Photoshop is a scary thing

This is a note from a good friend of ours that noticed the Yoda reference....
"Wise you look, young Padawan"
"Future bright ahead is"

"Benji and Steph,

Congratulations on Dylan's birth. Enjoy the miracle.

Since you mentioned it, I couldn't help but see what he would look like as Yoda. So... no disrespect to Dylan -- I hope he'll forgive me

See you soon,

B<"

Hey everyone. This is Stephanie, or mom. Today was an exciting day. Dylan has been getting frustrated every time he tries to feed. He cries and moves around and it is very hard. I visited with a lactation consultant today and of course that was the one time he latched on and did his thing. She said I was doing everything perfectly. So, for the rest of the day I struggled to get Dylan to eat. He didn't until 6:30pm. Crazy little boy. He just lays there and falls asleep. At least we are blessed that he sleeps so much. Last night he slept from 2:00 - 7:30. We do enjoy that. He was circumcised today. Benji asked if he could go with the doctor to watch. The doctor said, "Uh, I don't recommend it." So Benji didn't go. We heard a baby screaming down the hall while Dylan was gone. We're pretty sure it wasn't him, but traumatic all the same. When he came back he seemed fine. The only times he hasn't been fine is when we change his diaper. We had several visitor's today. Pastor Elvera, Ken and Rita Dedeker, and Kendra and Elyssa Pettis. Marie Carlson also came and stayed with me while Benji went home for a while. Thanks Marie! Benji is going home tonight to stay with Belle. He's taking a blanket that Dylan has been wrapped in for Belle to smell. She'll get to meet Dylan tomorrow. I know they'll be good friends. The highlight of the day though, was when Benji came back from home and had brought me a bunch of red roses and Dylan one yellow rose. He sure is a special guy. I couldn't ask for a better husband and now a better daddy for our baby. Just look at the picture. See what I mean?

Dylans first day

As you can tell the blogs have slowed down but fun things are still happening! We actually go some sleep last night as Steph's body caught up with her and the adrenaline wore off. We put Dylan in the hospital nursery and they brought him in during the night when it was time to feed, but for the most part we got to sleep about 7 hours or so!

The day was full of adventures, but mostly we just enjoyed holding our little dude...Some of you I'm sure are wondering about the name thing. The short answer is that it's the name that was on both Steph's list and mine. But there was a reason for that, something important to me was the meaning of the name. Dylan is a Welsh name and we both loved Wales when we were there last year, the name means "son of the sea" or "born from the ocean" and as most of you know both Stephanie and I have a love for all things ocean! As for his middle name it's Stephanie's maiden name and as there were all girls in her generation the name was going to die out, so we wanted to continue the proud Crane tradition! So there you have it...

Another fun thing that happened today was that we got to see our pediatrician. He came in and told us our baby was perfectly normal which was very nice to hear. Dylan also passed his hearing test, and we cringed as his PKU test was administered. The PKU test is a blood test where they prick the baby's heel and squeeze out a bunch of blood for testing, that was hard to watch.

On a brighter note we've enjoyed sharing with friends and family the news and getting to talk to family over and over again as the day goes on.

Since this is a random thoughts blog I have noticed that Dylan looks amazingly like Yoda? does anybody else see it, perhaps I could photoshop his face green? but I don't have photoshop:(

Also there should be about 30 more pictures on flickr by midday tomorrow

Keeping Jesus #1
Pastor Benji

Dylan Crane Ferguson

We welcomed Dylan into the world at 7:02 CST today! He is 6lbs 7oz and was about 20 inches long! Still no pictures, but they should be up on the site soon! It was a pretty uneventful afternoon, but after 4 hours with no change in the dialation of the cervix (can you say that on national blogosphere?) The doctors decided that a C-section was the best way to do things. At that point things went super fast. Our good friend/parent of stephs student/OBGYN skipped her daughters dance party to come and deliver Dylan. And yes I got to watch the whole thing and I didn't even come close to fainting :)

I then got to walk the baby to the nursery while they stitched Steph up. I didn't get to cut the cord though :( The baby got his temp taken, then a shot of Vitamin K, and some eye salve. After about 10 minutes alone with Dylan, Stephanie came out of surgury and got to hold Dylan for the first time and it was super awesome being a threesome family together!

So the deal is that we'll be in the hospital for a few extra days now. Probably at least until Friday or Sabbath. We are both exhausted, especially Steph after a full day of work for her body! We thank God for a very blessed day and for all our health. Also thanks to Marie Carlson for being there all day for us and for the Latterals for watching Belle for us.


Keeping Jesus#1
Benji

14 hours and counting

Ok so we are finally at 4 cm... it's 3:45ish and we're on nurse number 3, (tanya) She promises to get the baby out before she leaves at 11:00 p.m. :) Contractions are happening but at this point its like waiting for water to boil. That means we're on the home stretch 6 cm to go and at around 6 hours and baby should be born, I'll blog after the baby is born so keep watching for updates!

Benji

The Epidural is in...

Well as you could tell from the last entry it was a surprise visit to the hospital...We got in and they confirmed that the Stephs water did break and from there we got to go into our own little room here at the hospital. I can't find my cable to get the pictures off of my camera so you'll have to wait for those till I get home, but I assure you that there will be plenty :) At about 6 this morning Steph started on Pitocin and at about 9:30 they put the epidural in, so that's were we are at this point in the capable hands of the Southdale nurses and docs...

Benji

This kid has his own timing

I didn't expect to be woken up at 12:56 this morning, but I was....Stephanie came in and said her water broke so we called the Doctor and they said to come on in! So 1 shower, 1 set of dishes (it's my turn and I had procastinated on doing them) we're just now leaving for the hospital at 1:56 a.m. So the clock is running for this baby and so are we...

Benji

Still Waiting

Well It's the day after Christmas and still no baby, I don't know why we are expecting it so early, because the baby isn't due till the 29th anyways. Even though it would be a great tax break for 06 I'm still holding out hope for the first baby of the year on the Jan 1, 12:00:01 AM :) A shout out to my sister in law Mindy on her oft forgotten birthday today and also to my brother-in-law Val for his birthday tomorrow. Perhaps baby Ferguson will be on the 28th to make three family birthdays in a row?
Stephanie and I spent a very relaxed Christmas and it was really nice, I hope that yours was good too. I think that's about all for now...Oh yes you can check out the pictures link here on the blog page and it will send you to my Flickr photo albums and you can peruse pictures of the last few years of our lives and also check out the baby pics when they are available!

Happy Chrismasdays

Keeping Jesus #1
Benji

This video is the best

I buddy of mine from seminary sent me a link from this video. This is simliar to the gang that Jon Ponder and I wanted to start in high school. (The pic is an old picture of one of the kids in my youth group doing a skit at a patfinder campouth)

KJV (Boooyaa)

Keeping Jesus #1

Benji

http://www.devilducky.com/media/25512/

Xmas Break!!!!

Well I'm officially done with my first quarter of classes. I finished my last paper today...I think I already have senioritis, because it came to a point on these paper where I really didn't care what grade I was going to be getting. Steph is on the home stretch of school. She went to the doctor today and her blood pressure was high so if she wants to go on the field trip this Thursday to see the biggest gingerbread house in the world she'll have to go in a wheel chair....I think she'd rather stay home :) So it's up with the feet for the next couple of weeks until the little "dude" arrives. I think the name list is narrowed down to a manageable 2-3 names and we'll just have to see what he looks like before we name him.

Belle is pretty cute, we brought a doll home so that she'd get used to us carrying it around the house? Books said it was a good idea to make sure the dog is used to a baby. And now whenever we get home Belle will take us to the crib to make sure we know the "baby" is ok...Anyways attached are some recent pictures of stuff. I hope to post some stuff on the blog when the baby is born, but we'll see how long that takes.

So a very merry xmas to you all, this is the only xmas card you're getting :)

Benji

P.s. I just got a webcam and want to talk to people with it. I can use skype, yahoo or msn IM....

I got thorugh last week, we'll see how I did on my papers, as long as I get at least a B in these classes I'm more thna happy. Thanks giving should be really fun, Chris and Sara Lowry are coming from the cheesehead state along with their dog George. Belle is going to have a blast having another friend to play with. Belle hasn't really had another dog in the house since the Siglers ditched us for the West Coast and took Olive with them. (I'll post a picture of Belle and Olive at their finest)

Anyways we're at like 5 weeks until baby due date, pretty insane. Here's a couple of pictures of Stephanie with her , shall we say little? belly. It's pretty sweet we can see the baby wiggling around in there adn stuff.

Also a crazy week, my step sister Dawn was in a pretty intense car crash and brok her C1 vertebre, ut I think she'll be ok. My mom's surgury while a little more invasive that we thought it would seems to have gone well and so now I'm going to have to start supporting those pink ribbon causes:)

Happy Thanksgivng sorry nothing funny this week to report

Keeping Jesus #1

Please slow down

Ok so this is my second entry... I did a 24 hour wedding last night, it was acutally super fun, but I couldn't stay very long because Steph and I had to leave for birthing class it was our first one! Here this is funny at the end we did this breathing exercise. First picture the scene, 6 strangers lying on the floor of the gynacoligists office in the dark...some of you have probably been there. Anyways, we were practiceing our breathing exercises, I havn't eaten since noon (it's like 8:00 p.m.) and I couldn't relax because I was so afraid of my stomach growling. Then there's this lady telling us all to picture these beachesque scenes and breathe...I wonder what it would have looked like walking into that room? I started thinking about that instead of the breathing exercizes and I almost could hold back my laughter. But I was able to just giggle on the inside.

So next week is going to be super crazy. 2 papers due, 1 sermon to write, I can't wait till Sat. night is all I can say.

Hope to remember to blog again soon, perhaps add some pics.

Keeping Jesus #1
Benji

a first time bloggers blog

Ok so today is Wednesday, A good day because Lost is on tonight. Anyways, Stephanie is 29 weeks pregnant, wow! I'll post a few pictures of that on my site here once I figure out how. We're having a dodgeball tournament at MCA which should be pretty fun because students have to attend this event so it acutally goes pretty well.

Saturday, is my Orientation for my masters degree that I'm starting/have started. I'm a little intimidated by the amount of reading and work...and I guess I also am wondering if I chose the right emphasis for my Masters as well. I love Youth Ministry, but everybody was telling me not to get a masters in that because it wasn't very flexible, but now I'm in a Masters that could be pretty interesting, but isn't going to be as exciting as a youth ministry degree... Oh well, it is the lot I've chosen for myself.

I guess this is a good start for a blog, we'll see how this thing develops.

Here's a scary picture of me :) I took it last spring before I got my hair cut. If I ever come out with a punk rock album, this will be the cover.

Keeping Jesus #1