Growing!

This has been a big focus for us the past few weeks. Our pediatrician wanted to see Owen put on around an oz a day and I'm proud to say he gained 1 pound (16 oz) in 13 days! He now weighs 12 pounds 1 oz or 3 pounds more than when he was born. We're not sure how long he is, but we know he's been growing taller. We've officially moved into 6 month onesies - the 3 month ones were just too short!

To celebrate all the growing we've been doing here are photos of Owen on his 2 month birthday last week. If you compare to the post of his one month photo, you'll see just how much taller he's gotten.




Owen is also mastering lots of new skills. He loves putting his hands in his mouth and can suck on them for quite a while. He's holding his head up really well and likes to smile and "talk" to his parents. He's a big kicker and great at kicking off blankets and starting to make his bouncy seat move. He also likes looking at himself in a mirror and looking at mobiles and other colorful toys. Here he is on his first attempt at the bumbo seat. He's a little wobbly, but it was 7pm and he was pretty tired :)

Week 8 has been rough!

Owen is 8 weeks old today. The last 10 days or so have been pretty tough for us all. After we got home from California, Owen's schedule was pretty messed up. He was only happy when he was being held and we had the hardest time getting him to go to sleep. We started sleep training and I'm happy to say that one week later we can put him down to sleep in less than 5 minutes! We are actively looking for his tiredness cues and when we see one, we swaddle him and then make our way to the bedroom. When we're there we spend a minute or two holding him and soothing him and then put him in the crib awake (yes - he's no longer in the bassinet, but in the pack n play in our room). If he fusses we try to soothe him in the crib or pick him up just until he calms down and then put him back down. It's so nice to have him making this progress and I think he's sleeping much better by himself and not in his parents bed!

Another first last week was daycare. I've started back to work part time this month and I'm taking Owen to daycare for about 4 hours a day. It's been good for both of us to get used to it, without it being 8 hours a day. The first day was soooo hard, I was really surprised at how upset I was. I think it was more than just leaving him with strangers (he had a babysitter twice while we were in California). I think it was that it was the end of me being a stay at home mom. That's been pretty hard to come to grips with.

Another struggle we're dealing with is Owen's weight and feeding. We went in for his 2 month check up and vaccinations on his 7 week birthday. His height is still on track at 95%. He's now over 24 inches long! However, his weight dropped a curve to the 50% and he only weighed 10 pounds 11 oz. The Dr gave us a two week weight goal to try and reach. Owen must have heard him because he's been eating around the clock for the past week! My little boy who used to go 4 hours between feedings and regularly 5 hours at night has been eating every 2 to 3 hours - even at night!

This has been hard on me, a lot of times I felt like I didn't have enough food for him, and when I was pumping for work I had to pump several times just to get enough for one bottle for daycare. This added to my stress with going back to work and worrying about his weight and lack of sleep, probably didn't help me make any more milk!

After much prayer, research and advice I think we may have turned a corner today. He still ate every 3 hours, but I finally felt like I had plenty to give him when he wanted to eat and I pumped a little more than usual - not enough, but I did make progress. Hopefully things will continue to go well and he'll gain the weight he needs to.

I know this is only the first of many trials of parenthood. I still wouldn't trade it for the world!

One month old

Sorry, this post is a little out of order.

We're taking pictures of Owen on his monthly birthday. We decided to hold the month photo shoot on the chair in his room with the Surfer Dude pillow by his side. I can't wait to see how he grows this year!

Look who's talking

Owen is changing weekly at this point. First he started smiling and then laughing and while we were in California he started really making all kinds of noises. It's so fun to hear him "talk" to you!

First trip to California

At the end of April Owen went on his first trip to California. He did great on the plane, no crying at all, he was content to eat, sleep and look around. (I realize that he's probably at his most portable and any future flights will require a lot more entertaining on my part).

While we were in California Owen was baptized in the church Eric grew up in.  Owen is named for Eric's grandpa, who was a much beloved member of the congregation.  We were told many times how touching it was to see little Owen being baptized there. Unfortunately we didn't end up with any pictures of the baptism on our camera.  Here are a few later that afternoon of Owen and his cousins with his grandparents and great grandma!

Later that afternoon we packed up and headed up to Newport Beach for the week.  We had a great time relaxing with the family that week.  The kids definitely dominated the agenda - family vacations are no longer about the adults!

Here's Owen on his first surf board and his first trip to the beach!

The week wrapped up with Eric's brother Marc's wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony and reception overlooking the beach in Laguna Beach.  All in all it was a terrific time with the Oslund clan and Mommy and Daddy even got to go on a date on night to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary!

Photo Shoot!

The week after Easter Owen starred in his first photo shoot!  We decided to splurge on a series of photos for Owen's first, third, sixth, ninth month and first year.  The first photo shoot was when he was around three weeks old.  He did fantastic and we got lots of great pictures.  Here are some of our favorites.

This was around the time that he started being more and more expressive.  Check out these faces!

He wasn't always in a great mood :(

Flashing "peace" like a true California dude.

I can't tell you how much I love this little boy!

Easter

I'm obviously very behind on my blogging, so I'll try and quickly update you on the past few weeks!

Eric's parents were in town for Easter. We had a good time spending with them and helping Owen celebrate his first Easter. Owen obviously got into the spirit of things :)