Loving Lucy and Isaac

This post is dedicated to answering Jenn's questions about A) how kid #1 is reacting to kid #2 and B) how I'm adjusting to having two kids. I felt unqualified to answer the questions a week ago, and it's all still brand-new, but at least I see some trends. So here we go:

A) Isaac sort of loves "Baby Lucy." About 65 times a day, he'll go over to her bassinet and say, "Hi, BAY-bee Lucy!!!" He is delighted when I hold Lucy close enough for him to touch her and he loves giving her kisses all over. He'd like to climb into her bassinet and shower her with all of his toys, but we've created some firm rules about not giving toys to Lucy and not touching her unless Doug or I have given him permission and we're watching. So far, we haven't had any disasters.

When we first brought Lucy home, Isaac would cry, "Hold you, Mommy!" every time I picked Lucy up. If Lucy wasn't starving, I'd put her down and scoop Isaac up, showering him with kisses. (Speaking of showers, I have showered every day since Lucy's birth. Isn't that awesome?! Here's what I do to make that happen: that's right--I contain both of my children, and keep one pleasantly distracted.)

If I need to feed Lucy and Isaac gets clingy, I invite him to come sit right by me so we can read a story together.

Isaac's more adjusted now, so he doesn't always ask to be held when he sees me holding Lucy. I try to make Isaac feel INCREDIBLY special so he knows he isn't being supplanted. That translates to getting him from naps without Lucy in my arms so we can cuddle together, and putting him down for bed without Lucy there. We give lots of kisses and praise Isaac for being kind to Lucy. So far, so good.

And B) Having two kids is okay so far. I don't mean that the institution of being a mom of more than one is just okay, but the daily adjustments and juggling acts are working out to be okay. My happiness and sanity hinge almost completely on how much sleep I get. Doug offered to be the shift #1 guy, so he has Lucy until midnight. I take it from there, with the understanding that he'll help out if Lucy gets really hard. This has worked out really well so far because Lucy's pretty easy. Again, I know better than to assume that things will be great for the rest of her infancy. Still, I'm enjoying the sleep I get. When I had Isaac, I'd count how many hours I got of sleep each night (the numbers were very low) and I'm not doing that this time because I get so much more sleep than I did with him.

The only real frustration at night (so far) is that I have to feed Lucy ever 3 hours (doctor's orders, based on how much weight she lost in the hospital, and then her slow weight gain as of the 6th day of her life). So I have to wake my sleeping baby for 90% of her feedings. It completely goes against my inclination to wake a sleeping baby. And I'm not perfect about the every three hours thing. In fact, I asked the nurse for permission to cheat at night time if I wasn't getting enough sleep. She said I could fudge, but not by very much. So I'm hoping Lucy's doctor appointment on Thursday goes well and we get off the every three hour thing. She is REALLY tiny to me, so I don't know if we'll get the go ahead to stop the scheduled feedings.

Here's how she sleeps:

And here's how she plays: (I took this picture about 20 minutes ago, so it's as recent as you can get):The really tricky thing about having my two kids is that I want to be active and go on stroller rides but it's too cold outside. We've gotten creative: we went to the aquarium on Friday, where I got a year-long membership, and we sat in a handicapped parking spot on Friday night so we could watch Doug play his flag football game. But I just think parents deserve warm weather in their lives. Any other suggestions for how to stroller ride in the freezing weather? Happy chilly sabbath to one an all:)