Whew! Who forgot how exhausting it is having a newborn to take care of? This girl! But of course it's all worth it to get to look at this sweet face all the time:
And I know one day in the not-too-distant future, that adorable baby face will look like this sweet big boy:
Famous last words from Scotty the night before we went in to have Drew: "I'm not worried at all about having two kids. It won't be that different from one." Wrong. I knew there would be adjustments and things would be rough for a while until we all got used to this new little man who relies totally on us/me to care for him at this point. However, it has been exhausting having little to no break. Even though we had my mom, sister, and Scotty's mom here (at different times) for about the first two weeks, it felt like things never really slowed down. If I wasn't feeding Drew, he was being changed, put to sleep, I was trying to nap, David Scott couldn't be set aside, of course, so there was still keeping him entertained (even though he was at school during the day), there was also keeping big brother out of little brother's face, and not to mention the laundry, cooking, etc, that I really didn't have to participate in until after the cavalry left.
This go-round, I do feel more confident in my child-rearing abilities, so I'm more relaxed about things -- specifically, breastfeeding -- which has made my time at home (so far) more pleasant than it was with DS. With our firstborn, I was ready to go back to work after about 3 weeks. I think it must have been his 3-week growth spurt, but December 9th, 2009 was the worst day ever. DS just cried all day long when he wasn't constantly eating, he didn't nap...it was just awful and I remember thinking, "I will NEVER be a stay-at-home mom. I can't handle this. It's just too much. I wonder if I can go back to work sooner than 5 more weeks?!?" The next day was much better and those overwhelming feelings of frustration were gone as was the constant trade-off of feeding and crying by my newborn. Well Baby Drew and I had a similar day on January 28th. It was just rough. And it rivaled December 9th, 2009. But this time I was (semi) ready for The Day. And I didn't cry. And I didn't ask myself if it would be frowned upon for me to go back to work the next day. I know that I will never get these early days (or any day for that matter) back. The good days far outweigh the bad ones. And I'm a-ok with that. I still don't think I am cut out to be a SAHM, as I enjoy my (paying) job outside the home and it helps me to be a better mom, maintain my sanity, etc. But I'm trying to cherish these times with both boys as I know they're fleeting.
David Scott has been as good as he can be with this huge change in his life. He loves "his" baby. And constantly wants to love on him, give him kisses, and just talk to him. Most of the time, it's really sweet and I don't want to discourage the early days of this lifetime bond of brotherhood. But our loving firstborn still doesn't understand that he can't lay on him, or rough-house around him. So we're working on it. And we parents are working on trying to be more understanding when meltdowns occur, and trying not to lose our cool. But we're also trying to be more attentive to DS as well. The first three weeks or so were much more rough than the last few have been, on all fronts, fortunately.
So to recap these first few weeks in one word: Exhausting. Mentally and physically exhausting. But we wouldn't trade these boys and this time, exhausting as it may be, for anything in the world. Well, I might be willing to make some kind of trade for a full night's sleep -- but it would have to be a trade-off for my cooking or baking, rather than the kiddos. Probably. :)
