Introducing........

Benjamin Douglas Keyes

Born January 1st 2010 at 8:47am. Weighing in at 7 lb 3 oz and measuring 20 inches long. For those of you who have been asking or wondering, he was not the first baby of the year born in Victoria. He was the fourth. It was a busy day.

I know it's pathetic that it's taken me two weeks to get something posted but I'm going to put the blame on a laptop that's been having issues.

If you are not at all interested in the birth story of little Ben, please feel free to skip this paragraph. We had a pretty quiet New Years eve. John and I went to see Avatar in the afternoon, then grabbed the kids and went to a family dance at the church. It is possible I guess that those squat dances with the kids helped things along:) Grandma and Grandpa took the kids home and we headed over to John's brother and Sister in law's house to ring in the New Year. We headed home around 12:30 and I believe the last thing I said as we were leaving was "I actually hope I don't go into labor tonight because I'm just so tired." Well we were in bed around 1:30 and the contractions started at about 2:00. They were not consistent but I knew they weren't just Braxton Hicks contractions as they did have a little punch to them. I was able to sleep between contractions and they became consistent at about 10 min. apart. At about 6am I got up to make myself a bagel because I was soooo hungry and contractions were still 10 min apart so I figured I had some time. Before my bagel was finished toasting, contractions went from being every 10 min. to 3 min. apart. Now my Doctor had told me that third babies are known for being unpredictable and not to hang around home too long. So off we went to the hospital. I was admitted at 7am and at about 8am things began getting a bit more intense. The last 20 min. before pushing was terrible but after very long labors with the first two I'm not complaining. John announced that it was a boy and I instantly thought of how ecstatic Aiden would be that he'd gotten his brother. We had a healthy baby, who scored a perfect 10 on the Apgar scale (John is very proud of this).

Ben is a layed back little guy. I say that he never really cries, just complains once in a while. Aiden and Abby adore him. Aiden sits and watches him whenever I am not right next to him, to be absolutely certain that he's ok:) Abby just wants to cover him in kisses and tickle him. She is having a bit of a hard time adjusting but luckily only takes it out on me and not at all on Ben.

So for those of you who are not on Facebook, here's a few pictures. Sorry, the quality is not great on a few of them, John left his good camera in Boston. I know, shocking. Thanks to an incredible landlord though, it arrived on the 2nd.