Well...life has been pretty crazy lately. I have been hired to do my student teaching for seminary next year. I am excited about that and as well Chantal had our second child. His name is Benson Alyn Dougal. We know his initials spell bad, but we figure people have survived with crazy names so I think he will survive with those initials. I will let you in on the whole birth process. Not everyone knows the entire story. In fact most people don't at all. We went in when Chantal was 7 weeks pregnant and assumed she was around 2 weeks pregnant. The next time we came in was supposed to be around the ten week appointment. We got our first ultrasound and they said you have a boy on the way. He crosses his legs modestly but he is definitely a boy and you are actually a little over 14 weeks along. The next news came as quite a surprise. We were brought into the doctors office and told not to worry, but they saw something on the ultrasound that they don't always see. He had two choroid plexuses on his brain. They said because of new technology they have started seeing them more often but they don't usually see them with the next observation. He also had a few white wisps on his heart. They also said this can be common but they don't usually see them both and they don't often see them in multiples. Then the doctor says go home and don't look it up on the internet. Everything will be ok. So the first thing we do is look it up on the internet and what do we see? Trisomy 18, a debilitating genetic disorder. Well that put us in a sound mind right there, but we prayed and prayed and felt everything would be fine. This is one reason why we didn't tell everyone because people are already stressed and we figured everything would be ok. We ended up going in for a four ultrasounds as our little boy was growing. After 14 weeks we went back in and did one last ultrasound to make sure all was well and they said everything looked great. We were extremely happy to hear this. SO then the wait begins. At 39 weeks his time came. Chantal started having contractions in the morning on Friday the 27th. We walked all over the place and even went to costco. We came back to our house and went for another walk. We went over to our neighbors house down the road and sat and talked for some time while Chantal was having some big contractions. It started to rain and my parents were at our house so they came and grabbed us. Amber and Jake and their children were there as well. They stayed around and Chantal said we could be having this baby tonight. I don't think anyone believed her until right before Amber left that she said maybe you will have this baby tonight. I fell asleep around 130 and was woken up at 4 to head to the hospital. My mom came over to watch Bryn and off we were to the hospital. We got in quick and then ended up having to wait for the doctor to finish a surgery to come break the water. He did that around ten and Benson came at 1:15. The pushing took a little longer this time, but it went so well. Everyone was praying from red hair but as he came out his father was right...he was dark and hairy....Not as hairy as Brynlee. West Valley was an amazing hospital. We loved the nurses and doctors and the rooms with the big queen size bed was pretty nice as well. Recovery is great and Brynlee loves her little brother. She smothers him with kisses and hugs. He was 7 lbs 1 ounce and 19 inches long.
