2 Months Old

Where does the time go? For the first time in my life, I have this intense want for time to stay still. Even though Owen is changing before our very eyes each and every day, the months are going by WAY too fast!! I can NOT believe our baby boy is already 2 months old! He is absolutely the best thing that could have ever happened to us. We can't imagine our lives without him. It's so crazy to think back at being pregnant and 2 months seemed like 10 years and now it seems like 10 minutes. At 2 months Owen is such a happy baby. He smiles and coos at us all day LONG! I can not get enough of this little boy's HUGE smiles. He is starting to really concentrate on our faces and his favorite thing is watching us stick our tongues out. Sometimes I think he is trying to imitate us because he is staring so intently at us sticking our tongues out! He is still sleeping through the night - hallelujah!! He is not the best napper during the day and I think it's probably because we can't seem to get him on a schedule. It is so hard to put him down at the same time during the day because we were doing different things while I was on maternity leave. The one way he naps the best is if we are out and about. When we take him to the mall or anywhere in the car, he automatically passes out for at least 2 hours. Meanwhile, if we stay home, the kid stays awake and doesn't sleep for longer than 30 minutes! He has been going through a growth spurt lately and can't seem to get enough to eat. This has been interesting to deal with because I feel like I'm constantly nursing him!! I can literally almost see him growing. He is in 3 month clothes - he's a LONG baby. For Christmas, I bought him a bunch of 6 month clothes because it seems like he'll be in them before winter is over. He still LOVES his bath time and it is probably my favorite time of the day. The second you stick him in that bathtub, he gets the biggest grin on his face and looks SO relaxed. It is priceless!!

Owen - we love you to death and can't wait to see what is to come!!

Poor Owen

Owen got sick for the third time this last week while everyone was in town. The first two times he got sick, it only lasted a day or two and he seemed to get over it really quickly. He lost his voice and was a bit crabby, but it never stuck around. This last week, he got his first full blown cold and I have felt so helpless with him. He is all stuffy and has the saddest cough that takes everything out of him. The scariest part is he sounds like he is choking when he is coughing and we don't know what to do. If he's awake, he is fighting sleep and can't get comfortable. If he's asleep, he'll literally sleep for hours on end and won't wake up to nurse. I literally have had to wake him to eat and he is super cranky because he is starving and feeling crappy. Poor baby! Danny came over to look at him and sucked all the snot he could out of him and fed him some baby Tylenol and he seemed to be less cranky. (Thank goodness for Uncles that are pediatricians!) This is my last week of maternity leave, so I've definitely been taking advantage of my cuddle time with him. Plus, Grandma Gin Gin comes back Friday and I know she'll steal him once she's here so I've been giving him as many kisses and snuggles as possible!! Thank goodness for an easy baby so far though. He is still sleeping the full 7-8 hours every night since his 7 week birthday and this dreadful cold hasn't pushed him off track...YET.

Feel better Owen!!!

Owen's First Christmas

The day after my Mom left town, Tommy's family came into town to spend Christmas with us. Tommy's younger sister and younger brother both live here in Durham, so it was much easier to have them fly to us this year with Owen. We had so much fun having them in town. Owen got to spend quality time with the extended family and got in cuddle time with his Grandma Becky and Buzz as well as his Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Victor. Most importantly, he got lots of sweet hugs and kisses from his cousin Annaliese. It was so cute to see them together. It was also crazy to watch Annaliese all week knowing our Christmas would be so very different next year. Owen was SPOILED ROTTEN for Christmas. He got a TON of toys and some ADORABLE outfits. Santa only brought him clothes this year (he is LITERALLY growing out of his clothes weekly - he's already in 3 month clothes!), but at least his grandparents, aunts and uncles spoil him with more! We absolutely can't wait for next year and to start traditions with our own little family of three. The holidays are ten times more fun when you are a parent!!

Grandma Gin Gin

Where can we even begin with Grandma Gin Gin?? Prior to my due date, I kept telling my Mom I had a feeling I'd go earlier than my actual date. She kept telling me to talk to Owen and tell him to please wait for his Grandma to arrive. She was slated to come 2 weeks before my due date to help ready the house for Owen. When I went into labor, I kept telling myself to not call her until I knew 100% sure that it was REALLY happening. It wasn't until we were checked into the hospital and the nurse told us I was 3cm dilated before I had Tommy call her. The phone call went something like this:

Tommy: "Gin Gin?"

Gin Gin: "OH MY GAWD. TOMMY! I'M COMING, I'M COMING! I'M COMING!!!!"

Tommy: "Wait, we don't know how long it's going to take…"

CLICK.

My Mom had hung up on Tommy. She was hell bent on COMING to see her first grandson!! All through the night while I was in labor, she texted me and wanted to know my progress. She told me she didn't sleep a wink that night. I was in recovery after the c-section for an hour or two and in my room another two or three hours and before I could even come out of the surgery drugs, my Mom was in our hospital suite all the way from Texas!!

Since then, she has been staying with us not really as a house guest…more like a chef/maid/nanny/nurse/mom/grandmother all rolled up in one. I had a rough recovery from the c-section and she kept our house cleaner than we've ever had it. She also cooked us home cooked meals every day - and Gin Gin can COOK! In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times we went out to eat during her entire 7.5 week stay. She would cook homemade chicken soup for me and the healthiest meals that really helped me gain back my strength. I caught a bad cold on the tail end of her stay here and she nursed me back to health in no time. We were even able to go on a date without the baby to attend Tommy's Radiology Holiday Party while she was here. Who can say they had a date night within the first 6 weeks of having a baby? Even our pets were spoiled from her stay with us. Hurley got warmed meals and Milly got undivided attention every morning. For the first 2 weeks, Tommy and I didn't change a single diaper! There are never dishes in the sink or anything out of place in our home while she is living with us. I totally got used to having an immaculate house! We actually haven't done a single load of laundry since she got here - that is a HUGE example of the extent of her help in our home!!

Grandma Gin Gin left today for 10 days to go back to Houston so that she could spend Christmas with my Dad. Owen and I took her to the airport and we ALMOST shed some tears. We knew she'd be back in 10 days, but I was honestly a little nervous seeing her off. The good thing is she'll be back in 10 days to watch Owen for me when I go back to work in January. Her goal is to put Owen on a schedule before he starts day care. It will be so nice to go back to work knowing he is home with my Mom and in safe hands. I also won't have to expose Owen to daycare germs until 13 weeks old and that will be a tremendous help on his little immune system. It will also help me with the adjustment of balancing work and the baby. THANK YOU MOM for being so amazing to us. We could NOT have survived these first few weeks of parenthood without you. No words can express our gratitude for your time, energy and love you have given to us welcoming Owen into this world. We love you and THANK YOU for EVERYTHING you have done for us. We can't wait for you to be back!!

By the way, not only has my Mom been super helpful, she has spoiled Owen ROTTEN and he has NO idea. Here is his Christmas present from her. How adorable is this???

Sleeping thru the Night!!!

Owen was 7 weeks old on December 17th and decided that was his day to sleep through the night. The night before, we put Owen down the same time we were going to bed - around midnight - and I miraculously did not get woken up by him until 7am the next morning. I woke up a little panicked and thought maybe something was wrong with him only to see him staring up at me with wide eyes and smiling. He was hungry, but perfectly fine. I fed him and he once again passed out and slept until 11am!! This baby LOVES his sleep!! In fact, I tried to bring him downstairs for the day on his 4th night of sleeping through the night at 8am and he just fell right back asleep. He WANTS to sleep until noon if he can! Sounds like his Mom. :) Thank you Owen for letting me feel like a normal person again so soon. Let's keep it up!!

Holiday Cards!!

I somehow managed to get holiday cards out this year. I actually have no idea how I did it with everything going on. I am going to go ahead and credit my Mom because without her help around the house, I'd probably never even make it out of my pajamas every day! Tommy and I made the decision to not spend the money and get newborn pictures of Owen. We got this really nice expensive camera a few years back and I figured I needed to put it to good use. We took a family picture for our holiday card and I also got great shots of Owen in his "going home hospital outfit" that I absolutely love. He is 2 weeks old in the family picture and 2.5 weeks old in the others. Don't you just love his little feet?

We live across the street from the mall and my Mom sometimes walks there to pass time while Owen and I are napping. She bought this adorable Santa outfit for him and I just HAD to include it in our holiday cards! I figured everyone could see a more recent picture of our little man! I had done the holiday cards several weeks before, so I just stuck a festive picture of Owen in the mix! My Mom also bought him a few other Christmas outfits, so I had to include them in this post!

Last, but not least, Hurley sorta still made it on our cards. See, Hurley has made an appearance on our cards every year because he is truly our child. We love him to death and who doesn't love seeing our dog dressed in holiday gear? :) My sister in law texted us this picture of our cards from the last four years. It is hilarious! Hurley was always front and center! I had to come up with a way to put him on our holiday card this year so I decided he could announce Owen's stats from his birth! I didn't do birth announcements so I thought it was a GREAT idea!! I put a bow tie on our Frenchie (he had to look his best) and had him exclaiming his excitement over being a big brother...on the BACK of our cards. Poor buddy. We'll try harder next year.

A Day in the Life of Owen

Owen is now 6 weeks old. We went for his one month appointment on December 5th and he weighed 9.5 pounds and was 21.75 inches long. He is growing like a weed!!! He in the 51 percentile for height and 34 percentile for weight. It will be interesting to see where he lands over the next couple months. Now that he is much more alert, I thought I'd write up what a typical day for him is!

Owen wakes up around 10:30 or 11:00am every day. Yes, you read that right. My baby boy LOVES his sleep. We put him down every night between 10:30 and 11:30. This bedtime will have to change eventually, but it is an easy time for us, since we are going to bed with him. He typically wakes up between 4:30 and 5 for a feeding. He doesn't open his eyes at all though - he just "talks" to let me know he's hungry. He eats and falls right back asleep and then wakes up again at 7:30 or 8 and does the same thing - eats and falls right back to sleep! It's not until around 10:30 or 11am that he starts to wake up and actually OPEN his eyes. He is his HAPPIEST when he wakes up at this time. He will be cooing and giving me ALL kinds of smiles. I love it!!! I wonder how much longer he'll be wanting to sleep until this late into the morning! All I can say is I've been enjoying being able to sleep in still!! We've also decided that the swaddle is our friend. Well MY friend…maybe not his. He still struggles to try to free himself from it, but he sleeps for much longer stretches when his poor little hands aren't slapping him in the face in the middle of the night!

Owen then spends the afternoon downstairs in either his swing, play mat or bouncy chair. We try to not hold him constantly so he isn't too spoiled. ;) He naps in his little bouncy chair throughout the day since it's downstairs and we aren't having to go upstairs every time he falls asleep. This is probably a really bad habit that my Mom will have the challenge of breaking once I'm back at work!

Owen eats every 4 hours during the day and screams bloody murder if he doesn't get his food the second he decides he is hungry. He definitely gets this instant gratification need from his Mother. Oops. Haha. This is really the only time he is ever a crabby baby.

Around 9:30 every night, we bathe him and this has to be his favorite part of the day. He can be starving, exhausted or outright hysterical and instantly becomes soothed the second we stick him in his little tub. It is the most incredible thing!! The boy loves his bath time!!! The pediatrician said it was nice to give him a bedtime routine despite him not technically really needing a bath every day. We do it partially out of sheer enjoyment because we can't believe how much he appreciates a warm soak in the tub!

All in all, Owen has been a breeze and I hope his sleep schedule keeps up. I'm hoping he sleeps for longer stretches over the next 3 weeks so that I can at least get a solid 6 hours of straight sleep when I'm back at work. I'm crossing my fingers!! ;)

Owen and Hurley

Hurley LOVES Owen now! They will totally be best of friends down the line. Hurley doesn't mind when Owen cries - in fact, he runs over to wherever he is and stares at him until we pick him up. When we leave the house and come back, Hurley immediately goes up to Owen's car seat to make sure he is there and alright. Hurley is a really skiddish dog to begin with and doesn't really trust easily. So for him to be so easy with Owen so quickly is amazing to me! He even let's Owen lounge on him! It's amazing!!! I can't get enough pictures of them!!!

Owen's First Bath

On Thursday, December 1st, we gave Owen his very first bath. Prior to today, we had been wiping him down with warm wet towels and washing his head because his umbilical cord hadn't fallen off yet. Once it had fallen off, it seemed to still be draining and we weren't sure if we should be bathing him. Uncle Danny came for a visit and took one look at Owen's belly and told us we were in the clear to give him a bath, so we jumped on it! Owen LOVES his head being washed and has loved it since his first days in the hospital. I watched as the nurses soothed a screaming baby by running his head under warm running water. When we got home, my Mom did the same thing and we were so amused by it that we did it every night just to get a laugh! I just KNEW bath time would result in the same calm, relaxed baby and I was RIGHT. We stripped Owen down and he panicked at first because he hates being cold, but the second we stuck him in his bath tub, he INSTANTLY stopped fussing and became extremely calm. He actually looked like he was about to fall asleep. It was HILARIOUS. I loved watching him so relaxed! Here are pictures to document Owen's first bath!!

Owen is One Month Old!!

I can NOT believe our little man is one month old! Where does the time go? I still remember every single second of the day I went into labor as if it was yesterday and to think a month has gone by is incredible!! Owen is growing like a weed and changing every day before our eyes. We haven't quite figured out a good schedule for him, but I hope to get him on one very soon. At one month, Owen stays awake for 2-3 hours at time now - only during daylight hours too! He is still a very calm baby, but definitely REALLY lets it be known if he is hungry, wet or tired. He wakes up consistently at 1am, 4am and 7am for his feedings and gives me nice little sighs to tell me he is thankful for his food. :) I'm grateful that he is not a night owl and he keeps his eyes closed through all his nighttime feedings. He'll feed for about 15-20 minutes and go straight back into his bassinet and fall asleep. This may sound crazy, but these nighttime feedings with Owen are my favorite because it's just me and him. I feel like it is such a nice bonding experience between us and I love every moment of it, despite the lack of consecutive hours of sleep. Owen LOVES his lovies. He has to have one touching his face and wrapped around his neck to fall asleep. He hated being swaddled - or maybe I was just doing it wrong - so I had to find something that would comfort him. The lovies do the trick! I'm still not convinced he doesn't want to be swaddled, so I'll be trying it again and hope it is our saving grace to him sleeping longer hours! He is starting to really react to our voices and smile at us now too. I absolutely love his little smiles and him talking to us. He has officially outgrown ALL of his newborn clothes and it has made me so sad to put away those few outfits that he wore for the last few weeks. We've taken advantage of his easy demeanor and taken him out a few times now. We even took him out for a shopping trip on Black Friday! He is getting chubbier by the day and I am LOVING it. I always imagined we would have a baby that was a chunky monkey and I'm pretty sure we'll get my wish! :) We are loving parenthood and can't wait to watch him grow over the next few months!! Here is his one month photoshoot with his Longhorn we bought him before he was born.