SHHH! The baby is SLEEPING.....

So, I finally got our baby boy to sleep. AHHH! It took forever. He loves looking at things right now, and will stare for hours at the pictures, clocks, and hangings on the wall. It seems like he shouldn't even be able to hold his head up yet, but he can!

He is such a beautiful, strong, handsome blessing to our life. And no matter what, I would never give up these sleepless nights, and exhaustion for how full my heart is.

I have to APPOLOGIZE.... but I was going to post about a month ago, but Jon tried to and has not figured out how to, and in the process erased his whole post. It made us very discouraged because it was so dang long and cute, and we worked on it together, and then it was gone. I am sure you have experienced this.... GRRR.

But, here are some of the long awaited pics from the whole month. He is already a MONTH and 4 DAYS OLD NOW! Ha.... it seems like just yesterday...

Yes. I was this big. And my baby, lived up to his size. It was uncomfortable to sleep. If you can imagine. I was able to down two 64 ounce jugs of water a day. Ridiculous!

Ok, to explain these were our PRE pictures, when we had first got to the hospital, Tuesday, at 6pm, in order to be induced and to just wait out the time until we had Matthew. It was all peachy keen at this point. We got to walk around the unit and see things watch Law and Order, and laugh. We had a full nights sleep. It was fun playing the "we're in the hospital game until about 6am." By then, I got woke up. Had been shoved with an IV 2 times by someone who didnt know what they were doing, and had answered the phone a million times. My water was broken by the doctor and I was put on my medication to help me along by this point. Ha... I stopped laughing.

I have to show the less GLAMOROUS side of being in LABOR. It was not as bad as what I had built up in my head for all of my life, and how much I had scared myself entirely, but it was not a thing I would want to go and do every single day. Ha ha.

But, to put it shortly, We had some complications. About 4pm the next day, my labor went from 4 cm, perfectly going along to absolutely stopped and not progressing. So, we had to wait it out 2 hours, go off the pitocin, and see if it started back up. It didn't. So, my doctor, who had been on call that whole day promised he'd be back by 7. He didn't come back by 8:30, and we had to make the dificult, but necessary decision to go in to a C- Section.

It was my only option, really, because the baby was beggining to be stressed, my water had been broken for so long, and nothing was happening.

SCARY. BEYOND REASON. I BALLED. HE CRIED.

But, it was the best thing to do.

I have to say, I am so thankful for the gospel in my life. I would not be where I am today without the strength and courage that I get from my Heavenly Father every single day. I was so incredibly scared. And it was not even getting better until I got a blessing from Jon. Such a beautiful way it all works. I knew it was what we had to do. And so I got it all together and got ready. I never could anticipate the amount of emotion and experiences I would go through after that point.

So, at this point I am being wheeled down the corridor, Jon has his Daddy suit on, which we wrote BANTA on the back of, and I had to go into to OR.

I felt like I was on an episode of HOUSE, and I told the doctors that. They laughed.

I had to get a SPINAL. Which gave me the side effects of feeling like I was dying, falling asleep, throwing up, shaking, and then laughing. PLUS, numb. From the neck down.

Enough about me. Here he is.

MATTHEW BANTA

7lbs 15oz.... 20inches.... 10:53pm. September 3rd.

They said his first cry was heard through the OR doors out in the hallway. He is the best baby boy ever. He is such a blessing. And, for all we went through to have him, it was all worth it.