Owen Alexander Shirley - April 15 2009

Our little bundle arrived at 2:04am Wednesday morning. Owen weighed 8lbs. 3oz. and measured 19.5in. long. His hair has a reddish tinge, it looks about the same color as his daddy's right now we'll have to see what it changes into. But we might possibly have a little red head.

Liam came with Chris to the hospital to visit. When he saw Owen, his face lit up, "Beebee!" He softly stroked Owen's head and tweaked his little ear. It was nice to see that he was excited about his new little brother. We brought baby Owen home Friday afternoon. When we put him in his basket Liam started setting his favorite toys (cars) in the basket next to Owen. Next Liam started pulling letters off of his wooden alphabet puzzle and held them one at a time a few inches from Owen's sleeping face and told him what each of the letters were (at least the ones that he knew). It was precious! Today Liam has been laying down next to Owen while he sleeps on the Boppy pillow. Most of the time he is pretty gentle but we have to remind him occasionally.

Here is the nitty gritty (but not too graphic) on Owen's arrival for those who are interested:

On Tuesday after my visit to the doctor it was decided they would induce labor because the placenta was showing signs of being tired (I was 2 days past my due date...). They had us go straight to the hospital. So Chris picked up Liam at the hospital and I was started on pitocin at 6pm Tuesday night. I decided to have an epidural this time. I didn't feel any pain just some pressure during the last hour before he came, which was nice. I did get the shakes which was weird since I couldn't feel any pain or how hard my body was working. I didn't even push, he just came out. I didn't even know he was half-way out until I heard him making sounds. He was having trouble breathing because he had some fluid in his lungs so I only got to hold him for a minute before they took him to the nursery and put him on some kind of a respirator for a little while, then he just had oxygen tubes to his nose for a day. Later, they found that his white blood cell count was high (and some other test I can't remember), that made them think he was fighting off an infection. So, they wanted to put him on a 48 hour round of antibiotics. They had trouble getting the IV in him, the poor little guy had bruises and poke marks all over his arms, head, and feet. Finally, a nurse was able to get the needle in near his ankle with the help of 4 other nurses to hold him still. So our little Owen was tethered to the nursery and I had to visit him there to hold him and breastfeed him. They later told me they wanted to give antibiotics for 72 hours, so he was going to have to stay longer. I was reluctant to leave without my baby, but it couldn't be helped. I stayed at the hospital until Thursday night so I could be there to feed him as long as possible. When I came back on Friday to feed him, the pediatrician told me that I could take him home with me! So I hurried back to the house to grab the car seat (and Nathan and Liam). So Owen is home with us now and we are so grateful that he is healthy and here with us.

the Shirley family updated

Owen Alexander Shirley

A couple weeks before my due date

Liam having fun with Daddy

Owen with his mommy



Owen and big brother Liam first meet

Liam wanted to share his best toys with Owen

Owen with his daddy on his first night home

Liam dancing

I decided to try uploading a video of Liam dancing. He is cute, is he not?

Things are going well. I have two weeks left 'til my due date, so we are playing the waiting game. I am doing my best to get as many of my assignments done or close to done as possible so that if the baby comes early I won't have to stress out too much about everything I'll have to finish. Nathan is waiting to hear back on his internship applications. We are trying to prepare Liam for the arrival of his little brother, I think he sort of understands. Liam is working on his vocab and amazing us all the time with his intelligence. We are also working on his attitude. He seems to believe himself entitled to whatever he wants without talking of any kind, we're just supposed to give it to him when he squawks at us. He is also good at pestering Nathan or me when we are trying to get something important done. Luckily he is very adorable and entertaining or his parents might loose their minds. I definitely think God knew what he was doing when he designed children to be so cute and irresistible.

What a boy!

We spent last weekend in Colorado with my family. Liam had so much fun there. There's a lot more room to explore there than in our little apartment, a lot more people to play with, and tons of things to do. Since we came home, he occasionally will run around the apartment calling, "Josh!" like he wants someone to play with (I think he is calling any of my little brothers when he says Josh).

Liam recently became fixated on cars, the toys and the real thing. He calls out, "Car!" for almost every car or truck he sees (and there are a lot). He loves looking at books and having them read to him. Oh, and he loves balls and pushing (it's actually more like punching when he does it, but he says "push" while he does it), if you say push and push him gently, he will fall on the ground and just lay there for a minute. He's all boy, that's for sure. He dances in a really cute way to upbeat music. It's like a sway step in a circle with his knees slightly bent and his head dipping side to side with each step.

Looking at books.

Liam borrowing his uncles head lamp.

Doing pull-ups.

Reading with Daddy before bed.

Soap

We have a hand soap bottle that has a little tiger holding on to the straw inside, Liam always tries to play with it. When I noticed that he was holding it this evening, I figured I would take it away from him in a minute or so. The next thing I heard was swishing and splatting. I turned around to see Liam soaping up the end table. He had already dumped the rest of the bottle on the carpet (I had just filled the bottle a few days before). In addition, he had smeared the soap liberally onto half of his head. I quickly rinsed his hands and head to prevent him from rubbing it in his eyes, then tried to wipe up as much soap as possible. I still have a long way to go before the carpet stops sudsing up and I will probably run out of towels and rags before I'm done...such fun! Liam has been trying to help clean up the mess, which is sweet of him. Above is a picture of the culprit at the scene of the crime, post head-washing. Below is a mug shot.

yogurt

                      

Well, things are  moving along at the usual pace. In a few days I will officially be 3/4 of the way through incubating our newest addition to the family. The little one seems to particularly enjoy nudging and bumping when I have the things I am working on resting against my belly. We've been thinking about names for him, but we don't really feel like sharing right now. 

Liam seems to be getting more and more brilliant every day. He is working on his vocabulary and his animal sounds. We are working on getting him to try to communicate with us a little more verbally, instead of squawking his protests. He is very sweet and loves to help around the house. Liam is very patient with his parents always needing to be inside to do homework, but there is only so much a toddler can stand. He is occasionally afflicted by cabin fever and needs a change of scene, but he's quite the trooper.

I recently tried making yogurt and had great success. It's actually more economical that buying commercially made yogurt (how much more economical depends on if you add fruit and what kind, it is about 1/4 the price of store bought yogurt) and it is very easy to make. Most importantly Nathan and Liam love it. I make it a lightly sweetened vanilla yogurt and it tastes great, we don't even need to add fruit. I am also interested in trying a little cheese making, I'll post when I see how that turns out.

Classes are going well. I am really enjoying illustration so far. Nathan seems to be enjoying his classes, he is working on staying on top of his assignments. Most of all he has been working on his portfolio, he did some major revisions and it is really coming together. He will need to start sending it out soon to look for internships for summer. He is also planning to turn in his teapot project for the big Braun competition, so he has been working on that a lot as well. That would be exciting to win...

Back to School!

Back to the crazy school life after a nice long holiday in Colorado. Nathan and I have been working out our schedules so there aren't too many conflicts. My brother Chris is willing to watch Liam for us one evening each week, so we only need to fill one more babysitting slot and we should be good to go! Now is the time when Nathan has to figure out what internships to apply to and send his portfolio out (into which he still wants to place a few more of his projects if he can find time) hopefully he can get a good internship for Summer!