Day 8

Day 8! This is going SO fast!

I'm pleased to say that my weight is continuing to go down. I don't think it's going down quite as fast as with Katie, but still - in just one week, I went from 163 lbs to 139. I'm out of the 140's! I only need to get to 125, because I'm trying to stay at a good weight and not slip right back into being underweight. So that's only 15 more lbs to lose, and I'm only one week out!

Will definitely seems older than a newborn. I feel like his adjusted age for being late is a few weeks more than he technically is. (adjusted age referring to how they adjust twins to their due date when they're born early, but this would be the opposite.) Will now has tears, which usually don't happen until a month old. He has these adorable big mouth smiles, the kind that Katie developed when she was a month old. He has no trouble lifting his head and turning it from side to side and keeping it up for quite a long time. In the long run, of course, two weeks doesn't make a difference in life. But right now it makes it seem like the newborn stage is rushing by me. It's like I missed two weeks of his life while he was hiding out inside of me.

He is, however, still a dinker baby. I have a huge supply of 0-3 outfits, and about 10 newborn outfits. I figured he'd be in newborn for a few days and then fit into the 0-3 - wrong! The 0-3 outfits all are giant. He completely swims in them, to the point where his hands and arms come out of the sleeves because they're so loose. I keep running out of newborn clothing all the time. In the opposite end though, his little scratch mittens, which he needs because he loves to claw at his cheeks and eyes, are way too small. His long fingers make the elastic ride up on the heel of his hand instead of at his wrists. Since they only make one size of mittens, there's not much I can do. He likes his hands to be outstretched, not curled up, so they're just not going to fit well.

I have discovered a magical tool though - the blue fuzzy Mickey Mouse blanket I just had to have back in July for him is the best $15 I ever spent. If I wrap him up in that blankie, he immediately stops being fussy and will usually just fall asleep. After the first two days, he decided he didn't like his bouncer at all and wouldn't sit in it. But adding the blanket to the bouncer? He suddenly sits for it!

I also tried his pacifier yesterday. I figured it would help reduce my supply a little bit as I'm still constantly engorged and still leaking the amount of half bottles at a time, and it might make him poop a little less. Since this baby nurses every half hour, (when the doctor said just to make sure they nurse about every 4 hours - yeah right!) it certainly won't hurt to add a pacifier once in a while so I can eat or take a shower (all of my showers have lasted about less than 5 minutes lately because he cries so much when I'm gone). I used it once last night, and he really took to it and with the combination of the blue fuzzy blanket and the pacifier, he put himself to sleep. I'm using it again today so I can eat some breakfast, and while he was less enthusiastic over it, he's been using it. He didn't want it until I covered him up in that blue blankie.

Nighttime has been hell lately. It's hit or miss really, but the bad nights tend to be really bad. I never needed my sleep more than when I'm breastfeeding, recovering from delivery and being up with the baby all day and night. But Katie has been having terrible night terrors. She's terrified of every shadow and movement in the dark. Yesterday she watched and sang along with her Big COmfy Couch episode that tells her to not be afraid of the dark all day long. It's all she watched. She dances to it and sings it joyfully, but it's forgotten at night time. She just doesn't want to go to sleep anymore, and she especially doesn't want to do it on her own. Her timing is just terrible, especially because she refuses to go cuddle with Bill and let him soothe her. Instead, she MUST cuddle with me, while I'm already laying there with a baby attached to me. I have to wait until she's asleep before I go to sleep because of the baby, so I've been spending lots of time laying in uncomfortable positions, where the baby is in front of me nursing and Katie is behind me using my hip or thigh as a pillow and curled up into me. I really hope this ends soon! The only time we get a good night's sleep is when she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night crying. If she actually sleeps through, then I just have to worry about waking up every hour to change the baby's diaper, to nurse the baby, and to clean up spit up and nursing spills.

It still feels so odd to have two kids. I absolutely love it, but it still feels like I'm babysitting sometimes. It's hard to grasp that this new child is part of our every day from now on! He's been such a great baby and I'm just adoring having him all day. While it still scares me at the idea of Bill going back to work and leaving me to take care of these two kids and the house and the dogs all by myself, right now is just heaven. Bill and I are really enjoying adjusting to our new family and splitting up the work between the kids and the house has made things pretty easy going. Why can't it just stay this way??