The story of "O"

Owen is TWO (Oct. 4) so I thought I would share the story of our little man, Owen.

Warning - this is LONG.

To say that Owen was a surprise is a huge understatement. Eric and I were still "discussing" whether we wanted a third child. I come from a family of 3 and I was pretty sure that I wanted another baby while Eric comes from a family of 2 and was pretty sure that he was done with two kids.

My friend, Dina, and my co-workers knew I was pregnant before I even did. I remember going to lunch with my department and I got grief for my food choices. I didn't think they were odd and had a logical reason for everything I ate (salad, pickle w/lots of salt on it, and a blackberry cobbler). They joked with me about being pregnant and even more so because my two older children were born during the last quarter of the year which is VERY busy at work. No one wanted me to be on maternity leave during that time again. LOL! I think my exact words to someone when they asked me if I was pregnant was "Hell no" (tsk tsk - I know!) Their joking got to me and I went out that night and bought a pregnancy test and it was negative - this was on a Thursday.

For some reason, I questioned it again on Sunday night and after our small group left our home I ran to Wal-Mart and picked up a three pack of pregnancy tests. I didn't tell Eric yet that I was doing as I didn't want to freak him out unnecessarily. Well, the first test came up positive as did the following two!!!! OH MY GOODNESS. I was in shock. And, Eric, well, the guy who NEVER calls in sick was so shocked that he called in sick and literally stayed in bed with the covers over his head all day & night. LITERALLY.

Now, onto my friend, Dina. I later found out that the week prior to finding out I was pregnant, I had walked into her house and her first thought was that I was pregnant and that it was a boy. She told me later that she was actually mad at me because she thought I was keeping it a secret from her when in fact, I didn't know yet.

The pregnancy went along well, no real complications. We found out that we were expecting a boy mid-way through and quickly came up the name Owen Francis. Owen because we liked the name & Francis after my grandfather who had passed away while I was in college.

Fast forward to late September. Eric's grandpa, Lester, was very ill and ended up passing away. That was so hard. So hard. He was such a wonderful man of God and a tremendous grandpa & great grandpa. I was heartsick because I was due any day and we couldn't travel to his funeral. I tried everything to get this child out early so that at least Eric could attend the funeral to no avail. This child did NOT want out.

My mom came out and to help with the kiddos and I still hadn't had Owen. It wasn't that I was overdue, I just wanted him to be born. When I was 40 weeks, 1 day I had a dr. appt. and the dr. said that I could be induced in another week. WHAT?????? I was NOT going another day being pregnant. So, I went home, and took 2 T. of Castor oil, as I had done with the previous 2 pregnancies, and waited to see if it put me into labor. About 5:30 pm I was getting a bit frustrated and wasn't feeling great so Eric & my mom took the kids to the park. My stomach started hurting but it wasn't contractions so I wasn't sure that it was labor. It hurt like crazy though. Eric called about 6:30 and I was pretty sure that we needed to go to the hospital but he didn't get home until about 7 pm. At that point, the pain that I was experiencing had turned into timeable contractions and they hurt. They were at the point where I needed an epidural with Morgan and I was STILL AT HOME. Ughh. It was the hardest thing I did to say goodbye to Morgan & Drew without scaring them by the pain that I was in. I could have knocked Eric out too. I am in crazy pain and he wants to IRON HIS PANTS before we went into the hospital. Are you kidding me????? Put the stinkin' pants on and let's go.

We get to the hospital and they don't have a labor room cleaned up yet so we were put into a post-partum room. I was checked and was at 4-5 cen. I immediately asked for the epidural but they couldn't give me one until I had a bag full of fluids first. NOOOOOOO!!!! They did give me some Stadol and then proceeded to ask me to sign a bunch of papers. Hello - I am on another planet and you want me to answer questions and sign documents? Seriously? Why the heck did I pre-register if I was going to have to do all this???? I've heard many say that Stadol doesn't take the pain of the contractions away and is worthless but I have to tell you, it took the edge off the pain enough to make me happy. They said it would last 30 minutes and I kept close watch on that clock. I finally got moved to a real labor room and the epidural guy was called. The Stadol started wearing off and wow, that was some stinkin' pain. I remember just crying that I couldn't do this anymore while Eric sat there trying to convince me that I could.

FINALLY the epidural guy shows up. I sit up to get the epidural and it was the strangest feeling, unlike the past 2 times. It literally felt like I was sitting on Owen's head, like he was right there. I sure as heck wasn't about to tell them either until I got the stinkin' drugs!

Epidural in and working and the nurse checks me. I am 9 cms. dilated and the only thing holding Owen in was my bag of waters. The nurses can't break the water, only the dr., so we waited. About 20-30 minutes later the dr. shows up & breaks my water. Shortly there after I started to push and out comes Owen without much work.

He was born 2 hours after getting to the hospital, around 10:30 pm (I think). This was nice because both Morgan & Drew were born around 3 am. He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 21 inches long.

After Owen was born, in the delivery room, Eric & I decided to change his name and include his grandpa's name - Lester. It seemed funny to many that we had two middle names but they both were special to us. We wanted to honor our grandfathers and so we named our little boy Owen Lester Francis.

My wonderful mom had come out for 2 weeks to help me with each of my children but had gotten there shortly after we were released from the hospital the previous two times. It's hard to plan flights in advance for obvious reasons. It was so special to be able to have her come up to the hospital within the first hour of Owen's birth and hold him. I love that memory!

So, here we are, two years later. He's still my baby. Such a cute little man.

Happy Birthday Owen!

Here are some pics:

Me, in labor, ready to get to the hospital. Don't I just look *great*?



Minutes after Owen was born.

Funny picture of Owen just after he was born.


Newborn photos (less than 2 weeks old I believe)

My three kiddos (Morgan was 3, almost 4, Drew was 22 months, Owen was less than 2 weeks)