Week 8: hand, meet mouth

Yesterday Owen was 8 weeks old!  This week's big development was indeed a big one: Owen started getting his hand into his mouth.  He doesn't have a lot of control over which part of his hand--sometimes his thumb, sometimes a couple of fingers, sometimes the fleshy back curve of his palm.  But he can get some part of his hand into his mouth whenever he wants to.  He makes big, wet slurping noises.  It's a whole new world, and he is in control of it.

Another big development this week is that Owen slept for 6 hours for the first time on Monday night, and he did it again on several other nights.  This long stretch of sleep happens in the first cycle after bedtime, between 7pm and 1am or so.  This means our sleep doesn't really benefit, because we can't realistically go to bed so early.  But, Owen is easier to wake up these days, so we're going to try waking him for an 11pm feeding before we go to bed, and see if we can push his long sleep back into the overnight hours.  Could 40 winks be in our future?  Stay tuned for the thrilling resolution to this plotline. 

Michelin Man arms

Amani was here for a visit early this week!  Owen really showed off for her.  He napped all day long when we went to the beach on Sunday, and then he slept his longest-ever stretch that night .  Then, exhausted from all that hard work, he napped all day long again when we went to the La Brea Tar Pits museum and the mall on Monday.  Monday was the hottest day in Los Angeles' history.  The temperature outside was 113.  The temperature in Nordstroms at the Grove was about 67.

Owen weighs 12lbs, 9oz today.  He is getting seriously fat.  We periodically discover a new deep skin crease which hasn't been cleaned in a few days, because a few days ago it wasn't there.  His recent feeding frenzy is over and he's back to eating only every two hours or so.  I read somewhere that he will continue growing at the rate he established in his early weeks.  Does this mean he will double in weight in another 8 weeks?  Or that he will gain about 6 lbs in 8 weeks?  In either case, Noah and I have started weight lifting to get our backs ready. 

Owen's eyelashes seem to get longer every day.  He has almost no hair and a widow's peak hairline, which sometimes give him the appearance of a crew-cut gangsta.  When you look at his peach-fuzz in the light, it does look gingery red.  

We're seeing less and less fussing and the intensity of the fussing is dropping as well.  He still loves to bounce a LOT.  He also loves to be in the stroller and the car and his swing.  He has a hard time getting a good nap during the day if he isn't in one of these devices.  For his two-month birthday present, Uncle Dan and Meg got him a new stroller that is nice and cool and has a great sun shade.  He totally loves it.  I have to say, it's pretty swanky. We look forward to lots of walks and better naps now that we have a more comfortable arrangement for Owen!