Life with Two

Things are still going well here. I have obviously had less time to blog though :) I hardly blogged at all right after Aubrey was born, and I regret that now, so I'm going to try to do better! The transition from one child to two has really been easier than I expected it to be. Of course, that's not to say it's been easy. I think having a newborn is always going to be a bit of a challenge, and having an almost 2 year old adds it's own set of challenges.

So far, the hardest part of having two children has been the lack of sleep. Jude really is a good sleeper, but he's a newborn. Enough said, right? Haha. For the first 2 weeks, I was having to wake him up every 3 hours to eat, and then when we got to stop doing that, he went for a 5 hour stretch the first night! That was wonderful, but it was apparently also a fluke. :) Ever since then he's been waking up on his own every 3 hours. Sometimes 2 1/2. Last night he did give me one 4 hour stretch, which was much nicer! The hardest part about getting up to feed him is not the actual feeding part though. I have been blessed with babies who are really fast eaters. I can get up with him, feed him, burp him, change his diaper, swaddle him, and feed him on the other side all in less than 30 minutes. BUT he then takes forever to go back to sleep. I put him in his bed and he fusses. I give him his pacifier and he's quiet for 5 or 10 minutes and he's fussing again. This will go on for 30 minutes or more before he finally goes back to sleep. That means I'm not getting tons of sleep between feedings if he's eating every 3 hours :/ I think the problem is that he's sleeping too much during the day. I need to make sure he has more awake time during the day, but that's hard to do when you have another child demanding your attention. It's so easy to just let Jude sleep in his swing as long as he will. He does seem to want to have some awake time during Aubrey's nap though. Not my ideal schedule! Haha. He also wants to be awake from about 9:30-11:30 every night. This is also not ideal since I'm wanting to go to bed early. Aubrey is waking up around 7 these days, so sleeping in isn't an option. That's the big difference between your first and second child -- you can't just sleep all through the day when your baby sleeps if you've had a rough night. I am trying to remind myself that these newborn days FLY by. I seriously feel like Aubrey was a newborn for about a week. I'm really trying to cherish these days and enjoy Jude while he's tiny, because I know he will be a toddler in the blink of an eye.

It's definitely not all negative stuff around here though! Jude is still super sweet. He is rarely fussy. He really only cries when he's hungry or when we're changing his diaper. He seems noticeably bigger to me these days. He is getting more and more alert when he is awake, and he is just too cute for words. I actually have mommy guilt that I don't hold him more than I do. Aubrey was kind of a high-maintenance baby, and I would literally hold her for hours every day when she was little. It was tough, but I also feel like it created a wonderful bond between us. I feel bad that, because Jude is so laid back, he ends up spending the majority of the day in his swing. I worry that he won't love me as much as Aubrey does because I don't hold him as much. I know that's probably silly. He will definitely know how much his mommy loves him -- I tell him all the time :) I'm sure this is just normal when you have more than one child.

I haven't been brave enough to get out of the house alone with both of the kids yet. I needed to go to the grocery store today, and I really contemplated going with Jude and Aubrey for, oh, about.... 2 seconds. Haha! I need to look into getting a double stroller so we can at least walk around the mall or something on those days when we are just going insane at home. Of course, those days are FEW and FAR between -- hahahah ;)

Aubrey is still doing fairly well. She has had a few meltdowns, but she really is doing better than I expected her to. I just need to devote a whole post to the Big Sis soon since this post has gotten long and rambling already :) Right now, both of the little sweeties are sleeping (amazing!) so I need to go try to be productive... or just enjoy the silence!!