Lynden's Birthday

Lynden June Benavides officially joined our family on February 6, 2017 at 8:47 am. Her due date was February 12th, and I was 39 weeks and 1 day when she decided to join us. I was scheduled to be induced the 7th, but she decided to come early.


I was up most of the night before with regular contractions, but they never got strong enough to make me think I needed to go in. The next day was Sunday, and I just tried to take it easy and rest. I didn't have any contractions on Sunday, but woke up at 1:00am that morning with very strong contractions. As soon as I felt the first one, I knew it was go time. I waited until 2:00am to wake up Ben and was timing the contractions. They were very consistent and about 3-5 minutes apart. I called my brother (he had offered to be available at all times to come stay with our kids) to come hang at our house while our kids slept, and we got our stuff together.


We got to the hospital at 3:00 am, and the contractions were pretty strong by then. They had me stay in triage and called the on call Dr. I was dilated to a four by then, but the Dr wanted to "watch my progress." So they said they would keep me in triage for an hour and see if I progressed. I definitely knew the difference between contractions and labor contractions, so I was not excited about waiting longer. Luckily, my water broke 30 minutes later, and they admitted me.


By 4:00am I was in a room and waiting for my epidural. After that, it was just waiting time. My body was ready to go by 7:00am, but they wanted to wait for my Dr to get there at 8:00 to start pushing. Baby and I were comfortable so we waited. It should be mentioned that Ben waited until 1:00am to go to sleep that night and only slept until 2:00am when I woke him up. Luckily, I went to bed at 10:00pm so I got a little sleep. My Dr got there around 8:15am, and I started pushing soon after that. I really didn't have to push much, and baby joined us at 8:47am. The most exciting part of the day was everyone waiting to see if it was a girl or boy. The Dr held her right up, and I saw right away, GIRL!! Waiting to find out the gender was such an exciting thing. I loved that moment, and will always remember seeing my girl for the first time. One of the first things I said was, "Maebry got her sister!!!"


I had the name Lynden for some time, but wasn't able to decide on a middle name. I told Ben he was in charge of the middle name, but he wasn't able to come up with one. I had given him a few names I was thinking of, but we never decided on one. Right after she was born, Ben said Lynden June. She is healthy, beautiful, and my heaviest baby so far. 8lbs 4 oz and 21 inches. We love our Lynden, and I am so grateful for the smooth delivery and healthy baby. I haven't stopped snuggling her since she was born.