Welcome Home Owen

Everyone's been asking for pictures. So here they are! Sorry for taking so long....I just wanted show good variety of the little guy.

Out little baby boy is here! Owen James Willard was born Friday 12/7 at 4:30pm. He was three weeks early and still weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz (glad I didn't go full term!). The fun thing is...he was born on his little cousin Ava's birthday. She turned exactly 1 while he was being born.
Friday morning I went to the dr. for my normal check-up. I had been very uncomfortable the night before and thought I was having some contractions, but it's hard to tell since I've had braxton hicks the whole time. So I had him check to see if I was dilated and sure enough, I was at a 3 and the baby's head was super low and ready to come. So he decided to induce me and have the baby that day. I was able to go home first and get some stuff together and drop Lucy off with Casey's mom Linda and by noon I was hooked up the IV and machines.
Here I am, walking in to St. Joseph's:
4 1/2 hours later, our little Owen was here! The whole process was super fast. I had an epidural, but it started to wear off toward the end. Thinking that I'd be in labor for longer, I didn't push the button for an additional dosage because I didn't want that to wear off too. I was holding out so I'd have some comfort for the home stretch. But the nurse said, well, go ahead and push the button...it'll take 15 minutes for the pain killer to set-in. Just then she checked my progress and what do you know, I was at a 9 and 1/2. Um, we're having this baby now!

In came Dr. Schmones. He asked if I could feel my contractions (so I'd know when to push)...uh....sure can. Thankfully we only did three sets of pushes and he was out. But I now understand why women scream during labor. It hurt real bad and I felt like throwing up. I'm just very thankful I was never a pioneer woman, delivering a baby on the snowy plains.
Here we are after delivery with our nurse:
And one with Dr. Schmones. He is so great. We love him:
Both our parents came up to visit us. But Owen was in the nursery for a few hours being monitored, so they only got a peek of him through the window. Lucy came too and she was just the cutest thing, running into the room, so happy to see us:
We had fun visitors come see us over the next couple days. I should have taken pictures of everyone, but only got one of my sister Camille, her husband Bryan, son Jeremy, and his special "Honey Bear" (he's Jeremy's Show and Tell bear at school. So they took a picture of him, Owen, and Honey Bear so he can share the fun news with his class this week. Cute)
Thanks everyone for stopping by. It was so sweet of you and we loved the chit chat (along with the peanut butter cups, Chipotle, flowers and gifts. Woohoo!)

Owen is sweet little guy.
He looks so much like Lucy when she was born. We just keep having flashbacks to two years ago. Check out the resemblance. Here he is, little Owen!:
And here's Lucy at the same age:
He does all the normal baby stuff and is taking a snooze in his swing right now. Last night was a bit rough. But I'm hoping that tonight goes better and hallelujah for naps. It's been helpful having Lucy stay with Linda for a few days. We went out there last night to visit her and show off Owen to Casey's parents. So Lucy met her brother for the first time. It was funny coincidence, but their first encounter went like this:
"Lucy look, baby!" Lucy smiled and pointed, saying "baby".
"That's your little brother"....to which she replied, "uh oh".
So true. We all got a good laugh. She was okay when other people were holding him, but kinda freaked out when I had him. So it'll be an interesting next month (or year?) as it is for all families with multiple kids.

We're so blessed to have 2 healthy children and we already feel weird saying "our kids"....it's plural now! I'm a little freaked out to be in charge of both of them all day. But everyone else has figured it out. I'm sure I will too.

Welcome home Owen. We love you already!