The pics not real great (take with a cell phone) but it gives you an idea or how little he is.
He smiles a lot! He seems to be a happy little guy.

Baby Owen is 2 weeks new today! Good news to report. He is now up to eating 3 times a day from a bottle and his last 3 times he has ate his whole bottle or even a little more. This make me very happy. We think they might bump him up to 4 times a day after the Dr see's him today. He has to maintain eating at least 75% at each feeding for us to put in a request to try to get him home. More good news... Little one has gain a whole pound from his birth weight. He currently weights in at about 4lbs 10oz. They did put him back on a little O2, his sats would drop every time he ate. The little extra boost helps him sleep better and have more energy when he is awake and trying to eat. He seems to progress a little more every single day. I will take my camera with me tonight and try to get a few new shots of him... The lighting not great and we try not to use a flash so we don't blind him and the other babies.

As of yesterday, Owen no longer has any IV's, his PICC LINE has been removed, he has not needed any Oxygen support for over a week, he maintains his own body temp and he's done with the photo therapy lights. Fewww... I know! It takes a lot to keep these little one's going. He is so amazing, he really is a little Rockstar! So at this point his still has a feeding tube, he is currently eat 1 oz per feeding. We are beginning to try to breast feed him but this take some time. He has to learn to suck - swallow - breathe all at the same time. The nurse's say it depends on the baby on how long this can take, but he has to figure it out on his own. So now we just have to be patient( not my strong point ). He is so stinkin cute and we Loove him so much. Happy Day all!

After the c-section they put me back in my room to recover which normally takes an hr or two. I wasn't recovering very well and started having a hard time keeping my O2 levels in a normal range. They started having a respiratory therapist work with me which I can bearly remember and they x-rayed my lungs ( Taking the MAG posses a risk of your lungs filling with fluid, much like pneumonia ) I don't remember this at all. At this point I was pretty out of it. They wheeled me into the NICU on my bed to see Owen for the first time since the delivery. I couldn't really roll over much and I could only see his little feet from the angle I was on. We then got settled in a room on the Mother/Baby floor and they had started taking me off the Mag. At noon on Monday they took out the MAG IV, I was so excited because I was sure this was what was making me feel so awful and I knew if I got up and moving I'd feel better. I was still having a hard time breathing so I was on Oxygen and had a O2 sensor on my finger. I remember Shawn telling me several times when the alarm would go off "Nikki you have to breathe, take some deep breathes" This happened several times and I kept nodding off and the alarm would instantly go off again and again. I started to get at at Shawn for telling me to breathe. I thought... this is so crazy why would someone have to tell you to breathe. Duh, I am breathing. My folks came into the room and Shawn started to explain to them what was happening. The alarms start beeping again and they don't stop, Shawn grabbed my arm and tells me to breathe and I wanted to tell him I am but I couldn't open my eyes or move and I realized I can breathe. My chest felt like it was being squeezed so tight and I could get any air. He go and gets my nurse and I feel her shake me and start yelling at me. I hear them call for more people and then they call ready response. I come back to enough to look at Shawn but can't get anything to come out of my mouth. I wanted to tell him I'm ok but I couldn't people came in so fast and I would kinda stop breathing and go "out of it" but I could hear everyone. Then I would come back around a little and be able to look at someone but still not really talk and I could move. They started putting something in my IV that would bring me back around every time I'd go "out of it". Then they take me for an emergency MRI. They actually ran me through the entire Hospital on my bed with a team of people in tow ( which if I had felt better I think I would have found extremely funny ) by the time they had me to the MRI I was back with the world enough to talk to them but still had no control over my muscles. During the MRI they had to pull me out of the tube give me a little more med's and remind me to breathe. When I got out of the MRI they had decided I hadn't had a seizure or a stroke. Ok, but what? Well we still don't know what happened for sure but they think it was an overdose of a drug that was in the MAG. Sadly they had to put me back on the MAG minus the drug they assumed I had a bad reaction to. I stayed on it till about midnight Monday. It didn't feel nearly as terrible with the new MAG (minus) the wierdo drug. They then sent me back to the Mother/Baby unit to finally recover. I was so swollen, but from here on out I only felt better and better. My BP's still remained pretty high through out the rest of my stay but they put me on some Med's for that and they seem to be slowly coming down. I'm so thankful to be Happy & Healthy. This was quite the experience but still WELL worth it. I got the cutest, sweetest, most perfect baby boy. However, I think our days of having babies is over. After two NICU babies and my situation I don't think Shawn's willing to have more children with me. HaHa. We are so very blessed to have two healthy children.

On Friday March 30th I went in for my regularly scheduled non-stress test ( I was having these test done twice a week because of my gestational diabetes ) While I was there they monitored the baby like normal and he was doing great, However, my blood pressure was really high. So they contacted my OB and they decided to draw some labs and start me on a 24 hr urine test. I went home laughing about the thought of peeing in a jug and having to take it back to the hospital the next day. At 2 o'clock on Friday I also had an appt with my OB. When they tested my urine ( which they do at the beginning of every appt ) the RN said "Nikkole why is there protein in your urine?" finding this very funny again ( cause, how the hell would I know? ). Then she took my BP and it was even higher than when I was at the hospital just a few hrs earlier. She then asked me if I had preclampsia with my previous pregnancy ( no ). Quincy was born early due to problems with the diabetes. So now the RN's going to crack the jokes... She say's " what are you doing just going to try everything out" She was trying to tell me I have now developed preclampsia which has absolutely nothing to do with the diabetes. FABULOUS! At this point I have no idea what preclampsia is or how serious it is. Dr Watabe ( who is usually very upbeat and positive) comes in and instead of shaking my hand like normal he just looks at me and shakes his head. He sits at the computer and starts reading over all my records. I tell him all about my hospital visit and the high BP's. He looks up my lab work they took at the hospital and just stares at the computer when he finally looks at me he just shook his head and said " this isn't good" with a very serious tone. I then decide this is not funny anymore and I ask is there anything I can do? He says go home and your on bed rest the rest of the day. Do the urine test and have it back to the hospital at 8am... Plan to have a baby in the morning. OMG! What? I now know this is very serious, but what the heck is preclampsia and how did I get it and why? a thousand questions but I just left the office and called Shawn. He googled it and quickly became an expert on it. Saturday morning still finding it a little funny to carry my pee around we drop it by the lab at AF hospital and go upstairs. They hook me up to the monitors to do another non-stress test while we wait for the results. Baby still looks good. half an hr later the OB on call came into my room and says what we already knew. "You have severe preclampsia and it's to early to deliver you here so we are transporting you to Provo". Yes.. Transporting ( an ambulance ) Now I'm embarrassed and again for some reason start to think of how much or bills are going to be find it very funny. They start an IV and begin to give me Magnesium sulfate which is like a muscle relaxer. It slows everything down and doesn't let anything contract. They tell me it's going to make me feel aw full and it did. I felt like my skin was on fire, it made my muscle relax but my nerves go crazy. I felt like I was trying so hard to bust out of my own body. It really felt like bad drugs. The also gave me a steroid shot for the baby. The goal with the steroid shot is to keep the baby in for at least 24hrs and then they give you another one and they try to keep it in for 24 more hrs. so at this point I'm now set up in Provo and the goal is to keep me on the MAG and try to wait till Monday morning to deliver. Sunday Dr. Donna Bennet came on duty and is now over my care. You can tell she's a no bull-shit kinda lady and I like her instantly. She looks at me and say's you really don't look good she started quizzing me about my pain and come to the conclusion I'm in rough shape and the MAG might be to much for me to wait till Monday. I had had a headache since Friday which nothing they gave me took it away I was not eating by this point because I just couldn't and now I was getting pains in my upper right part of my abs. She came back a very short time later and informed us we are having the baby now. I felt so bad, I thought " I'm the wimpiest pregnant lady ever. I'm sure I can stick it out till morning for this baby" but Dr. Bennet was having none of it and at 5:14pm our baby boy was born via c-section. ( to-be continued)

Our little sweets is continuing to get a little bigger and healthier. He is back on the Jaundice lights for now but that was expected and not much of a set back. We fed him 16ml this morning which is a half an once. We have began non-nutritional breast feeding (which is basicly "dry breast feeding") he's not ready to eat through his mouth yet but he is able to start learning the "sucking". The tube you can see going in his nose is his feeding tube.
A lot of people have asked me to write about what happened and how come we delivered so early, which I will do later today or tomorrow. It will be a long post so I'll have to have a bit more time to write it.

I love that I have been able to post all good updates on our little miracle and today is no different. He is doing so good, He has been able to be off his jaundice lights for 2 days ( we do expect he'll have to go on them again ). He is at 14ml for feeding time and we've been able to snuggle him a bit longer each day. He currently weights 3lbs 14oz. In a couple days we will start adding some calories to his milk and that should put some weight on him pretty fast.
We look forward to the weekend and hope to see some family and friends. My blood pressure is still pretty high but I'm on a pretty strong dose of Med's for it and hope in the next week or two it will start to come down into a more normal range. I am so appreciative to my Husband, Mom, Family & Friends that have helped me so much this week. You all mean so much to me and I wouldn't have anything with out you.
I'm going to take my camera with me to the hospital tomorrow so I will try to get a few more pic's of our adorable little guy to share here on the blog.

Our little guy is now up to 7ml per meal. This is super good news. He is still doing amazing. We are still waiting for them to tell us he doesn't need the Jaundice lights anymore, but we'll be patient. He is a little snuggle bug. They've let me start to do a little snuggling a couple times a day and he seems to absolutely LOVE it. He's already figured out how to wiggle and jiggle into all the creases in my arms so that he is as covered as possible. I know it's not realistic but he seems to smile and look like he's about to crack a joke all the time. I'm starting to think he has a very funny personality and that his birthday is not a coincidence. The Dr's have released me to go home... It's very bittersweet. I'm excited to go home and be under the same roof as my little toodle Quincy but HATE with every part of me to leave Owen for even the few hours that I am planning too. Thanks everyone again for reading our blog and thinking about us. We are so very blessed.

Oh' boy it feels good to have another day behind us and it was a good day. It was uneventful for Me as far as anything medical (YAY!) They did a couple of things with our baby boy yesterday, one thing they did was start a PICC line (basically, an IV that starts in his arm and goes close to his heart) which will help with a lot of thing but mainly the won't need to poke him every time they need to test for a lab... ect. The other thing is they started a feeding tube so he has a tiny tube that goes up his nose and down his throat to his tummy. This way they can feed him just a little bit at a time and he's doesn't have to burn any calories trying to figure out how to eat. He started out eating just 3ml and is already up to 5ml. The nurses in the NICU call him a Rockstar, they all say he's doing exceptional. He has been off all his Oxygen for 2 days now so that is a major mile stone for him as well.
Also, he got Quincy's share of hair. He has a cute little full head of fuzzy blondee hair. We love him so much and We want to Thank everyone that has checked on us, done stuff for us, and just wished us well. It's clear we have the best Family and Friends in the world.
Our Quincy girl has came here a couple times to see Mom but has yet been able to see baby brother. We are hoping today we will be able to show her through the window whats been taking her parents away all this time.
Thank You for taking the time to read our little blog, I will continue to update our status every day.

We welcomed our sweet little Owen Lott Winters into the world Sunday and 5:14pm He was born 3lbs 11ozs and 16 inches. To say the least he is tiny and was born a lot earlier than we had hoped. However, He's doing very well at this point. He's in the NICU and will remain there for a while. I'll update this blog as much as possible on his status. Here are a few pic's

Here is Quincy at 9 mo. I love this pic with her all in yellow cause she is alway a little sunbeam... so happy!

Oh' my goodness, It's been so long since I posted I almost forgot how. I'm going to chalk that one up to being a new Mom. It takes up most of my free time. Speaking of which, I will update you on the Peanut... She is soooooo HaPpY hApPy HaPpY all the time. She is now crawling all over the place and she thinks it's so funny when you stomp behind her and chase her. Also she has figured out to crawl away really fast with something she knows shes not supposed to have i.e... dirty sock in her mouth. She is still so little, at her 9 mo apt she was only in the 8th (not the 80th) just the 8th % for height. 50 for weight & 30 for her head. She's 10 mo today!
Shawn has been workin his tail off to support his girls, and he's doin a fantastic job!!! Making up stories and telling lies for his own amusement still takes up most of his free time.
I have been working, here and there but I am getting more consistent the older Quinc gets. Trying to put in three days a week is harder than you'd think... Summer travel is tough ( Full, Hot planes, lot of kids, & my fav. people that have probably saved all they're lives for this one trip and have no idea how to pack much less get through the airport security with all there close on ). "I love People, I Love to travel" - famous last words of a flight attendant interview.
We have been camping twice so far. Quincy loves it, she loves to eat the dirt & rocks & sticks. I have lots of pic's I want to post but I'm at work right now so give me a few day's and I promise there will be pictures!!! Take care. Have a great summer.

Quincy w/ her Aunts and Uncles ( The winters kids )

for some reason Quinc thinks the laundry basket rocks.
She's starting to eat like a bigggg girl.
her Mamma thinks she's B-E-A-Utiful
Shhhhh.
And... She thinks she's B-E-A-Utiful!!!!!!

The above one is just at the A.F. boat harbor. ( who would have thought it could be so pretty )

This above one is also at the A.F. boat harbor. Sooo Fun...
Is this the cutest school bus you ever saw or what?

DOGGIE PILE.... (starting from the bottom) Shawn, Ali, Erin, Brody, Emmy, & Quincy
Quinc Ann...
Dad's girl... (once again, she steel his hat)

And of corse, you know I wouldn't have a post without this little cheeseball....

She loves hats. She wants to wear them, but for some reason she doesn't think Shawn needs one. She always pulls his off.

Yesterday was Shawn's B-day, We didn't see much of him. He was at a shoeing competition all weekend. He did great. He ended up with 5th place. I am back at work today, so now he gets Quincy all night (he'll figure out the shoeing comp. was a breeze). HaHa just teasing. Quincy is a little slice of heaven. The Dr told me at her 6 mo check up that if she's not sleeping 8 hrs to let her cry till she gets to the 8 hr mark. WOW!!! I think it's harder to listen to her cry than just getting up with her. But, I know it's for her own good and she goes back to sleep really pretty quick. Sometimes she don't even get up anymore. Take Care!!!!