Week in Review: New Normal

We have had a good week! Jude has been more fussy than usual, but several people have told me that their babies did the same thing at around 4 weeks, so I'm hoping it's just a short little growth spurt that will pass soon! We are still enjoying him though, fussiness and all! :) We are settling into a nice routine.

Sunday: Jude had a restless night the night before, and I was SO sleepy that morning, but I decided to get up and go to church anyway. I'm glad I did! Once I was up and moving around, I actually wasn't overly sleepy. We went to church and Sunday School. Jude did pretty good in church. I had to take him out to feed him towards the very end. He did great in Sunday School. We made it through the whole thing! After church, we came home and ate lunch. We had Sarah Denley's chicken spaghetti and it was SO good! That was the last meal someone brought us, so it was back to cooking for me after that. We so enjoyed all the wonderful meals our sweet friends brought us! I was able to take a long nap that afternoon. David took care of Jude for me while Aubrey napped, and he ended up dozing with Jude on his chest. Sweet! We went back to church that night. Jude made it through the whole service! We ate dinner at Jason's Deli. I don't know why, but Jude was super fussy at dinner. I even had to take him in the bathroom to feed him. I had fed him right before we left church, but I guess he didn't get full. It was straight to bed for Aubrey when we got home. Jude went on to sleep too, so David and I went to bed early as well.

Monday: Aubrey slept until 8:20! Whoo!! Ashley was in town for a wedding, so she came over at 9:30. Sarah Denley and Ann Peyton came too, and we had a wonderful visit! SD announced that she is pregnant with baby #2 and we were SO thrilled! I'm so glad Ashley was in town for such an exciting announcement. They stayed until it was time for Jude to eat, and then it was Aubrey's lunch time too. I fed both children and then got Jude to sleep. After Aubrey went down for her nap, I got on the computer and read some blogs. I then straightened up the house. Aubrey had trashed it while Ash and SD were here. Haha. Aubrey slept for almost 2 hours but woke up in an AWFUL mood. I almost went and put her back in her bed she was so grumpy. Nothing made her happy until I gave her some raisins. That snapped her right out of her funk and she was a happy camper after that. Weird. Jude wasn't too happy either. He was just so upset after he ate. I'm hoping this isn't a sign that he has reflux like his big sis did! David came home from work and played with Aubrey while I dealt with Jude. We went to karate that evening. I read my book for book club that's meeting next week. I'm starting early this time! :) When we got home, we ate dinner and put Aubrey to bed. Jude was extremely fussy again. Poor little guy. He felt better after we swaddled him and went right to sleep.

Tuesday: I decided to get brave and run to Target with BOTH kids all alone! I figured I had to do it eventually and we needed to get out of the house to get diapers. Before we went to Target, I ran by our photographer's house to pick up Jude's birth announcements. They turned out so cute! Aubrey and Jude both did ok at Target. With Aubrey riding in the front of the buggy and Jude's seat in the back, it didn't leave a lot of room for the stuff I needed to buy though! We managed ok. Jude was on the verge of a meltdown as we were checking out because he was getting hungry. Thankfully I was able to rush out of there before he reached a full on screaming meltdown. I'm still trying to figure out which child to load into the car first and which one to leave in the buggy... I'll get a system down after a few tries :) When we got home, I fed Jude and put him in the sling while I fixed lunch for Aubrey and me. He was happy in the sling while we ate too! After lunch, Aubrey played while I read and held Jude. They both went down for naps at the same time. Whoo! While they napped, I cleaned up the kitchen from lunch... Aubrey likes to eat at the table instead of her highchair now, and she makes a HUGE mess. I also read some of my book club book. Jude woke up hungry from his nap, and I had literally just started feeding him when Aubrey woke up. So I had to take him upstairs and put him in his bed while I got Aubrey up. Jude was NOT happy about having his meal interrupted. Aubrey wasn't overly thrilled that I had to sit on the couch and feed Jude instead of getting her snack. The afternoons between the time when they wake up and David gets home are usually the hardest part of the day because Jude is fussy for some reason and Aubrey wants my attention too. Once David got home, he entertained Aubrey. Jude went to sleep in his swing while I cooked dinner. We were actually able to sit down and eat dinner together before Jude woke up and needed to eat again. That night I met Sarah Denley and Rebekkah at the park to walk. I had been talking about wanting to start walking with both of them, so we decided to all go together. I had lots of fun and we got some good exercise! When I got home, everyone was asleep. It was time for Jude to eat again though, so he was happy to see me :) He ended up having a rough night -- he was up every 2 hours to eat :(

Wednesday: We started the day at 7:30. I was hoping to get to sleep later since I was up so much in the night. Oh well. Jude slept until 10, but Aubrey was up bright and early! We ate breakfast and played. I worked on addressing our birth announcements. When Jude woke up, I fed him and read some of my book. He was happy after he ate, so I put him in his pack n play and gave Aubrey a bath. By the time that was over, Jude was fussing, so I pick him up and held him for a while. I was then able to put him in his swing and fix Aubrey's lunch. Jude desperately needed a bath, so that's what we did after lunch. I probably should have waited until Aubrey's naptime because Jude screamed through his whole bath. I fully expected this and didn't let it stress me out, but it kind of upset Aubrey. She seemed really agitated and kept trying to sit in my lap while I was bathing him off. Poor thing. I told her he was fine, he just didn't like his bath. After I got him out and was getting him dressed, I told Aubrey he was crying because he was cold. She ran and got his blanket and brought it to me -- how sweet is that?! Anyway, I fed him and put him to bed after his bath. By this time it was Aubrey's naptime. I was pretty sleepy and decided to take a nap too. I had literally dozed off for 15 minutes when Jude started fussing. I gave him his paci and he settled down. I dozed back off for a minute and Aubrey was crying. Ahhh! I went up and told her it wasn't time to get up, and, after crying for a minute, she went back to sleep too. I gave up on a nap for myself at this point though. Instead, I got on the internet and straightened up the house. I also got myself ready for church. It was our first Wednesday night back after taking the summer off. When Aubrey and Jude got up, I got them ready also. We left shortly after David got home so we could run by Hobby Lobby on our way to church. I was happy to be back at church! When we got home, we put the kids to bed. Jude had a much better night. He went two four hour stretches. Much nicer!

Thursday: We got up and started getting ready to go to lunch. These days, I have to allow myself LOTS of time to get us all out of the house! We met Rebekkah and Carver at Corner Bakery for lunch. We had a fun lunch, and Jude slept the whole time. He was starting to wake up towards the end, but I had a bottle, so we decided to go to Gigi's to get a cupcake. Bad idea: Jude had an absolute meltdown! He was not the slightest bit interested in the bottle. He wouldn't even attempt to suck on it. I had to take him into the bathroom and nurse him to to settle him down. I just left Aubrey with Rebekkah. Thank goodness for sweet friends! I was hoping if I nursed Jude for a minute, he would then be calm enough to take the bottle. Nope. He just didn't want that bottle. I ended up scarfing down half of my cupcake and we then had to load up and go home. The cupcake was SO good, so I was sad I didn't get to enjoy it! I'll have to go back without Jude ;) He was still in meltdown mode when we got home, but I just had to let him cry while I put Aubrey down for her nap. :( After she was in bed, I could finally get Jude settled down. He ate and went down for a long nap. I enjoyed the peace and quiet! I straightened up, addressed some birth announcements, and read my book. David was home by the time Aubrey and Jude woke up. I fed Jude and then we went to karate. We went in two cars because David was going out for dinner after karate. Jude was SO fussy during karate. Poor baby was just having a rough day. We went to Michael's during karate and I got 2 picture frames. When we got back to the church, I decided I didn't feel like taking both kids home by myself. As upset as Jude was, I just wanted some reinforcements! Ha! My mom and brothers were staying at church until my dad finished at dinner, so Aubrey, Jude and I stayed too. My brother picked up dinner for us and we ate at church. David called when he was leaving dinner, and we met him at home. He put Aubrey to bed and I fed Jude and got him to sleep. He had a great night. He slept for 5 hours straight!

Friday: Aubrey slept until 8:30 since she had been up late the night before. I fed Jude at 7, and we both went back to sleep, so it was nice getting some extra sleep. We just hung out at home all morning. Jude was in a MUCH better mood than he was the day before, thank goodness! I folded clothes and cleaned up my bedroom while Aubrey played and Jude was happy. After lunch they both went down for naps. I took a shower and straightened up while they slept. Towards the end of naptime, the weather got awful! It was thundering so loud and POURING down rain. I was shocked that Aubrey and Jude were still sleeping through all that. Then the power went off. It was late afternoon and pretty dark outside, so the house was dark too. Aubrey and Jude woke up at almost the exact same time. Poor Aubrey was screaming and so scared by the time I got into her room. It was pitch dark in there, and she had no idea what was going on :( She was fine when we got downstairs. David got home before the power came back on. We decided to just go to dinner early. The power came on right as we were getting ready to leave, of course. We ate dinner at Cheddars. Both of the kids were good through dinner. We went to Target for diapers after we ate. When we got home, I watched Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta.

Saturday: David got up early with Aubrey. Jude and I slept in. It was SO nice! After we got up, we got ready to go shopping. Aubrey stayed with David and I took Jude. We met my mom and grandmother at Primos. We then went to Hancock's but they didn't have the fabric I needed. The weather got awful again -- torrential downpours. We hung out in Ross waiting for it to blow over. When it had stopped raining we went to Target. After that, Jude was getting fussy so we headed home. David, Aubrey, Jude, and I went to Pizza Inn for dinner. I have been trying to eat healthy this week, but I blew it on chocolate chip pizza! When we got home, we went on a walk. The rain had cooled it off enough to go! David pushed Aubrey and I pushed Jude. It worked out well. After Aubrey was in bed, I went to Kroger. Now I think it's bedtime!