An evening in Labor & Delivery

I have been taking a Zumba class once a week over my lunchbreak at work. I do the modified moves for low impact, and I'm doing it because I wanted to keep my weight gain under control this time around.

So it started mid-class and continued afterwards, through the night and all day Friday - mega BH contractions that never seemed to let up. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but when I told Molly, she said I needed to call my doctor because I might be in pre-term labor and they could give me something to stop the contractions.

So of course when I called my doc, she said to go to L&D. Thank goodness my mom and dad had just arrived a few hours before - they were staying the night with us on their way back down to FL. Owen loved seeing his Grandma and Poppy! Ben and I went over to the hospital and got checked into a triage room and the nurse hooked me up to the monitor. She saw right away that I was having 20-40sec contractions a few minutes apart. They sent my urine sample to the lab, hooked me up to an IV for fluids, and there we sat for a couple of hours. During that time, the nurse checked my cervix (which was closed) and did the pre-term labor cervix-swab test. We waited for the results and thank goodness they came back negative. The doctor came in and said they would give me a shot (or 2 or 3!) to stop the contractions. After the first shot, I got shakey (they told me that would happen) and once the shakes went away (took about 20min), the contractions stopped.

I felt so much better! Braxton Hicks contractions are suncomfortable. I had to be on bedrest for 24 hrs so I worked from home yesterday and Ben stayed home with Owen since he's still fighting some kind of virus that he's been dealing with all week. My doc said no more zumba, but that I can keep doing the prenatal pilates class I'm doing.

Now I'm being more careful and am resting if I feel the BH contractions coming on. We need baby girl to stay in my tummy for at least another 10 weeks!

Reading with Daddy

Owen loves when his Daddy reads to him.

Juice box

I learned this trick from reading Parents magazine. Have your kid hold his juice box like this so that he doesn't make a mess by squeezing it. :)

Pictures from Owen's birthday party

I am so late in posting these ~ my apologies! Dealing with a sick toddler these past few days has taken all of our attention. Owen woke up several times last night - the fever is still lingering unfortunately. I called the pediatrician this morning who said he is fighting a virus and it will likely take another day or so to completely go away. He's really congested and has had a drippy nose for the past few days, so to be on the safe side I think I might take him to the doctor tomorrow morning to get checked out. Especially if we have another rough night. Let's hope not.

Owen had so much fun at his birthday party thanks to all his wonderful friends and family! GiGi, Grandma Killi and Poppy Killi came from Hershey, and Aunt Hillary, Grandma Marshall and Poppy Marshall were here early to help us decorate and set up for the party. We had beautiful weather and the kids enjoyed the bean-bag toss game we set up in the backyard while Ben cooked up burgers and dogs on the grill. I think the highlight of the party was probably the pinata which Mommy filled up a little too much for the number of kiddos, but they had fun collecting it and handing it over to mom and dad since most of the kids were too little to eat it.

The cake Ben made and cupcakes Grandma Killi made were a big hit. I had found the dump truck mold at a craft store and when I brought it home, Ben immediately said he wanted to be the one to decorate it. He did an incredible job with it. My mom baked several dozen cupcakes - chocolate and vanilla - and decorated them with sprinkles and a fire engine wrap and car toothpicks which were so cute.

The party seemed to go by so fast. Since we had a bunch of kids coming, I knew I had to keep it to 2 hours to accommodate naps. I wish we would have had more time to socialize and catch up with everyone. By the time all of our guests had left, Owen was ready to crash. He opened a few presents and then it was off to bed for his nap. He slept for 2 hours and then was up again ready to open the rest of his gifts. Everyone gave him such nice birthday gifts! He now has a great start to his fall wardrobe, a number of new tractors and trucks to add to his collection, some cool new books, a new bath toy, his first laptop, a truck puzzle, a pound and slide wood toy, and a neat fill and dump wagon. He is loving all the new toys! Thank you so much to all our friends who came to the party: our neighbors Dresden, Haley, Molly, Jamie, Mike and Bradley, Maureen, Andy and Adam, Stephanie, Scott, Sarah Catherine, and new baby Benjamin (only a week old!), Erica and Greg, Heather, Dan and Colin, Molly and Nate, Kelly, Matt, Kayla, and Mrs. Hiza. You all made the day so special.

The disappearing and reappearing fever

So after an entire afternoon and early evening free of the fever, Owen woke up at 11:30pm burning up again. This time it was higher than before registering at 102.7. I gave him some Baby Motrin and water, and took off his sleep sack so he was just in his jammies. We rocked for awhile and then I put him back down.

He made it through the night and woke up fine, but by l2pm it was back again - this time lower at 100.02. He got another dose of Baby Motrin and went down for his nap, waking up a couple hours later with a normal temperature.

Mommy was off to her friend Katie's baby shower, so Daddy and Owen had some guy time. They played with trucks, read some books, and watched some football. Typical guy stuff.

I got home around 6:15 and finished feeding Owen his dinner, then it was off to the bath for an early bedtime since his nights have been rough lately. Upon taking his temp before the bath, it was 99.03, so I gave him yet another dose of Baby Motrin hoping it would get him through the night. Here's to hoping the fever is gone for good. I'm starting to worry a bit.

Shots = fever

Owen woke up in the middle of the night last night with a fever. :( I stayed home with him after making a quick trip to the office with him to grab my work stuff. I was actually able to get work done while he played with all his birthday toys and watched some Sesame Street.

He went down for his nap at 12pm, so sleepy since he hadn't slept well the night before, and Ben got home around 2pm to take over so I could focus on work the rest of the day.

When Owen woke up around 3:30, his fever was gone. We're hoping he's on the mend. :)

2-yr checkup

Owen had his 2-yr well visit this morning. He was very well-behaved for the nurse and our favorite doctor in his practice, Dr. Reilly. The nurse did his measurements and my guess was spot-on for weight. Here are his stats:

Weight - 29lbs (50%)

Length - 36" (75%)

Head Cir - 19 & 3/4" - 75%

He's our growing boy! After he was measured, Dr Reilly came in. She sings little songs to the kids as she checks them and Owen just loves it. She said he looks great. Then it was time to get his shots. The nurse came in and as she swiped his arms with alcohol, I covered his eyes so he wouldn't see what she was about to do. That was a good move on my part, that, and the nurse was super quick. He whined a tiny bit at the first one, but that was it. No hysterical crying, which was nice. He got his Hep A shot and his flu shot and two really cool Halloween band-aids. :)

When we checked out he got to pick a sticker and chose a big Elmo one to wear to school. He made it to school in time for snack and joined right in with his class after giving me a kiss goodbye.

Owen's 2nd year

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Happy 2nd Birthday Owen!!!

We had an incredible birthday party today for Owen to celebrate his first two years! Until we're able to get all the pictures posted, here is how he wrapped up his birthday evening:

Drying off after bath

Owen cannot stand being dried off when he gets out of the bathtub each night. Last night I had a brilliant idea and it worked like a charm. As I wrapped the hooded towel around him and started drying him off, I said to him, "Owen, we need a dry off song!". He thought for a moment, then started singing his own little ditty. It went a little something like this: "Dry off! Dry off! Dryyyyyy off!" And he was sufficiently distracted while I finished toweling him off.

I love my little parenting successes.

Grandparents and Great Grandma

Hershey for the weekend

We drove up to Hershey to visit Grandma, Poppy and GiGi for a few days. Owen was so well-behaved on the drive up - he read his books the entire way. We had lunch together and then watched the VT/JMU game which JMU dominated! :)

Owen refused to take a nap, but that was okay since he ended up falling asleep in the car with Daddy while Mommy did a little shopping for maternity clothes at the Hershey outlets after the game. He woke up in time for a quick trip to Chocolate World before dinner. Grandma made a delicious lasagna which Owen devoured before heading off to bed.

These were the hot air balloons we saw on our way home from Chocolate World:

The Wheels on the Bus

Welcome to the world baby Benjamin!

After a very long labor, my dear friend Stephanie welcomed her baby boy Benjamin into the world early this morning. He weighs 8 lbs, and is 20 & 1/2 inches long. Big boy! He has the cutest chubby cheeks and is just precious! We can't wait to meet him!

Congratulations Steph, Scott, and big sister Sarah Catherine!!! We love you guys!

Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma!!!

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Apple-picking Monday

We decided to celebrate Labor Day by taking a picnic lunch to a nearby apple orchard. The weather was amazing and we got the perfect picnic table under a big shady tree to enjoy our lunch. Owen only sat still for about 15 minutes, so we ate fast and then were off to do some pickin'!

We got a bucket and headed down the trail to the rows of apple trees. We got some Granny Smith and Gala apples. They were a little on the small size, probably due to how early it was in the season. We tried to find the pear trees, but weren't successful at locating them, so we ended up just buying a few of the picked pears they had for sale at the checkout tent. For only $4.45 we got a dozen apples and three big pears to enjoy! It was a fun afternoon and I'm sure we'll do it again in the fall. Maybe then I'll have the motivation to actually bake a pie out of the pickin's!

Happy Birthday Kayla and Cooper!

Today we had not one, but TWO toddler birthday parties to attend! First up was Kayla's 3rd birthday at JW Tumbles. The kids had a ball running around the gym and doing the instructor-led activities. We had to duck out before pizza and cake in order to make it to Cooper's party since the times overlapped. But Owen gave Kayla a birthday hug before we left.



We made it to Cooper's party before they sang "Happy Birthday" and cut the cake. Cooper's dad Derek made us hot dogs and burgers and we had lunch while running around with the kiddos exploring all the fun games that Cooper's mommy Kamber and his aunt created. It was a pirate theme and they did such a great job with the decorations and cake!



It was a hectic, but very fun, day and by the end of Cooper's party, Owen was thoroughly exhausted. He napped until 5:30pm!

Painting pottery

We have a special family birthday coming up so I took Owen today to our local "paint-your-own-pottery" place to create a handmade gift for a certain someone. Owen did amazingly well until the end. As I finished up, he continued to raid the paintbrush container only to take a new brush and dip it in paint, put that one down and go get another one. Over and over again. We were probably driving the employees crazy. Oh well, we had a lot of fun and made a great piece of pottery which I know will be treasured for many years to come.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

With a few drink breaks...