4 weeks old

Tomorrow Owen is four weeks old.  One month.  Ahhhh!  Time has flown!  It is scary to think about where we were one month ago.  It is scary to look back on the journey and see what kind of an adjustment we had to go through.  It is refreshing to have Dave remind me that there should not be a repeat to those days on the nights that Owen is a little difficult, and then the night ends up just fine.

I think in the last month, we have found out what Owen's likes and dislikes are, and we have adjusted to those.  He still is very time consuming, but those times are a lot more tolerable.  Looking back on it all, I have no idea how I went several days without any sleep.  Phew! 

Anywho, today we had a visit from Aunt Jaime, Nathan and Abby.  This was a great reason to take updated pictures.   It's sometimes hard to remember to grab the camera on those day to day functions.

This is my Goddaughter, Abigail holding Owen

Owen was holding his pacifier in his own mouth.  Does he really know what he was doing?

Aunt Jaime, holding Owen

All in all, we are still taking it one day at a time, and loving all of the support that we have!

Nonna's house

Nonna is Italian for Grandma.  This is what all of the grandkids call my mom.  It's a magical place.   All kids have a better day after being with Nonna.  Owen included.  He slept when we were there, was awake and in a good mood for pictures, went back to sleep when we went home, and went to bed early with a decent night to follow.

Yesterday, all six grandkids were at Nonna's house.  Of course, we had to have a photo shoot of the triplets.  The day was a lot less crazy than I thought it was going to be. 

Here is Jamyson on the left (Amanda and Bryan's (my brother) son), Anthony in the middle (Jessica (my sister) and Frank's son) and Owen on the right.

From left to right is Owen, Anthony and Jamyson

Owen is in front, Jamyson is on the left with his feet near Owen's head, and Anthony is on the right with his head on Owen's thigh.

We had a lot of fun taking these pictures, and I hope we will do it again and again :-)

2 week check-up

So Sunday Owen will be three weeks......time is going by faster then when I was pregnant....thank God!  But today marked his two week appointment.

This was so much different from our last appointment.  Last appointment I was teary eyed, running 5 days without hardly any sleep.  I was thinking "if this is my life...what did I do!?!?"  I was ashamed, but I now know that this was all normal.  There are several family members who shared that they have felt the same way with their first. 

But now......I am running errands, showing him off and just plain enjoying being a mom!  If Owen keeps his routine, I will remain sane; and be able to enjoy being a mom!

Well, this Dr appointment proved that all of our hard work was worth something!  Owen weighed 9lbs 12ozs (he was 8lbs 4.8ozs at birth) and measured 22 1/2 inches (he was 20 inches at birth).  YAY!  Dr Carstens said that Owen is going to be a pudgy breast-fed baby.  I am OK with that :-)  She said that he is thriving! 

She is not thrilled with him sleeping in the bouncy seat because of concerns about his head support.  I think if she saw it, she would be fine with it.  She also said that I was an excellent mother, and she would like to see me have 3 or 4 children, but I assured her that two will be plenty, and three years apart is our plan.  She asked me to reconsider, because she knows I was meant to be a mom.  I just smiled, and said.....I know what I want!

Sunday we will start bottle training!  WOW!  3 weeks old :-)  He will be right on our schedule...that went by fast!  I already have a decent supply of milk in the freezer, and I feel good about getting him bottle feeding.  My supply should at least double in the next week......YAY!  Pretty soon, I'll be going back to work.....UGH!

As for now, Owen is in the 90th percentile for weight and height, and 75th percentile for his head.  I'll take that :-)  Looks like we have our football player!  Now we need our cheerleader!

Just hangin' around!

Here are some pics of Owen from the past week. 

Dave swears to be a big part of Owen's life!  He'll come home from work, change his clothes, and then Owen goes missing.  Of course, Dave has him until feeding time.  The best part: he loves it, and cherishes every minute with his son!

My favorite part (when it's not 4:30 AM) is snuggling :-)  my Grandma made a blanket that is perfect for the day time.  This is a picture of him on my chest in Gigi's blanket.

During his awake time, he likes his lounger.  Yes.  This is actually what it is called.  It is meant for just that.  A newborn lounger.  He'll hang out there most of the time just watching whatever.  It's nice to be able to put him someplace quick without having to hold him.

I cannot believe he is 2 weeks already!  YAY!


For the most part, he has been a good baby.  He usually only cries when he is hungry.  Each day brings a new discovery of his personality.  I just hope that we have this night time thing solved.  I would not like to go back to that.

Ode to the bouncy seat

In the land of babies lies this bouncy seat.  It's not just any seat, it's a magical seat.  It's a seat that has been passed  through the Weiss family, and has made it to Owen :-)

When Owen's Aunts Sara and Laura told me about this seat, I put it in the corner just to use when I take a shower, or to just have a second one when I am upstairs doing laundry or anything else.  We quickly found out that it is worth a million.  It has a vibrating option that is continuous.  Well, Owen is the type of baby who is calmed by the vibration, and wakes up when it stops.  We have another bouncy seat that stops after 30 minutes, which is fine during the day, but when Owen is beside himself in the middle of the night, we need that vibration to last all night long.  After the 11:30ish feeding, he usually goes down in his crib for the rest of the night.

We are trying hard to get Owen to sleep in his crib.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes he needs help.  Some nights when he needs help, we have him in the magical bouncy seat.  We put that vibration on, and drape the nice, heavy blanket that Aunt Sara made him, and tuck him in tight.  The seat is in our room, which tends to be chilly, so the blanket is key.  We tuck it in under the blanket tight so that it does not reach his face.  If incase that does happen, he is upright, so I feel confident that it is not a SIDS concern.

Thank you, Aunt Laura for starting this wonderful trend, and thank you Aunt Sara for stressing how much your youngest, Leah loved it.

Every night I praise that seat.  Because of it, we have not missed out on several hours of our precious sleep.

Below is a picture of what Owen looks like during his difficult time.  It looks like the blanket is half-way up his face, but really it's in the middle of his belly.  It's pulled tight, so the angle makes it look that way.

Settling in

Since the birth of Owen, we have been trying to get used to everything.  We have been through every emotion from crying, to laughing, to purely elated!  Some of our emotions included exhaustion.  Poor little Owen was struggling the first few nights at home with gas and exhaustion as well.  It was hard for me to remember where he came from, and how scared he must be.  Without the support of family and daddy, Owen would not have gotten the help adjusting that he needed. 

Dave and I were determined to be parents.  We figured that since we had the "A-Team" that we could get through anything.  True, but Owen has already taught us something.  Even the best parents need help!  I think it was the third night home that I had to call Dave's mom at 6:30AM because for the fourth night in a row, Mom and Dad had not gotten any sleep.  Owen would settle down, and then wake up screaming about 5 minutes later.  Nothing would help.  That is, except for sleeping on someone's chest.  Well, we all know that it is highly not recommended to fall asleep with a baby on your chest, and working in the ER, treating these babies has recruited me to the cautious side.  So there you go......no sleep for anyone!

I am so grateful that Dave took off a week and two days.  I would have gone insane if I had to go through this by myself!  So Nancy came over, and took Owen for a couple of hours.  She then stated that she would be sleeping over the next night to give us sleep.  God bless her! 

Nancy came over that night, and experienced what we had been going through.  She walked him, rocked him and sang to him all night long!!!  Poor lady got no sleep!  Thankfully, that was the last night that I remember being traumatic.

Owen has seemed to understand the meaning of night time.  Sometimes he has a bad night, and that is resolved by putting him in our room on his bouncy seat that vibrates.  I really wanted to have him in his crib all the time, but something's gotta give when sleep is involved.  There are worst things that we could be doing.  But for the majority, he is in his crib.  YAY!!!!

I still live in fear of the night.  When Owen sleeps all day, we are fearful of a long night.  So far, he has proved us wrong.  He'll get a late start, but he'll go down around 12AM-1AM.  When he is up all day, he still won't go down until late.  Go figure.  Last night, he slept all day, and went down at 7PM and woke up twice to feed....Way to go, Owen!!!!!

Here are some pictures of those who have come to visit and help settle Owen in :-)  he is one lucky baby!

Owen is here!!!

Let's go back to Friday, Sept 10, 2010.  I have already been having Braxton Hicks contractions that have been very painful for about two months.   Not these.  These contractions were different.  Not more intense, just different.  Dave and I always joke that that night will be it.  But this time, I thought it really might!  Well, I was removed form work, so I had Friday to myself.  I was forcing myself to nest.  I was doing the laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and resting in between. 

I was determined!  If we were going to the hospital, we were not coming back until our little guy was with us!  I was rolling on the exercise ball, and making a nice stuffed pork tenderloin.  Well, the night went on, and I couldn't sleep.  These contractions were getting annoying.  We were timing them, and they were between 4 and 8 minutes apart, but regular.  I couldn't wait any longer.

2AM now on Sat, Sept 11, 2010, I called the Dr.  He said that I was contracting long enough, and to come in the hospital at 6AM if I could wait that long.  He said if I was dilated, he would break my water.

So off to my parents' house we went. They live about 15 minutes form the hospital, and that beats the 45 minutes that it would have taken us :-)  I was more comfortable knowing that if anything happened, I would be much closer to the hospital!  Sooooo, I never slept.  Dave slept another 2 hours, but I did not.  I woke him up, and we were on our way to the hospital.

During the exam, it revealed that the contractions were there and regular, but then started fading fast, and becoming irregular.  Not to mention I was still only 1cm dilated............ugh!  What!??!?  I am sure that the Dr would have broke my water, but the nurses said that I probably would have gotten sent home.

As I was chatting with my sister (who was just being released from giving birth to my nephew, Anthony) I felt a little something.........MY WATER BROKE!!!!!!!!!!  At 9AM, I am guaranteed to NOT go home!  That was my goal!  Our next goal was to have a baby.........YAY!!!

It took about 2 hours for me to reach 2cm.  Then each time they checked, I had advanced quite quickly.  We were thinking 7PM we will have this little life.

Not soooooo much!!!  After much pain, vomiting and plain old uncomfortable, Owen was FINALLY born on Sunday, Sept 12, 2010 at 2:31AM.  8lbs, 4.5ozs and 20 inches long.  PHEW!!!!!!

Special thanks to my parents, Dave's parents, Jaime and Dave who were with me every step of the way.  They were there for every hour of this difficult labor that went well into the early morning.  Dave breathed through every contraction with me, Jaime was there for overall support and my mom was there for my motherly support.  Those three were there to see Owen born, which on so many levels was memorable and special.  Dave's mom peeked in when she could, and then dads stayed in the waiting room.  I am sooooo loved, and so is Owen!

Here are some pictures of our ordeal!