Announcing Owen Nathaniel Maynard

It's true. We finally had our baby boy! Owen Nathaniel Maynard entered the world with a big splash (more on that in a moment) on Sunday, September 25. He is lucky enough to share a birthday with his mommy. Owen's birth was certainly was the best birthday present I've ever received! Owen weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. We didn't name him until today...I wasn't kidding when we said we didn't have a name going into this! But we are really excited about Owen and it fits him perfectly. And I really wanted to name him after his daddy, hence Nathaniel. He is doing very well health-wise and is a great sleeper and eater (at least for now!). We are beyond overjoyed to have welcomed him to our little family.

This will forever be engrained in our memories as the week when two Maynard girls ended up in unexpected surgery under general anesthesia. As if Cate's broken arm and operation weren't enough , Owen's birth proved to be just as, shall we say, exciting.

Sunday was the 41 week mark for the pregnancy. We were scheduled to go in that morning for an induction, but I started having contractions Saturday night and we ended up at the hospital 3 hours earlier than we had planned. Everything was calm and progressing steadily, and in fact Nate and I got a little bit of sleep that morning (after I had literally been up the entire night timing contractions on the iPad). My contractions slowed down a bit, so they started me on pitocin, at which point I decided to get an epidural. The epidural went in and not long after that my water broke, which is when the craziness ensued. I will not go into all the gory details, but essentially the water breaking caused some complications, which led to a prolapsed umbilical cord (the cord comes out before the baby). From the moment they discovered the prolapsed cord to Owen's birth was only 6 minutes...I was whisked so quickly into the OR both of our heads were spinning. I ended up having to go under general anesthesia (if you want the details on THAT I'll have to tell you in person!), but woke up fine and met our sweet little man about 2 hours after his birth. Needless to say I was a blubbering basket case when Nate rolled him into our postpartum room. I have never been more happy to take someone in my arms and shower them with love.

Owen is beautiful and perfect and we are so grateful he has joined our family. He is simply perfect and his presence is a miracle.

Without further ado...pictures. And lots of 'em. To see them up closer, just click on the photos.

This is his serious pose.

This is what Anna would do when she was little...suck thumb, pull ear!

This picture makes me cry. This is right after I met Owen (two hours later than I should have)...it captures so much for me.

I love this photo.

And this one.

The girls are SO cute with him.

Pictured: two proud sisters and two grandparents who literally saved the day the last two weeks. Don't know what we would have done without them through all the craziness.

Anna was SO cute the first time she met Owen. Really really sweet.

Cate was SO cute, too. Can't wait until the cast is off and she can hold him on her own!

Cate Home from the Hospital

Just downloaded photos from my camera. Took these on Tuesday night when Cate came home from the hospital. These photos are just too sweet. P.S. She is much happier and more energetic now. :) The dog is Frankie (Frank for short, Cate tells us). Frankie was a gift from one of the ER nurses. P.S. #2: People who work in pediatrics are angels.

Update!

Thought I would take a second to do a quick update on happenings in the Maynard home!

First off, we originally scheduled our induction for Baby Boy Maynard for tomorrow, 9/23. But we've moved it out two days to Sunday, 9/25...yup, my birthday! Cate woke up in the middle of the night last night in a lot of pain, so we wanted to put a couple more days between her surgery and the baby's birth. And, by inducing on Sunday, Grandma Phyllis will be here when we head to the hospital, so Grandma and Grandpa can tag-team taking care of the girls the day we have the baby instead of leaving Grandpa Hans alone with an invalid 6-year-old and stubborn 3-year-old (both of which are super duper cuties, btw!). This new date should be better for everyone involved!

Second, here's the Cate update! As many of you know, Cate broke her arm on Monday night. She fell off a zipline at the playground after soccer practice. No parents saw the actual event, so we're not entirely sure how the arm broke. Regardless, it was a really good break, which necessitated surgery with an orthopedic surgeon. She had to spend the night at the hospital on Monday, then surgery on Tuesday. They did not have to cut open her skin and only had to put in two pins instead of the 4 they originally thought. After recovering at the hospital all day, we brought her home Tuesday night. We met with the surgeon today and it looks like she has to have this cast and the pins for 3 weeks, then she'll just be in a sling for 1 week after that. Woo-hoo! It's amazing how FAST those young bones can heal.  She is being a really good girl. As long as we've got medicine in her, she's not in much pain and she's moving around quite well today. In fact, she's going to try to going to school tomorrow. Yea!

So, that's the latest. No baby tomorrow. Unless he decides to come on his own, of course. But I'm not holding my breath. If I didn't go into labor through all this arm business, I don't think anything can put me into labor on my own!

Cate the Feminist...even under dire circumstances

Right now Nate is taking Cate to the emergency room. She hurt her arm on the playground after soccer practice. I'm praying it's not broken...everyone pray along, please! (Especially considering we're one day past the due date for Baby Boy...good timing, eh?)

My dad was with them and he was just telling me about how he was asking Cate where it hurt. They narrowed it down to the elbow area. He said to Cate, "When you go to the emergency room, make sure you point out exactly where it hurts to the doctor so he can help you."

She's in a lot of pain, crying, not happy, and without a lost beat said, "Or her."

Gotta love that girl. Poor little thing...

UPDATE: Her arm is broken. Bad break above the elbow, and the orthopaedic surgeon has to reposition the elbow before the cast. Poor little Cate...Nate says she's really out of it, which I guess is better than being in lots of pain. Poor girl. Send happy vibes her way!