Owen

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

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!

In a strange turn of events, the doctor came in this morning and said that there’s really no need to keep Amy at the hospital while she’s being as stable as she has been. So, before he could change his mind, we packed up and came home. Amy’s still on bedrest, but at least it’s in her own bed. She’s also still on her medication to keep her from contracting, so hopefully we’ll have a few days of rest before Owen starts to act up again!

It’s been a while since the last post. That’s because not much has changed. That’s a good thing. The longer Owen stays inside, the better. Amy seems to have defied the odds keeping as stable as she is. Yesterday, however, was a little different. It was definitely the most active day we’ve seen as far as contractions. She had several, only two of which they caught on the health monitor. It doesn’t look like we’re going home for a while, at least until she gets to 35 weeks.

On another note, I now have internet access via a cell phone card. This is my first experience using one, and so far it’s alright. It’s fast enough to get my work done, but it’s slow enough to notice.

If you’d like to send a note to Amy, you can email her at amy@moonlantern.com.

This is Amy’s 5th day in the hospital. Up until now, the doctors have said that there’s really no chance of Amy going home until she delivers. But this morning, we got some different news. Because Amy is responding so well to the medication that keeps her from contracting, they may let her go home sometime next week. She’ll be on bedrest, just like now, but at least it will be at home. Amy’s primary doctor gets back on Saturday, so we’ll know more then.