3 Months and Saying Goodbye to Grandma Gin Gin

Oh my gosh, where does the time fly. I forgot to post Owen's 3 month update!! 3 MONTHS? Are you kidding me, Owen? Are you seriously already 3 months old? Where does the time go when you are having fun??? Owen is a BIG SMILEY baby now! We are WAY past the newborn baby blob stage and full on interacting cooing baby stage!! January 29th was my Mom's last day with us after having been here for 3 months. I was a total wreck thinking about her leaving us. For 3 months, she cooked, cleaned and watched Owen for us. I could NOT have asked for a better first few months as a new Mom with her help. I tried hard not to think about it all weekend because any time I started to, I would want to cry. I went back to work earlier than I really wanted to because of all the things that were going on and having her stay home with Owen really helped with me having to leave him so early. It makes me sad I couldn't be there with Owen AND my Mom during those weeks, but at least he was with his loving Grandma! She was such a tremendous help to us those 3 months and we miss having her here so much!!

At three months, Owen is a sweet, smiley always talking baby boy! We totally have a flirt on our hands. He LOVES to stare at us in the mirror and talk to us. It is so funny that he looks for people he recognizes rather than stare at himself. He is ENAMORED by his Daddy. When he sees Tommy in front of him, his entire face LIGHTS up. It warms my heart to see this happen. He has discovered his hands and has started to put them together and find ways to stick them in his mouth. Since I know a thumb sucker is harder to break than a pacifier baby, I've really pushed him using a pacifier over him sucking on his hands or thumbs. He LOVES staring at toys that have contrasting colors. He will stare at them all day long and just talk to it. He is still very much attached to his lovies. He just recently refuses to sleep without one near his face. In fact, he has started to somehow move them over his mouth and sometimes his entire face before he falls asleep. We have to be very careful and make sure to remove them from near his face before we go to bed. He is consistently sleeping from 8:30pm - 6:00am every night. We realized that if we put him down earlier, he doesn't become overtired and sleeps thru the night MUCH better. We learned the hard way when we tried to keep him up later in hopes of him sleeping later into the morning and that was a big epic fail. He was cranky and could NOT get himself to sleep. We are still trying to figure out a eating schedule for him, but I'm told this changes as they go through growth spurts, so I'm not too worried. He still doesn't like tummy time, but we are working on it. He has great head control and is constantly moving his head back and forth when he is laying down, which has resulted in a horrific bald spot on the back of his head. He also has a misshaped head right now because he favors turning his head to the right when he sleeps. No matter how I lay him down at night, he inevitably turns to his right, thus the sad misshaped head and bald spot. :( Owen lost a lot of his dark hair and now has light brown hair. Everyone says he looks like Tommy, only Asian and I tend to agree!

We are having SO MUCH fun with Owen and watching him grow before our very eyes. I wish we could slow down time or add 10 hours to every day so that I could have more waking hours with him. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us! Here are some pictures from his 3 month photo shoot!

Happy Baby!

In the past few days, Owen has been talking up a storm. It's like it happened overnight. He was cooing here and there prior to this, but he is now TALKING, LAUGHING and reacting to everything! It is SOOOOO cute! My Mom takes a million pictures and videos of him so I don't miss out on anything. I will be so sad when she leaves next week and I don't get multiple pictures and videos while I'm at work. Anyways, here's proof of our happy baby!!

2 Month Well Check & Shots

On Monday, January 9th, I took Owen for his 2 month well check visit. I had been dreading this visit since I brought him to his one month appointment knowing he'd have to get shots. Does any Mother ever not get anxiety from this? I literally had a knot in my stomach for 3 days prior to this appointment wondering how I was going to be able to watch him get the shots. Right before I went, I posted a status update on Facebook stating how awful the feeling was and my sister in law Carolyn gave me the idea to nurse him immediately afterwards. THANK GOODNESS for this. I would NEVER have thought to do that and it turned out to be the only thing that calmed him. Our visit was at 11:45 and Owen was already a little crabby and hungry to begin with. He was good for the doctor and passed all his developmental tests with flying colors. When the nurse came in - he started to cry. I SWEAR he knew what was coming...or he might have been getting a little hungry. They first gave him the oral vaccination and he took that like a champ. You could tell he wanted more to eat because after the oral vaccination he started smacking his lips and when nothing more was coming, he started to cry. The nurse then started his shots and thus began the worst feeling I have ever encountered. Holy smokes, Owen screamed bloody murder and turned so red. He had a total of three shots. (WHY are there THREE shots at 2 months?? Poor babies!!!) It probably took the nurse less than 30 seconds to give him all of them, but it felt like a decade. Each one worse than the next and Owen screaming louder with each one. I was so heartbroken watching him so upset. As soon as the nurse was done, I grabbed him and started to nurse him instantly. At first he wouldn't even take that consolation prize because he was so upset at what had just happened to him. When he finally did start to nurse, he was so red in the face and sweaty. It was so sad!! He had been crying so hard he was hiccuping through the entire feeding. I nursed him for awhile and he passed out afterwards. He proceeded to take a 3 hour nap post shots/scream session. The LONGEST nap this baby has ever taken. He was so exhausted for the rest of the afternoon and barely woke up. We gave him his usual bath a little earlier that night and put him to bed at 9. He started to run a small fever, so I gave him so baby aspirin and he literally slept from 9pm to 6am the next morning. Actually, correction....he had to be WOKEN up at 6am to eat! Poor baby was so worn out!!

As for his visit, Owen is growing like a weed. He weighed 11.5 pounds and 23.5 inches. Putting him at 27% for weight and 54% for height. His head circumference on the other hand was impressive! He was in the 64%! So basically our little nugget is long and lean with a big noggin! Thank goodness his next visit isn't until 4 months. Maybe next time I will be more prepared for the shots!!

Back to Work

On Tuesday, January 3rd, I finally went back to work. I had been dreading this day the entire week before and just savoring every last waking moment with Owen. I had actually worked part time here and there for a few weeks leading up to going back full time, but it was never really bad. Owen and I would spend the morning in bed together and I'd get up to eat lunch and then go into work for a few hours. It was amazing actually. Needless to say, I was really anxious to have to go back full time and figure out how I'd juggle getting Owen ready for the day and out the door. For a month, I will have it pretty easy because my Mom is still helping us out and will be here until the end of January. The real test is how I'm going to get Owen changed, fed dressed and to day care so that I'm not late to work AFTER she leaves! AHHHH!!!

Work is flexible with our schedules, so I decided to start my day a little earlier than I used to before Owen. I used to go into work around 8 to 8:15 and work until 5 or 5:15. I am now starting my day earlier and getting to work by 7:30 and working until 4:30. Oddly, my office is normally buzzing by 7:15 and most of my coworkers are already at their desks, so it shouldn't be hard. This schedule will give me an extra 30 minutes a day with Owen, which is absolutely priceless. I am NOT a morning person by any means, but waking up to a precious baby gets me eager to jump out of bed. I love looking into his bassinet to see him smiling up at me. Nothing motivates you more to get out of bed more than knowing you have a baby that loves seeing your face!!

I'm not going to lie - as a first time mother, I toyed with the idea of staying home to be with Owen. I actually would love to ideally stay at home during his first year so I can be there to watch all his milestones and love on him. On the flip side, I also know that it's important I keep up a career for myself because it helps keep me challenged and stimulated - which I 100% need. I love my job and all the complexities involved with it, so I would never give it up. I do wish I could work from home so that I could spend some time with Owen, but who are we kidding...I'd never get anything done!! It will be difficult bringing Owen to day care knowing it will probably mean he will be sick 70% of this coming year and also knowing that someone we don't know will be spending more awake hours with him than we do in any given week. I know it's the right decision for our family, but one can always wish for other things!

My first day back at work was not bad at all. My Mom sent me a ton of pictures throughout the day and I had a huge proposal I had to get out the door, so the day flew by. My SWEET coworkers also decorated my cube with a TON of Owen pictures. It was the best welcome back present they could give me. I can be working at my desk and look up to a sweet picture of our baby boy. I seriously couldn't have better friends/coworkers!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! What a year 2011 has been. We were so grateful for everything we were given last year. The outpouring of love and support we received after we found out we were expecting was amazing. It totally blew our minds and we felt so unbelievably lucky. After Owen arrived, we somehow felt even more grateful for our blessings. He was such a beautiful baby and seeing him for the first time was the highlight of our lives. Owen is now a thriving baby who brings us so much joy. We fall in love with him more every day and are so thankful that it has been so easy to transition into being parents. We have Owen to thank for not being in "freak out" mode though - he is such an easy baby!! We are BEYOND lucky! In fact, we are so lucky that my Mom thinks we shouldn't risk having another baby because there is no chance in hell we can get this lucky again. Haha.

Tommy and I went to a friend's house to ring in the new year. We left Owen with Grandma Gin Gin and he had a great time counting down to midnight with her. At least we think he did! It is so nice to able to get out and see friends now that he is here. We always hoped we could do that and we are taking full advantage of those opportunities while my Mom is here. Isn't that what Grandparents are for? Haha. Before we left for the party, we pulled out Owen's Bumbo seat and put him in it. He initially gets really scared when we sit him in it and cries out, but once he's in and realizes there is nothing to be scared about, he just sits and stares around. He can follow us with his eyes now and tries REALLY hard to move his head along too. It's hard for him because the little guy has a pretty big noggin. Haha. He looks like such a toddler when he's in the Bumbo seat. It's hilarious!!

And of course on New Year's Day, we took the obligatory picture with a hat we took from our party. He doesn't look very pleased about it!!

Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous new year!!