MoSchu Madness

Sunday, February 21, 2010

More from Rowan's First Days

Saturday, February 20, 2010

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!

Friday, February 19, 2010

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:)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

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:)