Monday, November 29, 2010

A conversation between Mommy and Daddy

The other day, as we were discussing Christmas gifts for our relatives, Ben looked at me and said, "Honey, what are we getting each other this year?"

My immediate, honest answer was: "A baby."

Merry Christmas honey ~ this gift has been in the making for over 9 months. Don't you feel special?

Only 2 weeks to go. Thank heavens.

:)

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Another ear infection and pink eye = gross

So the oozing snot led to more oozing snot and then big, gooey green goobers coming out of his eyes. I looked it up online and determined it might be pink eye. So off we went again to Urgent Care. The are very efficient there - much more so than the doctor's office. So I don't quite mind having to take him there.

Within 20 minutes we saw the doc who confirmed he had a "raging" ear infection in one ear, slight infection in the other, and pink eye. Fun. She gave us a prescription for an antibiotic - didn't even have to stop at the pharmacy - and we were on our way home.

I felt bad we hadn't taken him in earlier, but it had only really developed during the day, and he showed NO signs other than pointing to his ear once or twice. Otherwise he had tons of energy and even skipped his nap (much to the dismay of mommy and daddy). You wouldn't know he was sick except for the goopyness dripping from his nose and corners of his eyes. (I'll spare you the pictures).

Hopefully he'll be feeling good as new after a few doses of the meds. Bubblegum flavor ~ yum!

Owen reads The Very Hungry Caterpiller to the Grinch

Friday, November 26, 2010

Talking back

Last Friday we went out to dinner as a family. We had a lovely time - Owen was so well-behaved and we were able to have a relaxing meal together. At the end of dinner he did start to get antsy, and was standing up in his highchair. I said, "Sit down Owen" to which he replied:

"Mommy, stop talking."

Ben and I both looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh. This was the first time he ever talked back. Today, he started a new form of talking back, and it's even more entertaining.

After lunch, I said, "Okay bud, let's go upstairs to take your nap." He looked me straight in the eye and said, "No, I'm not taking a nap." Ha! I said, "Owen, we take a nap every day at this time." He replied, "I'm not sleepy."

He did nap. For almost 3 hours. When he woke up, Ben went to get him and asked if he was sick (he's been ooozing snot all day). "No, I'm not sick." Then he and came downstairs, I said, "Owen, would you like some water?" and he said, "No, I'm not hungry". Close enough.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving & Happy Birthday Grandma!


This year Grandma Marshall's birthday fell on Thanksgiving. They had us over for a lovely turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Ben made a new recipe ~ scalloped potatoes with poblano peppers and I brought my favorite sweet potato casserole. The turkey was cooked perfectly (on the grill of course) by Curt and Hillary and everyone ate until we were stuffed.


When it came time to sing "Happy Birthday," Owen helped Grandma blow out her birthday candle. We were sent home with lots of yummy leftovers and some early Christmas presents. We tried to get a family photo, but Owen was being really squeamish, so it was pretty challenging. I think Grandma managed to get one good one though for her Christmas card. It was a fun family day.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Owen meets Santa


Since we're down to 20 days or less before baby girl arrives, we figured we'd do the traditional "picture with Santa" today to cross one more to-do off our list. The mall wasn't very crowded, and we were 4th in line when we arrived. Owen kept pointing at Santa saying, "There's Santa Clause! and I see a Christmas tree!". He was so excited.

He did so well with Santa, although getting a picture where he was smiling AND looking at the camera proved almost impossible. So we picked one where he was smiling and called it a day. It was nice to have excitement in place of tears this year. :)


Friday, November 19, 2010

Happy Birthday Maxwell Benjamin Killi!!!

Huge congratulations to my brother and his wife Lindsey on the birth of their son!

Maxwell Benjamin Killi
born 11/19/10 @ 3:15am
7 pounds, 20.25 inches


We are so incredibly happy for you guys and cannot wait to meet the little man!

Love, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Ben and cousin Owen

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Another night in Labor & Delivery

Last night around 11pm I started having painful contractions. They were pretty frequent, so we called my doctor who said to go into the hospital just to be safe. Aunt Hillary woke up and drove over to spend the night with Owen who was sleeping peacefully.

We got to the hospital at midnight and were checked into triage. Got hooked up to the lovely monitors again and found out I was having contractions 3 minutes apart lasting about 30-50 seconds. My doctor came about an hour later and checked my cervix which was about 1.5 cm dialated, but she wasn't concerned because with second babies that can happen and it doesn't mean much. It would mean something however, if it changed over the next few hours. She said if she found that I was in labor (cervix changing and contractions continuing), then she would go ahead with the C-section. I asked if it were a 50-50 chance we'd have a baby tonight, and she said it was more likely we'd get to go home, but there was a chance.

But the first thing we needed to do was to stop the contractions. So we had to try to get comfortable. Yeah, right. I was given an IV for fluids, and then a dose of medicine in pill form to try to stop the contractions. An hour later, they were still going strong. Another dose, another hour, same thing. The third dose finally did it. About an hour after taking it, my contractions died down. The nurse checked my cervix again to make sure it hadn't changed, which it had not, and we were discharged.

It took awhile to get out of the hospital because we were discharged during shift change. So by the time we got home it was almost 9am. I hadn't slept a wink and Ben had only gotten a tiny bit of sleep because all there was in the room for him was a chair to try and sleep in. Not comfortable at all. So Ben took Owen to school for the day, then took the day off to sleep. I slept for 4 hours then stayed in bed and worked from home the rest of the day.

It was a bit of a scare since I'm still a month away from my actual due date. On top of that, we are still trying to finish setting up her room, complete Owen's room, organize the house somewhat, and yes, pick a name. :)

When I woke up around 1pm and called my mom, I found out that Mike and Lindsey were in the hospital and she was in labor! So funny that there was a chance the cousins could have been born the same day. Luckily they won't have to share their birthdays.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Maternity pictures

Our friend Ryan started his photography business at the beginning of this year, but in my opinion, when you look at his work, he looks like he's been doing it a whole lot longer. I asked him to do our newborn pictures and we also decided to do a mini-maternity session since this may be the last baby for us. He did a great job! We can't wait to do our session with baby girl in about 5 weeks (or less!).

Here's the link to his blog:

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Late afternoon at the playground

Mommy and Owen decided to take a little walk over to our neighborhood playground. Owen had tons of fun with the acorn caps we found under a tree. Mommy enjoyed the sunset as it created a nice light for grabbing some pictures of her little man.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Owen's big boy bed

His room is still bare other than the bed and a nightstand where we keep some of his books, but over the next week or so we'll be decorating more and will have his clothes all moved in. Getting ready for baby sister to take over his old nursery!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

40 days or less

Today we are 33 weeks pregnant. When people ask me now, "When are you due?" I can now officially say: "Next month." :)

I am feeling good, although am fighting a cold that just developed. Otherwise, just getting to the uncomfortable stage and am super excited to meet our little girl in less than 6 weeks. We still have not decided on a name. I am starting to worry that she may be nameless for a few days (like I was) until we finally choose. But am hoping we'll be able to make a decision before then. Or at least before we leave the hospital to come home.

It's amazing to me that she still has room to flip around, kick, and punch in there since my belly feels as if it couldn't get any bigger. It's so neat that when I am resting on the couch and I look down at my belly, if she's not squirming around, I can usually see my belly rise and fall with her breaths. Incredible. She gets the hiccups several times a day, usually they start right after I take a bite of whatever I'm about to eat.

We've moved Owen into his big boy room and he's been doing really well so far. We still need to transfer all of his clothing and the pictures and other wall decorations into the new room - I hope to get started on that this weekend. Then we can finally put away all of the beautiful girl clothes that Stephanie gave to us and the other gifts of clothes from friends and family. She's got quite a wardrobe and I'm so excited for dresses and pink for a change! :) I'd like to also move some of the baby stuff up from the basement: the swing, pack n' play, and baby bathtub. But we have plenty of time for that.

It's getting so close! As apparent as it has been that I am pregnant, to me it doesn't really seem real until I hear the baby cry and see and hold it for the first time...I mean, I still look at Owen, then at Ben, then back at Owen and think, "We made him! He is half me and half Ben."

It's just such a miracle to know that we created life. And we're about to do it again.