Slacking

As Followers can easily tell, Mommy B and I's posts have become less and less frequent since Child #2 entered the world. This is no slight to A-man, as there is plenty going on with him to post about. Rather, we're both so busy with two kids (and me with work) that we hardly have time for anything we used to do for fun anymore... blogging included. So let me try to recap things as of late...

Alli is reaching such a cute age. She says "Bye!" to everything now... her bath-time Pooh Bear and Elmo, her bed-time Pooh Bear, her car-ride Pooh and Elmo (can you tell who her favorites are?) We even walked by her sippy cup on her way to bed and she said "Bye cup!" She makes the sound of just about any animal you show to her... her favorite being a pig (I'm not sure why). She can count to 10 with some help, and can mimic almost all the letter sounds as well. She'll even pick up numbers and letters in the bathtub and make the sound without us prompting her. It's just astounding how much they teach her at school and how much she picks up.

She is so curious about everything and wants to learn so much. She hardly cares for her toys these days, and would rather pull all the books off the shelf and flip through every single one. If a toy plays music, she does hand motions along with them - such as "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". She likes dancing when music comes on too. Just last weekend Dirty Dancing came on TV and she started dancing with the actors... even spinning around on her own when Patrick Swayze twirled Jennifer Grey across the dance floor. She has also become so ticklish, and I can't resist tossing her on the bed before her bath and getting my daily giggle-fix.

We took her swimming last weekend at the neighborhood pool, and she's starting to take to the water more and more. She enjoys standing in the shallow end of the pool and wading out just deep enough so her toes still touch the bottom. Once she goes too far, the life jacket takes over and bobs her up and down like a buoy. She doesn't like getting splashed, but I think she'll be ready to put her whole head under pretty soon. We'll have to see how that goes!


Aiden has been keeping Mommy B and I on our toes. He has been spitting up a lot lately - after almost every feeding. We'll try to feed him more to make up for what he just spewed out, but he just seems uncomfortable and not happy about the whole situation. It's made sleeping (for everyone) rather difficult, so we took him to the doctor's  yesterday to see what was wrong. The doctor thinks he could have some bad acid reflux and prescribed some infant Zantac to help things out. Mommy B is also going dairy-free for a few days to see if that helps at all. He slept very well last night and seemed in a better mood this morning too. Hopefully this stuff starts to kick in soon so he can be back to his happy baby-self.

He's losing his hair and is practically bald at the moment. Hopefully that means the real stuff will be growing in soon! I'm anxious to see if he'll be a blond-bomber like his sister has become, or if it'll be a little darker. I'm going to guess we have another blond on our hands, as that's how I was (and my siblings were) when we started off. He has very dark blue eyes at the moment, and I'm curious to see if they get lighter or not. I guess only time will tell.

He's starting to hate bath time less and less. When we put him in there now, he actually seems pretty content to hang out in the warm water and get a full scrub down. It's not until we take him out that he gets mad... but all is well once we dry him off and zip up the pj's. He's also starting to put down some bottles - I was able to get him to down 4 oz the other night (without spitting up!) and he went right back to sleep. He weighed in at 11 lbs yesterday at the doctor's... I don't think Alli weighed 11 lbs until she was over 2 months old! Mommy B thinks that he'll catch up to her pretty soon, and could be sharing diapers if we don't get her potty-trained pretty quickly.

Well I think that should do it, Followers. I'm sure there is more I'm forgetting, but combine the lack of sleep with the busy work schedule and you get a pretty fuzzy memory. We'll try to do better next month...

Mom Ears

It didn't take long after Alli was born for me to find out that my hearing changed dramatically. I would liken it to that of a bat's. If I needed to, I'm sure I could've heard Alli crying from a mile away. It definitely has not changed throughout her months, even though obviously, her crying and waking at night has decreased to hardly ever. Now that Aiden is here, my "Mom Ears" are back with a vengeance. I swear I hear him when he slightly squirms in his crib... and we don't even have a baby monitor. (Note to new or expectant moms... waste of money! Especially if you develop mom ears, which most moms do!) What are Mom Ears? –The ability to hear and know exact movements they both are making without seeing them, whether the slightest sound they are making requires a 40 yard dash to their rooms, or deciphering the sound of your child above a crowd. The other night, after a "Mom Ears" episode where I awoke with Aiden to feed him right after he made a few noises, I had him quietly back in his crib (success!), and was about to pass out for another quick nap, when I heard another noise. What?! That came from further down the hall... and I ran down to Alli's room to see what was up. Poor little peanut must've had a bad dream, and she needed snuggled. Those are definitely the moments I live for. Even though I was tired, ready to crash, and just a walking zombie... knowing that your "big" girl needs you still is such an incredible feeling.

Another phenomenon of Mom Ears has to do with the ability to tune out unpleasant sounds. For me, this trait showed itself one day while riding in the car with "A" man. Dad-E and I were heading out for a quick lunch together, and poor Aiden was, of course, crying inconsolably as he does so frequently these first few weeks/months.  After running through my gamut of soothing techniques (that rarely worked while he's in the car seat) I sat back and began to enjoy the car ride, a rare moment for me outside the house.  Poor Dad-E, probably frazzled and distressed by the incessant crying was probably baffled that I had stopped trying to sooth him.  He was rested, clean, fed, burped, and simply crying for no reason. I have finally realized and knew that there was no reason to stress myself over something I had no control over.  So I decided to just make the best out of this rare outing.  It was those Mom Ears that made the sound of a screaming baby fade into the background while I enjoyed the view of this beautiful city we live in. I never would have thought that tuning out a crying baby would even be possible, but it was, thanks to Mom Ears.

Acquiring your Mom Ears can be a blessing and a curse.  Now, the slightest of noises can wake me up, even out of a deep sleep. Like I said before, who needs a monitor when you've got Mom Ears? And thank God for earplugs and for wonderful husbands who take the first shift of waking up so I can get a few good hours of sleep. I truly don't know what I'd do without you in my life, Eric <3

"First" birthday for A man

Aiden Ringling had his "first" birthday on Friday... his first month is in the books! He is growing and changing so much each and every day... that's usually Dad-E's first comment when we walks through the door each day, something to the effect of noticing how different he looks. He is becoming more and more aware of his surroundings, taking it all in, and doing a lot better with not vomiting after every feeding (thank goodness for our clothes and our washing machine.) We've definitely been on an emotional roller coaster this month (mostly thanks to me), and I am slowly but surely getting better and doing better (thanks to everyone who has checked in on me, I appreciate you all!). All I want is for both of my kids, and my husband, to know how much I love them and how I would do anything for them. All I want is everyone happy and healthy. I can't wait to see what this next month brings... hopefully, a few more hours of sleep for us each night?

Baby... blues?

I've been having a lot of trouble adjusting to this two babies/no sleep again/exhaustion/laundry all the time/breastfeeding all the time/dealing with crying all the time lifestyle. I don't know if I'm still having a lot of hormonal issues from the pregnancy to post-partum stage or what, but to say it's been hard would be an understatement. It's hard being alone all day with him. It's hard not having family close by that can help out, come over to give me a little break, or just to bring us a quick McDonald's lunch. (yes, I'd even take McDonald's just to not have to try to make something!) Just the other day, I had to go out back on the porch and eat while Aiden just sat in his swing and cried. I had just fed him, changed him, burped him (where he proceeded to throw up...), changed his clothes, and he should have been just fine. But, he wasn't, for whatever reason. So, he cried, while I sat in tears out back eating a quick lunch... then tried to gather myself and find courage to go back in and deal with him again. I know a lot of parents go through this, but sometimes it feels like I'm the only one. You know you've got those people when you ask how things are going with their new baby, and they say, "Oh he's wonderful! Slept through the night ever since we brought him home from the hospital! He's so sweet, just as quiet as can be, blah blah..." Well, they are lying. Or at least, I hope they're lying... at least a little bit. I don't want to believe that I'm the only one with a baby who cries, doesn't sleep, wants to eat all the time, and is just plain exhausting. Sure, I love the snuggles and the falling asleep on me and the cute baby toes... but in all honesty, I could do without the baby stage. That doesn't mean I don't love my baby to pieces... because I definitely do. I love both of my babies so much it hurts. That's possibly why I'm so hurt that sometimes, I have no idea why he's crying or what to do to make it better. But, I try the best I can, try to show both of them, and especially Aiden during these long days (and even longer nights) alone with him, that I love them so much that sometimes, it's really, literally hurts.

Always precious when he's sleeping <3

Buh-bye

Alli's new favorite thing to say is "buh-bye". Well, mostly it's "HI!" these days, but "buh-bye" is a close second. She used to just say it as we were leaving the house in the morning (directed towards the dog, of all things), but now she says it all the time. Each day I pick her up from daycare, I scoop her up in my arms and she turns to face her fellow classmates and says "buh-bye" while waving her hand. She then follows this up by blowing them a kiss which is accompanied by a big "muah!" She'll say it over and over as we're walking out the door - just to make sure everyone knows she got to leave before they did.

She does this same thing when we put her down to bed at night. We'll lie her down and before we can get out the door, she's sitting up saying "buh-bye" and blowing us kisses. It's quite possibly the cutest thing in the world. The only problem is that she continues to do this even after we've left the room - which means we're stuck walking down the hallway replying back to her, "Byeeee!" I told Mommy B that we have to stop responding to her once we leave otherwise she'll just keep saying it.

Just in the last few days, she's taken this new favorite word to the next level. She can now couple it with things or people to form a phrase. Now when I pull her out of the bath tub to get dried off, she says "Bye Pooh!" to her waterproof Pooh Bear that Aunt Bacon sent her last week. When we leave the house in the morning, she says "Bye Mama!" - even though her "mama" sounds mixed with "mommy" when she says it. Either way, it's still pretty cute.

These are just a few examples, but it's amazing to see her put things together like that. She's such a smarty-pants thanks to her wonderful school - and hopefully some good genes. She can form quite a few other words but when she can't she babbles non-stop anyway. Many times while she's playing by herself she'll open a book and just babble away as if she was reading it to herself. These days, she clearly knows what she wants and will let us know when she wants it. The best part is that now she's starting to use words to tell us what it is instead of just crying or whining. She still cries and whines plenty, but it's amazing to hear actual words come out of her mouth - and to know that she's starting to understand what they mean.

What have we been up to?

I feel like I'm so behind on updating... and to be honest, I'm not even sure what day it is anymore these days! All the days and nights seem to be running together, and to say I'm exhausted would be an understatement. So, let's see...

Last Friday, I took Aiden back to the doctor's office. I felt like he was still a little red/yellowish, his eyes still looked yellow to me, and he also started throwing up after almost every feed. The doctor thought the jaundice looked fine, not worried at all about that, and the throwing up could be several things. My milk supply is overly abundant (good and bad), and she thinks he may be choking/getting too much/swallowing a bunch of air while he's trying to gulp the milk too. So, we're trying some things to help, but even today as I write, he's thrown up several times already and I'm just so nervous to feed him. He does a little better with bottles, so I'm trying to pump and feed him, but that's exhausting too. Hopefully, we'll get through it. There's always something! He is still having a ton of wet diapers and poopy ones too, so for now, there's nothing to worry about.. except how much laundry we'll be doing to clean up all the vomit. Ugh.

After that, I was just sort of drained. I'm exhausted getting up all through the night again, and still trying to help and be a "present" mother figure to Alli Ru too. It's hard. So when someone knocked on the door late Friday afternoon, I was just annoyed. Now what!? To my wonderful surprise, my amazing friend Gena stood at the other side of the door, dinners and other goodies in hand. She had talked to Eric and set up to surprise me for the weekend, just to come help out and do what she could for our family. I couldn't have been more grateful. It was wonderful just to have her presence, knowing there was someone else there if we needed something. It was her first time away from her own little girl, and I really couldn't be more thankful to have a friend like her. We've had our ups and downs through our friendship, but through the last year of a lot of trials and situations with friendships in my life, I have realized what I need and deserve in a friend. Oh, and today just happens to be her birthday too, so, Happy Birthday Mama G. Love you.

Alli has been such a trooper through this whole "growing as a family" experience. She comes home every day saying "baby!", and she'll go up to him and say "hi!!" and wave in his face, but other than that, she's pretty content to just ignore him. Which is fine by us! She's not jealous, she hasn't been regressing to using a bottle or anything again, and everything else in her life is pretty much the same, so in that sense, we're thankful. Her ever growing vocabulary and knowledge amazes me more every day. I am so grateful to her amazing daycare school that she attends. They teach her SO much. I was giving her a bath a few nights ago, and she has some foam numbers and letters in the tub with her. One floated by, the number "6" and Alli yelled, "six!" I was shocked. I said, "what did you just say?!", and tried to find more numbers. I couldn't find another number, but a "B", and she yelled, "eight!". Ok, yes, a B kind of looks like an 8, you're right! It amazes us and we couldn't be more proud of her.

So, I think that's all so far... my amazing husband has been doing more than his share of getting up to help me burp lil A Man, clean up vomit, and try to get him back to sleep while I try to catch a few hours before it's time to feed him again. On Sunday night, I think Dad-E was up from 1am-4am just walking Aiden around, trying to get him back to sleep. Needless to say, he worked from home that day. I'm very thankful for his amazing, flexible job too.

Happy 3 week birthday little Aiden, I love the snuggles, I love the little tiny toes, fingers and the look of wonder and amazement in your eyes as you look around and explore the world a little more every day. But to be completely honest, I can't wait until your old enough to interact with, play with, talk to, chase around, and lastly, but most importantly, sleep through the night. Love you lots buddy, but, you're messing with my sleep and mommy loves her sleep.

Busy

I feel like it's been so long since I posted, I don't know where to start. Aiden is three weeks old today and on a nightly basis is reminding Mommy B and I how difficult the newborn stage can be. He's actually been very good compared to some babies, but having a newborn is still one of the hardest things to do in life. He's constantly wanting to be fed which makes things hard on a nursing mother. The constant eating means constant waking up, feeding, burping, cleaning his spit-up, changing his diaper and usually feeding again. This equates to not much sleep for Mommy B.

She's been so gracious as to let me sleep through much of it because she knows I have to get up with Alli every morning at 6am (including weekends), get her dressed and off to daycare and myself to work, then pick her up and usually give her a bath and put her to bed each workday. But I've been trying to help late at night/early in the morning to take care of Aiden too. I know the sleep deprivation can quickly begin taking its mental toll on a person, and I'm trying to alleviate that as much as possible for Mommy B. We're still working our system out to see what will work best for everyone. Even with a second child, it's a work in progress.

The good news is that Aiden is getting cuter every day. As a veteran parent, I can tell you first-hand that newborns are rarely "cute". For the first two to three weeks after birth, no baby is very good-looking. Alli wasn't model-material when she was born and needless to say Aiden wasn't either (especially being a little early). But he's growing into his body slowly but surely. He's not as wrinkly as he was before, and is opening his eyes and looking around all the time now. It's so great to see him looking back at me when I hold him now. While he may not fully understand who I am at the moment, the facial recognition starts kicking in soon and I know it'll just be a matter of time. He's starting to hate bath time less and less, which is good because it's less stressful on Mommy B and I. I remember Alli didn't like the bath for a while at first, but she has grown to love it. Especially since her Aunt Bacon and Uncle Zack sent her a waterproof Pooh Bear to have in the bath with her - she's excited to go in there now!

It's crazy to see the differences between them already. When Alli was that young, she would scream at us when she was hungry. Aiden doesn't fuss that much when he's hungry - just grunts and squirms around a lot. Alli has never been one to fuss when she has a wet or dirty diaper. Even to this day she'll run around with a full load in her pants and could care less. Aiden will start whining when his diaper gets wet (or dirty), which I guess I could understand given that he has more "stuff" down there to get uncomfortable. He seems much more laid back than she was (and is)... but then again it could be because Mommy B and I are more laid back with him since we have a better understanding of what we're doing this time around. I certainly hope he's a chill guy, I don't know if I can handle two toddlers with Alli's energy.

Tongue action

I caught a picture of Aiden sticking his tongue out the other day... and realized I had a similar picture of Alli at the same age. I can definitely see some similiarities in their looks... but also know that Alli hardly looks anything like she did as a baby, too! So, I'm anxious to see what Aiden will look like, who he'll look like, and if he'll be a blondy like Alli turned out to be...

Aiden 1 week

Alli 1 week

Two weeks

It's been two weeks since Aiden joined our family, and honestly, I can't remember what it was like without him already. He seems to just "fit in" perfectly... he's so mellow and laid back, much different than his big sis. I think it may have a lot to do with the fact that Dad-E and I are a little more relaxed and laid back this time too. When Alli was born, we of course had no idea what we were in for, what we were doing, or what to expect. This time, we're like seasoned pro's (kind of). =) I think Aiden heard all the craziness going on while he was safe inside my belly... he heard his big sis running around, screaming, yelling, laughing, etc., and just knew what he was in for when he came out.

I was scared to death to clean up/change diapers of a little boy... there's so much to worry about, without going into details... I'm sure you all know what I mean. We've only gotten peed on 3 or 4 times so far, but when it happens, it's been so funny that Dad-E and I just laugh and laugh together. (Maybe that's the lack of sleep, we're just a bit goofy these days??) One time he peed so far that Dad-E was cleaning off curtains and baseboards at 1am. Oh so fun! We have definitely learned to cover it up while changing him to avoid these types of situations. But, it's been a fun learning experience.

Big sis Alli is just growing and learning more and more every day, and for the most part, doesn't really even acknowledge Aiden's presence. Wherever he is, be it in the swing, in my arms, in the boppy, etc... she usually will walk up to him, say baby!! And wave "hi" in his face... but then she's off being her busy little self minutes later. I can't wait to see them both grow together... especially when he is more active and doing things too. I'll be very interested to see what she thinks of him when he can fight back! =)

All in all, we're really doing great so far as a family of 4 (OK, 5, Scarlett is still around too... although needless to say, you should have seen the "look" on her "face" when we brought Aiden through the door... it was like, "Ohhh guys! You did this again?! Why!!!!") We have been to the beach twice already, taken him out to lunch with Eric & I today (even though it was just to Subway, it still counts!), and we're just taking each day as it comes at us.