Two Months Old!

Holy smokes... how is it already December 16th?! Yesterday Ben turned 2 months old. I can't believe it's been two months! Thanksgiving just flew by and now it's already halfway through December! We had such a great turkey holiday! Ben and I spent quite a lot of time in Mitchell since Joel had an intense week of finals right before Thanksgiving. It was great to spend lots of time with the grandmas and grandpas! I loved having a little help and a bit more of a social life than usual!

We had two Thanksgivings, as usual, since both families live in town. (Double yum.) Thanksgiving day was spent at the Tjarks' house, and we had a wonderful feast and lots of family and friends there to celebrate. We even had battle of the turkeys - one brined/roasted and one deep-fat-fried, in addition to the great food my mother-in-law made! The Saturday after the holiday was spent at my parents' house, since my sister Amy flew in from Florida that day. We had a great little meal with the family and grandparents! I don't think I held my own baby for more than two minutes on either day, since everyone else was more than willing to stop whatever they were doing to take him! He is so loved!

Ben has changed and grown in so many little ways. Every day he's more alert and responsive, which is so fun! My favorite time of the day is the morning when he wakes up. He just smiles and smiles! It's so fun to play with him when he's such a happy little man! I'll usually bring him in our bedroom and we'll say good morning to Dad and sing and play together! Usually an hour or hour and 1/2 after waking, he starts getting cranky enough to sleep again for a little bit! During the afternoons he spends more and more time awake between naps. He loves music and he loves to have a nice conversation with you. He's such a cute little talker/squawker! Nights, however, are the trickiest! I'm hoping he will grow out of it, (soon!) but most nights Ben has a nice little tantrum about 8:30 or so. He will just wail and wail, and that boy sure works up a sweat getting mad! I think he just gets tired but won't let himself fall asleep, and then works himself up into a big scream-fest! The nights I give him a bath are usually the best - the tantrums are either very short or avoided altogether, but we suffer through most other nights! At this point he's still getting up to eat in the night, about every 3-4 hours, though he's eating less and less and the time he spends awake is very short. Hopefully that is good news... I just dream about the days when I can have a full night of sleep again! :)

Well, we just love the little man. He's such a sweetie and his little smile just makes my heart melt!

Here are his 2 month stats:
Weight: 9 lbs 13 oz
Height: 22 inches

Here are some pics:

Yes, Santa... I've been a good boy this year... (wink)

I love that little smiling face!

"Really? More pictures? You've taken a million of them!"

"I'm pooping right now."

Sweet, sleeping baby boy.

SO excited for Christmas! I hope Santa brings him something special!

He has the cutest little clothes.

"Sorry, Mom. I took your spot on the bed."

Baby Announcement!

I just finished designing and ordering the baby announcements!

A Cappella Blue Birth Announcement

Find hundreds of elegant baby birth announcements at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

He's ONE month old!

Where does the time go? Seriously? I am just amazed that our little Ben is one month old! It seems just yesterday that I was laying in surgery getting sliced open and hearing Ben wail as he was being ripped from my loins! Well, I guess I'm glad we're past that stage. I'm happy to announce that one month later he's still with us, healthy and happy! Let me give you a few updates!

At one month old:
* Ben weighs 8 lbs and 10 oz! (He's a really good little eater!!!) This puts him in the 25th percentile!
* He is 20.5 inches long... (Sorry for the short genes, Son!) He's in the 5th percentile for height.
* He is just beginning to smile every now and then... I'm not sure if it's on purpose yet!
* He doesn't mind getting his diaper changed anymore, and he doesn't scream bloody murder during his baths anymore! (Thank goodness!)
* He eats 3 oz every 3 hours around the clock. This makes for one tired Mom, who not only has to feed him but rock him back to sleep and go pump more milk! :)
* He has fussy time in the late evening pretty regularly!
* He doesn't like his tummy time at all!
* He LOVES to be held and cuddled... and he LOVES to sleep and take naps with Mom and Dad.
* He's just the cutest and sweetest darn baby boy you've ever seen in your life!

When Ben was 10 days old, we had professional newborn photos taken by one of my sister's good friends. I can't even describe to you how THRILLED I am with all the photos she took! He looks like an angel in every single one, and I'm really struggling deciding which ones to print and frame! There are just too many great ones! Take a look at a few of my favorites!

Life with Ben

Happy Halloween! I'm just sitting here waiting for any trick-or-treaters to come knocking on our door. (Sadly, I don't think we'll be getting many...) Since I'm biding my time, I thought I'd share some updates on our little Benjamin Joel! He's just the cutest thing ever! We're really getting the hang of having him around. I'm not sure if it's getting easier because he changes so much from day to day, but we're definitely more comfortable having a baby in our home.

At his 2 week appointment on Friday, Benjamin tipped the scales at 7 lbs 7 oz and measured 20 and 1/4 inches long! The doctor says he's doing just great! He's got a little stuffy nose so we have clean out the boogies every now and then and his poor little eyes have a minor infection, but we're taking care of that with some drops. He's just amazing! He's a great little eater and he's constantly filling that diaper up, so at least we know he's growing well! I feel very lucky that Ben is for the most part a very calm little baby. He squawks and grunts throughout the day, but it's pretty rare that he will wail and cry unless he's just STARVING! We are noticing that he's beginning to have a "crabby" part of the day, usually in the late evening. That's okay with me, though. He's sleeping so much better in the night between feedings with a good cry around 9 or 10 pm. He makes me laugh all the time because I'm starting to recognize some of the faces he gives me. Little pursed lips and a furrowed brown normally mean "I'm trying to poop." (That's my favorite look.) He often has a very intense and worried look on his face when he's studying someone or something. Also, every once in awhile I swear I see a little smirk!

Here's a "Mom, I'm trying to poop" look:

I'm glad to say that our little Ben is thriving! Sadly, I haven't fared so well. Last week I landed in the Emergency Room because part of my C-section burst open and sprayed infected fluid everywhere. Seriously, it was disgusting. My doctor had to anesthetize me and re-open my incision to clean it out as much as possible. Since then I've been in the hospital every day to get it re-cleaned of goop and fluid and re-dressed. Luckily the infection has stayed localized to the incision, but I'm on an antibiotic and watching for a fever just in case. Now I'm just waiting for it to heal! If it doesn't look good by tomorrow's appointment at 8:30 am, I'm going back in for surgery so the doctor can reopen it and take a closer look at what's going on. Please pray that everything will go well! I've had to rest and take it easy, which is killing me because all I want to do is get back to normal so I can focus on being a mom! We've been so blessed to have great help from family and friends so that Benjamin is taken care of while I heal up.

Well, our little man is changing every day and it's so fun to watch him grow! I feel so lucky to have such a sweet baby. Joel and I are enjoying him so much! It's amazing how happy such a tiny person can make a family!

He's Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe that I actually have five minutes and a little energy to sit down and type out this post, but I wanted to let everyone know that I delivered our little bouncing baby boy last week on October 15th! Oh my gosh... He is divine. He is an angel. We are the luckiest, luckiest family in the whole world! We named him Benjamin Joel Tjarks. He was born by Cesarean at 12:21 pm, weighed exactly 7 lbs, and was 19.5 inches long. Here's a quick little story about how he came to be!

On the morning of Thursday, October 14th, I woke up with (now this part is embarrassing) wet undies. I figured the baby had been on my bladder and I has just leaked a little urine through the night. However, I continued to feel consistently damp throughout the rest of the day until Joel finally made me call the hospital at 8:30 that night to get a second opinion. Well, they advised me to come in and get tested to make sure the dampness wasn't amniotic fluid. We were totally shocked to find out that it was indeed my water leaking and I was to stay in the hospital until the baby came! Auughhh! Scary!

They took my to my room and started me on Pitocin to kick start some contractions. The only problem was that since my water had broken so much earlier in the day, I was on a time line to deliver the baby. The hospital policy is to deliver within 24 hours of the water breaking to avoid any infections. Sad to say, I wasn't progressing fast enough so we had schedule a C-section for Friday at noon. My doctor was out of town for a conference but we were lucky enough to have a wonderful "substitute" standing by - Dr. Njagi. Baby Ben came out to greet us at exactly 12:21 and spent some quality time with Dad while I got stitched back up. Standing by were two very excited Grandmas and two very excited Aunties! Auntie Amy is taking all the credit for his perfectly timed arrival! She took a risk and bought a plane ticket on the slim chance that she'd be here for his arrival.... and amazingly enough my water broke the very day she flew in. It was so meant to be!

Well, life has been crazy to say the least. I'm still recovering from my surgery and Joel has been absolutely swamped with tests in school on top of learning how to be parents. We're sleep deprived and barely remember to eat, but I can't imagine being any happier. Ben fits into our life just perfectly. He is so sweet and we love him to pieces! It's such a miracle that we brought him into this world. We're a very happy family!

His first breaths

With Mommy during the surgery

Welcome to the world Little Ben!

With Grandma and Grandpa Tjarks (Nana and Papa)

With Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Dave

With Daddy!

With Crazy Aunt Becky!

With Auntie Amy

Halloween Traditions!

I know it may only be October 9th, but our baby could come literally any day now so I wanted to make sure that Joel and I had the opportunity to celebrate Halloween with our annual traditions before things get too crazy! I get really, really excited about this holiday and Joel doesn't so much, but he does let me have my fun and plays along! Every year, (usually just a week before Halloween), we do the following: buy our carving pumpkins, carve away, make apple cider and Halloween snacks to nibble on, and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! It's so fun! I was absolutely EXHAUSTED getting everything ready this year, but it turned out to be just perfect! We had a wonderful night! It's exciting to think that next year we'll have a one year old to celebrate with us! Yay! Here are some pictures of our fun!

Here's our pumpkin carving movie!


Take a peek at the buffet I had set up when Joel got home!


Here are a few close-ups. We dined on mini hotdog mummy wraps, mini mummy pizzas, ghoulish pan-fried onion dip with veggies and chips, Halloween cupcakes, and homemade orange-cinnamon apple cider! Yum!










And... Tada! Our finished products! I carved the pirate crossbones and Joel carved the smirking pumpkin face! Don't you love Halloween?!

Baby's Room!

I'm SO excited to share some photos of the completed baby's room! There's nothing left for us to do now except wait for him to come live in his little jungle babies-themed home! Thank you so much to my mother-in-law Susan and aunt Beverly for this amazing gift! I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first picture is the rocking chair and crib. The theme came from the blanket my mom made hanging from the crib. It's amazing how perfectly the jungle babies decor matched the blanket! It was so meant to be! Everything's ready to go - from the boppy on the rocking chair to the night light plugged in for late feedings!


The changing table was custom built by Joel's Grandpa Tjarks, Gene. He has an amazing gift! What an artisan! It's nice and spacious, and holds all the important things like diapers, wipes, lotions, baby care supplies, blankets, and towels! As you can see, all we need now are little buns on that changing pad!


This is the guest bed for the grandmas and other visitors who come to stay! The painting above the bed is a specially made custom painting for Joel that he bought while living in Brazil. The little child with Christ is so perfect for the baby's room. The quilt on the bed was another gift handmade by Joel's talented aunt Pam, who just took up quilting two months ago! Amazing!


A little closer look at the supplies on the changing table... Don't forget to notice the jungle babies rug on the floor!


Another view of the crib/decor.


It's the details that count! Don't you love the matching light switch plate and lamp?! (No, that is not our baby in the frame... yet!) The silver train money bank is a special gift from my Grandma Garton. It's representative of my family history. My great-great Grandpa worked on the Chicago-Milwaukee Great Northern railroad.



One last peek! Don't you love those cute smiles on the little jungle babies' faces?!