Saturday, September 5, 2009

We call this survival mode...

I think I can safely say we are still running in survival mode around here. I spent the past week at my mom's house so they could help out with Eliza. If I were to stay here with her in the condo she would never see the light of day and I don't want to do that to her when the weather is still so beautiful. Plus, I think the extra attention is helping her to cope with becoming a big sister. We are home for the weekend and then back to Nana's for another week. After that Pete will hopefully be spending some time at home- although he is doing his photography biz on the side- so he is pretty busy with that.

I give so much credit to all of you mom's with toddlers and newborns. Holy moly how do you do it without a lobotomy. Eliza is like a whirlwind. She is constantly climbing into the baby's cradle swing, bouncy seat, or on the nursing pillow etc. If I am trying to nurse she gets into everything! When he is sleeping she is poking every part of his face saying, Jude's eyes, Jude's ears etc. I know she usually just wants to give him kisses and love him but she doesn't exactly understand the concept of GENTLE! When the baby starts to fuss my body works too well and my stress hormone soars through the roof. This is usually happening at a time when Eliza decides to finger paint -say- the dining room table. If there were a black market for cortisol I'd be a millionaire. Any advice on this one?

Jude is doing great. He had his tongue released and we are still getting into the nursing groove. He is eating better but I am still having some soreness and that weird lipstick shape after he nurses. I have stopped keeping track of how often and/or how long he nurses especially at night. He has plenty of wet and dirty dipes and is gaining weight so I know he is getting enough to eat. I am hoping the latch issues will resolve with time. I hope to make it to the breastfeeding mom's group next week at Postpartum Place. I can have him weighed again which always help to ease me anxiety ridden mind. Sorry for all the info but that is my life at the moment. Nipples and milk people. That's it!

Other than that we have been doing lots of baby wearing. I received a purple sleepy wrap from Heather and it is AWESOME! I have also taken the kids out a few times in The BOB stroller and I do have to say it is worth every cent.

Now I am going to close my eyes quickly because both kids are ASLEEP and I am actually not holding Jude at the moment.

5 comments:

Pam said...

Sounds like you are doing great as the mommy of two. Don't let anyone fool you- we all started out that way. I am glad that you can stay with your mom and have some extra help during these early weeks. I hope you can keep getting the help and things just keep getting better and better. You are doing great!!

Beth said...

Glad to hear Jude did well with his procedure. I'd like to apologize in advance for taking your hubby away from you. He'll be taking pictures of Julian soon. You're welcome to come over and join him but I don't know if Eliza would have fun since we don't have much room here.

Tracy said...

Glad to hear that you are staying at you parents' house again this week for the extra support. I can't wait to see everyone hopefully the week after next we can set something up. Thanks for mentioning that you got a sleepy wrap 'cause I was totally stalling on mine with the intention of buying you your own. Ha! Ha! Oh and BTW I kind of recall someone laughing hysterically at me last year when I was completely overwhelmed with two kids. Just saying. So happy you joined the club :-)

Anonymous said...

OK first off, I have stroller envy! I didn't get a double and now I wish I had b/c when I wear Kiley, Kaelin wants to be worn too and around the house it's OK, but it's too much at say...the grocery store to have one on front and one on back.

Secondly, I had the lipstick shape with Kiley for a couple of weeks, too...it was new to me b/c I didn't with Kaelin but thankfully it has gone away.

What a blessing to have your family nearby to help with E! I know what you mean about them getting into things when you're nurisng (which now feels like all the time). K is really rough with Kiley too and she doesn't know what gentle is.

lastly, my ped allows me to come to do a weight check with no appt and no copay anytime I want to...maybe your's would too although with two kiddos in tow, this doesn't appeal to me anymore!

Marcy said...

I am in such awe of you. It sounds like you are doing great-- there's no way this can be easy! But you seem calm (enough) and it's so great that you have the support of your mom and get to stay there during the week right now.

I hope the nursing continues to get better. I will say, the most worthless piece of breastfeeding advice I got was that "if baby has a proper latch then it won't hurt." Which is utter bullcrap. Hopefully the soreness isn't too bad and should go away soon (I think for most moms it goes away by 6-8 weeks or so, or at least gets MUCH better).

Thinking of you and your family, and let me know if there's anything I can ever help with.