Update

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Charles Dickens.

I will swallow a lot of pride in this post, so I am asking for a little grace from those of you who tried to "tell me so."

I will start by saying that the transition from 1 kid to 2 kids has been easier than I thought it would be. Allie loves her brother, and for the most part has not been acting out any more than normal. The problem has been that we don't leave the house as often as we used to. This is not just a problem for her, but for me. I have a hard time sitting at home. I'm not very creative and sitting down to play with her is difficult for me. After about 30 minutes I get bored and need to move on. For those of you who could spend hours playing with your child...well, good for you I guess...it's just not me. Taking her outside is a good thing, but we don't have much to play with out there yet, and I'm not an outdoorsy person. I don't like the heat and again, after 30 minutes I get bored. 

That being said, part of our problem is we just sit at home. Our morning consists of me nursing Andrew around 6 or 6:30 and her getting up sometime shortly after 7. It's truly a gamble as to whether or not she's in a good mood. This morning she was NOT in a good mood. She got up at 7, and by 8 she had been sent to her room 4 times and had 4 or 5 spankings. I won't go into details, but it revolved around her not wanting to take her diaper off. 

So here's my assessment. If I had known how hard two is, I would not have been so worked up about one. Allie was legitimately harder as a baby. She didn't nurse well, didn't sleep well, and her demeanor was general unhappiness for a lot of the time. So, having one kid was a pretty big shock to the system, and I struggled a bit getting a routine. Once she started sleeping, I took her everywhere and life eased up a bit. So I stand by my assessment that going from 0 to 1 kid is worse than going from 1 to 2. However, there are challenges with 2 that I didn't anticipate. 

1. I'm tired all the time. Even though Andrew only wakes up once a night and so far is a dream baby, I still only get about 5 to 6 hours a night that is broken up. I get about 1 to 1.5 hour nap a day which helps, but I'm not able to "sleep when the baby sleeps" because of Allie. 

2. It's hard to find time to shower. Allie has never been a child to let me do anything unless she is in the middle of it. She still doesn't play by herself well at all. 

3. This leads me to number 3...nursing. This has gone better than I expected, but it's still a bit of a battle. She doesn't try to destroy the house or anything, but she just wants my undivided attention and I can't give it to her. 

4. Finding things to do. I actually feel confident about leaving the house with both of them. We've run errands, and gone to Wonderscope by ourselves. The problem is getting out of the house. I get her all settled, then have to nurse him and get him loaded up. And, true to newborn fashion, he spits up and poops on himself quite a bit. He's what I call a Happy Spitter. No gas or discomfort, just urping all the time. 

I don't know how I would be doing this if Andrew wasn't so easy....so far. Things can change, and I'm hoping beyond hope that God blesses us with a mild child. I don't want passive, and I don't want complacent...but I could get used to a laid back personality!

So, long post, but really all this to say that there are parts that are harder and parts that are easier than I thought...which I suppose is how life is. 

Here are a couple pics. The other thing about number two is that I don't have as much time to just take pictures...so there aren't as many. I tried a little photo shoot, but he kept getting mad on his tummy and there's no way I could do it when Allie is awake. 

The face pic isn't the best ever, but it shows you a good one of his eyes open. Jason and I both agree that he doesn't act like a 2 1/2 week old baby. He seems so much older. He's very alert, holds his head up well already and is getting sooo big!!

Hope everyone else is doing well. We are actually doing quite good despite our occasional issues. Jason and I are looking forward to carving time out for each other as this will be another challenge...but so far we are on the same page and loving our two little ones!!

Valerie