Ready or not, here I come!

Well, as you know, Owen Michael has arrived!  We are beyond excited to finally see what this little guy looks like, find out his personality, and see how his big sister interacts with him.  We just weren't completely prepared for his early appearance into the world.  I was due to have a scheduled c-section on November 1, which was seven days before my due date.  I woke up early in the morning, about 1:30, on October 31 with some cramping.  It wasn't hurting much and I had experienced this slight cramping before.  I was able to fall back asleep for about an hour and then the cramping would wake me up again....this went on until about 3:30.  I noticed the cramping becoming more frequent and I wasn't able to sleep at all.  I got online and googled "how you know you're in labor." :)  Everything I read said that if the contractions were a couple minutes apart and lasted for a specific amount of time, that I was most likely in labor.  I remember reading about this, but I just wasn't even sure if what I was experiencing were contractions...I hadn't felt any of this with Emery and I thought surely I wouldn't be feeling it eight days early with this pregnancy!  I decided to wake Travis up, called the hospital to explain my "symptoms," and then began the conversation of "is this really what we think it is?"  We got Emery into the car around 4:00, grabbed her some clothes, piled everything we thought we needed into the car, and started towards the hospital.  I could tell Travis was being careful about not hitting bumps or going too fast....well, we ended up running red lights and speeding to get there because I was now feeling a lot of pain.  Turns out it was a good thing we didn't dawdle at home any longer than we did because I was 10 centimeters dilated when we arrived at the hospital!!  Completely crazy!!  Travis called our friends to come get Emery....I had my bag packed and a plan for Emery once baby arrived, but I hadn't even thought about making a plan for her if this baby came early:)  I got my IV started, monitors for baby on my tummy, blood work drawn, and an order that I needed an epidural quickly!  I applaud those who can do this without any drugs at all...which I feel like I did go through the worst part of the pain without any pain medication because the epidural I received wouldn't work...maybe it was too little too late.  My doctor arrived and gave me the choice to try to go ahead and have this baby without a c-section, so I decided to try.  Epidural still not working and after two pushes, he wasn't moving down at all and his heart rate was dropping.  Travis and my doctor made the decision to go ahead with the c-section that I was planning to have.  I was wheeled down to surgery....the epidural still NOT working.  The anesthesiologist ended up having to do a different epidural to get me numb enough so I wouldn't feel anything during surgery.  At 6:37am on October 31, Owen arrived weighing 7lb 15oz and was 21in long.

Here are our first glimpses of our new baby boy!

Owen meeting his grandparents

(a ladies group at the hospital knitted these pumpkin hats for the babies born on Halloween...and probably those born during the month of November too)

Owen gets his middle name from his grandad

My friends Haley and Jenn and baby Jackson came to meet Owen

Our sweet baby boy is so snuggly.  It's so hard to put him down!

What a great big sister Emery already is!

Our first family of four photo!

Our first family photo at home...and we were so excited to be out of the hospital.  We had a great experience there, it's just more comfortable to be at home!

November 1...2 weeks and 3 days away!

November 1st will begin the first day of our family of four!  If all goes as planned I'll be having a scheduled c-section that morning at 7:30.  We're spending these last couple weeks doing things around the house to get ready for baby Owen's arrival....hard to believe that we decided on a name before delivery day:).  With Emery, her name had been on our list, we just hadn't decided until we were at the hospital waiting for her to arrive.  We're also enjoying our family of three for a couple more weeks.  I know Emery will be a great big sister, I just have all the normal thoughts and emotions running through my head....so excited to meet this little guy, but also so anxious at the same time.  I just don't want Emery to feel left out or no longer important to us....these are normal feelings, right?!??  But, I can't wait to see her face light up with excitement at meeting her brother that's she's been waiting to hold and help take care of!!

The weekend before last we took family pictures and a couple pictures of my belly since I hadn't done any maternity pics with Emery.  Mamie Woods took our pictures in Adriatica in McKinney....it's actually an area built to look like a Croatian village with pretty stone buildings, beautiful wooden doors, a church, and a small pond.  I think the pictures turned out great despite the really cold temps that morning!  Here are a couple pictures from that morning....

On Sunday we went to the Dallas Arboretum to look at the pumpkin patch and the Chihuly glass exhibit that they've had there the past couple months.  It leaves on November 5 if you're interested in going.  It was a beautiful day for walking and being outside!  Here are some pictures we took....

Emery loves picking up acorns along our walks to the park or anywhere else:)

August...the month of many firsts

This month of August has just completely flown by!  Our Emery is getting bigger by the day as is this belly of mine :)  Someone asked me if there was only one baby in there and someone else said I looked like I was about to pop....well, I still have 8 more weeks till he arrives!  Guess he may be bigger than Emery!

The many firsts of this month....
First #1:  Emery was a flower girl in her Aunt JuJu's and Mike's wedding.  We had the BEST weekend participating in all the festivities.  The girls got pedicures/manicures on Friday and we all enjoyed a yummy rehearsal dinner at Biaggi's, a local Italian place that Julia and Mike enjoy eating at in Champaign.

 The big day was full of hair appointments, make-up appointments, and hanging out before I DO!!                        

Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful bride getting ready...

Emery LOVED dancing at the reception, and especially with her cousin Zachary!

On Sunday, Julia and Mike had out of town guests and the wedding party over for brunch.  It was such a great end to the fun weekend....just can't believe that they had so many people over to their house the day after their wedding, but it was perfect!  The first picture is the couple with Julia's childhood friend Sarah and her husband Mike.

First #2:  The weekend after we got back from Champaign, we started the thing I have been dreading...potty training!!  I started with Emery that Friday with panties that she picked out and a pink potty that she chose at Buy Buy Baby:)  We set a timer and every 20 minutes or so she was on the potty, earned stickers for her sticker chart, and eventually picked out a new baby doll at Target!  She has been doing so well!  We stayed around the house for several days....something very hard for me to do, but well worth it.  She's still in pull-ups (or special night panties as we like to call them) at some naps and at night.  We're not completely accident free and have had some stubbornness to overcome, but she's doing so much better than in the beginning.  SO glad we got this tackled before the baby arrives.

First #3:  About a week or two after potty training Emery got to move into her new room with her new big girl bed!  We'll be using her room downstairs for the nursery and wanted to make this transition well before the baby arrives.  I asked her if she liked her new room and her response was, "It's pretty!  It's pink!"  Travis painted the room a pale pink and even painted a twin daybed and my dad's childhood dresser a light grey....he did a really great job on it.  She just looks so tiny in that big bed.  Where did the time go?  Our baby is growing fast....becoming more independent, drinking from a regular cup, eating with an adult fork, going potty by herself.  Yet, she still loves to sit in our lap and read a book or be rocked in her rocking chair that I still have in her big girl bedroom....love those times of the day!  Here are some pics of her new room: (still waiting on some pretty pillows for the bed and a couple pictures for the wall)

First #4:  And finally, I took Emery on Wednesday to get her first haircut.  It really was just a trim because I was trying to get her crazy curls evened out!  It looks better and I'm happy the curls are still there!  Her favorite part was getting her nails painted pink and the lolly pop afterwards :)

Guess I need to post more often....that sure was a lot going on in one month!  No wonder our little girl has been testing the limits a lot lately.  That's a lot of change for anyone!  Maybe September will be less busy around here.....