Dear Owen,

After being married for eight years, Mama and Daddy decided they wanted to have a baby of their own.  We got everything ready, and then chose the perfect time for Mama to get pregnant with you.  It seems it was also the perfect time for you to start your life, because Mama became pregnant right away, and then you started growing inside of my tummy.

When I was pregnant with you, I could feel you moving inside of me.  Daddy would put his hand on my belly and feel you move too.  Sometimes you would move more if we played music.  When I was only four months pregnant, we had an ultrasound.  This is when they put a special machine on my belly and then we could see you on a TV screen.  We found out you were a boy and I was so excited!  I was amazed to see you inside of me, moving around, and even sucking your thumb.  After seeing you I realized I was really having a baby soon, and got even more excited to meet you.

So many people were excited for you to arrive.  You were the first grandchild on both sides of the family.  When it was close to the time that you might be born, everyone started calling and emailing us every day asking if you were ready to come yet.    We told them that we would call them when you were ready, but that didn’t stop them, they were too excited.

One day, Mama woke up feeling like it might be the day that you would be born.  I told Daddy to stay home from work, because we might be meeting our baby soon.  Daddy stayed home, but soon it was obvious that you changed your mind and you weren’t coming that day after all.  Daddy was disappointed and wanted to do something to make you come sooner.  Mama said we could go walk around the mall, and maybe that would get you to come out faster.  I didn’t really think it would, but Daddy seemed to want to do something.  We walked around a bit, and then we went to Mama’s favorite restaurant for dinner, Macaroni Grill.  Mama got pasta with chicken, and I was so hungry I ate it all up.  Then we went home, and I was so tired I went right to bed, even though it was only 8:00 p.m.

Then, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I knew that you were going to be born soon.  I snuck out of bed and let Daddy sleep for awhile longer.  I ironed your cute outfit that I wanted to bring you home in, and I started to pack up our things to bring with us to the place that you would be born.  My body was telling me that I better hurry up, and so I woke up Daddy and called our doula.  When Daddy woke up he was nervous and excited and didn’t know what to do.  Mama had to tell him what to get, and what to pack.  Eventually we were ready to go, and Daddy put our bags into our car and we drove to the place that you would be born.

When we arrived, we went to our room.  There was a shower there, and one of the first things Mama did was go in it to feel the warm water on her body, and it helped me relax.  I knew you were coming faster then I planned, and I wished that there was a tub to soak in.  There was not a tub in our room, so when I got done with the shower I decided to lay on the bed for awhile, and this helped me feel more comfortable.  Our doula was there too, taking care of Mama, and helping Daddy to be more relaxed.

My body started telling me to push, so I pushed a little every now and then.  The water that was around you soon broke and came splashing out.  Then eventually, I pushed more and more to work with my body to bring you closer to being born.  I was standing on my knees on the bed, and gravity was pulling you down, and nudging you forward.  Finally, the top of your head was a little bit out, and I reached down and touched your head.  It was the first time I touched you and it was so amazing to feel your little head coming out before I even could see you. After pushing some more, your head was all the way out, and then your body slipped out right after that.  The moment that you were born felt so wonderful to me, both the feeling of you slipping out of me, and also knowing that I suddenly wasn’t pregnant anymore, and I had a little baby boy now.  You were lying on the bed under me, and I turned around to look at you.  You were on your side facing the left, and your cord was still attached to you pumping in the last bit of blood from your placenta.  I could see that you were very red, and you were crying because the outside must have been much colder and brighter then it was on the inside of Mama.  I could only see your profile, so I wasn’t sure what you looked like exactly, but I could already tell you had Grandpa from Florida’s upper lip, and that you were very cute.

Daddy cut the umbilical cord, and stayed with you while Mama got ready to hold you.  Daddy put his hands on you and held your arms down so you wouldn’t be startled.  He whispered softly to you and stayed with you the whole time that you were waiting.  But very soon, Daddy brought you to me, and you were all warm and cozy wrapped up in a blanket and wearing a little hat.  I felt like I wanted to see more of you, but I was happy to see your little face and wanted you to stay cozy and warm.  As soon as Daddy brought you over to me it felt so good to be holding you.  I didn’t like it when I couldn’t hold you, and I wanted to hold you all the time.  As soon as I saw your face I couldn’t believe how cute you were.  I didn’t know what you looked like when you were in my tummy.  Now that you were born I could see that you were an exceptionally beautiful child.  All the nurses said so too, and later they would come in your room just to hold you, and gaze at you, and fawn over you after telling us they heard there was a cute baby in that room.

A little while after I held you for the first time,  we went to a different room, and it was much better.  It had a nicer softer bed, and a rocking chair, and a big tub, and wood floors, and it was big and sunny.  By that time you were starting to get very hungry, and so Mama breastfed you for the first time.  You seemed to do okay, you latched right on and sucked pretty well.  But you were getting very tired so it was hard for you to keep eating when you wanted to sleep so much.  Every time you got anywhere near Mama, you would relax so much that you would fall right to sleep, so at first it was hard for us to learn how to breastfeed.  You slept for a long time, for the rest of the day.  Every now and then I would wake you up and nurse you, but you didn’t want to nurse, you just wanted to sleep.

Everyone who was so excited for you to be born came to see you right away.  Grammie and Grampy, Grandma, Aunt Berta, and Aunt Diane and Uncle Mike all came to see you.  Our room was full with visitors, and we were happy to show you to everyone.  We all agreed that you were very cute, and everyone wanted to hold you.  We stayed in the room for two days, and we finally learned together how to make breastfeeding work.  Daddy and Mama also learned how to change your diapers, and dress you, and how you slept at night, and how to calm you down when you were crying.  Soon, we felt like we knew enough and we decided to go home.  We put you in your carseat, put all our bags back in our car, and Daddy drove us home.  That night we all climbed into bed together, and you breastfed perfectly, and each morning we woke up after that I was so excited to see your smiling little face looking up at me.

Love, Mama