8 Months

It feels like a lot has changed from 7 to 8 months.  Owen is now on a schedule, sleeping through the night and a total mama's boy.  

As much as I was enjoying the freedom of not having a nap schedule, it became clear that Owen was ready for one.  He now sleeps from about 6 pm to between 5 and 6 am.  He wakes up in the morning, nurses, and goes back to sleep until between 7 and 8.  He is sleeping in longer than he has in quite a while.  Depending on when he wakes up, he takes a morning nap around 8 and an afternoon nap around 12.  The afternoon nap is now pretty much always 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Being able to count on a few hours to myself in the afternoon is amazing but being home and putting him in the crib at 12 can be tough.  The problem is that if we are out in the morning and heading home close to nap time, he falls asleep in the car, which throws everything off.  That being said, now I know when he will be napping and can plan activities accordingly. 

Owen is FINALLY sleeping through the night!  I feels like such a win because he stopped waking up on his own.  We never followed through with our plan of giving him a bottle at night and I was prepared to eventually bite the bullet and sleep train, but we didn't have to.  I think establishing a nap schedule helped and apparently he was finally ready.  It was a little sad not seeing him from bedtime until morning the first few nights but now that I know what it feels like to get a full nights sleep, there is no looking back!

Gone are the days of Owen laying on his changing table and loving it.  Now is he is monster on that thing.  He is constantly flipping on his stomach and attempting to dive off of it head first.  He screams while we pin him down and wrestle his diaper and clothes on.  Somehow diaper changing quickly morphed from a way to calm him down to a way to make him mad.  

I have thought O was teething for the last few weeks but have now concluded that he is going through a developmental leap and has been needier than usual as a result.  He has all the sudden turned into a totally mama's boy and wants me to hold him ALL the time.  It's really sweet and I love that I'm his main squeeze but it's getting old quick.  My back is sore from lugging him around all the time and I can't hand him off to other people nearly as easily as before.  He often won't even let Ty hold him if I'm in the room.  My arm muscles are going to be ripped by the time this phase passes.

We are continuing to see more and more of Owen's personality and he is pretty hilarious.  He seems to like everyone and cracks up all the time.  He is the grabbiest gus there ever was and tries to get his hands on everything in sight.  We've been attempting to read to him a lot and he seems to prefer eating the books to reading them.  Hopefully that too, is just a phase.

Sadly, Rachel's last day watching Owen has come and gone.  Tomorrow he is off to the new nanny's for a full day.  You always hear about the day your first born gets on the bus to kindergarten and how emotional that day is as a mother.  But nobody warned me about the million ways you have to learn to let go before then.  We are now having a stay at home mom, with a 6 year old and 18 month old, watch Owen.  I was totally caught off guard by how much control I had to render in order for him to be cared for outside of our home.  We've left him with other people but always within our house where I can control the food he was eating, cleaning products used, presence (or absence) of dog hair for him to crawl around in, etc.  I remember reading that being a parent is a perpetual state of letting go and this is a big step for me.  Owen loves being around the other kids and Tiffany is a great mom, I have total confidence in her as a nanny.  I think it is going to work out great and I'm taking my first step in learning that as a mama I don't have control over every aspect of my little one's life, no matter how much I wish I could.

Lake Chelan

We had a lovely time in Lake Chelan.  We drove to Leavonworth and spent Thursday with Pam and Don.  Friday morning we continued on to Chelan and enjoyed three nights there.  As per our summer routine, we took along our fabulous nanny and best friend, Rachel.  We enjoyed spending time with Alex and Patrick.  Aside from Saturday morning's 10K race and one afternoon of wine tasting; the weekend consisted of swimming, drinking, cooking, chatting and lounging in the sun.  Owen handled the disruption in his routine like a champ.  Every time we travel with him I am surprised by how much easier it is than anticipated.  This is the first summer since I moved to Washington that I've gotten a tan without leaving the state.  It's been fabulous.

7 months

It has been an atypically warm and wonderful Seattle summer.  Owen is growing and changing every day.  He eats solid food, has two teeth, babbles, sits up and crawls.  We have been having a blast and basking in all the joys of summer.   

We still aren't on any type of schedule.  I thought that one would naturally develop but it hasn't yet and it has actually been working out quite well for us.  It's nice because I feel like we can go out and do things as the mood strikes us.  We're not tethered to the house during nap time and Owen sleeps on the go in his carseat and/or the ergo.  When he goes down for a nap I never know if its going to be 30 minutes or 2 hours but he usually takes at least one long nap a day.   He generally saves the 2 hour naps for when we have somewhere to be but they are glorious none the less.  It's so nice to have the days of battling over 30 minutes naps behind us.  That being said, it is getting harder and harder to get him to nap outside of his crib and I think these days are gradually coming to a close.  We follow his lead and will start staying home during nap time once he indicates to us its necessary.  

Nighttime sleep has gotten much better.  He puts himself to bed without a fuss between 6:30 and 7:00, wakes up to nurse between 2 and 4 and gets up for the day between 5:15 and 6:30.  It's hard to believe it has been 7 months since I've slept through the night.  Although O is sleeping a good 7-8 hour chunk, I don't go to bed until 9 or 10 so I am still sleeping in 4 hour blocks.  I am defiantly fantasizing about an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep and feel like Owen is waking up out of habit rather than hunger.  Our plan is to start giving him a bottle at night so we can gradually give him less milk over a few weeks and then we'll cut him off.  It's kind of bittersweet because I do love nursing him at night, but it's time.  After he starts sleeping through the night maybe we can find a way to tackle to 5:15 wake ups, but we'll pick our battles for now.  Our biggest success in the last month is that Owen has figured out how to put his binky back in his mouth independently.  That saves us a lot of trips in and out of the nursery.  

Ty had his first major parenting fail a month or so ago when he let Owen fall out of his swing.  I had mine last week.  Owen was in his crib going down for a nap and I was eating trail mix.  He was fussing so I went in to check on him and accidentally dropped a walnut in the crib.  Some kind of motherly intuition prompted me to check on him again and when I went back in he was smiling and chomping away on it.  Luckily he didn't choke or go into anaphylactic shock so I guess all is well that ends well. 

Feeding him solids has been really fun.  So far he has tried avocado, sweet potato, banana, strawberry, carrots, green beans, broccoli, and pear.  Bananas seem to be his favorite thus far.  I have been mashing up his food and introducing a new one every three days but now I feel like he's ready to start eating whatever.  I'm attempting to start feeding him what I'm eating in small chunks.  I want to give him a variety of beans, chicken, and salmon in the next few weeks.  

To sum up what he is up to these days; he is rolling like crazy, sitting up, has two teeth, says mama all the time, reaches for everything, loves watching and petting Jake, cracks up when tickled, usually falls asleep in the car, is starting to hold the bottle to feed himself, rolls onto his stomach and kicks on the changing table (it's almost impossible to change his diaper and put pants on him) loves to drink water out of a cup-- he laps it up like a dog, went in the pool for first time, loves the swings at the playground, 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed is his new favorite song, he's an iPhone fanatic, and favorite toys seem to be water bottles, fun size chip bags, paper and the remote control. 

Rach has taken over as our summer nanny.  Her and Owen are having a wonderful time together.  I love how enamored with him she is and that she gets to see him grow and change every week.  She has been teaching him sign language and is a total natural.  We are incredibly blessed to have her.  I can't wait for her to have a little one of her own, she is going to be an amazing mama one day.

Lake Wenatchee

We kicked off the summer with an overnight trip to Lake Wenatchee.  All the camp sites were full so we booked a condo on a golf course close to the lake.  It worked out perfect because I don't think we are quite hard core enough to camp with the little guy and the Mosquitos were awful. We went with Rachel and Josh.  They are such a fun couple to be around, plus now that Rach is watching Owen its like traveling with a nanny.  The Lake and weather were both beautiful.  

We arrived Saturday afternoon, checked into the condo and heading down to the lake. We sunbathed for a few hours and took Owen for a dip in the lake.  Despite his skipped nap and the glacial water, he loved it!  I think he is going to be a water baby, just like his daddy.  After Owen fell asleep we drank beer and played the game of "Things."  

Sunday morning Ty and Josh golfed while Rach and I took Owen on a nice long walk. We had lunch in Leavenworth and headed home.  Traffic getting back to Seattle was horrible so we didn't get home until after 7.  Lesson learned, always allow extra time  with a baby on board.  Poor Owen was loosing his mind stuck in his carseat and ready for bed.  The only thing that could make sitting in traffic more miserable is listening to a screaming baby simultaneously.  Rachel's stomach was upset and with nowhere to stop going over the pass she was ready to poop her pants.  I'm not sure which situation was worse but laughing about that helped us pass the time. 

Getting away even for just one night is always so much fun.  We don't have any big trips planned this summer so we are determined to make the most if all there is to do around here.  Next up, Lake Chelan in July! 

First Foods

We started Owen on solids over Memorial Day weekend.  His first food was avocado.  It was a huge mess and he loved it.  We are doing a new food every few days, so far he has also tried sweet potato, banana, pear and carrots.  Banana is his clearly his favorite. We have also been giving him water in a sippy cup and he LOVES it.  He obsesses over those cups.  I'm pretty sure he'll be ready for college by tomorrow.

Baptism Sunday

May 26th, 2013
We had Owen baptized at Peninsula Lutheran Church in Gig Harbor.  The church that we attend in Seattle is non-denominational and they do baby dedications, rather than baptisms.  We really wanted Owen to be baptized Lutheran and Peninsula is significant because it's the same church Ty was baptized in.  Owen loved it.  He didn't cry while we were standing at the alter or when Pastor Jon held him and poured water over his head. He looked quite dapper in his suit and tie and it was a lovely service.  We are looking forward to him growing up knowing Christ and hope he learns to understand church as a place of love, kindness, healing and peace.  My faith is a fundamental part of who I am and has always been extremely important to me.  I pray that we're able to impress those same values upon our sweet Owen as he grows.

Ty is telling proud God parents Rachel and Chris
that Owen blew out his diaper and has poop all over
his back as Pastor Jon is showing him off to the congregation :)