Week 1- snoozin'!

Photo Albums

Hey everyone. I was finally able to post pictures up on Facebook. Check these out:

The First Day
The Days following

Enjoy!

Steve, Brooke & Miles

Welcome to the world Miles Marcus

Hey everyone!

I would like to introduce you to my son :: Meet Miles Marcus Bensema !!!!!!

Weighing in at 9 lbs 2.6 ozs and 22 inches long, we are so excited to have Miles here with us finally! Check out these pictures. More to come soon!

Labor begins

Hey everyone! Steve here

Brooke started having regular intense contractions last night from 5pm on. From about Midnight until 2 am they started getting pretty intense, so we came to the hospital around 3, walked the halls for a bit and we were admitted around 7am. They broke Brooke's water around 8 and so far we are just waiting for the epidural! I can't believe that my little man is going to be here so soon!

Please pray for Brooke! Pray that this will all go quickly and that she will have the strength to push when the time comes. She didn't get any sleep last night because of the contractions every 5 - 10 minutes. They gave her some medicine to help ease the pain for a little while that is allowing her to nap now, which is awesome! I'll try to update as the day goes when I have a chance. Check back for pictures!!!

Week 39 and 3 days!

We are oh so close to meeting our baby and are feeling a lot of emotions right now: excitement, anxiousness, frustration... I have been having somewhat regular contractions for about 5 days now. I've have contracted, and contracted, and than contracted some more and have still not reached "active labor." At different times the contractions have been 5 minutes apart but the labor is still not "progressing." Today the contractions have been more painful (as in they wake me up when I'm sleeping.) Hopefully my body will be ready soon, and hopefully are next post will be with pictures of a beautiful baby! 

Week 38: Yay-it's my birth month!!

The nursery is perfect, the house is spotless, clothes are washed, beds are made... all we need now is a baby! I think our baby has grown quite fond of his little apartment inside my belly. I have been having lots of signs that labor is near though. Actually have had about every sign there is (dull back pain, false contractions that have been getting more uncomfortable, nesting instinct and many other things) with the exception of actual labor or my water breaking. Lately I go for lots of long walks, the other night I even started jogging for a couple of blocks-- quite the sight to be seen! But we are so glad that he is healthy and apparently very happy where he is. He will be here very soon. Here is a picture of me from this week, you can see how he has dropped. 

The Nursery is complete!

Hey all!  Steve here!  I just wanted to share all of the progress that we have been making on getting the little man's room ready.  Here are a couple of pictures.  For more pictures you can check out this album.

Week 32: September will not end!!

So wow, somehow it's still September! It feels like about 3 months combined into one. As you can see our baby is very big and so is my tummy. He has been measuring big so that might mean that I could go early (yes, please!) or it could mean that our baby is just going to be a big boy. He is still very active but he is obviously starting to become more crowded. His kicks catch me off guard at times because they are so strong. Sometimes I think he's just playing, other times he seems mad that he has less space! Either way, we think he may be destined for a career in soccer. 

P.S. Our beautiful nephew, Boden Allan Bensema, was born on September 13th! He is wonderful!! We can't wait to get the boys together at Christmas :) 

Week 30: The end is in sight... kind of

I'm in the 3rd trimester now, it's gone by so fast! We think our baby has shifted his head down now but it's hard to know for sure yet. Sometimes it feels like he's break dancing on his head!  We had a wonderful labor day weekend, it was so nice to have an extra day to rest. 

Week 28: Baby Shower!

Here is a picture from the baby shower my mom and sister threw for me. Our baby got lots of wonderful gifts! It was a wonderful time of catching up with friends and family that I don't get to see often enough. Here is a picture of me with a few of my college friends that I miss so much! As you can see, my tummy is getting bigger :) 

Week 22: He's saying hello

This picture was taken when I was at 21 weeks, we were at a white sox game with Steve's family for the 4th of July. I'm proud to say that I paid attention the whole game! The fireworks afterwards were awesome!

Just today I felt our baby kick from the outside for the first time! They were strong kicks that seemed almost rythmic like he was tapping out a song. Maybe he will follow in mommy's musical footsteps.

At week 22 I'm feeling pretty good, for the most part. I've had an ongoing struggle with back pain that started way before pregnancy but that has been slowly getting more painful. I do prenatal yoga and go for walks to try to help loosen the muscles. On the really bad days I take a tylenol and just go on the best that I can.

This past weekend, my mom came up to MN to help Steve paint the babies room a light blue. As soon as we get the nursery put together I will post pictures!

19 weeks- I cannot stay full!

So I am having problems staying full lately! I never thought I would get sick of eating but it is becoming a chore. This morning alone I've had:

bowl of cereal
orange
mini muffins
bowl of oatmeal
banana
nutrigrain bar

(all before 11:30 am!)

At this rate, the baby is going to come out as a toddler ;) I'm starving again- so off to lunch!

19 weeks- It's a...

bird, it's a plane, no wait, it's a baby BOY!! How wonderful to see our beautiful baby for the very first time! We were amazed how much we could see with the black & white ultra-sound. He was a very active little guy, he flipped over a couple of times, he was standing on his head, kicking me with both legs at the same time and punching me to say hello! Quite talented I must say ;)  Certainly not camera shy, he lifted his face right up and opened his eyes (it almost like he was looking at us, so precious.) We also saw a side profile and he has the cutest little button nose. The ultra-sound ended up taking longer because the technician couldn't get him to hold still for the different pictures she took of him, but obviously this means he is healthy and so we are happy for this. I think we are going to have our hands full once he comes out but we are so excited to see him again :) We are going to try and scan the ultra-sound pictures in to post. 

17 weeks and I need some maternity pants!

I'm starting to look pregnant and not just like I've been eating too many donuts! 

Oh, and we find out the gender of our baby in a week and a 1/2!! We cannot wait :) 

15 weeks in Iowa

In front of my parents beautiful garden! We had a wonderful weekend in Iowa with our families. I'm happy to say that all the "night" sickness is long gone. I've been getting some nasty headaches in the mornings/early afternoons which I attribute to my caffeine withdrawal but that was common for me before pregnancy as well so nothing to be alarmed about. 

Week 14: Officially into my second trimester!

So we can now feel free to tell the world that we are pregnant! Yay, no more "almost slipping." Poor Steve works in the infant apparel department with Target.com so he has had  a rough go of it. 

Week 13 - Watch OUR bellies grow ;)

Steve has decided to grow with me...for moral support of course ;)

We are 13 weeks prego.

Newlyweds + baby

Our one year anniversary weekend! Granted I never imagined myself posting this onto a baby blog, but still--it's very exciting for us! 

Here is a picture of us at our favorite sushi place. I'm not allowed to raw fish right now but the chef cooked up some salmon and slapped it in a sushi roll for me! We had a wonderful weekend. 

Week 12 :: We got to hear the Baby's Heartbeat!!

Hey all

Check out the video we posted.  It is of our doctors visit when we were able to hear the heartbeat of our new baby.  We still don't know the gender, but we do know that it is healthy!

Brooke is feeling better now that she is getting closer to her second trimester, so that is great!  Today we decided to go to some garage sales and found some great deals.  We found a pack-and-play and some other nice little essentials.  Things are coming together slowly but surely...

9 weeks and counting...

This past week I couldn't seem to stay full. I had to eat some kind of snack every hour during the day-- plus 3 regular meals. I'm starting to wonder if there could be more than one... 

Right now our baby looks more like an alien than a human but rest assured that he (or she!) will graduate from embryo to fetus in a couple of weeks and will start looking more like a baby. Fortunately there has not been a need for an ultrasound--so no pictures yet.  In the past few days our baby had it's first detectable brain waves. Hmmm I wonder what he's thinking...