Owen, 3 Weeks

Can I just say that this baby is growing way too fast? He is! And it's breaking my heart. I can't believe how much he has already changed. On one hand, it's great news: he's growing and gaining weight, which means he is healthy and strong (he passed his birth weight by his two-week checkup--7 lbs 6 oz); and he's slowly changing colors, which means his jaundice is going away. But time has flown so quickly since he joined our family. It seems like just yesterday he arrived, but it feels like he's been a part of us forever. We love him oh so much.

Hogle Zoo

For the first week of Owen's life, while Owen was adjusting to life and learning how to eat and I was adjusting to feeding him and waking up multiple times in the night, the boys got to spend some quality time with Daddy, as well as grandparents. And they did some fun things, including going to the aquarium and the zoo. Here are some pictures from their trip to the zoo. From Ethan's descriptions, I would say the highlights of the zoo trip were seeing the elephant go potty, watching the tigers swim in the water, and seeing the giraffes. He still references seeing giraffes at the zoo anytime we see a picture of one or talk about them. Overall, the zoo was a big hit! Thanks for taking them Grammy and Daddy!

Forgive the lack of blog posts, but we've all been enjoying our little Owen too much. I am really enjoying my three little boys, even with the lack of sleep and spare time I now have. But the down side is that I want to document this precious time that is already going by far too quickly! So here's a tid bit of what we've been doing.

Christian is a great big brother to him and loves to sit and hold Owen. He really does a good job, too!

Both Ethan and Christian love to be by Owen. They love to kiss him, touch his face, and notify me anytime his eyes open or he lets out a cry.

Owen is such a good baby and tolerates all the loves and kisses he gets from his brothers very well!

Owen (2.5 weeks old)

Moments

I spent the afternoon outside watching my boys play. And literally, that's pretty much all I did was sit back and spectate. I need to do that much more often. First it was just Christian and then Ethan woke up from his nap and joined us out there. Eventually Owen woke up too and needed to be fed, so I just took him out there with us and fed him in the privacy of my garage while I sat and watched my little boys enjoying their world. For three hours they played out there, and still it took great convincing to get them to come inside when i needed to make dinner.

I witnessed some sweet moments outside this afternoon, and scenes that I don't want to forget. I didn't have my camera near by, but I was grateful for the chance to just sit and enjoy my children. Nursing a baby is a great blessing in that way. It forces you to sit down for a while and gives me time to just watch my other two play.

This afternoon I saw a little four year old who is growing up. As I sat in the driveway, he wore his helmet and rode his bike around and around our circle, accompanied by two other helmet-shod heads. He loves to ride his bike and he seemed so grown up as I watched him ride with his two little friends. I also noticed a great attribute that Christian has. As one of the other little boys tried over and over to tell Christian when to ride and when to stop and what game to play with him, Christian was not to be convinced. He knew what he wanted to do, and he did it. Yes, Christian is stubborn. But as I watched him play with his friends, I was proud of him for sticking to what he wanted to do, which was simply ride his bike. Stubbornness is not such a bad thing, especially when it comes to peer pressure.

This afternoon I saw a curious, ambitious two year old ride his scooter around in the garage and attempt to ride like he's seen his big brother do. He would push himself with one foot for a few pushes and then give one last push with all his might and stand posed on the scooter with one leg bent, as if he was coasting, although the scooter simply stopped each time he did this. He didn't seem to notice though, because he did it over and over and over. And each time held the pose for a few moments, as if enjoying the breeze. I wish I had a picture. He looked absolutely adorable.

I watched Ethan sneak taste after taste out of Christian's Powerade bottle that he left on the driveway, but each time he'd make sure to catch my eye and get my approval. I couldn't help but laugh, as I could tell he knew just what he was doing and the risk he was taking if he got caught by the look in his eyes. Ethan has very expressive eyes! Eventually he did get caught and Christian wasn't too thrilled that he had a drink out of his powerade. Luckily he didn't know how MANY he'd had.

I watched Christian and Ethan proudly answer questions about their new baby brother as their friends were curious. They really are proud of their Baby Owen. And they love him dearly.

Visitors

At the hospital, Owen and I had lots of visitors! This is the first baby that has been born here in Utah, where we have family around. It was fun to have so many people make us feel so loved.

Aunt Melissa also came up from Provo to visit her favorite sister and new nephew, but unfortunately I must have been too tired that afternoon to think to take a picture.

I love this one--Here are the two grandmas discussing who Owen looks like...I think everyone agreed he looked like Christian when he was brand new!

This wonderful visitor also brought me the gorgeous tulips she is sitting next to. Thank you! They brightened my room and my home.

These two little visitors were so much fun. And perhaps they were as excited about watching the helicopters land and take off and they were about Baby Owen? Almost, maybe.

But the guy in the BYU hat was my favorite visitor. And a sweet Daddy. He has helped me so much since Owen arrived, and was so helpful with the two boys while I was at the hospital and after I came home. Thank you, thank you Jake!!

Owen's Arrival, the really long version

For those of you who are interested, and even more for my own record, I thought I would share Owen's story of how he made his entrance into this world.

Thursday, the 24th, was a busy day. In fact all of last week was. Monday and Wednesday I taught preschool at our house, Tuesday we ran errands, and Wednesday afternoon I had a doctor appointment for my 37 week checkup, which showed everything was well--head down, measuring right, etc.--and I'd be back in a week. Thursday morning i took the boys and we headed to Toyota to get our van fixed, for the second time (which they unsuccessfully "fixed" once again). After two hours of waiting and a bunch of free popcorn for the boys later, we headed on our way to Provo, where we had planned to visit with my friend and former roommate and her three cute kids. Arriving earlier than expected, we also stopped by a cousin's house who lived nearby.

We had a nice relaxing afternoon of visiting, and then headed back home at 3:30. Ethan was instantly asleep, and Christian was getting there as well. That's when i got this pain in my belly, and after a moment thought it felt like a contraction. So I decided to watch the clock. Sure enough, I was having contractions every five to six minutes the whole drive home. (Yes, I was driving, as it was just me and the boys.). I really didn't believe it was happening, as it was nearly three weeks early and not what I was planning on! I laid down on the couch when we got home, hoping they'd just go away, but it was not to be. Eventually I decided I'd better call Jake and get him home since I may need to get a few things ready if we were really going to be going to the hospital. Boy was he surprised too! But he came right home. I wasn't in any rush to get to the hospital, so we made blueberry pancakes for dinner, in honor of Jimmer and the BYU cougars, and then watched what would be Jimmer's last game with the Cougs. Or rather, Jake watched it (in frustration) while I ran around getting some bags packed and cleaning the house. Remember how I'd had a busy week? Which of course left me with no extra energy to clean my house. The plan was to stay home all day Friday and clean the house, since we'd have to be home anyway waiting for our oven to arrive. (We'd also spent the last week without an oven, as ours has frizzled out somehow. Luckily we have an awesome landlord who ordered us a brand new one the day I called him.). So anyway, hence the need for cleaning up a bit. I mean, if we were going to have anyone come stay at our house, i didn't want it to be a total pigsty! I picked up, wiped down some toilets, and even changed our sheets. And then, once I was satisfied, I laid on the bed and timed some contractions. Still coming.

The cougars ended up in overtime, so we put the boys to bed and Jake finished watching the sad ending to the last Jimmer game. My mom came over after the BYU game to stay the night, and finally at 10:00 I gave in and let Jake take me to the hospital. My contractions were now about 3 minutes apart, but still not hurting much. Once we arrived and had given all our information and answered a million questions, they checked to see the prgoress of my labor and it turned out I was only at a three! What? That was not what I was hoping to hear. But they let us stay and said they'd check me again in an hour to see if any progress had been made. So Jake and I walked the halls for about half an hour in hopes of making some progress. My contractions were hurting now, but after being checked again, apparently they were doing any good. They said I was MAYBE a three-plus. Dang. But they said we could stay and they'd check me one more time in an hour. After walking the halls for as long as I could stand, we headed back to the room for another check. By now my contractions were really hurting me and my back was killing me. I couldn't walk the halls anymore. But on this third check, instead of felling a head, the nurse was pretty sure she felt a hand. Not good news. She got the ultrasound machine to verify, and couldn't find the head where it was supposed to be. So another nurse came in, and then the resident doctor, who confirmed that the baby was not head down. He was transverse, with his head top right and his feet bottom left. No wonder my contractions weren't doing any good. There was no head down there to push it open.

Suddenly there was a change of plans. I no longer wanted to have this baby and the doctor didn't want me to either. So they gave me a morphine/phenegren shot and sent me home. (Can I tell you that the shot KILLED? They gave it to me in my bum, and I could hardly sit or walk!) This was able to calm my muscles and stop my contractions, and knock me out so I could sleep well. It was the best night's sleep I've had in a long time! We arrived home at 3:30 a.m. and surprised my mom by coming home still pregnant. :)

In the morning, it was like the night had been a dream. I felt great (except for my sore bum), I wasn't having contractions anymore, and I was ready to get back to the normal routine. I called the doctor first thing who said to come in, took a shower, and then we dropped the boys off at Jake's parents' house and headed to the hospital again (which is also where the doctor's office is at). My doctor was certainly surprised that the baby had turned, since I had just been there two days earlier and he was head down! But he told us he wanted to try and turn the baby, and so he sent us down to labor and delivery so the baby's heartbeat could be monitored during the process.

So there we were again and the registration desk, just eight hours since we'd left. We got registered again, and then hooked up to the monitors in a room until the doctor came in. During this waiting time, I was getting very nervous. The nurses kept giving me information about what was going to happen and the risks of doing it. The doctor was going to do a "version," which is where he presses on my belly and tries to get the baby to turn. This has a high success rate, but it can also cause the placenta to tear off the wall, and other problems that would all lead to an emergency c-section. At one time they told me we might be doing the version in the OR room in case they had to take the baby out in a hurry. Another time they told me I would need to get an epidural before the doctor did the version. All of this was making me very nervous. We had a special family prayer that morning to ask Heavenly Father to watch over me and the baby and I was constantly praying during this waiting period. Our prayers were answered.

Here I am back in the hospital bed for the second time in twelve hours, awaiting the arrival of the doctor.

And here is Jake, showing how tired he is, since we'd been here until 3:30 the night before and he wasn't lucky enough to get knocked out with some medicine for a good night's sleep. Plus he got up with the boys in the morning while I kept sleeping. Thank you hunny!

The doctor eventually came in, and without even warning the nurse, just started pressing on my belly and holding, then pressing and holding until all of a sudden he said, "I think I got it." It hurt, yes. But it was so fast! Relief filled me. And gratitude. He got the ultrasound to verify the position of the baby, and sure enough, the head was down and right where we wanted it to be.

Well, the doctor did not want to send me home now, for fear that the baby would turn again and we would have even more complications the next time. So he broke my water, they put me on pitocin, I got an epidural (after much debate, as I'd still somewhat been planning on going without), Jake and I both took a nap, and Owen was born three hours later.

With one push and no stitches, I had a beautiful baby boy. I was overcome with gratitude. It was so smooth and so simple in the end. I am so grateful for my doctor who was so knowledgeable, so confident in what he was doing, and so calm about the whole situation. We know we were being watched over by a loving Heavenly Father, who answered our prayers and the prayers of our family members. Even the doctor said he felt like we were being watched over. We know we were. As Jake said in the first post, we are grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord.

Owen: One Week Old

Our sweet little guy is one week old today. He is getting the hang of eating, being awake and sleeping, and has already acquired the nickname of "Owes" (or would you spell it "Oh's?"). His two big brothers still adore him and his parents think he's pretty perfect.

And here's a couple from yesterday. I love those little sleeping smiles!