6 Months and Happy half-year Owen!

I can't believe it, Owen is 6 1/2 months old! This post is a little late because I wanted to wait to give his 6 month updates and milestones. O is back to his healthy self, thank goodness! After a rough time with RSV we are so happy to have our happy baby boy back. As much as his doctor tells us that he's going to get sick and that it's so great for his immune system, it doesn't make it any easier. With that said we're hopeful that this was the worst of the "first year" colds and hoping 2010 brings health into the Frederick house!



Updates from Owen's Appt:



Weight - 16lbs 8ozs (50th %-tile)

Height - 28.5 inches (95th %-tile...we're still not sure where he's getting his height from)

Head - (90th %-tile...still big and holding all those smart brains...ha!)



Milestones:

Sitting Up - O has been sitting up unassisted for over a month now. He started "trying" before Christmas and then all of a sudden he was sitting on his own for 10mins...then 20mins...then almost a hour later he was still sitting and playing. We love his little independence!



Rolling over - O has been rolling over both from back to front on both sides and front to back since about 4 months or so but now he can do a continuous roll. So instead of flipping from one side to the other he can now roll across the floor. And he knows it too :) He recently rolled under his crib! We got a great photo of that.



Talking - O is now able to mimic our sounds so if we make smacking noises, he does it back to us. It's really cute and he thinks he is the funniest baby around. He is making his vowel sounds and I keep working with him to say "ma ma" :) He does it every once in a while but still thinks we are playing a game. He started making a noise that almost sounds like he is saying "hi" :) His teachers think it's so funny b/c in the mornings they always say "Hi, Mr. Owen" and he smiles and says "hi" back. Guess he picked it up from them. Oh and Owen knows his name :) You can say Owen, O or O-man and he will look all around until he finds who said it. Love that he knows his nick-names too :)


Grabbing/Reaching - O reaches for anything and everything and is passing things from one hand to another with ease. He loves to reach for things and pull them down. Every morning when I drop him off and pick up his lesson plan, never fails that he grabs the cup with pens and pulls it over. No matter how careful I am or how far away I am from the cup, he still gets it! He has started reaching for things that are too far away and ends up on his belly. Which is great because he then scoots to get it. So far he has scooted about 4 feet at school so we bet he will be crawling soon...oh boy!

Recognizing/Trusting others - I am not sure if this is a milestone but O has really started to know who we are and who his teacher is. Before he would just get excited to see us but now not only does he reach for us but he comes to either me or Chris for whatever he needs. When it's time to eat, he reaches for me. Chris can come pick him up but he will reach for me to let me know that he needs me. Then other times when he wants to ride on Chris' shoulders for example, he will reach for Chris. He always looks to me when he's sleepy and ready for bed. Even with school, he will reach for his teacher when he gets there b/c she usually sits on the ground and plays peek-a-boo with him every morning. He is one smart little guy and we love that he is now starting to be able to tell us what he wants and needs. We are starting to teach him sign language so hopefully that will help him tell us easier what he needs.

Eating/Drinking - Again, not really a milestone but just an Owen update. We still have a great eater and he is eating 3 meals a day and gets upset when we get off schedule :) He loves fruit but will eat pretty much anything. We have been giving him real fruit also and he loves pineapple, banana and strawberries. He has also had avocado and a taste of green beans. He wants whatever we are eating so I thought, why not :) Anything he can grab and put in his mouth on his own is soooo much better than us feeding him...ha! We have also started giving him a sippy cup and he holds and drinks out of it but he would rather chew on it. He will drink from a regular cup but that is a bit messy if I don't watch him :) But we love that he can pick it up and put it in his mouth. That's a step, right?!?!

Owen is still wearing 6 month clothes and some 9 month ones. He is very long so we have a hard time finding things that fit his torso. He is pretty slim too so a lot of clothes that fit his lenght are too wide. But with the way he is eating I am sure he will plump up soon!

Sleeping - Ugg, this is one subject that we wish O was good at. We have just decided that our child is not going to sleep through the night. He has several good nights and will sleep from 8pm-7am but ever since he was sick we have not been sleeping through the night. In fact, he is now waking up to eat around 4am. I guess it's not the end of the world b/c he is sleeping 8 hours then waking up but we just wish he would go back to his old habits. Oh well! We found a solution to the paci problem and have been placing 5+ paci's in his crib at night so when he tries to find one he has several to choose from. So far it has worked great and he finds his paci and is back to sleep in minutes. But for some reason lately he has been waking up hungry at 4am. And there is no rocking him back to sleep, he throws a fit until he eats :) I am hoping that he will add an hour on until we're back to 7am but I have a feeling he is going to be a light sleeper like me.

O has also discovered the fun of arching his back. Several moms at school have told us about the dreadful arching and how much fun it is when they discover it. So now when Owen doesn't want to sit or get in his car seat, he arches his back and it's super difficult to get him in. It's oh so fun! Guess he's a big boy and making decisions on his own now.

Oh and teeth! O has his two bottom teeth now and is working on the top ones. He cut his bottom teeth when he was sick and they are completely through. I can feel a sharp corner on the top but so far they have not broken through. I love his little smile with his bottom 2 teeth. We have heard that when they are teething it lowers their immune system so maybe that's why he got so sick several weeks ago. I have heard of several babies getting sick and then their first teeth pop up. Hopefully he will not get sick with the rest of them :(

Other updates...I am still breastfeeding and so happy I made it to my goal of 6 months. Next goal, 9 months but not sure if I will make it. I love the bond with O but these teeth are not fun when feeding him...ha! I have 2 months worth of milk in our freezer and am still freezing 6ozs a day. Although we are now using a bit of frozen milk since they changed the storage guidelines. Milk can only stay frozen for 3-4 months now where before it was 3-6. So we're using the Sept/Oct milk and freezing fresh milk. So hopefully we can keep a good 2 months frozen so when the time comes, we're set.

Well, that's an update on us and I will post some pictures in the next few days. We are sooo blessed to have such a sweet and happy baby boy! He really is the happiest baby and we just wish we knew what was going through his little head. He laughs all day and anytime you call his name, he looks up smiling. We just love him and couldn't imagine our days without his smiles.

Long Week!

This week marked Owen's first real sickness and we are all exhausted from it! O started coughing about 10 days ago and we thought it was just a simple cold and didn't think anything of it since he seemed to feel ok. We were so wrong! Sunday a week ago O all of a sudden started coughing really bad and wouldn't eat and was just fussy all day. Again we didn't think too much of it, just a little cold and maybe he's fussy b/c he has been working on his two bottom teeth for the past few weeks. Again very wrong and Sunday was the start to a week home and daily doctor's visits.

O had RSV which lead to a lung infection. RSV can be very serious and babies can end up in the hospital without proper care. We noticed O started wheezing on Sunday night and we were up with him all night, poor boy! Dr. Chris listened to his lungs and heard the wheezing and put O on nebulizer treatments every 4 hours and we went back for a re-check the following day. Tuesday his lungs still sounded about the same and his wheezing sounded better after the treatments so we were told to continue treatments and then to come back for a re-check. Tuesday was about the same as Monday, fussy baby that couldn't eat or sleep b/c he couldn't breathe. Chris and I were completely exhausted and we knew we had a few more days to get through this. We were so worried b/c O wouldn't eat anything. It was a challenge just to get 4-5ozs of milk in him each day and he would not drink pedialite for anything. We watched his diapers and made sure that he wasn't getting dehydrated. Wednesday we had a little scare so we headed back to the doctor. O spiked a fever and was pretty much lifeless. All he wanted to do was sleep but he couldn't do that b/c he couldn't breathe. Finally I got him to sleep in a sitting position and he slept for almost 4 hours straight. When I picked him up after he was like a limp noodle and just nuzzled into my chest and went back to sleep. He was breathing more rapid and his breaths were over 60+ a minute (normal is 20-40) so we went back to the doctor. His lungs sounded about the same but his doctor thought that he was in the peak of the sickness so hopefully the next few days we would see a turn. Thank goodness!

Chris stayed home with O on Thursday and thought he was doing good. He drank close to 15ozs of milk and was somewhat happy. He still had a horrible cough and b/c he has been coughing and crying so much, his throat is hoarse. It's so sad but cute, when he cries it sounds like a squeak. He had an overall good day and we were looking forward to a night of sleep...well maybe a few hours at least. Wrong!!!!!! I was up walking the house with O from 11:45pm to 4am and nothing seemed to help. I was exhausted but whatever I could do to make him feel better was worth it. Finally at 4:30am, after another neb treatment he cried himself to sleep and we got about 2 hours before he got up for the day. We had another doctor's appt that morning (this is now Friday) and his lungs sounded so much better but were not 100%. Dr. Chris said his throat was raw and that he probably just doesn't feel too good but over the weekend we should see a change and if not to call for a re-check. I decided to stay home with Owen on Friday again even though I really needed to go to work but I knew that I needed to be here for him and no matter what, he is more important. Thank goodness my job and co-workers all have young children so were very understanding.

Friday afternoon was a huge turn for Owen. He woke up from a nap smiling...could this really be?? And he was hungry too! We played for the afternoon and he seemed to be feeling better. He went to bed pretty easy last night and we went to bed at 9:30pm to prepare for another night like the rest of the week. He did get up a lot but nothing like earlier this week. And he was hungry! Every time he got up he wanted to eat, so I fed him and he went back to sleep for a few hours. I was so happy to get up with him to eat, I didn't mind at all him waking every 2 hours or so. Reminded me of when he was a newborn. Except he slept more as a newborn than he did this week :) This morning he woke up hungry...this is huge progress! And he has been playing all morning and only gets upset when he coughs but nothing like earlier.

Today, if he seems happy then we are all going to get out of the house for a bit. We have discovered that O gets "cabin fever" if he stays inside for more than a few days and that leads to a super grumpy boy. He loves car rides so we figured maybe we could hit Target and get our errands from last week done :)

So if you are wondering where he got RSV, it's still unclear but Dr. Chris says that most likely he got it from an adult that had a mild case and may have passed it off as just being stuffy. I thought that I may have given it to him since I was sick over Christmas but his doctor said that he would have had it a little sooner. So chances are he came in contact with it the week after Christmas possibly the beginning of last week. We were ready to have a "talk" with daycare b/c we were sure he got it from there. We are still going to talk to them to make sure they are keeping up with washing his hands, cleaning the toys 4 times a day and checking their sick policy to make sure babies are not allowed back sooner than they should be after being sick. But one of the things we liked about Minnieland is that it was soooo clean. I guess we have to realize that babies are going to get sick this time of the year and we'll get through it!

Another thing we discovered this morning is that Owen has cut one of his bottom teeth. So that may have added to him not feeling good. His gums have been white for a few weeks and he has been chewing on everything not to mention the drool. Well this morning we noticed little slits in his gums and when we felt them, there was a little and sharp tooth that had pushed through. Such a big boy now!!

Chris' Baby Clothes

At my PA shower, Chris' mom gave me a bag of clothes that Chris wore when he was a baby. How special to have a few outfits to pass on to O. Unfortunately they were born several months apart so Chris' 6 month clothes (that he wore in Aug/Sept) are fitting O now. But we thought we would dress O up and take a few pics. He looked soo cute in his Little Pro short romper...a mini Chris :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dinner was hosted by Chris' sister this year. Mom "A" cooked her traditional fish dinner and we all had our 7 fishes on Christmas Eve. This is an Italian/Catholic tradition that their family has always done and I was more than happy to join in and partake in the fish dinner. Since fish is my favorite food. Dinner was cut short by a horrible bout of gas for poor Owen. He suffered for about an hour crying then we finally got him to fall asleep for a short time so we could eat dinner. He woke up crying again so we had to take our dessert to go. Poor boy and his reflux! It was great to spend time with family and only made O's first Christmas more special.

O fell asleep in the car ride home and woke up...happy??? How did this happen when he was in such pain earlier. We snapped a few pics, sorry his pants were open. That's how he rode home :)

With Oma Sue (this was just before I threw up on her...but I felt sooo much better after!)

So excited...and his cookies look yummy!

Can you tell Sadie wanted a cookie?!?!

Cookies for Santa

Oma Sue and Owen made some yummy cookies for Santa! O was such a big helper and added his own flavor to the batch...drool...ha! O has started teething and is chewing on everything! Why wouldn't he chew on the bowl?!?! :)

Here's our little chef in the making! He assisted from his favorite seat...Thanks Renee for the suggestion for the highchair! O absolutely loves sitting in his highchair to eat and to just hang out.

Baby's First Christmas

Owen's First Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Owen! It went by so fast and but we loved every minute. Both of our families came to VA and it was so great to be able to wake up and have Christmas at our house. O decided to sleep late on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning so we didn't get started until close to 9am. O is a morning boy, so random that he slept late. Must have been from all the excitement.

Grandaddy made his famous stuffed french toast for breakfast and it was sooo yummy! O had his favorite, pears and oatmeal :) We opened gifts and opened gifts until well after lunch. Everyone said they were going to go light for O since it was his first Christmas and he was really too little to play with much...YEAH RIGHT! O's pile of gifts tripled ours. We enjoyed playing with all the toys and the paper...that's right, O's favorite thing about the gifts was the paper and ribbon :)

O got so many toys to help him with his sitting and scooting and by the end of Christmas day he was already sitting unassisted for 10-15mins without falling over. Now, a week later he sits by himself and does great until he leans back. He hasn't quite realized that there's not always something behind him :) It's ok, usually he catches himself and ends up leaning to one side where he can get himself back to sitting position.

Here are a few pictures of O on Christmas Day. And yes, the family picture we are wearing our famous tacky Christmas sweaters...ha! We started our annual Tacky Christmas Party last year but decided to skip it this year b/c O is so little and it would be a lot getting prepared with a very busy 5 month old. So to be funny, we decided to wear them on Christmas Day. Our parents laughed and laughed :)

Merry Christmas All!

First Snow....WHOA 20+ Inches!!

I love snow and living in NC we never got more than just a few inches at the most. I was not prepared for a true snow storm. We were supposed to go to our very dear friends' wedding in Raleigh NC the weekend of the snowstorm and needless to say, we didn't make it. We tried to make the drive, with O on Friday and after driving for 5 hours and only making it 20 miles we decided to turn around. I tried again Saturday morning and it was a mess. I could hardly get my car out of the driveway. We were so sad!

But we did get to go out an enjoy the snow with O! These pics were on Sunday, 3 days after the snow settled...we had a ton! O was so cute in his snowsuit. We had him in socks, long sleeve onesie, fleece footed sleeper and then the "marshmallow" snowsuit...he had so many layers that he couldn't hardly move. But he looked super cute! Here are a few pics.

Making Snow Angels

Playing with Daddy

Look, I can stand!

Sleeping through the night...it's about time!!

I know I need to catch up on a few other posts but I thought this one was so important that I had to share. Our little guy has finally decided to sleep through the night and we couldn't be happier :) The week before Christmas I told O all I wanted was for him to sleep through the night...guess he heard me :) He's still going to bed around 7:30-8pm and sleeping through until at least 6am. And if we get up and give him his paci when he starts to wake up at 6am he will sleep another hour...YEAH! Oh and I think the paci problem may be solved too. We haven't done anything different he has just not needed it as much at night. If we put him to sleep without it, then he doesn't need it so that's what we have been trying to do. But he's doing such a great job at putting himself back to sleep that I think (and hope) we have broke the need for his paci. Of course, every once in a while when he's having a rough night we will sneak in and pop it back in but we've only done that a couple times in the past week.

Here's a cute pic of O before Christmas wearing his "...All Mommy wants for Christmas is a Silent Night" shirt....ha! Guess he got it!

P.S. Hope I didn't jinx myself...knocking on wood as I type :)