Our First Week Back to "Normal" Life as a Family of Five

Samantha: 76 Months, Week 1

Aedan: 40 Months, Week 5

Owen: 0 Months, Week 2

It's hard to believe that this post is already about the second week of Owen's life. Time goes by so fast, and I find that it's going by even faster with this third baby. My pregnancy went by quickly, and I tried to savor each day and remember what it felt like to feel my baby boy move inside of me, to enjoy the fact that me getting bigger meant that he was growing, and just to relish in the creation of this new life that we prayed for for so long. And now that Owen is out of the womb, it feels like before we know it, we blink and another week has flown by.

As we were getting used to being home with Owen, being on our own, and being a family of five, everything was new and different. Saturday night into Sunday was a better night for sleep. Ben, Owen, and I were in bed before 11, and then Owen slept until almost 3:00. I fed him, changed his diaper, and fed him again, and then he slept until almost 6:00. I thought that was pretty great for a one week old, and it's amazing how much more alive I felt with getting more uninterrupted sleep. Owen was a lot more alert on Saturday evening and was awake longer, so maybe that helped him sleep longer chunks of time that night. He continued this pattern of sleeping for most of this week, waking up between 2 and 3 and then again between 5 and 6, so he was going three hour chunks of time during the night between feedings. During the day it was more like every hour and a half to two hours, but I was happy that he seemed to be sleeping longer at night.

The other change we made in this second week was changing Owen's diaper after nursing him on one side. At first, I was trying to change his diaper right when he woke up, but he would get super cranky because he wanted to eat, he didn't want me to change his diaper. So now I nurse him on one side until he's done, then I change his diaper, and then I nurse him on the other side until he falls back asleep. It seems like a pretty good routine, Owen is much happier, and there is much less crying during the night, which is good for everyone. In fact, now that I am following this routine, Ben doesn't really have to help me during middle of the night feedings/diaper changes. When Owen would cry before, Ben would try to help settle him down or give him his finger to suck on, but now that isn't necessary. Ben still wakes up and is willing to help me if I have an emergency, but I like being able to give him better sleep when he has to get up in the morning and be with the other kids as well as teach and work all day.

The hardest part for me in having a new baby is that life pretty well continues on like normal for everyone else, but not so much for me. The kids are up by 7:00, they still need help getting ready, and then they need someone to make breakfast for them and take Samantha to school. You know, all the typical stuff. Well, normally Ben and I would both tag team things like that, but now with Owen waking us up during the night, some mornings it's difficult to wake up. Or, some mornings I am nursing Owen or taking care of him or trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep, so I am not upstairs to help Ben out with the kids, or I don't get a shower in. It's those adjustments in our day-to-day routine that take some getting used to for me. I have to find a new normal, and I have to not hit myself over the head if I can't do things exactly like I used to. After all, I am just one week postpartum.

We decided that we would try to go to church on Sunday morning, all together as a family. Owen slept in longer in the morning, and I didn't have a chance to get ready in time for the 9:00 service, so we just hung out and played at home before going to the 10:45 service. Aedan and Samantha were excited to see and hold Owen when he woke up for the day. :)

Samantha loves to read books, and she will sit around and read to herself or to Aedan whenever she gets the chance. Now she has a new little brother to read to, and I'm sure he will adore her just as much as Aedan does.

Our morning at church went well, and it felt good to get out of the house and try our first real outing together. Owen slept for awhile and nursed for awhile, and it was a successful outing. The kids were excited to show off their new little brother to people they knew at church.

The rest of the day we just spent hanging out and relaxing, getting ready for a new week where Ben would be back to work full time, and I would be home alone with Aedan and Owen. Here's a picture Ben took of Owen and me that night as we were hanging out on the couch together.

I had a lot of plans for Monday morning and was a little worried how I was going to manage it all with Aedan and Owen in tow. I had a WIC appointment to get Owen added on to our account, and that took much longer than I anticipated. Luckily, Aedan did a great job listening, and Owen was content sleeping in his car seat. I called first thing that morning to get a doctor appointment for Samantha, and they had one that morning. It was right before Ben's class would start at 10:00, so it wouldn't work for him to take her. So after finishing up at our WIC appointment, we picked Samantha up from school, and then we went right to the doctor's office. We were a little late to our appointment, so we had to wait for a little while, but it went better than it could have, that's for sure. (Owen didn't get too upset until we were on our way home from dropping Samantha off at school.) Toward the end of our appointment, Owen was getting hungry, so I took him out and fed him in the exam room while the kids sat on the table and read books. Upon looking in Samantha's ears and nose, it was decided she did indeed have a sinus infection, so we got a prescription for antibiotics. Then the doctor just said to use nasal spray, a cool mist vaporizer, Vicks rub, and Zarbee's if she has a cough. I also talked to Dr. Newhouse about her bathroom issue again. They tested her urine and found trace WBCs and trace protein, so they sent it out for culture. They also ordered some blood work, something called a CMP (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel) and a CBS with Differential to make sure there is no physical reason she is having these bathroom issues. So after getting these tests done, we will take her back in, see what the results are, and go from there. Dr. Newhouse again mentioned the fact that she may just have a small bladder, but I knew that couldn't be the case because of how and when these moments of freaking out happen. Ben and I were getting close to seriously thinking about getting her into a counselor if she really is having anxiety causing this to happen. Regardless, I was glad we got prescribed an antibiotic so that this bad cold will finally go away. I'm sure she just must feel miserable with how congested her sinuses were.

The best thing about having a newborn is the baby snuggles, especially in the afternoon when Aedan is in bed and I can enjoy just sitting and nursing and holding my little baby. I am trying to let go of always feeling like I have to be busy around the house and sometimes just letting myself sit, cuddle, and hold Owen while he sleeps in the afternoon. I know he won't always want to do this. These moments with him so little are fleeting, and I don't want to rush through these newborn days. As I cuddled with him that afternoon, I noticed he still had these little tufts of hair on the back of his ears. I had to take a picture of it to remember it by.

Many moms thought I was crazy for being out and about with a newborn, but I was feeling good physically, and I wanted to be out of the house myself, giving Aedan something to do and something to look forward to, as well as giving myself company of other moms. So, I decided to go to MOPS on Tuesday of that week. Again, everything went pretty well that morning. Owen slept for quite awhile in his car seat while I had a chance to eat some food and talk with other moms, then he nursed and he was happy. Aedan had a great time playing and singing songs in his classroom. He was even able to steal a snack at the end of the MOPS. We also went to small group that night out at the Hill's house. In some ways it's easy to go places with a newborn baby, as long as you're not driving for too long, because they will just sleep anywhere. So as long as I can nurse him when he's hungry and hold him when he's sleepy, he's a happy boy. I was pretty tired on Tuesday night after a busy day, but it was good to try to get back into normal life as much as we could.

Wednesday morning I was feeling pretty bad about not being able to help with Samantha and Aedan much at night and in the morning. It seems like Owen is always wanting to eat right at breakfast time and bed time, meaning Ben is on his own to take care of all that stuff on his own. I feel like I haven't had as much time with Samantha and Aedan, and I miss them and having time to play with them, especially with Samantha being gone at school all day. The good thing is that I know this is all normal and is just a phase. It was just hard feeling like Ben and I are just ships passing by. We don't have as much time together, just the two of us, to just hang out and talk or relax in the evenings, or even in our own bed because we have a baby sleeping next to us that we don't want to wake up. I also knew that Ben was probably feeling like he doesn't have any time to himself either because he goes from taking care of the kids and things around the house, to working all day, to taking care of the kids again, and then usually getting back to work in the evenings when Samantha and Aedan are in bed. I want to make sure I am there for Ben, too. I don't want to neglect our relationship or his needs.

After our morning out at the library for story time, Wednesday afternoon was a time when I decided to just enjoy cuddle time with my little guy. He is still in the sleepy phase and isn't awake very much, so after nursing him and putting him up on my shoulder to burp him, he often falls right asleep. As you can see in this video below, he got the hiccups. He gets the hiccups quite a bit, and I remember feeling him hiccup in my tummy as well. His little hiccup sound is so cute, that I had to take this little video of him.

And then a couple of sleepy baby pictures...

Little Owen gets lots of love, and Aedan enjoys holding him, tickling him, and kissing him on the head. Just as it has been pure joy for me to watch Samantha and Aedan's relationship grow and develop, it will be fun to watch Aedan and Owen's relationship grow and develop. Some day these two will be unstoppable together! I'm glad they will have each other to play with.

On Wednesday evening Samantha and Aedan had AWANA, and I had my Bible study. Again, some people thought I was crazy for even being out of the house and dressed so soon after having Owen, but to me, I just wanted to get back into normal life. I wanted to jump in and not be afraid of doing things with a newborn and a 3 year old. Since I fed Owen right before leaving, he ended up sleeping quietly in his car seat for the whole Bible study, giving me time to talk to and learn from other women and the book of Hosea that we are studying.

After a long day of working, Ben enjoys snuggles with his little guy as well. This is definitely Owen's favorite sleeping position right now: head snuggled up against your chest/shoulder, feet tucked up like a little frog, feeling the comfort of your heartbeat and just being close to you.

Thursday morning, Aedan and I hung around the house more before going outside and enjoying our first walk/bike ride on campus together. I put Owen in the Ergo baby carrier. It was his first time in it, and he seemed to really enjoy it. Aedan got on his bike, and he rode all the way over to campus to Daddy's building. We said hi to Daddy and to Miss Sheri (and got candy from her, of course.) It had turned into a pretty nice day outside, and Owen was sleeping happily in the Ergo, so I was also able to go outside in the back yard and play with Aedan while Owen slept. I definitely need to things like this more because I know Aedan misses playing outside and misses playing with me, but it's hard for me to play outside with him if Owen is awake or if I'm just holding him in my arms. However, putting him in the Ergo really seems to make him happy, and then I have both my hands free to play with Aedan and push him on the swing. It's definitely an adjustment for Aedan getting used to having to share me with Owen and not having as much time to just sit and play how he wants, but he really has been doing a good job with the adjustment. He has stepped up in his new role as big brother. And again, this is all a phase. Eventually Owen will get into more of a routine where he will take a morning nap in his bed, and then Aedan and I will have more one-on-one time together again. In fact, I think I may even try to do some preschool with him a couple mornings a week once we get to that point, just like I did with Samantha was Aedan was a baby.

My afternoons look much different now than they did before Owen was born, but I have to admit that it's pretty fun to spend some one-on-one time with this little guy every afternoon. I love how he is slowly becoming more alert. I can see his eyes open a lot more now, and he seems to really enjoy being laid on his changing pad and looking around while I change his diaper. His eyes are a dark gray/blue right now, so we will see what they end up being as he gets older. Samantha's eyes are definitely hazel like mine, whereas Aedan's are more solely brown.

These next pictures make it look like he is flexing his muscles, showing off how strong he is, with a serious, furrowed brow.

And some good stretching.

I know these next pictures may seem odd to you, but I wanted to record that Owen lost his umbilical cord stump the night before, on Wednesday, September 27th. Ben was changing his diaper and helping to get ready for bed. As he walked across the room, he kicked something across the floor with his foot. I looked down to see what it was and pick it up, and noticed it was Owen's umbilical cord stump. I couldn't believe that we didn't even notice that it had come off. So now he has a cute little belly button! I felt kind of nostalgic about it, like "aww, he's already getting so big, one less sign of him being the baby that was just inside me a week and a half ago." Maybe it's because he's most likely our last baby? I can't believe this little guy is already 11 days old.

The kids seemed to be doing much better now that things were settling down some and it was just our family, no visitors and our house to ourselves, getting used to a new normal. Aedan took a really good nap for me on Thursday, and I didn't even have to go back in there to remind him to be quiet and go to sleep, which I usually have to do most days. In fact, Owen even took a good nap in the swing for me for about two hours. Having some time to myself that afternoon was so good. Aedan and I had a good morning together, and I felt like I was actually starting to get the hang of adding a baby to the mix.

Most importantly, Samantha was starting to feel better with the antibiotics, so I'm sure she feels much better and more rested. She was probably feeling a lot more lousy than she let on before I took her to the doctor. Her face was looking much better, her nose was less crusty, she could breathe better, and she was just overall in a much better mood, more respectful, and more Samantha like. Yay for antibiotics that work quickly! In fact, that afternoon when she got home from school, she asked to go outside, and she was playing on the play set and swinging. Then I heard her yelling to Ben on campus, saying "I love you! And I miss you! And I want you to come home!" Samantha definitely has a soft spot for her Daddy.

Throughout this first week home, we were lucky enough to have several moms bring us meals so that we wouldn't have to worry about making food for ourselves while also trying to get used to life as a family of five and taking care of a newborn. We had some delicious food, and we were ever so grateful to each family for taking the time out of their days to bring us a meal. That means more to me than they will ever know.

On Friday morning I tried another brave thing, going grocery shopping at Walmart with a newborn and a 3 year old. I nursed Owen right before we left and put him in the Ergo right away before even going in the store. He fell asleep right away and stayed asleep during the whole time I was shopping. Aedan also did a great job listening, being patient, and being helpful as we were shopping. Ben was worried that it would be hard for me to go by myself with the two boys. But I was pleasantly surprised that it went so well, and I felt good that I could do it by myself. The hardest part was just when we got back home and I had groceries to put away, a baby that wanted to nurse, and a three year old that needed to eat lunch and get put down for his nap. Regardless, I was able to do it, and we now had food in the house to eat for the next week, which is definitely a good thing.

And here's another silly picture of Owen from Friday afternoon, this is his last time wearing newborn diapers. We used all the ones we got at the hospital and all of the box that we bought ourselves. He was starting to leak through almost every newborn diaper, which is usually the sign that they are ready to move up to the next size. Now this big guy is moving on to size 1s. :)

Friday night was back to what felt like normal family life. Samantha was dressed up as Wonder Woman and Aedan was in his dragon/dinosaur costume. They were running around the house catching "Monster Daddy." Since Owen had lost his umbilical cord stump and more than ten days had passed since his circumcision, we were able to give him his first real bath at home, submerged in the baby bath tub. I got the kids to help me because I feel like it's kind of a ritual for everyone to be involved in the first real bath. Plus, I figured they would enjoy helping to wash him off. Samantha and Aedan both had sponges they were using to wash him off, and they only needed a few reminders to be careful with his head and not to get soap in his eyes. Owen was much happier during this bath than the first bath I tried to give him. I think he was hungry that last time, so he was not in the mood to be in the bathtub. On this Friday though, he was perfectly content in the warm water, looking at his reflection in the mirror, and receiving loving attention from every member of his family.

Towards the end of the bath time, Owen decided to pee, and he got some on Samantha before I took the fish towel to cover him up again. When this happened during Aedan's first bath, Samantha cried about it, feeling surprised that he would pee on her. This time Samantha thought it was funny and she laughed for quite some time about the fact that he peed on her.

It was a successful bath, and it's so much nicer now that his umbilical cord stump has fallen off because we can submerge him and he can enjoy the relaxing nature of baths.

Here is my little guy after his bath that evening, all clean and smelling good. I love these pictures of him. His eyes looking right at me, his cute little nose and mouth, and his clean fluffy hair. I think he is just adorable.

Saturday morning we had a local photographer, Misty Sibbald, coming over for a newborn and family photo session with us. Originally we had scheduled it for last weekend, but it was just too busy and it was too hot for her to drag all her equipment in our house and set it up. I'm glad we waited because it was much nicer on this Saturday. We no longer needed our air conditioner running to make our house bearable, Samantha was feeling better and looked a lot better, and everyone was acting a lot more back to normal and had gotten better sleep, which means we were going to get better pictures.

Everyone was clean, our clothes were picked out, and we just played around the house while we waited for the photographer to arrive. Here are adorable pictures of my oldest holding my youngest. I love these pictures so much. Samantha is truly so happy holding her little brother. I love her smile and her loving hands wrapped around him.

Samantha got out a book of nursery rhymes and songs to read to baby Owen while he sat in the baby chair. 

Then Samantha and Aedan sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to Owen before Aedan leaned in to give Owen a kiss on the head. They were being so sweet to him.

Samantha is reading the rhyme, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" from the book and Aedan is joining in by acting out some of the motions, too.

Misty arrived around 9:30 to start setting up her equipment for the photo shoot. She started with pictures of Samantha with Owen, Aedan with Owen, and then both of them with Owen, then moving on to family pictures before doing some of Ben with Owen and me with Owen. Once Samantha and Aedan were done with their part, they were allowed to go play outside and enjoy their nice Saturday morning together. Aedan loves having Sissy back to play with on the weekends. He misses her a lot when she's at school. At the end of the photo shoot, she took lots of pictures of just Owen in various wraps, hats, poses, and sets.  I know she got some really cute pictures, and she even got some where it looked like Owen was smiling and you could see his little dimples. I can't wait to see the pictures when she is done editing them, and I know it's going to be really difficult to choose only certain ones. I'm really glad that we decided to wait until we got back home to do pictures, even though he is a little older than the newborn pictures we got of Samantha and Aedan when we were in the hospital. It will be nice to have pictures of the whole family and the kids with Owen, and not just pictures of Owen. Here are Samantha and Aedan sitting on the stools waiting for their turn to have their picture taken.

Misty was at our house until about 1:30 that afternoon. Then, Ben decided he wanted to take Samantha out for some special one-on-one time, so he took her to a girls' volleyball game before stopping and watching some of the hockey game as well. Here are some pictures he took during their afternoon together. I know she has a great time hanging out with just her Daddy, doing things only she can do while both her brothers are at home sleeping.

She likes to make silly faces, just like her Daddy!

On Saturday evening before dinner, our next house guests arrived: the Clemons family. They planned to stay with us through the following Thursday to visit, see Owen, and help us around the house. The kids were excited to have Brielle and Oliver at our house to play with, and it was nice of them to take the time to come up and visit us. I will talk more about their visit with us in my next blog post.

(Blog about September 24-30, 2017)