The Gebhard Family Blog: Owen's Second Week

Owen's first week home was really easy on me. I honestly couldn't believe how simple everything was. I literally wondered why we hadn't tried to have a baby sooner if it was going to be THIS easy. He barely cried and slept so well. Looking back, it was totally an adrenaline rush and I just didn't realize how exhausted I was. I also had Tommy's help (he had a week of paternity leave) on top of my Mom's help the first week, so all that combined made my first week home with Owen such a BREEZE!!

Week two came along and suddenly Owen found his vocal chords. He became extremely attached to me and started to SCREAM bloody murder if he didn't get what he wanted the very instant he wanted it. Luckily, I can easily figure out what he wants pretty quickly. He still only cries if he's wet or hungry, so we consider ourselves lucky to have a baby with a relatively calm disposition. He just wants things INSTANTLY. He totally gets that from his Mom. :) What can I say - I want things when I want things. Haha. He still HATES having his diaper changed. No matter how warm the wipes are - he still hates that diaper off his poor little butt. We'll have to figure out how we are going to get through an evening of diaper changes during our cold winters here in NC. He also has become a lot more alert. He'll go through 20-30 minute periods during the day where his eyes are wide open. Every once in awhile he'll give me a little smile, but his favorite face is his "Zoolander" face and stares straight into my eyes. It totally melts my heart and makes me want to give him everything he wants. :)

I've become a really bad Mom and have been letting him sleep next to me during my desperate nights where I just want to sleep for an hour without interruptions. My second week post c-section was really hard in terms of recovery. I ran out of my pain meds and was reeling in pain and could barely stand straight. I realized I was doing WAY too much too soon and had to slow it down. I was numb the first week from the pain medication and was walking and standing quite a bit and I think that was what made my second week so painful. I had to wait for my doctor to prescribe me more medication and those 2-3 days were the worst. So instead of trying to make Owen sleep in his bassinet and have me cry out in pain every time I had to sit up in the middle of the night to get him, I made a little pallet for him next to me and he slept amazingly well. In fact, one night, he slept from midnight to 5am! It made me want to put him in our bed every night if I could get that kind of sleep! Unfortunately that has only happened a handful of times, but his want to sleep near me is definitely still very strong. I will have to break the habit soon, but I love having him snuggled near me and enjoying his sweet baby smells during the night. How long can a Mom actually enjoy that time before it passes? I'm working on making him sleep in his bassinet. He's not necessarily opposed to it - he just wakes up more frequently when he is in there. We'll see how week three goes with that. :)

Owen still LOVES his pacifiers. He is very particular about what pacifiers he wants though. He will literally gag and spit out any other ones that I test out. He will only take the soothie pacifiers or his Wubba Nub pacifiers (the ones with cute stuffed animals on the ends). After having gotten 2 Wubba Nub pacifiers as gifts, I went and got 2 more seeing as how much he enjoys them. I know some Moms are totally against pacifiers, but our pediatrician told us if he was nursing longer than 15-20 minutes, it meant he was using ME as a pacifier. You can only imagine the pain I was in, so I decided it was time to bust them out. They have become life savers! He doesn't need them beyond him falling asleep, so I don't think they'll be too big of a problem down the line.

One of my favorite things is watching Owen dream. He makes the cutest little noises and facial expressions while he is sleeping. Don't you wonder what their little minds are dreaming about? Probably about milk and Mommies. :)

Here are some pictures from his second week!