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THINGS WE TRIED THIS WEEK:
1. Momma and Justin left daddy home alone for a few days to go visit Nanna and Poppa in Edmonds. Mom and Justin did great: Justin loved cuddling with his grandparents, and Momma liked having lots of open arms to take the little boy during meals. Daddy didn’t fare quite so well. You’d think that a new father would relish the opportunity to get back to work, and have a quiet apartment to come home to for a few days. Poor Matt missed his wife and baby so much he had a tough time sleeping anyway. Next time we’ll take Daddy with us. 
2. Church. This morning we took Justin to Church for the first time. Being Orthodox, this meant that the Priest called Mom and Justin to the front after the homily and did a blessing (the “Churching”) and prayers of thanksgiving that mom and baby made it safely through childbirth. As part of this ceremony, the Priest takes the baby in his arms and moves the baby in the sign of the Cross before the Icon of the Theotokos, and also holds up and presents the baby for the congregation (kinda like in Lion King). Though peaceful in front of the Icon of the Theotokos, the rest of the Churching was a little more challenging. I couldn’t help my nervous laughter over my beautiful, momentarily fussy baby in front of everyone. Fr. Mel even teased about getting Justin’s behavior in shape over the next two months to get him ready for his Baptism. What did we learn? That my little boy needs the comfort/nourishment of a short nursing about halfway through the service, even when I feed him right before getting in the car to come to Church – so that, I think, will be my mid-homily project next week. All three of us were ready for a little “post-Liturgy nap” by the time we got home.
3. The first bath went great. Justin loved it, and with his hair freshly washed, I have my little ducky fuzz back. As usual, Justin hated having his clothes taken off and diaper dealt with, but once in the warm water of the bath, really, just melted (other than a little fussing when I washed his hair and arm pits). Above is a picture from just after his bath, being very peaceful, as I was rubbing him down with a little body oil and getting him into his jammies. A couple of tears, but really, I was pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed his bath and loved to get cozy and cuddly afterward.
In honor of our son turning one week old today, I thought I’d offer a list of things we’ve learned about our child’s likes and dislikes. Enjoy!
Likes: Touching his face with his hands and fists
Dislikes: Scratching his face with his hands
Likes: A clean diaper
Dislikes: The act of changing said diaper
Likes: Cuddling with daddy
Dislikes: Having mommy take pictures of Justin cuddling with daddy
Likes: Eating
Dislikes: Not eating
Likes: High contrast colors and shapes
Dislikes: Flash photography and other bright light (yes, this makes both capturing his cuteness and helping him get over his jaundice really fun).
Likes: Grabbing daddy’s beard
Dislikes: Getting a rough kiss through daddy’s beard (which Mommy ought to trim soon)
Likes: Rocking
Dislikes: Swinging (yes, there’s a difference)
Likes: Being talked to and having his coos repeated back to him
Dislikes: too much or too little quiet
I’m sure little Justin has LOTS more to teach us! More to follow!
Hello everyone. Thanks for your patience with the total and complete lapse in blogging – a little one who demands the attention of every particle of your being 24-7 can be a little distracting. 
As you know, our son, Justin Elias Owen, was born at 11:14pm last Wednesday. We came home from the hospital two days later, on Friday afternoon. Little did we know, things were just about to start being fun.
In many ways, I was itching to get out of the hospital. While I enjoyed the wonderful help of the nurses (being stitched “stem to stern” makes getting up to go potty, much less hopping up to get your baby from the bassinet rather difficult), I was eager to enjoy the comfort of my rocking recliner, my own bed, and having a place other than a bassinet to put Justin.
Driving home from the hospital was quite the experience (and no, I’m not talking about the Vicodin), the world looked completely different – new and unfamiliar, and yet, not.
Once home, we got everything upstairs (ok, so Matt did pretty much all of the work) and then we looked at each other, looked at our new baby and thought, “It’s good to be home”. That lasted until the phone started ringing off the hook, Justin wanting to be fed on my painfully sore chest, and the sudden realization that we were all alone.
We are very fortunate that help really is just a phone call away, but a lot of the folks who’d offered to stay and help us after Justin was born couldn’t help since he was born so much later than anyone could have planned. So, we’ve taken quite advantage of the services of the nurses from the Mother Baby Center, and taken every available second of advice from our midwives who check in on us periodically.
I’m happy to say that things are getting better. With the help of Denise (a lactation consultant with the Mother Baby Center), we’re closer to getting our sweet baby on a schedule (feeding every 2-3 hours instead of grazing 24 hours a day) so that all three of us can get a precious hour or two of sleep from time to time. The other big help came with me giving in and getting Justin a pacifier. We had been told to hold off on getting a newborn a paci until he was about a month old, so we hadn’t gotten one. Needless to say, our baby has a more than slight oral fixation that makes him want to scream and cry if he doesn’t have something in his mouth at all times – it really seems to be his only way of soothing himself. So, after two nights of all three of us screaming and crying, we loaded up the kid at 5:30am Easter Sunday morning and headed to Walgreens for a pacifier. Once home, all three of us slept for nearly 5 hours straight. That was the best 5 hours of sleep I have EVER gotten.
Now that things are starting to settle in (though, pretty much every night includes very little sleep) we’re really starting to enjoy our baby boy. His coos and cries and facial expressions are a total joy. We laugh when he farts, since he farts like an old man (and frequently smells like one too…). We’re starting to find humor in trenches otherwise filled with poopy diapers, sore nipples, sleepless nights, and temporarily inconsolable babies. We’re learning his cues, his cries, and his expressions. We’ve learned that Matt is the master soother when it comes to “not-hungry” issues – it takes him two minutes to get Justin from an all out screaming mess to a little pile of soft butter (he bounces with Justin on our balance ball - for some reason I don’t do it right). Matt and I are learning to dance with each other, finding new ways to meet each others needs for sleep, food, and peace; and while we generally fail in these attempts, we can acknowledge that the other is trying. We’re very appreciative of every ounce of help we get whether it’s from families from Church bringing us meals, the soothing voice of my mom or dad talking me through 2:30am fussy fits, or short visits from friends who hold our baby and give our arms a little rest.
Thank you friends, for all your support. Please don’t hesitate to call, no hour is better than any other. If the ringer is off, leave a message and we’ll definitely call you back (I will, at least, since I’ve found that talking on the phone is about the only other thing I can do when nursing).
JUSTIN ELIAS OWEN
Born at 11:14pm on Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Weighing 9lbs, 2oz and 21 inches long
And all it took was 16 hours of VERY hard labor, a wonderful support team (thanks to Matt, Leslie, and my mom and dad), and a little boy whose time had come to meet the world!
Our reward for all that hard work:
A brand-spanking-new (but exhausted) little family!
Hi everyone! Due to the happy coincidence of my mom and dad coming up a little earlier than expected (bringing with him his laptop) and St. Joe’s now having WiFi, I get to update my blog from my sorta cozy hospital bed!
Upon our arrival and getting settled into our Labor & Delivery room, we met with the on-call OB and decided to try some prostaglandin gel to see if that didn’t get labor up and running at a good pace again. Unfortunately 7 hours later, it’s only gained me about 15-20 contractions total (at least that were strong enough for me to even take notice). So, needless to say, things are moving slowly.
At this point, the plan is to let me eat a good meal tonight, and then we’ll start Pitocin at around 5am after I’ve gotten some good rest (I’m pretty darn well exhausted).
That’s the plan! Now let’s just hope I sleep nice and hard tonight so I have lots of energy to get this little guy out and with us!
P.s. For those of you keeping score: when I got into St. Joe’s today, I was dilated 4cm, effaced at 80%, and sitting at -2 station. The hope is that we will be able to use just enough pitocin in the morning to get baby to drop down to -1 station or better so we can do an artificial rupture of membranes to see if that helps me labor more naturally without the “joy” of pitocin.
Hi everyone! Thank you for all your prayers, advice, and encouragement – I can’t imagine how hard this all would have been without it.
I’m set to check in at St. Joseph’s Hospital at 12 noon today to be induced. Once we’re there I’ll likely not be able to blog or give too many updates. I will, however, have my dad (who’ll be coming up with my mom this afternoon) bring his laptop so I can email/blog/whatever when I’m able. Being that it looks like I’ll have a hospital birth though, I’ll likely be there for at least a day or two and will likely be open to visitors after the baby is born.
Wish me luck!
Amber
I hope everyone enjoyed their St. Patrick’s Day, and I hope someone consumed a large green beer in my stead. Well, I know some of my friends enjoyed quite the party last night (being that it was St. Patrick’s Day, of course)! Us, well, not quite so much.
I’m now officially two weeks past my due date – 14 days.
I labored with contractions 7 minutes apart and very intense for most of the night. Our little baby was fighting (punching me in the side, then my hip; all the while kicking into every contraction) from at least 10:30pm until about 1:30am when, following the recommendation to apply a heating pad to my opposite hip by our doula, he settled down a little bit. A little after 2am, I decided to go try and get some sleep.
I slept hard, waking only briefly for a few contractions. I finally got up when at 6:20-something when I had a really good contraction that got our little one going again.
So, here we are. This is all really hard, but for reasons completely different than I thought it would be. My labor has been hard work – which I very much expected. I did not expect to labor that hard for so many hours just to be able to let go and sleep for 4 hours straight. I feel like I’m back to square one (Naturally, just to get my goat, I have a contraction typing this…). I’m interested to hear what the midwife has to say when I talk to her this morning. I don’t want more castor oil – just the thought practically makes me heave – so I don’t know yet where that leaves us.
I’ll update soon!
I’m now posting updates on this same blog entry, most recent at the top –
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11:45pm UPDATE: After taking the castor oil, I laid down for about 30 minutes, got up, then vomited mightily. I’ve been eating like a horse the last day or two – I’ve been feeling just famished – now, I think it’s fair to say, “not so much”. Then the diarrhea started up – not as bad as I’d thought it’d be, actually. Shortly following the diarrhea, contractions started up in good stead again – between 5-7 minutes apart, but making me work much harder during them. Very good, very good.
I talked to the midwife at about 9:30, and she gave me instructions to remove the catheter for the night (naturally, I ended up spraying half the saline that was in the catheter all over myself – but, really, saline is better than other things I could have sprayed all over me at this point). It feels so much better to have that darn thing out and not having 9 inches of tubing taped to my leg!
I’m getting pretty tired now, and things aren’t speeding up much more, but I’m afraid to go to bed for fear that the contractions will stop. I don’t want them to stop, I want to have my baby! In conclusion, I’ll probably head to bed here relatively soon, try to get some sleep, and pray desperately that contractions keep going and being productive as I do so. If things pick up, I’ll try to do a quick update before we head to the Birth Center, otherwise, I’ll post (in my disappointment) in the morning.
In other news: Matt has been awesome. He’s so good at telling me, “I’m so proud of you”, “You’re doing so great”, ” You’re working so hard, you’re doing such a great job”, “Just let those contractions come one at a time, don’t worry how far apart they are, just deal with the one you’ve got”. He’s also been really good at rubbing my back when I need it, supporting me when a contraction makes it hard to stand, rocking with me for those contractions that come when I’m standing up… He’s been awesome – I’m so thankful.
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7:05pm UPDATE: 2oz of Castor Oil down the hatch! I’m gonna lay down, try to take a little nap before the castor oil does its thing (I should be having violent diarrhea within the hour), and see where we go from there. Wish me luck, folks!
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6:10pm UPDATE: Not much is happening. We’re back at home, catheter is still in place, and contractions seem weaker, not stronger and are spaced back out to about 8 minutes apart. FRUSTRATING! I’m supposed to check in with the midwife at 6:30 to determine whether or not (and it looks like it will probably be “yes”) to go ahead and down the Castor Oil she sent me home with this afternoon. My lower back is sore and tired, and I’d love a nap, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get one for a while since I have to stay vertical (sitting in motion on my ball, or walking) while the catheter is in. I’ll update again soon.
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4:20pm: After 3+ hours of non stop walking, I’m down to having contractions consistently and progressively stronger at 6 minutes apart or less (between 3-6 depending on when I notice them and how strong they are) for the last hour. We’re headed in to the Birth Center to get checked. Hopefully they’re doing something!
Hi everyone. This will totally be TMI, but soon after I woke up this morning (about an hour ago) I had massive “bloody show” and am now starting to have some contractions. I’m still headed in to see the midwife for the catheter thing (or at least a good check at this point) at 11:45 this morning. This might just be it!
Wish me luck and lots more contractions, friends!
Hi guys. Not much happening here. Stayed home from Church today – I just can’t get comfortable standing or sitting the last few days. We also have Niko over to our place this evening – which is a nice distraction.
Still lots of pressure, a few more contractions today, but nothing really helpful (so far as I can tell), so it looks like we’re headed for the catheter thing tomorrow. If that doesn’t work rather quickly, I’ve decided to push (hard if I have to) for Castor Oil.
Happily, Matt is off today and tomorrow (whether I go into labor or not) and he’ll be with me. Due to the inflexibility of his work schedule, he’s only been able to go to like 3 of my prenatal appointments so it will be really nice to have him there for the catheter thing, and (if it happens) the castor oil thing. Dude, I’d've done it yesterday if I could have. Sigh. I’m so ready. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?
Tomorrow morning we head in for the catheter thing at 11:45, I’ll likely be able to update my blog that afternoon. If not, then you’ll just have to wait – tomorrow might be a bit of an adventure. Pray for productive labor, friends. I could really use it!
:) Thanks!
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