All thumbs

She's not been a fan of the paci since the beginning. She's started either sucking her left thumb or right pointer and middle finger which is funny bc when I was little, I sucked my left pointer and middle fingers!

Maggie and daddy

Zander

Maggie's cousin Zander loves her so much. He's so cute with her and is always saying,"I love that baby!" last time we were home, he was holding her when she started fussing. He figures she's hungry, pulls out his shirt and says,"here Maggie! Here's boobie!". I could have died.

So far, the dogs have been very good with Maggie. Palmer loves her, and Brin for the most part, just ignores her.

However, thanks to Palmer, I had my first traumatizing mommy moment... This happened when she was 5 days old.

Mom and dad were here visiting and she was wearing a sleeper sack. All of the sudden, I notice Palmer chewing on something. I told him to drop it and he did. It was her cord. I threw up in my mouth a little and cried.

Enough said.

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Hope this isn't a TMI post :-)
My original due date was Sept 1st. I had an OB appointment for that day. My blood pressure had been high, so I had a feeling he'd be inducing me, but didn't think he'd send me straight to the hospital! We dropped the dogs off at FIL's house and headed over to St. Ann's. They started me on pitocin right away (about 11:00), then on his lunch break, my OB came over and put in a foley cathedar. This took me from 1-4 cm in about an hour, so I was all- this is gonna be fast :-) Not so much. I labored for as long as I could and got an epidural and took a nice little nap. At about 3 in the morning, the nurse came in and started discussing a c-section since I wasn't progressing very quickly. BP shot up after hearing that. She put me on my side and left for a while. I started feeling super intense pressure so I called nurse back in and she said I was just about ready to start pushing! Long story short, Maggie was born at 7 am! We gave her the middle name of Louise after my MIL.
We're doing great and home. Bill only got to take a couple days off, so that was hard, but my mom came and stayed for the first work week at home. I might have her come back this week so I can take naps :-)

Maggie Louise is here!

We're healthy and happy! We get to come home tomorrow! Bill's a great daddy already!

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So, I got the stroller from my last shower, like a month ago. I've been dying to put it together. I think I did pretty well by waiting a month. This post is a test to see if the husband reads the blog or not... I put it together, and automatically send this picture to my mom and sister with the caption "Bill told me not to put it together yet. I couldn't take it anymore" and my mother is hilarious...
mom: Oooo! Nice! You better listen to your husband. Didn't your mom teach you that?!

Me: Haha, well, I was planning on sticking it in the closet & he wouldn't notice for another month or so... THAT I learned from my mom

mom: Good lesson, grasshopper

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I'm seriously ashamed of myself for not knowing about this blog before:

www.theblogess.com

In particular, please, please, please go to page 4 "And that's why you should learn to pick your battles" on June 21. This is something that would seriously happen at my house, if only I were a bit more creative, when Bill and I had a disagreement.

I've loved being pregnant and I've been very lucky and blessed thus far...

Having said that though, I just have to whine a teeney tiny bit. I have a cold. I can't take anything to help me sleep. Good thing I can nap.
We had a super busy weekend. My now cankles blew up to the size of grapefruits. Attractive. They get better if I lay down and prop the feet up (good excuse to sit :-) but am also having heartburn issues.... so if I'm upright, I swell, if I lay down, it's burning time. I'm down to eating saltines and plain noodles, and sometimes that's questionable. Maybe the weight gain will slow down (yeay)?
That's really about it, so like I said, nothing too bad. Just wanted to whine. My Dr. told me at the very beginning that pregnancy is about 4 weeks too long... I'm 36 weeks 2 days.
I had my last baby shower today and feel as ready as one can be. I'm still terrified and am appreciating any amount of sleep I can get at the moment.

Blogger is still being super difficult with loading pictures. Grr. So here are just a couple from the latest shower up at my sister's house... Try to load more later.

week 32

This starts the every two week appointments! Scary!

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piada

Have you people been there? Yummyness!

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p dinner

It consisted of popcorn, a pickle and a pepper. Weird.
I have a ton of pics I want to post on my computer, but Blogger hasn't been cooperative lately. Works from my phone though. Also weird.

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cancer

My mother in law, Cheryl has been battling breast cancer. She's been in the hospital for a while but got transferred to the icu on Tuesday. She's so strong and such a fighter. She got a card from a friend w this in it:
What cancer cannot do
Cancer is so limited...
It cannot cripple love
it cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot eat away peace
It cannot destroy confidence
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot shut out memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot reduce eternal life
It cannot quench the spirit
-author unknown

The bentz family has proven all of this.

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More flowers/butterflies

Here is on of my baskets when I first planted them...

and here they are now! I think they're growing nicely!

centerpieces

I'm making centerpieces for the spaghetti dinner... I made 25 flowers (i need about 5 per centerpiece and I'm trying to make 25-30)but I cut out a ton of them...just haven't put them together yet. I'm going to have to step up the production.

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more flowers

I still have more to plant in my giant planters. They're still in the garage and I can't move them by myself...

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zinnias

I never knew how much I liked them! They'll go in my giant planters too!

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I love flowers!

I spent all day planting in pots, baskets and the amazing porch baskets bill got me!

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Month 5, baby is about the size of a papaya... because everyone knows how big a papaya is. Baby is moving like crazy (Bill hasn't felt it yet. sad). Still feeling good- 15 more days until SUMMER BREAK!!!

baby obsessed much?

This past weekend, I met 2 sisters in Delaware for a mom sale. I got a bunch of toys and a cute pink quilt. We also went to Target and I got an Easter outfit and eggs. Ready for Easter next year for about $3!

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The nursery theme is going to be dogs (whether its a boy or girl). I couldn't resist getting these fabrics at Joann's on Friday. I'll prolly make a blanket and memory board with.these and I got some cute artsy ideas to make and put in cute frames... will post those when I get around to making them! When I was getting the material cut, the lady asked "is this for a girl dog?" I said yes bc I couldn't tell her it was for my baby at that point... :-)
I figure if it's a boy, I have lots of nieces that would appreciate pink girly-ness! And there's so much more boy dog stuff than girl doggy stuff, so it'll be easy to replace!

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I came home to spend Easter with my fam and am having so much fun! We let the kids dye eggs and then had our adult fun making these. Sharon got silk ties at good will. Cut the ties apart, tie them around the egg tightly(good side toward the egg), cover with nylons or white fabric, and boil in water and vinegar for 20 min. If you Google silk tie eggs, you'll get more complete directions.
Now, we got all silk ties and some worked awesome and some not at all... anyone out there know why that is?

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Zander loves 'baby sister' and can always make her laugh. Here are big hugs (supervised by papaw).

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Another pic of lexie. She's just so photogenic!

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...Maybe...

Our last appointment, Tex wouldn't cooperate and we couldn't get a clear shot. Dr. Hart said it looks like a girl, but not to go painting any rooms pink yet! I thought I'd be crushed if we didn't get a clear picture, but I don't really mind. He said we'd check again later! We did see the heart beating, mouth moving, hand up by face, and all sorts of bones- so neat!

20 weeks, Baby Bentz is moving more and more (and i'm loving it!) We've talked about names, but aren't telling anyone until the big day :-)

I am stalking the eagle. We've only ever seen one at a time, but there was one in the nest, and the other flying around. So exciting!

I love the big tree in this pic. The eagle is to the right.

(Can you tell how much I love using the new camera??:-)

My ultra short spring break was this past Thursday and Friday. However, I signed up for a Title 1 conference on Thursday. It was a great conference, but dang, on Spring break??? Anyway, on Friday, I dropped Bill off at work and kept on going down to my sister, Sharon's house. We went to lunch, did some light shopping, watched a movie, ate ice cream... super fun day. After dinner, we went outside.

I'm calling the above picture "I'm telling"

The dogs all had a great time too!

We walked back to see the horses...