Made it through one month!

We have survived one month of being a brand new family of four!  Our little O is now one month old already, and while I'm still far from figuring this whole thing out, I would say it is getting a little easier, haha.  Starting at around 2 weeks, Owen started getting really fussy, mainly after eating, and spitting up a lot.  It seemed like he was either eating, sleeping, or crying.  There were rarely moments he was awake and not crying. We thought it was gas at first, and then maybe colic, and then possibly reflux.  I called his doctor who suggested I first try eliminating dairy from my diet completely, and giving him Mylanta when his symptoms get really bad.  If they continued then we would go to the next step.  While I wouldn't say we have really figured out what's bothering him, I think eliminating dairy has helped because he is more content during the day than he was.  This has been really hard for me, considering I love all things dairy, but is certainly worth it if it makes him feel better.  We'll see how these next few days go.  Here are his stats from his two week appointment:

Weight: 8lbs 3 oz

Height: 20.5 inches

At his two week appointment, the pediatrician referred us to a urologist because one of his kidneys was still enlarged.  We went on Wednesday and after talking to her, we will have another sonogram done in two months to check its status, and go from there.  She believes its a mild case and that it will resolve on its own.  Prayers that this is the case.  At that appointment we found that our little chunk has gained two more pounds, and is now 10lbs 5oz!  He has been gaining pretty good control of his head and can move it side to side when doing his tummy time.  Yesterday while I was holding him and talking to him, I got a little smile which was so sweet!  I haven't gotten another one since but hopefully there will be more to come soon.  

Those little toes!!

I cannot say enough how proud I have been of Mady.  She continues to be completely in love with her little brother.  I kept waiting for that to pass when he was crying so much, but it hasn't yet.  She is always giving him hugs and kisses, and wanting to hold him.  She has never had a moment of jealousy and anytime he starts crying and I'm not holding him she will say "Mommy, Owen is crying, go get him!"  When he is crying it's like she doesn't even hear it, and will continue with whatever she is doing.  Her favorites lately are puzzles, the matching game, the movie Frozen, and the Pinkalicious books.  She can entertain herself for quite a while working on puzzles, and she loves playing the matching game.  She is getting quite good at both, and has outright beat me several times at the matching game.  She loved the movie Frozen, so we bought her the soundtrack to the movie and she now knows the words to almost every song (and so do Nick and I) and wants to listen to it all the time.  I can't imagine what will happen when we buy the movie!  As for Pinkalicious, my mom got her a collection of these books for Christmas and she loves to read them so much that she's memorized some of the stories.  Casa Mañana had a Pinkalicious play so of course, she had to go.  Nick took her to see it with her friend Zoey and her daddy.  It was a daddy-daughter date, and they had a blast.  I think even the dads enjoyed it!

Mady is already sharing her toys with Owen

She likes swinging on the big kid swing now.  She's growing up too fast!

With Owen here now, life has certainly become more busy.  There is always something to be doing but I am slowly learning to let things go.   When I do have a moment to do something, all I want to do is nap!  I'm fighting that urge now because I really wanted to blog, haha.  The house may not be as clean as I would like, but that's ok, or at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself.  I have been so fortunate because Nick got a month off from work, but the real world is right around the corner because he goes back to work Monday.  Thankfully, my parents will be coming next week, and his mom the week after, so we will still have some help here for a bit.  

He's here!!

We had my 40 week appointment scheduled for tomorrow, where we were going to have another sonogram and set an induction date for the next week.  Owen had different plans and now instead of seeing him on a sonogram, we've had five days of being able to hold him in our arms!

Last Thursday I was feeling great.  No contractions or pain, I had a lot of energy, so I was convinced that he was staying put for a while.  That night after dinner we were getting ready to bring Mady up for bedtime and I was picking up toys in the playroom, when I suddenly felt my water break.  Having a baby pushing on your bladder does have you make more trips than usual to the bathroom, but I always could make it to the bathroom.  This was certainly different, and I knew exactly what it was.  I told Nick and we immediately started moving.  It was almost like that scene in Home Alone when the family realizes they overslept.  I was rushing Mady upstairs, brushing her teeth, and reading her bedtime stories and trying not to scare her (while my water is breaking by the way), and Nick is calling to have someone over to watch Mady, packing our bags, and getting things in the car.  We put Mady in bed, which was bittersweet, because we knew this was the last time we would put her to bed as an only child, and headed out.

Contractions started soon after we got to the hospital, but things were much better after I got my epidural.  My body progressed just as it should, and I didn't need any pitocin to help things along.  By 2:00 in the morning I was dilated to 10cm, and at 2:30 I was ready to start pushing.  They called the on-call doctor and she was there within 15 minutes, very impressive!  The second baby is definitely much easier because after 2 pushes Owen Gabriel was here!  He was born on January 31st at 2:45 in the morning, weighing in at 7lbs 7oz, 20 inches long, and absolutely perfect.

He looks just like his sister!

Having a baby in the middle of the night is tough because we didn't get any sleep that night, or much the next day.  We were exhausted by Friday night.    Our parents headed out Thursday night after we told them my water broke and they made it around 3:30 in the morning.  They were exhausted too!  The proud grandparents:

As for Mady, she met her baby brother on Friday morning and she is in love with him.  I could not have asked for anything more, and she has been the best big sister.  She is constantly giving him hugs and kisses, and making sure he has his blanket and paci.  She is so sweet with him, and so far has shown no hints of jealousy.  I know it hasn't even been a week, but I am so proud of my big girl. She amazes me everyday.

Love at first sight

We are now a family of four!  Nick has the next few weeks off, which I am so thankful for, and we will be trying to adjust and just enjoy this time together.  So far Owen has been such a great baby.  He gets fussy here and there but overall he has been pretty laid back.  We are back to waking up several times in the middle of the night which has taken some getting use to, but he is good at going back to sleep quickly after he eats.  We have been fortunate so far, so we'll see how long it lasts!

Our first picture as a family of four

We're going home!

And we wait..

Well I am now 37 weeks along, and starting to remember how uncomfortable 37 weeks can feel! Owen is doing great, and at my last appointment we found out that I am dilated to 3 centimeters and his head is low.  What that means for his arrival, we will see, but the doctor said she would be surprised if I made it to my due date!  I don't know why, but something about her saying that did something to me because it suddenly hit me and I thought "Oh my goodness, we are about to have another baby!!"

Since then I have had a range of emotions flowing through me like excitement, nervousness, stress, and sadness.  I am so excited to meet this little guy and I love him so much already, but there is a part of me that is sad that my time with only Mady is ending.  These last two years have been the most wonderful, most challenging, difficult, and best years of my life.  She made me a mommy and I am a different, but better, person than I was before she was born.  This chapter in our life is coming to an end and I feel a type of mourning over that, but I also know that we have a new, exciting, and fun time ahead, and I can't wait!  I remember feeling a bit like this before Mady was born and knowing that the chapter of just Nick and I was closing as well.  With that being said, we have really been enjoying these days as a family of three.  Nick had several days off about a week ago so we spent that time just hanging out with each other.  We took Mady to the zoo and she had a blast!  She is still talking about it.

We always have to take a picture here with the little elephant

She is still talking about the lion that climbed down the stairs

She was brave enough this time to feed the birds.  That is, until that feisty blue bird tried to land on her stick!

Nothing better than ending a trip to the zoo with some ice cream

I'd say she had a good time

Mady is ready to meet Owen and she is talking about him a lot, including at school.  I met a mom of one of the girl's in her class at the store the other day and we were talking about how the girls talk about each other at home.  She said "Yeah, Sophia talks about Mady and Owen (that's his name, right)?". That made me laugh and made me so happy that she is so excited about him.  Here are a few of the things she says right now about Owen:

Owen's coming

Mady is going to hold Owen when he gets here

Mady going to change Owen's diaper

Owen so cute

Owen's room is so pretty

Mady is going to share mommy and daddy with Owen

Owen moving?

We've also finished decorating Owen's room and after my shower last weekend, I think, for the most part, that we are ready!  My life group girls threw me a surprise baby shower last month and it was so fun.  I had no idea, and thought we were just meeting for brunch at La Madeleine but turns out it was a little party just for me!  Love them!

Then my best friend, Mindy, threw me a shower last weekend and it was awesome!  I love this girl so much and am so thankful to have someone like her in my life.  So grateful to everyone who came to celebrate our little guy.

Loved these party favors!

It was a brunch so we had awesome breakfast foods and a Nothing Bundt Cake!

My little helper

Now we are just finishing a few things on our to-do list.  Unfortunately, Mady got sick yesterday and I took her to the doctor today and she has the flu.  It's not the Type A flu that is the worse strain but the Type B flu which is less severe.  She's been in good spirits besides coughing, and a runny nose and sneezing.  She had a fever for a couple of hours which is the main reason I decided to take her to the doctor.  We're just praying she gets over this quickly and that neither of us gets it too.  We wouldn't want anyone sick with the flu when Owen gets here!

Christmas Part 2

This year we celebrated Christmas right up to the New Year with my family.  My parents, as well as my aunt, uncle and cousin from Mexico came up to see us and spend the New Year with us.  We all had so much fun seeing them, especially since it had been a couple of years.  Mady loved them and was quite the charmer!  She does not meet a stranger and she really enjoyed having all her family here during these holidays.  I think she was pretty tired after everyone left which would explain her three hour nap the day everyone left!

My cousin Berny, her new best friend

More presents!

On New Year's Eve we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  We had not been there in quite a while, and it was yummy!  I got the S'mores cheesecake for dessert and I had to restrain myself from eating the whole piece, it was so delicious!

Aren't they cute?

Mady had so much fun this Christmas, and I had so much fun watching her have fun!  We took advantage of my parents being here to help us put up our Christmas stuff.  It was a huge help and would have been a lot harder had it been just us, considering I'm eight months pregnant and Nick had back surgery just a month ago.  But it was a bit sad putting it up because we had such a sweet time celebrating this year.  But on we go!  Now we're in 2014, Owen's year!  3 weeks, five days and counting...

Christmas Part 1

Nick was working this year for Christmas, and being 35 weeks pregnant, we decided to stay here for Christmas and our family came up to see us.  We spent Christmas with just the three of us.  On Christmas Eve we went to our church service, which was awesome.  If you are looking around for a church home, definitely check out 121 Community Church in Grapevine.  We love it!  For dinner we decided to keep it easy and ordered a pizza, haha.  We spent the night reading "The Christmas Story" and we each got to open one present.  I have an amazing husband, who for my Christmas gift, turned my blog into books.  I love them, and the fact that I will have these to cherish for so many years.  These almost serve as baby books because they capture everything that is going on in their lives.

Christmas morning Santa visited and Mady got exactly what she asked for.  Presents and a car.  Of course she got the VW Beetle, since that's what I use to drive!  She was a little scared of the car at first when it started moving but she warmed up to it pretty quickly.   Now, if she can only figure out the whole steering part.  Nick didn't have to be at work until 10, so we had a great morning at home.  Then we met him at his office for lunch, and had a nice dinner at home, complete with a birthday cake for Jesus!

The next day was Christmas with Nick's side of the family.  His mom came up and spent a couple of days with us, and we had a lot of his family over for dinner one night.  Great times, and great memories were made!

The first gift of Christmas!

Santa came!

Coming down the stairs, Christmas morning

I think she likes it

Cruising down the driveway with Mickey

Happy Birthday Jesus

Loves her Frozen doll and dress from Aunt Ellyn

She had a blast with her Uncle John

And we are not done celebrating yet!  My parents are coming up today, as well as my aunt, uncle, and cousin from Mexico.  We are going to do our Christmas with them and spend New Year's together.  Love how the holidays bring everyone together.  When they leave, I will be 36 weeks, which means 4 weeks to due date!!