March

Just playing a little catch up as usual. 

March was a tough month for me. I need to back up a bit to explain. Back in January, Sam accepted a transfer to Wichita, Kansas so he spent most of February and some of March working in Kansas, and that is where he was until right before Owen was born. Personally and professionally this is a really good move. Not only did he get a great promotion, but with the death of Sam's brother in December, we decided we would like to live within a day's drive of his family. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever in my life had any desire to live in or even visit Kansas, but this is what happens when a person from the east marries a person from the west and you want to live within a day's drive of both families. You end up living in Kansas. Singles be warned.

Here we are:

All joking aside, I don't think it will be a bad place to live, although it is very flat and constantly windy. Wichita is a decent sized city, so we have everything that we want or need. We actually live in Goddard, a suburb of Wichita, so everything is very close, but we're not in the middle of it. The schools are really good here, there's a great zoo close by, and the ward is nice. I think we will be happy here.

On to the March wrap-up.

One morning the kids got out of bed before me and took all the cushions off the couch looking for a lost toy. When I came downstairs, this how the couch was put back together. They couldn't figure out how to fit in one of the bottom cushions. I found it hidden behind the recliner. Like I wouldn't notice if I couldn't see the missing cushion :) It gave me a laugh. 

Mila made a bill for me to give to Owen once he was born. She said he needed to pay for ruining my tummy. She spent the last couple of months laughing about how strange my belly button looked. That's what she meant by "ruined."

39 weeks huge. I've taken pictures in this same outfit at 39 weeks with each baby. Not that it's a very cute outfit, it's just how it worked out. Each time I'm a little fatter. It's still fun to compare though.

Owen was born on Monday, the 17th (see previous post), we got out of the hospital on Wednesday, and the movers came to pack us up on Friday. 

These are the only pictures I have of Owen in our house in Pennsylvania. He was sleeping while I was cleaning.

 

And we said goodbye to PA. I wasn't quite ready.

We drove to Ohio on Saturday, and I stayed with my family for the rest of the month and Sam went on to Kansas to work and meet the movers with our stuff.

The kids had a lot of fun while we were in Ohio.

Mila kept wanting to play restaurant so Grandma bought her an apron and chef's hat. Grandma made menus and Mila would take our orders and bring us our food. It was pretty cute.

 Tori and Emmitt looking over the menu.

Mila found this scarf and used it as a cat's tail for days. She even slept with it in one night.

Emmitt spent lots of time following Tori around. She is always a good sport about it and is really good at playing with him. She's a fantastic aunt!

Sleepover with the cousins. Emmitt is on the phone saying goodnight to Dad.

And I took tons of pictures of this handsome little guy.

 Owen is even hip with the loom bands trend. Brielle made him a baby-sized bracelet.

So this is fun. The top picture is Owen and the bottom is Emmitt. They were taken in the same place at about the same age. It is interesting to see the similarities and differences. They look a lot alike, but Emmitt's head was so much rounder!

Sam and I also celebrated our NINTH anniversary on the 25th! Nine years sounds like so long. Sam got me the best anniversary present. He bought me a HOUSE!!! We have some painting and a few other projects we want to do, but we are really happy with it. Eventually I'll get some photos up. For now, Owen is asleep so I'm going to bed.

Owen Lee

Considering Owen is six weeks old, this post is way past due, but things have been busy. I'm tired. And better late than never, right? Buckle up, this is a long one.

Owen Lee Trulock
March 17, 2014
9:23 a.m.
7 pounds 12 ounces
21 inches long

No, we did not name him Patrick. Got a lot of jokes about that in the hospital.

We chose the name Owen Lee after his grandfathers. My dad's middle name is Owen and Sam's dad's name is Lee. Owen was actually due on my dad's birthday, but he stayed late. We've liked the name Owen for a while. After Emmitt was born, we said that if we ever had another boy that we would probably name him Owen. I never really thought I'd have another boy! Not with the track record for having boys in our families.

Here's what happened...
As previously mentioned, Owen was due on Sunday, the 16th. Sam was out of town until late on the 12th. I was so stressed out that Owen was going to come early, but thankfully, he waited. I had a checkup on Tuesday, the 11th, and I was dilated just barely over one. I didn't feel much going on over the next couple of days. On Saturday we cleaned out the garage, did some organizing in the house, and went walking at the mall hoping to move things along.

I didn't sleep much on Saturday night because I was so crampy and uncomfortable. By 5 Sunday morning I wasn't really sleeping anymore. At 6:30 things were hurting enough that I thought I better get up and get showered. Each pregnancy I have something that kind of consumes me before giving birth. With Mila it was having the house completely disinfected. I was up until 3 in the morning before she was born scrubbing every inch of the bathroom. With Emmitt it was having my toenails perfectly painted. This time it was having my hair washed. So I got my hair washed, got my makeup on, and got my bag packed. I expected to have a baby by early Sunday evening.

By the time I was all ready to go, contractions had pretty much stopped. The rest of the day they came and went at very irregular intervals and pain levels. I thought I would have another quickly progressing labor like I had with Emmitt, but things were moving so slowly. There were times contractions were strong and close together and then for hours they would be weak and far apart. I was so frustrated. Sam and I went on a long walk in the freezing weather, and I was even running up the stairs as fast as I could every time I had to go to the bathroom. Still pokey progress.

Daytime came and went. Evening came and went. Contractions were happening more often, but it still wasn't time to call the doctor yet. We put the kids to bed and settled in to watch the Downton Abbey season finale to distract me. Before we could finish it, it was time to call the doctor. Contractions were irregular, but they were still close and I was afraid to wait any longer. I called about 10:20 p.m. and we headed to the hospital.

By the time we got there things were feeling harder and I was quite uncomfortable. They checked me and I was dilated to 4 so they admitted me. I would have freaked out if they hadn't!

I wanted to do a natural birth again, but was not totally against an epidural depending on how labor progressed. Truth be told, I am so scared of getting it put in that that's one of the main reasons I don't like them. But I tested positive for group B strep so I needed the antibiotic treatment, so once I was hooked up to everything, I couldn't get comfortable enough to deal with the horrible back labor I was having. After a few hours of trying to make it work, I was too tired from not sleeping much the night before and laboring all day, I was in a lot of pain, and I was nowhere near delivery. After all that time I was still only at 5. I got an epidural about 1 or 2 in the morning. Getting it put in was just as uncomfortable and terrifying as I remember, but the relief was wonderful! More importantly, I could get some rest. 

Owen was taking his sweet old time descending and his head was not properly engaged for birth. I had two different doctors say that if things didn't change that they might need to do a C-section so the cord wouldn't rush out first when my water broke or something like that. So I worried about that all night, but it ended up being fine. Finally, at about 8:40 my water broke. I thought things would take off after that, but almost an hour went by before it was time to push. Contractions weren't terribly strong or consistent, but the doctor decided it was time to start pushing. Even to the very end, he took his time. There were some really long breaks between contractions during pushing, and it was really awkward sitting on full display with no action happening. I pushed really hard for 16 minutes and finally, at 9:23, a new little soul entered my life.

Look at all of that dark hair! He has more hair than either Mila or Emmitt had.

 

I believe the look on my face here...

 ...is in reaction to this...

I can't stop kissing him! Newborns smell ridiculously good.

 

They love to hold the baby!

Poor Mila and her grubby fingernails. Apparently that's one thing that fell through the cracks while I was worrying about my hair being clean.

 I tried so hard to get a picture of him right before going home, but he was moving his arms around like crazy. This is one of the better shots.

 I can't get over his hair!

 He gave himself a nasty scratch by the eye.

 I laugh every time I see this picture! He looks so grumpy about being in his seat! And the puffy newborn eyes and scratch by his eye make him look like he was in a fight or something. The funny thing is that he hates being in his seat more than anything and screams pretty much the whole time he's in it. It was a hate relationship from the start.

Welcome to the world, Owen!

February

February was a lot like January. Crazy cold with tons of snow.

Mila's birthday was on the 13th, but Sam was out of town until the next day so we planned to not do anything without him except go to Mila's choice of restaurant.

The night before, I covered her door with streamers after she went to sleep to surprise her first thing. I was hoping to wake up before she did and see her first reaction, but she woke up before me and crawled underneath them and came to get me. She was so excited! She crawled back in to her room and then busted through them.

School was cancelled on her birthday, and the roads were too bad to go to a restaurant so she had a really lame day. I felt so bad! But she was so grown up and sweet about it and didn't even complain that she didn't get to open any presents. She did get to play in the snow for hours while I dug us out. Since we live in a townhouse with a postage stamp for a yard, there literally was nowhere to put all the snow except for up.
Mila on top of one of the snow mountains in our neighbor's yard.

Emmitt helping me clear the driveway.

School was also cancelled on Valentine's Day. After some more snow shoveling to get out of our driveway, we went to Red Robin for Mila's birthday meal. I thought it was kind of a funny choice for a six-year-old, but the last time we went was with friends so every time we drive past she reminds me that she ate there with Ana.

She told me that she wanted them to sing to her for her birthday, so I asked our waitress when we ordered, but then Mila was nervous for most of the meal about it actually happening. She is funny like that. She barely looked at them while they sang. In the end, she decided it was totally worth the nerves for the ice cream sundae. She talked for the rest of the day about how she couldn't believe that they brought her a sundae, and she kept asking me if I knew that they were going to do that.

37 weeks. Almost there! Sam is out of town again until the night of March 12, so I'm praying that our little guy does not come early.  

A few days ago Emmitt really wanted to wear this shirt even though I tried to tell him that it was  a bit too small. Then he wanted all the buttons buttoned, but I told him that he would be more comfortable if we left the very top one unbuttoned and that we usually only button the very top button if he's going to wear a tie. He insisted on having all the buttons buttoned, and I left it at that. The next time I saw him he was wearing a tie. 

On Friday Mila had mismatched day at school. She was so excited about its arrival and couldn't wait to go to school in her funky outfit. After school, I asked her how mismatched day was and if she liked everyone else's funny outfits. She said one boy wore two different shoes, but other than that she was the only one who remembered! She didn't care at all. I laughed so hard! I could only think that in a few years something like this will matter to her a lot more. I like her not caring.  

And the next time I post it will be to introduce my new little handsome!