Nap Time?

It seems that baby brother has caused everyone a little sleeplessness, even Riley. Before Rowan was born we were pretty much done with naps around here. Since then, she has taken naps a few times a week. I'm not sure if he wakes her up at night, but she has been getting up a LOT earlier to come into our room and check on baby brother. A few times she has been in our bed and neither Josh nor I can tell you how or when she got there! One morning she was even up while Josh was getting ready for work at 5 a.m. and she normally sleeps until 7 a.m. or later. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon and she will go back to that sleep schedule...just in time for Daylight Savings to mess us all up again!

Say "cheesy!"

Riley has been a big ham for the camera lately. Maybe it's her way of get attention, but it's been pretty funny. These don't even include the photo shoot where she dug the camera out of my purse and proceeded to pose with every doll, animal or random object she could find and told me to take pictures.

TIGF

Today is a silly day for Things I'm Grateful For (TIGF). I'm thankful for Girl Scouts...or more specifically, Samoas/Carmel Delights, Thin Mints and Whatever used to be called Ho-downs...The peanut butter cookies dipped in chocolate. I'm also happy that today, just two weeks after Rowan was born, I fit back into my "fat" jeans. I'm almost back to normal clothes. Ahhhh, how I miss normal clothes!

Wake Up Sleepy Head

Here's a few of our little man a few days old...He tends to sleep most of the day, wake up around 5-9ish and then sleep in 2-3 hour shifts at night, waking up to eat and then usually going back to sleep within a half hour after feeding. No of course I will jinx it by saying anything more, but he's a good baby so far!

P.S. Does anyone else see my Uncle Doug in the middle picture?

Don't worry, Big Sister's Here!

Riley has really surprised us at how great she is being at her role as Big Sister. When Rowan cries, she comes running saying, "Don't worry, Big Sister is here!" and she gives him kisses and does dances and sings songs to calm him down. She even keeps pacifiers stuffed in her pockets to have on hand if Baby Brother needs one (and by stuffed, I mean her pockets are not very big so they are literally STUFFED into her pockets). She calls him Doodle or Rowan Doodle and every morning she goes right to the bassinet to check on him. She even helps with bath time!

Don't get me wrong, there are some increased attention seeking behavior, but if you know our toddler, we expected much more. Overall, she dotes on Rowan and has been very helpful for me around here too. We are so proud of our big girl!

Happy Birthday Wishes

Today is my mom's birthday (I won't say which one, she wouldn't like that much!). We want to wish her a day filled with love, happiness and special memories and we wish her many many more years of the same! We love you Mom! Thank you for always being there for us, even for all night labor and delivery and countless doctor appointments. You make our lives extra special!

More from Rowan's First Days

Rowan's First Bath and Daddy's First "Shower"

Here's a bit more from Rowan's first days. This is Day 1, Josh and Mark changing one of Rowan's first diapers, the little guy wasted no time peeing all over Daddy while he tried to clean a pretty messy poopy diaper. He has since peed on a lot of people, including our favorite nurse at the clinic at his 1 week visit.

Rowan's first bath was a scream-fest, but he liked the spray on his head/shampoo part so that calmed him down. And with all the screaming he did, he slept pretty good after that!

TIGF - Rowan and Riley

This week we have so much to be thankful for! We are thankful for a healthy family of four and settling into what will be our "normal" around here. I am personally thankful that labor and pregnancy is over and I can shave my legs and bend over at the waist again and for the 15lbs. missing from my middle!! I'm thankful that my recovery is going well and that Rowan is eating and sleeping pretty well for a one week old! I'm excited to watch Riley be a big sister, and relieved that she is doing so well (I know, just wait, it hasn't hit her yet...but so far she' been wonderful!) I am super happy that Josh had the week off and has been amazing at taking on some of the extra stuff around here to help me rest and SO THANKFUL to our families who have been so helpful in so many ways, from being at doctor appointments and mid-night false alarms, to bringing food and necessities. We are sooooo lucky! Thank you all!

And one more thing to be thankful/hopeful for! Josh has another interview today, this time outside of the company he works for. Wish him luck. I REALLY hope he gets out of there soon!

What's in a Name?

I know the name Rowan is a bit on the different side, so let me explain a little bit why we chose that name and what Riley calls him too.

The boy's name Rowan \
ro-wan\, also used as girl's nameRowan, is of Gaelic origin, and its meaning is "little red-head". Also the name of a flowering tree with redberries.
Rowan has 4 variant forms: Roan,Rohan, Rowe and Rowen.
For more information, see also the related name Rooney.
Baby names that sound like Rowan areRoyan, Ron, Roane, Ronn, Ryan andRian.
Rowan is an uncommon first name for men but a very common last name for both men and women (#2029 out of 88799). (1990 U.S. Census)

That's the history of the name. No, we didn't choose the "little red-head" nor was it really anything to do with the tree with red berries. Although since Riley is has a Rose for her middle name, it was kinda cool to have two plan references...still not why we chose it.

When Josh and I went to Ireland 4 years ago, we were on the lookout for Irish names. I have always told Josh since I gave up my Irish last name when we got married, the kids would have to have Irish first names since I'm rather proud of my Irish heritage. One of our favorite places on the trip was a place called Glen Da Lach, a monastary associated with St. Kevin I believe. Anyway, while we were there we looked at old headstones at GDL, listened for Irish names we liked when people were introduced, even considered names of cities or sites we visited, etc. and we came up with a few we liked a lot. Rowan was at the top of the list.

Now, Riley's method of naming "Baby Brother" is a little less specific. We asked her what we should name him and after saying Baby Brother almost the entire pregnancy, about a month ago she settled on Doddle...and that's it. She calls him Doddle or Rowan Doodle and she told all the nurses about it when she visited! And don't try "Doodle Bug" because she WILL correct you:)

Just Rowan

Here's a few pictures just of Rowan...Josh took most of them...I think his photography skills are improving with each kid!

Rowan's Rules

I have to thank my sisters for updating my blog for me. It has taken me a while to catch up on e-mails and Facebook posts, so I am sorry for the delay, but here are the pics from our perspective and the labor story (the non-graphic details). Forgive the typos, I have a little guy asleep on my chest which makes typing interesting:)

As most of you know, I had contractions for almost a month before this little guy decided to arrive, which led to 3 false alarms and getting to know the nursing staff at he new hospital quite well! But then on Thursday night my water broke and everything just stopped. I had maybe 3-5 contractions from 9 p.m. until they put me on pitocin at 3 a.m. We were scheduled to be induced Friday morning anyway, but Rowan had other plans. Both my sisters had really fast second labors so I had worried mine might go quick too. Even my doctor said she would have put me on pitocin sooner but she was delivering a set of twins at North Memorial that morning and she was worried she wouldn't make it to Maple Grove in time if she did, based on that history...so needless to say I was a bit surprised when 13 hours later Rowan entered the world:)

I did get my epidural though, so labor itself went ok. Took a few naps...but my poor mom had her first official all-nighter and pulled something like 36 hours with no sleep! THANKS MOM!!! Josh is still working on the sleep deprivation too...but overall I am feeilng good! Thanks to all for the well wishes and we look forward to introducing y'all to the little Doodle real soon:)

More Pictures of Rowan

Here are the Bartsch's pictures of Rowan from Friday and yesterday.


From Friday, February 12th!


Hours old!


Grandma Linda and her Grandson!

Mommy and her boy.

Proud parents!

Auntie Jessie with her nephew.

Uncle D and Auntie Katie with our first nephew!

One Day Old

Daddy and Son!

Rowan meeting cousins Zack and Kiley for the first time.

Kiley showing Mo's friend Jess her new cousin.

Nope, not Rowan! This would be Auntie Mo with Brynn!

Check out the difference 6 weeks make!

Quite a difference!

Molly, Josh and Rowan should be coming home today! What a nice Valentine gift! :-)