Two Weeks Old

Well we've been a family of four for two weeks now, and we're still alive to tell about it! :) At Ivan's doctor's visit on Friday he weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. So he is gaining weight and growing taller already.

So far the transition from 1 to 2 kids has been a lot easier than the transition from 0 to 1 was. I think there's a couple reasons for that. #1 When you have no kids you aren't used to having someone depend on you for every aspect of their survival, then all the sudden you have a child and BAM! 24/7 you are responsible for the welfare of this new little person and you aren't sure what to do, and your whole life is turned upside down, in a good way though. But when the second one comes along, you are already used to taking care of one, and so you just take care of the other as well. It's not such a shock to the system. #2 With your second child you have some perspective, which is really nice. For example, I know that eventually Ivan will sleep through the night, whereas with Lincoln I had no idea if the late night feedings were ever going to end or if I'd ever have another good night's sleep. Also, with Ivan I'm not so worried that everything I do with him (like bath him, or burp him, or shift his position on my arm, or change his clothes) will break him. Yes, he's still a newborn and you have to be careful, but no, he's not made of glass.

Lots of people have asked me how Lincoln likes having a little brother. The answer is kind of complicated. I think Lincoln likes Ivan as a baby. He's always trying to give him hugs and kisses and hand him toys or put the binkie in his mouth. But I think Lincoln isn't so happy about the fact that I have to spend a lot of time taking care of Ivan. Linc will act up when I'm feeding Ivan to try and get my attention. And whenever Ivan starts crying, Lincoln will run over to me and wrap his arms around my legs and say "up, up!". He wants me to pick him up instead of the baby. And it's a little challenging when they both need something at the same time. Like the other night I was feeding Ivan and it was getting to be past Lincoln's bed time and he still needed a bath and to be put to bed. It's hard trying to decide which child can wait while I take care of the other one.

Fortunately, I've had a lot of good help. For the first week my mom was here, and right now Aaron's mom is here. They have both been wonderful. They play with Lincoln, hold Ivan in the night so I can get some sleep, make meals, fold laundry, do dishes, and more. We have lots of great friends and family members as well who have brought us dinner, or offered to take Lincoln for a few hours. And of course Aaron has been amazing. He'll get up and change Ivan in the middle of the night so I can get a few more minutes of sleep before I have to feed him, and he's been really good to take Lincoln out of the house to play everyday so he can get out some of his cabin fever (it's been snowing all week, so we've been stuck inside, since Ivan is too little to be out in the cold). It's going to be a hard reality check when all the help is gone. (Well Aaron's not going anywhere :) but everyone else.)

The biggest relief so far has been the fact that Ivan nurses so well. When Lincoln was born he just wouldn't nurse, especially after my milk came in, and it was a huge emotional stressful drama, and I was convinced he was going to die because he wouldn't eat, and on and on. We ended up buying a breast pump and pumping and then feeding him with a bottle. But for some reason I felt so much pressure to breast feed and when it wasn't working out I felt like a failure. With Ivan, right out of the shoot he just started nursing, and he's been great at it since. I think it might have a little to do with the fact that I am a lot more relaxed about it this time. I realised that he won't die, and that pumping and supplementing with formula aren't the end of the world, and I think because the stress was gone, it made it easier to just relax and breast feed. So that's been really nice.

But ya, other than that not too much to report. We're just hanging out at home for awhile waiting for RSV season to go away, and getting used to our new little guy, and loving (almost) every minute of it.