2 months on..

Well.. Owen's getting SO old that I've decided to switch from weekly updates to monthly ones. This decision has nothing to do with how busy I am. None whatsoever. (insert sheepish grin here)

So, here we are with a 2 month old. And, he's doing great! We don't get weekly weigh ins anymore so I have no idea how much he weighs, but I can see evidence of constant growth - no worries with this kid!! 

He's starting to smile a LOT more. Which is lovely for his mommy. 

He's also starting to sleep a lot more. Which is even more lovely for his mommy. Last night, for example, he went 10 hours between feeds!! Woo hoo!! 

I love watching a sleeping baby. 

Owen still has a few "grumpy" periods - but I use that term loosely because after having 2 girls going through 3 year old hormone tantrums, NOTHING this baby does seems that bad. And, I know, the worst thing in the world is for someone to say to you, "you think THAT's bad, wait till they ..... " but honestly, a baby crying for a few hours is nothing compared to irrational 3/4 year old girls! Sheesh!
Anyway, typically, he's pretty fussy around dinner time - which is a bit unfortunate and difficult (especially when I'm solo parenting through the dinner hour) - but its still doable. And, if all else has failed, I chuck him in the bath - a nice warm bath. I made the mistake the other day of making it a bit on the cool side. Master Owen wouldn't have a bar of it. Fuss pot.

However, this blog wasn't supposed to be soley about Owen. It was supposed to be about our whole family and everything we do. So, let's not forget these 2 goons! 

Kelsey & Morgan are best of friends. 

Kelsey and Morgan are worst of enemies. 

Kelsey and Morgan are typical sisters. 

But they are definitely goons!! 

We just got all the bedrooms moved around last week, and now the girls are finally in single beds. (SOooo much easier for sheet changing!). The new room has lots more room for playing too. So, they're pretty excited about that. And, of course, they love sharing a room (not that they have a choice). 

Kelsey is 4 1/2. She is still highly emotional. We're praying this changes soon. Kelsey LOVES drawing & coloring. She spends hours every day at the chalk board or at the table just creating her little masterpieces. I love watching how her people drawings are constantly evolving over time. Just in the last week her people have stopped getting round circle noses and have started getting C's for noses.
When Kelsey's trying to pester her little sister (which is pretty much always), she'll tell her that's she's drawing a picture of Kelsey but not Morgan. Ugh.
But, in this picture she drew (from left to right): Daddy, Kelsey, Mommy, Morgan, Oma, (and bottom row) Opa and Owen. Grandma and Grandpa are on vacation (she said. I laughed). I'm not sure why only 2 people have fingers. Nor am I sure why Owen has no arms. 

Morgan is hilarious. I'm curious to see if this will change as its usually a last born trait, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't, she just seems to have a unique (and pretty cool) sense of humour. Just yesterday, I went into her room to wake her from a nap and I just paused to watch her for a minute. She's often difficult to tell if she's sleeping and just the day before I'd walked in and watched her fully talking in her sleep with her eyes open. So, on this day, I watched her for a minute and she was just lying there really still with her eyes opened but they didn't seem to be fixed on anything. So, very quietly, I whispered, "Are you awake?" There was no reaction from Morgan, but very slowly her eyes started to get wider. And, just as I was about to walk out of the room, her eyes got really wide and she shouts, "BOO!" and jumps up. I laughed. 

Morgan is, however, just starting to get highly emotional. She'll burst into tears at the slightest confrontation, or if her feelings are hurt in the least. I hope it is much more short lived than a certain older sister!! 

Morgan loves being the center of attention. She'll do anything to get her picture taken. She'll do anything for a laugh. I realized the other day that she only wants to hold Owen because she thinks I'll take a picture every time (which I pretty much do). 

And, last but not least, there's Piper. Piper had a big week this week. She got spayed. She was so completely docile (and drugged up) when I picked her up from the vet that she could barely walk the 2 blocks home and I was actually contemplating putting Piper int he pram (stroller) and carrying Owen the rest of the way!! Thankfully, it didn't come to that. However, I seized the opportunity for a picture while she was all drugged up and not moving much!! 

And then today when I was taking Owen's 2 month pictures, Piper wanted in on the action too!! At first she gingerly crept on to the blanket... 

but within seconds she was trying to completely cuddle up to Owen. Oh brother, what a suck!!

I had to answer a million and one questions from Kelsey in regards to Piper's operation. 

what's an operation?

Its where a doctor cuts you open and takes something out

what does Piper need out?

The doctor will take out the bits to make babies. 

Ooh, but babies are so cute. Why can't she have babies?

Its irresponsible pet ownership. 

Why?

Because there's too many puppies already and not enough good owners. 

But you're a good owner?

Yes, but we don't want anymore dogs. 

{insert new thought}Will Piper look different?

No, she'll just have a little line on her belly.

Why?

Because that's where the doctor went in to get her bits out. 

It seriously kept going. I'd like to wear one of those clicker counter things one day and count just how many questions I actually do get asked in a typical day. I just try to keep telling myself: It shows she has a brain. It shows she has a brain. 

Anyway, clocks go back an hour tonight.. let's pray the kids' clocks move back an hour too!! 

Busy, Busy 7th week

What a crazy week we've had!

7 weeks old

Owen had Plunket (the well child nurses) come and visit him for the first time, a Dr's visit, his 6 week vaccines, his last visit with my midwife, his Oma and Opa came for the weekend AND he as baptized! Whew, I'm tired just remembering everything!

All three different health professionals deemed Owen healthy and fit. Phew, what a relief! :) he even did really well for the vaccines.  He screamed bloody murder for while they were poking him and then just as abruptly he stopped and was fine. But just for good measure, he gave the nurse a really good sneer! He only put on another 250g or so, but he's at a full 11 pounds now. Yippee!

7 week cutie pie

And, because he's healthy and putting on weight, he's started to sleep longer stretches! For the past 3 nights, I've managed to put him to bed around 7, give him a sleepy feed before I go to bed (around 10), and he's slept until between 4-5 and then with incredible precision, he wakes up at 7:30! Long may his perfectly timed precision continue!!

And, speaking of sleep, we just moved all our bedrooms around today, and Owen is officially in his own room! Woo hoo!! He's already slept there for 2 naps, and now I've just put him down for the night. I'm so excited to get our room back! We are just not cut out to have babies in our bedroom!

Our newest family picture

Owen in the baptism gown that his daddy also wore. (He has a tie underneath to "man" it up a bit!)

Oma & Opa. 

Marco's parents came for a visit this weekend and we had Owen baptized. Nothing overly exciting happened over the weekend, it was just a great time spent with family and letting them cuddle Owen and play with the girls. The baptism was nice. Great sermon about families. Kelsey refused at the last minute to come up on the stage with us. Morgan was happy to come, but had a minor wardrobe malfunction. As we got up on the stage, Marco pointed out that I needed to fix her skirt as it was all bunched up around her waist. Turns out while she as sitting in the pew, she had been playing with her stretchy necklace and got it around her waist somehow, and all tangled up with her skirt. So, while the entire church waited patiently, I fumbled blindly with her dress and necklace, until the necklace finally was flung across the stage and the skirt hung free again. Owen, meanwhile was oblivious to everything and staring up at the ceiling. He's a lovely little baby.

Baptism - minus Kelsey

If you're interested, you can watch Owen's baptism here. 

We did receive one other piece of news this week. Marco was offered (and accepted) and Captain's position with his company!! Yippee!! We've been waiting for a position to be offered to us. And, we'd decided a long time ago that when a position was offered to us, we would trust that it was God's timing and God's will for us to go to that place. So, even though it doesn't seem like good timing for us to move right now, we believe it is God's will for our family. So, on with our plans. 

Owen, announcing Daddy's new job

Marco will start training next week and be away from home a lot for that. When he is home, he NEEDS to keep working on finishing the house. We have a LOT of work to do before the house can be sold. Plus, we have plans to go to Canada in June, so we're going to go ahead with that plan as well. Hopefully when we get back from that trip, we can finish off the last two rooms in the house and get the house on the market in the spring. So, we would covet all your prayers over the next few months as we prepare for this huge transition. 

And so begins a new week...

And now we are Six.. (weeks, that is)

Owen is 6 weeks old!!

.. and currently he's sitting in his swing wailing inconsolably. I know he doesn't need anything. He's fed. Clean. Frankly, he doesn't even really want to be held. So, he's putting himself to sleep in the swing. And, at 8pm, I'm ok with that.

He put on another 350g this week. Ok, so he's not my mathematical genius. But, I'm still happy with his weight gain. His latest weight gain put him at 4.750kg - that's about 10 1/2 pounds! which might also explain why last night (for the first time ever) he went 8 hours between feedings! Woo Hoo!! Momma got some sleep!!

Of course, now that he's 6 weeks old, we've got a busy week ahead of us. This is the week that we see our Plunket nurse for the first time, we say goodbye to our lovely midwife, and Owen gets to meet his Dr and the lovely nurses who're going to stab him with the first of his vaccines. Fun times!

We're also prepping for his baptism next Sunday. So, we have a meeting with the pastor this week. Plus, Marco's parents are heading up for the weekend. So, Owen gets to meet his namesake for the first time!! I'm excited.. even if Owen isn't.

As one would expect for the son of a pilot, we have a small airplane theme going with Owen. Just so long as he doesn't become a pilot when he's big, we're ok with indulging him now :)

Thanks Groete Tante Wendy! 

Thank-you Karla for all the lovely clothes!! 

 i have a small obsession with his hands. Actually, its really sweet, but Owen loves having his hand held. If he's upset, all you have to do is hold his hand and he immediately calms down. Of course, its hard to get any work done around the house if you're holding a little tiny hand, but I suppose it won't be long before he won't even want to be near me, let alone hold my hand!

And, of course, Kelsey & Morgan still absolutely adore Owen. Actually, I think their love for him grows more every day. The more they learn about babies, the more they get to know Owen and what he does and doesn't do.
Cute story: Kelsey was "napping" in my bed the other day, with strict instructions to "BE QUIET" as Owen was sleeping in the same room. Well, just before 3pm (wake up time), I hear Owen wake up and start to cry. It was a bit before he was due to eat, so I was hoping he'd just settle back down. However, moments later, his cry turned into an all out, full blown scream! I go into the room, to discover, to my shock and horror, Kelsey standing at the foot of my bed overlooking the cot, and viciously shaking a toy in Owen's face. I, of course, react badly, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!" And, of course, she starts to cry. "C'mon out" I reply, much calmer now, "let's talk". So, while I feed Owen, I attempt to get out of Kelsey what exactly she was doing. Finally, after many tears, she whimpers, "I was trying to make him happy." Mommy heart break moment. So, we talked some more about how right now only mommy can make Owen happy and just because he cries doesn't mean we always have to get him. We have to listen and think about what he best needs. And, right now only Mommy knows best what he needs. (if only I always felt that was true!)

And, as for me.. well. frankly.. I'm tired. If my memory serves me right, I get this way around week 6, so it shouldn't surprise me. But, I feel like I've hit a brick wall. I start to do silly (slightly dangerous) things. Words are harder to find. My Words with Friends games are going awfully bad. See how serious its getting?? I need sleep!! I think its even harder this time around, because there's just no break in the day. I had hoped that having both girls still "napping" every day from 1-3 would be enough of a break, but typically, Owen needs one feed during that time, plus dinner needs to be prepped, lunch cleaned up, laundry done.. you know, family stuff. I think I need to be more purposeful about sitting with my feet up and closing my eyes during my breaks. That might mean putting my ipod down and not playing as many WWF games, but I don't know if that's possible...  :)

"Amazing Grace"

Ok, sometimes it takes longer to learn songs.. or rather, sometimes it takes longer for mom and dad to teach the songs. Yikes! I think we worked on this song (on and off) for 4 weeks.

Anyway, here's the girls singing "Amazing Grace"

Owen is 5 weeks old!!

So.. March 5th today, and Owen is 5 weeks old!

I'm a wee bit sick at the moment (nasty cold), but so far he doesn't seem too badly affected by it. He's still nasally and congested sounding, but maybe that's perfectly normal..

However, like the sweet, adorable baby that he is, and knowing that his mommy needed her sleep, Owen has decided to sleep a bit more for the last 2 nights. Saturday night he pulled 2 5 hour stretches, and last night he pulled a 5 hour and a 4 hour! Woo hoo!! Funnily, whenever his last middle of the night feed is, he automatically wakes around 7:30am. Fine by me, as that's what I'd like his wake time to be. Maybe he's just way more clever than I think!!

Speaking of being clever.. I'm pretty sure he's a brilliant mathmetician. See, when he was born he weighed in at 3.165 - not a very nice number. So, before the week was out, he dropped to an even 3kg. Then, in the first week he put on 250g. The next week he put on 300. The following week he put on 350. Wanna guess the next 2 weeks?? Yep, 400 the one, and 450 the next!! Anyone wanna bet he puts on 500g this week?? I'd laugh if he did. He was sitting at 4.4 kg as of last Thursday (that's just under 10lbs).

The girls are, naturally, still madly in love with Owen. Begging to hold him, kiss him, hold his hand, feed him etc. 

 Speaking of weight, he's certainly filling out well. His cheeks are well and truly chubby. His double chin a prominent feature. His stomach is sticking out almost as far as his daddy's (hahaha)!! And, his arm and leg rolls are developing nicely. I have no doubt he'll be a lovely roly-poly baby before long :)
He's a bit spilly - not spewy, just spilly. So far, he hasn't had any projectile spews, but he does seem to constantly have milk coming out of his mouth after a feed. I'm constantly changing the blanket I have under his head in his bed, because its always soaked!

Owen does not like the pacifier (soother, dummy, sucky - whatever). I keep trying to give it to him, but he hates it. I should accept this fact, yet so far, I haven't. He will take it if he has gas pain, and if I wrap him and hold him really tight with one hand over the pacifier. Does that even count??

He's starting to sleep really well. After basically holding him for his first three weeks, I started to get him into his routine at week 4, and this week he's just doing amazingly well. He does have a tendency to wake a bit early from his naps, but I think he really is honestly that hungry! I'm trying to make sure he goes at least 2 1/2 hours between each nap, but sometimes he can barely make it to 2 hours!

He also has a bad habit of lying in his bed awake for a long time. I don't have a video monitor, so I never know except for the occasional "WAH!" that comes from his room.

Today, for example, I fed him at 7:30 and he was back in bed by 8:15am. I'm pretty sure he just lied awake the whole time, and around 9:30 he started crying on and off. He'll cry for 10 seconds, then quiet for 2 minutes. Then he'll cry for 20 seconds, and is quiet for 90 seconds.. until finally he's crying quite hard.. or he nods off. In this case, he got louder, so I went and got him. I fed him at 10:15 (so 2 3/4 hours), and he was back in bed by 10:30. I heard 2 short WAH's and then he was asleep! :)
1:15 he woke on his own, so I fed him and played with him (took a few of these pictures), and had him back in bed by 2. He didn't even make a peep and went straight to sleep. What a sweetheart!!
He woke again at 4:15, so I fed him and had him back in bed by 5 (see a pattern anyone??). He woke again at 6:30. I held him off for a few minutes and fed him at 6:45. 7:30, he was back in bed. He's lying there now. Occasionally, I hear him reminding me he's awake, but for the most part he's quiet.
I expect, if other days are anything to go by, he'll wake by 9 wanting food. I'll oblige and go to bed straight after!

Finally, the most exciting news of the week: we got our first official smiles. They're still slow in coming, but there they were. Smiles for me. My first child that smiled at ME first! woo hoo!!

3 kids, 2 hands, 1 Super Mom.

All by myself.. don't wanna be.. all by myself.. anymore!! (feel free to hum along)

I've been extremely blessed/lucky so far as I've had only one half day on my own with all three kids since Owen was born. And, he's nearly 5 weeks old. Not too shabby, eh??!!
Call me a wimp, I don't care, but for some reason, I'm petrified of being in my house alone with them.

So, in the lead up to being left alone, I knew I needed a plan. I good plan. A plan I could follow.

I've always loved having a routine. Every few months, I tweak what we do, write up a new schedule, print it & post it. But, I've never been that great at following it. So, what I've learned over the years is that I do routines, not schedules. I need a basic flow to my day so I (and they) know what's coming and what to do next.

But, how do you create a routine with a newborn who can't "do as they're told" ?? How can I create a routine when he might want food every 2 hours, or every 3 hours??

And then, to make it more complicated, 2 days a week the girls go to preschool. So, that's 2 trips in the car, that may or may not coordinate with a nap. So, do I create our whole routine around those 2 days that I need to be in the car? Or do I just hope Owen learns to be flexible enough to sleep or be awake as needed in the car??

Finally, do I consider Marco's schedule into my new routine? His work schedule is different every day, so I create different routines based on what he's doing, or do I just do my own thing and expect him to stay out of my way??

with all these questions circulating in my head, and with a muddled, sleep deprived brain to begin with, I started to put down on paper my new routine.

So.. This is what I've come up with:
Home Days Routine

I decided to create it based on a 3 hour feeding for Owen. However, I tried to make it so that should he wake at 2.5 hours, I can do a swap with neighboring activities for the girls to make it work. For example, during one feed I have Morgan doing some quiet play near me. However, if he were to wake 1/2 hour earlier, Kelsey is doing quiet play near me.
I chose to make our home days work, and then just figure out the preschool days separately. It ends up that on Preschool days, Owen will need to have one full nap in his car seat. and he'll need to be transferred to his car seat 1/2 hour before his normal wake time for the pickup. Not sure if it'll work, but I'm hopeful.
I also chose not to consider Marco's schedule. Its too varied. Besides, we have tonnes of house renovations to do yet, so if Marco is at home, he should be doing those (insert whipping noise here), and not bothering me. So, he should just stay out of my way.. or help.

So, here's to hoping it all works out. In my favor.

So Long, Farewell...

So.. goodbyes are hard. in fact, they suck. Just thought I'd mention it. But, all good things must come to an end.  So, I suppose its the end of my clean kitchen, clean (and folded) clothes, full cookie tins, and happy, occupied preschoolers. Yep, time to say goodbye to Jeanette.

So, with Marco at work all morning, we loaded up the kids, and Jeanette's stuff (after very accurately weighing her bag on my bathroom scales) and headed off to my girls' favorite place - the AIRPORT!!

I think its their favorite place because they can hang on these.. Hmm.. 

 Jeanette got lucky and her bag weighed in at 1.7kg under the weight limit. At which point she tried to decide if she should repack to add a few more things - I decided she shouldn't. :)

she'll hate this picture, but she was a bit pensive about travelling. 

 She admitted that she had a headache and was a bit nervous about the long trip. I reminded her that she'd already done the whole trip already and now she was just doing it backwards. If she was unsure of anything, she should just walk backwards so it looked familiar. I'm so helpful.

Marco flew her plane in and then was done work for the day, so he managed to say good-bye as well. He also double checked the safety of the plane first to make sure it was up to snuff.

Owen - the little cheeky monkey, gave a parting grin in his slumber.

Then, after a few tearful hugs - except for Morgan who didn't want to say goodbye - Jeanette had to board her flight.

Look! That's her climbing up the steps!!

And now, I'm left on my own.
My muffins & cookie supply are already dwindling.  :(

Jeanette's last few days

Suddenly, we woke up one morning and realised that we only had a few days left of Jeanette's visit! AGHH!! As usual, we hadn't gotten around to doing a lot of the things we'd hoped to.

So, we quickly headed down to the beach. We had been waiting for a "nice weather day", but alas, Jeanette's visit was fraught with the crappiest weather ever. So, we all grabbed our jerseys and our jandals and headed off to the beach for the afternoon.

 It still looked like a gorgeous day, even if it was a bit chilly (about 18C)

Proof that Jeanette went in the ocean. 

 And, as usual, the adults never really seemed to grow up!! :)

Here's me at the same beach 2 months ago!!

And here's me now :) My bump's gotten bigger, but I'm still wearing the same pants!!

 After the day at the beach (which was preceded by a girls morning out shopping), I decided I was rather wiped out. Dead tired in fact. Which meant that I was now reconsidering the next day's plans to go for a 2 hour tramp (nature hike). We opted to stay home. In fact, despite our list, we didn't get much else done. Instead, we stayed home, Jeanette did lots of baking (so I wouldn't starve after she left), we ordered Thai food for dinner one night (so I'd be left with a gassy baby) and played games. (Jeanette bought us the game Pandemic. Its really good fun and a great addition to our game collection)

Jeanette had only one thing left on her list of must do's: See Owen smile.

And, let me tell you.. we worked hard on it.

It was easy to see the girls smile.

Kelsey was so incredibly proud when she got to give Owen a feed. 

 But finally at the eleventh hour.. we got Owen to smile.. Of course, catching one of his fleeting grins, proved more difficult, so this is the best we've got for now !!