Welcome Benjamin

In case you missed the short e-mail I sent out yesterday, we are all happy to welcome little Benjamin Walter Gribble into the world. He was “born” at about 8:10 in the morning on Wednesday, September 26, 2012. He weighed in at a scant 6 lbs. and 5 ozs. with a length of 19 inches. He does have a pretty big, and non-conical, head at 14.5 inches (multiply by 2.54 to get centimeters if you prefer) in circumference. He’s also got a lot of really dark brown hair (back and shoulders included).

Since the baby was stubbornly breech to the end, we had a scheduled Cesarian section (they prefer not to have mothers go into labor with breech babies). Thanks to modern medicine, the sex was about the only mystery, and since we weren’t that fond of the girl name we’d selected, I guess it’s a good thing we got a boy this time around. For those who may be wondering, Walter is a family name (my paternal grandfather), but we just liked Benjamin.

The first day of life was pretty hectic. I didn’t realize that chauffeur was a significant part of a dad’s responsibilities when number two comes around. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 for all of the pre-operative stuff (which consists of mostly a blood draw, some paperwork, and a lot of sitting around and doing nothing). Since Phoebe’s school doesn’t open up until 6:30 or so, Big John stayed over to help get Phoebe to school at her normal time. Both Phoebe and Big John reported that the morning went smoothly.

In general, the surgery went well. I was able to get the anesthesiologist to laugh quite a few times, but Jess didn’t seem to fully appreciate my attempts at distraction. I opted not to cut the umbilical cord (really a trim as it had already been severed) in hopes of some better task later, but alas I was not allowed to give the staple gun a whirl (another failed attempt at humor from Jess’s perspective).

Jess found the surgery to be a bit more painful than she’d expected. I think she went in with the idea that she wouldn’t really feel anything, so it was a bit of a shock to discover that you can feel quite a bit, and some parts can even be rather painful. After the sewing (and stapling) was done, we spent a few minutes with Jess finally getting to hold Ben. Breastfeeding with all of the trappings of modern medicine isn’t super convenient, and the whole process is made even more difficult when you can’t really sit up properly.

Time really flies when you’re trying to make sure a little guy eats and mom doesn’t get too overstressed, so it was after lunch time in the blink of an eye. Jess was reasonably comfy, so I walked over to Snarfs to get a sandwich and a cup of coffee. I brought them back to the hospital where Jess was stuck with a “liquids” assortment; yum.

Later in the afternoon, I had to hop into the car and go pick up Phoebe from daycare. She’s been really excited about this week, not because she’s been desperate to meet her new little brother or sister, but rather due to a sleepover with John and Thomas. Seriously, you should see how excited she gets every time the subject comes up. We, of course, were excited for her to meet Benjamin.

I took the camera with me to Take-a-Break so that Phoebe could see what her brother looked like, and the teachers were all pretty excited to see as well. We chatted a bit about meeting the little guy on the ride over, but I could tell that she was a bit apprehensive. When I told her that Ben had a present for her, she was pretty excited.

Phoebe didn’t stay at the hospital too long, but she did give little Benjamin a kiss before hopping back into the car for the drive over to the Brinkmans. On the ride over, she explained all of the games/toys that she wanted to play with. One of the scenarios involved John playing his cat keyboard while Phoebe sang into the magic microphone. I still can’t get images of the Captain and Tennille out of my head.