Three Months!

Dear Owen,

We made it through the fourth trimester!  I read so many articles and books that told me about what the first three months would be like and they were all pretty dead on.  You seem closer to being a little boy rather than that newborn baby that we brought home from the hospital.  You are changing every day right before our eyes.  It's been amazing to watch you grow and develop this personality that you have. You continue to "talk" to us all the time by grunting, laughing, and making other funny little noises and sounds.  You are a loud little dude!  You have started to kind of hold us back when we pick you up.  The only time you like to be cradle held is when you are eating.  Otherwise, you want to be upright and are getting very interested in all the action in your world.  It's truly fun for Dad and I to watch you start to explore life in your own way.

You love to take baths.  It's our surefire way to get you to calm down if you've just overdone yourself during the day.  You kick and splash, smile and laugh at us.  We even brought the phone in the other night so you could do Facetime with your Grandpa River and Grandma Bean.  You stared right at my phone as they were talking to you and showed off all your fun bathtime moves.  They loved it!  It's amazing to watch you be able to grow up with that kind of technology and get to "see" them whenever you want to.

Sadly, during this last month you picked up a new "skill" and really found your voice with a few inconsolable crying spells.  You've done it now twice when we've been away from home and it's hard because we try everything and it's really hard to get you to calm down.  I'm guessing, since you can't tell us what's wrong yet, that you're just going through some intense growth spurts.  You weighed 12lbs 9oz at your 2 month doctor appointment and then had a few rough cries that following week.  When I weighed you 10 days later, the scale said 14lbs 3oz so I think the more than a pound and a half that you gained must have had something to do with it.  It's mostly sad for Daddy and me because you really sound like you're in pain when you get upset like that.

You're gaining weight like a champ, which is very comforting after your roller coaster first month of life.  You continue to be a very big boy and people are always surprised to find out that you are as young as you are.  You're so happy and most of the time when we're out, you are alert and staring at everyone.  People always tell us how smart you look and hopefully they are right!

You reached out and touched Higgins for the first time the other day.  I'm not sure just how purposeful it was because you kind of grab for everything but I'm excited to see your friendship blooming over the coming years.  Milo is still mostly indifferent to you but Higgs will always follow me into your room and I have to shoo him out when it's time for you to take a nap.

Speaking of naps, you're settling into a nice pattern of eating, playing and napping during the day.  You have been napping a bit in your crib and doing really well.  You still sleep overnight in your Rock N Play and probably our best development of all is that you mostly sleep from 8:30-9 until 7:00-8:00 in the morning.  Around 10 weeks, we went to the coast and you were so worn out from everything that you slept on until the morning.  I mostly had to learn that you will grunt and grunt and grunt in your sleep but you sound differently when you're awake and getting hungry.  My favorite thing about you is that you rarely wake up crying, just more continuously noisy.

In the middle of the month, we went to San Antonio for 10 days.  During our trip, we went to the beach to celebrate your Grandpa River's 60th birthday.  You gave him a great book that made him cry.  It's called I Love My Grandpa and it's perfect because it's all about Little Bear and Grandpa Bear.  When we got back from the beach, you stayed over night with River and Bean for 3 nights while Daddy and I were at a convention for Dad's work.  It was kind of an experiment because I was only 20 minutes away if I needed to come back but you did wonderfully and continued sleeping through the night for them.  You went to work with Grandpa River and met all of the people he works with.  Apparently, they all still ask about you.  I'm glad it went well and I know next summer you'll probably go down to San Antonio for longer to hang out at "Camp".  You also started going to Child Watch at the YMCA while I teach or work out and the church nursery on Sundays.  The ladies who watch you all seem to love you and you are always happy when we come to pick you up.

We had such a great month with you!  I can't believe how big you are getting and how much fun you are for us every day.  Your smile is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and the way your face lights up when you're happy (which is quite often) is the best!  I can't wait to see what your fourth month is like.

Love,
Mommy

Stats and Milestones:

Height and Weight:  measured at home on 7/30- 25 inches and 16 lbs 8 oz

Diaper Size:  2's but we are just using what we have.  You have to wear a 3 at night or else we end up with a major leakage. 

Clothing Size:  mostly 3-6 months or 6-9.  your three month clothes are too small, which is sad!

First day at Child Watch at the YMCA:  July 1
First trip to the beach:  July 13th

First nights away from Mommy and Daddy:  July 14-16th
First time in the church nursery:  July 21

You sleep through the night!  Bedtime is between 8:30-9:00 and you don't usually wake until after 7:00 a.m.  We are so thankful for this.  You still love your Woombie and Rock N Play sleeper for nighttime.      

You are eating between 36-40 oz a day. You eat anywhere from 4-8 oz at a time just depending on how long it's been since you last ate.  
Generally, your routine has fallen into Eat, Play, Sleep.  You are happy for about 90 min-2 hours awake and then nap for 30-45 minutes.  You eat every 2.5-4.5 hours.  

You are doing great with tummy time and can push up onto your little forearms for awhile and even your hands for a second or two.  You like to roll over with some assistance and rolled over completely by yourself for the first time yesterday.  On your back, you play in your activity gym for 30 minutes-1 hour happily grabbing all your toys.  

Nicknames:  Owen Bear, Mr. Bear, Beary-Boo, Mr. O

Things you love:  your swaddle at night, naps in your quiet room in your crib, your Rock N Play sleeper for night time, your toys especially ones that have rings you can grab onto and really hold, taking down bottles like a champ, your hands (O- you are enamored with your hands and gave yourself a hickey this week), the Owen book that the Edwards Family gave you, Snuggle Puppy

Things you don't love:  when you finish a bottle, when you are alone for awhile you get lonely and cry for us, tummy time for more than about 12 minutes, diaper changes

Good Place

We've reached this total sweet spot with Owen.  He's not yet mobile but he's totally interactive when he's awake.  I've grown to love just spending time with him.  On July 1st, I went back to the Y to do a test run of dropping Owen off at childcare so I could go to yoga class.  I started teaching the next day.  I don't know if it's that he's maturing or if being in the childcare environment a few hours a week, but he's less needy and more fun these days.  He can spend some time playing independently in his little activity gym or staring at his mobile in his crib where he is genuinely happy and I can do things like write this blog post or make dinner.  It's awesome.  And when I get down into his sightline and he sees me again and gives me a huge grin, it's the best thing!

I don't to forget all of his fun little habits from right now.  He smiles all the time at almost everyone!  My favorite is when I go in to get him in the morning.  He takes about 15 minutes to really wake up and I'll go in to his room and is little eyes pop open and he grins every single morning as though he is seeing me for the first time.  It's almost like he wasn't expecting me or something.  Mornings are my absolute favorite because he eats and snuggles and is in a jovial mood for a couple of hours.  Most of the time, unless Owen is hungry, he is happy.  He's happy to be held by whomever will hold him.  He enjoys being in the car or out and about as long as he's being consistently fed.  We had a couple of weeks of random inconsolable spells but haven't had one in awhile.

Bathtime!  OH the fun that is bathtime.  Owen adores his bath and takes the splashing and kicking VERY seriously.  We started out with every other night until we figured out that it really must be the highlight of this baby's day because he seems to love it so much.  He goes crazy splashing, kicking, smiling and trying to grab his washcloth to suck on it.  My dad and stepmom were talking about how all 5 kids between them really liked baths but none of us quite loved bathtime as much as Owen does.  We started around 6 weeks with a bedtime routine and it's always a nice way to close out our day.  We do a bath, one of us reads while the other one feeds and then Owen goes to bed.  Sometimes Mommy and Daddy get to sing a few songs if Owen is still awake but most nights he's conked out as soon as he's done eating.  We have a pretty cool book collection going and I know we'll be adding more books as he grows.

Month 1 and 2 were great, to be sure, but this month has brought parenthood to another level of fun.

Two Months

oops... posting this really late! 

Dear Owen,

I feel like your second month was so much more, well, everything, than your first.  If that trend holds true, we are going to have one fabulous time together.  You were more smiley, more active, more happy, more awake and best of all, you learned to sleep more during the night during this past month!  You most certainly started to eat more.  You had two doctor's appointments last month and we were amazed when they weighed and measured you at both.  You are growing like a weed and doing all-around fantastic.  It is not always easy for me to try to figure out how much to feed you I think we must be doing something right because you are mostly content and well-fed.

We had a check up with your pediatric urologist when you were six weeks old.  You have one kidney that got a clean bill of health (and I ALWAYS forget which one, maybe it's the right?) and the other we will go back and check at the end of the year but it was nothing that concerned Dr. Ewalt.  Last Friday, you went to see Dr. Watkins for your regular two month baby well-check.  You did awesome during your shots and fussed more while we were chatting with the doctor because you were hungry than you did about the actual needles.  I was really proud of you because you were so brave.  Yes, I think you were brave!  Maybe I am biased but I think babies can be smart and brave just like you are.

We took two trips to San Antonio this month.  You were a rock star for both of them.  You slept most of the car rides down and back.  The doggies ride in the back seat with you and all of you were very good boys for our trips.  You met so many of your family members on our trips:  lots of your great-Uncles and great-Aunts and several of your cousins and family friends.  As usual, you were happy to be passed around and as long as someone was feeding you on a regular basis, you were not sad to be away from you Dad and me for awhile.

You had two big firsts on June 16th.  It was your first Father's Day and your first time to take a dip in a pool.  We went to brunch to celebrate your Daddy at Taverna and then spent the afternoon at the pool with Uncle Dave, Sharon, Alli Rae and Sharon's family.  You loved being in the water!

The Blackhawks finished their awesome playoff run with a Stanley Cup this month!  We had lots of fun watching playoff games together.  It was special for us because you were born on the first day of the playoff run.  You looked awesome sporting your sweet Blackhawks onesie and luckily for you, Miss Charlotte and Miss Kristin gave you a bigger one that you can grow into when this one becomes too small.  Miss Heather also sent you a really funny t-shirt with the Stanley Cup on it.

When you were six weeks old, we started a new bedtime routine and moved you into your own room.  We do a bath at least every other night and read a story while you have your last bottle before going to sleep.  It made a world of difference and so far, you have had a stretch of sleep that lasted from 9:00-6:20 as your longest.  Most nights, you wake up between 4 and 5 but go back to sleep until 8:30 or so after a diaper change and bottle.  It's wonderful and makes for a very happy Mommy!  You aren't big on long naps during the day but we can't complain because you get such great sleep at night.  At your pediatrician appointment, Dr. Watkins said we should keep doing what we're doing since you are ahead of the game in terms of sleeping through the night.  He also gave us the ok to feed you whatever you "demand" as long as you aren't throwing up from eating too much (which you never really do).  You are a healthy young man!

You smile regularly now at us!  You still make TONS of grunting noises all the time and coo at us when you are really happy.  You are working REALLY hard to not be a wobble-head anymore.  Seeing you grow and show us more personality has been so fun for us.  We love you endlessly!

Love,
Mommy

Stats and Milestones:

Height and Weight:  24 inches (90th percentile) and 12 lbs. 9 oz (75th) on 7/28/13

Diaper Size:  been in size 2s for a couple of weeks already

Clothing Size:  mostly 3 months with a couple of 6 months that you can wear, your little 6 months t-shirts from the hospital that you sleep in are becoming too small! 

First shots at the pediatrician:  June 28th

First road trip (to San Antonio):  June 6th

First Father's Day:  June 16th

First time in the pool:  June 16th

First full night in your own room:  June 10th

You sleep in long stretches at night, usually the first one is 6-9 hours.  

You are eating some breast milk and 32-38 oz of formula a day.

You hold your head up really well and are working on sitting up.  You grabbed a big chunk of my hair the other day but I'm not sure that we can definite it as purposeful grasping just yet.  You're doing really well with tummy time! 

Nicknames:  Owen Bear, Mr. Bear, Beary-Boo, Mr. O

Things you love:  sleeping in your own room, swimming in the pool, bath time, being entertained and smiling back at Mommy and Daddy, your activity mat, your crib mobile, being outside, being held and eating

Things you don't love:  when you finish a bottle, when you are hungry and we're in the car and can't feed you at that exact second, when you're impatiently waiting for someone to make you a bottle, your crib