Little Mr. {Month One}

Seriously? Our little nugget is ONE MONTH!?!

The time really does fly by.
Kinda.
It doesn't always feel like that.
Especially when I fight to keep my eyeballs open during his 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. feeds...

Owen is such a good baby - he eats well, sleeps well, spits up and vomits well, poops well....you get the picture :-). But seriously, we are so lucky. Owen is really a VERY good baby.

He is slowly becoming more and more alert and has the most adorable baby blues I have ever seen. And his nose! But my absolute favorite - his hands. I cannot get enough of his little fingers. I love the way he grips our fingers while he drinks from his bottle and how sometimes they gently flail around and then other times when they are so soundly laid on his belly. Oh my adorable.

Owen is still in newborn sizes but I'm sure by next month he'll be a little more chunky :-)

Right now, Owen loves his swing, being fed and looking at lights. I love to hold him in front of the front door so he can see the bright lights and snow. Owen doesn't love having to burp, doing tummy time (even though he is a mega rock star!), being completely undressed or changed (though he is managing that better now) or being placed in his car seat (he'll stop crying within seconds of being lifted off the ground though so really, this doesn't count for much).

Can't wait to see what the second month brings!

Oh and here are some photos of our adorable Little Mr.! I didn't notice until I uploaded them all to my computer that his head was turned to the right for almost every picture. My bad! Little man can't exactly control his head yet...

He's pretty cute, don't you agree?!?

Counting Stars

Songs I am completely obsessed with right now.







And the list is never complete with some risque Pitbull :-)




And I MUST thank my wonderful husband who can remember all the songs I like because I can never can!

The Bump {17} - A Look Back

I thought it'd be kind of cool to take a look back at the bump!

Enjoy!

The Bump {16} - Owen's Birth Story

I never really expected little Owen to arrive as early as he did. I wished he would but honestly thought he'd arrive after Thanksgiving. He sure seemed cozy enough in there to me! I couldn't help but get overly excited thinking about him arriving and then having to tell myself that we still had a couple of weeks left.

When I came in to the week prior to his birth, I began to have a slight feeling that I needed to prepare my work space for me to potentially not come back to for awhile without notice. Not quite sure if I actually did that so one of these days, I should go back and make sure I didn't leave a dirty dish in my file cabinet! What I didn't prepare for was all the house/fun duties at home. I was always so tired after work so I typically left major chores and any fun projects for the weekends. I had such grand plans for the day he was born - cleaning the house, doing tons of laundry, blogging, etc. I'm not too bummed out that this didn't happen and luckily for me, Gary and I have both been really good about keeping up with our chores even during Owen's first few days at home. (I'm not sure our sleep deprivation has actually set in yet...) And besides, we had a baby that day instead! I'd say that we accomplished quite a lot! (It's also a little crazy that he arrived so close to the day I wished he'd come - November 17)

Owen's Birth Story
The night before Owen was born, Gary and I joined his mom and dad for dinner at Rubaiyat. I'm glad we got a lovely meal in before our baby was born but let me tell you - I am still not happy about not eating the leftovers! Gspice wouldn't let me eat the three-day old leftovers in the fridge. We arrived home at about 7:30 p.m. and I tried to keep my feet up as they were the size of elephants (yes, they had gotten even bigger than tree trunks!) By 10 pm I decided it was time to sleep. Not 18 minutes later I awoke to my first contraction. It was painful enough to wake me up and I had to breath through it a little bit. I immediately found a contraction timer app and started counting. After determining they were 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each, I tried calling Gary. No answer. Reallllly?????? I got my huge pregnant self out of bed, stomped down the stairs only to find him asleep on the couch! Don't worry, I woke him up and said something like, "You should answer your phone! I am having contractions!" Probably scared the pants off him :-) I decided to take a shower in case this was the real thing while Gary called the OB department. I'm not quite sure what they suggested exactly but we took some time to clean up the house and finish packing the hospital bags (which, let me tell you, I BARELY OPENED during the entire stay at the hospital). We decided to head to the hospital at 1:15 a.m. after taking one last pregnancy photo:

At this point, I had been up since 6:15 a.m. Friday morning. After a long day at work, only because I felt so pregnant and got a little cranky, I was already exhausted. You can see it in my eyes! Little did I know that Owen would take sooooo long before he was ready to actually come out!

Luckily for us, we were the only patients in OB for the day. I got the nice big delivery room and lots of attention, which was so nice. I felt very well taken care of and monitored. Sadly, after an initial exam, I wasn't dilated one bit. I remember looking at Gary and freaking out that they'd send me home. How could they when I was having these contractions! I took the next few hours relatively well - I walked for about 20-30 minutes and then sat in a rocking chair for about 2.5 hours. I watched/listed to TV and Parenthood S4 while breathing through regular contractions. At about 4:30 am, I was examined again, only this time I was at 6cm! CRAZY! I really didn't think the contractions were that bad. Our doctor was called immediately while I got officially admitted. The only downside to this part was having to be stuck three times before the IV took. I really don't like needles... My nurse also talked to me a little bit about getting an epidural, which throughout my entire pregnancy I really wanted and only wavered on that for a moment before saying, YES PLEASE. My doctor also said the same thing to the nurse so I skipped the whirlpool and got the epidural at 5:30 am.

The next few hours went by in a nice sleepy slumber until I got to see my doctor for the first time at 8 am. I believe I was 8cm at this point and we all thought that by 10 am I'd be 10cm and would labor down for two hours and have this little bundle by noon. Wishful thinking. Got checked at 10 am and had moved to 9cm. Got checked again at noon and was still at 9cm. This continued despite receiving some pitocin for the next 4.5 hours. Let me tell you, laboring this long - I watched basically the whole entire season 4 of Parenthood. Good thing I bought that for this very occasion!

At 4:30pm, my doctor returned and gave me a quick but meaningful talk about how if things didn't progress we may have to consider another avenue. He didn't have to even say the words C-Section and my body went into overdrive. Within the hour I was fully dilated and he wanted me to labor down for at least an hour before pushing. This is when I got particularly nervous, shaking and all. Gary was a sweetheart and helped calm me. What really got me through the next hour or so were the contractions. Unfortunately, by the 4:30-5 pm mark, my epidural felt like it had completely stopped working. I endured the last two hours with what I would guess to be about 15-20% affect of the epidural (on the flip side, I didn't have to feel any contractions for a solid 11 hours). The contractions were relatively bad and my breathing got more intense during this time.

During the intense breathing, I kept thinking that I could certainly start pushing if they wanted me to but still felt like I could resist the urge. Turns out I should have spoken up sooner - my doctor said that if this had been my second baby, I'd probably already have a baby! Me and pain, who knew we were such good friends. I started to push just after 6 pm and without all the nitty gritty, little Owen arrived at 6:29 pm.

Owen James, born at 6:29 pm on Saturday, November 16. 7lbs 9oz and 20 1/4 inches long.

Easy peasy.

Welcome, Owen James! We are so lucky to call you our son!

The Bump {15} - Recap: 36-39 weeks

Little Mr. arrived a day too soon! I had a slight suspicion that if he were to come to us early, it would be on Sunday, November 17. Clearly, that was not the case and so this post wasn't completed on the day I was hoping it would, Saturday, November 16. Until now!

--

The last few weeks. The home stretch. Nearing the finish line.

It's truly hard to believe the time that's gone by. It goes by so slowly and so quickly all at the same time. This is probably the most difficult thing about pregnancy. You are always waiting with anxious anticipation yet hoping time would move more slowly at times too. It's been a struggle these past couple of weeks. My eager anticipation is shining more bright it seems but a part of me wishes that time would slow down too.

I have managed to get even bigger and even more uncomfortable in these last few weeks. I have consistent heartburn, swollen tree trunks and a super cranky attitude at home. Well, it's either cranky or super emotional. Sorry Gspice! He's been such an amazing partner through this whole experience. I really couldn't imagine going through this with anyone else. I remember one night where I must have gotten incredibly anxious. It was around 36 weeks so really, I'm surprised it hasn't happened since! I woke up one evening after having a super uncomfortable coughing fit (with you know, my favorite friend, Acid Reflux) which lasted for over 20 minutes. This lead to uncontrollable shaking and shivers. Not my idea of a fun thing to go through at 2:45 a.m. I basically cried out of misery and decided I didn't want to cry alone so woke up my sweet husband to console me. See, he's pretty cool :)

Here are two of the things that I have loved most about my pregnancy with Mini Mr:

The movement. 
There is something truly magical about feeling your little one moving and kicking. I can be having the worst day and this ALWAYS brings a smile to my face and lifts my spirits. I think, too, that going from one pregnancy with barely any movement to one with tons of movement - I really appreciate the reassurance it brings me. I also absolutely love when Gary can feel him kick and jab. The look of complete joy, excitement and wonder on his face are the same looks that made me fall in love him in the first place. It's so special to watch.

The time I took to do things I really enjoy.
I know that when Owen arrives that our lives are going to drastically change. I'm ready for the change but know that I may not spend as much time doing things I like to do. Really, when you have a cute baby, who cares about that? What I mean by this is that being pregnant gave me such an incredible sense of freedom. I took this pregnancy as a time to do things that I really wanted to do be doing. That just means we had less clean dishes or went a little longer without clean laundry...

Now with eager anticipation, we wait. Owen will arrive whenever he pleases and I sure hope we're ready!

I managed to take a few photos as well despite having zero motivation to look pretty!

A Day at Pinter's!

On a sunny October day, the Camp and Wiest families went on a little field trip to Pinter's. Despite the wind, the trip was super fun and an awesome way to spend a lovely fall day. We all agreed this would be a great place to take little ones when they got a little older too. There were so many fun games for kids to play, animals to fond over and a few games that would trip the triggers of those adults that are still little kids at heart (aka, our husbands!)

Like I said, little kids at heart.

Staredown. Erin won.

Our bumps at 34w4d. I think Gspice is going to have a bigger baby than me...

Erin is such a little trouble maker!

And this is where it takes her! (and Gary!)

And perhaps the best part of it all? The BEST cupcake I've had in a very long time. Holy cow.

The Bump {14} - Recap: 32-36 weeks

Holy uncomfortable!

I don't think I quite understood what "uncomfortable" truly meant before I hit 33 weeks. At this point, this little bundle has grown so darn much and my relatively small body has done its best to accommodate him. However, as he's spun around recently, waves of HOLY UNCOMFORTABLE have hit. Luckily, at a point when I thought he was most definitely breech, sitting was comfortable. Standing and walking, not so much. But when you work full-time at a desk, sitting comfortably is just fine with me. However, I may have been wrong all that time about little Owen being head up, bum down. How? Beats me. I still swear that I felt his head and not his foot up at the top.

Let me explain: I went in for my doctor's appointment at just before 35 weeks. I told my doctor that I was pretty confident little one was breech because I could feel hiccups up near my rib cage. I also said that I think he was down up until the last appointment (two weeks prior) and that ever since he's been breech. He did his thing, felt around, took the baby's heartbeat (a strong 150) up above my now-outie belly button and came to the same conclusion. It really did feel like a head and the position of where little Owie's heartbeat was found made us both think he was up, not down. So out comes the ultrasound machine - lucky me! I got to sneak a lucky peek at him - nice full set of ribs, adorable ears - couldn't really make out much else because of my position but I don't even care. What else did we see though? A nice round head down in perfect position. Little one, thanks! Makes me think I've been wrong all this time - perhaps he was breech up until two weeks ago and has been fine ever since. WHO THE HECK KNOWS!?!

Other than me thinking Owen was breech for a solid two weeks, other things have happened along the way as well. For one, I am so bummed to report that my fingers became too pudgy for me to wear any rings at all at the end of 33 weeks. I am surprisingly self conscious about this one. I think it's because now I work at a college and still look like a college student but hugely pregnant. I don't want people to think, "Oh, there's that girl that got her self knocked up last spring." Oh wells! Soon enough the rings will be back on and all will be well.

Sleeping really isn't as bad as I might think it is. At least right now. It's very much like trying to hold on to a really heavy bowling ball while struggling to turn over. Not exactly the easiest thing in to the world to do. It wakes me up for one and it can be difficult to make myself go back to sleep. I've also recently awoken with certain feelings - like baby is on his way feelings. Nothing is actually happening other than my mind saying, "Come on out, Owen!" One day I honestly felt like it was Christmas morning when I was a child - something really fun and exciting was going to happen that day. I know labor isn't going to be so fun so perhaps it was something else.

And then on most other mornings, I just kept thinking, "What if Owen is born today???" This is definitely the most prominent thought these days and I've got to say WOW do I get overwhelmed easily. The moment I start to feel even slightly uneasy, I start to cry. Luckily for me, Gspice has gotten so much practice with this one and can talk me down pretty well. Ultimately, I know we are going to be fine, but pregnancy makes me weepy :)

The Bump!

I have now reached the point where this baby can come out at any time he wants. Start guessing his due date, height and weight!

The Bump {13} - The Prego & Eggo Project List - OCTOBER

Another month is almost over which means this little nugget is going to come out very soon.

Holy  amazeballs......excitement.........anxiety............fear...............sh*t!

That all being said, we are getting more and more ready for little Owen to arrive. I still have little to no motivation to do anything but the desire is sure there. That is motivation enough. I've come to realize that I want as much completed before he arrives just so that we can spend oodles and oodles of time with him when he does decide to show up. I'm just waiting for that surge of energy I keep hearing about at this stage of the pregnancy - it sure hasn't hit me yet.

Gary has been so supportive over the last few weeks which is sooooo appreciative as I become more of an irritable and emotional mess. Take last weekend for example: Gspice and his pop spent a couple hours cleaning our filthy garage, one item that has been on our project list since it was created back in July. Did I ever think we'd do it? Not entirely, but with a new car and the winter coming, it was on the MUST COMPLETE list fo sho. And thanks to their hard work, lots of trips to recycling and our hose, we have a nice, open and clean garage!

He was also able to put the crib together and for me, that has made all the difference in the nursery. Without that one piece, I had trouble figuring out what I wanted to do - choosing end tables, decor - you name it. I struggled up until that crib was put together. Let's not mention that we accidentally put the base all the way on the bottom rung and had to take it apart to bring it to the highest rung...

Though I'd rather wait to show you Owen's room until it's completed, here's a little sneak peak at some of the fun things going on!

 

You'll just have to wait and see where this ends up!

One other really exciting thing we've been able to accomplish this month has been completing our registry. I almost feel bad for the mail carrier because of the amount of boxes that need to be delivered. We've gotten 9-10 boxes/packages thus far with MANY more to come. Lots of these things are the necessities, but some are more fun - like the little rattle toys I was able to get on etsy.

Seriously, adorbs.

Wasting All These Tears

I hoped from the moment she won the Voice that I wouldn't forget about her before her music came out. Luckily for me, I didn't need to worry. This Cassadee Pope song has already hit the radio!

Door Decor Craft Time {6} - Halloween....ish

With my growing belly comes a lack of energy or motivation. Thus the thought for such an easy door decor. It was my hope to have this up by the end of September but I'm not that far off - and with that, I didn't want this to be so overly Halloween this year. I know that once Halloween has past, this wreath will likely remain until I have energy to create something else. I'm thinking we'll do something for Mini Mr. Owen but we shall see. Any ideas for that are welcome because I have no clue at this moment what I'd do.

Supplies:
* felt - in whatever colors you'd like - I chose lime green, purple and orange
* one grapevine wreath
* scissors
* yarn for hanging
* glue gun/glue sticks

How-to:
1. Cut out random-sized circles of felt - I went rather un-random as you can see below:

2. Cut little spirals for each circle and create a little flower. Hot glue the end to keep it all together. (Sorry, no photo of this part...)

3. Hot glue your little adorable flowers to the wreath.

4. Using the yarn, hang up the wreath!

 Happy Halloween-ish!

What's For Dinner {19} - Citrus Chicken

I am have so out of touch with my recipes lately. We've tried a few recipes here and there but it hasn't been that many nor did I ever post about them. Here's one of them that I absolutely loved. So much that I was hoping to add it to our dinner menu this week but I cannot for the life of me find the recipe from pinterest were I inevitably found it. Luckily for me, I sent via text message the recipe to my mom way back in June and can use that to share it with all of you!

Citrus Chicken

1 lb chicken breast
1 each of an orange, lime, lemon - zested, juiced, remainder discarded
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh tarragon leaves
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c canola oil
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper

The most time consuming part of this recipe is prepping all the ingredients. Once that is complete, combine everything in a ziplock bag and marinate overnight for best flavor.

The next step is to grill! Easy peasy as long as you cook it long enough!

YUM!

We Can't Stop

I've become a little obsessed with Miley. I am not a huge fan of her videos because they kinda freak me out but I do LOVE her music.

Thanks, Gspice, for sharing this gem with me :)

The Bump {12} - Little Owen's Baby Shower!

I've got to say, my sisters and family went way beyond my expectations for Owen's baby shower. It was so darn adorable and the details... Seriously, the details were amazeballs. I am so lucky to have such creative family members and am so happy that everyone who could come got to enjoy all of it with us.

When we were thinking about what to do for a baby shower, I thought back to my over-the-top-delightful wedding shower. That, too, was ever so stunning but I really felt bad for Gspice. I got to enjoy all of it without him. I wish that he could have been there even though it was such a feminine shower. He, I'm know, just wanted to enjoy the food. SO, for Owen's shower, that was my main wish. I wanted Gary to be a part of it. This also allowed us to invite all the gents in our families which was fun too. Having a boy probably made this a bit easier - blue tones and mustaches really play well with "man-ing up" a baby shower.

Just because I think this is the most adorable-est invite ever, here's a picture of the invite my sister Bridget created online. 

Below are photos taken at the shower. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The photographers - Leta & Zach

The amazeball details!

The child book themed table decor - seriously? Adorbs.

The little mini-s at the shower - Miss Arya & Miss Erin

Shower fun!

From the diaper raffle (best idea ever!) to the child book themed decor to my dad, the Grill-Master, this baby shower was the bomb! I just want to say one more time to everyone involved - THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH! Gary and I seriously are overwhelmed with gratitude. We know Owen will be loved and all the gifts and well wishes we received are so very welcomed. He is so darn lucky!