Owen Daniel

Owen was due to join our family on August 28th.  The C-section was scheduled for August 22nd and my Mom had her flight to come and help with the kids.  Owen had other plans.  On Saturday night (8/13) I had a dream that I went into labor in the middle of the night and we had no idea what to do with the kids.  All day on Sunday I had this nagging feeling that I needed a backup plan just in case and I made lists in my mind of what I needed to do to get the kids ready just in case.  I gave in and texted a couple of friends to put them on alert.  I have had a couple of my dreams come true so it was pretty funny when the contractions started early Monday morning.  I went downstairs and time the contractions for a while.  They were not going away and were about 4-5 minutes apart.  I woke up Dan and called the doctor's office.  They said I should come in.  I called my friend who came was amazing and came over to the house so that we didn't have to wake up the kids.  Dan and I went in. They took their time at the hospital getting me setup.  The on-call doctor was already doing another unscheduled C-section so we had to wait around.  The contractions picked up quickly and were very painful.  As much as I wanted Owen to come early I could have dealt with not experiencing labor.  Finally after a couple of hours we went back to the surgery room and I got my spinal!   Hallelujah!  Owen Daniel was born Monday morning, August 15th.  He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz.  His first apgar score was low and made us a little nervous.  He struggled breathing and keeping his oxygen levels up so they kept him in the special care nursery....for 6 days!  It was a rough week.  Our friends and Dan juggled the boys until my Mom could get here.  Her boss is amazing and let her leave early to come and help.  On Owen's chest x-rays there was a cloudy spot that could possibly have been pneumonia so they treated him with antibiotics just in case.  He seemed fine but then occasionally for not obvious reason his oxygen levels would drop.  It was hard to leave him in the nursery all the time.  On Tuesday he was struggling so much they wanted to keep him under the oxygen hood so I was not allowed to nurse him.  It was a long week and made it hard to rest and recovery for me, but we got to bring home our healthy little boy on the following Sunday.  We sure love our Owen.  He was blessed to come home to 3 older brothers that adore him!  We are so grateful for all of our friends and neighbors for help with the boys and meals. My mom and Dan's mom were both able to come and help.  Thank you!

Last prego picture...yikes!