My due date was July 11, 2015.  I know this was an accurate due date because we had a dating ultrasound - which actually put the due date at July 12 - but fits the loose definition of accurate.   Regardless, I thought for sure that this baby was coming the week before my due date.  A few reasons for this logic:  I was gigantic and thought that second babies usually come early.  I was very much mistaken.  After my due date and come and gone, I got a newfound understanding of my friends' anxiety and impatience who have had babies that are overdue.  It is terrible.  There are certainly worse pregnancy-related occurrences, but being overdue is annoying.  The constant questions and comments of still being pregnant make you want to strangle someone.  Also, when you are working and have a child at home - it complicates your planning.  That said, I have always found it interesting that baby's arrival is one thing that you have no control over - that fact became a lot less interesting to me a few days after my due date.  I attempted some natural ways to induce labor but to no avail.  So I ended up getting induced the morning of July 18.  I scheduled the induction with the hope that I would just go into labor on my own.  On July 14, I went to the hospital for regular contractions but that turned out to be false labor.... which was super fun.  The week went on and I remained pregnant.

 Harvey Stone Van Sicklen was born July 18 at 8:08 p.m.  Because he was so comfortable in that womb,I ended up having to be induced.  After laboring with Owen, my main goal was to avoid Pitocin because it is terrible.  They started the induction by breaking my water at about 10 in the morning.  That was an odd experience and it turned out there was merconium in the fluid so that made me feel a bit better about my decision to get induced.  I continued to have contractions but was not progressing.  Thus, the dreaded Pitocin entered the picture.  I was given the evil drug at about 3:45 and the fun and games were over.  Although the second labor did not come early, it was true that it was fast and furious once it started.

 Pitocin did its job and I was ready to push by about 7:30.  As an aside, one of my goals of this labor was to go drug-free.  With Owen I avoided an epidural but did get a shot of a narcotic.  Turns out, my biggest regret was not getting the drugs.  That last hour of contractions before pushing was horrendous.  Someone would ask me a question and I would just glare until through the contraction momentarily passed and mutter a one word response.  I felt like the angry pregnant woman portrayed in movies.  Unfortunately, things that went downhill.  Harvey was experiencing decelerations in his heart rate and it was determined that he needed to come out quickly.  Enter the dreaded vacuum.  I thought Pitocin was bad and scary - the vacuum is far worse  They threatened a vacuum with my labor with Owen but I was thankfully able to push him out.  Not the case with Harvey - was told to give some hard pushes and then he was extracted via the vacuum out.  Back to my regret of no drugs - I felt everything and it was horrific.  However, Harvey came out crying and totally healthy.  It is amazing how labor is one of the worst and best experiences a woman can go through (in my opinion).  As emotional as it was during those last 20 minutes (with a flood of doctors and nurses entering and eery quiet - with an occasional whispered "we need to get the baby out.") it was all washed away when I saw Harvey.  First, I was shocked that he was a boy.  I was 90% certain we were having a girl.  Second, I was relieved that he was healthy. 

fFor the sake of my pregnant friends, I will leave out the gory details of the birth but I ended up having to go to the operating room for a bit after the labor.  It was strange to be wheeled out of the room and Barret was left behind to tend to Harvey.

 We are now a family of four and Owen loves being a big brother.  Hopefully that feeling continues when Harvey is able to move and take Owen's prized possessions.  Oddly, Harvey weighed 8 lbs 7 oz at birth - the exact same weight as Owen.

Unfortunately there was no picture to capture the moment, but Barret was encouraged to do some skin on skin soon after Harvey was born.  Harvey decided to take the opportunity to poop on Barret.  This boy won my heart on day 1.

 Although we have already had a taste of freezing temperatures and are well into fall by now, I decided to do an entry regarding summer highlights.  The reasons are twofold:  one this is blog and I can do what I want, and two I took a hiatus from blogging and seems odd to just start back in at what is going on now - 6 months later.  The main reason for my hiatus is that we moved and decided to try a little social experiment and not have internet.  Apparently, this was a very odd thing to do.  I did not think it was that strange and it was kind of refreshing.  However, it did get a bit annoying going to the library and searching for wi-fi hotspots.  Word also spread of our lack of internet and we succumbed to social pressures.  Thus, we now have internet and I hope to be able to do a better job blogging.  My next step will be to got a new computer as this is Barret's laptop from law school... from which he graduated 8 years ago.  Baby steps...

The first thing to note from this summer is that we bought a new house.  We are now residents of Middleton and loving it.

A few months after moving into our new house, we had friends that found themselves between homes.  They stayed for us with one month - which was great because Owen got a playmate in Finley and Murphy got a playmate with their two gold retrievers.  Murphy got the short end of that stick as he is kind of a grump and only played with the dogs once or twice - which is equal to the number of times that he snapped at them for begging rights when the little ones were eating.

This August we took a trip to NYC.  I would not recommend this destination if you are looking for a relaxing vacation with your toddler.  However, it was great to see a lot of family and Owen loved being in the City.  We went to Central Park often and he adored chasing the birds and listening to the singers.  There was alos an abundance of trucks to scope out when walking along the street.

This summer we took another less exotic trip back to Minnesota.  So I go back to Minnesota every month or two but it is typically for a holiday, wedding, or shower of some variety.  This trip was different in that we went back for just a visit and had an entire week to whatever.

I apparently did not do a very good job taking pictures, but we went to the Minnesota Zoo, Minnehaha Falls, Quarry Days, and Blaine.  Murphy was also along for the journey and got to go to the splash pad

Last highlight of summer - we went to Door County with a group of friends for a 30th birthday celebration.  This was my first trip to Door County and although I did not see any cherries, it was pretty awesome.  Owen also got to have a sleepover with his buddy Avalyn.

We also attended several fun weddings and a long visit from DVS (not sure how I have no pictures of this visit...)

Summer 2014 was very eventful but I am excited that we are now into my favorite season

Where did this toddler come from?

I am uncertain at what age a baby actually becomes a toddler; however, I am pretty certain that Owen has now made that transition.  I have stopped referring to him as a baby.  Although, every now and then an older child calls him "baby" and it warms my heart.  Nonetheless, Owen has unofficially toddlerhood and all of the terrors and joys that come along with that.  Such as playing with plastic bags....

Owen is oddly into organizing things.  I do not always understand what he is trying to accomplish, but he does seem to take his organizing very seriously. 

The diapers have became the latest point of fascination for him.  He will move them from room to room individually and then stack them in some manner.  He then gets very upset when I have to grab one and use it... does not quite understand that is why we actually have the diapers.

No more baby food for this guy!  Raisins and crackers will do just fine.

I am so sick of this cold and never ending polar vortecies (not sure what the plural is for vortex, but pretty sure there should not be a need for plural polar vortex).  We sometimes pretend that Target is a free amusement park and I just let Owen run amok.  The employees love us there.

Gymnastics are another good energy burning avenue.

Free toddler dance parties at public libraries are also great.  It was difficult to capture Owen's moves, but they were amazing.  Hopefully soon he will be able to take these moves outside.

Still Here!

 Back by popular demand (You two people know who you are....).  I took a bit of hiatus from blogging - I wish I could say it was from being busy, but that is simply not true.  I got a little too into the Walking Dead (amazing if you have not seen it) and have generally just been a bit lazy over the winter months.  Anyway, Owen is doing great and continues to make us laugh.

He turned 1 on October 28th.

 Turns out he really likes cake.

 Butter is also tasty.

 We thought it would be fun to try to make Christmas cookies with him.  Turns out, he really likes to eat sugar cookies.  Not so into decorating the cookies.  After he ate 5 or 6 cookies, we gave up and Barret just decorated them himself.

 Christmas was a bit more exciting for Owen this year than last year.  However, probably like most kids his age, he was more into the wrapping paper, bags, and boxes than their content.  Owen got to spend quality time with all of his grandparents over Christmas.

As well as his Uncle Nene.

And his Aunt Holly.  We were missing Uncle David and all of the great grandparents, but will hopefully see them all soon.

Owen's boots:  I never knew that a child could love something as much as Owen loves these boots.  He insists on wearing them daily around the house.  If he is not wearing them, he likes to place them near him.  Yesterday, one boot was misplaced (found in the cabinet with the pots and pans) and I have never seen such a look of glee from Owen than when I found the missing boot.  Owen does not currently have a blanket or stuffed animal that he is attached to and I am hoping that he does not insist on taking his boots into his crib.

Almost There

So I started this blog entry last week and was lauding how amazing it is to have a baby sleep through the night.  Sadly, I had to erase the prior draft and start from scratch.  We had one week of Owen sleeping through the night and thought it was long enough to no longer be considered a fluke.  Then things changed.  We were awoken the other night by what sounded like a seal begging for some food.  Turns out it was Owen and he has croup.  I had never heard of this, but apparently it's fairly common and not too serious.  It is just a horrible sounding cough and disturbs sleep.  I am hoping that it passes soon and we go back to sleeping through the night.

Anyway, it has been an exciting month.  We went to the pumpkin patch and Owen got to go on a wagon ride with his buddy, Mason.

This also happened.

And this....

This past month, Owen was a guest at his first and second wedding.  He was quite the gentleman. His obsession with handbags began around this time.  He has basically been walking around with a little purse or makeup bag ever since.

Owen was my mom's date to one wedding, but didn't quite make it to the dancing portion of the night.

While in Minnesota, we went to Underwater World at the Mall.  Apparently it is named something else now, but I will stick with Underwater World.  It was pretty sweet, especially for an aquarium located at the mall. 

Given Owen's love for water, I decided to sign him up for swimming lessons last week.  I thought it would be a great Monday activity for us.  However, he hates it.  I mean - he really hates it.  He basically cries the entire time.  We are currently on week 2 and he cracked a little smile at the end of the lesson, so I hope it gets better.  He hates it so much because they make him get dunked under water.  Owen has caught on to this little game and starts crying as soon as the instructor starts counting.

We don't get to see my grandparents too often, but we went up for a visit last month.  This picture is kind of amazing to me because my grandma actually picked Owen up to put him in her lap.  My grandma is not in the greatest health and pretty frail, so I was surprised she even attempted, let alone succeeded in picking Owen up.  I was a little fearful for both her and Owen, but it is amazing what joy this little guy brings to our family.  What else is amazing is that Owen is turning 1 next week!

Too Active

So it has been a while since I have provided updates.  Main reason being, when Owen is awake I can accomplish very little, other than making sure he stays alive and vacuuming - that kid loves the vacuum.  Also, he has entered what Google tells me is sleep regression.  For the past couple weeks, he wakes up every two hours.  I thought we had moved past that several months ago, like when he stopped being a newborn, but it is back and somewhat worse than I remember.  According to the parenting expert, Google, this is typically just a phase and should pass in a couple weeks.  However, this brought me to the scary realization that I have not slept through the night in well over a year now.  Owen has slept through the night a handful of times, but I was so accustomed to waking up anyway, no sleep for me.

 Anyway, this month has been full of new adventures and accomplishments for Owen.  The most major being taking his first steps.  Barret and I had been coaxing him to walk into our loving arms, but alas, it was allure of the vacuum that got him.  Yes - his first independent steps were to the vacuum.  I was holding the vacuum, so I am going to consider also as walking towards me.

 Owen has also picked up some dance moves.  They are pretty funny and mostly just uncoordinated bounces up and down - similar to his dad's dance moves.  He has also learned how to give kisses - which is adorable.  Still no words (other than the probable "hi's" several months ago but those are likely coming soon.  Also, I feel like we can wait for some more things to happen.  In addition, he has learned to kick his little soccer ball.  He can only use his right foot though.

 The doggy door is a really fun toy for Owen.  He can throw things out it and watch them roll in the yard.  He also thinks it's really funny when Murphy goes through the door.  Thankfully, Owen has not crawled out of it yet, but am sure he would if left unattended.

Another first was going to Urgent Care.  I got a call from our daycare provider that he had a fever and became convinced that it was an ear infection.  By the time I got to Urgent Care, the fever had broken and one nap later Owen was basically back to normal.  I expected Urgent Care to be a madhouse, but it was actually kind of nice, but am hoping not to be back there any time soon.  Still no first haircut - might make it to age two before that happens - but there are patches of hair coming in.

The last in my series of firsts - leaving Owen for the weekend.  I spent the weekend in the Dells for a bachelorette party.  It was a great time and Barret claims Owen enjoyed the man time.  Up next will be Owen's first wedding, followed by his second wedding.  He is getting ready to show off those dance moves.