2009 will be a year I will remember forever. After Ben was born in February, things were pretty slow for awhile as I got used to being a mother. But after a few months, things picked back up and plenty of unforgettable memories were made.
Our year started off with a Christmas Party/New Year's Eve party at the "Boy" house. At this party, we all had stockings full of fun stuff, and we drew names and got that one person a small gift. I was 31 weeks pregnant at the time, and needless to say Robert and I didn't last very long. We had left the party, and were in bed, asleep by 10pm.
I had 3 baby showers in January, one after the other. The first was with my girlfriends, along w/ my mom and grandma. It was a "Bug" themed baby shower that coordinated with the nursery room decor I had picked out.
The second was thrown by my co-workers.
The third was thrown by my Mom and her best friend Pam, at Pam's house in Hot Springs, for all of the people I grew up with in Hot Springs.
My due date was quickly approaching and Robert's co-workers at Dillard's threw us another baby shower February 4th. The next week, I went to a check-up and my doctor told me I needed to quit working due to the swelling. An ultrasound done early, had shown the baby to be very large, and he suggested I have a scheduled C-Section. We scheduled it for February 20th. For the next 2 weeks, I basically laid on the couch with my feet up as much as I could, watching "A Baby Story" on TLC while I counted down the days until my due date. On February 13th, Robert took me to Bonefish for Valentine's day. All I remember was feeling huge, and hoping they didn't give us a booth. Luckily they didn't.
A week later, I went to the hospital to have Ben. After a horrible cesarean section experience, Ben was born at 8:22 a.m. He was 10lbs, 2oz and 21 inches long. He has aspirated some amniotic fluid during delivery and ended up in the NICU for 7 days.
There was no immediate bonding like most mommy's get to experience, but I did breastfeed him, which I think helped with that a lot. After Ben came home, I received word from my work that I would be allowed to work part-time. This was a HUGE blessing because I was very worried I would have to go back full time and put him in daycare. I was off for 3 months, and then returned part-time. Days were split watching Ben by my mom, my mother-in-law and me. It worked out perfectly.
March was full of learning how to raise a baby but not much else... I took a lot of naps, and made a lot of phone calls to mom needing advice. If you look at my 2009 calendar the most exciting thing on it says "breast pump should come in mail"- written on the March 20th square.
In April, we had an Easter dinner at our house with both my parents and Robert's parent's and brother.
We got new bedroom furniture.
And Ben met his great-grandparent's on Robert's side for the first time.
I started back to work May 18th. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and after 3 months of almost no social interaction I almost craved it. Working part-time proved to be the perfect situation for me. Ben met his great grandpa on my side.
Ben met his uncle Andrew on May 21st. He and Suzanne flew down for the weekend.
The following weekend, we took Ben on his first road-trip to Dallas for my cousin Madellon's wedding. Ben cried in the car. A lot. But slept through the wedding- here he is with his cousin Evan sleeping.
Not a lot happened in June. Seriously...not much at all. We did take a family picture.
In July, we attended Robert's 10 year High School Reunion. We went to Cornerstone Pub and Grill the first night without Ben, and then the next day we took Ben to Indian Hills Baptist church for another event and lunch.
Not much happened in August either. Ben and I did meet Alana at lunch one Saturday at Cafe 1217 though!
I started weaning Ben towards the end of September, taking away one feeding every couple weeks. I had less than 2 months to get him completely off of breastmilk.
In October, Robert and I took Ben to Petit Jean State Park for a hiking adventure to see the waterfall.
We also took a weekend trip to Tunica without Ben, with Shannon and Brandon. This was the first time I had ever been away from Ben since he was born. He was 8 months old. It was preparation for what was coming.
November was the big trip of the year. I had it planned since before I knew I was even pregnant. On November 7th, Robert, Alana, Travis, Andrew, Suzanne, and I headed down to the Dominican Republic for a week long adventure! I thought I would miss Ben horribly, and that it would ruin the whole trip, but luckily they had Free wi-fi and I was able to e-mail back and forth with my mom about what Ben did every day. I did miss him, but I needed a break from him, and it was perfect.
Then we celebrated Thanksgiving with my cousin Jennifer and her husband Travis and their boys Ian and Evan. We took the kids to Garvan Woodland Garden's holiday lights for the first time!
In December, we took Ben to the Little Rock Zoo for Christmas in the Wild. Ben met Santa for the first time.
Then, the next day, we went to Hot Springs, for Santa Brunch at the Country Club, where he met Santa again...
Andrew and Suzanne came down again for Christmas. Ben's first Christmas was perfect, and he probably got way too much stuff, but it was the perfect ending to 2009.
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