Tiny Hands

I just can't get enough of Owen's tiny hands. So perfect.

Automatic Sprinkler

The shirt says it all. I wish it was only a joke, but both Brian and I have gotten sprayed.

First Red Sox Game (on TV)

Today was the first Red Sox Game of the season...it actually happened in the middle of the night because the game was taking place in Japan. Brian recorded it and got up early to watch it with Owen, who slept through it!

Bye, Bye Daddy!

Today Brian had to return to work. I could tell he just didn't want to leave, and who can blame him when there's an adoreable, fun baby at home to love. This photo was taken right before he left, I had to take Owen away to get him to leave!

First Bath

Owen's belly button cord had fallen off on March 17th, but I held off for Aunt Cat to come so that she could help with his first bath. I was a bit nervous about it, but much to our joy, Owen loved the water. He seemed to relax and enjoy all the attention.

All clean and ready for bed!

Burping Boy

Burping is an essential part of Owen's feeding routine. It's nice when I can get Daddy to do the job. An important thing to also have is a burp cloth. Owen is quite the spit-up-er.

A day of firsts....

With Cat visiting, we had to bust out a game of Settlers. Owen's first board game (as a spectator).


Then we put Owen in the swing for the first time and it worked like magic. He was asleep in an instant.

Funniest Gift

Lots of adoreable gifts have been coming in for Owen. The one that takes the cake comes from Brian's good friend, Nick, who happens to be a big wrestling fan. He sent Owen this big wrestling doll thingy. I'm not sure what you call it, but it's hilarious because it's bigger than Owen. We have been getting a kick out it.

Aunt Cat comes to visit

Aunt Cat has arrived and we put her to work right away. She is really good with babies and kids that it all came natural to her. She even showed me a new way to burb Owen. It's so nice to have her here helping out and spending time with Owen.

Silly

Owen has a bit of an Austin Powers look going on here. Some day when Owen reads this, he'll have no idea who Austin Powers was, but know this, little man, your Daddy was a big fan.

We are on the upswing...

Owen weighed in at 6lb. 3 oz. today...looks like we are moving up. Nursing is going better, even though getting him to latch on is still difficult. We'll get there.

NCAA Tournament

Owen came two weeks early, and his timing could not have been better in Brian's mind. His two weeks of paternity leave just happened to have occurred during the start of March Madness where he got to sit on the couch all afternoon and watch b-ball. Of course he had to have Owen approve of his bracket. (Turns out Brian did pretty good because Kansas, who he picked, won the tournament.)

Owen's First Mail

Okay, I'm probably the geekiest mom for photographing the first mail items addressed to Owen, but it was so exciting to see his name on things!!!

The Doctor's Office is our second home!

We have been going to the doctor's office every other day for weight checks. He looks so tiny on that table! We hit an all time low today because Owen has dropped a full pound and is now 5 lb. 13 oz. My heart is just broken. The doctor has outlined a strick eating schedule but I'm happy to say that my milk has come in and he is strickly a breastmilk guy. I'm having to express my milk and feed him by bottle to make sure he is getting what he needs.

We're home...now what?

Owen likes to sleep. So much so that we have to wake him up to eat. This can not be normal. Because his weight dropped to 6 lbs. 3 oz. when we left the hospital and my milk still has not come in fully, we are having to supplement with formula. Because we are worried about him sleeping so much and not eating without falling asleep we are off to the doctor's office to make sure everything is alright. We are a tab bit worried about jaundice, even though his bilirubin scores were good in the hospital.

Going Home

Owen's first car ride!

Since Owen was born at 2:32 AM we got that first night at the hospital for free (like we slept, ha!). We were there for 3 nights instead of the standard 2. We were basically ready to go home when the time came, but having the nurses and extra care certainly was nice. That extra time really helped me get the hang of nursing, even though my milk still hadn't come in yet. The nurses and doctors at our hospital were wonderful, so our stay was a really nice experience. But all good things must come to an end. It was time for us to plung into parenthood on our own.

Owen's ride home was fairly uneventful. Brian still drove like a crazy Boston driver, and I sat in the back seat next to him holding on tightly to the car seat. This of course didn't actually do anything other than to calm my own nerves. Owen slept throught the entire thing.

Owen's Birth Story

My story starts out with my water breaking on Sunday night. It was a trickle that happened each time I got out of bed to go pee. It kind of dawned on me as I was getting ready for work on Monday morning what it might be. I wasn't having any contractions that I could feel. Brian encouraged me to call my dr, who then told me to go to the hospital to be checked out. We were scrambling around to get a hospital bag ready - just in case. I hardly had anything to eat - but I just figured I would be sent on my way and knew that I had an apple, pear and yogurt at work. I get to the hospital and was told, yup, my water had broke and was already 2 cm dilated. I could wait, and hope that my body started to contract naturally within the next 48 hours, or I could go on pitocin which would induce the contractions and make my labor go faster. Apparently, only 10% of pregnancies happen like mine, where the water actually breaks first. It figures I was out of the norm! I opted for the pitocin because I really wanted a vaginal birth, and didn't want to risk having to do a c-section. BUT I guess I didn't realize what being on the medication meant - which was continuous monitoring (two belts around my belly and an IV) and NO EATING!!! I was starving, and the contractions didn't really start feeling yucky until 3 PM. They were messing around with my med dosage because at one point I was having 7 contractions within 10 minute periods. There was no break. They also don't like to check your dilation very often when your water has broken as a risk of infection increases. So I never knew how far along I was getting. I had been 2 cm when I first got checked, then I didn't find out till later - my guess would be around 7 PM that I was 6.5 cm. At that point I asked to be taken off the medication and I got to take a bath and have a piece of toast. Yeah!!! The bath was wonderful and I managed the pain really well in there. But when that was done the nurse wanted to monitor what my contractions were doing. They were getting much longer and more sporadic. Not something they wanted to see. I had to go back on the pitocin and monitoring which made things really hard. I couldn't really move around much. I spent most of the time leaning over the bed while Brian did a counter pressure on my back during the contractions. With all the stuff strapped around me, we couldn't really do much else like get a back rub, walk around or use the birthing ball very sucessfully. Basically all the stuff we had learned in childbirth class to help with managing the pain was out the window. By 10 PM I was delerious. It was probably due to the fact that I had no energy from a lack of food. I gave in and asked for the epidural. Brian said it was hilarious because I looked terribly out of it when the doctor doing the epidural came in, but that I signed my name perfectly on the consent form! I don't really remember that point. I had a feeling that I was going to cave in if things took that long. SO, after the painless epidural, I got about a half hour nap in and then started to feel uncomfortable. My belly felt twisted. My delivery nurse couldn't figure it out and insisted that I shouldn't be in any pain. She finally did another check and realized that I was fully dilated but had a sac of amnio fluid that was right at the base of the baby's head, which she broke, and the baby quickly moved done into place. Yeah...I finally got to start pushing. This was close to midnight. We kind of held off pushing because my OB was getting ready to do a c-section and they wanted to make sure he would be available for me. Not knowing how long pushing would take for me. It ended up taking longer than they expected - just a little over 2 hours. Man it was hard work, but I got there in the end. It was just amazing. It wasn't exactly the birth that I had hoped for, but Owen is just perfect so I don't really care that much how I got there. Brian took the most adorable video of us talking about him after they cleaned him up and give him back to me. We laughed as we realized that he had Brian's big hands and feet.