Visitors!

We have had a bunch of visitors over in the past couple of weeks to meet our new little guy. Scott has been pretty good about taking pictures. :)

Katie, Megan, and Madie came by and brought us lunch one day

Awww....he loves his Antie!

My parents are always here, but I thought this was a cute picture of Owen and his Papa

Jessica has been amazing. She organized 2 weeks of meals for us and brought us a bunch of amazing meals on her own!

Auntie Kat! She was in town from LA and came by to hang out....and even brought a few things for the big sister. :)

Scott's mom came for a weekend from PA

Bringing home baby

Well we have been home with Owen for a little over a week now so I thought I'd give an update to how things are going. First of all, I/we have had a ton of help this time around...and I/we need it! :)

Having Scott home has been amazing. My recovery has been a lot harder this time and there is no way I would have been okay with him going back to work as soon as he did last time. He has been keeping the house up, taking Caroline out to run errands and just making sure I am staying off my feet more. My doctor was really strict about recovery and sitting is not something I do well. Scott definitely wins Husband of the Year Award this year.
We have such great friends in Benicia that have been bringing us meals and are gong to continue to do so for another week! It is so nice not to have to worry about what to make for dinner and not having to order take-out every night.
My mom has been working a few days each week in Walnut Creek and staying here at night. She has been keeping Caroline entertained in the evenings and helping keep my kitchen clean each night (I can't go to bed until it is clean and everything is put away...I realize this is not normal). :)

Owen is doing great. He went from 8lbs 10oz at birth to 8lbs 4oz when we went to the doctor last Thursday. We took him back to the pediatrician 4 days later and he was 8lbs 13oz! He is such a big guy! Having a big baby is so much less stressful. Caroline was tiny and we had weight checks at the doctor every day for the first week she was out of the hospital. This is much easier. He is waking every 3 hours at night to eat which makes us very tired. Since Scott is still home, he has been helping at night, which is awesome. Another reason I don't want him to go back to work! When do babies start sleeping longer? I don't remember any of these things with Caroline.

We had our newborn pictures done earlier this week so as soon as I get them from the photographer, I will post them!

Welcome to the world Owen Stephen!

What an amazing week it has been. I went in for my scheduled induction Monday (Feb. 21st) morning about 8am. They got me all checked in and my doctor came in and broke my water around 9am. They started me on pitocin and then we waited. Scott and I had still not decided/agreed on a name so we took a little time to discuss that. Around noon my contractions became more than uncomfortable and I decided to get the epidural. After that we took the time to rest a little and just hang out. The day was actually pretty relaxing. Much different from my labor experience with Caroline. After the epi my progress seemed to stall so they put in another monitor in order to see how strong my contractions were. It seemed they were a little weak so the pitocin was bumped up. During this time my epi was so strong I could feel nothing so we actually had them turn it down a little.
My doctor came in to check me shortly after they upped my pitocin and I was dilated to 7 (a huge change from just an hour before). She told me she had another girl ready to deliver and she'd be back. She came back about 45 min later and I was completely dilated. I think I may have been for a while but I could feel absolutely nothing. She got everything set up and after my first push could see his head! After a few pushes his heart rate dropped dramatically and my doctor decided to use the vacuum (which was probably my biggest fear in all of this). His heart rate didn't recover so she had to use the vacuum to get him out. It got a little stressful at the end and again Scott didn't get to cut the cord! Poor guy. :)
Owen came out at 8 lbs 10oz and 20 3/4 inches. His head was the biggest the nurse had ever seen delivered naturally (lucky me). It was good we decided to induce at 39 weeks because my doctor said any longer and I would have had to have a c-section. The vacuum was needed because he was just too big for my little body. :) Luckily I was completely numb from the epi so I didn't feel a thing!
We are totally in love with this perfect little guy! My labor experience was so much different than last time. My recovery is harder this time, but having both of us healthy throughout the whole pregnancy and delivery made the pain worth it. :)
We had a really hard time agreeing on a first name and eventually a name contract was drawn up and things were settled. :) We chose Stephen as a middle name because we really love the name and it is my dad's name. Things have been a little crazy around here and we will try and keep everyone updated with pictures. We may not be great about phone calls for a little while, but as we adjust to our new and improved family, we will get back to everyone!
And now for some pictures!

Getting all checked in

First picture

With Dr. B

Right after he was born

Owen's first bath

So cozy

Big sister came for a visit

So excited about her baby brother

Family of four!

Snuggling with Daddy

Caroline tucked in her Baby Gogo too :)

I will update the blog soon with updates on how things are going at home!

Baby GoGo update

This past week we had another growth ultrasound (along with all of the other weekly testing) and luckily for me, his growth has slowed down/evened out a bit. He is all squished so the u/s tech wasn't able to get great pics this time.
I saw my doctor on Thursday and we have a tentative induction date for the 21st. She is trying to get me in a little sooner, sometime this week, but unless the schedule opens up (or he comes on his own first), it's looking like the 21st is the big day! Some of my pre-e symptoms are starting to creep up, so she wants him out before we have any issues. We are hoping to have everything go easily and smoothly this time.
Poor little guy still has no name, but hopefully we will agree on something soon. I'm pretty sure they won't release us from the hospital until we pick something. :)

Just because we think she is so cute

We finally put pictures from the camera on to the laptop and look what I found! Big Girl being silly. :) The outfits she comes up with are hilarious. This little girl always keeps me smiling!

Pioneer Woman!

It's no secret I love Ree Drummond (aka he Pioneer Woman). Her recipes are amazing and the rest of her website is so much fun to read. When I heard she was going to be in San Francisco signing books Jessica and I knew we had to go! Scott was so nice to take a half day off work to come home and stay with Caroline. Jess and I got there early to buy the books and then went and had a delicious (kid-free!) dinner in the city.
The book store was so crowded and we were happy to have gotten there early to get seats. Ree did q&a for 20 minutes or so and then signed books. The amount of people who showed up was crazy! It was such a fun day!!

Fishing with Daddy

Sunday was Daddy/Caroline day and Caroline decided she wanted her own fishing pole (and she also wanted to catch a pink fish with Daddy). She and Scott walked down to the fishing store and found a pole with pink on it! We may still need to get her a smaller pole, but this one is perfect until then. :) They walked down the street to the water and had a great time (look at that huge smile!).

34 weeks

Today I had all of my testing, including a growth u/s. Apparently in the past 4 weeks (since my last growth u/s) he went from 55th percentile to 89th. He is measuring 37 1/2 weeks. They couldn't believe how big he has gotten and it is totally freaking me out. I am going back at 37 weeks to be measured again so they can determine how big he is and what their next move is. They are thinking either a c/s or an early induction if his growth doesn't slow down. I am hoping he just went through a big growth spurt and things will slow down now.

But for now, we just get to look at his cute squishy face (which he was again covering with his hand. Such a shy little guy. :)

I think this is the back of his head. The dr pointed out that he has a bunch of hair!

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Back in November, we took Caroline to Yo Gabba Gabba Live in Sacramento. She is obsessed with the show and the characters and it was so much fun to take her. I bought the tickets back in May and we were a little worried at the time that she wouldn't still be into it. I guess we had nothing to worry about, because she was in awe the entire time. I loved that we were able to take her and the look on her face was priceless! When it was ending, she was so sad and the only way to get out of the theater without tears was by telling her we were meeting Mimi and Papa for dinner. :) What a fun day!!

32 weeks

We have a million pictures on our cameras from the past few months and they just haven't made their way to the laptop yet. We are working on it. :)

Until we get our act together on that, I thought I'd share an update on "Baby Go-go". That's right, our poor little guy still doesn't have a name (I don't know why Scott has to be sooooo difficult on this matter! :) ). Caroline has taken to calling him Baby Go-go and it has stuck. Hopefully he will have a real name some day, otherwise he will definitely be teased in school.

Because of my high risk status I see my doctor every week and I also now have weekly visits to the perinatologist for NSTs and AFIs. (non-stress tests and fluid checks) So far my health is good so the appointments seem excessive, but I know they are just being cautious. This week I talked the u/s tech into taking a quick peek at the baby during the fluid check. She was so awesome, turning on the 3d and everything. Too bad he was in no mood to be bothered. He kept his hands in front of his face the entire time. We finally gave up after 15 minutes or so, which is when he decided to start hopping all around in there. Silly guy. This is the only some-what discernible picture we got. If I have the same tech next week, she said we can try again! :)

In case you can't tell, this is a profile of his lips and nose with his thumb in his eye.

Family Pictures

We never seem to get any pictures as a family and if we do, we never like them (isn't that always the case). I decided it was time to hire someone to take pictures of us as a family of 3 (and a half). It was actually sort of a trial run for Baby Boy's newborn photos and I really liked the photographer. We will definitely be using her for the pictures when the baby (still no name...poor kid!) is born. I feel huge these days, but I am glad we had these taken while I am pregnant so we can remember this time.