Oops! Where did it go?

Sorry folks, no Way Back When Wednesday for today or the month of October, life is just going way to fast for me lately.  Today is Back to Work Wednesday.   Here's a few pics before I go.

A Bushel and A Peck

A Bushel and a Peck.

And a hug around the neck.  That's how much I love her.

A basket of sweetness.

A bushel of love.

A pouty face.

A Baby to Love!

Jack in a Box

JACK   I MEAN ROWYN IN A BOX

Did I say how much I love taking pictures of this baby girl?

Awake or sleeping,

Smiling, crying or pouting,

This Gramie thinks she is special.

 In all the black and white pictures, did you wonder?

 Or did you know?

She'd be in pink.  This is Audra's baby remember.

Gramie is in Charge Again

I love photographing babies.  One of these days I'll take some classes or join a photography club.  Right now I'm basically self taught from experience, and reading books. 

When Daddy and Mommy went to the movies I had Rowyn all to myself for three hours and quess what?  I took pictures.


Perfection

 

For Aunt Donna whose fond of Hippos



Now I lay me down to sleep

More photos by Gramie Lala later today. 
 This is my last day here, so we are going to do our best to accomplish everything we can.



Daddy's Little Girl

Last night I took care of Rowyn while Rick & Audra went out to dinner.

I told them to take advantage of having a babysitter while I was visiting.

I thawed out some breastmilk and made a bottle just incase, but

the little stinker slept the whole time they were gone.

So we had Daddy feed her when they came home.  He was looking forward to that anyway.

Ignore the Coors Light shirt Audra has on, there's only so many shirts she has that will fit her

new Dolly Parton breasts and she put that shirt on to sleep in.

My son-in-law has already changed diapers, dressed her, burped her and feed her.  I guess all that remains it to give her a bath, but I'm not sure he's up for that yet.

Cody can't get enough of Rick since he's been home.  He follows him around and lays by him.  Rick dressed Rowyn in this cute little outfit.  He told me "I'm not picking anything long-sleeved next time".  That is to funny.  He's a fast learner.

If Rick's missing he's probably holding Rowyn or just standing there watching her sleep.

Audra's having no trouble sharing with him, like she did me.  I practically had to shame

her into giving me a turn to hold her.

Who besides me thinks she looks like her Daddy?

First Bath at Home

The nurse instructed us not to bathe her every day, so we waited and then I was the one that gave Rowyn her first bath.  Audra took the role of photographer. 

It seems like just a few short months ago ( in reality almost 10 months) I was

giving Daniela a bath when she was just a newborn.

She has way more hair in the back of her head than on top.

Isn't she just precious.  She looks so calm and content.

But....we'd be dishonest if we didn't tell you that most of the 30 pictures that were taken looked like this.

She didn't really care for the whole bath experience at all.

One clean baby

I know the Aunties are just eating up these pictures and wishing they could be here too.  I'm trying to enjoy it for all of us. 

Daddy's Home

Today Rowyn will meet her Father for the first time.

Audra & Rowyn dressed up pretty in pink for Daddy.

This is the El Paso International Airport. 

It's pretty small compared to Detroit Metro.

Audra & Rowyn waiting at the Gate for Daddy to arrive.

Miss Rowyn is six  five days old today.

Oops!  I can count, really I can.

Rick's ride home was long, it took two helicopters and a plane in Afghanistan, then a plane ride to Ireland.  From Ireland he went to Dallas TX where it was raining and 10 minutes into his flight to El Paso the wing he was sitting on was hit by lightening.  He said it was a pretty scary experience.  It was a huge flash and it smelled like burning batteries.  It made him a little nervous to finish the 1 1/2 hour flight to El Paso.  It was ironic that it happened when he was back in the US and only had to be in the air 1  1/2 hours before he was home.

There he is.  About 30 pounds lighter, but handsome as ever.

Holding Rowyn for the first time. 

Yes, he was a little nervous.  I think Rowyn was to she decided to initiate him into Daddyhood and pooped her diaper right then and there.

Rick & Audra admiring their little creation and God's gift to them.

The new Roberts family - baby make three and a family.

Leaving the airport.  I'd say they are both pretty darn happy to all be together.

Thank you God, for this time you've given them to be together.



Her Hands

This girl loves her hands. 

 During every ultrasound her hands were up by her face and she could even be seen sucking on them. 

How is it that some babies are born and have a very strong need to suck

and others seem to need some instruction and time to learn.

And so we decided to give her a Nuk, because we caught her sucking her thumb a couple times.



Her hands are not dainty.

And we all know two hands are better than one.

Photo Therapy

Is that when you have the whole day to take all the pictures you want, good light conditions, plenty of willing subjects etc.?  That's one form of photo therapy.  But I'm refering to setting Rowyn in the indirect light in nothing but a diaper in order to help lower her bilirubin.

Here's the flip side.  Rowyn isn't one of those skinny-skrawny wrinkled newborns, she can boast a few rolls here and there.



She's beautiful even when she's a tinge yellow.

If you look very close you can see how long her eyelashes are.  It won't be long and we will be chasing the boys away from her.

More pictures soon.

News Now Pictures Later

The last 24 hours have been so super busy I only took one picture, but have no fear I will make up for it today.

Remember this post, we'll yesterday I saw an Oryx.  It was huge and I felt like I was on one of those zoo rides where you drive through in a jeep to see the animals.  Audra said they get much closer to the road than the one I spotted, so hopefully next time it will be closer and I'll have the camera handy.

Rowyn had to go back to the hospital to have her bilirubin checked, there was a possibility of her having to be readmitted, so we went out to lunch and waited for a phone call from her doctor before returning to White Sands.  We were so relieved to hear that it was within the range that did not need medical treatment and we could take our little girl back home with us. We are so thankful!

On a totally different topic.....I have gone from walking with Audra while she handles both dogs, to walking one dog and now walking two dogs while she pushes the stroller.  I'm working on slowing their pace, so Audra can manage the dogs and the stroller when she no longer has any help.

Impessive - Still taking the dogs on long walks at 41 weeks pregnant

Dakota the pretty girl

Cody looking Regal

This sign is by the children's playground

Taking a short break in some shade

During this walk we also saw some prarie dogs and on the way to El Paso for the induction I spotted a young coyote crossing the road.  I don't believe this is somewhere I'd like to live, but visiting has been very interesting.

Going Home

Gramie LaLa & Rowyn

I asked Audra what she planned to have Rowyn call me when she's older and she said Gramie LaLa like her cousins.  The grandma on the other side of the family has chosen Grandma Lynn because her last name is insanely long and hard to pronounce.

Rowyn wore this outfit to come home in although the pants were a little to long.  Red is not my favorite color, but, I must admit she looked very cute in it.  Rowyn lost 6 oz. and is looking jaundiced, so they did blood work on her and the bilirubin wasn't high enough to prevent us from going home.  Yeah!!!!

It is an hour long ride from the hospital in El Paso, to the White Sands Missile Range base in New Mexico, but she was very good the whole way home.  I put the dogs outside before Audra brought the baby in and we kept her in the nursery unless the dogs were outside.  Later in the evening when they settled down I came out in the living room with her and watched a movie, while Audra took a nap.

Rick is on his way home to meet his daughter and have two weeks of R&R. We aren't sure exactly when he will arrive, but we will keep you posted.  I had not expected to see him this trip, because I'm leaving the 28th and he was suppose to come home the 30th, but looks like he'll be arriving sooner than we thought. 

Home.  Although the hospital was very nice, and the staff way beyond kind, home is where you want to be.  And home is where they are.

Rowyn Gracie Jane Roberts 9/20/10

Yes, she is here.  Baby Rowyn arrived seven hours after starting induction on Monday morning.  Audra surpassed my expectations for how I thought she'd do in labor.  She had back labor, which I've heard is the most painful, and she didn't want an Epidural and she stuck to it even though things got pretty darn miserable.  Audra walked up and down the halls and took a hot shower which both helped, but they recently moved floor and could not find their labor/birthing ball.  Bummer!

Let me answer a few of your questions.  Yes, I was in the room the whole time.  Audra said I had to stay up by her shoulders when the doctor was down there delivering, but when it came time to deliver, she could care less.  I gave her a hand to squeeze and held her leg some while she pushed.   Her midwife was totally awesome, she and Audra hit it off and they were a good team.  Thanks Kim!  She told her she was going to push her and make her labor effectively and that she did.  It only took Audra pushing during 3 or 4 contractions to push Rowyn out.  She did awesome.  Unfortunately, because of some IV pain meds they gave her they wisked the baby away immediately....fearing she'd be sedated and have trouble breathing.  That wasn't the case, she coughed a few times, cried a little bit and pinked right up.  Audra on the other hand had more bleeding than usual and it caused a few minutes of intense working on her to get it under control.  Despite all the action, blood, and seeing the midwife manually checking for more placenta which maybe hadn't come out; I managed to stay completely calm and even cut the babies umbilical cord.  It was totally awesome to be able to attend the birth.

 

Immediately after birth

Rowyn was born at 4:05 pm on 9/20/10.

 

7 lbs 9 oz, 19 inches long 



After her first bath

After first I thought she looked like a combination of the two of them, Audra & Rick, but now I'm must agree that was wishful thinking. If she's a combo, it's definitely more Rick than Audra.

Sometime it looks like she as the Gerber baby lips, sometimes it doesn't.  She was the quietest baby on the ward.  There was another Roberts delivering at the the same time.  Her first name also began with A.  I told Audra I bet her name is Amanda or Ashley, and sure enough when I called down to order Audra's dinner, they asked if it was for Ashley Roberts.  The next day they had four Roberts on the floor, two more delivering, was that ever weird.  We didn't let Rowyn out of our site for fear they'd bring back the wrong baby.  There was only one boy, so that didn't help us any either.

 I think I took over 100 pictures the first day and kept
 about 60, these are some of my favorites.

We came home today, I'll update you later on the rest of our stay at the hospital.

Number six is another keeper.  She's very sweet.  I thank GOD for his hand in letting me be here for her birth.  Nine days late, but finally here and all is well.  God your so good, all the time.