Pictures

Oodles of pictures are now on facebook. We'll be posting our favorites here.

The Birth of Samuel Kenneth Owens

We're Home

I sent this email out to our churches and some friends.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Hilary, my son, and I are home and we are well. Thank you for your prayers; I honestly don't think we could have done it without you. The Lord supplied the strength we needed, even when we were (I was) losing hope. There were several times I thought we might end up with a C-section, but the Lord spared us. At 2:09 p.m. on Sunday July 26 we welcomed Samuel Kenneth Owens (a.k.a. Little Toot) into the world. He is healthy and hardy at 8 lbs. 1 oz., 22 in. long, and has a 15 1/2 in. (not so) little head. Even though the amniotic sac had been ruptured for over 24 hours and he had pooped in utero, he is perfectly well; and believe me, they examined him THOROUGHLY. I am so very proud of my wife, a super trooper. She labored for over 36 hours and delivered our little man naturally; she did need Pitocin towards the end, but she used no pain meds at all. She is well and happy. Mom and dad said I looked worse afterwards than she did! In fact, last night she referred to the birth as "yesterday," even though it had only been a few hours on that same day.

We ask that visitors only come between the hours of 3:00 and 8:00 p.m. Please, call beforehand, and observe the same time frame for telephone calls.

Over the next several days, weeks, months and even years, you may follow the development of our son and our adventures in parenting on facebook or on our blog, www.chocolataunoir.blogspot.com.

Please continue praying.

In Christ,

Trey Owens

P.S. Family, Friends, and home churches, you may send this email along to anyone you think would want to know, especially to those folks who have been praying for us.

P.P.S. Friends, please only call between the hours of 3:00 and 8:00 pm. Family can call at any reasonable time day or night, although our phones may be off and we may have to call back.

More pictures forthcoming.

All new again?

Y'all are probably getting tired of me changing my blog layout. I go through phases when I want to make-over and re-do, probably when there is something else going on in my life that I have no control over (hmmm...). I can't move furniture around like I used to (first, because Trey doesn't appreciate it; second, because my abdominal muscles aren't much good for anything these days), so the blog got changed. Trey and I love Tolkein and all good stories, and since we're about to embark on a great adventure (not exactly dragon hunting, but probably on the same level), I was drawn to this layout.

Unfortunately, I am not very smart about computer things. I managed to miss all those classes in college. So, I lost some links when I imported this new do.

Ha ha! But something rather helpful in having to re-enter the blogs we read was finding the nifty gadget that shows how long it has been since certain blogs have been updated. If you are linked, you should check and see how long it really has been. Some of you have really been slacking on the blogging, forcing me to divert my attentions into things like nutrition, saturated fats, and phytic acid.

On the menu for youth group tonight: pancakes. And, yes, we will use the "syrup" that is high fructose corn syrup and carmel color. Trey and I only use real maple syrup at home, but you can't give that stuff to kids who are used to swimming their pancakes in syrup unless you teach them not to swim their pancakes in syrup. And I don't think we wanted that to be part of tonight's lesson. I should have been inventive and thought up some alternative, healthier options for toppings. I might bring peanut butter or yogurt for me. I don't think I can stomach the HFCS. I'll say it's my pregnancy diet.

Life at 1041 N. Union

has been fairly routine lately. I had gotten behind on a few of my household chores, but I'm almost completely caught up now. It's different thinking about what constitutes a productive day when one's responsibilities don't include either school work (yes, I still remember my college days---it wasn't THAT long ago; and maybe I'll still get that master's degree one day) or going to work. You wouldn't think that cleaning and cooking would take all day every day, but it seems to come pretty close. Of course, I am a reader and love learning, so I spend a good bit of time doing that.

The past month or so, I've been learning a great deal about nutrition. Trey and I are slowly working on changing what we eat, and I am working even more slowly on changing how it is prepared. I have a lot more learning and research to do, and it will be years before our diet and food spending habits look substantially different from what they did two months ago. Trey has already told me that he feels healthier from the little changes that we have made. All I can say for myself is that I have had a healthy pregnancy, which must be connected somehow to diet, and that since we've made a few changes in our diet, my acne has cleared up. The scars are even healing, which used to be a terribly slow process even when I wasn't breaking out.

A lot of what I have learned makes sense to my somewhat logical brain. For instance, most people know that there are fat-soluble and water soluble vitamins. I shouldn't be surprised to learn, then, that my body needs fats in order to utilize the fat-soluble vitamins. Low-fat is not a healthy option. Also, 1/2 of a cell's membrane is made of saturated fat. Half? Of every single cell in my body? Why, then, would I try to strip saturated fats from my diet? I want healthy cells!

The real bad fats are the hydrogenated ones, but thankfully most people know that these days. Other things we are avoiding are petroleum-based preservatives, fragrances, and dyes, and I am trying to get away from vegetable oils (other than olive oil), which are processed at such high temperatures that the fats are damaged, oxidized, so that they then cause damage in the body.

There is a sampling of what I have been absorbing recently. I'll post some links to the blogs I'm reading sometime. I haven't finished reading it, but Nina Planck's book Real Food has some very interesting and helpful information on nutrition and how our bodies process foods. Trey and I are, meanwhile, enjoying nitrite-free bacon (oh, and I keep all those good drippings to cook with), lots of eggs, butter, and whole milk. And, you may be surprised, we're not getting fat.

Maybe I'm weak-minded

But I've had to swear off Facebook until after this little one comes, which could be any time . . . in the next TWO WEEKS. I am glad at how much joy babies bring to the world and how many people love this little boy before even seeing his face. But other people's anxieties and questions were not very helpful to my mind and thoughts. I've even considered becoming a hermit (is it time for my "confinement"?) until he arrives, so I won't have to face the barrage of questions about what the doctor says (as though he is god) or inducement (as though this birth is for our convenience) or how miserable I am (I'm not).

I know that all the questions and comments, though maybe a bit thoughtless, are well-intentioned. Being as pregnant as I am and as close as I am to one of my most major life-changes, overwhelmed comes rather easily to me. No one but God knows when this little guy will show his face, and none of the signs of approaching labor really predict WHEN labor will start. The time from when you lose "the plug" to when you start labor varies between 24 hours and 1 month. You can be dilated even 4 cm for over a month with no labor. I could start 30 sec contractions 20 minutes apart and it could still be days before I go into real, effective labor.

God has blessed Trey and me so richly! He has brought us to a godly church, provided for our material needs abundantly, given us friends and resources that have helped us have an easy, healthy pregnancy (the doctor comments on it every visit), and He's given us this precious child! It is awesome to think about how God has been knitting this little one together. I've tried to make sure I give my body the resources it needs, but God designed me to grow and nurture this little human image-bearer without consciously doing anything (except maybe initially, ahem). Trey and I fully believe that the climax of pregnancy, the birth, is as much a part of God's design as the womb phase. (We also believe that functionally pregnancy extends several months past birth, but that's for another post.) That's why we've read extensively and gone to classes that teach about the natural pregnancy and birth process and what we can do to help, rather than hinder, that process.

Anyway, this is getting long, and I have a few more thank-yous to write. I should get "Safari Jack" to write a post about his VBS adventures this week. He's gotten to wear a costume and teach bible lessons to kids every morning this week. When he comes back for lunch I ask him how the morning was. His usual response has been "Fun."

P.S. A question that never gets old is "How are you doing?" Then I know people are really concerned about me, and that makes me feel very loved.

This could be me

I have gone in and out of nesting phases this whole pregnancy. I'm currently in a sort of cleaning phase, so my house has been looking a bit nicer than usual (except the computer table; it's where I put all the paper I don't want to sort through, much to Trey's chagrin). Today I cleaned the coffee maker (after noticing a sentence on the inside of the water reservoir that said to clean the coffee maker monthly). I pulled out the manual just to make sure I did everything right. In glancing over the troubleshooting section I noticed this:

Problem: The coffeemaker only brews water

Possible cause: There are no coffee grounds in the filter basket.

Solution: Add the desired amount of coffee to the filter.

Wow.