Owen's first 60 hours...

What a roller-coaster of a time we've had transitioning to life with Owen...things started out great, but we've had a few hiccups along the way. While my labor went really well, the delivery was a bit of a challenge...my OB discovered that Owen was "sunny-side up" and was concerned that this would cause it to be hard to deliver him. Pushing was pretty painful, and at the end his big shoulders got stuck and caused some concern for the doctor...apparently when this happens, the doctor has a window of less than 5 minutes to get baby out before there are real complications...including a risk of death! Thankfully he didn't tell me this until after Owen was safe in my arms. Let's just say without getting too "TMI" about it that this caused the last pushes to be excruciating and I'm in some pretty substantial pain even now. Totally worth it, though!

Here's my favorite picture of Todd with his son thus far...Owen loves to be cuddled, and we LOVE to oblige... :)

At about 2 this morning when the nurse was checking Owen's vitals, I asked about his coloring. We'd gone through a bout of jaundice with Hailey, so it was at the top of my list of concerns. Also, the severe bruising to Owen's head while being delivered, Hailey's history, and being breastfed put him into a higher risk category. She checked his skin and his blood and sure enough, his biliruben count was way critical and they started him on light therapy right away. I was heartbroken because this not only meant we weren't going home that afternoon, but I'd have to give my brand new baby to the nursery nurses to have him in the light bed ALL THE TIME. And I do mean all the time. I can nurse him for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time and then he's back in the bed. No one else can even hold him. We did, however, get encouraging news this afternoon that his levels had dropped very slightly and that the light therapy was working...PTL! The night nurse on duty now said she'd be really surprised if he wasn't well enough to come home sometime tomorrow, but we'll just have to see... :)

Yesterday in the morning my Papa Dale - Owen's GREAT-grandpa - came for a visit. He's the sweetest man around...

Here's Hails...proving once again that she's going to be one awesome big sister... :)

Tonight at about 3 in the morning, when called into the nursery to feed, Owen got pretty restless and fussy...he wasn't latching and we were having a hard time figuring out what he needed. I put him on my chest and he immediately calmed down and fell asleep. It was such a precious moment! He just needed his mommy and I was happy to just hold him there! (Thankfully this night nurse is very relaxed and turned her head while I held him for a bit :)

We're beyond words excited about the arrival of our sweet baby boy. Thank you, everyone for your prayers and encouraging words... :)

Sweet, Sweet Baby...

Owen Garrett Yost, born at 3:48pm on May 27, 2009 Weighing in at 8 lbs, 13 oz!!

Look at how awake and alert he is tonight! :)
Here is our new family...of FOUR!!

Here's Hailey, the new Big Sister holding Owen for the first time. She loves him already!

Here's Hailey's first glance at her new baby brother...

I am in LOVE...it's really true that when you have a second child your heart grows to fit them in... :)

We are so thankful for everyone's prayers today. It was a great day...

Ummm...not exactly what I meant, Todd...

Now that it's getting nicer out, we decided it was time to get out the blow up pool, clean it up, and get it filled. Sadly, we couldn't find the air plugs for it. I then sent Todd to Fred Meyer to find another blow up pool on the Memorial Day Weekend Sale...

He came home with this...
Not exactly what I meant, but I guess it'll do... :)

Just the 3 of us...

A huge thank you to Shawna, Stacy and Keener for our awesome zoo membership! We'll have TONS of fun over the next year visiting all the animals... :)

Look!! Hailey is as tall as a baby polar bear! :)

She LOVED the elephants...

...and being on her Daddy's shoulders...

I think this place is quickly becoming one of our faves...

The Weekend's Agenda...

*Enjoying this quiet morning to myself while Todd's working and Hailey spent the night at her grandma & grandpa's.
*Some folding of laundry, organizing here and there, and a trip to the grocery store
*A "secret project" in Owen's room...I'll be sure to post pics as soon as it's done! :)
*Continue the search for denim capri's that will fit my daughter. No such luck so far, but when I'm on a mission, I'm on a MISSION!
*Keep this boy IN...my mom's out of town and would just DIE if he came while she's gone...in fact, she's already got a float plane on standby to fly her out of Malibu if I do go into labor...don't worry, Dad...I'll do my best to save you the $1000 plane ride!! :)
*Soaking up my weekend with Hails...and be praying for her...she's so excited to welcome her baby brother, but I can already sense her acting out a bit because she knows things are a changin'...there have been a few extra fits and outbursts over the past couple of weeks. The balance between loving her to pieces so she feels secure and disciplining the bad behavior has been tough...but it's absolutely what God would have us do as parents...it's what He does with us too, right?!? :)

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! :)

Summer's on the way!

On Sunday, since it was 80 degrees out, we went outside and Hailey played with the hose...we tried the sprinkler, but she liked the control of just using the hose. :)

Recently, Todd taught Hails how to plant dandelion seeds...awesome. :)

One random morning, she wanted to wear her "ballerina". She ran around in it all day long...so cute. :)

We brought the infant seat in from the garage so I could get it cleaned up for Owen, and ever since I can always count on finding Hailey in it...or one of her baby dolls strapped in!

And last, but not least, here's her new favorite spot to just chill...she's getting way too big way too fast if you ask me!! :)

Special Snuggles

Ever since Hailey was born, she has NOT been interested in cuddling. She's just too busy for that kind of thing, I guess...until lately. The other night I was exhausted, so I went to take a little snooze in my bed...and was joined by a little visitor. She snuggled right in and I was in HEAVEN! I mean, even when I'm tucking her in at night if I stay too long she says, "Mommy go in her bed?". I could get used to this... :)

Missing you, Bramma...

While going through some of our old pictures from when Hails was born, I found these...and I'm sobbing...I don't know if anyone was more excited for Hailey to arrive than my Grandma Pauline! Even in the midst of some pretty significant health challenges, she was there for as much as she could be. It was not easy for her to come up and sit all evening in the waiting room while I was in labor, but she did it anyway. She was NOT going to miss the birth of her first great grandchild!

Now, with Owen coming so soon, I feel this bittersweet longing for her to be here to share in this next chapter with us, but thankful that she's with Jesus in Heaven with a perfectly healthy body...

I miss her so much.

A Case of the Sillies...

Todd and I were tucking Hailey in tonight when she started this...

Hailey: Dear Jesus, I love you, bless Mommy, Daddy, Owen...

Todd: ...Grandma...Grandpa...

Hailey: Grandmath...Grandpath... (insert huge giggle here...from all three of us!)

Todd: Silly girl...now pray for Nana...

Hailey: ...Nanath... (giggle, giggle)...Papath...

Needless to say, the rest of prayer time took a little longer than usual, due to Hailey laughing at herself after she added a "th" sound to every name on her prayer list...then she had the hiccups...Todd had to get her a drink of water...you get the drift...

Goofy girl!

Our Productive Saturday...

We finally got around to hanging some stuff on the walls in the basement...above are two framed pictures of two of our favorite places (Malibu and the camp formerly known as Wildhorse Canyon...WFR). Below is a set of wooden skis that Todd's had since before we got married and this cool shelf we got on clearance at Pottery Barn about a year ago that has speakers and an iPod jack in it...

We re-arranged the toys in the basement to make room for the baby swing...and hung up this alphabet poster that Hailey just loves.

And the mammoth task of the day was organizing the pit that our laundry room had become. We got three sets of metal shelves from Ikea, took EVERYTHING out, threw out so much junk, and put it all back in. I can barely move tonight... :)

Ummm...nesting much? :)

Bargains, bargains, bargains...

I decided to try to be a bargain shopper when re-doing the baby room. My first bargain was the fun boy bedding I found on clearance at Babies R Us...love it.

Thank you Grandma Patty for finding these blue Pottery Barn curtains at your neighbor's garage sale for $3!!

My favorite project so far is this little collection of letters. I wanted bigger letters since Owen's name is so short, but couldn't find any I liked...so I bought these, painted them cream, and put them on brown painted canvases. For now they're on the shelf...I kind of like it there.

Now all that's left is some kind of picture for above his crib, hanging the framed Michael Jordan poster above his changing table that Todd found tonight (he's had it since he was little...and it's been a source of grief in our marriage since the beginning! :), and choosing a few of Todd's old model cars for his other shelf beside the window...BUT none of this is necessary, so COME AS SOON AS YOU WANT, BABY BOY!! :)

Every time I turn around...

She's doing something crazy!! Here she is in a basket. Don't ask me how she got in here by herself. :)

Goofy girl!! :)

So ready to be a BIG SIS!!

Hailey has become obsessed with baby dolls lately. A foreshadowing, perhaps?? :) She loves to snuggle them, wrap them in Owen's blankets, and her favorite is tucking them in and saying prayers with them. The other day she insisted on getting in Owen's bed with her baby so she could tuck her in...

"Tuck a taco", she says.

"I go sleeping too, Mommy..."

There they are...all tucked in. :)

This girl is gonna be such a good big sister...

And in other baby news, I had my 36 week appt today (two days early due to scheduling) and my doc says things are looking perfect! Measuring good, strong heartbeat...when squishing around my belly to determine the baby's position, he found that he's head down and doesn't think he'll be any bigger than Hailey was. GOOD! :)

Workin' our way out of debt...

A while back we decided that it was time to be done making a car and boat payment. This was a bit of a painful decision (especially for my water-sports LOVING husband). We prayed about it and the Lord did the miraculous and in this economy we were able to sell our boat for more than what we paid for it!! Yay God! We then decided to use cash to buy a car. We considered many options...mini-van (Yes, Mom...I remember all those times in high school when I said I'd NEVER drive a mini-van), a smaller SUV, and then settled on the wagon (formerly known as the STATION WAGON!!). Thankfully, my visions of the car driven by Mike and Carol Brady were pleasantly replaced with this! We drove 10 cars this week and drove everywhere from Lynnwood to Tacoma...and the Lord made it clear with every single one that they were NOT the car for us. Either the price was too high, mileage was too high, or the condition of the car wasn't what we were hoping for. Finally, God led us to this 2004 Passat Wagon and it is just perfect for our little family!

Now we're asking Him to quickly provide us a buyer for our Yukon...so if you think of it, pray for that. :)