And Then There Were Two
I'm officially a mom of two. I'm outnumbered when alone. There's one for each of us when Steve is by my side.
I'm also the parent of a willful toddler (but what toddler isn't willful, really?).
Lucas is--to be horribly cliche--his own person. He's not at all what I remember Ruthie being like. She clung to me like a burr to a wool sweater. She needed me to co-sleep and nurse her to dreamland every night. She woke me every two hours for the first three months of her life.
In the past two nights (I'll say it though I don't want to jinx it), Lucas has let me sleep for 5 hour chunks of time. FIVE HOURS, I tell you. And he readily sleeps by himself in the baby swing. It's utterly astounding.
He's a hungry kid; during the day he'll nurse every 2-3 hours. Every now and again cry to be held. Since he's a boy, I've had to look out for the pee fountain at diaper changes. Boy, does he like to fill his pants, too.
He's a big kid; nearly two pounds larger than Ruth at birth (5lbs 12oz vs. 7lbs 8oz), and just a few days ago weighed in at 8lbs 3oz--already gaining weight in the first week.
We gave him his first bath yesterday. He is one week old.
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Ruth seems okay with him being around. She's fascinated. She won't leave him alone. She likes to put toys and extra binkies in his swing with him. She likes to shake the swing to rock him (which we discourage, of course), and tries to sit in the swing like he does when he's not there (which we also discourage, since she'll break it). She asks to hold him. She tries to pick him up herself.
But she's also started throwing tantrums, and had a few tough nights going to bed. She's a good girl, very obedient, and normally a dream at bedtime and naptime. We've had consistency, living at Steve's parents' house. In about a week we'll throw all that consistency out the window and fly to Boston. Hopefully she won't be too disoriented.
She's going to really miss her grandparents, Papa and Mamou. I'm going to miss them, too, because watching her play and engage with them is one of my favorite things to do.
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Soon, I'll write his birth story, as well as a general reflection on all the crazy stuff that's happened to us since July.
P.S. See more photos of Lucas here.
