Week 6: becoming baby Owen

To celebrate his 6 week birthday, Owen was a perfect angel all day.  He spent the whole morning smiling and cooing and happily waving his arms about and looking around.  Then he took a short nap, and spent some more time hanging out while we had friends visiting, most of the afternoon and evening.  He fell directly asleep the moment they left at 7pm.  As I was doing the dishes shortly after, I told Noah that I felt like we cheated, it wasn't even hard today. 

Two minutes later, Owen woke up screaming bloody murder.  He was also clammy and his temperature was a little low.  This crying session was so sudden and intense that for the first time we called the doctor in a panic.  I was happy to learn that our doctor's office actually has a doctor on call, who you can speak with right away.  She told us not to worry, that his temperature was within the normal range and he is just colicky.  Then he went to sleep, and slept for 5 1/2 hours!  Wow!! 


In his 6th week, lots of little things changed a little bit, and it adds up to Owen leaving newborn-hood behind and becoming a baby. 

Owen was 10 lbs, 7oz and 23 inches long at his checkup this week.  He has rolls of fat on his chin and dimples on his elbows and fingers.  He was born with downy white newborn "fur" all over his body, and it is almost completely gone.  I'm pretty sad about this because it made him SO SOFT.  He is still soft, but now it's his soft skin, not the soft fur.  His newborn hair has also fallen out a little bit.  Noah swears that he saw Owen's hair in the sunlight and that it is red.  I haven't seen the inner ginger yet but I don't doubt that it's coming.  His eyes have gone from that newborn gray-blue color to dark, dark blue. 

His personality is also starting to emerge more and more, and he's starting to show opinions and emotions rather than just reactions.  We have had a lot more smiles!  Big gummy grins and sly little half-smiles.  He's especially happy in the morning after a good nights' sleep.  10am is his golden hour.

Now when he's alert, he's interacting with the world more.  He is wheeling his arms and legs and he gets excited about things he's looking at.  He continues to love being in the car, and he loves to go shopping.  He sits in his car seat in the shopping cart or the stroller and merrily looks around at the ceiling, the lights, and the shelves.

He is showing some signs of rejecting the bottle, which has me very concerned since I decided that I will go back to working my 12 hours per week, as long as Noah can be at home with Owen.  And also because he still wakes up at least twice, and sometimes three times, between 10pm and 7am.  We're persevering to make the bottle OK with him.


As for the colic, this week has been much, much better.  We made a lot of changes after Week 5, so it's hard to know what made the difference--or if maybe we're just having a little break and the colicky behavior will return.  The doctor told us that the problem is that he only knows how to get MORE upset--he does not know how to get LESS upset, so you have to do it for him.  Like cows, who can go up stairs, but not down them.  It is helpful to think about it this way.  The trick is to interrupt the crying for long enough to give him time to calm down.

We started using the Happiest Baby on the Block techniques, and they really do work.  Especially shushing.  When he gets worked up, we wrap him up tight in the swaddle blanket and then SHHHHH!! loudly! right in his ear.  Or sometimes we turn the HEPA filter on high and sit right next to it.  I have a real knack for swaddling, but Noah is the master of shushing.  This shushing stops him in his tracks.  It doesn't exactly calm him down, but it gives him pause for long enough that his heart rate can come down and he has a good chance of staying settled.

Grandpa Paul and Helen will be here this week, and Amani will be here next weekend, and I know they are all excited to meet him!