Surviving the first few weeks!

I won't pretend that it has been easy, but I can happily report that we're over three weeks in and nobody has been injured. What's more, things are looking up all the time!

The first week was really tough. Oliver was unhappy any time that he wasn't breastfeeding (which he wanted to do nonstop) or asleep (which was always very short-lived). I thought that this was normal for a big breast-fed baby, but when the community health nurse came to visit us and weigh Oliver at one week in, it became clear that there was a very good reason for all of his crying and wanting to eat. He had lost considerably more weight than the normal loss during the first week and was HUNGRY!! Despite my optimism that breastfeeding was going really well, I was not producing enough milk (even with the nearly non-stop feedings). So we bought a tin of formula and things started to improve right away. The nightly screaming fits ended. The nonstop eating was curbed (although he still eats a whole lot). Finally he started to sleep in reasonable chunks of time. And just the other day, Elliot and I got a glimpse of a beautiful Oliver smile.

And with a little bit of sleep (and a prescription of antidepressants to help with the postnatal depression again) I've been much happier too. The idea of taking care of both boys on my own has become slightly less terrifying. And in fact, the days that I've had them both on my own have been more good than bad. Sure there was that one morning when Elliot was fed up with me and refused to do anything I asked and then took off all his clothes at nap time and peed all over his mattress. But with the help of Elliot's favourite videos to get us through a crunch, we've all survived and even managed to have some fun. In fact, Elliot, Oliver and I even had a successful trip to the grocery store without Paul. And I'm hopeful that with some more time and practice, taking care of both kids will become as routine and easy and fun as taking care of Elliot had become before Oliver came around. It has got to, right?

Saturday morning photo shoot

 

Elliot as a big brother

We couldn't be happier about the way Elliot is treating his little brother. In fact, as of yet there have been no purposeful attempts to hurt Oliver (that we know about anyway). Sure, Elliot can be a little bit rough with his affection, and there have been a couple of times that he tried to plonk himself down on our laps on top of Oliver, but mostly he tries to be gentle.

And it's so precious to see him show off his little brother to the people in his life. Whenever we come to pick him up from daycare he yanks the blanket off Oliver's carrier and tells all the kids that his little brother is here. They all come running and Elliot shoves his head into the carrier to give Oliver one of his somewhat painful smushy faced kisses.

It's going to be so much fun to watch these two grow up together!

Feeling cooky

Happy Birthday Daddy!

One-week-old and showing off my stuff

Bat Boy!

Daddy thinks it's awfully mean, but Mommy can't help but call me Bat Boy due to all the long black hair growing out of my ears. ~ Oliver

Eating Machine!

Oliver has taken to breastfeeding like a natural and wants to do nothing else than suck suck suck all day and night which has left this new mommy exhausted. Sure I'm stoked that the breastfeeding is working out this time around and I don't have faulty equipment like I thought, but I do have other things to do like go to the bathroom, eat, take care of Elliot, and oh yeah, SLEEP!!

Actually things have gotten a bit better the last few days and we've had some breakthroughs where I was able to get Oliver off to sleep without the boob and he stayed that way for a decent chunk of time. He's even decided that he won't scream all of the time that he's not attached to me which I think is quite kind.

I've only done a half day with both boys on my own so far and we all survived. In fact, both boys were on their best behaviour. Friday will be the real test when I have them both all to myself all day long. Hopefully by then, Oliver and I will continue to make some progress in setting up some routines that are a bit more conducive to taking care of two littlies and maybe letting this mommy get a little sleep too.

In the meantime, I've gotten very used to seeing Oliver like this:

Oliver Photos!

Setting the record straight

Despite the overwhelming resemblance of Oliver to Kim Jong-Il in a certain photo that his father and brother posted, Oliver is not in fact Kim Jong's love child and is, in fact, quite cute if a bit squishy-faced.

Hello Oliver

Mommy and my new little brother Oliver are still in the maternity ward while Daddy and I drift between day care, visiting mommy and home.

Oliver doesn't do much but he also doesn't cry much.

So here is what he looks like:

~ Elliot

The new kid!

The newest member of Team Thomas is here. And he's a whopper! 56 cm (22 in) long, 4.265 kg (9 lb 6.5 oz) and born at 3.45 pm on 7 March. He's got a heap of black hair and a face like an eskimo. We're fighting with technology at the moment so stay tuned for photos. ~ Paul

Last minute belly shoot

With the birth just around the corner (in fact, I'm having some mild contractions as I type this), we thought it would be appropriate to get some last minute belly photos. You might notice a lovely not-so-little stretch mark (looks a bit like the scar from a knife wound) that reared its little head just the other day and which I think is frankly a bit rude. So here's the last look at this mamacita's pregnant tum!

 

  

At long last . . .

. . . the pool is operational. Can you tell we're happy about it?!?!

Sure the deck and the permanent pool fencing aren't quite finished, but that didn't stop us from jumping in and getting some relief from a serious end-of-summer heat wave.

And you can probably guess how much I'm loving the idea of spending at least the first part of labour floating in our pool. I was really beginning to think that Oliver would be here before the pool company finally got around to getting our pool swimmable. All I can say is better late than never, that and HALLELUJAH!!!

Movie Date

In a desperate attempt to get out of the heat and to entertain Elliot without exhausting my now humongous body, I decided to take Elliot to his first movie (well not really, he accompanied me to a few when he was really really little, but he slept through most of them so they don't really count, do they?)

We invited Nana and headed down to the multiplex for a hilarious screening of Gnomeo and Juliet. And Elliot LOVED it!!! He was so glued to the screen (or busy looking behind us at the projector) that he never left his seat. It was such a fun way to spend the afternoon.

And now Elliot is just a little bit gnome-obsessed!

Have we mentioned that Elliot likes to get dirty?