Sleep

It's incredible how much we take sleep for granted until we don't get it consistently! These past four months have been full of so much joy and excitement as we've watched Oliver growing! But it's also been draining as we patiently wait for the little guy to develop the skill of sleeping 12 hours straight. Nearly a month ago, he had three nights in a row where he went between eight or nine hours of solid sleep. We thought for sure it was the start of something wonderful, but it was short lived. We have since invested in a soothing seahorse that has honestly made a world of difference for Mom and Dad when we put Oliver down to sleep. His name is Webster and here is Ollie enjoying his new friend :)

Time

Goodness, time flies. I'll tell you what - it's much more difficult to take pictures of a second child when there is an older sibling requiring so much attention! But seriously, I'm trying. And actually, there are several pictures just waiting to be blogged about, but then getting around to it is difficult also...


But here's a picture from several weeks ago when Mormor (Swedish for Grandma) was visiting from California. I love it how babies can pretty much just sleep anywhere in any position with incredible amounts of noise!

Follow

Oliver is over seven weeks old now. Time has gone so quickly. He's been doing this a while, but he's gotten really good at following things with his eyes. He's got a little bit of a delay, but he can eventually find what he's following. This ability is what produced the latter picture below. He followed my camera all over and then gazed up with those big blue eyes.

Awake Time

Since it's been a while between blog posts, Ollie has had some new changes. One of those is being awake a while longer. He's getting a little better with night and day, but still keeping us up through the night. But during the day, it gives him a chance to look around and see what's going on. Like in the second picture where he discovered his nose!

Break

It was a rough past couple weeks... Big Brother Henry got sick and he gave it to Dad. Fever for about five days and a bunch of other symptoms that kept persisting. So here we are in a healthy house again. Back to the blogging!

This was a picture from just before the sickness hit. Just chilling on the couch stretching out. Because Dad was sick, he didn't get to hold Ollie very much for an entire week. I swear he doubled his weight in that one week alone! He's really started to put on some winter insulation :)

More of the Same

So we're still plugging along day by day. Ollie's still doing a lot of the same - sleeping, eating, dirtying his diaper... But he's still super cute and still growing each and every day. When he's awake, he does a lot of grunting (more than I remember Henry doing). Pictures can't really capture the fun sounds he makes, so these will have to do. Also, it's Ollie's one-month birthday today!

Hat

It's different having a winter baby. Henry was born in the middle of summer so at least we didn't have to worry about bundling him up. Since we're in the chilly midwest, we need to keep Ollie warm enough all the time. Here he is bundled in blankets and wearing one of Mom's favorite hats.

Weekends

Weekends are the best. It's so nice to have full days to hang out with the family. This past weekend, Ollie got to hang out with Dad. As noted before, Ollie does quite a bit of sleeping during the day, but he was actually awake when hanging out. So we sat up and checked out what was going on in the family room. His head is a little wobbly yet - he's not being strangled :)

Growing

Ollie is growing so quickly. He's nearly a month old (4 weeks tomorrow). He still does a significant amount of sleeping all day and some at night. He wakes up to eat and burp and have his diaper changed. He does look around more now than when he was first born. But this is a typical image of how his day goes.

Snuggling

These first few weeks of having Oliver in our family have been wonderful. It's sometimes difficult with the modified sleep schedule (aka, no sleep), but watching him and listening to him and snuggling with him during the day are some of the few things that make everything so worth the sleep deprivation. Here's Ollie taking a snooze as peacefully as can be - probably because he didn't at all the night before... And you can't see his shirt, but it says 'Night Owl'.

Posing

We're so thankful Uncle Adam and Aunt Tina got to come for a visit. They were a huge help to Mom and Dad during the first couple weeks of Oliver's life. Also, Aunt Tina is a great photographer and did a couple photo shoots with Ollie. These pictures are from the second of the two. I love the first one since it looks like he's smiling. And the second and third are just so cute! Two blog posts in a row with props to Aunt Tina!

Bath time

We got to give Ollie his first bath this past week. We used our kitchen sink, which kept losing water, making it a little difficult to keep Ollie happily submerged in the warmth. So we made it pretty quick, but accomplished the purpose we set out for - a clean baby! He was mostly calm throughout, but didn't really enjoy having his hair washed. A couple shots of the milestone (thanks Aunt Tina!).

Brothers

We've got two little ones in the house. Big Brother Henry has taken the new addition very well. He mostly just keeps living life as if nothing ever happened. Occasionally I think he starts to show signs of jealousy (as depicted below), but it passes quickly. Henry even gives Ollie a kiss as part of his bedtime routine. But this is a blog about Ollie, so we'll try and stick to the objective :)

Daddy

Dad's had to go back to work already this past week. It's hard to be away, especially when little Ollie is so small and so cute! But we try to make the most of the time we get to be together. Of course, most of the time Oliver is sleeping, but that doesn't mean we can't still have fun!

Momma

Ollie's birth was considerably different than big brother, Henry's. We arrived at the hospital at 2:00 am on Tuesday and left at 2 pm on Wednesday. Mom and Ollie remained healthy and recovered quickly. Here they are during our brief stay in the hospital room.

Introduction

We welcomed little Oliver Mason into our family at 5:17 am on Tuesday, December 28, 2010. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. He has beautiful baby blue eyes and was born with a head of dark brown hair. Neither of which are visible on this picture :)