Life with 2

Things around here continue to go well, as we motor toward E's three week...mark? birthday? anniversary? E's eyes continue to be greyish-blue... I read online that that could mean they'll be pretty much any color and may not be "set" until his first birthday.

Everyone wants to know how A is doing. He's really doing GREAT! He's pretty fascinated by his little brother, and loves to give him a kiss and a "head hug," as I like to call them. He gets plenty of attention, probably because he's still going to daycare so his routine isn't really all the different from before E arrived, although now Daddy drops him off and picks him up much more frequently than Mommy does.

He does sometimes shy away from Mommy. I think he's a little mad at me, simply because I haven't been able to be as involved in his routine--I used to give him his baths and for awhile, M had to do them... I used to read him his bedtime story, and Daddy had to take that one over for awhile too. It's amazing how much life changes when you can only go up and down the stairs once a day. But, now that I CAN do the steps, I'm trying to get myself back into his routine and things have been much better.

Of course, when a new baby arrives, everyone comments on or wants to know who the baby looks like. In the beginning, pretty much everyone thought he looked like A, and a lot of the nurses at the hospital said he looked like me. M, however, thought he really DIDN'T look like A, that is, not until he looked at A's baby books again. Now, he definitely resembles A, but certainly looks like his own self!

E loves to be held. If I put him down, I generally get about 5 minutes to do something before he's crying. Sometimes, he'll stay asleep a little bit longer, and sometimes he'll just hang out and be content. Most times, though, he's screaming bloody murder. He's a great sleeper... a typical night involves getting him ready for bed around 9:30, him waking around 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and then getting up for the day. Which means that I get a good amount of sleep, waking around 7, showering, eating, pumping.

He's had a pretty bad diaper rash. When we saw the pediatrician at one week, he suggested using wet washcloths instead of baby wipes. That hasn't helped. We had some size one Huggies Pure and Natural diapers around... I started using those, wondering if maybe he had an allergy to the Pampers we were using. They're too big, and we've had some leakage issues, but it looks like the rash is finally getting better. Yes, two days after I bought a big box of Pampers.

We've had quite a few nights of just me and the two boys... the other night, I was alone and had to give A a bath. That was quite an adventure, and I was plenty exhausted after that (I am still recovering from major surgery). I'm somehow managing to keep the house not completely disgusting, although some days it's much worse than others (of course, this is the downstairs, which is where I spend most of my time and which Mom did a great job of keeping clean and straight while she was here--the upstairs, however, needs some tlc... when there's time, someone to watch the boys and/or E will let me put him down).