I am back....I hope....

Okay, I am going to try take two on this blogging thing.  I was inspired by two of my close friends.  First, I discovered my friend Regan was now doing a blog.   THEN my friend Jennifer gave me the extra push by tagging me on on her blog (which I follow her blog religiously :) ). 
So I am going to do her game of tag in my next post, but this is to announce my comeback...who knows what this comeback will have in store for me or this blog. 
I will kick off my comeback with a new picture of my sweet little Owen....he is a growing boy and a complete joy, I cannot get enough of his cute, chubby cheeks and handsome eyes....oh I know, the mom is gushing....I can't help myself, he is my love.

3 weeks old...First Christmas

Today Owen is officially 3 weeks old...time flies!!  We have had a lot of excitement his first three weeks...for his birth, his Oma and Opa (my parents) and his Zambie (Beau's mom) were here and his GG and Gpa (my grandparents), his Great Aunt Karen, his Uncle Chris and Aunt Kaylee...they all came just to see him arrive.  Then his Oma and Opa stayed through to the next weekend to get to know him a little better and his Uncle Nick came that next weekend to meet him.  Also, some of my (and Beau's) closest friends, Jennifer and Regan, came to meet Owen when he was about 10 days old...very sweet of them to make a special trip all the way from OKC.  Next when he was nearly 3 weeks old, a couple of Beau's (and my) closest friends, Justin and Affandi came to meet Owen also...another special, out of the way trip just for him!  We are so lucky to have such amazing friends to take time to come see us and meet little Owen.  We hope his Zambie gets to come again soon and his Oma and Opa are coming again next week.  And there is many more family and friends that we look forward to him meeting. 
Besides all the visitors, he has been growing....he already looks so big, and that is because he is!  We went to the pediatrician and he weighed in at 10 pounds 8 ounces (with his diaper, so he is probably a bit under that) and he was just a smidgen under 23 inches...the 90th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for length.  He has the cutest chubby little cheeks, his body is still really long so he isn't chubby really anywhere else.  He has been doing beautifully and we are so lucky to have such a sweet, happy baby.  He is staying up a little more to 'play' during the day and he is still doing really well at night...he eats then he is snoozing again (sometimes he needs to be reminded he woke up to eat and needs to try to at least eat for a bit!).
Below are a couple of pictures of Owen looking like a little elf on Christmas eve morning...we are excited to be celebrating our first Christmas with him.  We stocked up on supplies to make Christmas eve and Christmas food and we are ready to just enjoy it!!
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!  We are looking forward to celebrating ours!

 

Owen Branch

We welcomed Owen Branch at 2:20am on December 3, 2010.  He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and he was 21 inches long.  We were supposed to be induced the morning of December 3rd...Beau was hoping for me to go into labor so we would have a story...turns out he got what he wished for.  Here is the story (forgive its length)....
On Thursday December 2nd, I started having contractions at about 4am.  I didn't think much of it, they were not very close together and I didn't tell Beau because every time he thought I MIGHT be going into labor he got so excited, so I didn't want to get his hopes up.  Although he did notice that something was up, so he was on to me...I told him that they were too far apart so he wouldn't worry or get too excited.  I had lunch with my friend Sarah and I noticed they were getting closer together, Sarah noticed something was wrong but I lied and said I was fine, just uncomfortable.  When I got home from lunch Beau noticed that I seemed to be having the contractions closer together, so I finally started to time the contractions...they were about 7 minutes apart but then quickly moved to 5 minutes apart.  We decided I would call the hospital and they directed me to call my doctor.  My doctor's office said to go up to the hospital so we left about 3:30pm.  We went up there and they hooked me and checked dilation, I was still just dilated to a 3 which was the same as what I was at on Monday's doctor appointment, so no progress yet.  My doctor happened to be there and said that I could hang out all night, see what happens and still get induced in the morning if no progress OR I could go home...and they would give me a shot for the labor pains and then I could come back for induction in the morning if nothing happens.  Who wants to hang out at the hospital all night?  Plus we had family coming in town for the induction and they were all planning to eat dinner at our house.  I said let's go home...so they gave me a shot of morphine and sent me on my way about 5:15pm.  They said it would take about 30 minutes for the shot to take effect, but even after being home it didn't seem to help.  The house was filled with my parents, my grandparents, Beau's mom and aunt.  So Beau got everyone set with the baked potato bar he had already prepared, and of course he kept checking on me.  Everyone seemed excited but I had to have Beau keep me isolated because the contractions were getting worse and closer together.  Finally I told Beau, that the contractions were about 2 1/2 minutes apart, so it's time to go back to the hospital.  We signed in at 8pm and they rushed me through lots of signing of papers which they finally let Beau take over signing since I was dealing with labor.  They got me hooked up and checked me, I was dilated to a 4.  So they got me my epidural right away...unfortunately it only worked on my right side so they kept having to mess with it, meanwhile I was checked and dilated to a 6 then to a 10...when they finally got the epidural to work (a little too well).  I was at a 10 at about 11:00pm but my water still hadn't broke.  My water broke a bit later but he was a little farther up so they waited a bit....I started pushing at about 1:15am and he came by 2:20am.  Such a sweet little guy....he did swallow a little fluid and had a little bit of a temperature so he didn't get to stay very long with me, Beau escorted him to the nursery and they put him on some oxygen.  He had to be under oxygen for about 7 hours and I finally got to reunite with him about 11:30am.  We are so happy and we are very much in love with him.
We are all good and we are very glad to be home in our comfort zone.
Check out some pictures of our bundle of joy some from the hospital and some from home....we think he is pretty special....

39 weeks...Friday is the day

We went to the two doctors this week, but nothing to report.  We are still on schedule for Friday...pretty exciting!  We are ready to go, for the most part...I am still trying to finish some work stuff and we do need to do a little straightening up in the house, but we are close.  We put up all our Christmas stuff so the baby won't think we are scrooges, so that is good. 
Anyways, I will likely not get to post on the blog until I get home, but you never know...they do have wireless at the hospital.  I will post all information when I can!!
Thanks for following our journey!

37 weeks

We saw the two doctors again this week....not much of a change, so we will see what happens and what the baby wants to do.  We are still planning on December 3rd for now. 
We are looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving at home, although we are so sad to miss our normal Thanksgiving celebration.  This week I have made sure we have all the ingredients to make Thanksgiving dinner so we can avoid the crowds at the store some this weekend.  I have never made Thanksgiving dinner (except contributing a pie or two) but luckliy Beau is a stellar cook so I think we will be fine. 
Anyways, we will update next week, we do have our two normal appointments before Thanksgiving then we will be going into baby week...it will be here before we know it!

36 weeks

Well we had two appointments this week...one to get the ultrasound and nonstress test then the regular OB appointment.
Nonstress test - No contractions for me.  Baby's heartrate was good...he or she is still moving, moving, moving...disco party in there.
Ultrasounds - Fluid looked good and the baby measured less than two weeks ago (6lb 5oz this time).  These are just estimates, of course...so 2 weeks ago was probably an overestimate and this week an underestimate...but overall the baby is probably just normal sized...YEA!  I had been so worried for two weeks that the baby was going to measure nearly 8lbs on this appointment, so I was relieved and thrilled.
OB appt - Everything looks good...and I got my first check and she said I am dilated to a 1.  Pretty exciting, although obviously I could be dilated to a 1 for the next 3 weeks until the induction date.  Dr said that I might not make until December 3rd, but that if I do that the good news is was the baby would be ready because its head is down low (she asked if I could feel the pressure...and the answer is definitely YES).  Anyways, it would be exciting to go into labor since that is what I wanted in the first place, but I won't get my hopes up.
So dilated to a 1 and no contractions...now we just wait as we were before...we go back to Dr on Tuesday because she will be out on our regular Thursday then another ultrasound and nonstress test on Wednesday.
We will report back then!  Not much longer now!!

35-36 Weeks

I guess the biggest thing to update is that my wonderful friends threw me a great baby shower.  We got some great, essential gifts.  So we really feel ready for the baby to come now...we have a car seat, stroller and lots of blankets.  I washed the blankets and diapers, so we are ready to go.  Also, I washed all the clothes we have, which is honestly not a ton, but that is because we don't know the gender.  I think when the baby comes I will send my mom and Beau's mom out to grab some more clothes for me because they will be here...I am sure they won't mind.  You may have noticed I said I washed the diapers...yes, we are going to try out cloth diapering.  I actually haven't told a lot of people because I thought they would think I was such a hippie (although what is wrong with that??  I have a little hippie in me) or I thought moms with experience would shake their heads like, poor thing, she has no idea.  I hadn't actually thought of diapering either way, it just never crossed my mind...then one day I was reading my friend, Jennifer's blog (actually I haven't even told her yet that she sort of started me down this path or even that I am starting down this path).  Anyways, she posted a blog entry about doing some cloth diapering on her daughter to help prevent/heal some diaper rash.  I thought, hmmmm, cloth diapering, interesting...what is that all about?  Then I thought, those diapers she is wearing sure are adorable.  Luckily, Jennifer provided some links on her blog for more information (she is really good about that...my blog isn't quite up to snuff with hers!)  I mentioned it to Beau, who was slightly skeptical but not against it...he just had questions that I didn't have the answers to yet, so I read, read, read, read AND read some more...all about cloth diapering, then I went to visit a couple places that sold cloth diapers where I also got more information.  Anyways, I told Beau after all that researching that we were going to take a stab at it.  I am excited about it...we have lots of cute diapers washed and ready to go!!  They are all very cute and really look a lot like disposable diapers with velcro or snaps to close, so no pins and dishcloth types.  Anyways, we will see...I am excited and optimistic about the whole process. 
Okay...enough about all that.  We had two ultrasounds and nonstress tests since my last post.  The baby looks good, my fluid looks good and no contractions so far.  The first ultrasound they estimated the baby was about 6lb 8oz at that time....YIKES!  Our baby was estimated 6 1/2 pounds at 34 weeks with 6 weeks to go....my, my, my.  They didn't measure the baby's estimated size last week but will do it on Wednesday when we will be at 36 weeks.  So we are definitely on the downhill slide...December 3rd is still the date scheduled for induction, but we are wondering if the doctor may not move it up a little bit if the baby is approaching 8 pounds by our next ultrasound...we will find out soon enough.  Bigger babies is one of the risks of the gestational diabetes, which actually creates other risks also.  My blood glucose levels have been good overall and I have been very good about watching what I eat and taking walks, so I am doing all I can, I will just hope it is all enough! 
That's it for now...we will update next week after our two doctor appointments.