Family

My sincere apologies to my mother, who was holding out for a girl after already having 6 male grandchildren, but it looks like she’ll be having lucky number 7, because we’re having another boy!

Amy’s only 14 weeks along right now, so we weren’t scheduled to get an ultrasound for another month or so.  However, it seems events have transpired to allow us to find out sooner than expected.  Early Wednesday morning around 3:00 am Amy woke up with some slight bleeding, which to any expecting woman is definitely not a good thing.  We got hold of the on-call doctor who calmed our nerves a little bit, but still made sure we came in early that morning to check things out.  They did an ultrasound to make sure the baby was moving, and he definitely was!  He was stretching and kicking and smiling… not to mention showing off his wobbly bits.

So we found out early.  We haven’t quite decided on names yet, but we’re close.

I’ve decided to refresh my photography skills and post more pictures, so here’s a start:

Wow, six months have passed since Owen was born. To commemorate the day, Amy and I took Owen out the arboretum for some pictures.

Owen - 6 months old

A few people have asked about the picture wall I made for Amy’s Christmas present. Here it is:

The most time-consuming part of the project was creating the design for the arrangment of the pictures. The hardest part was actually putting the pictures on the wall. It wouldn’t have been so hard if the hooks on the backs of all the frames had been the same place, but they seemed to be randomly placed on there. My method for getting the frames in the correct place was actually Amy’s idea. I’d fold the hook down and tape a push pin with the point sticking out right where the nail would touch the hook. Then I could just push the frame where I wanted it and the pin stuck in the wall. Simple but very effective.

Hope you had plenty of turkey. Pictures from the family outings are posted:

• Mom and Dad’s
• Riverhouse

Also, Owen is 3 months old today! Wow, that has gone too fast. The latest pictures of him:

• Owen - 3 months old

Tomorrow Owen will be three weeks old.

Lots has happened since my last post. We came home a few weeks ago. Owen was eating well, but seemed very tired all the time. He was also turning very yellow. It turned out he was very jaundice.

For those of you like me that want to know what that means, jaundice is a term for a very high level of bilirubin, a chemical produced by the natural breakdown of red blood cells. A person’s liver processes bilirubin, and many baby’s immature livers have a hard time breaking it down fast enough.

Owen’s bilirubin level was 18.6 at its peak, dangerously high for a newborn. He had to be put on phototheraphy, meaning that he had to sit on some special lights for a few days. It wasn’t an invasive process, but it was hard to not be able to pick him up for three days. He also had to go on a forumla-only diet. Apparently, formula makes the bilirubin level drop faster than nursing. It all seems to have worked, his bilirubin level is fine now.

We’re all just trying to find a rhythm now. I was able to help feed Owen for a while. Since we were feeding him formula, Amy and I could leap frog the night feedings, giving each of us some sleep. Now Amy’s nursing, which is great for Owen, but there’s just not a lot I can do during feeding time. So I usually get a good night’s sleep and Amy just sleeps whenever Owen does.

I’ve got more pictures posted:

• Still at the hospital
• Finally at home
• 3 weeks old

Also, I changed the format of the photos section. If you see something broken, please let me know.

The first round of pictures has been posted.

Owen Seamus Barry was born August 27, 2006 at 11:08 pm. He had a head full of hair, weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz and was 19.5 inches long. For being a month early, that’s a great weight.

Amy pushed for a little over 3 hours before delivering. For a while there, we thought she was going to have to get a c-section, but at the last minute, it seemed the impossible happened: Owen crowned. His face was turned sideways, which made the whole process very difficult for both him and Amy. As a result, his head was a little boxy, but that will go down after a few days.

I can’t explain how I feel right now. It feels like my heart has swelled past the rest of my body. It feels like since we’ve been talking about him for so long that I’ve known him forever, but then I’m surprised when I look over and see my son. Wow, my son… I’ll have to get used to that.

He’s sleeping right now. Be prepared, lots of picture are coming.

She’ll start pushing in about 30-45 minutes. The average pushing time for a first baby is about two hours.

Just hours before her baby shower, Amy started feeling pretty strange. We came to the doctor, and it turns out she had ruptured. The doctor broke her water and started her on medication to make her contract. That’s ironic, because just this morning, she was taking medication to keep her from contracting. She started having contractions quickly, minutes after each other, so she went ahead and asked for the epidural. About ten minutes ago she had the epidural, and now she’s feeling no pain.

Looks like we’ll have a baby in a few hours!