Two Kids = Two Tired Parents

What a crazy two weeks it's been!  Liz and I have been saying that we need to do a new post soon but just have not found the time to do it.  Since it's late and we are both very tired, this post will mainly be pictures.  I promise Liz will be back on here soon to tell you about all of the adventures she has each day.  She has started her second straight week at being a stay-at-home mom with two kids.  She is having a lot of fun and I know she looks forward to getting back on here soon. 

Allison and Benjamin are both doing great.  Allison is being a great big sister and Benjamin is growing like a weed.  He's becoming more and more alert as every day passes.  Alli and I have become best of friends lately since Liz and I have decided to use the "Divide and Conquer" approach when I get home from work.  It's been so much fun!  There is nothing more rewarding for me as a father than to have my daughter scream "Daddy" when I get home from work and to say "Daddy" and then give me a big kiss when it's time for bed.  Then I get to kiss the forehead of my son and wife before going to bed each night.  Life could not be any greater!!!

Here are A LOT of pictures from the past few weeks.  As you'll see below, the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl so we are doing a lot of Steeler activities.  Hope you enjoy!

The Stork sign in the front yard

The Payne Family coming home from the hospital

Liz and Ben hitching a ride down to the car

The first car ride home - Allison is checking out her new partner in crime

Little Ben in the car for the first time

Allison in her new Dora chair

Alli reading a book in her chair that folds into a bed

Mom reading a book to the kids

Little Benjamin

The next few pictures illustrate how Allison cannot wait for Ben to grow up so that she has someone to play with - Looking into the pack and play to see what he's doing.

Alli sitting on her Dora chair watching Dora with Dora

Alli reading a Dora book to Dora on her Dora chair that she got out of her Dora Backpack

When Mom puts the blinds up to let Ben have some sunlight, Alli likes to play with her own shadow!

This is the best picture that we have of them so far, but it turned out kind of blurry  :-(  Look at how happy she is to have a little brother!

The Payne Family after the Steelers big win to advance to the Super Bowl in our home town

Uncle Lucas and Alli

Aunt Lindsay and Alli

Alli sitting on Cousin Logan

Look at that smile!  Or is it just gas?!?  :-)

Meredith, Benjamin, and Allison

Matt and Allison

Micki and Benjamin

Benjamin's 2 week check-up.  He passed with flying colors!

 It was 75 degrees on Friday (the end of January!) so we took advantage by going to the park

Alli loved the slide...

 And the swing...

 But couldn't quite climb the ladder like Daddy!

 Nina and Benjamin

 Uncle Brad and Benjamin

 Aunt MacKenzie and Benjamin

 She gets so happy when she gets to hold her little brother!

 She loves giving kisses!

 On Saturday, we went to the NFL Experience.  Alli wasn't a fan of the Steelers uniform!

 Such a pretty girl in her black and gold!

 Alli and Dad preparing to participate in the QB Challenge

 Alli helped Dad make 2 of 3 throws...

 And then she got to make one on her own!

 Alli and Grampy

 Dad showing off his old football skills.  It's been over 11 years since "The Catch" made him famous in High School.  He definitely paid for it the next morning when he could barely move!

 Ben taking in all of the NFL Experience excitement!

 Alli and Aunt Sarah

Alli walking with Grammy

Ben finally wakes up!  He did such a good job sleeping the whole time.

  

Alli is pooped!  What a long day!



Benjamin's Story

It's been over 48 hours since Benjamin came into this world.  His journey here was quite a story.  Since Liz is still recovering in the hospital, I figured I'd go ahead and write this story.  Also, Allison has gotten to spend more time with Benjamin over the last day or two and below are some pictures of some of the first real moments together.  There are also two adorable videos at the very bottom of this post.

When I woke up to go to work on Friday morning, Liz told me that she had been up since 2:30 a.m. with major pains in her stomach.  She thought it was just stomach bug acquired from Alli since she hadn't been feeling well in the days leading up.  So I told her to call me if she needed me and I'd come home to help.  Liz got up shortly after I left to get ready for an already scheduled Doctors appointment to check-up on the baby and to also do another sono-gram to help get a better idea of the baby's size.  So still in pain, she drove to the appointment.  When she got there, the pain went away.  She went through the whole appointment and sono-gram with almost no pain at all.  While being monitored, the Doctor said she had a small contraction, but nothing to be worried about.  The actual c-section date was January 28th, so we were assured that we had time.  We also found out that the new baby was breech like Allison and weighed around 8 pounds, 1 ounce.

So after the appointment, she comes home to get some rest and sure enough, the pain starts again.  So much that she calls me and asks me to come home from work to help with Alli.  When she called, I knew something had to have been going on.  Liz is such a tough person that almost never complains of any kind of pain.  After about an hour of being home, she decides to call the Doctors office to let them know that the pain had come back.  They told her to go come back to the hospital to be monitored again to make sure everything was ok.  Since we had gone to the hospital twice to be monitored when she was pregnant with Allison, I had learned to bring something to read.  So I just grabbed a couple of magazines and got Alli's stuff in the car, and away we went.  Luckily, I had just gotten the suitcase down for Liz when I got home and she already had stuff ready to go and just had to place it in the suitcase.  We went ahead and brought the suitcase with us, just in case.

We got to the hospital about 20 minutes later and made our way to a room so that Liz and the baby could be monitored.  By the time Liz got in the bed, she was in some serious pain.  The pain would come every 3-4 minutes and would last 30 seconds (at least I learned to do something in the baby planning classes - how to time contractions).  They gave her some medicine for the pain and I knew it was bad because she let them give her the medicine.  She never takes any kind of medicine.  After about 30-45 minutes of still the same pain, they come back into the room to give her medicine to help stop the contractions.  10 minutes later, she still had the same contractions.  Then the nurses came in with a bunch of paperwork and let us know that the baby would be here within the next 30 minutes!  About 15 minutes later, our Doctor walks in wearing some nice going-out clothes.  He says that he had to leave his wife's birthday dinner down the street to come in to deliver the baby!  We felt so bad, but he said that it comes with the territory.  We very appreciative of him doing that for us. 

By this time, Liz's parents got to the hospital to watch Alli for us and away we went back to the room to have the baby.  Shortly after getting to the room to do the c-section, the baby comes out and the Doctor asks me what it is.  "It's a BOY!", I said.  We couldn't have been happier.  We are so blessed to have the opportunity to be parents to both a girl and a boy.  We had decided a long time ago that if we had a boy his name would be Benjamin Scott (we didn't have a girls name picked out until about 10 minutes before going into the room to have the baby!).  We think Allison and Benjamin has a nice ring to it.

Later on, we actually found out some crazy information.  I'm glad that we went to the hospital when we did because the labor that Liz was having actually tore her uterus.  Had we not been at the hospital and did the c-section when we did, things could have been really bad.  Despite the experience and the pain that she endured, Liz is recovering well.  She's such a tough person and such a great mother.  Allison and Benjamin are so lucky to have her as their mom. 

I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of special moments (that's what men do), so I'll let Liz catch everyone up on everything else when she gets back home.  :-)

Below are some pictures from the past few days.  Allison is really cute with him!  They are definitely going to be best buds.  Remember to look at the videos at the bottom of the page.  Enjoy!

 He got to watch his first Steelers game in the hospital

 Crying after the Steelers went down 21-7 to Baltimore

 They both had a really long day and needed some sleep!

 Allison's Godmother Nina came by to visit

What a cool dude!

Smiling after the Steelers won the game

 His shirt says "Bananas Over Mommy"

 Opening his eyes really big for one of the 1st times

 Mee-ma came by to visit!

 Alli was so happy to get to sit with Benjamin

 Alli giving him hugs

 Look at that smile!

 Alli giving him kisses

 Relaxing with Grampy

Our little Monkey!

 

Benjamin Scott Payne

Benjamin Scott Payne

8 lbs, 7 ozs, 20 inches long

Born January 14th at 8:04 p.m.

Since it's 3:00 a.m., I'm going to leave all of the fun details of today's adventures for another post, but I wanted to at least get some pictures of Benjamin out to everyone.

Benjamin and Liz are doing great. You can definitely tell that this is Liz's second child. She is so smooth and knows exactly what she's doing. Benjamin is in GREAT hands! The actual due date was January 28th, but Benjamin just couldn't wait to get out and see us. We hope that you enjoy the pictures and I promise we'll get more of the details out as soon as we can.

Liz and I shortly after finding out Benjamin would be here in the next 30 minutes!

Benjamin meets Mom for the 1st time

Alli meeting Benjamin for the 1st time! She gave him a somewhat gentle hug and kisses...

Grammy meets Benjamin

Hanging out before his first bath

He looks JUST like Alli when she was born

 Happy Mom

 His first BLUE onesie

 Stylish with his knit hat

And a bonus picture of Dad in his cool outfit!  What a stud!