And then there were 4

Most of you have heard the big news by now and are surely interested to hear about the new tenant in my room, but chronologically speaking, there are some things to cover first. Since the last post Jarom has been spending a lot of time around the house thanks to some fortunate scheduling at work. Things went pretty smoothly at the most recent facility installation that Jarom was working on, so his boss decided that they didn’t need to provide 24-hour on site help any more. But they still needed to be available to help whenever needed, so Jarom was assigned to be on call every night for a little while. This was good because it meant that he was able to spend the days with Jenna and Lix and help chase the little one around while Lix finished cooking the baby. He had a great time hanging out with Jenna, especially in the mornings. Jenna has recently kicked her reading habit up a notch, so the first thing that she says to you when you go into her room in the morning is “Book!” She will then sit in a bed, either hers or yours, and read book after book after book, even forgoing breakfast until she has read them. Then it was breakfast and bath time, and then off to visit a store or the children’s museum or the petting zoo that had been set up at the mall. Naptimes were accompanied with more book reading and some of Jenna’s other favorite pastime, jumping on the bed. Every day she got to watch an episode of Dinosaur train, a newfound love that she got from her cousin Luke on her last trip up to Delaware. The weather has been pretty nice so they could usually play outside, smashing dandelions or going on a bike ride. All in all, Jarom had a great week hanging out with her, and was very sad when there was no kid and he had to go back to work on Monday.

A small collection of Jenna's books, and reading them in bed

But his return to work wasn’t long lived. After several contractional false starts over the weekend, Alixa decided to take matters into her own hands and schedule a sewing date with one of her buddies for Wednesday evening, thus assuring her that she would go into labor and be unable to make it. Unfortunately, Wednesday was April 20th, or 4/20, which as we all know is the international reference to cannabis consumption. Alixa’s fear was that should the child be born on that day, he would be predestined to waste his life in the manner of Harold and Kumar on their search for the nearest White Castle. This trepidation was so significant that as they headed to the hospital and sat in the delivery room between nurse visits there were real discussions regarding whether or not to lie about the child’s birthday if he should arrive before midnight. Fortunately, they didn’t have to face that hopeless reality. The contractions didn’t get too intense until around 2 on Thursday morning. About that time Lix once again came to the conclusion that if there is a drug that can make all this pain go away, she should take it. So the anesthesiologist was brought in and an epidural was given. At 3:47, Blake Owen was born. He weighed in at 8 lbs, 2 oz, and was 22 inches long with a lot of very dark hair. He is a very calm and quiet baby, aced his apgars and barely peeped throughout the initial examinations. The only real complaint that the happy parents have about the entire process is that he came in the middle of the night instead of in the afternoon like his big sister. But St. Mary’s has a nursery and a lot of wonderful nurses who are happy to take your baby off your hands for a few hours while you sleep. Sadly, baby or no baby, there is no sleeping in a hospital because every 15 minutes someone is coming in to pick up the trash or drop off a tray of food or ask to take your baby’s picture or check your vitals or whatever else. And thus went Alixa’s 60-hour stay in the hospital. By the time it was over on Saturday morning, she was quite ready to leave. And of course there were lots of delays in the discharge process, as the doctor was busy and then the nurse was busy and then they couldn’t find someone to take her to the door in a wheelchair, and so on.













Once they were home they called the Bleyls, who had been kind enough to take care of Jenna for a few days. I’m pretty sure she missed her mom and dad, but she had a great time being away. Jenna got to hang out with Courtney, who is one of her favorite people, and also got to adopt three older brothers who were equally excited to have a new little sister around. She took a trip down to the James River, got to eat French fries while sitting on the floor in Courtney’s room, and got some sweet new pins that let everybody know that she is now a big sister. Now that everyone is back in the house, Jenna is slowly getting used to having a new baby. At their first meeting she was a little confused and mostly indifferent. Baby brother had always been an abstract idea that lived in mommy’s tummy, and now it was a real live person. She would look at him a little, but refused to give him a kiss. She has since grown to like him. Today when Lix went in to her room to wake her from her nap, she was excited to see mom carrying baby Bo. She has also started referring to the house as “Bo’s house” and will give him kisses. It looks like she is going to be a great big sister. All in all it was a pretty wonderful Easter weekend and we are all excited about the expanding family and very grateful that everybody is healthy and recovering well, and a special thanks to all the people who have graciously helped us out during the past week in so many different ways.

The Big Sister pins were courtesy of Conner and Courtney

He may have avoided 4/20, but it looks like he is still going to be a troublemaker