Random pictures, just cuz

"Smiling" at two days old

My little monkey

4 days old, checking out the world

One week old

Enjoying the colorful playmat

1st Texas Longhorn game with daddy and big bro
His look during the game, "Oh my goodness what is my daddy subjecting me to?"

John loves carrots, and somehow the carrots we got at the store this last time were ginormous. He likes to chew right through the middle.

Our little "John Deere"

This being outside the womb is exhausting business.

Meeting and getting to know each other

The next morning (November 5th) after we woke up, John was brought into our room to see his baby brother. He was all excited to see us, and then he saw something squirming on the bed, and got really curious. We brought him up to the bed, and I picked up Ben to show to him. He pointed and was really curious, but when I tried to put him on his lap he would have none of it! Later that day, Ben was on my lap, and John came up to me and looked at his baby bro. He then proceeded to point out his hands, take off his hat to look at his hair, point out his eyes and nose and mouth and then decided Ben needed a high five. It was too cute! He was very gentle.

Curious to see what the moving "thing" was in our bed.

"Um, he was better from afar, you can take him back mom."


Finding Ben's eyes, hands, hair and then finally after everything is deemed ok, giving him a high five.

Checking out the mouth and again the hair.


Since then, he has gotten a little more used to Ben. He wants to "help" (more see what is going on) when Ben is crying. He also likes to help him swing and bounce. The swinging assistance isn't too horrible, but when Ben is on the bouncer chair, John likes to try to push the chair all the way to the floor to give Ben a good bounce, so we have to watch them carefully and continue to remind him to be careful. The hardest thing now is the car rides. John enjoys kicking his feet and thus Ben's chair. He also enjoys playing peek-a-boo with Ben, which consists of pulling his "shade" (is that what they are called on the little carseats?) back and forth.

We welcome into the world...

Disclaimer: Part of this post may contain content that may be hard for queasy stomachs to handle, so be forewarned.

Well, I'm going to interrupt all my posts in my drafts waiting to be published to announce the arrival of Benaiah Seth Morgan born Tuesday November 4th at 10:50 pm (I was told it was when Obama was giving his acceptance speech). He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz, was 20 in long and his head was 14 in.

The Birth Story
He came quite quickly into the world when he finally decided to come. I was just sure he was going to come while Chris was in the field the two weeks before, or on Halloween, but he waited. My sister & bro-in-law even came up on the 1st & 2nd, hoping he would make an appearance, but no such luck.
I woke up on Tuesday, wondering if our baby would make an appearance the day things changed for the nation. At around 10:30 I lost my mucous plug. I knew I couldn't be too excited because labor could still be a few days away. When contractions didn't come and didn't come, I started to resign myself that baby probably wouldn't make it into the world that day. Around 3:30 that afternoon we were heading to run some errands before Bible Study, and I started having contractions 10 minutes apart. After an hour they went away, so I figured I was just having false labor again, and we decided to proceed with Bible Study. Then at 6, I started having contractions every 10 minutes, then every 9, then by the time Chris started teaching at 7:30, they were every 8 minutes, and I would have to leave and go into our room to work through each one. Bible Study ended at 8:45, and by then my contractions were every 6-7 minutes, so I called Jennifer, our midwife. We said goodbye to the last people at 9:15, then mom & Chris scurried into action making sure our house was ready for a birth. Chris was scrubbing the tub, mom was making our bed with plastic backed, "ruinable" sheets, and I was continuing to work through contractions that were getting more intense. They were also calling those who wanted to be here: Sarah (my sis-in-law) from Galveston, Galyn from San Antonio, and Chris's mom from Temple. Galyn had called earlier that evening and I told her that I thought it would be tonight. I told her not to come until after I had called the midwife b/c I expected to take another 4-5 hours, just cuz John took 15 hours of labor before he came out.
Jennifer arrived at 9:45, and at 9:50 I hopped in our tub.
I lost track of time from then on. I know I had a few more contractions, our neighbor Kirsten arrived, the midwife apprentice arrived, and all of a sudden I was ready to push. Before I pushed, Jennifer asked me to check to see if I could feel the baby's head. I felt the bag of water pushing out. The first push the water exploded. It was the strangest sensation I had ever felt.
My water breaking onto Chris's foot! Thus the crazy expression he is wearing.

My water broke with John, and it felt like a water balloon had exploded, but this was different, like a fire hydrant was opened and let loose. This was followed by another contraction. I remember saying something like "I'm not ready. I need a little longer break in between baby." Thankfully on that contraction I didn't feel the urge to push and it subsided quickly. With the next contraction I felt this tremendous urge to push and I felt baby's head come out, and then his shoulders and body. I was expecting to push a few more times before our baby came into the world. Chris announced it was a boy, and it was 10:50 pm.
He's finally here!

Chris's mom walked in right after they laid Benaiah on my belly. We called Sarah and told her to turn around (she was only in N. Houston), and called Galyn. She had already made it to Georgetown, so she continued on her way.
Ben's placenta continued pulsing for half an hour, so we just stayed in the tub cuddling until I pushed the placenta out and it had stopped pulsing enough to cut the cord. Then Ben went to the grandmas and I got out of the tub and to our bed.


I was so excited. I didn't scream in pain this time. I didn't pass out. I even found out I barely tore. I told Chris later that if all my labors were like that, I wouldn't mind having a bunch more kids.
Glad everything went smoothly!

Ben was weighed and measured and checked out, and then he was able to nurse. He had no trouble latching on, something it took John a few weeks to figure out.
Actually getting to really look at him, as he was facing everybody else until I got out of the tub!!

Right before the midwives left at 1:30, I started feeling really tired and apparently started looking white and like I was going to pass out. Galyn and Chris convinced me that I would feel better with an IV. I think I would have been fine, just needed to sleep but I let them (Galyn) start an IV. It took Ben awhile to fall asleep. He nursed 3 times and then decided he was done exploring the new world for the moment and fell asleep at 4:00 giving us a precious four hours of sleep!
And now we begin the joys of parenting two!!