Owen's Firsts - 3

Tummy Time!

During our daily sessions of Tummy Time, Owen has officially turned from his tummy to his back this week -- several times in a row, mind you.

Yes, that's right, not only is he handsome, he is a mover! =)

Way to go Owie-bear!

One-Month Check-up

We had our one-month check-up yesterday. It wasn't as eventful weather-wise as our first trip, but prior to leaving we had a hectic feeding, peed on Owen and Mommy, had a diaper blow-out, dog didn't want to stay in the back yard.

One day we'll just hop in the car and make it down the road easy-peasy, right?

So, our stats!

Weight - 11 lbs 9 oz (75% percentile)

Length - 23 inches (80% percentile)

Head - 39.37 cm (60% percentile)

We are trying a baby heartburn medication to see if that will help us be a little happier after feedings. Dr. Megan says that he should grow out of it, but since he's been so unsettled, we'll give it a go. So far, Owen seems a bit more happy this morning after getting a dose last night and this morning, and we'll hope the trend continues with or without the medicine.

In addition we still have a bit of baby acne hanging around so we're trying some lotion and hydrocortisone to clear it up.

But overall we are doing good, getting big and growing strong! Way to go Owen!!

Documented!

I'm going to try and take a picture of Owen with a few of his stuffed animals each month to show his progress as he gets HUGE! He'll really hate this when he's 16, but he'll just have to deal!

Here's my favs from Month One!

A Month Ago...

A month ago today I became a mommy. Joe became a dad. Parents became grandparents. Sisters became aunts. And Ryker got the shaft, I mean, became a big brother.

Last month, on a Monday night at 8 p.m., Joe and I made the trek up to LCMC to have our little guy. We went in the night before to be induced. You see, our doctor told us our little guy was not so little, and in the best interest of his mommy, it might be a good idea to come in early. So we complied.

That day, my folks made it in, and I enjoyed a last meal with Mom, Dad and Holly at Johnny Carinos, because I had to stop eating at TWO P.M.! (we won't get into how evil I think that is.) So, Joe and I arrive at the hospital promptly at 8, because we're working on this on-time thing. Funny thing is, not everyone else was. They said, relax it'll be a minute, we've had some emergency cases come in. Well, 30 minutes later we're still waiting, so we go get Joe some Chic-fil-A. We arrive back, ummm, we're still not ready, but you can go wait in your room. Ummm, ok. So about an HOUR AND A HALF later, our nurse finally comes around to get this show started.

I was given a tiny little pill (that did not seem so tiny) to get things rolling along. I also opted for the Ambien sleep aid, as I knew they were going to be waking me up at all hours to check my progress and what-not. So before we drifted off to sleep, Joe also began a list of baby names. Nope, still didn't have one picked out! We got it fairly well narrowed down and figured we work on it some more the next day and decide when we saw him.

I was woken up several times through the night, but thanks to my handy dandy iPod and awesome drugs, it wasn't that big of a deal. At around 4:30 Tuesday morning, I had a weird feeling, called the nurse, and yep, my water broke. (Funny thing, my prego friend Lydia had gotten up around then and said a little prayer for us at about that exact time.) From there, the real fun began. I was given pitocin to help speed the process along. My ambien was nice during the night, as it did let me get some sleep, but then the pain began. It wasn't too unbearable at first, so I opted for the IV pain meds. BAD IDEA. Whatever that stuff was, it threw me for a loop. I was having conversations in my head between me and Joe. But the funny thing was, I wasn't that whacked out that I knew I was doing it, and kept commenting to Joe, "I didn't really say that to you, did I?"

Then, it started not getting so fun, so I did what any self-respecting woman would do and opted for the epidural. I figured moaning "I don't know what to do" and hitting my husband wasn't the best course for the rest of the day, so bring on the drugs. This amazingly helped a lot. The quick-talking anesthesiologist was super quick, and the smiles returned. We were progressing amazingly fast. Nurses and doctor were hedging their bets that we would deliver early afternoon. Joe called his parents at work and told them to hurry on down.

NOTE--When doctors and nurses get excited about your progress and start telling you how great everything is going and how fast it's going to go -- tell them to STOP TALKING.

You guessed it. Everything came to a halt. We hit nine centimeters and decided to camp out. Then the epidural decided to stop working and a horrible pain I have never known settled in my back and around my sides. The nice anesthesiologist came back to help, hit me with a second dose, and sadly it did NOTHING. I was then informed we were not making any progress still and that if we wanted to have this baby naturally, we'd have to PUSH PAST part of my cervix that didn't want to fully soften and excuse itself out of the way. ALL THIS while experiencing horrible pain, screaming my lovely mantra of "I DON"T KNOW WHAT TO DO," hitting Joe again and staring at the stupid bathroom door handle.

So, we pushed, and pushed and pushed. I was informed several times I wasn't pushing well enough or correctly. Well, excuse me! I'm doing the best I can!!!!! Then the whispering started. When doctors and nurses start to whisper and a whole troop of like 10 other nurses come in and start prepping stuff, you know either you or your kiddo might be in trouble. I did not want my baby to be in trouble, and I did not want a c-section at this point. I didn't even think I could make it through the pain to get to the point of having a c-section the pain was so intense.

So, Joe and I buckled down. I was going to get this kid out. I just remember they kept saying they could see his head, and I kept wondering why it was still taking so dang long! But it came down to a good last 3 or 4 pushes and this weirdest whoosh of a feeling happened and there was a baby.

A BABY! My Baby! Our baby!

Our Owen! I looked at our squishy red and white little guy and knew his name was Owen. Joe agreed, and I told him to choose his middle name, and he chose Daniel.

Owen Daniel O'Brien was born June 15, 2010 at 3:05 in the afternoon. He weighed 9 pounds and 4 ounces and was 20 inches long. He was here. We both were. And God is good.


(There's more to the story to be written, but this, I think you would agree, is the highlight. And can we say yahoo for adrenaline and a bad memory for helping me forget most of what really happened!)

Unfair

Riddle me this...

How is a two-week old baby who has only really seen the sun through windows more tan than I am? How is this fair? How does this help my self-esteem?

Also, along those same lines, are you born with freckles or do you acquire them? Joe and I have a pretty fair amount of freckles, but I've yet to find any on Mr. Owen. Just one of those random things.