Life is busy but good. Joel is waking up a little bit more and needing a little more attention. He sometimes wants to party after middle of the night meals now and likes to be held when he is tired enough to want to sleep but not tired enough to stay asleep unless he is in your arms.
I’m finding that determining my priorities throughout the day along with exercising superb time management skills that my house can be clean and organized as well as laundry washed, dinner made and shopping done. I’m learning if we need to be out of the house by a certain time, the dishes can wait but dressing Leah can not and even if I think I have time to do both, I better do the absolutely necessary one first because Joel can become needy very quickly without warning. He is still an easygoing babe as far as newborns go (I think) and I’m loving this time with him.
Leah is doing awesome with the transition of our addition. She has only shown some jealousy a few times in the first couple of weeks and that was quite minimal. I thought Leah would be more all over the new babe but I think she realizes that he can’t interact much which doesn’t provide for much fun. She has hardly held him at all which is fine with me. She loves to help give him a bath, give him a soother when he is upset and sit by him but other than that, she goes about her merry way without giving him too much thought. This actually makes my job easier as I don’t have to worry for the most part about her being too rough or hurting him unintentionally. I think it also helps with her being not jealous as I don’t have to tell her no a lot when it comes to Joel. I’m in awe of how many presents she has received along with gifts from friends. She is one blessed girl.
I’m still fine tuning how to balance everything in life with Joel around. I know Leah and I need to visit others and get out of the house but we also need to spend more time at home so I can get chores done as well as rest. It is hard to plan out my week in advance as I don’t know how much sleep I will get each night which directly affects my energy level and sociability. Right now I try to keep a couple of days each week with no commitments and then we can go out if I feel up to it.
All this to say, I’m feeling extremely blessed as well as a little more exhausted to have my two wonderful children in our family. Here are a few pics from a couple of weeks ago. The second child definitely gets way less pictures. I can handle two children out and about on my own pretty well but I haven’t been able to add the camera to the mix yet.
And a few random notes I want to remember….
Right around Joel’s birth, Leah learned to count with pretty good accuracy. When she was at my mom’s, she spontaneously said, “there are five people at the table” and she was right. She mastered rote counting to ten awhile ago but now she is understanding what numbers actually stand for.
During the day Joel eats every 3-4 hours with an extra cluster feed in the evening but during the night he will usually go for 3 hours from the start of one feed to the next. He generally is awake for a few hours after he gets up for the day (around 7-8 am) and then sleeps mid day before he has his next long stretch of awake time in the evening. He is awake off and on during the day but generally not for long periods of time.e
Joel loves the motion of the car. He does fine in his car seat but if he is fussy and we are heading out, I rush to get him in the car and going as that will soothe him most of the time.
When I was folding diapers the other day, I counted them after I was done. I had twenty one diapers folded which was two days worth and the vast majority of them are number two’s. That is a whole lotta dirty diapers from one little man. I’m always surprised when I check his diaper if it is not wet or dirty and I check him regularly.
When Joel is fussy, Leah likes to help solve the problem. She tells us why she thinks Joel is crying and what we should do about it. Some of her reasons have included Joel being sad about his umbilical cord falling off to him missing her. Pretty sweet.