Real Funny, Nate.

Last night was brutal. Owen kept me up forEVER so I'm pretty tired today. He was asleep this afternoon so I put him in his bed and he actually stayed asleep, so I was looking forward to another {mostly likely too short} nap. Of course when I went in the room to lay down, about 30 seconds in Owen started making noises, then I heard a big BLAST and sure enough, he pooped and woke himself up. Defeated, I got up and took Owen out to the family room to change him.

When I walked in the room, I said to Sara Beth (who is here being a HUGE help right now) and Nate, "Guess who's bowels woke him up from R.E.M. sleep just now?"

Nate replied, "Yours?"

Hardy har har. Actually, I did laugh. Pretty hard. Reminded me a lot of this conversation. Glad I married someone funny.

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!

All She Wants for Christmas...

On Monday, Cate's second top front tooth came out, so she is officially without her two front teeth! Just in time, too, as the first one is already starting to grow in!

Anna's First Day of School

Today was Anna's first day of school! Unlike last year, she knew what she was going into and was genuinely excited, in her quiet Anna kind of way. She is going to the same classroom and has the same teachers as last year, so I think that helps, especially with with her personality.

She also was much more cooperative with the 1st day of school photo shoot before we left this morning. She had picked out her outfit and was more than ready to say "cheese" for the camera. (Although, last year's non-cooperation did yield some pretty awesome photos of her cute and sometimes funny little face!)

She was cuddly during drop-off, but had no problem when we left. Our little girl is growing up!

When Nate went to take the picture of Anna and me together, Anna was so cute and told him to make sure to get baby brother in the picture too. What a sweetie.

First Haircut and First Grade!

Last week Anna had her FIRST HAIRCUT! Yes, she's almost 4 and it's the first time scissors have touched her hair. Since she's so old, it was painless and easy. She was such a good girl! The lock I kept for her {sorely neglected} baby book has a tinge of green from a summer of swimming!

Cate got a haircut too. She's an old pro. This time we put some long layers in and her hair is as gorgeous as ever!

Yesterday Cate started FIRST GRADE. I can't believe we have a first grader. It blows me away. Her first grade teacher seems wonderful. She loves frogs and has them all over the classroom, and she reminds us of Ms. Glass from the Fancy Nancy books.

She may be a big first grader, but her book bag reminds us how small she still is.

Cate has her very own desk for the first time ever. She gets to go to recess three times a day. And she's uber excited about a family reading party that their class will be having at some point. She separately gave Nate and I the rundown on that event in great detail. I am just so excited for her to learn how to read on her own. I think she's going to love it. It's going to be a good year!

Walking to school on the big day.

Cate sitting at her new desk, back center. First grade parents weren't allowed to go in the classroom, so I had to snap a shot from the door. And I had no idea that kid in orange blocked the shot...stinker.

Anna and the baby

Ever since I've gotten pregnant, Anna always talks about the baby "popping" out. A few weeks ago, I was spying on her and discovered she literally believes that he will pop out. She had a baby doll, which she put under her shirt. She then pulled it out and said with a cute, enthusiastic little voice, "Pop!"The only thing I could think was, if only it were that easy!

Just now she was feeling my belly, trying to feel the baby move. It was really sweet. She leaned her head on my belly and said, "I can even hear his dreams." I thought maybe I misunderstood her, so I said, "You can hear the baby dreaming?" "Yeah," she replied. So, of course I had to ask what he was dreaming about. "He's dreaming about us." Does it get any sweeter than that?

Cate's First Trip to an Art Museum

Yesterday Cate and I had a morning all to ourselves. She LOVES art - creating it, looking at it, talking about it, creating it, creating it, creating it... I decided it was time we check out the Cantor Museum at Stanford. She was super excited beforehand and equally as excited when we were all done. I mean, we did tour the museum at warp speed, but she definitely enjoyed looking at everything and when I asked her about it this morning, she was still practically overjoyed when she talked about our trip to the museum.

While we were in the contemporary wing, if there was a "strange" piece of art, I would ask Cate what she thought of it. She almost always responded, "It's funny." At one point there was a tall, red lacquer box - I noticed a plaque nearby, so I said, "Cate, that red box is art." She looked at it, laughed and said, "That's not art!" Classic.

The other funny moment was when we noticed a strange guy standing in the contemporary gallery. He was leaning with his hand against one of the walls and was quite underdressed for the museum. I kind of wanted to look at him longer to see what his deal was, but I didn't want to be rude, so I kept walking. A few minutes later Cate points in that direction and says, "Mom, that guy is standing really still." Again, I didn't want to stare so I didn't look and just said, "Yeah, Cate, you're right...look over here." When we circled the gallery and came to where this guy was hanging out, I looked up, and noticed that he was.........a work of art! He hadn't moved since we got there because he wasn't a real person. Cate and I laughed and she said, "That artist really knows how to make things look real!" She was right!