Eight Weeks Old

Owen certainly is growing so fast. Today he is 8 weeks old. He'll be two months old on Monday. He is starting to really smile at things (like my fingers walking up his chest, when I sing to him, when we play Pat-a-Cake, etc.) It's great. He's going from a 'blob' to a real little person. He is also becoming slightly mobile. Starting this last week, he's been moving around in his crib at night, ultimately facing a totally different direction than he started out facing. I'm just waiting for the morning when I go in and he's facing down instead of up - that will mean he's turned over instead of just spinning around.

Group has been good on Wednesdays. We are continuing to monitor Owen's weight. Two weeks ago he had gained 10 oz, last week 6, this week 1. I called my lactation consultant and she reassured me that if we average out his weight gain over the last three weeks that he is at the low end, but is doing ok. We go see the pediatrician on Monday for his two-month check and I'm planning on talking with her about it. His failure to gain any significant weight this last week is making me feel somewhat inadequate as a nursing mother. We've been struggling with this since the beginning so it's nothing new, but I was thinking that we had it figured out. Maybe this most recent week was just an off week. Speaking of nursing, guess who's hungry...again... At least he's going 6-8 hours at night. Good chunks of sleep for his parents!

Pigging Out

This is for all parties involved here. Thanksgiving was great. There was lots of food, as usual. My sister and I had a great time together. It was also nice to see Jeffy's sister and brother-in-law from NY. I barely held Owen at all on Thanksgiving, pretty much just to feed him.

Speaking of feeding Owen, he's going through a growth spurt right now...which means he's eating every 90 minutes-two hours. Thank goodness for the nipple shield. It saves me quite a bit of pain right now. We have definately gotten the nursing thing figured out. At last week's group, Owen had gained (drumroll please) 10 ounces! He should be over 10 pounds by now. probably close to 10.5 pounds if the trend continues. I look at him, knowing that he's about the size right now that his daddy was when he was born and wonder how Jeffy's mom did it.

Owen is really starting to smile a lot. I've found that walking my fingers up his chest and then tapping his nose gets him to smile consistently. If I'm having a bad day and he smiles at me, it's so much better!

Tree season started on Thursday. Jeffy's family runs several Christmas tree lots. Jeff is in charge of one, his brother another, and some people from church the third. On Sunday, he called me and said, "Hi, Honey. Now I don't want you to worry but I'm at TG (a hospital)." Turns out he managed to cut his finger really good and deep with his knife as he was trying to jab it into some wood. The lock on the (jack)knife was either released or released on its own and the blade swung around and cut him. He had surgery last night to repair the tendon that he cut 60% of the way through.

We had our first date since Owen was born a week ago. We went to see Harry Potter, and left Owen with Jeffy's parents. It was tough leaving him, even though I knew he was in great hands. I nearly cried as we were driving toward the movie theatre. The good thing with nursing him is that for my own comfort, I can't be away from him for too long. Yesterday was the longest I've been away from him - 4 hours and boy could I tell!

Today it snowed! Not much, and it didn't stick around for too long, but hey, snow is snow!

A Month Old! (and a week)

Owen turned a month old a week ago. I can't believe he's getting close to six weeks old! The time really is flying. He has some new tricks - he's cooing and smiling on purpose now! He is also gaining weight, something that had been a problem for the first four weeks. Babies are supposed to regain their birth weight by the time they are 2 weeks old. He did it in four weeks. We went on an exhausting three-step regimen of breast feeding (30-40 minutes including burping time), bottle feeding either expressed breast milk formula to suppliment what he got at the breast (10 minutes), and finally pumping milk to increase my supply (15-20 minutes including set-up, and putting the milk in the fridge). If you've don the math, that's around an hour or more. Then we got to start the whole rigamaroll again in one to to hours. This was being done round the clock. The good news is that it worked. We started on a Wednesday evening following an appointment with lactation at the hospital (Owen weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz.) and by Friday noon, he had gained 7 oz.!!! Go Little Man!!!! He has steadily gained an ounce each day since then. Too bad it took us 5 weeks to get nursing really established.

One nice thing at the hospital is a free mommy/baby group that is run by a lactation nurse. We go each Wednesday morning and weigh Owen to see what he's gained from the previous week. It was at this group that we found out that he wasn't gaining enough weight. It's been great to get together with other new moms. After group, we go out to lunch. Last week they were going to go to Olive Garden, but I didn't have enough cash on me for that (nor did I have the check book and I don 't have a credit card) so they offered to go to Jack in the Box instead so I could come. We sort of took over an entire wall of the restaurant between the 7 of us, plus babies, and strollers. I'll be going to the group until I go back to work.

We had Owen's one month check up with his pediatrician last Monday. He grew 2.5 inches in his first month - he's up to 23" long now. (fromt he 50th percentile to the 90th in 4.5 weeks!) He dropped percentiles in weight, but that is under control and will change by the next appointment.

I go to my doctor on Wednesday for my six week check-up. I'm hoping that because nursing has JUST been established that my doctor will extend my need for leave through Christmas. If not, I'll have to go back the first full week in December. I'm not looking forward to that prospect. I'm not ready! I really don't want to interrupt the nursing right now. It's at too critical a point. I'll keep you all posted.

We took our first professional family pictures last Monday also. Owen was so good. He opened his eyes on the last picture, but was pretty much asleep for the rest of the pictures. After pictures were taken, we noticed that Santa was at the mall (and there was no line at all)so we had a picture taken with Santa. We got the package that had four pictures in it - all 3.5 x 5 - one for each of my parents, one for Jeffy's parents, and one for us. It's darling! I can't wait to see what Santa brings for Owen this year!

My sister comes out on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. She has yet to meet Owen. Jeffy's sister and brother-in-law are also coming out on Wednesday and they also have not yet met Owen. Needless to say, he will be spending most of the time Thursday with these two aunts and his uncle. I'll probably only get him back to feed him or put him in the back bedroom to sleep or chill out if he starts getting too overstimmed.

I'll try to post pictures this weekend from Thanksgiving and my sister's visit.

Into a Routine

As the title says, we are getting into a routine. It's nice because it offers some predictability. Owen continues to mature and grow each day. It's fascinating to watch. This week, we introduced a bottle (filled with expressed breast milk) which he attacks each time he gets it. At this point, it's just one feeding a day, though some days he doesn't get enough from the bottle and still feeds for quite a while on the breast. We also introduced a 'plug' this week. He'll suck on it for a little bit, then spit it out and be fine. Yesterday he almost managed to get it back into his mouth on his own! I was amazed. He's a pretty smart little bugger. One of his favorite places to be is in his bouncy chair. He's even managed to get the music started on his own a couple of times by pulling on one of the fishies that hangs down.

We are still awakened by him only once or twice at night, which is a real blessing. As of last night, we are officially shieldless on all feedings! (I was using the shield at night just to save myself a little bit of pain. I'm getting tougher. The latch-on is still pretty painful, but once he gets going, it doesn't hurt, unless he decides to bite down.

Speaking of biting down, it's my turn to bite down on some food. Hope you enjoy the pictures. As the caption on one of them says, he's three weeks old in both of them.

How's it hangin'? (Owen is three weeks old in both pictures.)

Eating is such hard work!

On Our Own

Well, it's just Owen and Mommy today. So far, so good. It's 11:30 a.m., Owen's eaten, Mommy has eaten breakfast and showered, and Owen is napping in his crib. He should be waking up soon for his next feeding.

This morning, I laid in bed just listening to him cooing and 'talking' through the monitor. What wonderful sounds. I'm thinking of going to my college this afternoon and showing him off to a couple of people there. I really want to get out of the house. Maybe after lunch we'll do that. I'm also thinking of going out to Jeffy's mom's work on Wednesday (Jeffy doesn't have to work that day) so she can show off her new grandbaby.

I'm going to get myself lunch now while I still have a sleeping baby. Watch, as soon as I get into the kitchen and get things started, he's going to wake up...

The First Week

Owen is a week old, as of yesterday. He is amazing. For starters, he only fusses in about two or three situations - he's dirty, he's hungry and we don't pick up on his hunger cues soon enough, or he's being messed with (getting dressed or undressed or changed sometimes). He is a very hearty eater. We had an appointment with a lactation nurse on Monday and Owen passed with flying colors. We are continuing to use a nipple shield (or boob condom as Daddy calls it...) during feedings and he's getting a sufficient amount of milk. I'm also pumping after feedings four times a day to help with my supply (the shield can cause my supply of milk to be lower than if we weren't using the shield). Let's just say that my milk is definately in and that Owen likes it. He comes in to feed like a kamakazi pilot. It's pretty funny to watch. We also had our first appointment with the pediatrician on Tuesday and Owen again passed with flying colors. He gained an ounce between the lactation appointment on Monday and the peds appointment on Tuesday. The ped. said that he's looking great, the jaundice is clearing up (thanks in part to Mommy's milk), and he looks great.

Now that he is a week old, Owen is starting to realize that his crib is for sleeping and he can put himself to sleep at night. It's a really nice change from earlier in the week where he had to be totally out before we could put him in and have it work. Now, he can go in the crib slightly awake and be out without fussing! Yay Owen! The other great thing is that (and I know that some moms out there will hate us for this...) he feeds sometime between 10 and 11 at night, again between 2 and 3 in the morning, and then once again between 6 and 7. Mom and Dad get good chunks of sleep and we are loving it! Thank you, Owen!

Max, the cat, is getting Owen figured out. I was honestly worried about Max's reaction to Owen because Max doesn't like strange people, especially kids. Max is getting to the point where he realizes that Owen doesn't pose too much of a threat to him. He's been within inches of the baby (with Mom keeping a close eye on the interaction) several times now. He's pretty much stopped hissing at Owen, too. He hid for the first few days we were home. I honestly forgot we had a cat for those days.

Well, someone needs his pants changed. I'll try to write more soon.

Owen and Mommy - Four days old!

Bob is here!

Only he isn't Bob, he's Owen Gabriel. Born on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 1:31 p.m. Owen weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces and was 20.5" long. Imagine what his weight would have (could have) been if he had made it to his due date which is October 19. The doctor said Owen probably would have been close to 9 pounds. I am so glad he decided to come a week early. I was so ready for him to be born, as Jeffy and people I work with can attest to. The last few weeks were pretty miserable. I was big and majorly uncomfortable.

The basics for now (more later when he's not so hungry...) We went to see the OB on Monday afternoon, he did a pelvic and was at 2-3 cm. He told me he "moved some things around in there" and not to be worried if I started bleeding. He also told me that it may have been enough to put me into labor. Well, my contractions changed after we left his office on Monday night. I was really uncomfortable on Tuesday during the day at work. I even considered calling Jeffy and having him come get me. I got home, crashed on the couch, and realized that my contractions were starting to come quite quickly and they were more uncomfortable than ever before. By about 5:30, I knew I was in labor and that we needed to start timing the contractions. I finished packing my suitcase - there were things that I hadn't put in yet because I was using them between when I packed it initially and when we went to the hospital. Jeffy had dinner going (it came with us on paper plates, I didn't eat - wasn't hungry). We got there about 7:00 on Tuesday night and got a bed in the triage area of L & D where they monitored me for a little bit to see if I really was in labor. The nurse wasn't sure so she told us she wanted me to walk for about an hour to see if it made any changes in my cervix. As she finished telling us the game plan, the plan got changed. My water broke. I was staying.

Labor was a lot harder than I expeted. I stayed on top of things and my breathing worked for a few hours. THen the back labor set in. I couldn't deal with it anymore (especially after being stalled at 5 cm for four hours) so Iasked for drugs. There was only one problem. There was just one anesthesiologist available in the middle of the night and he was in on three c-sections. I was low woman on the totem pole. The systemic drugs they gave me through the I.V. worked for a couple of contractions, then didn't do any good. I finally got my epidural at 8:00 a.m., was ready to push by 10, pushed for two hours with very little progress. Luckily, I was able to wait and rest (drugs are good!) from about noon until about one when my OB came in. He offered me two options: push some more and see what happened, or go with a vaccuum assist. I took door number two. Good thing too, because turns out Owen was stuck and all the pushing in the world wouldn't have budged him. So, for 15-30 minutes I pushed like nothing else and the OB pulled. Owen finally his debut, daddy calling it (it's a boy! I saw the outdoor plumbing and thought, "That's a scrotum!") They layed him on my chest (he was so warm!) and I fell in love with another man.

I'll post pictures after I feed him.

One year and a new life

It's an interesting day. It was one year ago today that I had my miscarraige. I've done a lot of healing since then and generally, things are fine. I still have my moments, and I suspect I always will. I have learned several things in the last year. One is that I am a strong woman, stronger than I ever knew I could be. I have taken the attitude that while we may not be able to control what happens to us, we can control how we react and respond to those things we'd rather not deal with. I also know that I will cherish every moment I have with my children because I know what it is to have lost a child. I am in absolute wonder of this new life inside of me. Having lost Jacob, this child will be all that much more special. I wouldn't have this baby if I hadn't lost Jacob. Interesting how life works out, isn't it.

Finally, here's the 8-Month belly shot.

Down to the Wire - 38 Weeks

Well, we made it. It's the home stretch. I'm term (have been for a week), dilating (2 cm.), and effacing (70%). The baby could come at any time. I think I have a sub, but will find out for sure today sometime. My last day of work is scheduled to be next Wednesday, the 12th, with my due date on the 19th. I'll honestly be surprized if I make my due date. I'm taking things one day at a time, always in tune with what is going on. OB appointments are weekly now. It is absolutely unreal. I see other women ready to pop and think "I'll never get there", but now I am. The only other experience I can compare it to is getting married (always the bridesmaid, never the bride...) I am amazed that in a matter of days or weeks, we will be a family of three, and no longer just a couple.

I'm finding I have lots of energy (relatively speaking, of course) in the mornings, but by the end of the day, I have none. Jeffy is now also having to help me sit up in bed in the morning. He's really sweet about it, though he does laugh at me every day because I'm so pathetic at this point. This morning he tried to convince me that mornings are our friend. I told him "Nuh-uh. No way." He 'argued' back at me (we have these 'fights' pretty frequently - they're quite fun and very light-hearted), at which point I told him that "I reject your reality and substitute my own (thank you Adam Savage of the Mythbusters for that line). My reality is that mornings suck!" He just laughed. I hope we're in as good of humor when we're not getting full nights of sleep. It will make things easier and more fun.

My showers were fun. We got lots of great things for the baby, and one great thing for me! My brother-in-law's mother got me a gift certificate to a local salon and spa. I'm using it tomorrow afternoon, in conjunction with a couple of others I got last December, to get a maternity massage. I can't wait! We have lots of really cute clothes, but we'll need to get more once we find out if this child is Annabelle or Owen.

I know, people are waiting for pictures. I need to get my hind end on the computer at home and just do it.

35 or 8

I just looked at my blog and realized that it's been two weeks since I last posted. The weeks have been long and busy, but mostly busy. School is in full swing, this is our first full week. Next week we have four days of kids, then staff training on Friday. The week after that is full, then conferences in the afternoons Tuesday-Friday the first week of October. The second week of October has only three days in it for us with kids. The Thursday of that week is a staff training day, and then Friday of that week is a state inservice day. That's my last week of work before the baby comes (unless Bob or my doctor says otherwise.) Plans for my sub are coming along. I have classtime stuff done, I think. I just have to write down my procedures, plus what I want done for choir and how I do Recorders.

I am not sleeping as well as I used to. The first two nights of this week, I lost 6 hours of sleep. At least I slept well last night. I also have a cold, which isn't making things any easier. I know that when the baby comes, I won't be getting lots of sleep either, but at least I won't have to get up and go to work in the morning! That's what's killing me most right now. I go home and pretty much plant myself on the couch.

I have a consultation with a pediatrician this afternoon. I'm really excited. I've heard nothing but great stuff about this person and the practice she's in. I really hope I like her. I didn't like the last guy I talked with. He was bragging too much and I really didn't care for that.

Be looking for a new picture within the next few days, along (hopefully) with some pictures from my shower that is on Saturday. This is really getting real! The nursery is painted and we have all of the furniture in the house; the crib is assembled, the changing table is mostly assembled, shelves need to be filled, the dresser needs to be moved from our room to the nursery, boxes need to be taken out of the nursery, and sheets need to go on the crib (once we get them.

33 Weeks Down, Seven To Go

Well, the new school year is upon us. We start day after tomorrow. Open house is tonight. I'm excited to see the kids again. I decided this year to forego using butcher paper on my boards and went for the cloth option (which I'm noticing is a lot more popular this year). This involved going to my local fabric store and buying 11 different fabrics. No, I'm not going crazy with this idea. I use a cool curriculum called Recorder Karate, which borrows the belt system from the martial arts. There are nine belts. I bought fabric for each of the nine belts for my RK board, plus an additional solid color to use as a band across the top where my lettering is (that part is just paper cut on the Ellison machine. I cut out the fabric this weekend and tried sewing it together on my sewing maching, which isn't working properly and is really annoying me right now. Sunday night I just wanted to take it and throw it onto the highway from the overpass by my house. I spent a couple of hours last night at my in-laws sewing the things together. It looks fabulous! The board is about 4' tall and 11' long - which just so happens to be a length that is evenly divisible by 9 (for the belts)! That certainly made the math easy on how wide to make each strip. The kids will put their cards on the appropriate color when they earn the belts by playing a specific song. They move their cards along the board as they progress. They really enjoy it and it's highly motivational. Too bad I wasn't the genius who came up with it (though I am on an e-mail list with that genius!)

I'm doing my best to keep things organized and uncluttered this year. For those of you who know me well, you know that this will take major effort. I'm making this my goal ostly so that things are nice in here once I go on maternity leave in about 6 weeks. (Yikes! Is it really that close!?) I'm due in 7 and off the week before, provided the baby doesn't decide to come early. As long as I'm still pregnant on October 12, that will be my last day until January 3.

I was hoping to escape without any stretch marks on my belly. No such luck. I only have a few for now and they are relatively small. They probably appeared when I 'sploded last month. Hopefully I'll be able to keep them to a minimum.

We were awakened (or at least I was) at 5:00 this morning by about half a dozen fire trucks (just the engines and lights, no sirens thankfully). The house two doors down caught fire. It was under control pretty quickly and I don't think anyone was hurt. I never ended up going back to sleep. My alarm was set for 6:00 so I could be at work by 8:00. I was out the door shortly after 7:00. By that time, luckily, the Battallion commander's SUVs were moved from in front of our house so I could actually get out, as were all but two fire truck. At least the SUVs would have been easy to move had I needed to get out earlier than I did.

My plan tomorrow is to get class lists somewhat in order so I can be totally prepared for Thursday morning. I want to have my room ready to go the second I walk in on Thursday. Things where I need them, books and CDs in the appropriate places, stereo set up, etc.

Kids will be here in 2 hours! Yay!

31 Down, 9 to Go

Well, as you can see from my latest belly shot and it's caption, we had a major growth spurt these last five weeks or so. I looked at that picture after Jeffy took it, compared it to my 6 month belly shot and sorta freaked. No wonder I feel like I'm rolling out of bed like a beached whale.

As of yesterday, I am 31 weeks pregnant, that equates to 7 months on the nose. I can go anywhere from 6-10 or 11 more weeks. I'm down to counting on my fingers how many more weeks I have to go.

Childbirth classes continue to go well. The first week, we learned a little about relaxation. This week, we actually started learning some breathing as well as 'non-verbal touch' communication. The non-verbal part comes from Jeffy, not me. To simulate contrations, our teacher had us hold a handfull of ice for 60 seconds while we did breathing and swaying and while our partners did the massage thing. We also got to watch a couple of birthing videos. One was on the three stages of labor and birth (early labor, birth of the baby, birth of the placenta). When we got to the placenta part of this one, I had a really hard time dealing with it - flashback to last October, Jacob was still in his sac and attached to his placenta when I was holding him. My therapist told me that it would hit me when I least expected it. This was one of those times. It's been a rough week in that arena. I've been thinking about Jacob a lot.

The other video was following a woman through labor and to the birth of her child. The coolest part about that one was that during her early labor, she and her husband were walking around Wash(ington) Park in Denver. (For those of you who don't know, that's where I grew up.)

Seven Months...I 'sploded!

A Doozie of a Day

It is 7:15 p.m. In the last 24 hours we have been to the hospital twice. Once last night for the childbirth class, which was great. I'll elaborate more on that in another post. The second was this morning to visit my father in law who had a minor heart attack last night. He's ok. Will be released tomorrow in the morning. Can go back to work on Monday. Then while we were there, we found out that Jeffy's sister in NY is also in the hospital. No diagnosis yet. I promised my mother in law that I'm not going into labor anytime soon so not to worry about me. She smiled and laughed. At least we got the chance to time one route to the hospital on our way there this morning to visit my father in law. (8 minutes if anyone is interested.)

Painting and Panting

Jeffy is working on getting several rooms in our home painted. This weekend is the hallway. Once that is done, he'll do a couple of small touch-ups in the bathroom, then we get to start on the nursery! (Ok, he'll get to start on the nursery.) The two spaces he's painted so far (bathroom and hallway) look really nice. They've been off-white since we bought the place three and a half years ago. Color is a nice change. Makes it feel more like home and less like just a house.

As for the panting, I've been doing a bunch of that lately with the heat. We also are starting our prepared childbirth classes at the hospital this week. We have class each of the remaining Tuesdays of this month plus the first Tuesday of next month. I'm very excited. I can't believe it's time for these classes! I also can't believe that I'm really getting into the home stretch of 30-40 weeks. It's getting more and more real as each day goes on. I'm both excited and scared about everthing that will be happening in the next 8-12 weeks...mostly nervous about exactly what will happend during labor and birth. I hope that our classes will help prepare us for that, but I also am expecting that there will be surprizes involved in the whole process.

To Miss or Not To Miss

The stroller is put together, and the counted cross stitch for the wall is as done as it's going to get until October. I just realized today that we have 11 weeks until I'm due and there is still a huge amount that needs to be done. The nursery isn't even close to started, let alone finished. Ahhhh!!!!!!

Here are three short lists: Things I'll miss when the baby is born, things I won't miss when the baby is born, and things I'm really looking forward to once the baby is here

To Miss - feeling Bob moving inside of me, having Jeffy cater to my cravings, generally being pregnant, being able to get a fairly solid night's sleep

Not to Miss - feeling Bob moving inside of me when I'm trying to sleep, the various stomach ickieness (heartburn, indigestion, reflux, etc.) caused by said movements, only being able to sleep in one position, peeing all the time (or at least it feels like it...)

I Can't Wait - to see what this person is, to watch this little person grow, to be a mommy, to watch Jeffy being a daddy (he's going to be awesome!), to hold my baby for the first time, to begin life as a family of three instead of just the two of us, to see which traits come from my side and which come from Jeffy's side.