Owen Visits North Carolina

I can't believe it's been 12 weeks since little Owen was born.  A lot has happened - it feels like just yesterday, but also like it's been a year!

This marks the end of my maternity leave (WAH!!) and I begin work on Monday.  At least I'm lucky enough to work for a company that cares about their employees and is allowing me to work from home to ease back into things.  

I'm finally to the point where I feel like I can blog again (it just wasn't going to happen after Owen was born), so I'm catching up on some of the highlights.  Here are a few things you  might have missed:

 - Owen's birth story

 - The worst Christmas ever

 - Decorating Owen's room

Today we'll do a brief recap of our trip to NC!  Since Travis took this semester off to care for Owen and I was on maternity leave, we decided it was the perfect time to take a nice long trip to NC so everyone could meet Owen!  We decided to drive so we could stop by my grandma's house in Maryland (and because a baby and dog on an airplane sounded too stressful).  

800 miles and a hotel stay - two big firsts for a 1-month old!  We were nervous.  Thankfully, Owen was an angel.  We split the trip into two days and stopped every 2-2.5 hours.  We had zero traffic, Owen cried maybe 5 minutes the entire trip, and he slept all night in the hotel.  He gets a gold star. 

Enjoying stretching after a looooong day in the car seat!

Family selfie in the hotel room!

Owen's first ride on a luggage cart!

Grandmommy and Alan loved seeing Owen, and it was fantastic to get to see them again!  

Owen also met Tim and Kim, and had lunch at Cracker Barrel...

Alford family picture (with Sarah, Charlie (the cat), and Toby photoshopped in)

...my Virginia family, who drove down to meet him...

...Faye, Pope and Thad...

...Anna Marie, Aaron, Rob, Megan, Howard, Cindy and Alvin at Anna Marie's baby shower (she's due in 2 weeks!!!  Owen will have another cousin!).

...Uncle Robert and Aunt Jewel...

...and many more friends!

We had an awesome time relaxing with our families.

Everyone making our "Owen's not impressed" face

While we were home, we had a "Christmas in January" dinner at my family's house, since everyone was finally together.  After dinner, we had two pies for dessert - one frozen Mrs. Smith's pumpkin pie, one chocolate pie.  My brother, mom and I had the pumpkin pie, and 30 minutes later, my brother and I started to feel sick.  I'll spare you the gory details, but we all got food poisoning.  Thanks a lot Mrs. Smith's.  My mom had a sliver of pie, so her's wasn't as bad, but both my brother and I ended up in the Emergency Room and had to be admitted into the hospital.  We were SICK.  That pie was ROTTEN.  

If I'm looking for a moral of the story, or on the bright side, I'd say:

1)  If you're going to eat pie, make it yourself.

2)  If you're not going to make it yourself, don't buy Mrs. Smith's.

3)  Thankfully this didn't happen sooner - my incision was mostly healed by this point.
4)  Thankfully Travis had the chocolate pie, so he could take care of Owen.

5)  I certainly "ripped off the Band-Aid" when it came to spending the night away from our baby.

6)  My brother and I got rooms next to each other, so my dad didn't have to run from one end of the hospital to another.

The nurse said there was a large number of people in the ER with terrible food poisoning around Thanksgiving and Christmas who had all eaten frozen pumpkin pies.  Apparently no one reported it.  If you have one in your freezer, throw it out.  It's not worth it!  I have a really great recipe for mini pumpkin pies.  Make this one instead...it's super easy!

Also...we're celebrating Hanukkah or something next year.

Thankfully, we were all (mostly) well enough to make the trip to Greenville for Travis' performance at East Carolina University later that week.  Chris Grymes, a clarinetist, commissioned Travis to write him a piece which he was performing at the North Carolina New Music Initiative.  It was nice to see all of our old professors (and several friends) at the concert!  Afterwards, Owen experienced his first post-concert-Krispy-Kreme-run!  He has no idea how amazing it's going to be once he can eat donuts.  

We also got to celebrate family "Christmas" with both sides of Travis' family - Jenny's in Virginia and Terry's at their house in Spring Hope.  Each family gathering had two new babies at them!  Virginia Christmas had Owen and Grace (Grace was born about a month before Owen), and Spring Hope Christmas had Owen and Henry (Henry was born 5 days after Owen).

The Virginia family also had a joint baby shower for the two newest members of the family, which was so sweet.  

Owen's "Russell bear" - a bear made from his late Uncle Russell's shirt to remember him by.  I'll share more about this later!

Jenny's happy place

We were sad to come back to Boston...especially with all the snow happening while we were gone.  Little did we know the next few weeks would bring over 100 inches!  More on that later.

Home from the hospital & the worst Christmas ever

Our story left off at the hospital - 36 hours of labor, a close call, c section and TV appearance.  Read more (and see pictures) here.

After 4 days in the hospital, we were SO ready to go home.  We packed up our baby and bags (including several bags of free gear the nurses gave us!), and made our way home.  We were greeted by my parents and one excited puppy!

When we got home, we were all excited to hear how Mark's trip to Atlanta went to buy an engagement ring for his now-fiance Megan.  The ring was burning a hole in his pocket - once he had it, there was no waiting to pop the question!  He proposed the next day on one of their walks through Umstead Park.  A baby and proposal in 5 days - the Colbert family had a good week!!!

Didn't Mark do a great job?  (With his lady AND the ring!)

The first few days home were how I'd expect all first days home are - exhausting but amazing.  Owen wasn't such a good sleeper the first few weeks - his nights and days were completely backward, and he hardly slept!  Owen is one alert little baby - that makes for a lot of fun play time, but many sleepless nights.  I spent most of my time in our rocker/recliner due to the c section, as I wasn't able to lay down in the bed.  Mom and dad were an enormous help, and we were so sad to see them leave.  The good news was that Travis' family would be coming up in a few days, and my parents would be back that next week!

Here are a few pictures from the first weeks home!

Burp burp burp

Hangin with his friend, Vivienne

The next week, Travis' family came back up to celebrate Christmas here in Boston.  This was also the first time Sarah and Michael (Travis' sister and her boyfriend) would meet Owen, so we couldn't wait to see them!  

On Christmas Eve, Travis, Terry and Michael went to Park Street for the Christmas Eve service, where Travis was playing trumpet. Sarah and Jenny stayed home with Owen and me (I was in no shape to leave the house, and Owen was barely more than a week old at this point!).  When they got home, we all had dinner together...and that's when things turned sour.  

Terry went to bed shortly after dinner (before opening any presents), which was strange to us.  We brushed it off as leftover exhaustion from the long drive the day before, until I awoke to the sound of someone throwing up.  Things got worse throughout the night, and we finally ended up calling an ambulance Christmas morning to take him to the hospital.  He was admitted with NOROVIRUS, but was thankfully released after a day of fluids.

Travis' mom and dad decided to check into a hotel, since it wouldn't be wise to bring someone with norovirus back into the house with a 1 week old baby.  As they were checking into the hotel, Sarah started to feel bad...and then the throw-ups hit her.  On the way to pick Sarah up (she was to be banished to the hotel, too), Jenny got sick.  We were dropping like flies!  Owen and I sat in my rocker/ germ-free bubble zone in the living room while Michael and Travis tried to clean things up, and then all the NC Alfords went to their hotel.  

Travis and I sat quietly in our house, sad his family was sick...sad we all missed Christmas...and terrified we were next.  

Then, 3 hours later, it happened.  Travis got the bug.  Then Michael threw up.  

Owen and I were the last ones standing, and I freaked out.  Throwing up 1 week after having major abdominal surgery sounded like it would kill me.  And worse would be a 1 week old baby getting norovirus.  I. Freaked. Out.

First I called my parents.  Then I called every doctor I've ever seen.  The advice was "don't use the bathroom everyone threw up in" (we only have one bathroom...we were doomed), "wash your hands" (my hands were bleeding, I'd washed them so many times), and "call us if either of you get sick". 

My parents got in the car to drive up earlier than planned, since I was still barely able to stand up with Owen and was officially on my own.  While they were on their way, the Boston reinforcements came in: my nextdoor neighbor Ali, and the most fantastic cleaning lady ever, Maria.  Thankfully, I'd called Maria the night before, when 3 of the 7 were sick, to see if she could come bleach our entire apartment.  As she was coming in, Ali came back over, realized I was about to lose it, helped me with Owen, washed everything porous in our apartment, and helped me stay sane.   

Ali, the angel

That evening, my parents pulled in and relieved Ali.  The next day, Travis was feeling some better and was released from his prison (bedroom), and we started to put everything back together again.

Three days after Christmas, we opened presents.

Travis was allowed out of the bedroom if (and only if) he wore gloves, a mask, and sat on a blanket.  NO GERMS!!!

Here is our attempt to look like we'd had a normal Christmas.  Still a happy family, even through the giant mess of Christmas 2014.  Thankfully, Owen was none the wiser.  

New Years Eve