7 Weeks

It's been a busy week and now Frances is 7 weeks old. That's almost 2 months. Wow! Here below is a picture of our weekly photo shoot.  As you can see, Henry is very involved. It's funny, before Frances Henry never wanted his picture taken, but now that Frances is around it is a whole new ball game.

 Henry has finally came around to being a normal child with a new sibling, meaning he is acting out.  He is much more frustrated than normal, has more temper tantrums and is deliberately doing things that he knows he shouldn't do. One day he threw a paper rocket and hit Frances (she's fine). Henry went to time out and then came back to me and asked "What would happen if I hit Frances again." Luckily, he did not try. He never has been a bad boy, and I think he is doing it for attention. A few nights ago we addressed it with Henry, asking if he needed more attention. After asking what attention meant, he paused for a second and said "Well, I do like you Mom."

That did it for me.  He was craving my attention. There is a lot of time I can't do things with him, but I vow to be better at using my free time toward him. In my mind I did a little brainstorming. One thing that both Henry and I like are crafts. Today I went to a craft store and picked out lots of activities for us to do together.  I hope this helps.

In addition to Henry acting out, my sister and her family came and visited us. It was a lot of fun. Malcolm was pretty funny around Frances, but you had to keep a close eye on him because he hasn't learned what gentle means yet.

 We stayed in our house the whole weekend, got lots of takeout and made play dough.

 I have never made playdough before and it certainly made me feel mom-ish. I liked it. Renae and Benjamin got a lot of Frances and Henry time. Hopefully this will be enough to keep them content for at least a few months.

 The day Renae's family left was the day little Frances got sick. Henry had a runny nose for about 2 weeks and then croup. I was thinking the worst. Frances was so stuffed up and could not stay asleep, but she was eating okay after saline and bulb suctioning. I was so worried she was going to have croup or bronchiolitis.  I was holding her almost 24 hours a day just to care for her and ease my mind that she was doing okay.  I think if I wasn't breastfeeding, this would be a different story, but the worst only lasted a day and a half. I am so relieved. I know she is going to get sick more than Henry did as a baby ( mostly thanks to Henry), but this was too early for me. I hope the next illness isn't for at least a few month.

I think she does too.

6 weeks for the girl and croup for the boy

 6 weeks is a pretty good milestone, right?  She is doing so great. She is content and happy and is starting to talk more and more.  I realized a few days ago that she probably needs some toys, or things to look at, so we brought up Henry's baby toys and bought a couple new ones. She really likes the toys. She has even started batting them around with her hands.  It seems like a huge breakthrough mentally to go from sitting content watching the world go by, to actually interacting with the world by reaching out. I'm pretty sure she is thinking "What are those things on the sides of my body? What, I can actually move them? This rocks!."

 Look what I captured on my camera last night. Pretty great, right?  I couldn't have done it without my little Henry.  Now Henry is another story.  For the last 1 1/2 weeks Henry has had a pretty runny nose, but that was all. Yesterday his voice started getting hoarse and he developed a croupy cough. Henry has had croup in the past, but it is something you grow out of. Since he is 4, I was hoping the bad croup was behind us. He went to bed fine, but about 2 hours later woke up with a worse cough, was agitated and said he was having problems breathing.  Oh, and he had a high fever too. Croup is always worse when agitated and Aaron was able to calm Henry down.  So, Henry got treated with medicine and now he is acting pretty good. The cough has decreased, his hoarse voice is a little better and he doesn't have a fever. He will be fine, but now my major worry is Frances. She is only 6 weeks old and if she gets croup, she won't handle it well. We have tried limiting kisses to Frances and now are definitely keeping him away, but it is probably too late. She has been exposed. I am hoping upon everything that my breastfeeding and hand washing is enough to keep her well.  As a doctor I can think of all the things that could go wrong with her getting sick this young. Maybe it is better to be naive (although I will never have that option anymore). Being a parent can really pull at your heart strings. 

Also, being a parent can fill you with so much joy. Frances has already taken a special liking to Henry. Look at her smile at him, and look at how Henry is playing with her. Such joy.

A Normal Life

Since going to Henry's gymnastics, Frances has left the house a couple times. I'm starting to feel like normal life is resuming. I am thinking of things I want to do that don't revolve around Frances.  This is a good thing. Hopefully it means that I will be ready to go back to work when it is time.

Frances has started forming a schedule. It's nice to know what to expect, but the schedule is not perfect. Frances is usually awake most in the morning and has the most smiles at that time. At night she has her fussy period from 10pm to midnight where she cannot be put down. After that she will sleep for 3-4 hours and go back to bed relatively easy. It used to take me an hour to get her back to bed, but last night it was taking me 45 minutes. So, things are improving. The toughest part is to trying to get to bed before her fussy time occurs. After Henry goes to bed I try to cram everything I want to get done in a few short hours. Usually I'm left with a half hour nap before it all begins. It's alright, but I am ready for a little more sleep.

Frances has been smiling and cooing a lot. I remember having to work for Henry's smiles. With Frances, they just happen with eye contact. She is also much calmer than Henry. Sometimes when she is awake, she fusses a little in our arms. When we put her down in a chair or the floor, she calms down and seems content. Henry would NEVER want that. Now that she is older, the differences are becoming more evident and it is fun getting to know her.  Oh, I just thought of something else that is funny.  Frances really seems to like diaper changes. When she gets on the table, more often than not, she starts grunting. It's like she knows what is going to happen. Sometimes we just have to keep her on the changing table until she is finished. It's like she knows what she is supposed to do, and would rather not sit in it.  I think this will mean early potty training, but we'll see.

These are pictures of me attempting to capture Frances' smile. It's a little hard because she needs that eye contact and the camera gets in the way.  I'm sure I'll get a real one soon.

 This morning I woke up to snow! It's the first big snow of the season and it is February. This morning Aaron and Henry went out to shovel our drive way. They both had a lot of fun. As you can see, there were things that needed attending to more than the driveway, like the tree...

 and grass.

After shoveling they had a snowball fight, but I couldn't capture it on the camera because Frances wanted to sleep. Hopefully this snow will be around for a bit so Henry can enjoy it before spring comes.

5 Weeks

Well, another week has passed  by and look at that, my baby is now 5 weeks. She is looking more and more like a regular baby (and not a newborn). Take a look!

 You can see my foot in the picture. Oops.  Also, as you can see by the picture, we are currently using disposable diapers due to bad diaper rash. We change her diaper every time I feed her, but with her stooling so much, I guess it is not enough. We are using diaper cream and because it can coat the cloth diapers, we have to shell out some extra money (as well as throw away diapers). Too bad. Hopefully when she starts decreasing her stools this will not happen again.

Today my real life started. No, I didn't go back to work, but I had to manage both kids for a little while. You see, Aaron had the unfortunate need to have his wisdom teeth out, and it happened today.  Aaron is doing great by the way.  This morning Henry had gymnastics and I needed to take him and bring Frances along.  It went okay, but I definitely felt stressed. Everything went pretty well until Frances got hungry about 10 minutes before gymnastics was over. I tried to feed her, but I don't think I did very well. I have a drape, but I can't see her through the drape and I still need to watch her latch to make sure things are going well. Really, I needed three hands. So, I tried the best I could and we loaded back into the car. As soon as we got in the car Frances was wailing like she wanted to eat more. I was thinking I could just drive straight back and feed her at home, but after about 30 seconds I had enough and pulled into a parking lot. I fed her in the car, but I didn't have as much room as I was used to, and again the feeding didn't go so well. I kind of gave up and put her back in the car seat and drove home. Frances cried for about 50-75% of the drive.  She doesn't cry that much and I really didn't like the sound of her cry. The funny thing is that Henry didn't mind it at all. I would have thought he would. In fact, in the beginning he was mimicking her cry and it sounded like I had two crying babies in the back. Not the best thing for a mommy. Eventually we got home, I finished feeding her and all was well. Even though it was a little rough, I know I can do it. It's funny because the night before I was going over all the steps to prepare for the outing in my head. It was a big deal in my mind, but not in reality. Still, I did it and I can probably do it again if needed.

 The picture above was taken tonight. The picture below was taken when Henry was 4 months.

I didn't realize how similar they looked. Frances doesn't look like Henry at 5 weeks; he was just too scrawny. Frances chubbed up quickly.  I couldn't be prouder!

4 Weeks

So, she has been out of my belly now for 4 weeks. Pretty great! I can see changes in her face including the development of a double chin. She has come a far way in that little time.

For me, the biggest struggle by far is still the night time. She just never wants to stay asleep and now she is resisting falling asleep. I've been doing pretty good accepting her newborn-ness and being very attentive to her, but last night when she had been up for 2 hours with no end in sight, I was loosing my perspective. I just don't understand what I am doing wrong.  I'm probably doing nothing wrong, per say, but I don't think I am listening to her clues.  Looking back, I think the problem might have been that she wanted to be awake and I wanted her to be asleep. I thought she had figured out the day-night issue, but maybe not. She just might want to be awake more in general and she has picked that time to play.

Last night, the funniest thing is that I finally got her settled sleeping right next to me at about 2am or so and she slept and slept. She didn't wake up until 6:30.  So, I guess that is good, right? Ack, newborns are so confusing.  I will try to listen better to her needs, and also try to keep her awake a little more today.

A few days ago we introduced a pacifier. When she takes it, it really helps her, but sometimes she refuses it. I think this will help Aaron a lot when I am gone and she needs some comfort.

Another thing that is new with her is that she is starting to smile. It is not consistent, but it is always right in context, so I believe it. The first time it happened I was changing her diaper and put my face right in front of hers. She immediately smiled. I then gave her to Aaron where she smiled again. This morning I put her in a baby chair while I made myself breakfast. When I picked her up again, she looked at me and smiled. It's not all the time, but when it happens, man it's great!  Hopefully I am not just making this up because I love that little smile. 

Henry has still been doing great. Aaron and I are amazed at how well he is sleeping through the night. Frances' crying doesn't seem to wake him up at all. I hope this means good things when they share a room. Henry has been a little more frustrated than normal. He has what he calls a sad spot. When he is upset he goes to his room and sits on the middle of the bed. I believe we are supposed to come in and sooth him. Before Frances this would occur maybe once a week. Now it seems to happen a couple times a day. A good example of this is once for lunch he told Aaron he was done with his food so Aaron ate the rest of it. Later Henry came back to eat more and discovered Aaron ate it all. Well, he got sad so he went to his room. A little ridiculous, but also it seems mature. Instead of acting out he removes himself from the situation and then later will get the attention that he wants.

Speaking of attention, the one thing I haven't paid much attention to is myself. I look in the mirror and I can see all those sleepless nights. I usually shower about every other day and to be honest, usually change clothes every other day too. I haven't worn any make-up for about a month and all I can think about is sleeping and eating (in that order). I did, however, do something good for myself a few days ago. I got on our treadmill and walked for about 30 minutes. Thinking back I don't know how I had the energy, but I hope to do it again soon. This (hopefully) is the start of getting myself back.