9 months

9 months

21 pounds

29.5 inches

75th percentile for height and weight

"He's by no means skinny!" said the doctor.

(as indicated by the rolls in this picture)

Owen breastfeeds 5 times per day.

7AM, 

after first nap (between 10 and 11AM), 

after second nap (around 3PM), 

before bed at 7PM 

and once in the night between 2-3AM

He is eating three meals and a few snacks during the day. 

He also tried to eat a bandaid yesterday...sneaky guy.

By now he is an expert cruiser.

He walks with the help of a push cart that his grandparents gave him for Christmas.

He sometimes will stand unassisted for several seconds at a time.

His naps are good when things are consistent.

When we had Jonny's family here for a week, 

he didn't do so well with naps- 

he reverted to his old cat-napping ways!

He probably won't do well next week when we take a trip to see family either.

He's currently been asleep for nearly 2 hours

and it's wonderful.

Good naps are a kindness from the Lord to mommies!

eight months

Back in November, Owen hit 8 months.

He is now a wiz at crawling, standing, "walking" with the support of furniture

and picking up any speck of dirt (errrr...food) left on my carpet.

(Which happens to be a lot, especially around the dinner table, 

especially around Owen's high chair.) 

I just got done picking up enough rice and broccoli to feed a second child.

Gross.

More mobility has called for some changes around the house. 

Two baby gates were installed.

Plug-in covers have been placed.

And those handy gadgets that keep drawers and cabinets closed, 

Ya! Those are going on shortly.

We are trying our hardest to be consistent with discipline when he

reaches for something he shouldn't touch,

but there are times we just aren't looking and we don't want baby boy 

getting hurt if it can be avoided.

Sleep.

A great night for Owen is a waking around 2 or 3AM, 

a quick feed, 

and back to sleep until 6:20AM.

A bad night? Well I'll spare you the details. But its no fun for anyone.

But it is easier to handle now that we've moved into a bedroom.

Gone are the days of couch sleeping (October-November)

and air-mattress sleeping (November-December), 

Jonny and I are sleeping on our bed, in a bedroom. 

And it feels like a dream.

And I'm sleeping hard enough to actually dream which is the first time since way 

before Owen was born and I was uncomfortably carrying all 11 pounds of him in-utero.

One of the last not bitterly cold days in November we took Owen to the park.

He was his usual stoic self for most of it.

But we eventually got him to smile.

At the end of the month we went on a little mini-vacay to Nashville, IN.

Mini-vacays are a whole lot different with a baby in tow.

But we enjoyed ourselves.

All except when Santa got near. Owen doesn't like Santa we found out.

And when we came back home we got some snow.

It was one of the sweetest things ever to see Owen watching the snow fall with amazement.

seven months and some fun stuff

Owen is nearly 7.5 months old.

He has changed so much in the past month.
He loves to have fun with mommy and daddy.

It's hard to believe he is now closer to a year old than birth.

He has been eating a lot of 

green beans, 

brocolli, 

cantelope, 

blueberries, 

prunes, 

sweet potatoes, 

he loves to chew on slices of bell peppers.

I gave him greek yogurt the other day and he wasn't thrilled.

I think I'll try some plain yogurt soon.

He has also almost gotten the hang of a sippy cup.

The biggest change this month is his sleeping.

We sort of went to drastic measures to intervene on his

pretty terrible night sleeping habits.

Cry it out.

(I know everyone has an opinion on this but we had pretty much exhausted all other methods)

I was so scared to try it.

But honestly I think I have shed more tears than Owen.

The first night (about two weeks ago) was the worst, 

and it was nowhere near as bad as we thought it was going to be.

He has just realized, night time is for sleeping.
Yes it's hard to hear your baby cry but ultimately, it is for his good.
He needs to sleep. And he is learning sleep is good!

Since then, Jonny and I have been sleeping on the couches.
No, not ideal-but hey,

it's dramatically changed the amount of sleep I've been able to get.

And it's incredible.

Before, a really GREAT night of sleep for me would have been 4-5 broken hours.

Jonny and I are trying to go to bed by 10, 

Owen lays down at 7PM
 is waking for one feeding (around 2-3AM)

and sleeping until around 7AM.

I 

AM

A 

NEW

WOMAN.

A woman who is about to turn 25.

What the heck?

I can remember thinking

how incredibly old I will be when I turn 25.

Like, old.

Yet, here I am. 

Maybe I am old?

But I don't feel I have the wisdom that comes with "old" age.

Though, I did get carded the other night on our date and the waitress said I looked 17.

I took it as a compliment.

Anyways...

Owen has been flashing his toothy grin all the time lately.

It's adorable.

(I know, I'm biased being his mom and all but seriously, I get like heart flutters when I see it)

A couple weeks ago we took some family pictures with a friend of ours.

Here are some,

Check out our post and all of her photography
over here.
We love all the pictures,
mostly Owen's fun faces
but my favorites I've saved for our Christmas cards
so be looking for that in your mailbox next month!
Yes, I've already ordered them.

Yes, Jonny and I just started reading this book,
The Saint Who Would be Santa Clause:
The True Life and Trials of Nicholas of Myra

Yes, we're contemplating putting the tree up next weekend.

Yes, Christmas music is playing as I type.

Oh, well.

I remembered that this weekend, last year, 

Jonny and I took a little trip.

(via)

We had just found out we were having a boy.
Read about that here.
And took a relaxing weekend in the Great Smokey Mountains
to celebrate the news (and my 24th birthday).
there's a post about it here.
It was so much fun to go exploring with Jonny.
Both on the way there and on the way back we
thought about what to name our son.
We could at least agree on some boy names we liked,
not so for girl names
Finally, nearing the end of our journey home we settled on
Owen Alan Atkinson.

And now I'm watching that baby boy try to crawl.
It is crazy the changes a year brings.
We are very very fond of the changes.

surviving by grace

I read this blog post today by Wendy Horger Alsup over at her blog, Theology for Women. 

I just stumbled upon the post but it was so encouraging to me. 

I really resonate with her "survival mode" thoughts. 

When we brought Owen home from the hospital my world flipped upside down. 

Yes, some time has passed now (almost 7 months!),  

but I would say even now I am barely getting out of survival mode and in recent weeks 

I've been really hard on myself as I see other brand new moms 
who seemingly have life with there newborn babies already figured out. 

I think "What is wrong with me?", 

"Why did I have such a hard time adjusting?", 

"I'll never be able to have many kids, I can't even handle one!"

But my thoughts have focused on myself and not my God who gives grace and strength!

This is an excerpt from her post, 
Give US Grace – parenting advice for moms of infants and toddlers

 Read the whole post, H E R E

I was at peace for the first few months with a newborn—I knew those first months would be dominated by feeding issues and trying to get my child on a schedule. But I didn't realize that the survival mode I was in in those early months would actually go on for years. I thought I should be progressing faster than I was. Part of my problem was that I had a number of friends with similarly aged daughters who communicated much faster with their mom than my boys did with me. The other problem was that my little ones did not take in a new environment by observation, but by exploration. I've noticed some little ones who hang back and observe in new environments. But my boys walked in a room, noticed a door, and start opening it and shutting it to figure out the hinges. How does that outlet work? What's a fire alarm? How does this thing I've never seen before taste? It was pure survival in our home for a good 4 years. Sure there was nurturing. There was training, correcting, and management. But the overarching theme of it all was simply SURVIVAL. 

As a mom finally out of that stage, I recognize the symptoms in my sisters in Christ right in the middle of it. Stress in our marriages. Stress in our friendships. And so much stress just in our heads and hearts. In light of all that, I have a few points of advice I wish someone had shared with me.

1) Preach the gospel to yourself. You will not survive this stage without meditation on all God has said over you in Christ. Chances are your figure at this stage isn't going to help your identity. Your homemaking skills aren't going to help your identity. If you are relying on your external successes at this stage of life to give you meaning, you are sunk. But let this time, when you can not keep up a facade, reveal your true heart, and then turn to God in that desperation. He has a good plan for your life, and part of that good plan are these years of simple survival nurturing your young children.

2) READ YOUR BIBLE. I talked in my last post about this. God promises supernatural strength through His Word, and you KNOW right now you need supernatural strength. You may only have 5 minutes (even if you have more time, you likely don't have the brain power to process more than that). The Psalms bring me so much comfort at stressful seasons of life, primarily because the majority of the Psalms were written during stressful seasons in the Psalmist's life. His cries to God echo mine in the stress of life, and God's answers to him always encourage me.

3) Don't let women at other stages of life pressure you with expectations of what you can accomplish at this stage. When your children are little, forget color coordinated meals. It's ok if there's laundry in the basket or your bathroom needs cleaning. If you have a choice between doing dishes and taking a nap, use paper plates and take the nap. Rest helps so much with the stress of life at this stage. You will be better able to nurture your children and keep them safe if you've had a nap.

Eventually, you'll emerge from this stage. Your children will start communicating with you. They will reach a point developmentally where you can start communicating the essence of gospel grace to them. But you'll never communicate it to them until you first get it for yourself. And the early years with infants and toddlers, as we are stripped of our abilities to do for ourselves what we once easily did, are a prime time for us to understand God's grace to us more deeply than we ever have before. 

a sweet little Sequeira. (Newborn Photos)

Petra Hope Sequeira

Our dear friends Aubrey and Nishika welcomed this sweet bundle into the world 

in the early hours of September 9th. 

We are praising God who preserved Petra's life through pregnancy complications and rejoicing with the Sequeiras as the Lord has graciously grown their family!

Praise God from whom all blessing flow!

 

Thank you Aubrey and Nishika for letting me take pictures of this beautiful occasion.

six months, too soon

Here we are, 

6 months and 1 week into our first child's life.

I kinda had a teeny-tiny breakdown the other day

as I realized all the newness of our first baby is over.

Like, the boy is about to crawl.

 Well, maybe..we'll see.

In the past month, he has expanded his food repertoire

(avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, mandarin oranges)

and subsequently his belly.

Little man is chunking up.

He weighed 19.14 lbs,

measured 27.5 in.

Both of which put him in the 95th% for his age range.

His babbling vocabulary is also expanding.

Jonny has always loved being Owen's daddy, 

but it's been really sweet recently, 

watching the two of them interact now that Owen 

is more aware and responsive.

He got a Safety 1st bouncy car thing and loves it.

Even when he's not in it, 

if I say "Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy"

he smiles really big and propels up and down.

He is waking usually twice in the night to feed.

The last wake is around 4:30-5:00AM 

and he would be ready to get the day started and party

 but I do everything I can to keep that from happening.

I am continually thankful that despite Owen's 

not so wonderful sleep habits, 

he generally is a happy baby.

Granted for a little over a month we've been battling teeth coming in.

(bottom two are up and doctor said the top two are making their way)

But even still he's a bundle of joy!

And a picture of Owen with his cousins (2nd or 3rd) on a trip last month,

just for good measure.

I realize this blog has become pretty much a

monthly baby documentation.

But hey, I'm a mom, and this is my life.

...and I love it.