I’m getting a hankering to start blogging again, so we’ll see how long it lasts this time.  I’ve invaded Travis’s blog, the Elkridge Hollerer - http://hollerer.blogspot.com/.  One of the perks of being married, so further O news can be found there.  In short, Owen has his first tooth, he inherited my dad’s head (95th %ile), and he continues to be cute. 

Owen eats about 6 oz of breastmilk 7 times a day, which is 42 oz a day.  Let’s say he weighs 15 pounds (rough estimate). If a 150 pound adult were to eat a proportional amount of milk, he’d have to drink 3.28 gallons of milk a day. 

This helps me understand how Owen had such a pootacular blowout last night. Owen didn’t want to go to sleep last night and kept grunting and squirming.  I was on call last night, so Travis took over sleep duty.  I was on the phone with the emergency department when I heard the bathtub turn on.  I found Travis and O in the bathroom and Owen taking a bath at 11 pm.  In the big bathtub was something that used to be a onesie and a sleep sack, which were now unrecognizable.  Turns out the grunting and squirming was a pootacular BM making its way to the exit.  O had a bath, the clothes got a large dose of spray&wash and a long wash and rinse cycle in the washer. Not surprisingly, after having a bath and seeing mommy and daddy at midnight, O wanted to stay up and play, not go back to sleep.  He got to sleep until noon today, Travis and I went to work. Here’s hoping for better sleep tonight.

You can bring a half gallon of breast milk on an airplane, even if the baby’s not with you.  I went on my first work-related trip of the year, leaving T and O to hang out together.  Owen worked his way through the frozen breast milk supply and even tried a little formula while I was gone.  He had a cocktail of 50% breastmilk 50% formula, which he liked just fine, although it gave him revolting-smelling poo (Travis commented that he was glad he hadn’t eaten right before he changed the diaper or he would’ve hurled. Eeeewww)   I maintained a regimen of milk pumping four times a day and had a duffel bag full of milk to tote home.  I was kinda worried about getting put on the no-fly list for brining on liquids more than 3 oz in size, but the TSA now allows breast milk sans baby to be carried on as it is a ‘medically necessary  liquid’.  Good thing, as I’m fairly attaced to my breast milk ie ‘liquid gold’ and pitching it would pain me greatly.  Pretty much every nursing woman I know feels the same way about her milk.

I went away on my first work trip a few weeks ago.  While away, I slept longer in one stretch than I have in a year.  I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. No baby crying or wanting to eat and none of the frequent peeing I had when I had the O bun in the oven. Travis and Owen survived, although Travis was a bit sleep-deprived when I got home. 

Recently Owen has started going to bed at 7 pm.  There are good things and bad things about this.  Good is that Travis and I can actually eat dinner together, instead of tag team style. Good because it keeps me from being a sleep-deprived zombie at work.  Bad is that if I get stuck at work, then I only see O awake for a few minutes, or not at all until he wakes up for his midnight meal.

Hmmm.. I think Owen detected my glee about his improved sleeping habits. Last night he added 2 extra feedings and a few other awakenings to deal with. Time for some caffeine.

My how things change.  Crankenstein makes an appearance less frequently and the cute cooing and smiling has increased a lot.  Owen continues to get better with his hands, sliming them and trying out different combos of fingers in his mouth.  He also likes to chew on his blanket and is getting better at escaping his swaddle blanket.  He holds his head up at 90 degrees to look in his play mirror.  He even rolled over once and looked pretty surprised when he did it.  He’s napping without his swaddle and likes to bat at toys.  He’s busting out of some of his baby clothes and drools a lot more than before.  He doesn’t poo every time he eats, but unfortunately this can lead to total destruction of a onesie with a massive poo (who knew that digested breast milk stained so badly?)  He doesn’t whack his own head with his hands as much (a nice benefit of storing his hands in his mouth), but did manage to spit up in his own eye.  He’s handling mommy’s transition to work really well and loves hanging out with the nanny during the day.  And he’s loooongg and has a cute round head. 

I entered a totally new world last month as I went back to work.  I had some part-time days before I resumed my clinical duties.  So I’m back to patients, research, and procedures.  I’ve had to develop even more organization skills than before or I’m late, late, late to work.  Everything must be laid out the night before (clothes, breakfast, lunch, work bag packed) and the shower must be taken at night as the morning is too unpredictable.  Will Owen wake up in time to eat and still leave me time to pump before I go?  Will he wake up and want to be held for a whole hour without being set down?  These are the great mysteries of the morning.  Yes, I am actually writing about being late for work and calling it a ‘mystery’. 

Owen took his first airplane ride in September when we went to my grandmother’s funeral in
Arizona.  I’m sad that she’s gone, but glad that she was surrounded by her kids when she passed at hospice.  She was a neat lady and sharp (and very stubborn) until the end. 

Owen has proved to be a good traveler, sleeping on the airplane and not minding the 3 hour time change.  In addition to his first airplane flight, it was also his first trip to the desert.  It was also his first time to get checked out by a ferret,  owned by our friends Angus, Julie, Haley, and AJ, who let us stay with them and let my family congregate at their house.  The desert was really pretty and flowers were blooming as it was the ‘monsoon’ season. This means that it rains some, but isn’t like the photos of monsoons in Asia, where people are wading waist deep in water.

Travis and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary September 11th.  We were actually dating and then engaged for the 5 years previous to that, so I guess you could say we’ve known each other a long time.  One of the first places we sent together was Target.  I needed a pillow and Travis needed a colander, which took a long time to pick out.  Things progressed nicely from there. 

It’s been a loooong time since I posted so get ready for a flurry of blog posts….

I can’t believe Owen is already 2 months old.

First the numbers: O weighs 12 pounds, 4 ounces which is the 75^th %ile for his age. He gained 2 pounds in a month, which is kind of amazing, since he added a fifth of his body weight. His head, despite looking pretty darn big, is 75^th%ile. He’s still tall (90^th%ile), at 24 inches long. He got 4 shots and one oral vaccine today. He liked the oral vaccine ok, but the shots displeased him. Of course, he also seems to dislike having his hips checked, which made him cry just as loudly as the shots did. This afternoon, he’s been recovering from his visit to the pediatrician by sleeping and eating, then sleeping some more. Fortunately he seems to like the grape-flavored infant Tylenol. Overall, his head control is improving, he wiggles around like he wants to roll from stomach to back, coos and smiles like a champ.

In the last month, Owen has had a few firsts:

First road trip – we went to
North Carolina last weekend for a great visit with Ann, Travis’s aunt. Cousin Eric accompanied us. Owen didn’t mind the car ride and enjoyed the company there.

First visit to an art installation – Also in
North Carolina, where we visited a beautiful park with large sculptures in it. One favorite was the tower made of newspapers.

First visit to the mall – Now I know why there are always people with strollers at the mall. It’s a nice place to walk around with your kiddo. There’s food, places to sit, and if you have to leave a store b/c fussiness, you’re still inside.

First Fine Dining - Travis fed O a bottle sitting next to the piano at Nordstrom. Owen liked the music a lot.

First getting caught in the rain – after the mall, when a tree blocked the road to our house.

First visit to church – Owen likes the music, but doesn’t like the clapping after the choir sings. He also likes the readings and the sermon. By ‘likes’, I mean ‘sleeps through’.

First gagging himself with his fist - Yes, my little dude has discovered how to get his right hand in his mouth, which he drools and slimes all over. Yesterday I think he poked some of his fingers a little too deep.

First pair of cowboy boots – from Target, He’s getting ready to outgrow his boots with his big baby feet.

Owen is developing really cute love handles and a Buddha belly.  His butt is still fairly tiny and hasn’t kept up with his belly growth.  Now that he kicks his legs really frequently and vigorously, he can work his diaper down his body, leading to plumber’s butt and diaper disaster.  I’ve been pondering solutions for preventing Owens’s clothes from turning into a superfund site, but so far have only come up with ideas for diaper suspenders, judicious use of duct tape, or putting him in bigger diapers that will fasten above his belly (like old man pants).