Little Owen Updates

I realized I did an update post when Austin was 18 months old and never did one for Owen.. sorry second kid!!! 

I remembered... just a little late. 

Owen is now almost 21 months old, but here is what is going on with him!

-walks fairly well, other than he's pigeon-toed, which trips him up sometimes. He can run and jump and climb up and down the stairs upright, not holding on to anything. We took the baby gate away on the stairs and haven't had any issues so far. 

-talking is still a bit behind where Austin was. He has several words: Mama, Dada, Bro-er (brother), druck (truck), baw (ball), nayna (banana), wah-ull (waffle), among others. He'll repeat any word you ask him to say... he just babbles a lot still.

-loves to joke around.. tickle you, play Little Piggy on your toes, play Peek-a-Boo, pat your butt and say "butt-butt"... anything to start giggling.

-he's sensitive and quick to cry if he's been hurt or wronged. It can take him awhile to calm down and re-group, and he usually wants to cuddle while he's upset.

-still has a pacifier ("ney-ney") in the car, to sleep and to comfort when he's sick or upset. Austin had his till he was 3 then gave it up pretty easily, so I'm not worried about when Owen will quit his. Whatever soothes him, right??

-has a lisp... just a small one. He says "yesh" for "yes" and it's pretty much freaking adorable. We try and get him to say "yesh" as much as possible and his teachers told me they do the same thing because they like it so much!

-loves all the food. He gets HANGRY if he doesn't get fed fast enough. He'll try anything, but isn't a huge fan of carbs or dairy. He'll eat them, but he much prefers fruit, veggies and meat. Weird huh? Austin was the opposite and we couldn't get him to eat much other than dairy and carbs. Some of Owen's favorites are salmon (seriously), popcorn, berries of any kind, and broccoli. 

-is naughty as all get-out. Seriously. This kid. Grabs everything, climbs everything, opens ever drawer, every door.... just grabby grabby grabby. And then loves to say "uh oh!" over and over as he's causing a mess or disaster.

-naps everyday still for about 2 hours. Some weekends he'll fight it, but we can still get some kind of nap out of him. 

-loves to do anything and everything brother does

-is a cuddler. He'll come up and put his head on you, or when I drop him off at daycare we sit and he wraps his arms around me for several minutes... he's an affectionate little guy.

Please ignore my crazy eyes!!!!

-loves art and music... he gets serious about his artwork at school and has a little fist pump dance he does to music. He also gallops around in a circle to "dance"

-his tongue is out a lot.. when he smiles, when he laughs, when he's babbling.. his little tongue is one of my favorite things!

-he likes to be alone sometimes and doesn't have a constant need to be entertained. Sometimes it will be quiet and when I go looking for him, he's in the playroom by himself, quietly playing with a toy. He might be a little more introverted like his Mommy

-he's just a sweet little firecracker and I can't imagine life without him! Well call him O-ween, O-bo, BoBo, BooBoo and Stinker. 

Baby Owen- 5 months

Happy 5 months baby boy!!! You are just a chunky little delight!!!

Growing

-Weighs 16lbs even (according to my super accurate weigh myself, then hold him technique)

-Wears all 6 month clothes, but has grown out of that size jammies. The 6 month size is getting a little tight already too.

-No teeth yet, but he drools all the time and EVERYTHING is in his mouth. He loves to chew on my hands and fingers and arms and shoulder... I'm thinking it will be any day!!!

-Mastered rolling from his back to his tummy and does it all the time now!! 

"Whoa. I was just on my back!!"

-Is pushing up into a semi-crawling pose when he's on his tummy. He gets his knees under him, lifts his butt up in the air.... then flops back down and does the "swimming" move by moving his arms and legs. 

-Babbles all the time... chatty chatty, screech screech screech!! He is starting to make a few more consonant sounds... "Ah-ba" "bwa"... things like that. 

-Blows raspberries all the time! He was blowing raspberries back and forth with one of his teachers at school and was making another baby giggle and toot. I walk in and his teacher was in tears from laughing!

-He is a sensitive baby. He's very aware of where I am, and fusses if he sees me walk away, or hears my voice and I don't come to him. He does fine at school all day, but as soon as I walk in and he hears me, I have to immediately go to him or he'll get upset. He also will cry at school when other babies cry.. he gets upset for them. He likes to be with me and pulls my hair, pulls my face close, slobbers on me with his open mouth... he needs that physical touch a lot.

-He is a calm, chill baby though.. happy being held for long periods of time (unlike his tornado of an older brother who wanted down! down! down! all the time) and is easy to take places. He charms everyone!

Eating

-Starting solids! Such a big boy! He LOVES food. Oh man.. huge grin, grabs the spoon, shoves it in because apparently I'm not fast enough.. thumps his chest and squeals for more! We are starting simple.. cereal, banana... he's tried peas (didn't care for them) and sweet potato (it was ok).

-Sits in his chair at dinner with us and gets some food and some entertainment from Big Brother

-Nurses in the morning on my left side (I pump my right)... nurses at lunch (yeah for daycares at my work!!)... and in the evening when we get home. Then we nurse all weekend. 

-We upped his bottles at school and that has helped with the sleeping a lot. He is taking better naps and seems more content and settled during the day. He gets two 6oz breastmilk bottles at school. 

-Gets a 6oz formula bottle at bed, then I pump right before I go to bed. This has worked out awesome for us. He is WAY more settled at night and Neal and I take turns putting him to bed. Which is FANTASTIC because it means I can put Austin to bed on those nights! I haven't put my little man to bed since I was about 6 months pregnant. I missed it... 

-He is SUPER distracted while nursing now though. I can't talk or he pulls off and looks at me like "what??" Any noise distracts him.. or he just feels happy and unlatches and grins up at me like a fool in love. Last week he did this and I looked down at him and said "Mama. I'm Mama. Mama?" and every time I said "Mama?" he'd lay his head back on my boob and curl his body into mine like he was hugging me. MY HEART MELTED!!!!!

My view looking down all the time!!

Sleeping

-Nighttime is better. We are by no means getting 10 hours of straight sleep, but I'm not up every hour trying to nurse and get him settled. 

-We moved his bedtime earlier, so he is now down between 7-7:30 (before it was 8:30) and this has helped. He gets his bottle, settled in his crib, and he's usually out for about 4-5 hours. Then he is up to eat again and is settled until 5-6 am.. some days I have to wake him at 6 to nurse before school, sometimes he's up on his own at 5 and I nurse him while I'm pumping. 

-Sleeps with his arms unswaddled now! He seems to like it much better. 

-Still a cat napper and I think I have to just accept that. Weekends are tough because we do the whole "spend a lot of time for a little sleep" routine a lot. It can be really frustrating to spend 30 mins soothing him down to get a 15 minute nap. But he wakes up super happy and doesn't act cranky, so this just must be what he needs!

No sleep.. so let's take a selfie!!

-He will take a longer morning nap though.. usually an hour, maybe an hour and a half. So we get one good nap out of him!

-Naps better at school.. his naps there are usually about an hour, and he takes 3 of them a day.

Playing

-There are some great, wonderful, sweet things about the newborn days.. but I'm an "older baby" person for sure. Owen is getting to be so much more fun now! He giggles and laughs all the time. 

-Recognizes himself in mirrors and loves to play "who's that sweet baby???" with me (see mirror selfie pic above). So much fun!

-Likes his exer-saucer toy and hangs out in it.. laughing at Austin and Daddy wrestling or laughing at that silly little monkey that spins around. 

-Spends a lot of play time on his tummy now.. reaching for toys, grabbing and eating blankets.. being delighted with himself... 

-Still loves his butterfly toy in the car. I won't drive without that thing! He doesn't cry in the car very much anymore (thank goodness!).. he's pretty content playing with butterfly and chatting.. 

-Still loves bathtime... sometimes we have family bathtime with Austin in the tub, Owen in his tub, me and Neal squeezed in the bathroom.. music playing. We rock out. Ha. He is a major splasher and gets everything around him soaked!

Austin likes to come supervise baths

Chatting and chewing on washcloths and soaking the bathroom!

Well... there you go.. 5 months have gone by already! This is the stage I really enjoy, like I said. I'm looking forward to the next 7 months.. seeing Owen grown and change and learn and start to move.. and probably continue to never nap.... but oh well. He's a happy, healthy, chunky little love!!! 

No Sleep and The Beginning of the End..

I wrote in my 4-month update on Owen that we were 100% breastmilk and that I was SO proud.

That streak is now broken.

Yep, we've introduced formula.

It wasn't an easy decision (even though Austin was almost 100% formula fed, it was still hard to make that decision for Owen)... but it has been on my mind for a few weeks now.

Why?

Because we are dying a slow death of not sleeping.

Let me backtrack..

Literally the day after Owen turned 4 months, he started sleeping horribly. He used to nurse at 8pm, be down until 2-2:30 am, nurse, then be up at 6am. Up ONCE to eat.

Suddenly, he was up twice a night. Then it was three times a night.. Then four some nights... then more some nights...

Then the last few weeks (since  right before Christmas) it has been three times a night (on a GOOD night)... and on a bad night? EIGHT TIMES he was up.

The day after Christmas Neal and I drove home with Owen and I was so tired and so sleep-deprived from the previous weeks that I was physically sick all day. Nauseous, shaky, I couldn't stand up (no, I'm NOT pregnant)... we were cleaning the house and I had to keep lying on the floor to not throw up. My eyes burned, I was not well.

This terrible sleeping has continued... and I'm losing my mind.

I'm not concentrating at work well, I'm snappy and short-tempered toward Austin, I'm a total b**** at 3am to my husband.

I couldn't function on less than 2 hour chunks of sleep (sometimes less), every single night anymore.

Obvious reason for this was the dreaded 4-month sleep regression, right??

I researched it and we tried to just "ride it out..." and we have been for the last month.

Things aren't getting better and we are days away from the 5 month mark and he was getting worse at night.

What was going on with Owen???

So I'm taking a shower Sunday night.. swaying and near tears thinking about how it was almost "bedtime" and I was facing another night of up-every-hour... and it just hit me.

We needed to do something.

We needed to get Owen full, satisfied, settled... and SLEEPING.

I realized my stubbornness to not introduce formula was primarily so I could brag that I was "exclusively breast-feeding."

See, that was a club I was desperate to be a part of when I had Austin and I was denied entry into that club.. so when I finally made it in this time with Owen, I was willing to fight tooth and nail to not give up my membership.

But as I took a shower, I realized my stubborn reason was negatively affecting my entire family.

I was sleep deprived and emotional and bitchy.

Neal was sleep deprived.

Owen was sleep deprived and not sleeping well during the day either

Austin got a Mom who was too tired to play with him, too tired to talk to him, who brushed him away and told him him to go do other things because I needed to sit and be tired.

I was being selfish.

I told Neal that night, I was ready to try formula at night, to see if that would help Owen sleep. I needed to get off my high horse for the sake of my family.

I cried when I gave Owen that bottle, and prayed that I was doing the right thing. We nursed, then he got 2oz of bottle to top him off.

And... it did nothing.

He was up ALL NIGHT Sunday night again. I was nursing every (barely) two hours, and I had nursed every (barely) two hours that whole day too.

What was going on?

We tried it again last night.... he got a 4oz bottle at bed at 7:30, then went down. I pumped an hour later. We got a 3 hour stretch out of him, but he was hungry again.. so I nursed... and he was hungry AN HOUR later. Neal gave him another 4oz bottle and he was HUNGRY AGAIN TWO HOURS LATER.

WHAT THE HELL.

We are also sleep training and encouraging him to self-soothe, sending Neal in the room instead of me, and with all that, Owen did great. But he still wanted to eat three times last night and he RAVENOUSLY ate. It didn't matter if it was bottle or boob... he wasn't getting enough.

Sleep training, proper sleep environment, bottles, boobs... and still no sleep.

And before you think we hadn't tried everything in the past month to get him to sleep.. let me assure you we did. Swaddle, un-swaddle, swing, carseat, white noise, music, bottle of breastmilk, cereal before bed, bath, massage, rocking, stories, warm room, cool room, sheets that smell like me, etc...etc.. etc...

You name it, we tried it.

So another epiphany today... and I don't know why I hadn't thought of this.. but Owen isn't eating enough during the day.

He's back-loading at night because he's so hungry. It all seems so simple and so clear now.

He gets 4oz bottles at daycare, and nurses in the morning, evening and weekends. Even though he isn't crying or unhappy after his bottles... I don't think he is full. This 4oz is enough to make him not hungry.. but not full either.

That would explain the every (barely) 2 hours of nursing we've done all weekend long for the last few weeks. And the eating all night long.

I looked up how much a 5 month old baby should eat.. and read it was most common to be at 5-6oz. Some even were at 8oz.

My boobs are not making that much.

I knew this day would come... I am not a big milk producer, and I knew we'd hit a day where Owen needed more from me than I could produce... that day is here.

My decision to start supplementing, is then, (I believe) the right decision for us.

If I didn't work outside the home, I'd be more than willing to nurse on demand.. but pumping at work, and trying to squeeze out enough for his (now bigger) bottles.. that's stressful. I already have panic attacks on days I don't pump as much as I think I should.

I realize that supplementing is most likely the beginning of the end of nursing.. I'll slowly produce less I'm sure.. and part of me is sad, and part is ok with that.

I made it way farther than I did with Austin, and farther than I thought I would when I was pregnant with Owen. He got almost 5 months of nothing but milk from me. Now he needs more, and Momma needs some help.

My freezer milk with help, but it won't last forever... and I plan on nursing on the weekends and mornings and evenings for as long as I can.

So maybe the answer all along was more food.. and it just took me a month to realize that.

Let's hope that the bigger bottles and the bit of supplementing after nursing will help settle this little one better.. .sleep a bit better and we can all get back to feeling normal and not near-zombies.

Here's hoping for better nights, and better days in the near horizon...

Baby Owen- 4 months

Four months!! We've made it through a third of the year already!! Let's see how Owen is doing..

Growing

-Weighs 14.6lbs (23%)

-Height 25" (34%)

-Wears all 6 month sized clothes, and some onesies are a bit too short on him. I think he is long torso/short legs body type. His 6 month pants sometimes cover his feet! 

-He works really hard on rolling from his back to his tummy and has made it a few times! His one arm gets stuck underneath him though. He can roll from his tummy to his back but won't do it very often. 

-Is grabbing everything! My hair, my face, the remote, Sophie the Giraffe, toys, blankets, his seat belt.. he gets so happy when he gets to grab something!

Geez.. its always on sports around here.. enough already, guys!

So they got porkchops for dinner.. whatev. I got Sophie!! Yum

-Can grab his binkie and take it out of his mouth. If he doesn't move it too far away from his mouth, he can get it back in too. 

-Isn't the best at tummy time.. he doesn't get his hands under him in order to push up into a scorpion position. His arms go out to the side and he kinda "swims" on his tummy while kicking and moving his arms. He is working on pushing himself up!

-He is my Mommy's Boy for sure.. sometimes he's fussy and the only thing that calms him down is me. I'll pick him up and he nuzzles into my neck and chest and grabs my hair. 

Eating

-Like my post about the red labels, we are still 100% breastmilk at this point. Yeah! I have a whole shelf in the freezer full of milk too.. double yeah!!

-Nurses first thing in the morning, and nurses on my lunch break, then twice at home in the evenings. He has two 4oz bottles at school and takes his bottles fine... grabbing them, of course. 

Lunch with Mom!!

-Much prefers my left boob, for whatever reason. He nuzzles in and calms and falls asleep on that side, every time. 

-Eats every 3 hours, but sometimes will stretch to 3.5-4 hours. 

-Gets so happy when he knows he's going to nurse... big smiles, wiggles around and latches right on like "oh yess!!!!!! this is what I wanted!!!" His enthusiasm is cute. 

Sleeping

-Still a cat napper. It's so funny how he can be so tired, fall asleep hard for about 20 mins, and then pop awake so refreshed and happy. 

-He naps ok at school... some days it's little cat naps, but his best naps have been there. One day he had two naps that were over 2 hours long each!! That rarely happens at home. 

-Weekend and evening naps are a challenge. He doesn't really like to be held, but doesn't settle down in his crib easily either. So it's a crap shoot. We try everything and just hope we get a little sleep out of him. He's still very difficult to soothe to sleep.

-Is sleeping pretty good at night. Some nights are more sound than others, but normally he's in bed at 8:30, wakes at 2:30 to nurse, then is up again at 6:00. A few times he's slept completely through, and some nights he's restless and is up multiple times to be soothed. 

-He always needs a pre-bed snooze. It's usually 15-20 mins, but it happens every night. Then he wakes up and gets into jammies, kicks it out for a bit and plays and gets really tired and then is ready for bed. 

Playing

-Has started to SCREECH in excitement. He can hit some high notes! I'll hear him in the backseat of the car playing with his little butterfly toy, just screeching away!

-Speaking of the butterfly... we don't leave home without it! It's his BFF. It crinkles, it squeaks, it moves around.. oh the joys!!!

-Is all about his toes too... he chews on them, plays with them, and gets kinda mad if he's wearing footed jammies or socks because he can't get at them the way he wants!

-Likes his little gym and jabbers and screeches and grabs at things and scoots out from under it (he's quite the scooter.. he made it almost clear across the living room last night while I was making dinner!!)

-Loves his bath too. Just like Austin, the bath will always calm him down and get him happy again, even if he's being cranky. He kicks and kicks and slams his arms down and gets the bathroom and me SOAKED. Water goes everywhere.. he's an animal in there!

-Is very happy and smiles a lot.. but gets SO. SERIOUS for pictures (see above). Ha. It cracks me up. He has even started giggling!!! 

-His little tongue is always out. Chewing and licking on things, or when he's smiling. His tongue is so cute!

I love the age of 4 months.. he's changed so much and has really "come alive"... smiling, giggling, being chubby and more interactive. Overall he's a very mellow, jolly little guy. He has rough days and gets fussy, don't get me wrong... but he's usually quickly over whatever is bothering him and back to being happy. 

Owen has been a happy, fun little addition to our family!