Monday: day one in our week

So, I read along with someone as they documented their week and I thought it was so interesting and I will be happy to look back one day on how Owen and I spent our time together!

7:30 am: Chris' alarm goes off, he gets up and gets ready for work
8:15 am: Chris kisses me goodbye while I am still half asleep, Owen is cooing in his crib
9:00am: I wake up for good and go to check on Owen, he is awake laying in his bed all peaceful and I leaned over the crib and said good morning and I was greated with a gummy grin.  I changed his diaper and got him dressed for the day.  We walked into the living room where I checked emails and Owen nursed.  Then we ate our cereal in the sunroom together.  I mixed his oatmeal with breastmilk for the first time and he didn't like it.  After our breakfasts Owen played on his playmat reaching for the bee and the carrots till naptime.
10: 00 am right as I was picking him up our guest arrived.  My big sis from college, Elysha, who came to visit us was here.  Unfortunately, Owen had to go night night and took a wonderful nap while we caught up on each others lives.
12 pm: Owen was up, he ate and then got some snuggles with Elysha!

Owen showed Elysha all his good moves including standing, jumping, almost rolling over, some gummy grins and lots of drool.  I think he accomplished his goal of wining her over with cuteness.

my FAV!

1:30 pm:  Before we knew it, it was time for another nap!  Poor baby must have been exhausted from some missed naps the day before. 
2:15 pm: Elysha had to leave....we miss her already!
3:00 pm:  Owen was cooing and ready to eat again; this is when we took the wonderful pictures above.  Owen had some more jumping time and watched a little TV with mommy.  Then it was nap time again.  I surfed the web, texted with some girlfriends and then got dinner started.
6:00 pm: like clockwork Owen as up again.  He had his milk and then some cereal and some white grape juice (we haven't had a poopy today).  Just after I put Owen in his jumperoo, Daddy got home from work!
6:45 pm: Owen had a HUGE yawn and was so tired looking, I put him in his crib.  Daddy and Mommy got to eat dinner and watch a little TV.
7:45 pm:  Mommy went to the YMCA to swim in the pool, she has lost 15 pounds of baby weight and still has over 20 to go.
8:15 pm: Owen woke up and played with Daddy till Mommy got home
9:00 pm:  Mommy fed Owen and then put to bed
11:00 pm:  Mommy and Daddy went to bed.
Night!

i cant say enough about...

the babywise books.  For instance today, Owen woke up at 7am, well I was not ready to be up for the day and I fed him and put him back in his crib.  He played for a while and when Chris left for work (8am) he said he was back asleep and he stayed that way till 9:30!! I was LOVING some extra z's! 

Well, Owen wasn't due to eat till 10 so since he was awake I gave him a bath which he LOVED!  Then by the time I had him diapered and dressed it was time for some breakfast!!  But, by 10:30 he was fussing.  If I hadn't been doing babywise and knowing his cues I would never have thought to put him back to bed.  Since, I did know I put him down and he smiled as I zipped him up in his woombie and after about 30 seconds of fussying his eyes were closed and off to dreamworld he went.  After that nice long nap, we were able to get back on schedule.

I know every mom has their own way of doing things.  For instance, my friend Christie, is a bank manager; and is a slave to the clock (in a good way). Her daughter Camryn melts down at 7:30, her bedtime.  Christie likes knowing exactly what is going in Camryn and had her naps perfectly timed.  This works really well for their family as Camryn is in daycare and a tight schedule fits with Christie's personality.

Another friend April,  her 3rd son is the most laid back kid you know.  He just smiles and one night when we were all hanging out (before Owen was born), she swaddled him, gave him a bottle and then he fell asleep and she put him in his carseat where he slept in the middle of all the commotion till they were ready to leave.  April and Josh are the most laid back parents and have instilled that into their children. 

Some of this could be genitics, but I think it has more to do with parenting style.

Here is my reason why:  I am so ADD, all over the place, LOUD and yet a clean freak and I like things put away MY way.  So, I thought I would be this annoyingly overprotective parent.  Yes I am overprotective, but not how I had envisioned it.  I thought my son would be so different.  He is just a perfect baby.  He really only cries if he is over tired, dirty diaper or hungry, but really who could blame him.  When I say cry it is usually this fussy talk/whine and I know that I need to do something for him.  Once taken care of he goes back to my wonderful little baby again.  At night when I change his diaper before I feed him at his dreamfeed he will cry bloodymurder, no amount of talking or singing will make him stop.  I find it hilarious, the crying.  Probably, because I don't see him cry this way very often (OMG my second child is soo going to have colic!).  When he cries this way this is when I think "this is what I thought it would be like all the time".  I am soo thankful for my even tempered baby.

I really think that following the babywise schedule has kept his needs met so he has no reason to fuss and is generally super happy all the time. My friend Caroline would agree, we have discussed this as she is another babywise mama.  

When we were on vacation and able to keep Owen on his eat, play, sleep schedule he was so wonderful and I was told my my very opinionated family members that they were impressed at how good he was.  Even people out in public comment on how good he is. 

Owen does have his weakness and it seems to be the carseat.  He fusses every time I put him in it.  If he misses 2 naps and then has to be in the carseat I really hope no one is in the car with us because he lets us know how much he hates it!   Traveling to and from the beach was NOT fun. 

I am sure that this isn't for everyone, but Chris and I have really found it to be a great parenting tool.  Even Chris will turn to me sometimes and say "maybe we need to read that babywise book again and see what it says"  I guess in a way it is our parenting Bible!  It's the book we turn to to make decisions.  One last thing if you made it this far reading this rambling post, we are not die hard babywise parents either.  We took the principles and applied them to make sense in our life.  It is all about parent directed parenting and not baby directed parenting.  I decide when and how long his naps are not Owen.  Sometimes, I get it wrong and I put him down and he cries and then I realize he had a poopy diaper.  Sometimes we get off schedule and Owen and I pay for it. 

new blog layout

Some late night photoshop fun with scrapbook files!!!  What do you think?  I feel pretty...oh so pretty!!

First week long vacation-success!

Whew what a whirlwind of the past few weeks.  We left early on a Friday morning to head to Southport, NC for two close friends wedding.  Our minivan was packed to the brim.  I had made a notebook of lists to keep what we needed organized.  I wanted to be prepared for anything and have our family be as comfortable as possible.  Part of that started of with having Owen take naps in his pack-n-play in our guest room the week before we left.  The first time I used clean sheets and a clean woombie wrap, then when we arrived to the hotel I unpacked these slightly used sheets and woombie wrap so he would feel at home or at least it would smell normal to him.  I think that while this was a great idea I didn't need to do any of it.  Owen slept great (well except for the recent addition of his 3 am feeding).  It seems my son just needs his woombie and a crib of sorts to sleep.  During the wedding festivities I tried my best to keep Owen as close to his schedule and he did really great even was awake and quiet during the wedding. 

it was difficult to get Owen to look at the camera while the wind blew my hair everywhere!

On Sunday morning, we packed up again to head to Edisto Island for my family's beach week.   Chris and I were very serious keeping him on his schedule and since the beach house was literally on the beach it was easy to still feel a part of the family while our little one was able to sleep upstairs snuggled in his woombie (can you tell how much we are relying on this thing?)

Owen was just a little bit the center of attention......

This happened about every time he ate!

Not that a lot go IN the mouth...more on the face!

He did have a couple of days of no poop (started to worry me!), but the peds said to give him some white grape juice and things started moving again!  I know he was glad to get it out.

Speaking of getting out...we took advantage of some awake time to play on the beach!

yes i am still nursing and no i don't like them.

let me at the water, dad!

my boys

everyone played on the beach with Owen!

he wanted to see it all

waiting for mommy to set up the umbrella

what up'

 There wasn't just talk of babies this year there is a wedding coming up in October and therefore in our family we all pitch in to help!

invitations

 

 

 

 

 

the bride to be...check out the scenery behind her

guess which one is my mom?

Owen and his Neanna!

getting some Aunt Robyn snuggle too!

All in all Owen did amazing traveling EXCEPT in the car!!  OMG that is another whole story!

Owen in jumperoo

It took less than a week for this kid to get it and boy does he love his jumperoo!  Just FYI after I stopped recording I put him right in his crib.  He didn't fuss at all and is fast asleep!

Owen: sleeping and eating

So, I posted Owen's 4 month post several weeks after I wrote it, due to I am very lazy when it comes to uploading pictures and I feel a post about Owen needs pictures.  So, the schedule I had posted is not current.  We have entered a new phase and I am note sure what to do about his sleeping.

First off, Owen is 16 pounds and 1 oz at his 4 month appointment or 90th percentile; 25+ inches or 75th %.  So we are not worried about him gaining weight and growing seems my milk is doing its job.

We enjoyed several weeks of glorious sleep until one night a week ago.  Owen began waking at 3am needing to nurse. The past few nights he has gotten up around 1 or 2 and then again at 5 or 6.  My first thought was growth spurt, but I though these only lasted a few days.  We are going on a week or more right now.

We have started trying to do some cereal, but so far not much is getting in before Owen becomes aggravated and is done.  One good plus is that my milk supply has never been an issue (hope I am not jinxing myself).

Jess:  thanks for your concern, I always enjoy hearing from you.  If you reread I was feeding Owen 6 times a day.  Now we are back at 8 and from his growth that the doctor is charting it seems he is gaining appropriately. If you have any suggestions on getting him to sleep through the night again let me know!  I have found tips from other mom's are the best.  We are hoping this is just a phase and we will be back to sleeping through the night again. 

Thanks to everyone for their comments, I love reading them!!

Owen: 4 months

Wow, what a fun month we have had!  Lots of laughter, smiles and SLEEP!  I will probably say this each month, but this just gets more fun!  I love being a mom. I always knew I would.  Several friends have commented on how calm I am as a mom.  I think that I have just thought about this for so long I want to be the best mom I can be (i know very corney).

Owen has rolled over front to back and back to front this month (BTW this is BEFORE he was 4 months old...yes I am a proud mama!)  He is such a good baby his evening fussy time went away when I fixed his naps.  He wasn't getting enough sleep during the day.

Our schedule now is:
8am-Eat, play time (this is a special time of day, he is so sweet!!) then a 1 1/2 hour nap
11am-Eat, play time (usually some tummy time or in his swing) then a 1 hour nap
2pm-Eat, play time (run errands) then a 1 hour nap
5-6pm Eat, play a little then a 1 1/2 nap
8-9pm Eat, play about 30 minutes and ready for bed!
10:30 dream feed and back to bed

Though the times change because I am bad at getting him up at the same time each day.  I like to sleep in if I can and occasionally he will sleep to 10ish and it is WONDERFUL!!  I know babywise says to get them up at the same time each day, but we all do it a little different!

I just know teeth are coming!  His hands are in his mouth ALL the time, the drool has taken over every thing gets wet now days and Owen isn't just into chewing on his hands anything will do!  I do find his left hand tends to be the hand of choice these days.

And because I can never get enough of looking at his face enjoy my camera indulgence!

what' up mom?

here she goes again....dad get her to stop!

ok, I'll pose for you..here is shy.

Mom, you look funny up there!

that tickles!

MOM!!!! That's really fun!

This is so fun! Lets skip church and play!

look at me!  I am standing! 

Oh, Daddy where did your whiskers go?

I love you too, Daddy!

He is so good, sweet and kissable! If you made it this far...thanks and who is jealous that I get to kiss those cheeks every day!!???!