One Month Down

It's all downhill from here, right? 

  

We have actually had things pretty easy thus far.  However, Owen does not like sleeping in his crib and seems to be getting up more at night.  Therefore, we have started instituting co-sleeping.  It seems as though this is somewhat frowned upon; however, my philosophy is whatever keeps him alive and helps me maintain shred of sanity is ok.  Granted, I do not want to have 10 year-old Owen sleeping in my bed, but seems to work pretty well for the time being.  I think we will start making more of an effort to keep him in his crib in the coming weeks.  There is an extra push for this now that he has figured out how to use his arms and fists.  There is nothing quite like getting woken up by your one-month old baby punching you in the face.  Babies are freakishly strong.

The other thing Owen has learned recently is how to smile.  While I wish this picture was taken of Owen smiling in response to my face, sadly, it is not.  It is actually a picture of him on his changing pad.  I am not sure what he sees here (contrasts in colors or is just super into the wooden shelves above) but he loves the view from his changing pad.  He will sit there and smile for minutes and squeal in delight.  Oh and I also know that he is not smiling because he is happy about getting a clean diaper. 

 Owen's other area of interest is staring at the ceiling fan in our living room.  When he seems to be getting angry, we just lie him down to gaze at his ceiling fan.  It works some of the time...

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Does my baby need spanx?  Both Barret and I have googled "is our baby too fat" and "is baby getting fed too much."  Thankfully, the answer to both queries is no. 

 

This photo belongs in the prior post, but I figured I would put it here anyway.  This is Barret's four generation photo.  I am guessing Barret will have a head of grey hair before he becomes a Grandpa.

I fancy myself a bit of a Real Housewives aficionado and realize that I have not commented on the numerous seasons currently being aired.  That will change soon.  My other area of expertise is Teen Mom as well as Teen Mom 2 (you could also roll 16 and Pregnant into that package).  As the scary stages of labor approached a mere one month ago, I remember thinking "if Chelsea can do this, I can."  Oddly, it helped.  Anyway, in the most recent episode, Jenelle opted to serve 45 days in jail because she cannot stay on probation any longer due to her inability to stop smoking weed (it's not even a real addiction).  The kicker is - she wanted to move her check-in date to prison so she could go to her Ke$ha concert.  Ke$ha, seriously?  You could not pay me to go to a Ke$ha concert.  I am annoyed at even putting her name with her stupid money sign in my blog.  At least she was not planning on going to the concert with Kiefer.

First Bath and Thanksgiving

We are not that neglectful of parents that we just gave Owen his first bath.  However, it was his first bath in the tub this week - prior to that - we were giving him sponge baths on his changing pad.  As you can see, he was not digging the bath at first.

Murphy was of course very concerned when he heard the wailing and decided to assist Barret with bath time.

Eventually, he grew to somewhat like the bath and we ended up with a clean baby, who was somewhat happy.

We spent a lot of time lounging this week.  We finished watching season 1 of Homeland - which was amazing.  Then, AT&T decided to give us free Showtime this weekend.  So Barret and I took down the 8 episodes of season 2 that were on demand the Friday after Thanksgiving.  It was a great day and not at all depressing....  I am now wondering if we will end up purchasing Showtime to see how the season concludes.

Uncle Nick came to town for Thanksgiving and stayed with us for a couple days.  He mastered diaper changing in that time and was really good with Owen.  I think we may have to refer to him as Uncle NeNe.

We do not have any of the photos yet, but Barret's family took a four generation photo over Thanksgiving (Owen, Barret, Barret's dad and grandma).  Becoming a great-grandma is quite a feat in itself, however, this is the fourth four generation photo that Barret's grandma has been a part of.  I think that is very special.  I never had any great grandparents, but Owen is very lucky to have 3 great-grandmas and 2 great-grandpas.  I am guessing I will never get to be a great-grandma, unless Owen becomes 16 and Pregnant, but I have to imagine that it is a pretty great title to have.

300 Diapers and Counting

I haven't actually been counting the amount of diapers that Owen goes through, but he is approaching 3 weeks old and I am pretty sure he has gone through close to 300 (9 or 10 packs of 30 diapers).  Now that his umbilical cord is healed up, we have started using cloth diapers.  My friend, Alyssa, introduced me to these Best Bottoms diapers from Nicki's Diapers.  They are pretty great - although - they are comically large on our little baby for the time being.  However, he is now over 9 pounds and in 3 month clothing, so these diapers will probably be fitting appropriately very soon.  Plus, they are very stylish.

My mom and sister came down for a few days.  My mom also brought her dogs, Bea and Tesa.  Bea gave Murphy a run for his money in terms of which dog was in charge of watching Owen.  Bea made her way into the background of nearly every picture that was taken while they were in town (I think she was on a walk during the picture of my sister above).  It was awesome having my mom in town.  She stays up much later than Barret and I (as do most people over the age of 10 and under the age of 70) - so she would be happy to take Owen at about midnight if he was still awake.  I now understand why stay-at-home moms have nannies.

Although Holly was not on late night baby soothing or diaper duty, she did provide Owen with a lot of good Auntie cuddling time and got him some sick new outfits.

Those dinosaur slippers are compliment of Aunt Holly as well as the I Rock outfit.  She got a ton of other great outfits that Owen will be sporting over the next couple weeks.

I have not figured out a way to get paid for endorsing products on this blog... perhaps I need to be slightly more famous, but this stroller is amazing.  It is a City Mini GT.  We went back and forth on whether we actually needed to spend so much on a stroller, but it was totally worth it.  A lot of the criticisms on reviews had to do with the fact that it does not come with any accessories - which is kind of annoying but we just ordered a car seat attachment and a parent counsel (to hold beverages on the handle bar, but has not yet been installed) in addition to the stroller.  I would highly recommend this stroller and say that it is definitely worth the price.  Since the weather has been so nice lately, I have managed to venture out on my own with the baby and Murphy and have minimal difficulty navigating my way throughout the neighborhood.  Problems only arise when Murphy spots his nemesis (a white dog that lives a few houses down) or a squirrel that he thinks is within his grasp.

2 weeks of cuteness

 Owen's first Badger basketball game

 Owen was ready to bill some clients when he went to visit Dad at work.

Week 1: Lots of visitors and learning

We were fortunate to have some visitors at the hospital.

Mason is clearly not too happy about a new baby being in town.  However, we are still confident that we will be best buds.

 We also had some friends visit during Owen's first week or two at our home.  We have been getting spoiled by people bringing dishes along with their visits and have yet to cook a lunch or dinner.  It has been great and thank you for all of your help.  Not pictured:  Angie Richter who made us a fantastic taco dish - not sure how we missed snapping a picture of her with Owen

 Owen has a couple older ladies to choose from.  Unfortunately, Angela fell victim to visiting new parents.  Mom did not put a diaper on securely and for some reason decided to not put pants on the baby when he had visitors - so Angela got some pee on her dress.  Thankfully, she has a baby of her own and seemed to be unfazed.  Thankfully, it was also just pee and not number two.

Owen's Birth 10/28/12

Owen Wright Van Sicklen was born October 28, 2012 at 9:04 p.m.  He weighed 8 lbs 7 ounces and was 21 inches long.  Wright is my maternal grandmother's maiden name.

They don't call it labor for nothing....  The class we took at Meriter regarding child birth kept on contrasting real life birth to what you see in the movies.  Accordingly, the mantra was that rarely does your water break in a public place, or even at all prior to labor beginning.  So I was convinced that my labor would start with slow contractions and I would have plenty of time to pack up my bag and get myself organized.  On the contrary, while thankfully I was not in public, my water broke at around midnight of October 27 (which was my due date).  I always wondered how one knew if their water broke or if labor begins - I will just leave it at you know.  So we dropped Murphy off at a friend's house and headed to Meriter.

Things were kind of slow in the morning and we had the blessing at being at a hospital in downtown Madison the morning after Halloween celebrations.  We spent some time watching Roseanne (not sure why that seemed to be the only thing on TV) and kept our eyes peeled for some walks of shame.

Then around 10 a.m. the nurses decided I was feeling a bit too good and decided to kick start the labor with some Pitocin.  Then things got real.  I will spare the gory details, but Barret was able to watch most of the Packers game - albeit on mute.  And then Owen eventually made his debut that evening and it was worth all the pain.

Owen is the first grandchild on both sides and is already spoiled.  We called our parents when my water broke (which was around 1 in the morning when we got around to making that call).  Both of our parents have obviously been through labor in the past and recognize that it takes a long time with the first baby.  Regardless, my mom hopped in her car and headed to Madison from the Twin Cities.  She popped into the hospital around 5:30 a.m. and Barret's mom made an appearance around 6:00 a.m. (again, Owen was not delivered until after 9 that evening).  They did not stick around the hospital that entire time, but they were anxiously waiting in the lounge when we were able to have some visitors after the birth.

We got to go home on Tuesday and were happy to be back in the comforts of our home.  Everybody is happy and healthy and adjusting to life with a newborn.

Murphy keeps a watchful eye on Owen.  He also does not like to miss any openings to get a couple licks on the unsuspecting baby.