Cousins meeting for the first time! (13 days apart)
Our first family photo!
After surgery meeting our sweet baby girl!
Proud daddy, waiting for mom to get out of surgery.
Taylor Jean Benzel, born at 2:30 pm on 8/20/11, 6 lbs 13 ozThis post is a little overdue but, better late than never. Its also quite lengthy so bare with me.
August 20, 2011 our lives changed forever in a way I could not ever have imagined, Taylor Jean Benzel arrived!! We got coffee and took the dogs down for a walk by the river, just like many of the previous Saturdays. We came home and started working in the yard. Around 10:30am I started to have contractions, which were a little bit more intense than any contractions that I had to date. I started to get tired so I headed inside to take a shower. Just before getting in the shower my water broke. Figuring I had hours I took my shower and started getting ready. As I dried my hair the contractions started coming more frequently. Once I told Todd my water had broke he started packing the car and getting ready to go. We jumped in the car and made the 3 minute drive to the hospital, quite possible the longest car ride in history when you have such intense contractions. I had to stop twice in the parking lot to get through the contractions. We checked in and they wheeled me up to my room. Little did they know that in the next hour as they got everything in order I would go from 3cm to 10cm. (with no pain meds) This baby was ready to come out and we were so ready to meet her. Our little lady wanted to make a dramatic entrance so after a bit of fetal distress and the doctor discovering that she was breech we headed to the OR for an emergency c-section. Because of the situation they had to put me completely to sleep as they couldn't wait the 15 minutes for a spinal.
After surgery I woke up in recovery anxious to meet our little girl. I was taken to my room where Todd and Taylor were waiting for me. I was so groggy that I thought that I was only gone for 30 minutes when in reality I was gone for almost 3 hours. Todd was amazing and took care of her during the time I was in surgery, he even picked out her first outfit. It was an amazing experience that I have a hard time explaining in words how special it was. They handed her to me and she snuggled right into my chest. As we snuggled our little girl I asked Todd what he wanted to name her, he immediately said Taylor Jean. We knew before we arrived at the hospital that her middle name was going to be Jean after my Grandma. We were very excited to introduce our little lady to her Grandparents, both sets arrived shortly after I got back to our room. Our good friends Jake and Brooke were celebrating their anniversary in Leavenworth so they stopped by to meet little Tay. Todd's sister and her family made the trip over to see us, Maddie and Colin were very intrigued by their new cousin. My sister bravely packed up both kids and drove over to see us. I wasn't able to go over when she had Payten so it was fun to get to meet Payten.
Enjoy the pics, please excuse my lovely hospital gown. :)
