The first entry of 2010

'Tis after midnight, the dawn of new year.
It's been some time since I've stood watch,
but my skills have not faded, have no fear.

My crew have worked hard the past year to achieve
Braeden can read, Ashlyn is learning
And of course, there is Finn, who we're happy to receive.

The Chief Mate works them hard, she cuts them no slack
Despite their shenanigans and tom foolery
The whip she can (and will) crack.

As for me, I've endeavored to keep the ship sailing
a labor of love, my family is everything
And with such a fine crew, I'll never be failing

As I close the log for twenty-oh-nine
I look back at my life and amazed to see
I've become my father, I'm doing mighty fine!

Too MUCH parenting advice?

Here's an interesting article from NPR:
Is it possible to have too much information while parenting?

It's 2 against 3 and they know it....

First off, after a bit of a hiatus, I've decided to start the posting back up again. I've shifted the focus to highlight our lives as a family, rather than a family awaiting the arrival of a new baby. As such, I went ahead and changed the name of the blog, too.

So, we're 4 months into having 3 kids, and I got a tell you, you know all the things they say about the level of effort involved going from 2 to 3 kids? their right. It has been a tremendous change in how we conduct our day to day lives around here. April and I have definitely had to switch our coverage strategy. Man to Man (a strategy we had perfected) was out the door and we've been on a steep learning curve ever since trying to figure out how to work a zone defense. difficult to say the least.

Finn's a wonderful baby, though. He's blessing and a testimony that God won't give you anything you can't handle. We were perfectly content with life BF (before Finn). April had a great job, the kids were now old enough that we were looking at taking some longer trips (Disney, etc...), and we were generally in a good place. I honestly did not see how I would be able to find anymore love in my heart for an additional child- I was full. I think that's one of the amazing things about being a parent. Your capacity for love grows with every addition. The corollary, of course, is your capacity for chaos grows as well...

I'm not a stranger to chaos. Growing up the oldest of 4 boys in a military family that routinely uprooted every 2-4 years brought plenty of chaos (In fact, I know have a full appreciation as to why my parents always said 'no' to a dog...). But until you're in charge of trying to manage the chaos, it's no comparison. It is, in fact, a misnomer that you are actually managing the chaos. It pretty much manages you (makes it your 'bitch' is a better way of describing it). It can be seriously frustrating at times, but the good days completely eclipse the bad days, so it's ultimately a win.

Welcome Baby Finn!

He's finally here, my newest son.



He was born at 3:43 on August 4th. 7 pounds 9 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long.

April (true to her nature) handled the induction without pain medication. by the way, for those of you keeping score, this is the third one she's done without pain meds. It's a testament to her strong will and perseverance.

We've been enjoying his presence in our house. The kids are over the moon in love with him and I'm glad they have each other. My life has been enriched by my 3 brothers and I'm glad they will have each other to learn, laugh, battle, and scheme with.

Thanks for all your well wishes. I'm not sure about the future of this blog, but perhaps it could morph into an adventures of parenthood blog. we'll see...

Is That the Light at the End of the Tunnel, or is it a Train?

That's right, we're down to the wire.

For the sake of those of you not on Facebook (shame on you), we had another appointment on Friday at which the doctor decided not to wait any longer. So, we've set the date for an induction.

August 4th is the day (as of this writing, only a scant 39 hours away).

of note are two wonderful omens that historically have significance. First is the fact that August 4th is the Coast Guard's 216th birthday. To top that off, August 4th is also the feast day of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of priests.

So, we're looking at a Guardian (formerly known as a Coastie) or a priest.

Either way, I win.

38 weeks and bed rest

Well-my blood pressure is up so I'm on bed rest. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow for more blood work so we'll see what happens. Bed rest makes me tired.

My Prediction

Good day all,

Ryan here.

As you saw in April's last post, we're rapidly coming to the end of this phase of child number 3. So, in keeping with my bold tradition of making wildly arbitrary statements, I will predict, with unequivical certainty that the due date for Finn is.......(start the drum roll in your head).......July 16, 2009 at 2 pm. Yup, 1 week from today.

Anyone else wanna hazard a guess?

I'll even make it interesting. Besides the envy of millions (well, ok, dozens), the winner will get a framed picture of Finn in all his Owens awesomeness...

Good luck!!

Almost in the 9th month...

Yay! I'm tired and getting anxious to meet the second Son of a Son of a Sailor for us. Baby Finn is growing on schedule and actually seems to be about a week ahead. My blood pressure is holding ok for right now but was a bit high at the last appointment so we'll see what happens. Baby clothes and blankets are washed, baby equipment is set-up, house is pretty much decluttered...I'm ready to go. We are having weekly ob appointments now so we're getting close. :o)

Wow-it's about time for an update...

At our last appointment, the doctor said that he'd like to monitor me a bit more closely since I have high blood pressure. (Which, thankfully, is under control for now.) What that means is that I now have to go in for OB appointments every two weeks and I will be having some extra ultrasounds.

I had one such ultrasound today. :o) Finn is doing well although he seems to be confused about what direction to face and he's breech right now. Fingers crossed and prayers being said that he turns before delivery. I'd be bummed if my third had to be a c-section after two non-eventful deliveries.

On a good note, the boy is measuring a bit ahead--closer to 31 or 32 weeks. The ultrasound tech said we may have a bigger baby on our hands. :o)

And we have pictures...

A king size bed, minivans, and boys

No, it's not the title of some weird gay 70's porn. It's pretty much been the focus of the last couple of months (non the gay porn thing, the other stuff...oh forget it, I'm digging a hole).

Anywho, let's start with the least interesting news (I'm building to a big climax-get it climax?- I kill myself sometimes). Despite my better judgement, I acquiesced to getting a new bed. The problem was that I was deeply, madly, passionately in love with our old bed. It was a sleep number bed, quite easily the best bed ever made.

April, however, hated it.

So, in an effort to be a sensitive, caring husband, I sacrificed my comfort to get a new bed. WE ended up with a nice King size bed (I can't remember who makes it, but to be honest, since it ain't a sleep number, I don't care). I'll admit, that the fact that I gave in was a bit strategice in nature. See, back when April was pregnant with Ashlyn, I ended up sleeping on a matress on the floor of the bedroom because April needed the whole bed to be comfortable (she's such a diva). Since we had a queen size bed at the time, I insisted that any new bed be at least a king. Now I'm not going to be kicked out in the next few months...I hope.

Our next two adventures came back to back. This last Saturday, April and I finally bit the bullet and bought a new minivan, a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country. I wasn't looking forward to it, really. First, we haven't had a car payment in over 3 years. Second, I was looking forward to raising my coolness factor by getting something hip like a VUE hybrid or something like that. But, with the fact that our old minivan was 10 years old, had a finicky (read non-existant) thermostat and had an annoying habit of NOT starting 60% of the time, we figured it was in everyones best interest to upgrade.

Sigh, I might as well just start wearing black socks with shorts and sandles...

Finally, as most of you are already aware of, we're expecting a boy! We're really excited! I'm especially happy, because now, I can have a priest, a nun AND someone to carry on the Owens name. Life is good!

It's a boy!!

Yay! The baby cooperated and it was very obvious that it's a boy! Big sister Ashlyn is still in a bit of denial but she'll get it eventually. :o) Pics later.

All's well...

We had our 16 week ob appointment today. Baby's doing well. Mommy's doing well, too. We have a date for the big ultrasound: March 23rd! Yay! I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl! 28 days to go....

Yay-we're in the 2nd trimester!

We hit 13 weeks yesterday! On to the second trimester! :-D We heard the baby's heartbeat again at a recent ob appointment and all is well. I'm tired and can't wait for the daily nausea to go away! Pregnancy should be a time when you can enjoy eating. ;o) I'm counting down until March when we should be able to find out if the baby's going to be a girl or a boy. Naturally, Braeden wants a boy and Ashlyn wants a girl. I have had two dreams that it's a girl and one dream that it's a boy. I tend to be completely wrong so maybe it's a boy?

Drama, why does there have to be drama?

We had a bit of an issue yesterday. I don't want to make light of it, because in reality it can be a big issue with a lot of pregnancies. April noticed some spotting last night. I, of course, found out on the train when April called me.

I hate it when my wife calls me crying on the phone. I'm one of those guys who has to fix everything and I can't fix anything on the phone. This call was particularly alarming as I can't do anything to fix spotting during a pregnancy (although I'm wondering if anyone has thought about using plumbers putty...) It was amazing how quickly I found myself with a whole row to myself on the train, however. I guess saying, "how bad are you bleeding?" and "do you feel any cramping?" makes people want to find another seat. Something to file away for later, I guess.

Obviously, by my poor attempt at humor, you can tell the issue turned out to be benign. We went and had an ultra sound today and everything turned out fine, "no big deal", the Doctor told us. The cool thing is, we ended up with more pictures!



We've also changed the baby's reference from 'blob' to 'gummy bear'. I don't know about you, but I think GB definately has an Owens head.

Stealing our thunder?

So, it wasn't enough that April's sister, Tina is pregnant (although in all fairness, she was pregnant first). It turns out that April's brother, Josh and his wife are expecting (number 4) and my brother and his wife are expecting (number 1)!

It turns out that the Owens and Brown kids were all gettin' busy around the same time....sweet.