We decided to try oatmeal, since some people said that it might go over better than rice. We’re not entirely sure, but it looks like he might have done a little better with it… You be the judge!
Category Archives: Owen
Completely off schedule. Ugh.
So I put him down in his crib (instead of the swing) about 7:30 because he looked tired—rubbing his eyes, etc. No dice. So I tried the swing, and that seemed to work for a bit—until I went up to check on him and turned the music off (but left him swinging—baby steps!). By the time I got out of the bathroom, his eyes were open. I let him be and by 8am he was screeching. I went up and he had pooped, ugh! So I changed him, and put him back down in the crib. More screeching. So I tried feeding him again, and he ate like 2oz. Put him back down and he’s wiggly and whatnot, NOT wanting to sleep, even though he REALLY needs to.
This is going to be a long day.
—time lapse—
I moved him to the swing and he finally fell asleep. I went up about 20 minutes later and turned off the swing and music. I haven’t heard a peep yet…so hopefully this is working.
Can you say failure?
So last night we put Owen down about 30 minutes early (about 7pm). It may sound really early, but some nights he goes down at 7:30 so this wasn’t too much of a stretch. And the 30 minutes was the recommended tester starting time. He was out by 7:30, which was good. And we kept our fingers crossed.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, it wasn’t meant to be.
He was up at…11:30! And not just a “happened to wake up and will fall back asleep” up, but a “crying desperately for food” up. |-| That meant I basically had an hour nap. XX(
I really think something else had to be at work, because other nights, he has gone down at about the same time (i.e. give or take a half hour) and slept the entire night!
So after that 6oz bottle, he was up again at 4:30 (so, four more hours for me). We haven’t had two bottles in one night in FOREVER!!! I thought maybe he finally felt better, but this morning he was still congested and coughing. So who knows.
All I know is I am tiiiiiii-red today.
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
So I bought this book on a friend’s recommendation months ago and initially flipped through it. We were past most of the 8-12 week stuff (I hadn’t had the book then!) and he was still a bit too young for the 4-5 month stuff. I did, however, try to start paying attention to his sleep cues so I could put him down for naps instead of just waiting for him to fall asleep in his bouncy seat or on me.
But, since he just turned four months, it was time to revisit it.
So I just finished about half the book (skimming some parts)…and we have some changes to make. Hoo boy.
For one, we need to try an earlier bedtime. Right now, we try to do it any time after 7ish (it can be as late as 8). We have just been trying to see when he seems to get tired/hungry and go from there. But the book suggests trying 6:30 (well, 20+ minutes earlier than normal), saying that parents are afraid to try it thinking that the kid will get up earlier in the morning, but it generally isn’t the case—it actually helps them sleep longer. So we definitely need to try that. He isn’t sleeping THAT badly, but it would be nice for him to sleep longer. But it also relates to his morning nap…
He has been taking looooong morning naps. Generally anywhere from 3-4 hours! It’s not awful, but it is a sign that he might not be getting enough nighttime sleep (see the relation?!). Getting more sleep at night might lessen the length of the morning nap, which might then help with his afternoon naps (which he hasn’t seemed to want to take lately). Everything is related.
And speaking of his morning nap? We put him in the swing and he loves it. Well, that is okay to do as well…but it’s recommended that once he’s sleeping, you need to stop the swing. Even though it appears they are sleeping soundly, motionless sleep is best.
There is just so much to try and learn/remember… Now we just have to get dad to read the book so we can both be on the same page!!
Grass!
It was nice tonight, so we ate dinner outside. Then we decided to show Owen grass for the first time!
And then of course Maggie wanted to get involved—she thought we were out there to play with her!
Cough, cough, cough.
Poor kid, he woke up this morning with a bit of a cough. He’s been sneezing a little more over the past few days, but didn’t think much of it until noticing the coughing this morning. Unfortunately, we missed a mommy group play date because I didn’t want to take any chances infecting the other babies if he is really indeed sick.
The coughing isn’t THAT bad—it just scares the bejesus out of me! But just in case, I did my research (baby books + parenting sites + WebMD) and I don’t think a call to the doc is warranted quite yet: no fever, no continuous barking cough, no mucous, no blood, etc.
He doesn’t seem too worse for the wear…so far (knock on wood). A little cranky, but not bad. He’s eating and napping like normal.
I am, however, setting up the humidifier in his room tonight—and we’ll also be elevating the head of his crib (hopefully he won’t do a 180).
Keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t get any worse!
Father/Son time.
Watch me play with a new toy!
A mom in my group had a similar one of these for her baby who loved it! Of course, I was interested, and she said it was from Babies R Us. Well, of course we don’t go there unless we HAVE to (it’s close and convenient, but very small and not a big selection)…so when we were walking through the baby aisles at Target last night (as we do every time we hit Target) and saw this one (it’s a Baby Einstein Bendy Ball)….well, we just put it in the stroller with Owen to see if he would like it—and he played with it the entire time! So, of course, we bought it!
He has many other rattle-type toys meant for grabbing, but this is the first one he has actually grabbed on to and played with. :>> It is very sturdy and actually a little heavier than I anticipated by just looking at it—I was worried it might be too heavy for him to pick up (since we had never really seen him pick up anything before) but he manages with no problems!
Night #4, continued.
He didn’t do too badly. In fact, it was just about a normal night: he slept soundly until about 3am, when he was screaming to eat. I gave him the 6oz rice cereal/formula bottle, and he was out again until about 7am! And now he’s taking his normal morning nap!
Night #4?
Well, tonight he went to bed without dinner. 😐
Around dinnertime-ish (6:30) he started to get REALLY cranky and should have been hungry but he didn’t want to eat. So we thought we was tired (since he hadn’t really napped since his looooong 4-hour nap this morning). He refused to nap.
He was crying and snorting and wiggly and everything else—TOTALLY not like him, so we were sure something was wrong. So we figured he maybe had to poop or had gas, so tried the mylicon gas drops. And tried making a new bottle (his rice cereal bottle). Burped him. Changed his diaper.
STILL cranky.
But we noticed that while he was laying down he seemed better, so we put him in the crib with the mobile on and within about 10 minutes he was OUT. So he went to bed without eating…which probably means he will be up in 4-5 hours (or less).
So I can only imagine what the rest of my night will be…
Night #3?
Yeah… Not so much. 😐
It was back to normal last night—he went down about 8:30 (again, with about 7oz of rice cereal + formula) and was up wanting to eat at 2:30! Of course, I had stayed up until about 10…so I didn’t get much sleep.
After he ate and I put him back down, I kept checking on the monitor, and he moved around and whatnot for almost AN HOUR. I don’t know what time he finally fell asleep again, because I gave up and fell asleep sometime after 4. (I wasn’t staying up specifically to watch him—I wasn’t tired! I probably don’t have to tell you how much it stinks to be wide awake at 3am and not be able to get back to sleep.)
He is still sleeping now, which is good—except that now I am up because it is light out, I heard Tom getting ready for work, the dog came in to sleep with me, and I like to be up before him to be ready in case he wakes up screeching for food.
So…were the past two nights a fluke? Or was last night a fluke? Stay tuned for night #4!
Rice cereal results: night #2
So, anyone want to take a guess what happened? At bedtime, he ate about 7oz of formula with 1 T. of rice cereal in it.
And???
He slept from 8pm-5:30am!! 88|
For those of you not wanting to do math, that’s 9.5 hours! Did you hear me? NINE AND A HALF HOURS!!! 88| 88|
Holy freaking cow.
Of course, I didn’t sleep nearly that long…we went to bed about 9 and I woke up at 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. That said, I still got a straight six hours (well, one bathroom break)!
The good morning continued by Tom not going to work out, so he was able to feed the boy while I showered and FINALLY put away three baskets of laundry that has been sitting in our room for weeks!
And then after a completely-different-smelling poopy diaper change (rice poop!), Owen fell back to sleep for another 30 minutes, which let me eat breakfast and start the laundry—and sit with Tom for a little bit before he left for work!
As I write this, he’s waking up and fussing a bit, so it’s time for mom duty.
It’s the little things.
I hate that little things make me lose my mind lately.
Like just now, putting the sheet pan into the oven with sliced garlic bread and chicken nuggets on it, and I hit the edge just right and the entire tray tipped into the oven and across the door.
And I lost it.
None of it even hit the floor, and it was all salvageable within a minute, but I still lost it. I slammed the pan down, slammed the oven door, etc.
I hate being like this, never knowing what is going to set me off.
I blame it on sleep-deprivation.
Again, it’s a good thing Owen is cute and worth it. 😀
Rice cereal comments…
I posted this to Facebook last night:
Jennifer Hudson just gave Owen his first taste of rice cereal—he wasn’t too thrilled.
And I am totally loving all the comments from everyone:
Karen Gustafson Mehollin at 8:52pm June 3
For Mason, I used to mix it with pear or apple juice for some flavor…and to help him poop. 🙂
Tommie Smith at 8:52pm June 3
Max didn’t know what to do with it the first time either. Try again in a few days.
Jennie Precour-Kav at 9:32pm June 3
Mine HATED it in formula but if I mixed it with a little bit of veggies or fruit she loved IT!! but cereal in formula was a big fat NO! Maybe mix it with his milk and feed it to him with a spoon instead of in the bottle
Heather Cogswell at 9:34pm June 3
If he doesn’t like it, go with another food. There are a good number of well tolerated first foods for babies.
RedStrapper Racing at 9:38pm June 3
A little rice in that bottle and he’ll be sleepin all night!! gives the tummy somthing to work on & he wont be getting up all the time hungry. All 4 of my boys got that @ two months old…
Michele Hanson at 10:26pm June 3
We had better luck with oatmeal than rice cereal. He liked it better and less “tummy” issues.
Mary Langbeen at 11:02pm June 3
My 6 month old “just” started finger foods, now that she can grasp well. It took us a couple kids to figure out that baby cereal wasn’t all its cracked up to be, and don’t use it. But if anything oatmeal has more nutritional value and is easier on the tummy. Rice has the tendency to clog things up.
Emilee Patrishkoff at 12:52am June 4 via Facebook Mobile
we went with the finger foods as well—both lo’s started around eight and nine months when they showed interest and were able to pick up small pieces—seemed to work well for us, they both do their little happy dances when they eat—we started with things like avocado,pears, sweet potato and such because i thought the rice cereals were kind of nasty tasting
Dayna Rogers Christison at 3:18am June 4
Rice is like glue. Try oatmeal instead, and put sweet potato in it, or peas.
Jo Wright at 11:50am June 4
screw cereal. mashed banana or avocado are great first foods, and much more palatable!
Claudia C H Palma-Morgan at 12:49pm June 4
cereal at night is what finally got my baby to sleep through the night. I guess I wasn’t doing it for him and a full belly made him sleep!
Rice results?
He slept from…9-4:30! :>>
That said, I consider one night luck—if it happens again tonight, then I’ll start getting excited!
First attempt at rice cereal!
The doc gave us the okay, so we tried it! And???? Not so much. Well, we weren’t sure if it was the rice so much as the spoon or texture he didn’t like, LOL. So we mixed it in his bottle (a mere teaspoon) and…we will see what happens sleep-wise. And we will try more rice tomorrow!
Presenting…Owen in High Def!
Owen’s Four-Month Checkup
Well, for starters, he is a BIG boy!! He weighed in at—are you ready???
16 lbs 1 oz 88|
That’s a 5# gain from his two-month appointment! And he is 26″ long (7″ growth since birth)! The doc commented that he is a big boy—which is funny, because he doesn’t really seem THAT big to me.
She is still concerned about his flat head, and recommended an appointment with a physical therapist! I told her that I honestly wasn’t that concerned, and she did say that it will eventually round out, but that the longer it takes, the harder it will be—and that by this age (four months) it should be rounding out more than it is. She suggested we at least go to one appointment (she was pretty sure our insurance would cover it) and then decide from there. He just does not like being on his stomach—which she saw when she tried it in the office. Less than two minutes and he is NOT happy and lets you know.
She listened to his chest and said he does sound a little congested, but nothing to worry about—his lungs sound clear. She said if it gets any worse we can set up the humidifier but not to panic in the meantime. It might even be allergies. (I am not that worried, as he has sounded somewhat congested to me for the past month or so.)
She said we can start giving him rice cereal—if he wants it—since he seems to be developing quite well (weight, motor skills, etc.). She said it is NOT recommended to add the cereal to the bottle, however, because it’s better for them to start getting used to the spoon and eating normally. So, we might try rice tonight!! I’ve got to go dig out the baby spoons!! She still recommends veggies wait until six months.
She noticed his eyes were still leaking but didn’t seem concerned with it. We are to keep using the medicine and keep it clean with warm washcloths. She said six months is often the magic age at which that goes away.
I did ask about him being so out-of-sorts lately, and she didn’t really have any definitive answers (damn!). She said it could be due to a variety of things like a growth spurt, teething, reactions to the formula, allergies, etc. I even asked about the strange poop incident and she had no idea. She guessed maybe it was something I ate (passed through breastmilk) but I am not breastfeeding or pumping anymore, so I said that couldn’t be it. Then she was stumped.
And then came the dreaded immunization boosters. Tom was with me this time—so he got to experience the trauma for himself. Part of me wants to cry (of course) seeing my boy in such agony…but the other part of me wants to laugh a little because his crying shrieks are so loud and fierce…yet cute at the same time. His little face gets pure red and he screams bloody murder…but then after it’s over, he calms down pretty well. By the time we were out of the parking lot, he was sleeping (it also helped that he missed his earlier nap so that + the shot trauma + car ride = hopefully a good nap). He’s still sleeping in his car seat as I write this.
So overall, it went well, and we don’t have to go back for two months, on his six-month birthday.
Yeah, so…
Something had BETTER be up, because I don’t like what my baby is turning into. 🙁
Last night he was out cold after 4oz at 8pm, and then was up at—are you ready?—10:30!!! >:XX
And I was up until almost midnight with him because he was extremely fussy and fidgety and not wanting to eat then wanting to eat then spitting up. I even gave him some gas medicine in case that was the issue.
He did, then, sleep until 5am, but this morning? His eating is off, he refuses to nap, and he’s still VERY fussy and fidgety—including crying and fussing loudly, which he NEVER does. Before this, he always ate well in the morning and always went down easy for a long nap. But not lately!
It is soooo frustrating. I know he can’t stay exactly the same forever, but this is such a drastic change for him, something has to be wrong. And then I feel guilty because it’s driving me insane—but it’s not like it’s his fault! This is when I feel like a failure as a mom. Like I am NOT cut out for this.
I hope the pediatrician has some answers today.
First outing alone with dad!
Tom decided he was going to take Owen with him to the office today. (He doesn’t have to work per se, but he did have to do something quick.) Then they were going to stop by the store.
They were gone about two hours—and I didn’t know what to do first! So many things to do, so little time. But I ended up working on the computer downstairs.
Tom said it went fairly well…except he had to be changed (and said the diaper in the bag was too small, but it was just a different brand that he wasn’t used to), wanted to be held the entire time, and wanted to eat but didn’t actually want to eat. So, a normal day. 🙂
Of course not.
Last night didn’t go well.
Nights usually don’t, for whatever reason. (If anyone has any tips, please feel free to let me know.)
He was up at 1:30 (so, he slept five hours—which isn’t bad, but certainly isn’t good, since he has nights where he sleeps seven). He ate pretty well, burped, and seemed out. I laid in him the crib and—yep—he’s up and wriggly and fussy. I thought I would let him fuss for a bit to see if he would fall asleep on his own, so I went back to bed and watched the monitor every few minutes…yellow is okay, orange is worse, and red is bad (level of noise). It was still orange-to-red after five minutes, so back in I went and fed him the dregs of his bottle (sometimes enough to put him out).
But it wasn’t enough, and he was still kinda fussy. I made sure to get all the burps out, and just put him down again. And left him. It was hard, but I did it. After about 20 minutes of fussing, he was out.
So it took an hour and a half. Ugh.
And then he was up bright and early at 6am. And trying to feed him? Sometimes we get mornings that aren’t fun, and this is one of them. Spitting and sputtering and milk dribbling out all over. (And I know it’s not the new nipple, since he ate perfectly fine from it yesterday and before bed.) Unexpected burps and spit ups—I think he lost half the five ounces I put in him…and he won’t sit still and doesn’t want any more food and doesn’t want to nap.
I am downstairs now and he’s been shrieking upstairs for a few minutes…so I guess I’d better go check on him.
I have a feeling today is going to be a looooooong day.
—time lapse—
Well, he knows how to get what he wants, LOL. As soon as I walked in the room and he saw me, he stopped shrieking and smiled and cooed at me. The little bugger. Then I fed him the last bit of his earlier bottle, and he fell asleep in my arms and didn’t even wake up when I transferred him to the swing. Stinker. So, apparently he just needed to see me and eat one more ounce?
Hoo boy.
New nipples!
For Owen, not for mom.
Hee. :>>
He seemed to really be having trouble sucking—and taking FOREVER—so we decided to up him to the next size nipple…so I went to Babies R Us today to stock up. And holy crap, he snarfs it down so quickly now it’s amazing.
Tonight I put him to bed—complete with extra burp time—in about 20 minutes (instead of the up-to-usual 60 minutes)! 88|
We are keeping our fingers crossed that:
- He stays asleep (sometimes when he goes down easy at first, he wakes up about 30-45 minutes later and wants another ounce or two).
- He eats and goes back down JUST as quickly in the middle of the night.
Facebook Updates
- Jennifer Hudson says the announcement of a new supreme court justice is NOT breaking news that should interrupt normal programming.
- Jennifer Hudson is waiting for the boy to get up from his morning nap so we can go to Babies R Us!
- Jennifer Hudson can’t believe she burnt the brownies. It’s sooooooooo sad!
- Jennifer Hudson wonders if there is a percentile grade for foot size? The boy is already outgrowing his 0-6 Robeez!!
- Jennifer Hudson is frustrated with Facebook because it keeps timing out on my photo uploads. 🙁
- Jennifer Hudson just took 150 pictures of the boy at the park. I wonder how many good ones there will be.
- Jennifer Hudson is already too used to Tom being home…tomorrow it’s back to the grind of him being gone all the damn time.
- Jennifer Hudson has an almost-fully-organized garage! I still won’t be able to park in there, but at least we will be able to see most everything!
- Jennifer Hudson is irritated with USAA. They took away the option to automatically pay twice a month—now you can only pay ON the due date…unless you want to manually set up extra payments. Ugh.
- Jennifer Hudson just joined the Amazon Associates Referral program…mamma gots to make some money somehow!
- Jennifer Hudson thinks she is losing her mind…there is an email gone missing from my inbox—not in trash, not in spam—that I know was there yesterday…?????
- Jennifer Hudson Is finally starting to fill out her baby book.
- Jennifer Hudson is ready to THWACK Comcast. Ugh.
- Jennifer Hudson got 10 hours of sleep last night (minus one potty break and hearing hubby’s alarm). Thanks, Grandma Linda!
- Jennifer Hudson is thankful for grandparents.
- Jennifer Hudson feels like this box of Lucky Charms is skimpy on the marshmallows.
What a weekend!
What an amazing weekend this has been…
Why, you ask? What could have happened to make it so amazing?
Well, Tom had most of it off!! Yes, the guy who typically works six days a week, up to 12 hours a day, and who rarely gets weekends off…got Friday off, most of Saturday off (he worked until about 10am), Sunday off, and Monday off!!
When he first told me (Thursday night), I was just stunned into silence. What were we going to do? We hadn’t had that much time off together…since Owen was born! Of course all our to-do lists popped into mind, but mostly I just wanted to have family time—time for daddy and Owen to spend together!
After the first day (Friday) it already felt like we had had a week off! It was that amazing! I didn’t even mind him going into work on Saturday because I knew we still had lots of time left together! We also had lunch with cousin Lori at a new restaurant (for us) and had a very enjoyable time! When we got home, Michaels called and said our photo was done. I love love love how it turned out:
At this point I can’t even remember all that we did, but I know we all had fun! Of course we did get to some of the to-dos (the garage is now mostly organized) but those weren’t our main focus! Daddy and Owen played quite a bit, and daddy even took over most of the feedings so mommy could have a break! And mommy got to sleep in three mornings instead of just her normal one (Sunday)! (It would have been four mornings, but all of us were actually awake, so we all sat and played in bed!)
The weather was gorgeous, so we grilled each night and ate most of our dinners outside (when dad and Lin were here last week, we got the patio furniture cleaned and ready to go). Tom was able to mow the lawn. We went to the park and played on the swings (see this post on the Baby Blog).
In short, it was heaven…or, for most people, what a normal life must be like.
I wish it could be like this every weekend, but I will take what I can get!!
More swinging!
Since it was a gorgeous day, we all headed to the park! Most of his outfit is made up of pieces I bought from my friend Jen in Jacksonville…the Nautica sweatshirt, Ralph Lauren cap, and gray sweatpants!
An amazing milestone
So Tom doesn’t really like theme parks. He will go since I love them, but overall, not so much. And he really doesn’t like fairs.
That said, I have been telling him all along that he WILL have to suck it up when the kid comes…because the kid WILL want to go and we WILL be going.
He said no way, no how.
Fast forward to today. When he was holding the boy and sucking all the baby goodness out of him…
And he admitted OF HIS OWN FREE WILL that yes, he will take him to the fair. Because he will do anything for the boy.
🙂
He can nap anywhere!
Tom and I were cleaning out (organizing) the garage (FINALLY!) and had the boy out there with us. Tom had music playing loudly and was using the wet/dry vac to clean things…and look who can nap during all the commotion:
Mommy & Owen’s First Moments
NOTE: Well crap, I originally made this video private, but then people were having problems viewing it… I didn’t really want everyone in the world able to see this—there’s nothing really bad or TMI about it, it just didn’t need to be published worldwide. Oh well. 🙂
I never thought a robe could be so cute!
Here is Owen sporting his new robe…thanks Grandma Marsha!
Owen’s First Swing & Slide
Grandpa Mike and Grandma Linda love taking the boy to the park…
The parental patience gene.
I apparently do not have it.
Last night was probably the worst night we’ve had in the last month. My decent little sleeper, who usually sleeps 5-6 hours after we put him down, then eats, then goes back down for 2 or so hours…was up numerous times.
Starting at 12:45 (he went down at 8:30). 88|
Then 3:30 (until 4:30).
Then 5:15.
Then 6:30.
So I basically napped all night, in between him crying and the storm and Tom snoring.
During times (nights) like these, I wonder—seriously—how on earth people want to do this more than once. I mean, sure, I’d love another child…but last night, when I was soooo exhausted and losing patience because he would not sleep…I can’t imagine having the strength to do this again. Hell, some days I am not sure I have the strength to get through this kid. (Yeah, I know I do, but sometimes, it sure doesn’t feel like it.)
I do not have the parental patience gene. He really is a good baby—he has his cranky times, but overall, he rarely cries for no reason. But when he does, I find myself getting frustrated. At him AND at myself for being much less patient than I always thought I’d be. And then I feel guilty for feeling that way.
Hoo boy.