benson is a champion sleeper.  he started sleeping through the night early on, like 3 or 4 weeks old i wanna say.  he's been going down around 6:30/7ish lately and usually will sleep til between 4:30/5ish to eat, then snooze another few hours.  this is fantastic for me, because even when he's asleep when i get home, i'm usually up til about midnight, if not studying that just unwinding before going to bed. i'm still averaging about 4-5 hours a night, which is not enough for me, but i'm surviving.

school has been insanely stressful.  midterms were a couple weeks ago, and i'm preparing to take my first board exam this friday, on halloween of all days! luckily mat has halloween off, so he will take benson so i can fit in last minute cramming before putting it all on the line.

clinic is still my favorite part of school, but now that we are seeing higher level patients, it is just as exhausting as everything else.  i began treatment on my first level 3 (board level) patient last week, and holy canoli, that calculus was like cement! i had never been so tired after cleaning 1/4 of someone's teeth haha. it was extremely satisfying, but i'm surprised how much energy it took out of me.

setting everything else aside, my favorite time of day is still mornings that i get with bens. sometimes i look at some of my classmates and get so jealous that they have nothing to distract them from studying, but i honestly can't imagine not having him here with me.  even after a hard day, my favorite thing is coming home and carrying him from the car seat, floor, or rocker (wherever he fell asleep) into his room when he just melts in my arms. it blows my mind how big he has gotten in such a short amount of time. from a squishy, cheek-heavy, limp little (big) babe, to a strong, tall, outspoken little (big) guy.  he's already over snuggling (booooo) and is constantly wanting to be upright so he can see the world.  he's always got a lot to say, and is very open with how he's feeling haha.  i get guilty that i'm missing so much time with him right now and feel like i'm always apologizing to him, but i'm happy that he gets this time with his lola and opa, and especially the one-on-one time with mat. it's hard to believe that when i'm finally done with school in may, he will be 2 months shy of a year old.  this school year needs to stop flying by so fast!

despite how exhausted mat and i are, we are so in love with our little man. i am and will be forever grateful for these hard times (most of the time!). benson makes it aaaaall worth it. i mean, come on. how could my life not still be fantastic when i get to squish this smiley boy every day?