and held the baby's head in my hand because he was already out! The doctor arrived and pushed me back onto the bed where I gave one more big push and the shoulders came out. And that was it! I kept asking, "What is it? What is it?" And all anyone would say was, "A healthy baby!" But what kind of healthy baby?!?! "It's a boy!" And that's how Ben came into our lives. Maybe this is how he's going to be his whole life--wait a while, take his time, think things over, and then take drastic action!

Ben is a little smaller than Dan at 8 pounds, 19 1/4 inches long, but otherwise they look very much alike. Round head, chubby cheeks, full lips, totally adorable! Here are pictures from his first day (tomorrow I'll do a post with mostly pictures, but for now, I'm going to bed):

Grace's first birthday

Last Saturday, we went to a first birthday party for Grace, daughter of our friends Joe and Emily. We were friends with them in Hawaii and now we're all out here in North Carolina. They had a great set-up for the party, with lots of water stuff for the kids and big tent for shade for the adults. Dan loved running around, trying out all the pools and avoiding any of the toys that sprayed water. He really hates being sprayed with water, whether it's from the showerhead or the sprinklers or whatever. But he loved the pools and the water table. And the dirt pile next to the porch--he spent a good amount of time there as well!

New playpen

When we bought our coffee table many moons ago, we thought it would be a great place to store toys and other kid stuff. Well, it mostly became a storage area for all kinds of other junk that we didn't want to throw out. But with the new little guy/gal coming, I decided to clean it all out and store some baby stuff in there. Dan has discovered that he loves climbing in and out and in and out and wheeling his trucks along the open lid. Whatever keeps him occupied on these dog days of summer!

Summer activities

There are only so many ways to beat the heat around here and morning swimming at the pool on base is one of them! On Wednesdays and Fridays from 9-11 in the morning, the base pool is only open to the under-5 crowd (and mommies and daddies) so it's perfect for Dan! It's a zero-entry pool so he can just walk right in and it has some water sprayers and other fun stuff. Dan is pretty funny--he'll just walk and walk and walk until his head is under water. I keep telling him that he either needs to stop walking and start swimming (or grow taller) but it doesn't seem to faze him when his head goes under, so I guess he's cool with it. He really loves when the helicopters and airplanes fly right overhead, which is quite often since the pool is right across the road from the runway. That's what he's looking at in some of the pictures below.

Here are some pictures from last Friday:





On Sunday, Zach mowed the lawn with a little help from Dan. Our lawn is pretty small so we just have a manual push mower. It gets the job done!

My non-shower shower

Last night, I went out to a really nice dinner with four of my neighborhood friends. It was a non-shower baby shower of sorts and it was great just to get together with other women, without kids, and just talk and eat and laugh. And get a few presents too! I'm not much of a shower person, which is kind of surprising, since I don't mind being the center of attention and I love getting presents, so I can't really explain my aversion to showers. This was the perfect solution!

From left to right: Jill Lee, Kristin Strizki, Robyn Credle, Anne Campbell, and me (the large one). Two of the other women are pregnant as well, so there must be something in the water here in Holly Ridge!


Also, if you want to put in a guess on all the details of the newest Baby Rashman, check out http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyRashman. Good luck! (For some reason, Blogger never lets my links work, so just cut and paste if you want to make a guess.)

Climbing fool

Dan has discovered that climbing is a fun game that gives Mommy a scare every time! He will climb on pretty much anything and will then jump off, just to see what will happen. Surprisingly, he's never tried to climb out of his crib, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Here he is, scaling his toy shelves:

Baby Dan

We've been getting ready for Baby #2 around here, which means getting all the newborn stuff out of the attic and cleaning it thoroughly! (I still haven't bought a single thing for this new little one--I probably should look into newborn diapers at the very least, right?) Dan is very interested in the process, even if he doesn't really understand the full implications of just how much his world is going to change. After I washed the sheets for the bassinet, Dan wanted to climb in and give it a test drive. Kind of ironic, considering how much he hated sleeping in it as a newborn! I hope this new baby adjusts to the bassinet because Dan is still in the crib so he/she really doesn't have much of a choice. I guess we'll know in just a few short weeks....

(And yes, Dan is pantless, because that's how we roll here in rural North Carolina!)