Dallas Visit

From February 23 -26, we took Owen to Dallas to visit his extended Gebhard family! We had such a blast bringing him down and introducing him to everyone!! We squeezed in time for almost everyone we wanted to see in Dallas. We wished we could have spent more time with everyone we saw! To name a few, Owen met his Great Grandma Esther, Great Uncle Bill, Great Aunt Cathy, Cousin Michael, Great Uncle Bob, Cousin Joe, Cousin Arthur, Cousin Erin, Baby Cousin Arthur, Cousin Tim and Claire and their kids, Joseph, Paul and Lily, and several of Tommy and I's special friends. We also spent a lot of time with Annaliese and it gave Tommy and I a good idea of what things are going to be like in about a year. Basically Annaliese kept us laughing for hours! I can't wait to see a babbling Owen!!

Since we were in Texas, my parents took the opportunity to drive up from Houston to see us. My Mom was going crazy missing Owen and couldn't resist from coming to see him when he was only a few hours away. She cooked all of us her famous eggroll meal for lunch while we were in town. It was AWESOME!!!

Owen was a champ on his first plane ride. He had absolutely ZERO issues with flying. He slept almost the entire way on both flights and never had a major blow out, which was a huge accomplishment in my eyes! Haha! We somehow lucked out and got an entire 3 seats to ourselves on the flight to Dallas and back home. I figured American Airlines didn't want to piss off any of their passengers, so they just gave us an entire row round trip! It was awesome! Unfortinately, Owen only really slept well on those plane rides. His sleep schedule was completely off because of the time change and because we would be out late hanging out with family. It caused some sleepless nights for me and I don't think I caught up on sleep for several days after the trip. I did learn one thing - Owen is NOT a fan of the pack n play sleeping quarters. What baby really likes it? It is like a bad may with steel bars under you! Anyways, we will have to practice napping in it in the near future so that we can prepare for our upcoming trips to Austin and Los Angeles!!!

It was great seeing all of our family and friends in Dallas and we can't wait to come back again!!

Uncle Danny is THE BEST!!

Uncle Danny is hands down THE BEST. Not only because he is an amazing pediatrician, but because he absolutely LOVES his nephew. Owen has gotten a few rough colds and they have worried us. You would think being first time parents and having one of the parents being a physician would make it easier, but it really doesn't. BUT having a Uncle Danny, who is a spectacular and knowledgeable pediatrician makes ALL the difference in the world. The first time Owen got really sick, I called Danny because I was worried he was REALLY congested and wasn't breathing right. Tommy was out of town and I wasn't quite sure how to handle it all. I was still trying to figure out how to shower and feed myself as a new first time Mom and was really worried about Owen having a cold so young. Danny came over with all the proper tools for me help Owen feel better and 2 adorable outfits. I mean how much better does it get for Owen to have personal HOUSE CALLS when he is under the weather AND get spoiled? Owen slept great that first night after Danny taught me all the tricks to make him feel better. At around 2 months, Owen got horrible eczema. It covered his entire body head to toe and it got increasingly bad over the days. I would google it on the internet and literally read that parents with asthma have babies more prone to eczema. That made me feel SUPER lousy, but that's besides the point. Owen was MISERABLE. I tried every lotion I had on hand to see if it would help. He was sleeping horribly and itchy all over. He'd wiggle all night in his bassinet and it made me feel so bad for him. My Mom was convinced I wasn't eating a proper diet because no baby should have such bad skin. In my opinion, it looked WORSE than baby acne! It just kept spreading and looking worse as every day went by! We took a few pictures of Owen and sent them to Danny and he immediately emailed us a sheet of what babies should use in terms of creams and lotions and what kind of medication we could use specifically for eczema. What baffled my mind is that MOST baby products out there are NOT good for sensitive baby skin! Basically anything that smells good shouldn't be used on a baby! As far as I'm concerned, EVERY baby product I can think of that is marketed geared towards infants smell amazing! I mean that list said you shouldn't use the most basic baby products from Johnson and Johnson! Anyways, thanks to Uncle Danny, we got on a good regime for Owen's skin and now he's got the smooth, precious skin every baby should have!! Just recently, Owen caught another bad cold and started to give us signs he might have an ear infection. I had called his pediatrician to see if he could get in and they couldn't get us for another 2 days. That was a good lesson in itself because now I know to call FIRST thing in the morning if I really want to take him in. How annoying! Anyways, we texted Danny to see if it could perhaps be an ear infection and he came out of his way to come check on Owen that night. Turns out, Owen didn't have an ear infection - just a nasty cold. It did give us great comfort to know our little boy wasn't plagued with an ear infection though! And not having to wonder about it for 2 days was even better! Not only does Uncle Danny ALWAYS check Owen out for us, but he makes follow up calls to make SURE his sweet nephew is feeling better. I swear, WHAT pediatric practice wouldn't want such an amazing doctor like him?? We are SO grateful to have him live near us and we could not ask for a better uncle for our little one. Thank you Uncle Danny for loving Owen so much and always helping our little guy get through this nasty cold season. We LOVE having you so close to us! Owen loves his Uncle and says THANK YOU for always taking care of him. You are the BEST!!!

Day Care

Owen started day care on Monday, January 30th. I desperately tried to start him later in the week so that I could adjust to him being left with strangers for a short week, but we couldn't make it work. I was so distraught getting him ready the very first morning. We decided to take Owen to a Bright Horizons directly across the street from my office. In fact, the company I work for actually manages the day care facility, so I feel VERY safe about it not burning to the ground. Haha. I can literally see the day care from a window in my building. I chose this particular day care despite the higher tuition because it would be easy to leave work and go and nurse him throughout the day. It was a priceless option in our eyes and gave me more time with Owen. Owen's main teacher is Miss Carol. She is sweet woman who absolutely adores Owen. She told me he is such an easy baby and rarely ever cries. Some of the toddler teachers come in throughout the day to help in the infant classrooms and there is one teacher that adores Owen. In fact, Miss Carol says she loves him so much she never puts Owen down when she is helping out in their classroom. She told me one day when I was picking him up that I was going to have a spoiled baby because everyone fought to hold him and play with him. Here I thought he was going to be neglected in day care because he was the chill baby, but it is the complete opposite! Every teacher adores him because he is so good natured. The only problem with him in day care so far is he doesn't sleep! He's a bad napper to begin with (although we had solved that issue before day care with the nap nanny), but with all the crying babies and odd noises throughout the day, he just never catches a break. His first week of day care resulted in him napping no more than one hour TOTAL the ENTIRE day. Needless to say, he was EXHAUSTED by the time I picked him up. Oddly enough, he was never cranky. I could just tell by the sad and dark bags under his eyes how sleepy he was. Every day after day care, he usually falls asleep on our short drive home. He literally dozes off the second I put him into the car! I immediately give him a bath the second we come home. No matter how great the day care is, you wind up with a germy baby when you bring him home! I strip him down, throw his clothes in the washing machine and give him a warm bath. Owen still LOVES his bath time and smiles the entire time. After his bath, he naps again for 2-3 hours, wakes up to eat and then goes down for the night. Sadly, Owen has gotten 2 colds that have made him quite grouchy since being in day care. I try to give him extra kisses so that I get the germs and build up the immunity to help him kick them, so of course I'm stuck with the nasty cold as well. It's a vicious cycle that I don't know we'll ever get used to. Luckily, Tommy has an immune system of steel and has yet to be affected by any of it. Despite the sleepy baby we get at the end of the day and the germs, we absolutely LOVE Bright Horizons. The staff is unbelievable supportive and friendly and I can just see how much they love each individual baby that is brought in. I visited SEVERAL day cares really early on in my pregnancy and always kept going back to this specific one because I just knew it was special, and I was definitely right!

Sleepy Owen in day care!

Owen's scowl to tell me his dislike of me leaving him!