Almost 3 months old...

It amazes me everyday how fast Taylor is growing. I can't believe she will be 3 months old on Saturday. I have a month left before I go back to work. I plan to spend this last month cherishing our time together. We have been checking out day cares in the area and finally decided on one. I think it will be much harder for me than it is for her.

2 month Appointment

Waiting with Dad for the doctor to come in, still happy at this point as it was prior to shots.

We just had our two month check up appointment this morning with Tay. She did so good until it came to the shot portion of the appointment. After her shots she wailed like crazy and her face turned beet red, so sad.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 2 oz, 76%

Height: 22 1/2 inches, 49%

Head: 16 1/2 inches, 96%

Its no surprise that her head was in the 96% percentile, she definitely got her big dome from her dad.

Hello October, when did you get here?!?

I have totally neglected my blog over the past several weeks. Our good friends Deb Morell and her daughter Kelly Poort through a shower for us a few weeks back. I confessed at the shower that before we had Taylor I would wonder what all the moms did all day and why they couldn't update their blogs more often. Many of the blogs I checked daily and to my dismay no updates. With that in mind I am going to try and be better about this blogging business. Tomorrow is Taylor's 8 week appointment, she is growing like a weed. I will be sure to post a picture of her as well as her stats when we get done with her appointment.

In the past month we took our first road trip to Seattle for Kurt & Leslie's wedding. Tay got to spend the evening with Grammy and Pop's while we attended the rehearsal dinner. The following night we took her to the wedding with us and she was a hit. She slept almost the whole time despite the loud music and people chatting. So fun to introduce her to our friends who hadn't met her yet. We also crammed in some family photos with Grammy & Pops and the R.Benzels before heading home.

The following week I took a solo trip to Seattle to visit my office and then our good friend Ali held a sip and see at her beautiful new home. It was so fun to introduce her to all of the ladies who have been anxious to meet our little lady.

We packed the family up for one more trip to Seattle this past weekend for the Cougar game. Tay stayed with Grammy & Pops again, they were total troopers and took care of Stacy's two kids too! They did a great job and didn't even seem tired when we got home after the game. I was quickly reminded throughout the night that I am no longer in college. Sunday was a rough one for us, however in the grand scheme of things we had a great time catching up with old friends and people we hadn't seen in ages.

Taylor Jean Benzel

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 oz

This 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. :)

37 weeks- Full Term!!!

I am officially full term today at 37 weeks. Three weeks from today is my due date, not that I am counting the days. At my appointment last week the doctor confirmed that she had already dropped and that I was already dilated 3cm. Of course this news got me all excited at the potential that we didn't have to wait 4 more weeks to meet our little miss. I ended up having three hours of contractions in the middle of the night and was fully convinced I was having her last week. Since then she seems to have snuggled in for the long haul. I had my 37 week appointment today but he didn't check me, he said that at this point they aren't going to do anything if I was even more dilated. So now its up to me to be patient and wait for the contractions to start or my water to break. I am sure Todd is already sick of me asking him each day, "Do you think we are going to have a baby today?!?!"

30 Years Old & 34 Weeks

We packed up Friday and headed to the lake for a few days away. Friday we stopped in Spokane to visit with Todd's folks and have a little early birthday celebration before heading out to the lake. Saturday I road along with Todd, my dad and T's folks while they golfed at Twin Lakes Village. Saturday we had a big BBQ and celebrated my birthday out at the lake. Crazy to think of how many birthdays I have celebrated out there! A big thanks to Aunt Kitty and Uncle Bob for letting us come stay for a few days. Wish we could have stayed longer, I miss summer vacations and being able to stay out there for a week at a time. Sadly we only were able to stay the weekend, so we headed home to grab the pets from camp on Sunday. A few more lake photos to follow.


I still can't believe I am THIRTY! I can still remember turning 21 like it was yesterday. I certainly don't miss the hangover that I had when I turned 21 but crazy how the years have flown by. I am 34 weeks this week and starting to get a little antsy. Sleep at night is becoming slightly more challenging. So excited to meet our baby girl in 6ish weeks.


Last night we had a belated birthday celebrations with our good friends here in Wenatchee. We are really fortunate to have such a great group of friends here.

32 Weeks & Content

Have you ever had a feeling that you were right where you were supposed to be? I have eight weeks left before our baby girl arrives and I couldn't feel more like this is exactly where I am supposed to be in my life right now. Lately I have just had a sense of calm come over me and that everything feels like its falling right into place. I have a hard time describing it but, whatever this feeling is I LOVE it!

We don't have anything planned for the rest of the summer until baby arrives, I don't think that I have ever had this many free weekends in one summer. While nice, I will be the first to admit that I get a little stir crazy. My favorite thing to do it to make up projects for Todd to do, I am sure he loves it. I resorted to taking my own photo these days since the photographer has so many projects he is currently working on.

We are heading to the lake at the end of this week, I am looking forward to a few days away. I can't wait to take our kids to the lake some day, we spent a week there every summer as a kid and had an absolute blast. It will also be fun to celebrate my birthday with my family, its been a long time since we have been together and what better milestone than the big 3-0!