Today is my first day back at work and as you can tell from this post, it has been very productive, haha. I have only called daycare once to check on Benjamin, I am pretty proud of myself! They said that he was swinging in the swing and seemed very happy. I cannot wait to pick him up at 5:00!

The three of us took a short road trip yesterday. We were in the Cities because Mike and I attended the Coldplay concert (which was AWESOME - they're my favorite band). So we drove down Highway 61 to Winona where we visited our friends, Samantha and Jacob. We also gave Benjamin a tour of the Winona State University campus, which has changed a lot! I even took him up on stage to show him where Mommy used to perform. And then, to be fair Mike had to take him to the Computer Science building. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time!
I won't even mention how I forgot the camera at home so we have no pictures of the day...

Benjamin's big weekend went fabulously! Family came from near and far to attend his baptism. We are so thankful to have such wonderful families who are so generous with their love and support! Ben was even able to spend a little extra time with his very special Great Grandmother who flew all the way from Florida to see him, how wonderful! There are photos on our webshots account for now from the weekend and here are a couple as well...

Benjamin has a very big weekend coming up! His Baptism is going to be on Sunday and there are a lot of people traveling a long distance just to be here for it. He is very excited...or that could just be gas, haha.

We took our first trip as a family down to Illinois over Labor Day weekend, which was a blast. Benjamin had his picture taken and we had a BBQ to introduce him to some family and friends for the first time. I posted some pictures from the weekend and also from the Packers game (last Sunday) on our webshots photos page. Since that website is now asking us for money in order to add more pics, I am going to look into other options for all of our pictures. Stay tuned for that exciting change!

Here is a picture of Benjamin chilling out this weekend...isn't he one cool dude??

Benjamin reached a milestone this Monday, he laughed for the very first time! Now he can't stop laughing!! While Mike was away we attended the wedding of our friends, Greg and Yvonne, and we had a great time there! We also visited Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt and spent the day with Auntie Jen and Cousin AJ. This weekend we are driving down to Illinois to visit Grandma and Grandpa Andrews and to see other various family members for the first time at a BBQ on Saturday.

Our friends, Casey and Lisa, had an addition to their family on Sunday. Elle Marie Swenson was born at 1:14pm and is 7lbs, 2oz and 20 inches! She has a full head of hair and I think she looks like her Mom! Congrats to them!!

Here is a picture of the backpackers on their trip to the Porcupine Mountains in the UP of Michigan.

Actually, he's somewhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan backpacking with his brother, Joe. Benjamin and I already miss him immensely! I just had to post my horoscope for the day because I thought it was far too appropriate for my first whole day and night alone with my Little Man!!

Scorpio:
Even if someone's demands are unreasonable or they're being otherwise moody or fussy, face up to them bravely. Use your natural quickness and clever intellect to engage them in a discussion instead of dismissing their concerns. You're more than capable of giving generously of your time and patience, so make sure you exercise those qualities right now, no matter how trying this person is to your fortitude.

Woah.

Benjamin with Grandpa Andrews

Hi everybody! Sorry for the lack of posts, but we've been quite busy lately. Benjamin will be 7 weeks old this Monday and he has grown so much! I weighed and measured him on Monday and he is now over 11 lbs and 25 inches long. Mike was very excited to share his first Packers game with Benjamin (even though it was just preseason). For all of you Bears fans out there, you'll be happy to know that Ben cried quite hard when I put him in his Packers onesie...haha. We captured the game-watching on film, so I will upload those pictures sometime this weekend.

For the time being though, here is a shot of the little guy getting some tv watching in:

This weekend we took our first long car trip up to Menasha, Wisconsin to stay with Mike's godparents, Aunt Loretta and Uncle Harold. Benjamin slept the whole way in the car and was a very good boy all weekend! On Sunday we went to the Schmitt Family Reunion, which is held every 3-4 years. This year it was outside in a picnic shelter. We all ate like pigs and just enjoyed seeing family and spending time with each other. Benjamin won the award for the youngest baby in the family (at 5 weeks) and Mike and I won the award for most newly married (at over 3 years!!). I have posted pictures from the weekend on webshots and you can also visit Joe and Jen's webshots account to see even more:

Joe and Jen's Photos

Benjamin is one month old. Gosh, before you know it, he will be chasing girls around!! Haha.

This weekend Grandma and Grandpa Andrews came up for a visit. We went to the SPAM museum in Austin, which was surprisingly very cool. Benjamin enjoyed it so much that he slept the whole time! We had a great weekend. Last night we met Grandma and Grandpa Schmitt in Cannon Falls for dinner, which was great! We will definitely be doing that more, I think! I added a couple of pictures to our webshots account today and here is a link to my parents photos from this weekend:

Yahoo Photos

This weekend we are off to Wisconsin for the Schmitt Family Reunion......

Benjamin is now 16 days old. It doesn't sound like it is very old, but when you consider what has happened in our lives since Monday, June 27th, it feels like a lifetime already! I think he grows more and more everyday. Mike is officially back at work this week and he misses us a lot. I try to promise that I won't let Benjamin change at all while he is away, but it is hard to keep a baby from growing and learning! We have kept ourselves busy while Dad is at work so far with lots of TV watching, many bottles, and even a visit from Grandma, Auntie Jen, and Cousin AJ! I took some pictures of AJ and Benjamin together, hopefully we will get those loaded onto webshots soon. AJ is now 14 weeks old and practically looks like a toddler next to dainty little Benjamin! I cannot WAIT until they are able to play together, I hope they are best buddies!!

Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa Andrews and Aunt Mary and Erin visited us, we had a great time! Mike has already loaded photos onto Webshots from the weekend.

We are making our first trek up to the Twin Cities this weekend, hopefully Benjamin behaves himself! He's such a good baby, I'm sure he will be fine! Thank you again to everyone for the phone calls, emails, and cards!!

Benjamin and family had our first family outing...we attended the Rochester fireworks celebration. Granted we sat in the car at the local high school and watched them from afar, but Benjamin was well behaved and seems to really like his car seat ;-) Where are we off to next? Hmmm, I wonder if he likes the Geardaddies?

Here we are, nearly one week after Benjamin was born and we are having the best time ever! Sure, the lack of sleep isn't the most fun (it is now 4am), but we are enjoying our new son so much! Everytime we look at him, we are amazed at how much we love him.

Mike just added a few new pictures of the little guy on our webshots account, check them out! Thank you to everyone who has sent us such nice emails and blog entries!!

Monday at 12:13pm Benjamin Thomas was born into this world weighing 8 pounds and 2 ounces ane meausring 21 and 3/4".

Mother and baby (and father ;) are doing wonderful. We are all recovering nicely from the 12 hours of labor, lack of sleep, and sheer excitement of the entire experience.

Here is the short story...

Sunday
1:00pm - Slight contractions
6:00pm - More frequent contractions
11:00pm - Hard contractions - Hospital time
Monday
12:00am - Jessica was admitted to the hospital
11:00am - It was time to start pushing
11:50am - Stop pushing - Little Schmitty still didn't want to come out
12:00pm - Two more pushes, he's almost here
12:13pm - Our bundle of joy arrives!

We'll post photos as soon as humanly possible :-D

So here it is, 3 days after the due date and still no baby. Can you even believe it?!?! Jessica does have early signs of labor but nothing to write home about. Her contractions are slight...few and far between...but contractions nonetheless. The spicy food, bumpy car rides and other wive's tales appear to be paying off. Should Little Schmitty not surface by Tuesday at 7:30 am Doctor Taynor will take evasive action and induce him forth ;-) Stay tuned for more news.

Just wanted to give a little update. We had our 39 week appointment on Wednesday. The doctor did an internal exam and I am not dilated at all, but I am 50% effaced. He couldn't do the procedure to stir things up because I haven't begun to dilate yet. The baby is still very active and is getting more and more cramped everyday. It will be interesting to see how big he is!! We are all doing fine. We will just be hanging out at home this weekend, enjoying some beautiful weather here. :)

We had our 38 week doctor's appointment on Friday, 6/10. It went very well, the baby's heartbeat is around 138, which is perfect for how old/big he is. Unfortunately, the lab misplaced my Strep B test results. This is a test which is done usually before 37 weeks to see if the mother is a carrier of the Strep B bacteria. This bacteria isn't harmful to the mother - 1/3 of all adults actually carry it - but it can be harmful to the baby as it passes through the birth canal during labor. So, I had to be retested. Our next appointment will be Wednesday, 6/15. If the test comes back negative, the doctor will be able to do a pelvic exam to see if I have begun to dilate. He can also naturally try to induce labor by "sweeping the membranes." This process usually works in about 2/3 of women to help induce labor within one week. So, who knows...it may work, it may not. But in any event, we will keep everyone updated about the next appointment!!

We're all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the "Little Man," but so far he seems quite content in his little home. Our next doctor's appointment is Friday afternoon, though we aren't sure that he will do an internal exam, which would give us an idea of any progress. I don't think the doc is very keen on being invasive if he doesn't have to be. I am fine with that though, no reason to get anxious and excited for 1cm dilation! So meanwhile we will just wait patiently and will update all of you when we have some news!

Our Minnesota baby shower was this past weekend. I have added some pictures from the event onto our webshots account: Familie Schmitt

The nursery is full of everyone's generous gifts and we are working hard at trying to get things organized before the baby arrives. There are also some pictures of the nursery on webshots that my mom took while they were up here visiting. I painted the words on the walls (various nursery rhymes) and all of the decorations are going to be in primary colors. Mike is going to be painting a shelving unit that has ABC's cut out of the side panels, it is very cute!