Here I am, determined that our sweet little bonus blessing would NOT be the only one without a birth story! Bennett Lee joined us on Sunday, January 11th, 2026 at 11:07 am in Room 707. I'm so happy and blessed to share his story, including a little about my pregnancy.
It's not a secret that Bennett was a surprise. After having Hallie (our rainbow baby after we lost our daughter Hope at 20 weeks), I felt such relief and gratitude, but I also didn't feel...done. There was a sense of longing that remained, and I wasn't sure if that was just because we had a baby girl in Heaven that I would always miss, or if there was another child planned for us. I tried to shake the feeling, even prayed for the longing to go away, but still it lingered. Aaron felt done, and to be honest, the conversation was a tricky one to navigate and led to some lingering disagreement between us for a year or so. But I knew Aaron had to be on board if we were going to have a fourth child, and I understood why it made total sense to be "done" with three. Still, the desire lingered as the months ticked by, and I did the mom math for what one more baby could look like for us in the wedding "off season"- in November, or in January, and when I would have to be pregnant if that was going to happen. We weren't "trying", but I wanted to be ready if we ever decided to. I distinctly remember looking at my app at the end of April and thinking we had missed the week where I could have gotten pregnant for a January baby. Finally, right around early May, I felt a sense of peace, and tried to focus on all the new fun things we could do if we were truly done with babies. Hallie was approaching three at this point, the end of the diaper era was coming, and with it a sense of "freedom". I booked us flights for November to Cancun, but decided to wait a couple of weeks until my period started before I booked the non-refundable resort.
And then, it didn't. It could be off by a couple days, so I wasn't too worried. I happened to have a pregnancy test at home from a few months back, and so I decided to take one on May 13th, while Aaron was out at The Brim. We had just done a Cooper's Hawk wine tasting the night before, and I was getting ready to go to a dinner with a bunch of ladies from our church. To my shock, those two pink lines showed up pretty quickly. I called Aaron, shaking, and told him the news, which I knew he would need to process. Honestly, after finally switching my brain to thinking we were "done", this pregnancy, and all that came with it, were a lot to process. I knew of course that I had wanted another baby, but there is also anxiety that comes with a pregnancy and all that we knew could happen. Not to mention- could we really handle four kids?! One of my friends legit asked, "So is everyone done having babies?" at dinner that night, and I almost spit out my water in the room full of young moms. I was still in shock. As we were walking out of the restaurant, away from the other, I blurted out to her, "I just took a test and I'm pregnant!" I needed someone to know.
Time went on and we started sharing the news with people. The fear turned into joy as we navigated my "advanced maternal age" pregnancy at the ripe old age of 36. I went to several high risk scans due to my age, and we discovered that I had a velamentous cord insertion into my placenta, which can lead to complications with the baby not getting enough nutrients and growing at the proper rate. This meant that I had to do additional ultrasounds, plus non stress tests in the hospital once a week for the last four weeks of my pregnancy. We did find out Bennett was going to be a boy, which was such a joyful experience. And, praise the Lord, everything marched along just fine with my pregnancy. In fact, I worked out up until four days before he was born, and I also did not get sick a single time! He was also breech up until about 36 weeks, which had me wildly nervous about a C Section, but I literally felt him turn inside of me one night as I was going to sleep. I'm so grateful for that.
With Addie's birthday on January 9th, we were really hoping to avoid a shared birthday. Bennett was due on Friday, January 16th, and I knew that they wouldn't let me go past my due date due to my age. I was ten days early with Eli and Addie, and two days early with Hallie, without any of them being induced, so I was hopeful I would go on my own prior to that. As his due date approached, we did go ahead and schedule an induction for that Friday the 16th, so that we knew we had a plan and an end in sight. With this being my fifth delivery, everyone kept telling me it would go fast and to be prepared!
I started having Braxton Hicks here and there around January 6th. That day, I was at a one and 40% effaced when they checked me at my doctor's appointment. Angela, Aaron's sister, had come into town for Addie's Birthday and was staying in our basement. I went to my fourth and final non stress test in Labor and Delivery on Addie's Birthday, January 9th, and all was looking good. I knew I would for sure have a baby by the next Friday. That night, we prepared to host Addie's Family Birthday Party at our house. I was having sporadic contractions, to the point where I spent most of the night on the couch while everyone else helped with the party. I had wanted to get through Christmas, then New Year's, and now I just wanted Addie and Bennett each to have their own day. I felt like any time he wanted to come after that, we were good to go! The contractions stalled, and we went on with our night.
The next day, January 10th, I took Addie to a gymnastics birthday party. As I sat there and worked on my laptop, I started having contractions again. They were getting more regular, so I started timing. We had planned to go to my parents' house in Platte City to cheer on the Bears in their playoff game against the Packers. We knew Angie could take our kids home in the van if we needed to head to the hospital, so we decided to pack up everything and take the truck along, just in case. We got to my parents' around 5pm and I was having some contractions on and off. I think I was worrying everyone a little breathing through them. They seemed far enough apart and eventually stalled out, so we decided to take our kids home and put them to bed at halftime. Then Aaron, Angie, and I cheered on the Bears to a WILD playoff comeback win, while I packed things up and set them out for Addie's "Friend Party" the next day. I had a feeling I wouldn't be attending: when you know, you know. Then I tried to get a little sleep.
It's kind of a running joke between me and Aaron that I always go into labor in the middle of the night (so we get no sleep- especially me). This time was no different. I started timing about 12:26am and, although the contractions never got super close together, they never stopped. And they were getting more intense. I knew this was for real. They were still around 10 minutes apart, but at 4:15 am I decided we should go to the hospital. Angie was sleeping in the basement, so we just needed to call my mom and let her know we were headed to North Kansas City Hospital (newly named NKC Health). She was there for the other kids' births and we wanted her there one more time.
We arrived at the hospital about 4:30am. When they checked me, I was at a 3 and 90% effaced. That was good progress on my own since my appointment on Tuesday, and my sweet nurse, Miranda, assured me I was going to have this baby. They put the monitor on me and Bennett had one little dip in his heart rate, so she told me they would definitely admit me. I worked through contractions with Aaron, and it felt like they were asking me about the epidural almost right away. I was good with getting it, even if it slowed things down a little, and so I had the epidural in about 6:30am, and was at a 5.5 shortly after.
It was pretty smooth sailing from there. At 7 am shift change, Dr. Daniels came in and said she was ready to break my water to keep things moving. (Dr. Newman was my doctor but Eli was actually the only one of our kids that she delivered.) Kayla, my fabulous day labor and delivery nurse, did an amazing job moving me back and forth with the "peanut" ball to keep baby moving down like he should. Kayla told me she didn't think we were going to need any "Birthday Party Juice" to have this baby, and now I'll never think of Pitocin the same way! She said she thought he'd be born by noon. Things started picking up pretty quickly and I was feeling some discomfort around 10:40am. Kayla checked me again and we were almost ready to push. Once I was at a 10, they called Dr. Daniels in, and two contractions and four total pushes later, Bennett Lee was out at 11:07am- just minutes into Second Service at Church, so my dad was able to show the first photo of him off during greeting time and some of the ladies in my Bible Study were crying happy tears when they noticed.
There is truly no feeling like the inexplicable peace of having your baby on your chest, healthy and there- on the outside, and me healthy too with no stitches or complications. I always feel like a beast after delivering our babies, and this final time was no different. Bennett weighed in a 7lbs 10 oz, almost our biggest baby, which is humorous with the whole velamentous cord concern. He was 20.5 inches and absolutely perfect.
We moved down to the Mom and Baby floor around 3pm. (Thank goodness Aunt Angie was able to take the kids to church and Addie to her "friend" birthday party at Michael's and host that successfully that afternoon.) Family was able to come visit us, and we had our amazing nurse Katie (who was there when we delivered Hallie!) again the next day. Elizabeth was our incredible night nurse and I had the best time chatting and laughing with her. Truly, everything worked out perfectly.
The kids were able to come that evening and there is nothing better than your kids meeting their sibling. My heart. Hallie didn't seem happy because she had recent experiences with hospitals and she was convinced that I was going to "pass away" since I was in the hospital with an IV. So she really perked up once Bennett and I were able to come home. I cried in back seat of the Baby Blue truck on the way home, and we let Papa Bob "drive" via Blue Cruise for a little as we came North on 169. We really wish he could have met Bennett.
Bennett’s name means “little blessing/blessed”, and is derived from benediction- “a spoken blessing that invokes God’s favor, peace, and grace upon people, often closing worship services + New Testament letters.” He’s our perfect little final blessing! 🥹 Lee is a family middle name (actually on both sides!), shared with Uncle Austin and honoring Aaron’s Dad (whose middle name was Leeroy)- and it means shelter/safe haven! Truly, he is the perfect final blessing we needed at the perfect time. I'm so grateful I never gave up on the nudge I felt to have one more little life to love. Baby Bennett is here healthy and safe- and absolutely perfect!
We love you so much, Bennett Lee, no matter what, and we always will!
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