Owen is A-Growin!

Mr. Magoo, Dino, the Cowardly Lion: just a few nicknames for our littlest man, Owen! These past 2 months have gone by very fast. And Owen has kept us on our toes (although he is the easiest part of having 2 kids). Everyone who has seen him recently is surprised that he is only 9 weeks old-they think he is older. We are excited to take him to his 2 month appointment to see how much he has grown.

Although, we knew our kids would be different from one another, it has been quite interesting to see just how different they are. For instance, Graham loved to be swaddled and would sit in his swing or bouncer happily while sucking on a pacifier or sleeping. Owen, however, has shown no interest in being swaddled or his pacifier and would rather be held. He usually starts fussing as soon as we put him in his swing and somehow knows when the person holding him has sat down-the little stinker!

Also, Owen started life with a bit of gas. Nothing that caused too much pain, but he would definitely grunt and struggle to work things out. We found that he was much more comfortable on his stomach and although this is not the suggested position for sleeping, we are making it work. It's a good thing they now have movement monitors that alarm parents when baby has stopped breathing/moving.

Owen has also been doing a great job at breastfeeding. We are exclusively breastfeeding without needing to supplement with formula and clearly our little chunker is getting all the nutrition he needs.

Another new thing we have done with Owen is cloth diapering. A couple of weeks in Owen was really red in the diaper region and often sticking to the mesh in his diapers. Since, my sister was nearby and had all sorts of cloth diaper paraphernalia we decided to give it a try to see if it helped to clear things up. Luckily, it did and you can often catch little Owen with a "fluffy" butt.

Please enjoy these photos of Owen...

Brothers

Snuggling with Aunt Erica

Our chubby checker

Momma and Owen

The classic "Daddy and me" shot

Playing with Auntie Bethany and Uncle Brandon

Monthly photos-can you see a difference?

Play time!

Owen and Grandma

Uncle Jordon!

Owen in one of his cuter cloth diapers
Smiling at around 8 weeks

Graham at 15 Months

Graham is now 15 months old! He has almost mastered walking, though still doesn't quite have a good sense of what's around him... so get out of the way! He's getting pretty adept at stairs as well, and is now mixing in "stepping" up and down stairs (on just his feet) along with scootching or climbing up and down.

Here are some pictures of Graham at Gymboree, playing with Grandma and Uncle Jordon. While Graham hasn't gotten to Gymboree as much recently with all of the turmoil of moving, he loves going with his cousin, Nellie!






Graham LOVES his Daddy. Of course, he loves his Momma too... but he seems to be infatuated with Daddy to the point of crying when he leaves a room! Graham loves tackling Dad and chasing after Dad in order to catch him. Here are some action pics!






Graham's beginning to sign, and is doing a good job with "More" (which also seems to mean "I'm hungry") and "Milk" (which also seems to mean "I'm thirsty"). We're hoping he begins to use words soon as well... he's babbling quite a bit!

Here are some more photos of Graham and our happy family! We hope to have more pics and to post them more frequently soon!

A Quick Clark Update

Well, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. But we have been extremely busy. The last two months have been filled with figuring out a new routine now that we have an additional family member, completing the building of our house, packing and moving and unpacking! Plus all of the other things that come along with moving into a brand new house. I (Lorri) feel like I've been a prisoner of my own home. I've had to be home to let a multitude of people in for various items. Conversely, Alex has been home even less with the start of his graduate school classes. But we are beginning to feel at home in our new place. We have wallpaper in our powder room, a fabulous faux treatment in our foyer/living room area, gorgeous landscaping, some new furniture, and 95% of our boxes unpacked. Once (most) everything in the boxes has found a home we will post pictures of the new abode. Hopefully, that won't be too long from now.

Now Introducing: Owen Alexander Clark!

A typical Friday for Graham and me usually includes a trip to Gymboree class and running some errands. What it does not typically include, however, is my water breaking in the parking lot of the United States Post Office.

Now, it wasn't quite like what you see in the movies. It was more like me looking around wide eyed and thinking, "Hmmm, did I just pee my pants a little?" As many pregnant women know, this (peeing just a little bit) is not necessarily an unusual occurrence. But I had been having this weird Mommy Intuition about our little Owen all week. So, instead of heading to the airport to pick up my good friend Cristyn, I drove home first to assess the situation. I decided that my water indeed had broken.

I called Alex, who was literally at the gate waiting to board a plane to Pennsylvania for a wedding, and said, "Hey babe, I don't want to be over dramatic or anything but I think my water broke". So, he scooped up his things, went to find Cristyn (talk about perfect timing) and drove the 10 minutes home to pick me up. Here is a photo of us ready to head to the birth center.

Next, some documentation of the bump that I've been putting together. I was going to wait until 36 weeks to post. But since Owen had other plans we snapped a few baby bump photos before we left.


We arrived at the birth center at 2:20 p.m. (water broke at 12:30 p.m.) and were placed into triage to be monitored and readied for the birthing room. Mind you, I was not having any painful contractions yet. I was having what I thought to be Braxton Hicks contractions, which are really just my uterus hardening - no pain at all, my stomach just gets really hard. When they checked me to see if I was dilated they found me to be fully effaced, 4.5 cm dilated, and Owen's head was extremely low. We were really surprised at my progress especially for not having any pain.

The next few hours were spent relaxing in our birthing room. They didn't check me again until 5:30 and, unfortunately, there was no change. So, they started me on a little Pitocin and things began to rock and roll! The Pitocin caused my contractions to come closer together and become more intense... fast. My epidural was administered at about 6:45 p.m. I literally went from no pain to "are they coming?" in less than an hour. Once the epidural was in, things went extremely fast. There was a lot of hustle and bustle due to the nurses switching shifts and calling the doctor and baby nurses and getting them to the room. Then it was time to push. I pushed through 2 sets of contractions and little Owen arrived - albeit 30 days early.

Owen Alexander Clark
Born 7/1/11 at 7:30 p.m.
5 lbs 13 oz, 19 3/4 inches

Tonight, Momma and Daddy got to hold Owen for the first time. He spent his first night on earth attached to a CPAP machine along with countless other wires that made holding him impossible. However, Owen has been improving rapidly. His lungs, rather than being underdeveloped, were determined to be "wet," and his breathing has since improved to the point where he is now taking in "room air." Owen still has air being pushed through his lungs through small tubes, but this is just as an aide.

Owen's next big step will be eating. He is currently taking his nourishment through IV... a "scientific umbilical cord," as it were. As soon as he starts showing interest in milk, he will be one step closer to leaving the NICU. Finally, Owen has been decked out in a sweet tanning bed to combat oncoming jaundice - a common occurrence among Colorado Springs babies that his brother, Graham, dealt with as well.

Owen's timeline for returning home has been placed at anywhere between one week and his original due date (July 31). Momma and Daddy are hoping for closer to the former!

Graham's Toddling!

Over the last week, Graham has been much more adventurous as he learns how to walk! He has amped up his "cruising," frequently moving from one piece of furniture to the next on two feet. And, while he has not been able to take more than a couple of steps on his own without support, he has begun taking the "leaps of faith."

Here, we've caught his best attempt yet at walking on his own... spurred by his best buddy, Brannock! It's only a matter of time now...



Next, we have a fun video of Graham with his favorite toys: balls. Daddy's also having some fun... at Graham's expense. But Graham seems to love it! :)

Happy Birthday: Graham Turns 1

Well, we did it. We all got through Graham's first year! Our little man quickly went from newborn to infant to toddler. And next up... big brother. We know he's going to do great. Us we're not so sure about (see amount of change in Graham's swear jar)!

At his 1 year milestone, Graham is not walking yet (so Daddy won the bet) but is "cruising" around the furniture and standing like a "big boy" unassisted. He's smart, however, and realizes he can crawl faster than he could walk, so he will lower himself to crawl to his destination. But we know that walking will come soon enough. His next challenges will be getting the rest of his teeth (he only has 5 which he loves to brush) and weaning himself off of formula, baby food, and pacifier. He currently only uses his "paci" at nap time and nights... or when Momma and Daddy need a break :)

We had a low key birthday celebration for Graham. Here are some photos from his birthday weekend. As well as a quick look back at Graham over his first year.

Graham's new swing and slide combo
from Grammie and Grandpa Clark

And by the way, it takes longer than 20 minutes
to assemble, contrary to what the box says.

A little montage of Graham
opening his presents and eating cake.

A look back... can't believe how he's grown!

Memorial Day Weekend in SF & 31 Week Photos

For Memorial Day Weekend, we headed to San Francisco! It was a last hurrah of sorts before Owen comes along... just two months away!

We were a bit nervous about the flights since it was the first time we traveled with Graham when he was quite mobile. Our last trip was to Hawaii and he wasn't crawling yet. Luckily, he did really well! One of the flights out he was a bit overtired and had to "cry it out" for 5 minutes before conking out, but other than that he was a great little traveler.

We kept the trip pretty low key. We knew we couldn't pack too much in with Graham. But it was perfect and relaxing! Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 took up most of our first day. We spent our time wandering around the boardwalk, visiting the aquarium and watching the sea lions. We also ate lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe!

Daddy and Graham outside of Hard Rock Cafe

The Pier 39 Aquarium had a cool underwater tunnel.

As cute as he looks, Graham did NOT get a Nemo hat.

Graham made a new friend at Pier 39!

Perhaps our most exciting moment of the day came on the trolly car ride to Fisherman's Wharf, however. A man and two "strangers" came onto the trolly car and tried to get us to play a cup-and-ball game. One of the "strangers" won $100! Why, it looked so easy!!! Needless to say, Daddy did not take the bait, and acted like a good Samaritan when, upon being told that the main cup-and-ball man had just returned from Vegas and didn't need the money, Daddy told him that there were plenty of other people who needed the $100 more than he did.

On day 2, we visited Golden Gate Park. There is LOTS to do there, so we only scratched the surface. We visited the California Academy of Sciences (?), which may have been the COOLEST part of the trip, quite honestly. The museum is fantastic, with a terrific four-story rainforest "dome" habitat, a great aquarium, and penguins! We also visited a Japanese Tea Garden and had a brief picnic before a smattering of rain brought an early end to the day.

The California Academy of Sciences aquarium was better than Pier 39.

Playtime before the rain came.

That night, we also ate some great Chinese food in Chinatown! Graham got to try some spicy food and, much to Daddy's delight, he loved it! Though, he needed some water after a bit of munching on a dumpling! I guess he got some of Mom's genes!

Graham's already better with chopsticks than Daddy!

That's SPICY!

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. For breakfast, we visited with some of Daddy's relatives [David and Jonelle Clark] who also happened to be vacationing in San Francisco. Then, we went to Golden Gate Bridge. The day was gorgeous... but windy! It was certainly chilly, and with Momma well into her third trimester, a walk across the full 1.7-mile bridge was not in the cards. Later that day, we wandered the streets of downtown San Francisco, and Graham did some good people-watching.

A beautiful day in San Francisco!

Hi Daddy!

All-in-all, it was a wonderful family vacation that Graham will remember forever... thanks to our pictures. ;) Next stop: Owen's pending arrival! Here are some photos of Momma and Owen at 31 weeks!