Here’s something that surprises no one with kids: The first three months are HARD. Really hard. It’s pure survival mode, everyone is crying, no one is sleeping, and this blob that you’re spending every second of your day taking care of, doesn’t thank you at all.
And then you hit the three month mark. And things start to change.
Before I had children, baby-proofing seemed like a one time thing you did. Your house wasn’t safe, you baby-proofed it, and now it was. Instead I’ve learned it’s an almost constant state. First you move things out of reach, and then what they can reach changes. They learn to climb, and then more things need to be moved or secured. We’ve done a pretty good job, but it’s getting to the point where we need to do another pass through the house.
First up? Our bedroom.
Language is powerful. Nothing reinforces that more than having children. Suddenly you’re watching what you say around them or how you say it. Aware that they’re taking in everything, and learning from you. Words can also dictate behavior. E learned a new word recently, and it’s completely changing how we spend our weekends.
The word? Outside.
I saw it stopped at the cross street ahead, and started hoping. As it slowly pulled out, I got excited and sped up just a tiny bit. Pretty soon we were side by side on the road, me purposely matching their speed, and it hit me. Wow we do weird things for our kids. Still, I called out to E and told him to look out his window, and got exactly the reaction I was looking for. “Bus! Bus! BUS BUSBUSBUS!” Yes, I was in the passing lane, speed matching the slow transit bus on the drive home from daycare so my son could see his latest obsession.
END OF THE 4th TRIMESTER!! YAY!!!
Ahem.
Little babies are squishy and adorable and wonderful. And exhausting and they don’t play very much and they don’t sleep very much and when you’re still dealing with healing and hormones and everything… it’s just nice to be at a point where things are getting easier. And more fun.
A lot of little things happen around here, and it’s hard to keep up. And since my brain is so fragmented anyway, here’s a brain dump of a post. Random things we’ve done or things that are floating around in my head. Enjoy!
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Baby G has this thing he does, where every time we go to lie him down after we’ve been holding him, he gets this terrified look on his face and his arms flail up like he’s afraid we’re going to drop him. He totally does not trust us. Every single time. He is not someone who can hide his expression, and his expression says “Holy cow I’m falling and they’re not going to catch me!”
Time for an update on our kitty! Thank you to everyone who reached out or listened to me vent about this whole process. It was horrible while we were going through it, but looking back it was so worth it.
It was three long weeks of 2 treatment and isolation and life just not being normal. First she went away for treatment, which was weird because she’s never been boarded before, so I’m not used to being home without her. I thought this was going to be the worst part, but luckily I have two little humans to keep me distracted. E only asked for her a few times, and we were able to distract him pretty quickly.
Then she came home, and we were told to keep her in isolation for two weeks, and definitely keep her away from any children since she was still slightly radioactive. This is when it got bad. She could tell we were on the other side of the door, and so she cried and screamed and scratched at the door for the first 24 hours she was home. Between her and the baby, no one got any sleep that night. It was horrible and ripped my heart apart.
We made it to church!!
Honestly, it’s been a while. I was sick and pregnant, and then E’s naps weren’t lining up, and then we had a newborn. I know a lot of people who tell me to skip or mess with the naps in order to get to church, but you’re talking to someone who ranks the importance of sleep over food, so you know how that went. Maybe if I was a stay at home parent and could assure that the rest of the week he took really good and uninterrupted naps I’d be more willing, but the weekend is usually when he makes up on sleep he didn’t get during the week.
Hello! It’s me, a fully functioning adult, and I’m here to talk about things besides the tiny humans that I live with. I know, crazy right?
I went back to work this week. It’s a little weird because it’s 6 weeks earlier than last time, and I keep expecting myself to be at the same spot that I was when I went back to work after E. But it’s only been 10 weeks since I gave birth, and it was my second pregnancy and labor was harder on my body this time, so I’m not quite the same. I am feeling great, but not 100% “normal” and I’m still searching for clothes that fit. Maybe I’ll never get exactly back to where I was, but I need to keep reminding myself that it hasn’t been THAT long.
Is 21 months a thing? I did 3 months updates for the rest of this year, so I guess I’ll continue it here, but don’t expect a 27 month update… maybe I’ll do every 6 months after the 2 year mark?
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 33 inches (Estimated)
Weight: 25 pounds (Estimated)
Teeth: 11? (It’s getting harder to check!)
Words: 30+ (list below)
Favorite Things: turkeys, elephants, trucks, baby shark/row row/wheels on the bus, art projects of any kind, the color orange, his iron pills, baby brother, being tickled
It's amazing how quickly you can forget the baby years. Even when you're still in them. So that's how I found myself feeling like a rookie mom at our 2 month appointment, even though I've been here only a year and a half ago.
I partially blame it on E, because he’s such a calm kid that after his shots you only have to pick him up for him to stop crying and move on. I wasn't expecting G to be exactly the same, but I also want expecting NOT being able to calm him down. Eating didn't help, cuddling didn't help, I ended up just packing him up and heading home, since I knew he'd fall asleep in the car (which he did).
We haven’t had much snow this winter, something that I’d normally be okay with. But the combination of me not having to commute anywhere, and us having a toddler with a new sled to try out had me actually wishing for snow. So of course we got to February with only 5” on record, all of which came with a rain storm which meant it was mushy and gross, and melted the next day.
Nick Names: Goober, Snortle-pig, Lovey
Height: 23.5 inches (76th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs, 15 oz (87th percentile)
Head: 16.25 inches (97th percentile)
Special Outings: First time with all 4 of us in the car (to get oil changed haha), Burlington Mall, First snow angel, Mama’s dr appointment, PetSmart
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Raina & Zaida, Nicole, Stephen & Alice
Loves: Sleeping, pacifiers, big brother, staring into the light
Hates: The cold, being hungry, tummy time
When we first brought G home, E kept pulling the blanket off of him. At first we thought it was an attention thing, but we realized it was more that he needed to see the baby. The whole baby. He needed to see that it really was a tiny person we’d brought home, and not just a crying head.
And it’s continued. He loves to point out his own eyes/nose/mouth, and then point to the same body part on the baby. He’s learning that the baby is a person.
It’s fascinating watching a tiny human learn how to talk. Some words will randomly appear with no sign of where they came from. Others are fought for. Practiced over and over.
Apple? Randomly popped up one day and never left. Dad? We’ve been working on that for MONTHS. He’s finally getting there, but there are still some days that Tom gets called Mama or nothing at all. But the days where he gets out a “da!” is worth it.
Today it finally happened. After hearing about it all the time but never experiencing it, someone paid for my Starbucks order in the drive through! It's like winning the random acts of kindness lottery. You feel special and chosen, and it instantly cheered me up. And boy did I need cheering up. It was the whole reason I was in that drive through line. And in case you're wondering, yes I did pay it forward (backward?) and paid for the person behind me. You better believe I was passing on that insta-good mood karma.
I belong to a mom group on facebook. It’s a bunch of girls that I’ve never met, and it’s completely random how I found them, but in the past two years, they’ve become my go to for mom advice, venting and random kid stuff. They’ve been talking a lot about pictures lately. About making our husband take pictures more often, because most of the time we’re the one’s taking the pictures and then we’re never in them. And then we talk about not deleting those pictures even though we don’t like how we look in them. Because our kids won’t care, and all they’ll want is pictures of their mom.
May 18, 2008. The first time we met. She was small, and scared, and her siblings picked on her, so she was hiding behind a piece of furniture. Rebecca looked at me like I was crazy as I tried to move the dresser to get to her. Was I sure I didn’t want to play with one of the kittens running around the room, basically throwing themselves at me? I was sure.
She came home May 22, along with her brother Aiden, just days before my birthday. She was just as timid, just as scared of me then. I had to tip the carrier to get her to come out, since she wasn’t accepting my food bribes. I had to earn her trust and her love, which I did slowly over the coming days, months, years.