Monday, May 3, 2010

A Visit From Quinn And Mary

We have been so lucky to have so much family visit. Have I been good about taking pictures? Nope I have not. But I happened to have my camera out when Quinn came in town for the weekend. Because we live so close to the airport we were luckily enough to spend the afternoon with Quinn and Mary. Owen loved Quinn he just sprawled out and chilled.
When Quinn got to the house Mae did what all kids do and had to show Quinn everything she owns. She ended up in her princess dress to watch TV. It was pretty funny.
Don't leave Mary out :)
Mae needed to get out of the house, so we headed over to the park to play with the baseball bat Mae picked out at the dollar store with Gaga J for Owen. Mae had so much fun running around and trying to hit the ball. I will say she had one hit that connected really well. Threw me off a bit I must say.
Mary getting her snuggle time in with the kids. (Mary is also the one who made the quilt they are snuggling in).

No More Naps

We have had some major changes with Miss Mae in the past few weeks also. Once Owen arrived she decided no more naps, and that she was done done done with diapers. Add that to adjusting to a new sibling and we have had our hands full with her. The first couple weeks were the hardest, but now she is doing great with all 3 things and she goes to bed so easy at night! It is also so great to have her potty trained. I love not having 2 kids in diapers and she is really good at telling us that she has to go. Once she decided to be done with diapers she went all the way, that means sleeping in underware also. She went full big girl on us, but you know what in 7 weeks she has only had one night accident. Pretty Amazing!
I love pictures of kids like this where they are so passed out. It might be because one of my favorite pictures of myself as a kid is me totally passed out in the car with a Popsicle stick stuck to my lips (mom you should scan it in and email it to me).

What Do You Mean Easter Wasn't Yesterday?

Easter weekend was a fun weekend had by all. It happened to be my sister Aprils birthday, so Misty and I got her up to Spokane. It was so great to see her, we had both had babies since we had seen each other last. She has Ainsley about 2 weeks before I had Owen. Its amazing what difference 2 weeks makes when they are so new. Ainsley looks huge compared to Owen, but I bet that he has caught up now. I love how they are posing the same (note: we did not put them in that position).
We pretty much spent the weekend hanging out, and finding ways to not spend money (maternity leave frugleness). So that meant we were either at our house or Misty's. The cousins had so much fun playing together (well when they weren't biting, pinching, pushing or hitting), well there were 4 kids between the ages of 1 and 4 so its not always pure happiness. Mae was of course all about holding Ainsley also.
Mae and Jovie had so much fun playing together. Mae has been talking about Jovie for the past month now.
It was also Easter weekend, so Sunday morning Mae was very excited to see that the Easter Bunny had come to her house, and brought her and Jovie fun baskets.
Sean had been out of town for a few days, so on Easter morning Mae was crazy excited to wake up and see that daddy had come home. He was also glad to get home and be with the kids.
While Misty and Aprils families were over at our house for Easter Brunch, Easter egg hunts, and Aprils birthday party. I forgot to take pictures but it was a good time had by all. Since I didn't get any pictures of Mae hunting eggs at our house I made sure I got some out at Nonnies house. After Misty and April took off we headed out to Nonnies for Easter dinner (crazy busy day). Auntie Mary was having a great time with Mae, Madison, and Emmett hiding eggs and finding them over and over again.
Mae looks very sassy hunting eggs, holding her bag like a purse in the crook of her elbow.
The triumph of finding an egg!

New Stroller....And Then Some

To start out I LOVE my new BOB Double Jogging Stroller. It lets me get out of the house and move with both kids in one place. Mae likes ridding in the stroller with Owen. She is in charge of making sure he is OK while running. The double jogger is much harder to push then the single, but it makes sense due to double the load.
Owen likes the stroller. If he is fussy before he goes in, by the time we get moving he calms down and falls asleep most of the time.
I know people out there are waiting to see pictures of my little man, and who am I to disappoint? Owen really loves to suck on his hands. Its fine with me I really don't want to have to be frantically looking for a bink every time we leave the house. On a side note I think his eyes look full of wisdom.
Mae loving Owen is an understatement. She is a great big sister, every morning she wants to hold him and watch cartoons. Before long at the rate Owen is growing he wont be able to be on her lap anymore.

Owen loves to lay in the sun. I just thought it was so funny that he was so sprawled out.

Monday, April 12, 2010

I Miss Food

Sad day for me, Owen has a sensitive tummy he spits up and poops all the time. What that means for me is no more yummy food. Oh sure I can find stuff that isn't so bad, but its not the same. I have cut out all dairy, soy, and acidic foods. Since I have done that though Owen is getting so much better, I don't have to carry a spit rag all the time, and he is having more normal poops. I know what I am doing is helping him so that part is not a big deal. But I can still miss food and be sad I can not eat it. The hardest part is deciding what to make for dinner, poor Sean and Mae are both fending for themselves. Or Mae east my boring food and Sean is on his own. I will hopefully start coming up with some more options we will all like. But in order to do that I need to come up with options I like for myself. If anyone has any suggestions of good non dairy, soy, or acidic foods let me know I'm starving. The other ting I don't like about being newly high maintnence with food is going places to eat, weather its a resturant, or someones house. Because even when you think you are ordering something safe its not, or someone makes you something special but you still can't eat it and you offend them. Lame I tell you Lame. I mostly will be taking my own food places or eating before we go, and if I offend someone oh well they don't have to deal with a sad baby boy the rest of the night and I do. The sad part for me is that I want to eat their food and I just can't. I Love food and I will miss it until either Owens tummy gets tougher or I am done brestfeeding.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Owen Hates His First Bath

At first he was kinda ok with what was happening.
Then BAM not a happy boy.


Owens First Track Meet

Owen was born on Tuesday and Sean had the first meet of the year on the following Saturday. So I had mom come and pick up the kids and I so we could get out of the house for a bit. It was a nice sunny day, it was so nice to just sit in the sun for a couple of hours.
Owen was either eating or sleeping, or trying to eat his hat most of the time. He had a tiny bit of jaundce so it was really great to let him get some good vitamen D.

Mae was so excited to get out of the house and run around. Her favorite part was sneaking into the hospitality room and getting food. She is eating a packet of cream cheese like a gogurt. She LOVES cream cheese.

Hospital Pictures Of Owen

Sean and I were not the best taking pictures of Owen while at the Hospital but we did get a few good ones. Mae was so excited to meet Owen she was all smiles the whole time!
He is so cute when he sleeps.
Our first family picture with Owen out.
More sleeping little man. He looks so much like Mae yet not at the same time. I think that he looks more like Sean.
Owen and his insta BFF Grant. They did not really love their first pictures together.

They put up with a few though. These are the only pics I have of the two of them. I need to make sure I get more the next time we get together.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Owens Crazy Birth Story

This story begins the morning of Monday the 15. Owen is officially 2 days late at this point and I have a Doctors appointment at 9:30. I get up and get ready before I even get Mae up so then I can just focus on her. She of course picks Monday morning to have meltdowns all over the place. So fun. It is the biggest fight to just get her into the car. I eventually won that battle and hopped in the car to get going, and what do you know the car wont start and my appointment is in 10 minutes. AAARRRRGGGG! Luckily I knew that Mari also had an appointment at 10:30, I quickly called her to see if I changed my appointment time would she be able to pick Mae and I up and take us? She could. I then called Misty to see if I couldn't change my time if she could come right away and get me. She was also on board. Next call was to the Doctors to see if I could move my time later. At first they were not so happy with me (I don't blame them I work on appointments so I get it when people are trying to move stuff around). Then I told them that I was 2 days late and my car wont start, but my friend has an appointment at 10:30 and she can bring me if there was anyway that my appointment could be close to hers. Because I was already late I think they felt really bad for me and got me in at 10:15. Mari saved the day! My appointment was same as always no changes, lets schedule an induction for Friday the 19th. I was discouraged and though ok whatever at least I know he will be here by the weekend. Mari also had an induction date scheduled for the next week. We were both pretty bumbed out but happy our pregnancies were almost over.
When we got back to the house Mari and I tried jumping the car and nothing happened. She offered to have Jason come over and look at it. I told her it was no big deal and at least Seans car was working so If I went into labor before the Passat got fixed we could still make it to the Hospital. She headed off to Wal-mart in hopes her water would break walking around, they told her at the Doctors that it had been happening to lots of women that week so she was going to try. I headed into the house ready to hunker down and get stuff done since I couldn't go anywhere. After lunch and a nap I convinced Mae to get into the jogging stroller and go on a walk to Huckleberry's with me, I just needed to move I was starting to go stir crazy. We set off and had a great time, when ended up at the park at the end of the walk and Mae got to run some energy out. These nice days have been such a blessing. When Mae and I got home we made a yummy Spaghetti Sauce, and had a great dinner while waiting for Sean to get home. I think I should point out that I was in a very snachy mood all Monday and I feel really bad for all those who had to deal with me. I even had Misty call my mom and fill her in on my appointment because I didn't want to talk to anyone. I needed to point that out because when Sean got home he had to deal with all my frustrations of the day, poor guy. I did not get any better as the night went on, in fact I only got worse. I put it all off on that fact the the day was just not a great day and my hormones were once again making me crazy. In fact I started getting more and more restless as the night went on. I got Mae to bed, Sean went to sleep and I thought to myself if I got to bed I might pull my own hair out from going crazy just laying there making myself sleep. So then I texted my source of information Misty, she calmed me down a little bit and told me to take a bath to relax myself and that if I was going to go into labor being stressed was the worst thing. So I finished packing my bags (I needed something to do while I was pacing), and got in that bath at 11 at night. Read a few magazines, shaved my legs, drank some tea, and really relaxed for the first time all day. It was GLORIOUS!
Finally I was ready for bed, I crawled in at 12:15 shut my eyes and was out. Then what do you know I get a text from Mari, it pretty much said "my water broke........I win...Sorry" I was very kind and supportive when I texted her back and just told her congrats and to relax, and that she was going to do great. While the whole time I was SO jealous and had to calm myself down once again, even though I was so excited for my friend. I told her to keep me posted and got back to sleep. Only to be woken up again at 3 with contractions they were pretty steady at 5 minutes apart and I thought something was going on for sure. But thanks to April and Mari with all their false labor I was trying to ignore them and go back to sleep. Well sleep never happened I kept having to pee it was so annoying. Sean woke up one of the times I got up because our bathroom fan is broken and very loud. When I crawled back into bed he asked if I kept going to the bathroom. I very calmly said "yeah I think I'm in labor" it took him a minute for that to sink in. Then he said "so whats the game plan, what did the doc say to do?" I answered with "um go to the hospital and have a baby." I still needed to confirm with someone else that I could really be in labor. Once again I contacted Misty and she stayed on the phone with me through a few contractions and timed them for me (I did not know that you time from the start to the start). They were all about 4-5 minutes apart. We decided it was the real thing. Then it was go time, Sean called his parents, and I called mom and told her to start driving. While waiting for Leslee to get here we finished getting everything together and I picked up the house a little bit more between contractions (I needed something to do). I sent Mari a text at about 5 telling her that we would see her at the hospital. She sent one back saying "are you kidding me?" (we have had parallel pregnancy's, we even found out we were pregnant the same day).
We got to the Hospital around 6, parked right next to Mari and Jason and headed to Labor and Delivery. They knew who we were when we got to the desk, Mari had told them to be expecting us. We ended up only being two rooms down from Mari, and in the same room we delivered Mae in. Misty had arrived while I was getting checked in, it was so nice having her there she has a very calming presence (good when in labor btw). I was having back labor again so I had one person rubbing my lower back and another rubbing my shoulders to keep my mind off the pain. I don't remember all the little details of this part, but I remember it was so nice to actually have a break between contractions (not being on pit was great). I remember when mom showed up, I know Sean and Misty were excited to have a 3 back rubber. I remember telling mom not to talk sometimes, and telling her that she was massaging to hard. I remember getting reports on Mari and that we were progressing at pretty much the same rate. I remember that I was willing my body to not go to fast until I had my second round of antibiotics (I was positive for that group B strep thing) so we wouldn't have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours. But let me tell you as soon as that second round went through I was willing my body to go and go fast. It also helped that Barrong was going to break my water after that second round went through. I start to remember more details again at this point. He broke my water just after 11:30 and my contractions got harder and the urge to push happened very soon after. I know that the Doctor kept going back and forth between my room and Maris at this point and I knew that she was also so close. I also know that Owen had the umbilical cord around his neck and with every contraction his heart rate would go way down I could hear it on the monitor and I knew I had to get him out. I was only dilated to an 8 at this point, but when I was contracting the Doc thought I was getting to a 10 and then closing back up a little bit. It was go time though because of the cord. I remember pushing as hard and fast as I could so that Owen could get out and get away from the umbilical cord. But he wouldn't budge, until......... Barrong said on the next push he was going to use the vacuum to get him out because he needed out now. That was all I needed to hear and then on the next push Barrong was getting the vacuum up in there when I got Owens head to move on out!! Barrong got the cord away from his neck and they whisked him over to the table to get him to breathe. Sean said he was really blue and not very responsive for a little bit, but he didn't take very long to come around thank goodness. In my competitive nature I had Misty send Mari a text that said "I win" (only because she told me that only a few hours before). Barrong was still in the room when I said that, then he rushed over to get Grant out of Mari. It wasn't long before he was back in my room to check on things. I remember thinking that was fast but still had no concept of time. But when he came back in the room he said that he decided it was a tie since he made Mari wait for me (sorry Mari). I was for sure ok with a tie and I definitely don't want a tie breaker.
Finally I got to hold Owen and my first thought was wow Sean and I have kids that look alike, he has Maes nose. He was so perfect and even with being really blue his color was great and he was very alert. He latched on for a few minutes which I was really excited about since Mae had such a hard time. I just loved holding him and having him out in the world and ok. I am so excited to have a little boy and get to know his personality, so far he has been pretty mellow and only cries when hungry. Pretty much when he is not sleeping he is eating.
I love that Mari and I shared this crazy experience together and that our boys will grow up friends. I'm so proud of both of us we are awesome!


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Owen James has arrived!

This is Misty, Rachel's sister. She asked me to post pictures of Owen here. So here are some of the pictures from his first moments in the world! When I've edited the rest I'll have Rachel post a link.

He was 7 lbs 12 ozs, 20 inches. Born at 12:52 PM on March 16th. Rachel was a rock star. I heard her Doctor say that she was doing better without an epidural than a lot of his patients do with an epidural. She was in the zone and just let her body do what it needed to do. Near the end the doctor got a vacuum ready because Owen was having a hard time getting out but all it took was the threat of a vacuum, and with the next push he popped right out.

His first moments in the world.






Meeting his daddy.










Talking to Mae on the phone.




Meeting Mama.




Meeting his cousin, Aria.


First bath




Mae was concerned for him.


So she held his hand


She goes "I helped him stop crying!"


Then decided it was her job to comfort him.


Checking to see if he's still calm.


With his Papa.
Lilypie Third Birthday tickers
Lilypie First Birthday tickers