Owen is an overwhelmingly easy baby. I don't know why I haven't appreciated this before now. Its unfortunate. I was so busy trying to get Owen to be on Collin's old schedule that I seemed to have overlooked that he's about as easy of a baby as they come.
Lets talk about Owen's easy baby-ness a bit more. Like, for example, Owen doesn't have the "fussy" time that Collin had starting at about 2 and a half weeks. He doesn't really even cry unless we get him undressed or change his diaper (both of which he hates). He's still super sleepy (maybe because he was born three weeks early?), or just takes after his momma and loves to sleep. Or maybe its because we are in the frozen tundra of Minnesota and there isn't anything better to do besides sleep???
Owen's also happy to hang out in the swing, the crib, the cradle, his bassinet, etc. This kiddo really is okay with not being held 24/7, which seems so strange to me, because with Collin we had to hold him ALL THE TIME.
He doesn't quite sleep through the night, but one night he slept from about 10 pm to 3:30 in the morning. I couldn't believe it (I actually was a bit worried!), and otherwise he does well with eating and going right back to sleep. Its not too difficult to get up with him, as we're using a co-sleeper bassinet for him right now, so I don't actually have to get out of bed and he's pretty much amenable to me moving him around throughout the night as long as I don't make him cold by leaving him without a diaper for too long.
He tolerates Collin's hugs and kisses and has yet to make a sad face or fuss when Collin kisses him a little too hard or hugs him a bit too much.
He's almost like a little doll, the way he sleeps, so soundly in my arms (or in the swing, bassinet etc.). He's so incredibly precious and easy to handle, incredibly so, almost like he's giving us a break in light of still having to chase a toddler around.
He also smiles a lot, which is so darn cute. I realize its just gas and not a social smile, but its still adorable. Sometimes its like he's having a fantastic dream, he'll be sleeping and all of the sudden this tiny little beaming smile will appear on his face. So cute! Collin was Mr. Serious for the first 8 weeks or so, and wouldn't crack a smile, gas, social or otherwise to save his life.
Owen has some unique skills too. For example, he has incredible trajectory. This past week we had Owen circumcised, which broke my heart to hear him cry (because he does so rarely), and since then he's been showing off his peeing skills. If we leave the diaper off for even a moment too long then away he goes, like a sprinkler. Today he was laying on the changing table and peed and hit the crib, about 4 feet away. Seriously, this kid could put somebody's eye out.
Along with circumcision we've been battling colds at our house (again, everyone but me), and its made me desperately afraid of RSV. First Drew got the cold, so I sent him straight away to get Airborne to hopefully stop the cold dead in its tracks, and luckily I think that it's at least shortened the life of Drew's cold, but then today Collin woke up with a runny nose (read: faucet of snot) and watery eyes. This makes me even more paranoid because he wants to kiss and hug Owen so much. As most new parents know, newborns are not supposed to cough, and over the past three days he's probably coughed 8 times, which makes me a bit more worried and anxious. I'm watching him like a hawk and hopefully this little guy weathers his first bout with germs well and doesn't get sick.
I suppose this all goes to show how much a season makes a difference. Having a baby in the middle of the dead of winter has been totally different. We can't really go anywhere because I'm afraid of germs with Owen, since he's not even a month old yet (not to mention the high last week was around -15), and we don't exactly have an enormous house, so its not like you can run off steam on an indoor track or anything. January makes for feeling cooped up, introducing germs WAY earlier than I had hoped (Collin didn't get his first cold until something like 11 months or so!), and generally going day to day with a slight dose of seasonal affective disorder (self diagnosed, of course :)
So this week I've been a bit of a maniac, chasing people around the house with hand sanitizer, checking and double checking that hands have been washed and that no unnecessary kisses are coming near Owen, while following Collin with a case of "Boogie wipes" (saline wipes so that his nose doesn't get raw) to prevent the faucet from filling our house with snot residue. I'm like the germ Nazi, its true.
I've also learned that I'll have to just make due with this whole "Old Man Winter" thing. Once Owen's old enough I plan to get out of the house every single day. Its too much to be all cooped up all the time.
This week I've also discovered that it will eventually be impossible to put two boys down for naps at once without one crying. Up until this week I still liked to rock Collin to sleep for nap. YES, I KNOW. I shouldn't do this. BUT, its one of the only times that I get to have time alone with Collin and he loves to cuddle. Its so perfect to have him cuddle in and fall asleep in my arms. This worked well up until now, because it used to just take 15 minutes to rock him to sleep and put him in his crib. But, now, every time he hears Owen make a peep he perks up and says "Owen" meaning it takes oh, about a half hour to put him down. So, now if I kept this up I'd have to leave Owen in his crib alone for a half hour. I'm pretty sure eventually Owen won't tolerate this very well, so on Monday we started training Collin to put himself to sleep on his own in his crib for nap time. It was HEART-WRENCHING the first day and took 20 minutes for him to go to sleep. Today (day two) it took much less "MOMMA!!! MOMMA!!!" and he was asleep in about 15 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow it will be even less time. The current problem is that usually Collin sleeps for about 3 hours, and the last two days its been about 1.5 hours. I'm hoping this has more to do with not being able to breathe well because of his cold than his new nap time routine.
In other news, he gave up the night wakenings and is back to sleeping through the night! Hooray (although, as I type this at 8:30 pm he has woken up and is currently being rocked back to sleep by Drew- I'm pretty sure its because he's so congested that he can't breathe very well).
Lately I've been feeling guilty about not getting to spend as much time with Collin as I would like. It seems like everyday by the time I get things settled with Owen, Collin's having lunch and heading off to nap time. I'm hoping our routine works out so that I can spend time in the mornings playing with Collin while Owen takes a morning nap, but again, I'm not really sure how it will all happen, as we're just going with the flow right now.
So, everyday we try to figure out how the schedule will look, if Owen will be on a 3 hour feeding schedule or 2.5, if Collin's nap will be long enough, if the weather will be so cold that we can't even make it to the mailbox without the snot in our noses freezing like little icicles....We make do, we play with playdough and toys, color, paint... (did I mention we're doing this all without TV? Drew and I are still adamant about not letting either boy see/watch/become mesmerized with the TV until they are 3 or 4 or something much older than 20 months....)
And now that I've given up all my crazies about the whole situation, the outlook isn't half bad. In fact there was at least two moments today when I was home, by myself, with both boys and I thought, this is nice. I love these boys so much, and I'm right where I should be.
Ah, motherhood. How a week can make such a difference....
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