Then and Now.... OWEN

Updates: Went to see Grey today. He was doing well. I held him, and he had his eyes open for quite some time! I love that little man. Lilly and Owen are doing fine. Prune juice and little tummy drops have helped constipation and gas for them both! YAY!!!

I thought I would do a then and now on the kids with pictures around birth, then where they are now etc.

This was Owen Travis Maurer in his first week of birth. He was 3lbs 3 oz. 15.5 inches long. He was baby A in-utero. Owen was the baby that liked to kick... ALOT! It was not uncommon for him to kick my bladder time and time again in one day. He always measured really well before birth, and was always the biggest. He was also the first to be born. This picture is a mirror image of Todd. The characteristics I remember about Owen were he startled alot. Premature babies have a reflex called the moro reflex, in which when they are startled, they flare their hands and their arms go up by their heads. If you look at yesterday's post, Owen is startling while in the bath. It's quite comical now, but when he was wrapped up in the isolette, it seemed tramatic to watch him startle at every little bump. Erin H was his primary nurse, and she knew just what to do for him when he was upset. She would hold him tight in his isolette, and wrap him up really tight in his snuggly, and bring his hands together in-front of his chest... and he would calm down immediately if he were crying. I do remember visiting the NICU one night once I had come home from the hospital, and he was under the bili lights, and he was so upset and mad he had his sunglasses on, that he ripped them off as we watched. He is a determined little guy. That wasn't the last time he took off his equipment, just one that stuck out in my mind. This is Owen under the lights still on the vent.

Owen always kept us on our toes in the NICU too. There were a few times that he needed to be "bagged" (putting the bag-mask to his face, and give him a few breaths like you see on tv...) because when he had reflux in the NICU, he would stop breathing. He slowly transitioned from looking like a little old man, to the "beefy" infant he is today. If 6.5lbs at over 2 months old is beefy... that is he! He was the first to really "take to" the bottle. Now he does a manuever that the NICU nurses called "sharking" the bottle, which really includes lifting his head with his mouth wide open to get to the nipple of the bottle. It's very funny.... he thinks he is constantly starving. He makes the funniest faces. In his 2 month pictures, I told Todd I thought he was dancing to the Madonna Vogue song... he does some weird things with his face and hands at the same time. He likes his swing, and is taking to the birp rags that we have used for him. I think he just might be a kid that really likes a blankey. When he gets really mad, he screams and it sounds like a little piglet. Just when you think you might be at wits end with him with his screaming, he will squeel like a pig... and well, you have to laugh! Owen also likes his pacifier. If he could keep it in his mouth better, that would be super! Owen likes to be awake from about 12am-3am every morning. Let's hope this changes!

Owen really reminds me of Todd's late brother Travis. Once you see baby pictures of them both... it is very evident they look alike. Owen reminds me of the exact reasons I wanted to have children of our own. I knew that the only way I could ever possibly give Todd a piece or a reminder of his brother back, would be if we had a child that looked or had mannerisms like his brother. I know typing that seems really weird, but truly that's how I feel, and of course that isn't the only reason we wanted kids.... but I remember Travis fondly, and I really wanted to keep remembering him. I think there will be pieces of each of the children that remind us of different people in both of our families, and that is joyful to me.

This is a current picture of Owen. He's a big boy. I think he is going to get along with Grey and Lillian very well. My vision for them is that they will be close, yet not have the "triplet" label on them constantly.

Personality traits of Owen lead me to believe he will be a strong-willed little man. He is determined, especially when it comes to eating. I look forward to seeing him grow, and be who he is, and do what he was sent here to do.