Just the Three of Us

On Tuesday morning Duncan left for work and so began my life as a stay at home mom with two kids. It was now up to me to try to figure out what to do when you have two kids that need you at the same time - - this typically occurs when Aubree is on the boob and Calleigh decides she needs a Nuby, a snack, or just plain old attention. The first thing that I determined is that there was no way I was just going to stay in the house for the day. So despite not being "allowed" to drive yet or lift stuff, we were off to story time. The thing is, it's just not realistic to think that you aren't going to do any of these forbidden things when you have a two year old. You can only take looking at the four walls and playing with the same toys for so long. I noticed that getting out the door seemed to take a very long time. The main culprit is Calleigh who is always running off when I'm trying to get her to put her shoes on, or brush her teeth or whatever. I'm trying to keep the lifting to a minimum (in and out of the crib, car seat, and highchair only) so I can't pick her up to make her move faster. That really slows up the process. But we did make it to story time and Aubree slept through the whole thing so that was nice.

Thursday we ventured out to Babies R Us so that I could look for some supplies to make Aubree's sleeping situation better. The other thing that puts a crimp in these outings is having to revolve them around when Aubree needs to eat again. So everything pretty much needs to be done in about two hour stretches or less. I have no problem with nursing in public (with my handy Hooter Hider, of course) but it's not like I can chill in a store for half an hour nursing Aubree while Calleigh has the run of the place - - I'm pretty certain she wouldn't sit calmly next to me reading a book during that time! The shopping went well (Calleigh in the front seat as she calls it and Aubree in the back seat sleeping in her car seat) but as we were walking back in the house, I had my first real test. Aubree had started bawling as we pulled in the driveway so I took her out of the car seat to carry her inside. As we walked along the sidewalk, Calleigh tripped and fell. So both girls were crying pretty loudly at the same time and I'm starting to sweat in the hot sun. What do I do? Obviously I couldn't put Aubree down on the ground so I ended up kind of half dragging Calleigh into the house with me while trying to sooth her with my words. Fortunately she stopped the wailing after a minute or two and so did Aubree after she had she started eating. Phew!

As far as the sleeping goes, we have resorted to the good old swing. It's amazing how well it works really. Maybe Calleigh and Aubree are different from other babies but for some reason, as soon as they get into the swing, it puts them right to sleep even if they were fussing. Calleigh slept in a swing for nearly the first four months of her life. I did not want to resort to that this time - - not because it does any harm (I had asked Calleigh's pediatrician if it was "bad" to let them sleep in a swing over night and she said 'no.') but because it can be inconvenient when you're travelling. So I'm trying other solutions to see if we can avoid it. Aubree just does not like the Pack N Play. I went to Babies R Us to try and find things to put in there to make it better. I got a sleep positioner and a bear that has a loud heart beat. I tried it for the first time on Wednesday night and she did stay asleep for about the first 45 minutes. I took her out to nurse her and then just ended up putting her back in the swing. Last night pretty much the same thing happened. She slept for a little while, woke up to nurse, but then this time I put her back in. Only problem was that she had the hiccups (a VERY common occurrence with her) and so she wouldn't stop fussing. I hate to keep Duncan up so back we came downstairs to the swing. But I'm not giving up. We'll try it again tonight. If all else fails, we'll just do the swing which we'll probably move into our room so I can sleep in my own bed.

For a few nights, I was having to wake Aubree up to nurse her because she was going long stretches without eating and I thought I recalled that newborns need to be woken up if they go too long. She's now on a pattern of waking up pretty much automatically every three hours during the night. So a typical night is that I put her in her Pack N Play at about 11 pm. I then try to catch a few zzz's myself and then she awakens sometime shortly after midnight. She then nurses around three and then again around six. Fortunately this has worked out pretty well with Calleigh's schedule. Aubree will finish nursing at about 6:45, goes back to sleep, and then I'm freed up for when Calleigh gets up at 7:30. Aubree is sleeping a good chunk of the day. I would say she's only awake and alert for about two to three hours combined. Thankfully this has allowed me to get in a nap for about an hour in the afternoon while Calleigh is sleeping too.

I'm happy to report that nursing is still going well. No major problems. I sure hope this means that I'm out of the woods as far as cracking and bleeding goes. Fingers crossed! Oh, one thing I did notice is that there's no leaking this time around. Last time I had to wear pads for the first few months but not this time. Does that mean I'm producing less milk this time or what? I'm very curious about that. Perhaps I'll try to go to the breastfeeding luncheon this week or next. As far as pain in general goes, I'm happy to say there has been very little. I'm only taking one pain pill a day and I'll probably stop that any time now. This recovery has been SO much better.

This morning we had a little mishap. I was walking with Calleigh up the stairs, holding on to her left arm when she jerked it away from me. Immediately she put her arm to her side and started crying about how it hurt. I sure remembered that from last time. She had jerked her elbow out of joint again like she did up in Boston during Christmas which results in "Nurse Maid Elbow." I carried her the rest of the way up the stairs, put her on my bed, gave her some Tylenol and called Duncan. Meanwhile, Calleigh had stopped crying once I gave her her binky to "feel better" as she says but I could tell that there was something definitely wrong with the arm. Thankfully I was able to get an appointment at the doctor right away and we took her in. Sure enough, the doctor concurred that was what it was and was able to twist the elbow back into place. It's not a pleasant experience going through that as Calleigh was screaming. I'm sure it hurt but she also hates the doctor in general so you don't know which is which. Once the doctor did that, it's as if nothing ever happened and she's back to normal. We just need to be really careful when we're holding her hand or arm that we don't allow this to happen again. Of course, now she keeps repeating to anyone that will listen that she broke her arm.

In other news, I'm pleased to say that I lost another seven pounds so now my total is weight loss is down to fourteen pounds. I'm feeling a lot better now about this. I have noticed that my appetite doesn't seem to be quite as big as it was and I'm not eating snacks after supper so hopefully this will all help. Once I get the green light to exercise, I fully intend to buy a used treadmill to put in the garage.

Finally, I'm so excited to say that I have a new nephew. I'm sure most already know about that. My mother left here hurriedly on Sunday morning to fly up to New Hampshire because Camille went into labor. At 9:59 pm, seven days past his due date, Camden Shawn Brace entered the world weighing 8lbs, 2oz. I can hardly wait to meet him!

In closing, I'm posting a bunch of pictures. I don't have the time to go into detail about all the people who have come to visit or activities we've done so I'll just show the pictures instead.