Owen at 6 Months

This month Owen started solids! We started with rice cereal for a couple weeks. Then, when he got bored, we added sweet potatoes. We tried pear and banana first, but he wasn't fond of either yet. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are a real hit.

We hired a doula and are now sleeping much better. Daddy takes care of nighttime wakings because if Mommy goes in it's like saying to a candy addict "Look at all this wonderful chocolate. Now you should go to sleep and not eat any of it." In other words, it doesn't work so well.

While he started sitting up at the end of the fifth month, he's really perfected it in the sixth month...though he still requires some spotting. He's big on reaching for toys and sometimes that takes him down head first.

You may wonder why there aren't too many smiley pictures of him. Most of the time he smiles and moves and the same time...so the smiley pictures end up looking completely blurred. But we managed to get a couple this month of him while he wasn't moving too much. You can see how mobile he is, however, from the monthly pic with the boppy that Mommy attempted to make. Also pictured practicing early pickpocketing skills.

Other mad skills: Rolls over from back to front (reminder that he's been doing from front to back since 3 weeks), raspberries like a champ, reaches for everything, enjoys the telephone the most, plays piano while he eats, and gets onto all fours.

Height: 25 and 3/4 inches
Weight: 13 pounds 12 oz. (Apparently just has a very active metabolism because now that Mommy's back to work we're certain he's getting enough food. Gerber Good Start ended up being the formula of choice, though he really only gets 1 bottle of it a day the days Mommy is working.)
Head: 43cm

Owen at 5 Months

Because of the low weight and Mommy's job looming, we started supplementing with formula. Tried Earth's Best, Earth's Best Soy, and Baby's Only, but they all seem to give him acid reflux. We've had to put him in the car seat to sleep at night once, and we raised his mattress to a 30 degree angle. Sleep is bad. Sometimes he's up every hour, which is not conducive to sleep for Mommy and Daddy. Time to hire a doula.

Height: 24 and 1/2 inches (say what? isn't that less than last month. yes, they made a mistake last month. no worries--he's growing out of his clothes so he definitely didn't shrink)
Weight: 13lbs 2 oz.
Head: 42cm

Almost forgot to mention the biggest development: TWO TEETH! bottom front.

Owen at 4 Months

No coffee for Christmas. Someday...

This month Owen celebrated Thanksgiving with his Guillorn (Odice) family and Christmas with the Sheas, Diamonds, Dalys, and Myers. He loves being out, meeting people during the day--enjoys when others hold him and make funny faces for him. Still trying to roll over from front to back. Also on the agenda...teething and crawling. Lots of thumb in the mouth (or fingers). Enjoys biting down on the antlers of the moose he received for Xmas. He got lots of gifts for Christmas and is very thankful.

Same old same old with the gas.

Length 25"
Weight 11.14 lbs (though a day later he was 12.14 on a different scale)
Head: 41 cm

Also enjoys playing with antique napkin rings,

Owen at 3 months

Still with the gas issues...and here Mommy thought it would go away by three months. Cross your fingers and toes so that Mommy can drink decaf coffee again for Xmas.

Owen weighs about twelve pounds. No doctor's appt. until next month so we don't know exact weight.

Owen celebrated Halloween by trick-or-treating with his buddies. In general, he's surrounded by chics his age. 2010 was the year of the girl baby.

He celebrated Thanksgiving with the Odice/Guillorn side of the family and then he joined the Leonard side for Blew Friday. He was disastrously late to that because of a leak in our heating system, but that's another story for another time.

He had his first trip to Massachusetts. He met so many wonderful friends and family members. He slept perfectly with almost no gas and when he returned to NY his gas returned. This can be explained by proximity to Yankee stadium.

Milestones
He laughs and squeals in delight.
He has superior control over his head. It's nice not to have to support it for him.

Owen at Two Months

Owen is two months old!

In the past month, Owen has had some stomach issues (developmental ones). He is a little fartmonster. And that's fine, but when the farts stay in and become gas pains, it's not so fine. Because of these, Mommy gave up dairy, peanuts, soy, citrus, coffee, chocolate, and nightshade veggies. But at Owen's two month appointment, Mommy brought all the foods with her so that the ped could do kinesiology on her (it is a muscle test that helps determine which foods bother the baby). And, as it turns out, dairy, peanut, soy, chocolate, and tomatoes don't bother him! Surprisingly, peas do. And so does coffee. So it's going to be a few months before Mommy can have coffee again. Yes, even decaf.

Owen received his DPT shot today. He weighs 9 pounds, 10 ounces. He's in the 10th percentile for weight (which is fine because he is gaining well within his percentile) and the 25th percentile for height and head circumference. So that's why he looks a bit lean.

Owen had his first kid outing this month. He went to Muscoot Farms to meet up with his friends Safra and Kasey. As you can see below, he did not like the pumpkins.

Milestones
He smiles! And it's not just the gas. He smiles at us.
He seems to be working on the whole crawling thing. But (thankfully) he doesn't have the arm part down yet. He's also working on the flipping from front to back thing. But he's made it to his side.

Other silly things: Because of the way his hair is growing in, it looks like he has a receding hairline.

Owen's 1st Month

Recovery from a c-section is as difficult as I expected but Owen keeps Mike and me in good spirits. I still contend that the worst part of the c-section (other than the catheter--ick) is the night after. I had to wear these legwarmer things that simulate walking to prevent clots. But they simulate walking all night long so I didn't get any sleep the night of the operation. And when I say no sleep I mean absolutely no sleep. On the plus side, I was able to stare at Owen the whole night!

In the hospital, we had many visitors...my parents, my cousin Julie and her husband Nate, our friends Josei and Paul, and Mike's grandma and sister (his mother was unable to come because 0f a cold).

Pictures below show Dr. Charles with Owen on the day we went home, Owen's going home outfit, Owen in the boppy at 1 week and 3 weeks, Owen sporting a Cornell onesie (thanks Gen), Owen looking cute in a jacket, and Owen holding his head up during tummy time.

Milestones
You'll notice the video of Owen standing (putting weight on his legs with assistance) at four weeks. At three weeks he started flipping over from his stomach to back--though every time I take out the camera to film it he doesn't do it, and he just started grabbing my hair and holds onto it. He's also perfected the art of looking cute.

I look forward to this coming Wednesday when Owen is six weeks and thus ready to meet the public world. I will also be six weeks into my recovery which means I can start working out a bit, lifting things heavier than the baby, and walking more (Cooper has missed his walks dearly).

The renovation is done enough where the living room feels like a living room! Owen loves looking at the ceiling because of the stark contrast between the color of the beams and the ceiling paint. I'll post pictures after the stair railing goes in.















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