Owen turns One Month Old!

Thats a lot of "O"s.
Other "Oh!'s" in our life include learning all about this little guy- for the past month we've been on quite a roller coaster, but here we are! We've made it all whole month with two boys under 2.

Owen is so very precious, and is still an amazingly good baby. Its sort of crazy how good he is. Its the mommy in this picture who is doing the struggling, he seems to be happy and content nearly all the time. At one month we've learned quite a bit about little O (also affectionately called little bug, Otter, Merwin Otter, peanut) and his likes and dislikes.

First "Oh"-, he likes to cuddle (which makes me happy, because who doesn't like to cuddle an adorable baby boy?)

Second "Oh"- he HATES getting his diaper and clothes changed- maybe because we live in the frozen tundra where its something like 2 degrees outside most of the time?

Third "Oh" - He goes through clothes like a teenager in a Holister store. Owen is a good eater, but is pretty "spitty", he often spits up and burps like an old man. As a result, Collin walks around checking on Collin saying "Spit up?", "Spit up?"

Fourth "Oh"- as in "Oh my!"- He is now starting to respond to us a bit more, and will track toys, our hands and voices when he's awake. Its adorable to see his little eyes light up. The trick is to get him to stay awake, which leads us to number 5.

Fifth "Oh"- so very sleepy!- this baby LOVES to sleep all the time. I know I should cherish these moments of quiet around the house, but its amazing how difficult it has been for me to figure out a schedule for him because if it were his way it would look something like eat, cuddle, sleep, poop, repeat. Notice that none of these activities really need to be done outside of our bed (since he wears a diaper and I am the food source)- so he's basically content to just stay in bed all day. We haven't tried this, but I bet he would love it.

Sixth "Oh" is for OWL. As in night owl. Turns out he loves to sleep all day, and be very annoyed with me all night if I don't co-sleep with him, which leads to other issues we'll discuss later on...
Seventh (and final) "Oh"is for outstretch. This little guy uses his neck like he part of a giraffe family. Sometimes I call him Yertle Turtle because he pops his head up and cranes his little neck around. Its very cute.

So we've come a long way, but, there is still a long way to go. I'm still struggling to figure out a schedule and I'm pretty sure this is my own fault because Owen is content with pretty much anything, I'm the one who can't seem to be consistent. Some days we get up at 7 am with Collin, other days we sleep in until 9 while Drew gets Collin up...some nights he sleeps mostly in the bassinet, while others I fall asleep feeding him at our midnight feeding and he ends up staying in bed with me. Its pretty much a crap shoot how the day(and night) will go around here, and as a result I can't tell you if Owen tends to have a schedule, because I've been too erratic.This all makes for fun parenting strategies.

Back to the co-sleeping thing. This is one of my biggest struggles because I'm not really an advocate of co-sleeping. In fact, I'm uber paranoid about it. I'm afraid I'll suffocate him or roll over on him or something to that effect. At first it was so alarming that I wasn't really getting much sleep, I was too worried, but now a month later my body is a bit more relaxed and I'm sleeping, which is like a sick cycle of paranoia all over again because the more I relax, the more I think something awful will indeed happen because I am relaxed, and thus become even more paranoid and think I MUST get this baby OUT OF MY BED. But, everynight, I get him out of his bassinet to feed him, tell myself I will stay awake to put him back in the bassinet after feeding him, and hours later awake to a baby sleeping soundly next to me and me thinking again "Oh SHIT. I did it AGAIN. PLEASE PLEASE be fine," and when I find out once again that Owen is indeed fine, happily snuggled up next to me, I'm right back where I started. Talk about inner conflict. Its awful.


Otherwise, things are great though, really :)

Owen's first month has gone by so quickly, and with two little boys running/laying around I'm constantly feeling guilty about neglecting one of them. Its a balance that I'm still working to figure out. Owen has been such a blessing to our life, a reminder of all of the tiny miracles that occur everyday in this world. He's so small and helpless, but draws out so much love from our family as we each try in our own ways to connect and bond with him. I can't wait to see him grow, but also see him build those bonds with Drew and Collin-- being out numbered in a house full of boys has its perks, and one of those is being able to admire from the outside the father to son and brother to brother relationships that will blossom.