Mack's Birth Story

The Birth Story of 

Mackalister Qynn Benson

On this day four years ago I gave birth to my handsome brown eyed boy,

Mackalister Qynn Benson.

              I'd love for this to be one of those birth stories where it's like, it started out as any other day...but it's not lol. On this day four years ago I was sleep deprived because I had been up all night anxious for my first induction and excited to meet my son. I kept thinking I was going to go into labor with Mack on the 28th because I had gone into labor the day before my scheduled induction with Cherry and Jaydon. But.....I didn't. And I was up all night, tossing and turning and impatiently waiting for it to be time to hold him.

              Finally I climbed out of bed at 4am and started my day, I showered and ate (yes I know I wasn't supposed to, but I didn't throw up so :P) Daddy woke up Cherry and Jaydon and we fed them and bathed them and got them ready for their day. Then we packed up in the car and went to the hospital. Daddy and the kiddos took me up and got me settled in the room and Daddy left with the kids to take Cherry to pre-school and drop Jaydon off with his CiCi. While Daddy dropped her off at pre-school and picked up some snacks for us to have at the hospital I got settled in our room.

              At 7:00am the nurse got the IV in and started the Pitocin. Unfortunately this hospital has some pretty not so fun rules and I didn't find out until after they started the pit. I wasn't allowed to get up and walk around or get in a tub or anything for pain relief. For the first 6hours it wasn't so bad, mostly it was a lot of waiting while they slowly upped the pitocin level. I spent most of the morning bickering at Dev to turn off the sci-fy channel. Mostly because I needed something to occupy my mind. Which is how we ended up with a movie about giant ants on for two hours. We still to this day laugh about the crap we have watched while I was in labor with each of our kids. 

         Unfortunately it has been so long I don't remember how far dilated I was when I came in or how long it took me to dilate until I was 4cm, which is when they broke my water. I do remember by 1pm they broke my water. Thankfully I had a great nurse because not long after I had came in another mom had been admitted in active labor and our nurses only had one warming table. Apparently they (the nurses) bickered back and forth over who's mom would pop first. (Funny story about this will be added at the end ;) ) Well when my nurse checked me and I was at 8cm she went and stole the warming table out of the other room lol. (don't worry the other mommy didn't pop for a couple more hours) She then called my doc who took her sweet time coming to the hospital and prepping for Mack to come.

            Once I had hit 7cm I was about loosing my mind not being able to do anything to manage the pain level, so my nurse told me I could stand next to the bed and she put a pad down on the floor. I then stood up at the edge of the bed. At first I was just rocking side to side to relieve some of the pain. But pretty soon it got to the point that I couldn't focus with just that. Devon came and stood in front of me and I linked my arms up under his arms and around his neck and held on for dear life while he rubbed my back and talked me through each contraction. 

         It wasn't long before I told the nurse to check me again and I was at 9cm the doc came in and was taking her sweet time getting washed and dressed for him to come. I was frustrated because I wanted to push and I told her so and she said go ahead and push because it will take you awhile. Despite me telling her I'm miss two push wonder. So I did and Low and behold...one push and Mack was crowning and she didn't have her gown up her arms let alone tied. The nurse jumped in to catch him at the same time the doc lunged and one more push and our baby boy was here <3 

Mackalister Qynn Benson

7lbs 15.6oz 20.5in

September 29th,2010 at 3:40pm

 2weeks

 1month

6months

 1year

 2years 

 3years

 Happy 4th Birthday Mack Mack

 <3We all love you so much <3

       The funny little side story about Mack's Birth is that when I went back to work at the

portrait studio one of my first Sessions back was a pretty sweet little girl.

Who happened to have the same birthday as my sweet boy.

So of course mama and I got to talking about our birth experiences...

Only to figure out she was the other mama that my nurse stole the warming table from.

So A very Happy Birthday to Mack's Beautiful Birthday Buddy Tabitha Briann

We love and Miss you beautiful girl and when we come visit next summer we will have 

to get a updated photo of you and Mack Mack together <3

             

Another Freezer Meal Recipe (Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork)

      I don't know about you guys but boy oh boy are the fall sickies kicking every ones butt here in the Benson Household. Between my shoots, the kids schedules, hubby working, keeping up with the house, doc appointments, unexpected visitors (aka unneeded stress)  and the fact it's Monday, I didn't feel up to cooking dinner tonight. So I decided to pull a freezer meal and let the crockpot do the work. When we were planning our freezer meals we look at some of our fav family recipes and adapted some of them to be freezer meals so we would have food on hand we knew we loved. One of those was my hubby's Crockpot BBQ pulled pork, which is what I decided on tonight :D and I am super excited to eat it up with some cold Watermelon and corn bread :) yum yum, so without further wait...

Devon's Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork

Ingredients-
Pork Roast ( approximately 2lbs)
1 regular size bottle of Your Favorite BBQ sauce ( hubby loves sweet baby rays and I prefer longhorn bbq...we usually just put in whichever we have more of or sometimes combine them)
1/2-1cup Brown Sugar (if you like a sweeter based BBQ sauce use the 1cup measurement)
Ground Cumin 1/4 teaspoon
Cayenne Pepper 1/4-3/4teaspoon ( if you like a spicier BBQ then add the larger measurement)
Paprika 1/4 teaspoon
Onion Powder 1/4teaspoon
1-2 Shots of Jack Daniels Whiskey (this will cook off)

Use your Favorite BBQ sauce as a base and whisk in the other seasonings, Put the Pork Roast in the Crockpot and cover in the bbq sauce Mixture. Cook on low in the crockpot for 6-8 hours, shred the pork roast and mix it in the BBQ sauce in the Crockpot. Serve on your favorite bread (I like Sourdough) and pair with other summer classics like BBQ Beans, Watermelon, Joe Joes or potato Salad :) Enjoy and don't forget the napkins :)

(For A Freezer meal follow the same directions but place the roast and BBQ sauce mixture in a Gallon sized Freezer bag, Pull the night before you plan to cook)

Happy One Month Aria Lynn

 One month ago I gave birth to a sweet kissable beautiful baby girl

 I can't believe how quickly time has flown.

It doesn't feel like it has been a month, and at the same time it feels like she has been in our family forever...

Because she has <3

God knit her in our hearts long before he knit her in my womb.

 She still so little and sweet and I am still eating up all the little "baby" details before they are gone.

Those little rose bud lips

 Baby toes...oh how I love those long but tiny little toes

 You ever see such cute birthmarks and long little fingers <3

 And her button nose...oh how I kiss it one million and one times a day

 Those sweet chubby baby cheeks that just complete her perfection

Happy One Month Aria Lynn Benson

Please stay little for awhile longer 

<3

Runny noses and chicken noodle soup...yep it's fall

          As I've said there are many parts of fall that I love, but there is one part I most certainly do not love...that's right folks you guessed it, the sickies. Everyone in the house except mommy and daddy have runny noses and Cherry has a cough, I have a sore throat accompanied by a horrible ear ache. Yes you read that right, all of the kids are sick...that's six sick kids...say that six times fast. That is why I haven't posted in a couple days. To top it off today is my first day back to shooting client sessions. You know what this calls for...some comforting and soothing chicken noodle soup. Yep that's right this sick mama is making homemade crockpot chicken noodle soup. Since I love you all so and I missed a couple days blogging due to fighting this sore throat I decided to post two recipes today. One from our freezer meal list and the crockpot chicken noodle soup. First up our freezer meal of the week...

Turkey Chili Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey or ground beef

1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion

2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes with juice

1 can (16 ounces) pinto beans, drained, rinsed

1/2 cup chunky salsa, your favorite

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

1 to 2 tablespoons sliced black olives

Preparation:

In a large skillet over medium heat, brown ground turkey and onion. Drain off excess fat. Transfer browned mixture to the crockpot with tomatoes, beans, salsa, chili powder, and cumin. Stir gently to blend ingredients. Cover and cook on LOW setting for 5 to 6 hours. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a little shredded cheese and black olive slices and some fresh cornbread)

(To Make this a freezer meal simply brown the turkey and onions drain excess fat and let cool then add all the crockpot ingredients and the cooled turkey to a gallon sized freezer bag. Remove all access air and freeze. Thaw the night before you want to use it and cook in crockpot as directed in the orginal recipe)

Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup:
3 large chicken breasts (fresh or frozen)
3 16.9oz kirkland natural chicken stock
One package (about 6) large carrots peeled and sliced or diced to preference
Half of a onion diced
One bunch celery washed and sliced (or if you are like me you can use celery salt instead for the flavor without the celery)

Season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, rosemary, garlic powder and onion powder. (also celery salt if substituting) Add all ingredients to the crockpot and stir.  Cook for about 6 hours on low. About a half hour before you plan to serve shred or dice chicken and add a half to full bag (depending on preference) of egg noodles. Serve when noodles are cooked fully. Best with a loaf of fresh french or sourdough bread :) yummy 

This has been another foody blog post from the Benson Bunch Kitchen :) we hope your family enjoys as much as ours did

Another Day...Another Recipe

        I can't believe it's already the middle of September, this month is just flying by. As they say time flies when you are having fun. One of my favorite parts of fall is the cool mornings and cool nights. Even when it's still 86degrees during the day, the mornings and nights have a wonderful chilly temp to them. Crazy I know but I love it! But those chilly temps make me want to curl up and eat some comfort food. So in honor of that I will share with your family one of our favorite family comfort food recipes. This is a regular recipe during fall in our house but I easily made a few changes to make it a freezer ready meal. We hope you love our Crockpot Cowboy stew!

Crockpot Cowboy Stew

(Feeds a family of 6-8)

Ingredients

One pound Hamburger or Beef Stew Chunks

2 Boxes of Beef Broth

One Can Canned Tomato

One can Corn(Drained)

3 Large Carrots(Sliced)

5-6stalks Celery(Sliced)

4-5 Mushrooms(Sliced)

Half of an Onion Chopped

Potato's or Noodles for starch

Seasoning to Taste

Put Broth, canned tomatoes, Drained can of corn, and all fresh veggies

(sliced) into Crockpot brown hamburger or Beef chunks in Skillet then

drain excess grease and add to crock pot. If using Potatoes add now, if

using noodles add those about 1hr before serving Season to taste. I like

to use a little Tabasco, Fresh Ground Pepper, Kosher Salt, Garlic some

rosemary and Thyme. Let cook in Crockpot on low 6-8hrs or high 3-4hrs

and serve With Freshly made rolls or biscuits and Fresh salad :)  

(To make this a freezer meal brown hamburger before adding but if using stew meat just add it to the bag as is, it will cook just fine in the crockpot. Leave out the noodles or potatoes until you add the meal to the crockpot, if using potatoes add when you put in the crock pot, if doing noodles do not add until the last half hour or so of cooking. As for the broth you can either add bullion cubes to the bag and just write how many cups of water to add when you put in the crockpot or you can just add beef stock when you put it in the crockpot and that's how simple it is to turn this into a freezer meal. Just throw everything else into the freezer bag and seal and freeze and pop out the night before you plan to use it)

Crockpot ready tomato basil chicken Recipe (Freezer Meal)

     Oh fall how I love you, the leaves are already starting to change and the cool mornings are my favorite...it means extra snuggles under the warm blanket from the hubby in the morning. Football on the tv, oh yes I love me some football! And all the fall shows are starting, COME ON BONES!!! But with our busy schedules and all those pretty sights to see and shows to watch...who wants to cook! Well I LOVE cooking but I mean I don't have the time when there is so much else to do. Like do leaf printing with the kids ( I will totally blog that when we do it :P). And if I am going to willingly cook, it's going to be baking some yummy goodness. So on those days when I need a quick meal the crockpot is my best friend. And even better than that, a ready made crockpot freezer meal. Just thaw the night before and put in the crockpot and tada. So here is one of my favorites to share with you, I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine does. 

Crockpot Ready Tomato Basil Chicken 

Ingridients-

3-4 chicken breasts depending on size

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 small handful of fresh basil chopped fine

1-2tsp of miced garlic ( we perfer 2 because we like a lot of garlic)

1/2cup chicken stock

1/2tbls olive oil 

salt and pepper to taste

In crockpot add all ingidients together and cook on low for 4-6hrs

Cut up chicken, you can either use cornstarch to thicken the sauce but leave your tomatos whole or immulse it all together to make a smooth tomato sauce. Serve over noodles or rice with garlic bread and a fresh salad or veggie of choice. 

Crockpot Freezer meals Attempt One

          The time has come, it's fall! And you know that that means?!?! It means school, hectic kids schedules, my busy season for photo sessions AND CROCKPOT MEALS! Let's face it everyone loves crockpot meals. Seriously you can throw three ingridients in and leave it on for a couple hours and come back to a ready made meal, what is not to love? Well I had heard so much about freezer meals lately. Apparently it's the go to for what to bring to a mama who just had a baby...who knew :P Not me lol I have had six kids and never had anyone bring me a meal..that would have been awesome....lots of unwanted adive, but no meals lol. But I digress, I had heard so much about them I finally decided to just do it. So I did my planning, I was slightly over ambitious and thought I'll do 20 crockpot meals and double them and that will be 40. And then I thought...this is my first attempt what the heck am I smoking...and so I decided to cut that in half.

          I did all my planning and made sure I went shopping on my hubby's first day off and planned to do all my batch prepping, cooking, bagging and freezing the next day so he would be home with the kids. I didn't schedule anything that day hoping to have all day to cook. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans. We ended up having to run errands and then we had to pay bills, hubby ended up having a appointment in the middle of the day and the contractor finally came to replace our back door. So by the time I finally got to cooking it was 4pm. I almost decided to call it quits but I had a fridge full of meat and fresh veggies and it was either prep them and freeze them, eat it all or let it all go to waste...you can guess which option I chose.

             So I enlisted my hubby as my sous chef (he works in a professional kitchen so this was actually genius on my part). He started dicing and slicing the veggies and I started browning meat and seasoning. I started by browning 3lbs of ground turkey with garlic and onion for my turkey Chili. I was smart and all the other recipes I had decided to attempt this time didn't call for cooked meat, so my turkey chili was the only one I had to prep meat for. While the turkey was browning I started labeling gallon sized freezer bags. (Now the only issue with enlisiting my hubby was...you guessed it we had four kiddos decide to be terrors so forgive me but I was so focused on finishing up that I forgot to take photos, I will get some next time promise).

               I have read a lot of blogs that say starting with meat or starting with veggies is the best way...blah blah blah. Honestly I just looked at the recipes and said okay I need this much onion in total babe get to chopping and while he was chopping I would start putting the other ingridients in. I guess maybe I just thrive in chaos ( says the mom of six under eight) because this method worked for me. It worked so well in fact that in under 3hrs from start to finish my husband and I had done 16 crockpot freezer meals, he had also bagged for freezing about 25lbs of hamburger, cut up 20chops out of a pork loin, 3 pork roasts out of another loin and had those all bagged and ready for freezing. On top of that I also got the dishes done and cooked homemade potato soup for dinner last night. I would say for just under three hours that was pretty dang good. So without further ado, I present you with my crockpot freezer meals list.

September Crockpot Freezer Meals 
1. Crockpot ready Pumpkin Pork Roast
(http://beautifulbensonbunch.blogspot.com/2014/10/happy-october-recipe-included.html  )
2.Crockpot ready Pulled Pork
3.Crockpot ready lemon cilantro chicken (I made two of these)
4.Crockpot ready tomato basil chicken
( http://beautifulbensonbunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/crockpot-ready-tomato-basil-chicken.html )
5.Crockpot ready white chicken chili
6.Crockpot ready turkey chili ( I made three batches of these, it's a family fav)
( http://beautifulbensonbunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/runny-noses-and-chicken-noodle-soupyep.html )
7.Crockpot ready chicken tacos
8.Crockpot ready beef and brocoli ( I made two of these)
9.Crockpot ready beef fajitas
10.Crockpot ready chicken fajitas
11. Crockpot ready cowboy stew ( I made two of these)
( http://beautifulbensonbunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/another-dayanother-recipe.html )
( I would have made more...but alas with all my planning I forgot to check how many gallon sized bags I had and I ran out and said forget it lol)

:) Don't those sound nummy :) I thought so to! Now because I love you I will be posting recipes for all these. But just one at a time, or maybe two at a time :) so stay tuned for all the yummy goodness to come. By the way the only reason I had time to write this blog at 2:07pm on a Friday is because I somehow managed to get all 4 littles asleep at once!!! Not sure how but I will take it.

For starters how about we start off with one that isn't on the list :) I had some left over pork chops I didn't get to freeze so I had to use them and hey look at that shiny crockpot ( my hubby doesn't call me the crockpot hoarder for nothing). This is totally another one that you could add to the freezer meals, I just happen to be making it fresh.

Crockpot Apple Cinnamon cayenne sweet Pork chops
Ingridients-
3-4 pork chops
1/2cup apple sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1tbls cinnamon
cayenne to taste

Mix the cayenne,cinnamon and brown suagr together in a small bowl. Now coat your pork chops with your apple sauce and place in crockpot. Next evenly sprinkle your seasoning mixture over your pork chops. That's it folks. Place on low setting and cook 4-6hrs (if you have a big family like us double your recipe. Also if you perfer your pork a little, or a lot sweeter...like me, then double your brown sugar) I suggest serving with roasted sweet potatos and fresh corn on the cob. (This is a Benson family recipe so we hope you enjoy) Come back tomorrow for another recipe.

Birth Story of baby A

For months we thought she might come early. But of course she was just pulling our chain, just like her siblings our little girl was nice and cozy and didn't want to vacate her comfy home. I may have been on my sixth kiddo but I have a strong and stubborn uterus and cervix, they love holding babies hostage. ( Reader Note- if you plan to tell me that I shouldn't induce before my due date, let me promise you I know my body better than you do) So when I went in at my 36week Check up we just went ahead and scheduled our induction date, knowing she likely wouldn't vacte on her own.

 The days passed slowly and I stayed active, easy to do when you are chasing around five kiddos in the summer heat. For weeks we hoped and prayed she would choose to come out to see us. We went on family walks and by walks I mean two miles. I bounced on the birthing ball, I did squats, and yoga positions. I had massage that hit pressure points. The kids and I even had a dance party...daily. YES we did the thing that put her in there to try to convice her out...nothing. Oh yes this sweet girl was my child, she earned the name Benson...she was Stubborn!

I went in for my 38 week Check up on August 14th two days before my 39week mark. I was sitting at 50% effaced, 2cm and A was completely engaged in the birth canal. My body was ready to have a baby. But the problem with my body is it never goes into active labor on it's own. So I went home, knowing fully my induction date was approaching. I also knew that it was highly unlikely I would go into labor prior to induction. But I prayed for it anyhow and I whined when it didn't happen. Hey it's my sixth kiddo, give me a break I'm allowed to whine.

My induction was scheduled for August 20th ( I liked this date a lot, but it didn't mean I still wasn't wishing for her to pick her own birthday). We had childcare covered and time off for Daddy scheduled. But I kept praying for my sweet A to come on her own. Nothing. The days passed so slow I felt like time was standing still. I don't care what anyone says, it doesn't get faster with each kid. I swear it gets slower, probably because I have little monkeys asking me multiple times a day when the baby is coming.

Finally it was the 19th and Devon got home from work. I'd had the kids bags packed and ready for weeks and he loaded them in the truck. We spent the next couple hours snuggling with all the kiddos watching movies. Then 6pm rolled around and I kissed and hugged all my babies and they all kissed and hugged my belly and told A they couldn't wait to meet her. Daddy loaded them all up and took them to Grammy and Gampy's to spend the night.

Daddy came home and we had dinner and got Aria's swing set up and bouncer put together. And we loaded up the truck and installed A's carseat, and by we I mean Devon. Then we climed into bed together, where daddy promtly went to sleep and I lay awake tossing and turning. Nothing new there. 4:30am came early, but not quickly. We got up and showered and loaded the cooler in the truck and ate breakfast. Then we drove to Newport and checked in at the hospital. Check-in was quick because I pre-registered at the hospital. We were taken straight back to the room and the nurse took mine and baby A's vitals and then the fun started.

First the nurse checked me, still at 2cm 50% effaced and A was completey engaged. I was a little sad that with as active as I had been and everything I did I had no new progress but I shook it off and thought I get to meet my girl today. The Lovely Nurse ( Sue) then hooked me up to what I lovingly refer to as my pain meds...as in pain inducing medication. Now it was 7am and time to evict this sweet little girl of mine.

Sue (Our Nurse) was coming in about once a hour to up the pit. I just hung out in bed, I knew once I actually starting feeling the contractions I wouldn't be able to stay in the bed. The way I saw it there was no use wasting my energy until my body was working with the Pit (aka Pitocin). She came in about 9am and asked me if I was feeling that, I just looked at her and said feeling what. Apparently I was having contractions every two minutes. But they weren't strong so I just chilled in bed for a while longer.

 By 10am I was feeling those contractions, and the good news is they were steady. The bad news is they weren't regular. I would have a strong one and then three small ones and then a strong one, and so on and so forth. I was confident that she would come between 2-6pm. This was my fourth induction and all my other kiddos had been born fairly quickly once those contractions got going. even Gracie who pulled a booger move and stalled me out at 6cm for 3hrs came within a 8hr window of starting pit. So I was relaxed and ready to hold my girl.

I could feel the contractions but they weren't painful, I would just feel a lot of pressure in my tailbone with everyone I had. So I had the nurse check me and she told me Aria was so low in my birth canal that if I was fully dilated A would be crowning. Sadly I wasn't fully dilated. I was 60% effaced and the outside of my cervix was 4cm but the inside was still just 2cm. Thankfully the change meant my body was working with the pitocin and one way or another we would be eventually having this baby girl. We were just waiting to hit the 4cm mark so my Doctor could break my water and really get things going.

They kept uping the pitocin and soon they had me at the max limit, my body never really gets going until we hit that. My contractions were still not strong enough in my opinion so I got out of bed and onto the ball. Lunch time came and went and still I bounced away.Finally I got those contractions going and boy were they good. Sue came in to check on me and I was just smiling away. I told her ha my daughter is so my child, but she forgets I have 26yrs of stubborn on her and I am winning this battle. My next cervix check I was 3.5cm and 75% effaced and the contractions were a freight train now, there was no stopping them. So doctor broke my water, but it did what it did with Gracie and wasn't a big gush. Just a little trickle, and then a contraction hit and I would loose some more. About 20minutes later I had a strong contraction, heard a pop and had a huge gush of fluid. I had a second bag of water, that's when the contractions started to get to where I couldn't sit through them. So I didn't, I got up and walked and bounced on the ball and worked through the pain.

By 3pm I was feeling a little frustrated I wasn't feeling close to pushing so I got in the tub to relax a little and take my mind off it. Before getting in the tub we checked my cervix and I was 100% effaced and 4cm. At this point I was ready to cry but I shook off my frustration and got in the tub. An hour later I got out and we checked my cervix again, 5cm. Deep breathe mama and focus, think of holding baby A. On the ball I went again and bounced bounced bounced. That wasn't helping my body so I got up and walked, I just wanted to hit 6cm because that's usually my turning point where I go fast.

Then 6pm hit and I was getting wore out and frustrated, My labors were never this long and I felt ready to cry. So I did what I always do and I pushed the feeling of frustration to the side and focused on getting my baby in my arms. Finally I hit the 6cm mark at 7pm....I was offically at 12hrs. And that's when the normally calm and collected me went bye bye. That 12hr mark on Pit is, well to put it midly, brutal. So trying very hard to get through it I got back in the tub, after 30minutes in I couldn't even stand the tub so I got out. And I did something very rare, something I have never ever done with any of my other labors. I climed into bed and sat there. I didn't lay, but I sat indian style. Finally I was at 7cm. I had progressed about 1cm a hour since the doc broke my water. I could feel A so low that all I could think of was wanting to push her out, I swear it felt like if I was dliated she'd just fall out. But I wasn't so I didn't push, I just laid in bed and I well I don't know what to call it. I wasn't actually crying, but I felt like I should be. I was pleading, and begging. My poor nurses, doc and hubby didn't know what to do because I am never like this.

They were all trying to distract me and calm me down but I was fed up. I was literally saying " I am so close A please Just Crown" " I beg you baby let mommy dilate, come out to see me" I was in bed and at this point I was crying and begging and pleading. I am probably the only person that begs for transition. But beg I did, I knew that was a pain I could embrace. I knew once I felt that pain I would be just two pushes from holding the world in my arms. And I was so beyond ready that my emotions were a wreck and my body was exhausted.

Finally I felt the pain, I knew that burn and I embraced it fully. I cried in joy and said do you see head I feel her she's crowning. Doc said not yet and then just as quickly went there she is mama push. And push I did and finally my sweet girl came into this world. At 8:01pm on August 20th, 2014 after 13hrs of tiring labor with the most stubborn child I have ever met I finally got to welcome my baby girl. Doc put her right in my arms and said she's good size mama and look at the umbilical cord holy cow mama what were you eating. I looked down at my sweet girl screaming her little head off and I said shhh it's okay Gracie mama's right here and then I realized what I said I said I mean Aria. And then it dawned on me, this sweet girl could be Gracies twin, holy cow did they look alike. They took her and weighed her and measured her. She was a healthy 7lbs 15oz and 19.5in long. She was perfect. (I'll save you from all the gory after birth details, because honestly I hate remembering them. Let's just say Doc and hubby would kick my ass if I entertained getting preggo before A hits a year, at least. Because my body likes to bleed and clot...a LOT) Apparently A's Umbilical cord was so healthy and thick that they almost couldn't clamp it.

She was a pain and stubborn the whole time I was pregnant with her so I shouldn't have been suprised when she was just as stubborn and as much of a pain when it came to her birth. But just like all my other stubborn kiddos she was worth it. Please join our family in welcoming to the world our Beautiful and Perfect daughter Aria Lynn Benson. And then there were six <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Much love the Benson Bunch

And then there were six <3