3 months old!

Awww! Raggie's a good big brother!

Today is Owen's 3 month birthday! I can't believe time goes this fast! There is a Mexican folk tale that says if you measure your baby when he is 90 days old and take that number times 3, that is how tall he will be when he's full grown. So Ryan and I measured Owen today, and he is 24 inches tall, which puts him at 6 feet full grown. If that comes out to be true, he must have inherited tallness from my side of the family. Ryan is about 5'9"-10", and I don't think anyone on his side of the family is much taller than that. My dad and brothers, on the other hand, are all over 6 feet tall, so if he ends up 6 feet, he'd be about in the middle of Ryan's side and my side. Only time will tell, but the person that told us about this folk tale said that his grandma (who is Mexican) did this for him and his brothers and they all came out true. And he said he is about 5 inches shorter than his brothers. So, anyway, check back on this issue in about 18 years.   :)

I'm starting to think I either jinxed myself by bragging that my baby sleeps for 10 hours, or daylight savings really messed with Owen, but he was doing SO good with sleeping until last Sunday (the first day after we changed our clocks forward). I've started doing a routine with him before bed: bath, story, songs, eat, and bed. It was working really great for awhile. One night Owen fell asleep around 9 pm and slept until 8:30 am! The next two nights he went 10 hours! It was so awesome. BUT, for the last two nights, I have been doing the same bedtime routine with him and he starts to fall asleep while I'm feeding him, but then the second I put him in his crib, he is wide awake and just wants to talk. And if I'm not in there for him to talk to, he's mad. So I usually put him down at 9:00, but the last two nights he didn't settle down until midnight. :(  He spoiled me and now he's being crabby. But I know it could be much worse, but it still kind of sucks. It's been hard to get his naps on a schedule because we don't get up at the same time each day, and sometimes we are home all day and sometimes we are out and about, so his naps are kind of random. I hope he gets back on track.

I thought it might be kind of interesting to see how much Owen has changed in these past three months, so here are some pictures. It's crazy how much they change in the first month- he looked so different in just a few days, but I'm just going to show monthly pictures:

Birth day - December 16, 2009

1 month - January 16, 2010

2 months - February 16, 2010

3 months - March 15, 2010

I took this one yesterday- it was his first time enjoying the outside! Except it doesn't look like he's enjoying it very much!

The weather has been awesome the last few days - upper 50's and lower 60's (today was cold and rainy, though). So yesterday was the first time Owen has actually been outside. Every time before this he has been in his carseat covered up with a blanket. But I think I enjoyed the weather much more than he did. I think he had just woken up when I took him out there, so he looks pretty bored.

As far as I can tell, Owen is right on track development wise, if not even a little ahead. He's been able to hold his head up and "talk" for a LONG time, and lately he has been able to grab the animals on his bouncy, he can put all of his weight on his feet, he can put his fist in his mouth to suck on it, and I think he's starting to notice his hands. You know how babies figure out that they have a hand and just stare at it? I think he's doing that. I expected him to be more surprised by it, though. And yesterday he rolled from his back to his side for the first time! Can't make it all the way over yet, his darn arm is in the way. I rolled him on his tummy after he did that to see if he'd roll over like that (since it's easier to go from tummy to back), but he just layed there. I'm going to have to be EXTRA careful about letting him lay on the couch and stuff now that he can roll a little.

The temperature is supposed to go back down to near freezing this weekend, which sucks, because Owen and I are going to Elkader for my soon to be sister-in-law's bridal shower. I was looking forward to taking Punky for walks. I'm SO looking forward to summer. I keep seeing little baby swim trunks and sunglasses. They are so cute and my aunt got us a baby pool at my baby shower, so I'm excited to be able to use it. I hope he likes the water! If he's anything like me, he will. I used to go swimming EVERY DAY in the summer. Maybe in the years to come we will have to get pool passes, especially if we are still in Cedar Falls. There is a really nice aquatic center here that is great for kids, so it will be fun to be able to take him there. I can't wait, but part of me thinks he's growing too fast the way it is. I just want him to stay little forever!

                            

Owen is a big cousin!

At 2 and a half months old, Owen became a big cousin to Annaliese Kay. It was funny because when I got the phone call that she had been born, Owen was in his smiley, talking mood, so it seemed like he was really happy and excited to have a baby girl cousin. He now has one boy cousin and three girl cousins, but he's only met his older boy cousin so far. Hopefully he'll met the rest of them soon! It's cool that he has someone in the family that is so close to his age.

When I was at my parents' house while Ryan was in Arizona, my mom found some of my baby pictures. I think Owen looks a little like me, but his face is much rounder than mine. I've seen pictures of Ryan as a baby, but it was a long time ago and I can't remember what he looked like. When I look at Owen, I can't tell who he looks like. Everyone has a different opinion, so maybe he's just the perfect combination of us both. :) I know for sure that he has my big eyes, though, because Ryan's eyes get really squinty when he smiles, and Owen has BIG smiley eyes.

In the photo album with my baby pictures, there are a series of four pictures of me in various stages of falling out of my bouncy seat, and by the end, I was NOT very happy. Well, today I got the pleasure of getting the same thing on camera, but I didn't let him get to the point where he was on the floor...MOM! And he wasn't upset about it either.

For those of you who are looking close enough, I did cheat a little bit. In the first one Owen is not wearing socks and in the second one he is. They weren't taken in succession. The second one was taken a couple of hours later (and no, he was NOT in the bouncy that whole time).

I try to give Owen tummy time every day, but apparently he spends too much time on his back. Here is the proof:

My poor baby is bald!

Owen has started doing something new. He is constantly grabbing things, but I really don't think he's actually trying to reach for things yet. Just anything that happens to get in the way of his hands, he'll grab. I think it's really cool because the other day he was in his bouncy (he likes that thing a lot) and he made the music play all by himself! It was weird because Owen and I were home alone, and I was sitting at the computer, and all of a sudden the music started playing! It was a little creepy, actually, at first, because it was completely out of the blue, but it was cool to experience another first, even if it was sort of an accident.

It is the lion that plays music. The hippo and monkey are rattles.

This is him grabbing his pants. :) 

I have re-started playing in an adult volleyball league, and since Ryan works at night, Owen has been going to a friend's house while I'm playing. I thought it would be harder to leave my punkin with other people, but I know they are taking really good care of him. It also helps that he is the BEST baby ever! He really doesn't cry or fuss very often. Really, almost never. And every time Ryan or I pick him up from the babysitter, they tell us how good of a baby he is, and that they just can't believe it. I think it would be 100 times harder to leave him with someone if he were a fussy baby. I got SO lucky, and Ryan got even luckier, because he got me! Haha! You know he'd say the same thing about me! :)

Back to work

I went back to work today! I subbed in the art room at Hudson High School. It was nice to get back into the classroom and finally start earning some money, but I quickly found out that the internet doesn't hold my interest for 5 hours! There was nothing for me to do since all the students were just working on their art projects, so I really just had to make sure they were all alive by the end of the period and I spent a LOT of time on the internet. :) I asked my Facebook friends for book suggestions because I have a feeling I will have a lot more time to read now that I'm substituting. Most teachers plan a movie, work day, or test when they know ahead of time they'll be gone, and most teachers have pre-made sub plans in case they are gone last minute that don't require much from the sub, since the sub might not have any background in the subject they are teaching. I'm not going to complain, though. I LOVE to read and I LOVE getting paid even more! :) I did miss Owen, though, but they called me today pretty last minute, so I didn't really have time to think about it too much, so leaving him wasn't TOO hard. And he was home with his daddy, so that made me feel better than leaving him with a babysitter, I think.

Ryan just got back from his annual golf trip in Arizona, and while he was down there, Owen, the dogs, and I spend almost a week at my parent's house. It was awesome! Owen got more attention than he knew what to do with I think! He just loves to talk and loves to listen to you talk to him. He's such a smiley boy. He even got to spend some time with my grandma while I went to a movie with my parents. And he slept really well, except for one night he just couldn't settle down when he would wake up. And since he's been sleeping so well at night, for the last two nights, he has been sleeping in his own room. I always kept him in our room since I'm nursing, but now that he's been sleeping for at least 5 hours at a time, I decided its about time he gets used to his crib. I think he likes it, especially the cool mobile that hangs above him. He loves mobiles and ceiling fans and the mobile above his crib plays music, nature sounds, or heartbeat sounds, and also has a projected light show. He likes to talk to the animals on it before he goes to bed. It's the cutest thing. :)

Here are some pictures of Owen getting spoiled my my mom and dad:

My dad with Owen

Mom reading him a bedtime story - Milk and Cookies

My mom getting him squeaky clean

He had his 2 month doctor appointment on Wednesday. My little baby isn't so little - 13 lbs 8 oz! Chunky monkey!! He was talking and flirting with the nurse, too, until she came in and gave him shots! Poor baby cried and screamed harder than he ever has in his life. I think it probably was worse on me than it was on him, though, but I held it together. And I know it's all to help keep him healthy in the long run. Luckily, he didn't develop a fever or anything afterward and went back to his happy, smiley self soon after and we don't have to do back until the end of April.

Well, I think that's all. Now we are just waiting for the arrival of his new cousin!

Sleep!

Owen is the best little boy! He is sleeping at night!!! I don't want to jinx anything, but for about the last week or so he has been sleeping 6 OR MORE hours at a time at night! I am very happy about that and hope that it continues. I was going to try to give him a bottle before bed, but I usually don't have one, so I haven't been doing that and he still sleeps that long! The only thing is, I don't usually go to bed until about 11 pm and so he doesn't either and then we get up later in the morning. When I go back to work, I'm going to have to start going to bed earlier, and so I hope I can get Owen on that schedule as well.

The three of us spent Valentine's Day weekend in Coralville with Ryan's mom and stepdad. It was nice to be able to see them and get a little mini vacation. Also, we haven't seen them since the weekend after Owen was born, so we sort of celebrated Christmas too. Owen got clothes and a book and balloons, Ryan got some comfy pants and Tommy Bahama shirt, and I got matching comfy pants and zip up sweatshirt from Victoria's Secret! We spent Saturday at the mall and then went out for a couple of drinks, and then back to the hotel restaurant for supper. I had prime rib and Ryan had a ribeye--it was SO good. So good, in fact, that we went back the next morning for their brunch buffet. YUM! We also went down to the hot tub on Saturday night and had a couple of drinks down there. It was a pretty fun weekend.

Owen also got a Valentine's present from my parents. They were in Omaha celebrating my nephew's birthday over the weekend, and on the way back dropped off a card and his present. Here's a picture:

It's called a Bumbo and it's a seat for babies to sit in once they can hold their head up, but can't sit up on their own. He really likes it because he can look all around and I think he looks so cute in it. He likes to watch the dogs playing and running back and forth. I just can't wait until he starts laughing at the dogs. He's going to get a big kick out of them when he learns to laugh :) The only thing about this seat as opposed to his swing or bouncy is that he can't fall asleep in it. I think he wanted to the other day, but was working too hard to keep his head up. His eyes were pretty droopy, though.

I don't know if I've talked about those shoes he's wearing in this picture or not, but they were a gift from Ryan's aunt and uncle. They are his first tennis shoes and are awesome because they are VIKINGS!!! They're so cute!

Next week I am planning to take Owen to Hudson High School (where I did my student teaching) to visit my cooperating teacher and some of the other staff. I haven't been there since my last day of student teaching and I'm excited to show him off :)

Ryan is going to Arizona on his yearly golf trip on Thursday, so Owen, the dogs, and I are going to spend a few days in Elkader at my parent's house. Nothing better than visiting the grandparents!! LOTS and LOTS of help! :) And homecooked meals :) I'm even going to get to go to a movie in the theater! We do have lots of friends that keep telling us they want to babysit, so I don't know why we don't take them up on it, but give me another month and maybe I'll be taking them up on their offers!

Ok, well, keep knocking on wood, praying or keeping your fingers crossed that Owen keeps sleeping as well as he has. That's all for now, but here are a few more CUTE (of course) pictures of Owen:

SMILEY BOY!

Big Boy

Owen is already 7 weeks old! He's changing so much - he can hold his head up really well and is starting to smile and "talk". It's so cute to watch him talk to his toys and smile. I put together a little video of him talking to Ragnar and his toys and he has a few smiles for me too! :) This video is from last week when he was 6 weeks old.

The dogs are doing really well with him. Our lab, Ragnar, has been chewing on a lot of stuff lately, though. He was so used to getting a lot of attention, so I don't know if that's why he's chewing stuff, or if it just smells too good for him to resist - Gross! But he'll chew on dirty diapers, pacifiers, nursing pads and burp cloths with spit-up on them. I think it's pretty disgusting, but then again I'm not a dog. But as far as interacting with Owen, our lab and our chihuahua are doing great.

My mom came last Sunday and spent the night with Owen so Ryan and I could go to Ryan's work Christmas party. It was nice to get out of the house for a while by ourselves and we had a lot of fun, but I was happy when I got home to see my baby. It was really awesome that my mom came, too, because this was the first time leaving Owen for more than a couple of hours, and I'm glad it was with his grandma. It gave me peace of mind and whenever I started talking about Owen to my friends that night, they reminded me that Owen was fine. And the little stinker slept better for my mom than he does for me!! I think the trick is to feed him a bottle before bed so I know how much he's getting, and that way he's fuller for longer and gets more than 2 hours sleep at a time. I tried it last night and he went five hours. It was awesome. The night of the Christmas party I got about 8 uninterrupted hours because my mom was there, which was REALLY nice! I'm excited for him to sleep through the night (knock on wood, cross my fingers, pray to God!)!

My friends and me at the Christmas party

The time has been flying by and it's probably about time I think about starting work. I got my teacher's license about a month ago and my UNI diploma just came in the mail a couple of days ago. If I hadn't had Owen, I would have started substituting right away when school started up again after Christmas, but since I had him, I decided to wait a couple of months. It's going to be hard to go to work, but the nice thing about subbing is that I can say no if I need to. Ryan works at night anyway, so for now we wouldn't need to send him to daycare, but it's nice being home so I can spend time with my boys. When I start working, I'm not going to be seeing a whole lot of Ryan, which I don't like, but I gotta do what I gotta do, I guess. I'll definitely start subbing in March, if not before that.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to do a better job of updating from now on, but no promises!

One month already!!

Wow! My little baby is already four weeks old! This last month has gone by pretty fast. It's scary to think how fast the rest of the year (even the next 18 years) is going to go! At his first well baby appointment, which was when he was five days old, he had gained back some weight he had lost since he was born, since all babies lose a little weight after birth. He was a little jaundice, as I have already mentioned in another post, but we just had to keep him well fed. So when we took him back for his 2 week appointment, he had gained another pound (up to 9 lbs 1 oz) and his jaundice was gone. I can tell that he's gaining weight (although I haven't weighed him lately) because he's starting to get little fat rolls and is getting harder to lift out of the bassinet for nighttime feedings when I'm half asleep! He does have baby acne though, on his cheeks and under his chin, but the doctor said there isn't anything you can do for it and that most babies get it. It will eventually go away. Still a cutie pie, though! :)

A little tummy time

Sleeping is going pretty good. He likes to sleep, but unfortunately, sometimes he does all of his sleeping during the day and then wants to stay up until 2 am, which is not what I want to do! Most of the time, though, he does really well at night and usually wants to eat about every 2-3 hours. Sometimes I get even luckier and he'll go four hours. I love those times! Since I'm nursing, I have him sleeping in a bassinet next to my side of the bed. It's really nice to just be able to grab him out and feed him, rather than get up and go make a bottle in the middle of the night. The downside is that I'm the only one that can feed him. I did get a pump, but I still just think it's easier to nurse him at night. I love having the pump though, because even though I'm glad I decided to nurse, I don't really want to do it in public, and I can get away for more than a few hours if needed. Also, other people can feed him sometimes. Owen and I really don't get out too much, though, since it's been so cold lately (but starting to get much better), and it just seems easier to stay home sometimes. I want Owen to get used to bottles right away, so he gets 1 or 2 bottles a day, and other than that, I just nurse him.

Since my first babies were my dogs, I'm trying to come up with other "pet names" for Owen. I normally call my dogs "BooBoo" (other than their names, of course) and so I started calling Owen: "Pumpkin" (but it sounds more like Punkin), "Punky" (short for Punkin), "Chunky Monkey", "Chubbers", and sometimes just "Baby". The hard part for me now, though, is NOT to call my dogs by these names, which I have done. I also call Ryan "Babe", which is a switch from "Sweetie" after I started calling my dogs "Sweetie" sometimes. I just have too many boys in my life, I can't keep them straight! Speaking of keeping names straight, my mom now has two grandsons: Ian and Owen. My mom has a hard time calling them by the right name already, but I must admit I have screwed it up a few times too. I think our whole family will probably screw it up at least a few times. And on top of that, Ian is getting a new little sibling soon, and if its a boy, one of the names that they are thinking about is Ethan! We are going to get SO confused!

I was a little worried about how the dogs would like Owen, but they are doing really well. Ace, our chihuahua, is addicted to licking his hands. I know some people are probably thinking it's gross to let your dog lick your baby, but I kind of figure I can't monitor it 24/7 so I'm not too uptight about it. Plus, I usually have those little mittens that prevent babies from accidently scratching themselves on Owen because he little hands get kind of cold, so most of the time, Ace doesn't have the opportunity. But he really loves to lick his little hands and smell his diaper. Our lab, Ragnar, on the other hand, doesn't really pay too much attention to him anymore. When we first brought him home, Ragnar would bark when Owen cried. He doesn't do that anymore, but does sometimes get a little whiny when Owen is on the floor and crying. And he will go check him out when he's in his swing. But otherwise, Raggie's not too interested in the baby. He's more interested in the dirty diapers. He took one off the table one day before I could throw it away, and I think he was surprised by what he found inside. But he still likes to check them out if there is one around.

I'm sure this next month is going to go just as fast, and at his 2 month doctor appointment, he has to get his first round of vaccinations. He's not going to like it, but I have a feeling I'm going to like it less. Poor baby!

Owen's First Christmas

I'm a little bit behind schedule, but I better update about the holidays. I was getting really worried that we weren't going to make it home to Elkader for Christmas. The weather was not cooperating very well, but we did make it, thankfully. On Christmas Day we went to my aunt and uncle's for Christmas lunch, which was fantastic as usual. Owen got to meet lots of new people! Later that night was our family Christmas and presents and Owen got some books and clothes.

Meeting my grandma


Owen with his cousin Ian and his aunt Colleen

Sunday the 27th was Christmas on the Kuehl side and my dad's birthday. We went to my grandma's and again had some awesome food and played some games. Owen got to meet some more new people. We had a lot of fun playing games. Catch Phrase, Taboo, and Clue! It's been such a long time since any of us had played Clue but it was a lot of fun. I'm not very good at it, but my dad is. He's extra secretive and really gets into it. Ever since we played games at Christmas, Ryan and I have been checking out the game aisles in Wal-Mart and Target for some games. We want to start getting friends together to have game nights, since we can't go out as much as we used to.

So all in all, Owen's first Christmas was low key, but really fun. I was just glad that everyone could make it to Elkader and got to meet the little guy. It's also nice to be around family so that we get some help with Owen and a little free babysitting! :) Ryan and I got to get out for a few hours a couple of nights which was nice. I wish my parents lived in Cedar Falls so we could take advantage of that more often! :)

The three of us!