Someone New is At Our House...

Allie's favorite book for the past couple months is called "The Sister Book", and the first lines of the book are, "Someone new is at our house. Do you know who it is? It's our baby!" So I thought that was a fitting title.

Rowan is doing great! He has been taking in all the noise and stimulation of a house that already has two kids. Silas and Allie have been about as hyper as I've ever seen them over these last couple days! Lots of excitement with a new baby brother + many visitors + plus a lack of a routine = wild kids!

Rowan has been eating like a champ and is generally very pleasant so far. We had a bit of a rough night last night because he wasn't too interested in sleeping, but hopefully that phase won't last too long! Our families have been helping out, and we are very grateful for that.

One thing I'd like to clarify––my labor was longer than an hour. Nate may have misrepresented that in his earlier post. Contractions started around 9:30am and Rowan was born at 1:00pm. So, still not that long, but longer than an hour. The hour that Nate was referring to was the really painful part. But I did have many, many contractions in the weeks leading up to his birth, including several times when I thought I was in labor because I had regular contractions for several hours. So as my midwife told me, my body likes to spread labor out over the course of weeks, not hours.

Check back for more details about Rowan's birth and how he's adjusting to life at the Paine household!

Just minutes after Rowan was born––proud daddy!

A Big Brother twice over!

A new Big Sister! Allie had a swollen right eye
the day Rowan was born, so this picture looks a little odd.

Baby Rowan

Rowan David Paine was born at 1:00pm on Oct 18, 2013. He is 7lb 10oz and 20" long.

Rowan was born at home.  (Some of you may know that Allie was born at home by mistake.) This time it was on purpose and Jen was assisted by 2 great midwives.  As with Allie, the labor was very quick - about 1 hour.

Rowan has been eating and sleeping well right off the bat.  Silas and Allie are very excited to have a little brother.  This time Silas was at school but Allie got to be there right after baby Rowan was born.

Thanks for everyone's prayers and encouragement!  Jen will want to do a more complete post once she's feeling up to it, but for now, these two photos will have to do.

Nate

Baby's Room

With 10 days to go until our due date, everything is basically ready for our little guy to come! Since we don't have a spare bedroom for him, he's going to be sleeping in my (Jen's) closet for a while. It's a mini-walk-in closet, so he'll have enough room. More importantly, I'll have enough room to feed him at night, change his diaper, and put him to bed without disturbing Nate. Our bed is only about 10 feet away from the closet, but we hung a curtain to keep the light out, and give some privacy.

Over the last few months, I cleaned my things out of the closet, and decorated the little room to look more like a nursery. We set up the bassinet in there, and found a great deal on a used changing table––$11 at a local consignment store! Our rocking chair even fits (barely). The baby's clothes, diapers and other supplies are all tucked in baskets in the shelves and on the floor in the back. So, for now, it seems like it will work...

Here's some pictures of the "room" with the curtain open:

"The Small Gym"

Allie absolutely loves going to the Little Gym for gymnastics class (she calls it the "Small Gym")! She's been getting more confident and improving her skills each week. Here's some photos from her class today.

Allie hangs from the rings, a favorite activity of hers.

Running up the slopping mat, then she rolled down the other side.

Practicing an activity where you roll down
with a beanbag under your chin...
(she didn't master that one yet)

Climbing up some different shaped mats

The kids making a train

Bouncing up and down on a ball

At the end of class, the teacher
blows bubbles on the kids' bellies.