Smith Family Weblog

I’ve spent the better part of the last two months tracing this whirl on the top of Owen’s head as we sit and snuggle. I’m heading back to the office on Monday, and while I’ll only work part-time for the next couple of months, I’m already a bit melancholy. I will miss mornings like this, sipping coffee and watching this beautiful baby boy sleep soundly.

The third time around, you have the benefit of knowing a few things you didn’t before. I was painfully aware these days and weeks would go quickly, but my awareness did little to slow the the passage of time. And, so, Owen marks eight weeks today.

He’s an unbelievably sweet baby. Much like Olivia, he loves to sleep and snuggle, and wakes to a happy little disposition. He’s huge, at least compared to growth charts. He weighed in at 13 pounds (95 percentile) at his six week checkup, and at 24 inches (99th!), he’s nearly outgrown his bedside bassinet.

It’s been an interesting couple of months here, but I think we’re doing relatively well. It’s reasonably quiet, I feel well rested considering, and the house is (mostly) clean. On the surface, it would appear we have this completely under control.

There is an undercurrent of complication, though, that cuts into the calm. Just when I start to get self-congratulatory at my ability to man a five-member family, I’ll realize I nearly forgot to pick up the girls from school. Or, I’ll show up to ballet on time, but without ballet slippers. These are pretty minor (well, perhaps aside from forgetting two of my three children…), but I have a bit of anxiety about what’s to come.

I’m working from home part time now, and I go back to the office for a few hours a day starting on the 10th. While I am not looking forward to being apart from Owen, I am very hopeful this new routine will bring organization and an improved capacity for managing our lives. In the meantime, I’m relying very heavily on a calendar and  a multiple-page list of tasks, errands and reminders. Hopefully, soon, I’ll get back into gear, and stop finding myself saying, “You mean I have to do a load of laundry AND buy groceries today? How the hell is that supposed to happen?”

Of course, my main reason for wishing to shirk said responsibilities is the cute little guy kicking next to me. You know, the reason for whatever chaos is to come. And so, more on that topic:

Owen at Eight Weeks – Likes:

• Mom
• Smiling at Dad, especially between 6-7 am
• Baths, the last 9 minutes and 50 seconds
• Plaid
• Hearing his sisters’ voices (when reasonably quiet)
• Pooping into clean pants
• Grandmas (seriously, how do newborns already know grandmas are awesome?)
• Gas drops
• Swaddling blankets
• Spending time outside
• Sleeping on my shoulder
• Wanting to eat the moment I pour a glass of wine
• The baby sling

Dislikes:

• Nail clippers, because I can’t figure out how to trim nails without yielding blood
• Baths, the first 10 seconds
• Hiccups
• Clean pants. Must do away with those in short order.
• Sleeping for more than a three hour stretch (between 9 pm and 6 am only, of course)
• The carseat, especially when the car is not moving
• The bulb syringe

Bryan and I continue to marvel over this boy, expressing a difficult and overwhelming feeling about what we would have missed by stopping at two.