Lamaze Mommie's Baby Shower

3 more of the 6 Lamaze Mommies are pregnant. I just had Abby of course. Jaime is having a girl in July (she has a boy - Dominic - so one of each for them too!). Garian is having a boy (she already has one boy - Bryson - so best buddy brothers!). And Karen is due in December - we don't know the gender yet. We had a baby shower for Garian and Jaime. We had lunch at a tea place (which was lovely - I love tea). Several of the girls brought the kiddos. Owen was in day care and he doesn't go back in the middle of the day well, so I attended with just Abby. It was so great to catch up and to get to hear about Garian and Jaime's pregnancies and babies. They're sharing names, but I'll wait to post until the babies are born. Good luck with the delivery girls and can't wait to meet the new additions!!!

P.S. Ariel and Susan - you're next! :)

Abby Weeks 1-2 & Owen 22 Months

I can't believe it's already been two weeks since Abby was born. So far, in general she is a very laid back baby. Only cries when she's very hungry. But sleeps so well she'll sleep through feeding time - she's giving us 4-5 hour stretches at night. Has a decent amount of awake time where she just looks around at the world happily. Robbie's mom went home on Saturday. Dottie and Bob were so great. I don't think I would have made it through the first two weeks without their help. Robbie is taking the first of his paternity leave weeks this week. The big project - making the birth announcement. My dad arrives this coming Sunday. We're looking forward to more help!

Our only hiccup so far with Abby has been feeding her. Starting the Friday after we were home from the hospital, Abby developed major poo issues - diarreah (sp?) 3-4 times an hour. She was pooing out everything faster than she could take it in. So she started losing weight. The doc thought it was likely an allergy to the formula that we were supplementing the breastfeeding with. So we tried soy formula for a few days - which did nothing to fix the issue and almost seemd to make it worse. Because of the constant pooing she developed diaper rash that turned into full on sores. Poor baby. So we had some rather sleepless nights for a few days there. Then we went on breastmilk only starting last Thursday. The good news is that this put stop to the diarreah and the sores cleared up. However, we had another doc appt. today, and while she's no longer losing weight, she's not gaining either. So now we're back to supplementing with formula - this time trying a hypoallergenic one. Cross your fingers that it not only does NOT cause diarreah again, but that she starts gaining weight.

Owen turned 22 months late last week. I can't believe he's already almost two years old. This 2nd year with him has flown by. He is now counting to 10 all on his own which is new. He also has developed a fear of suds in the bath tub (like when you rinse out his hair). Bathtime has become a bit of a struggle consequently. Any suggestions on dealing with an irrational fear of suds in the bathtub? His latest favorite thing to do is play t-ball. Nana and Pawpaw (Robbie's parents) brought him a toddler t-ball set as a gift for becoming a big brother. He LOVES to hit the ball off the T. Owen is doing awesome as a big brother. His teachers at daycare inform us that he talks about Abby and how much he loves her all the time. He can't wait to get home in the afternoon to give Abby a kiss. He is so sweet and gentle with her so far. Couldn't be more proud of our little guy.

So after the first two weeks with our darling daughter our little family is tired but happy. Week 3 here we come!

Announcing Abigail Jaelyn Gehbauer - Born April 27, 2009

We are thrilled to announce the birth of our baby girl, Abigail Jaelyn Gehbauer (Abby for short).

Born: April 27, 2009

Time: 8:08am

Weight: 9lbs 5.4oz

Height: 20"

Mom and baby are doing great. The c-section went very smoothly and a big difference in feeling better faster when there's not 30 hours of labor preceeding a c-section like there was with Owen. The time in the hospital was appreciated. Abby is already eating and sleeping like a champ (although we'll see how much that changes soon). She can do 4-5 hours at night at the moment (Owen was only going 2 hours at the point). We think she is beautiful, of course, and so far she has been so sweet and generally very happy.

We couldn't be more proud of how Owen has handled this. He loves to give the baby kisses and try to share his toys with her. He likes to point out all her features and what she's doing... "baby nose" "baby binkie" "baby sleep" etc. He has no problem with me holding her, but so far won't let Robbie anywhere near her (Daddy's boy to the core). Trying to gradually introduce that concept. Any tips?

Arrived home Thursday late afternoon. Our friends the Tribbles surprised us with "baby girl" balloons and decorations outside the house. So sweet of them. First night home went very well - got a 4 1/2 hour sleep in which is awesome.

I can't believe she's finally here. Love her so much already. Our little family is complete!

Pregnancy #2 - 38 Weeks

One more week to the scheduled c-section. Part of me - the part that is ready to be done being pregnant and hold my little girl - almost hopes she comes early. The other practical part hopes she holds off till the scheduled c-section date so that we will have help with Owen while we're still in the hospital. Robbie's parents get here the Saturday before the delivery date, so she can feel free to come two days early but that's it. :)

I do feel good that her room is all finished. See other blog on that one. I've been on maternity leave for a little over 2 weeks now. I have been able to get a lot done in between all the resting I'm supposed to be doing - cleaning, packing for the hospital, buying last minute items, organizing, and general nesting. I'm even already set for Mother's Day stuff - ready to be mailed right on time.

The baby probably weighs a little under 7 pounds and likely measures a bit over 19 1/2 inches. I can't wait to see what she looks like. Adorable of course. :) Owen was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It will be interesting to see the differences between Abby and Owen. Looking forward to meeting her.

Pregnancy #2 - 38 Weeks

Picture coming soon.

Pregnancy #1 - 37 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 38 Weeks

Owen - 21 Months Old

Owen turned 21 months last Thursday. It's amazing the changes we continue to see just in a month's time. The time just flies by. Two years ago at this time we were at our lovely baby shower for him in Austin. Now he's closing in on 2 years and we're about to add a sister. By our blog for 22 months we'll have had Abby for a few weeks - it will be interesting to see what Owen stories we have then! We're pretty sure that he's going to call the baby "Abby's Room" for a while at first. If you ask him what's in mama's belly, he'll say "baby sister." And if you ask him what her name is he'll say "Abby's Room." I guess decorating and getting that room ready made an impression.

His class had hand-foot-mouth disease this month. Owen oddly got some bumps on his hands, but no where else and no fever. So our doctor did not think he had it - thank goodness! Unfortunately he's also teething at the moment. All 4 canines and possible a back molar. So during the hand-foot-mouth time it was a little tough to tell if any "symptoms" he was having had to do with teething or getting the virus. He's finally had one of the canines pop through (giving him 13 teeth total so far). Just waiting on the rest at this point.

He's starting to be more interested in TV which we try to limit. His favorite show continues to be Elmo (just the Elmo's World part of Sesame Street). But now he loves to watch the movie Cars and has added the Bob the Builder show to his list of requests (he calls it Bob, bob, bob, der, der). He has also started singing a lot. He has his favorite songs (The Wheels on the Bus which he calls the school bus song, and EIO which he calls the tractor song, and the Alphabet song which he calls "ABC"). He only hits the main words. For example in the school bus song, when we get to the "all around the town" part he sings "all" and "town."

Our little man is getting pretty bossy. He loves to tell his little friends at school to "walk away." This can mean anything from, move so I can see the book to get away from my toys. He'll grab us by the hands and tell us to "get up" so that we can go "run around." He is learning the concepts of "mine" and "my turn." He'll share turns sort of. For example, if I ask if he wants to close the garage door (push the button) he'll say "Mama's turn" but as soon as I reach for the button he says "my turn" or "Owen's turn" and then he gets to go. So other people's turns last about 2 seconds.

He has created a whole list of stalling techniques that he runs through regularly. Robbie currently does his bedtime, and Owen will ask to "Mama, kiss" multiple times cause he knows I'm a sucker for any attention (he's still such a Daddy's boy that I'll take anything I can get). We also suspect that he can poo on command to stall bedtime. Robbie's had evenings where he's changed Owen's diaper 3 times before getting him down. At meal time, if he's not interested in what we're feeding him he'd rather get down. But he knows he has to wait until we're all done with dinner. So he'll ask to "clean up" which is the last thing we do before getting him out of his chair. You know he's desparte when he's requesting diaper changes and hand/face washing.

We continue to be impressed by his language skills. He's putting together some decently complicated 5-7 word sentences. All time spent with him is running commentary - stream-of-consciousness. He's really got his shapes down - circle, square, rectangle, triangle, star, oval, and recently added his new favorite of octagon. He knows stop signs are octagons (loves to point them out) but will identify most any random octagon that he sees (not that there's tons of that shape out there).

Owen continues to be our little ham. He loves to make people laugh. If you ask him what you do when you're happy, he does this hilarious little fake laugh. He's also started "smiling" for the camera (see all the pics below). He also loves to tell us "Owen funny" when he thinks he's being very funny. We actually do find it pretty funny. :)

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter everybody! Owen's second Easter and we had a lot of fun. :)

On Friday Owen's daycare class had some festivities. An egg hunt and a special snacks time. I was able to go. It was raining, so the egg hunt had to be indoors. I discovered that Owen was more intersted in exploring what was inside the egg than collecting the eggs. Still, I managed to help him scoop up about 10 eggs or so.

Saturday we attended the El Dorado Hills community Easter egg hunt with our friends the Tribbles and Ariel's sister and her family. We also saw our friends the Carillos there (another family from our lamaze class).

There was a magician - which Owen didn't really understand. Then we took pictures with the Easter Bunny. Owen would give Mr. Bunny a high-five, but forget allowing the bunny any closer than that. What made this cuter is that after we left the bunny we asked if he enjoyed meeting him, and Owen said, "yup," and then wanted to go back and look at him.

The egg hunt was chaos of course. Owen only got two eggs because he kept opening them to see what was inside first. But after the egg hunt part was done, another area had Hershey's kisses to find. He really enjoyed that - got tons.

We went to our church service Saturday evening where we bumped into and then sat with several other friends and their kids. Then Robbie, Owen, and I went to a nice sushi dinner afterwards. No I did not eat any raw fish. And yes, this is a non-traditional Easter dinner. :)

Today to celebrate Easter, Owen got his Easter basket. He was thrilled that the Easter Bunny had brought him this great basket of candy (we hardly ever give him candy). He also enjoyed opening cards and presents from us and his grandparents. Then he had a great time doing an egg hunt in our living room for little chocolate eggs. As soon as he saw them he knew exactly what to do - finding each one and putting it in his basket. He enjoyed it so much, we repeated it again in the playroom upstairs by request later on.

We also got him to say "Happy Easter" to both sets of grandparents when we called. Too cute. We had a wonderful Easter this year! We hope you also had a wonderful Easter!!!

More pics... http://picasaweb.google.com/rgehbauer/Easter2009

Abby's Room Fi nished

We've finally finished getting Abby's room set up! For Abby's room, while we're using the multi-primary-color gingham printed bedding that was Owen's baby set, we're going more girly with it. I never think I'm going to go super-girly and then I go overboard girly (like our wedding). :) I guess I'm a girly-girl after all.

Owen's original nursery decor was all blues and animals. Abby's room is a pale pink with a hand-stensiled border of daisies using the primary colors from the bedding set. We bought another set of furniture (the crib eventually converts to a toddler bed and then a full sized bed when needed) but this time in white vs. the natural wood in Owen's room.

It's been so fun choosing and putting together the themes for both the kids rooms. This is the only time when owning a house that I feel one can legitimately go a little crazy with the themes and have fun with it. Next room to tackle is the kids bathroom - an ocean theme! More stensils! Probably won't get to it until after Abby is born. We'll see...