5 Seconds of Fame

Well, we all knew Owen would be a star some day... just not already at only three weeks of age!  We are having him baptized on Saturday and John has told me in the past that if the kids have events coming up we need to send their pictures and event information in to WCCO to see if they can get mentioned in Chris Shaffer's "On the Spot" portion of the weather.  Tuesday I submitted this picture of Owen and he appeared on the 10:00pm news on Wednesday night.  John and I really weren't even watching for it - it was Grandpa Lewis that caught it and called John right away to tell him that Owen made TV! And apparently it's supposed to warm up for baptism on Saturday!

John also recorded this portion of the weather using his iPhone.  You can watch cute little Owen here.

Sisterly Love

A lot of people have wondered how Megan would react to having a brother and how she is doing now after he's home.  I think it's safe to say that she adores her baby brother and is very proud of him.  It's a big deal being a big sister after all.  Megan wanted to hold Owen the day we came home from the hospital and about four days after that she was ready to give him a kiss on the head.  A real baby is so much more fun than a baby doll!  Megan has yet to refer to Owen by his name and is simply "baby".  I also love it when people come over to visit and Megan will lead them right over to where he is sleeping - maybe she just notices the trend and wants to get that part out of the way before pulling the visitors away to her room to play :)

There's no doubt that Megan knows baby Owen is here to stay - although who knows if she realizes that he won't be a baby for very long.  Before she knows he will be stealing all her toys and pulling her hair!  He is part of her family now and when she wakes up in the morning or wakes from a nap she right away wants to know where the baby is.  If we're going to church or running an errand she asks if the baby will come too.  If we're talking about what color shirts everyone is wearing she will also make a point to acknowledge Owen's shirt.  Megan is also so used to seeing Owen sleeping that she gets really excited whenever she sees his eyes open.

We put Megan on pacifier patrol.  We tell her that when the baby cries it is her job to give it to him.  Most of the time she tries to put it in upside down but after a few tries she gets it right.  She's not afraid to grab his head if he's wiggling around a lot and shove the suckey in his mouth.  We also let her brush his hair with the soft plastic brush we got from the hospital.  We are also becoming aware of what we say to her.  When Owen is crying we often catch megan saying things like "you're fine, baby" or "you're ok".  And not in a calming tone, more of a scolding, annoyed tone.   

I have a few pictures below of Megan and Owen together throughout the last few weeks.  The first one is one of the first mornings he was home.  Still not wanting to touch him much but willing to pose with him.

One week after coming home and Megan is happy to help take care of Owen.

This is a collage of pictures from last night.  I think Megan was trying to prolong bedtime but right now I don't want to deny her the chance to hold baby Owen.  Overall Owen is a pretty good sport.  I wanted Megan to hold Owen's hand but she was more interested in trying to pull off his hang nails!



A few nights ago Megan was running around the house with the rice cooker steamer basket on her head as a hat.  Next thing you know, Owen had a hat too... right over his face... and it was being pushed in ever so gently.  Today I had Owen in his car seat as we were getting ready to leave.  Megan saw me pick up the car seat to gently swing it back and forth to calm Owen down so the next time he fussed she was more than willing to rock the seat vigorously to try and settle him down!  I have a feeling that this kid is going to pretty tough - he doesn't have a chance with a sister like Megan!

2 Year and Newborn Pictures

Last Monday John and and I took our kids to get pictures taken.  We were waiting until Owen was born to get Megan's two year pictures done so we could get newborn pictures taken at the same time.  It happened to be Megan's 26 month birthday and I consider this part of my mother's day present!  I also wanted to take advantage of John's last day off work before returning last Tuesday.  I am very happy with how they turned out.

I had a bottle of milk for Owen and would feed him a little, take it away and then the photographer would snap the picture.  He had a stuffed Elmo and Cookie Monster to show Megan and that caught her attention to give us some nice smiles.  We still need to go back and order the photos but here are some of my favorites.  (I also have some in the right side bar of the blog page.)  To view all the pictures, click here.

 

  

   

My Mother's Day

Who could ask for a better mother's day present than to have our newest family addition home with us and in our arms after a long pregnancy.  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who has given me two beautiful children.  I am one lucky mommy.  

Yes, they test my patience every day but I believe that God gave me these two to challenge me and make me a better mother.  I have a long way to go!

We spent the Saturday before Mother's day with John's family and Mother's day with mine.  At the Lewis's, Megan was a little extra clingy to me but since I had so many other people willing to hold Owen I was able to spend some one-on-one time with Megan and took these cute pictures of her.

 

 

It seems like Megan's favorite pets are the newest ones that she can pronounce.  Right now it's Keeper and Abby so she spent lots of time outside with the two of them.

 

John took this gorgeous weekend as an opportunity to break out his new lawn game, Kubb.  Basically you are throwing wooden sticks at blocks of wood.  I would have had more fun with it if I were a little better at it - John pretty much beat everyone!  Hopefully I'll be better the next time!

Homecoming

It's safe to say that my family and I had a much better hospital experience this time around than the first time I gave birth.  Maybe it's because this was my second child, but the nurses were actually rather pleasant and just did an hourly round to check up on us - pretty much leaving us alone most of the time.  Also, I feel like I recovered better this second time.  I was able to walk around the room pretty much right away with just some pain on my bottom and a little trouble getting in and out of bed.  I also think it helped that we were a little more prepared to take care of a baby since we had been through this stage before.  Anyway you look at it, it was a rather good stay.  We also had lots of family and friends stop by to meet our little guy which helped pass the time.

The nurses kept a close watch on Owen's blood sugar the first 12 hours, primarily because he was such a big baby compared to his gestational age which was 41 weeks but he measured at 42 weeks.  Luckily he ate well enough so that wasn't a concern at all.  Then they had to monitor his biliruben levels to check for jaundice.  The doctor was initially concerned because Owen had a big bruise on the back of his head from the two hours in the birthing canal.  We were happy to learn that when his levels were checked on the morning we went home that it had gone down and was no longer a concern!

I think I only got at most eight hours of sleep total during the two nights in the hospital because the nurses kept bringing Owen back into my room to feed during the night.  John spent both Tuesday and Wednesday nights at home and came back to the hospital around 9 both mornings.  He obviously slept better in his own bed and then was able to grab breakfast at home too.  Oh, and as an added bonus, John really scored on lunch on Wednesday.  He went down to the cafeteria to purchase a meal and was surprised to find out that there was free food out for all staff members because of national nurses week.  Nobody questioned why he was there and he was able to bring two big plates of food up for lunch!

The second day, Thursday (when we were scheduled to come home), John brought Megan along to the hospital with him.  It was nice just to have a couple hours of family time at the hospital.  The two days prior Megan had been with grandparents and really only saw me laying in the hospital bed.  She really wanted nothing to do with me those last couple days but that Thursday was a lot different and she was actually happy to see Mommy!  Megan was able to keep occupied by Nick Jr., coloring book and crayons that my friends brought over for her, and my hospital water bottle.  She still didn't want much to do with Owen at the hospital but we weren't going to push it.

We were lucky enough to have our doctor stop by early in the morning and everything checked out with both Owen and me.  Our nurse asked if we'd like to be discharged in the morning and we did not hesitate to tell her "yes".  It was a gorgeous day outside and I was more than anxious to get home with our newest family member!

 

 

It wasn't too long after we had gotten home that Megan asked to hold her baby brother.  She still didn't want to touch Owen but sure giggled as she watched him move about as he lay on her lap.  

Owen's Birth Story

At my 40 week prenatal checkup I was measuring at 2 cm with 60% effacing.  I felt like I had still been pretty active the entire last week before my induction and was surprised to find out on Tuesday morning that nothing had changed at all in the last week!  I'm glad we had the induction scheduled or who knows how long he'd still be in me!

Here's the story (and I'm glad we were texting updates to people as the day went on... should make this post easier to write...)

We arrived at Ridgeview at 7:00am on Tuesday, May 8th.  First hurdle was simply putting an IV in my arm.  Our labor nurse tried twice, the anesthesiologist had four attempts and finally a nurse anethesist got a really tiny needle and had success.  Then the nurse checked my cervix and determined that nothing had changed since my last appointment which altered the doctor's original plan of breaking my water and starting the pitocin at the same time.  Pitocin was started around 8:30 and we were a little disappointed that by 11:00 I had still made zero progress.  Contractions were only every 3-4 minutes at that point so they kept upping the pitocin drip until contractions were every 2 minutes and then things started moving.  By 1:00 I was about 4-5 cm and I think John and I both had tears in our eyes when they confirmed that we would indeed be having the baby today! 

The nurse called for the doctor to come break my water and also ordered the epidural.  I'm glad she called for the epidural when she did because it sure took awhile for him to get over to our room.  But once it was done it was only two contractions and everything felt better!  I was having the bad back labor again so it was a welcomed relief.  By 5:00 or so I was dilated to 8 or 9.  Things kept progressing and I was ready to start pushing by 6:10. 

The pushing this time around only lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes but had its own set of hurdles.  It didn't take too long for the pressure on my bottom to get really strong so it felt like I had to poop the whole time.  My legs were up in some stirrups that seemed really high for me and just added to the pain.  I was pushing so hard that I actually had to stop and throw up twice.  I just had a few sips of water but couldn't even keep that down.  Our doctor kept stopping in and out to see how the pushing was progressing.  I'm glad she was able to stay and deliver Owen even though she wasn't the on-call doctor that evening.  One thing that she discovered was that originally Owen was face up in the birthing canal and they were worried of how he was going to come out.  They were also concerned because when I was pushing Owen's heartbeat kept dipping down low and took a while to come back up.  Both of these problems were solved with having me push laying on my left side.  Owen seemed less stressed and by having me make that turn he actually turned himself around to face down!

Everything seemed to stabilize and our doctor went back to the clinic to do paperwork and the nurse was told to call when I was getting close.  My original labor nurse's shift had ended and we got a new nurse to help me with the pushing.  She annoyed me just a little because while I was trying to push during the contractions she kept telling me I was doing it wrong and it would throw me off.  I remember the nurse making a comment around 8:10 that "yeah, you'll probably be pushing at least another half hour."  That was all I had to hear and I was determined to get him out sooner than that.  My next contraction I pushed really hard and Owen's head made a drastic move and slid right past the pubic bone and I could feel his head ready to pop right out.  I had to stop pushing immediately and the nurse called the doctor to come ASAP.  That was the longest 2 1/2 minutes ever!

When the doctor finally showed up we began pushing again and next discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped pretty tightly around Owen's neck.  John originally wanted to cut the cord but in this instance that wasn't an option.  The doctor almost cut her own finger in the process.  When Owen finally made it out he was completely white and was not crying.  His apgar score was only a 1 and we were a little worried over his condition.  They had about four nurses working on him and finally we heard his first cry!  It turns out that Megan actually heard his first cry too.  They were going to get an update on my progress when Megan heard me say something, stopped at the door and then heard the baby!

I had to then deliver the placenta and get stitched up since I tore a little delivering Owen.  Our doctor took one look at him and asked me how many more big babies I want to come out of there!  All the nurses were surprised at how big he was and commented that "he just kept coming and coming".  Next it was time for me to feed him and then at about 9:45 or so all of our family that had been waiting for hours and hours were finally able to come meet their new brother/nephew/cousin/grandson.

 

We were moved into our postpartum room around 11pm and I was regaining feeling back into my legs after the epidural and could take some baby steps on our own.  We actually ended up in the same recovery room that we were in with Megan!  Welcome to our lives, little big guy!

Introducing Owen John Lewis

Please welcome the newest member of our family, Owen John.  He was born on Tuesday, May 8th 2012 at 8:23pm weighing 9 pounds 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches in length.  He was named after his great-great grandpa Owen Lewis.  I later found out that he was born on his great-great grandpa Clarence Poppitz's birthday - 1904 (my grandma Gennrich's father).

So far Owen has been a great baby.  He is nursing pretty well but lately has been having lots of spitups before he's ready to eat.  Owen has already initiated both John and me into the parenthood of a baby boy club - we went through several shirts and socks yesterday... 

I don't know what Megan thinks of her baby brother just yet.  She will acknowledge that there is a baby but so far she has been much more entertained by the hospital waiting room than the baby.  Hopefully she takes to him a little more once she is in a more comfortable environment. 

 

 

Labor and birth story soon to follow!  Oh, you can probably count on more pictures too!

John's 32nd Birthday

It turns out that John gets to keep his birthday all to himself afterall as our baby still hasn't come yet.  There was something going around on Facebook telling everyone that last Friday was National Star Wars Day - May the 4th or May the 4th be with you (may the forth be with you).  John is more of a Star Trek fan but the day still suits him and we had some good chuckles over that coincidence.

John only had to work Friday morning and I took the afternoon off of work since it was a nice day and I hadn't been very busy anyways.  It was a gorgeous day and we met at Ruby Tuesday for birthday burgers and fries!  Back home for some relaxation and then to John's parents for a little family get-together.  John got some nice gifts: some nice pieces of steak for the grill this summer, a T-shirt from Antique Archaeology when his parents went to visit the American Pickers' store, some new and current CDs, a photobook of Daddy-Megan pictures and a lawn game called Kubb for some fun summer outings.

My parents were able to come also and Megan had a blast showing them all of the cats and dogs that she plays with every week.  In fact, that's basically all she did the entire night was run around looking for certain animals.  Of course Homer is the one cat that wants attention but seems to be Megan's least favorite for some reason.  Abby was on a leash the whole night since she doesn't do that well with unfamiliar men and Megan kept saying that she wanted to "pull" her around.  She will be so ready to take these doggies for walks when she gets older!

 

 

 

Muddy Puddles

One of Megan's new favorite shows is Peppa Pig.  It's about a family of pigs who seem to just sit around and jump in muddy puddles and snort.  Well, Peppa isn't the only one who likes jumping around in muddy puddles.  Megan and I both got pretty messy last night playing in the water and mud.  Since we don't have much of a yard to play in we have to find whatever we can for entertainment...

 

 

 

Still Going Strong...But End's in Sight!

Today I am 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant and still going strong.  Throughout this entire pregnancy I was hoping that I would deliver before my due date so as the date came and went I seem to be left with an anti-climactic feeling.  It's getting harder to move around and I am also getting sick of going to work every day and having people ask me why I am still there.  Especially since my temp is doing most of my work and I don't have a whole lot of responsibilities at the moment.  The only saving grace right now is that the longer I go on this end the more into the summer my maternity leave will take me!

There was a fairly big thunderstorm that went through our area on Tuesday night and I actually felt a fair amount of contractions during that time.  I was hoping that they would continue to get stronger as time went on but as the storm came to an end and I went to bed everything seemed to return back to normal.  Talk about a let-down...

Because I was past my due date I had another doctor's appointment yesterday.  At the 40 week checkups, a non-stress test is usually done to see if it is safe for mom and baby to continue pregnancy.  So, I basically had to lay on the table for 20+ minutes with some monitors hooked up to my belly to listen to baby’s heartbeat, monitor contractions and get some good baby kicks.  Well, wouldn’t you know that our little teaser slept the entire time.  His heart rate was only about 126 the whole time and he didn’t move at all.  Next step was to send me to the hospital to have a 30 minute biophysical ultrasound done on baby to make sure everything was ok with him.  They scored him on if he made several breathing motions in a row, gave a big kick, had enough fluid surrounding him and a few other things.  Well, he passed this test with flying colors – an 8 out of 8!  So, I was sent home instead of being sent upstairs to the third floor.  What a nice 2.5 hour doctor’s appointment!  I’m not complaining, just a little annoyed but thankful that I have had two very healthy pregnancies.  Oh, and the sonographer did try to get me a couple of 3D pictures - a new thing for Ridgeview.  However, because he is soooo cramped for space his hands were in front of his smooshed little face and nothing looked right.  But at least I got to see him in 3D.

We still have a couple of really good birthday options before the scheduled induction date of May 8th.  Tomorrow, May 4th is John's birthday, Cinco de Mayo is May 5th, and my lucky number is 7.  Take your pick, little man or else we'll see you on the 8th!  (Megan never came until we had an actual induction date scheduled either.  And I completely agree with the doctor that I'd rather wait and let the baby come out on his own before he's ready.)

I'll finish up the post with a quote that our pastor read at church on Sunday and then we discussed it at Bible study Tuesday night:  Anxiety is the end of faith but true faith is the end of anxiety.  Hopefully keeping this in mind will help me give me patience to wait until Tuesday or whatever baby has in his plans.