Saturday, October 31, 2009

Some updated pics of Ross...

One week old now... man, time is flying by so fast! So far Ross is a very good sleeper... which we're hoping sticks around for a while :) He is not back to birth weight yet so we're still setting a timer to wake him up every 3 hours at night and 2 hours during the day. His brothers love him so much. Ryan is a big fan of helping with him. Reid loves him but is pretty busy with his own life for the most part. That's about all the updates on Ross for now so here are a bunch of great pictures.


Hanging out in his swing...




Being held by his big brother Ryan...




Posing with both of his big brothers. Ryan loves holding him...





Thursday, October 29, 2009

Ross Jacob McDowell is here!

So, I'm a bit delayed in getting this updated but we are very excited to announce the arrival of the newest McDowell boy... Ross Jacob McDowell. He was born Sat, Oct 24th at 6:02 pm weighing in at 8 lbs, 2.3 oz and is 19.5 inches long. Sticking with family tradition he has a full head of dark hair, although maybe not quite as dark as Reid or Ryan's was.

We came home on Monday afternoon and we've not done a whole lot this week but we have ventured out for a few outings (doctor appts, Wal-Mart trip, running shoe trip).

Ross left the hospital weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz. We went back Tuesday for a weight check and he was down to 7 lbs, 6.4 oz. Yesterday we were at the dr office for H1N1 vaccines for Russ, Reid and Ryan and I weighed Ross. He was up to 7 lbs, 9 oz. The dr had said he hoped to see an ounce a day gain until he was back at his birth weight so I think we're on the right track. We're currently setting a timer and waking him every 2 - 2.5 hours during the day and every 3 hours during the night. He's getting this eating thing down too! We go to the dr at 1:00 today for his first official check-up. We'll hopefully get some conclusions on his kidney, a good report on his weight and bilirubin levels, etc. Hopefully we'll be back at birth weight soon and we can let him command his eating and sleeping schedules - it is just never fun or a good idea to wake a sleeping baby, right?

Here are some pictures from his first two days...



Dr Peck (he has delivered all three of our boys)

Nurse Gloria - by far the best nurse ever!


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Practice makes perfect...


Lots of new around here so this post is mostly for practice... New camera, new software, etc. I'm trying to make sure we've got our new camera set up to download pics and also practicing taking pics with it. My first effort at pictures was Reid's FIRST real hockey game today... unfortunately, I have no good pictures to share - I'll keep practicing. Still pictures take just fine - as you'll see by a couple of them attached... but the hockey ones will take me a bit.
This may be the only picture of me we share for a while but Russ took this still of me while I was cleaning out our "old" camera. 37 weeks officially (and measuring 38) ... we're full term now and as you can see - certainly ready! :)

Here is Reid in his locker room before the game - all suited up and ready to go!


Reid during game - I'm pretty sure this was a break away... or maybe not ;)

Another of Reid during the game - they played the Line Creek team from North Kansas City. They had one really good kid and I'm sure beat us pretty bad but we don't keep score at this age.


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Big Hockey Fans!


The local Russell Stovers hockey team played in town this weekend. As most of you know, we are housing for the team again this year. We've had many housing kids throught the last couple of years (some for a few nights, some a few weeks, and some for a year). I think we're up to about 10 or 11 that have stayed here at some point in time.

Ross Kovaks has been living with us since sometime in August. The boys just love him! The first couple of weeks with a new housing "kid" is always the most difficult. The boys get totally hyper and we spend a lot of time trying to make sure they aren't too annoying. For the player it's always a time of adjustment - getting used to us, our house, rules, etc. For most of the boys that have stayed with us, this is their first time away from home for any length of time as well.

We're now getting to that point in time with Ross where he is just one of the family. The boys are excited when he comes home at night from practice but they no longer feel like they have to be on top of him 24/7. Ross knows what the boys are and are not allowed to do so he's become a help to us too. It's always nice having an extra set of hands around dinner time or around the house that knows they have to eat what's on their plates first before they can have more chips, etc.

So, anyway, back to the point of the post.... The team played four games in town last weekend and we were able to take the boys over to watch a couple of them. We had some shirts made for the boys to wear that were quite a hit. Reid "designed" his himself. The back has Ross # (24) on it and says Go Ross above the number. On the front he wanted it to say "Russell Stovers Fan" so that's what we did. Ryan's says Kovacs' Fan on the front and has 24 on the back. We put Ryan's on for the 8:00 game Saturday night and he wore it through the game, through the night and all day on Sunday. We finally MADE him change and bathe Sunday night!

I wish I would have got a picture of Ross with the boys but we never got it done - we'll have to do that next time they play in town. Here are some pics of the boys showing off their shirts with dad.








Thursday, October 1, 2009

THIS Month

So, we don't know what day but we do know that our baby boy will be here THIS month... I've NEVER been so excited for October to roll around :) Baby Ross' room is ready (pictures below). We've got a few things to finalize - hospital paperwork, pack bags for the hospital, and a few minor purchases to make. The hardest part this time is not knowing when he's coming because we have a lot of other issues to plan around this time - the boys' activities, school, etc.
Tomorrow we go for our final appointment with our specialist for one last look at the baby's kidneys and for measurements to determine his size - I'll update with what we find out at the appointment.
** Update - We had our final sonogram with the specialist today and they estimate the baby to be 6 lbs, 2 oz at this time and I was measuring 35 weeks, 6 days (36 weeks tomorrow). Dr Peck has said that he will induce on 10/27 if he has not come on his own by then so 3.5 weeks at most.