delighted to be

8 months / february 20, 2015

stats | 21 lbs (entirely in 18 month clothes now)

eat | 7- to 8-oz bottles, some solids. we’re working on getting you to eat solids more frequently, but you’ve been sick most of the last month! in fact, you’re sick again today and just want to sleep in your bed all day. :( but when you’re healthy, you love the usual: eggs, salami, ground beef, avocado/guacamole, blueberry & purple carrot teething biscuits, veggie straws, and green pea crisps. you’re finally close to learning the pincher grip, and are starting to pick up food with your hands.

sleep | you aren’t the best sleeper. we still have to dream feed you (what?!) or you’ll wake up several times at night for hours at a time. (you just talk to yourself for an HOUR — yes this drives Mama craaaaazy — and eventually start crying and fall asleep again.) you haven’t really been on a schedule since you’ve been sick so much lately. but I try my best to give you a nap from 9:15-11:15, and then from 2:00-4:00. you think 6am is a good wake-up time, but we’re trying to teach you 7am is better. ;)

play | you love to play with your brother’s toys! he loves to take them away from you, but we’re working on that. :) it’s incredible — in the past month since you got glasses, you’ve started sitting up AND crawling! you’re scooting/army crawling everywhere. your favorite places in the house to go are the vent by the front door (it makes a scratchy sound you like), and the back sliding door to the backyard (you love to play in the curtains). you’ll play peekaboo and crawl around the couch with Jack. you also love to scoot all the way to the kitchen to find Mama’s feet. :) You’re quite curious these days. you also grew two teeth on the bottom!

Owen, it’s incredible how much glasses have changed your life. I know you still can’t see perfectly (and never will), but magnifying things sure has been good for you! We’re so proud of you.

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Owen has glasses! / january 14, 2015

7months owenanddaddy

Little Owie just got glasses! I was so worried he wasn’t going to keep them on (because the past four months have taught me he pulls off hats and sunglasses and it’s a losing battle) but the second we put them on he was fine. He really doesn’t touch them unless he’s tired or trying to rub his eyes. It is AWESOME and I feel so grateful that the transition was easy for our family.

So let me back up a little bit here. Last year when Owen was diagnosed with albinism, we saw a pediatric ophthalmologist. And from day one, I did not like her. I didn’t like how she delivered the news, or how in our second follow-up appointment she still didn’t have answers or a plan for us. I just didn’t feel comfortable with her lack of involvement with Owen’s vision and nystagmus (where his eyes constantly move back and forth involuntarily).

We decided to switch insurances and go see Dr. Granet, who is a leading pediatric ophthalmologist who specializes in nystagmus. He is wonderful and I left the appointment feeling so uplifted and in charge of Owen’s healthcare. I really feel comfortable with his diagnosis and feel like we have a “game plan” for the next year or so.

Step one of that game plan was prescribing glasses! His previous eye doctor told us she couldn’t tell us what his vision was (she never even checked), but the first thing Dr. Granet did was check his prescription (+2.5 and +3, and it might go up). I have to admit, my jaw dropped a little when I heard he was getting glasses. I had considered it before, and told myself, “He’s going to need glasses”, but I didn’t think the time would be now! I just didn’t mentally prepare myself that for the rest of his life, he will wear glasses. It has really struck me the past few days that we have hit yet another turning point in Owen’s life — before glasses and after glasses. Before we knew he had albinism and after we knew he has albinism. Before he could see my face and after he could see my face. His life in my eyes is so segmented into periods of happiness and despair.

Luckily I feel like glasses have come a long way in being accepted in our society (especially among kids) but it is still quite unique to ever see a baby wearing them. We get all sorts of comments in public. Most people just oooh and ahhhh about how cute he is. I think the attention is expected (honestly, I would probably do the same to someone else’s baby in glasses) but I do worry that they see his nystagmus and wonder about it. And I haven’t quite figured that one out yet. I am so afraid of hurtful comments when he gets older. However, favorite comments (meaning the funniest ones that we laugh about because we get them over and over again) include people telling me he looks like a hipster, as if I put glasses on him just as an accessory. ;) I am also told, “he looks so smart!” all the time. Yes, cashier at The Habit, my baby is automatically smarter than yours when he wears his glasses.

Baby Owen, I am so glad you can see so much better with your glasses now. What a wonderful blessing we have as a family to be in a position to be able to help you see better. I just love that we have so many resources available to help you — please don’t ever take that for granted. We are so blessed. (And let’s be honest here, you are so cute!)

>>just want to record on the blog my thoughts that I posted on instagram immediately after our appointment:

dr. granet was just as wonderful as everyone made him out to be! he checked owen’s prescription right away and tomorrow we’ll go in and order glasses for the little guy. they might help significantly or they might help just a teeny bit, but we’re grateful to be headed in the right direction to help him see better! he is double farsighted*, which surprised me. dr. granet also explained nystagmus in further detail to us, which was really, really helpful. it doesn’t bother owen at all (his brain compensates for the movement and makes it so he doesn’t even know his eyes are moving) and it will just mean he might process things a tiny bit slower because his eyes don’t “see” as fast as our eyes do, because they’re constantly moving. we also confirmed his right eye is starting to turn inward (strabismus) so we’re optimistic that the glasses will correct that. a light bulb went on for me when I realized it’s not just poor vision that owen struggles with, but a combination of nystagmus (where his eyes shift back and forth uncontrollably) and photophobia (where he is ultra-sensitive to light and glare) as well. put all three things together and it’s a handful! but we’ve got a game plan and I feel so good about how things are going. #owengrows

*I think this means he is twice as farsighted as other babies his age. I expected him to be nearsighted?

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7 months / january 14, 2015

7months_2

stats | 19.5lbs, 28″ (outgrew his 12 month onesies and is now in 6-12 month pants and 18 month onesies!)

eat | I still don’t feed you solids on a routine yet. I’ll feed you bits of food here and there, and you seem to like it. You just don’t reach for them, but unless you just had a bottle, you rarely turn them down. You don’t like purees, except guacamole. Somehow you know that’s supposed to be eaten with a spoon. ;) Favorite foods include scrambled eggs, avocado, banana, chicken, sweet potato, and puffits. Oh, and you love cookies, too. :) Still drinking about five 7-oz bottles a day, though some days it’s less than that.

sleep | still sleeping great at night (except the occasional 3am wake-up call…what are those all about?) but taking short naps during the day. I’m lucky to get an hour out of you for your morning nap, and 40-minutes for your afternoon nap. You do sleep in the ergo, though, if we’re out. You are so snuggly, little Owen.

play | you just got glasses! everyone calls you a little hipster, especially when I put you in a hat, too. (And we also get a lot of, “wow, he is such a smart baby!” yes, yes he is.) +2.5 and +3 for now — that prescription might go up in the coming months. I was so worried you weren’t going to keep them on (because we’ve battled with your sunglasses for the past four months) but you don’t touch them! we will get you prescription sunglasses soon. I love that you can see me from about a foot and a half away, not just 8″. :)

You love playing on your tummy, and inspecting toys very closely before putting them in your mouth. You’re really close to sitting up all by yourself but it doesn’t seem to be a skill that you’re itching to master anytime soon. So when I set you on the ground sitting up, you roll onto your tummy right away. I think you like to be closer to your toys.

You really have come out of your shell lately, little Owen. You’re such a delight to be around, and even though it isn’t the easiest to make you smile, you are really very sweet and easy-going. You love to give kisses (big, open-mouth kisses on my cheek, where you grab my face and hair) and hugs. I think your favorite person is your brother Jack — you light up when you see his face. He makes you giggle the most out of any of us.

Love you, little Owen. Keep growing big and strong, and the world is yours to conquer.

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6 months / december 15, 2014

6months_blog

owen, you are 6 months old! this photo is you in a nutshell. when we sit or stand you up, you’re always looking down to try to see things. :)

stats | probably 18lbs, 28″

eat | five 7-oz bottles a day (went from every 4 hours to every 3 hours again), plus any bits of table food I give him. this kid’s favorite food is eggs! he sits on my lap and I feed him my leftover breakfast a few times a week. the other night we were at Burger Lounge and I started feeding him some leftover ground beef from Jack’s hamburger. he loved it so much that TWICE he turned around and gave me the biggest, widest grin. (that’s really, really uncharacteristic of him – he’s not a big smiler, especially when unprovoked. I’m still in shock that it happened at all!) we’re working on helping him learn to sit up so that he can eat real food on a regular basis. he isn’t a fan of purees, but seems to do really well with regular food.

sleep | it took a few nights but I weaned him off the binky a couple of weeks ago. he is sleeping through the night again, hooray! he doesn’t wake up screaming five or six times a night because his pacifier has fallen out. he isn’t a great napper — well, he isn’t a long napper, I should say. He will nap for about an hour, four times a day. but he’s easy, because I just lay him down in his crib and he falls right asleep.

play | we are working on teaching him to sit up, but he doesn’t really express an interest in it yet. he loves his play gym, ceiling fans, being tossed in the air, snuggling, rattles, bright contrasty colors, his stuffed fox Freddy, and books. if it’s nap time and we are out, he will fall asleep on my chest in the ergo baby carrier. he is generally a really easy-going baby, and only really cries if he’s hungry or we are outside. he’s such a pleasant little guy and though it takes a lot of work to get him to smile, it brings a lot of joy when he does!

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