Well, most of the day, anyway. It’s not that easy to take pictures every hour with two small kiddos. 😉 Here’s hoping for Spring to come soon so we have more motivation to get out and do more since we’re all getting bored due to the cold.
Category Archives: baby
Pets and Kids…
It’s been a while since I really mentioned the cats, our fur “babies” (I say that only to make Josh gag), and thought I should give an update since for a while things were not going as well as one would hope. We are still adjusting, but I think we’re all getting along much better now, or maybe it’s just my attitude that has changed since I haven’t been getting quite so irritable lately. For a while Ziggy was continually crapping in places outside of the litter box downstairs – most often after Enzo had been down there with us, playing. We had decided when we moved that we’d keep the cats mostly downstairs, but allow them upstairs during the day, however, that changed for a while when Ziggy pooed in Enzo’s bedroom. Along with that we had Uzi yowling nonstop and constantly getting into trouble, and for a while I strongly considered rehoming them both… I figured they’d be happier if they were getting more attention, and we’d be happier not cleaning up crap.
A few days ago I decided to invite the cats back upstairs – Uzi took me up on the offer (Ziggy was hiding from the kids), and rather than putting them back downstairs before bed, I left the door open. They were both really well behaved and we hung out, especially after Enzo went to bed and the past few days have been going pretty well. We’ve let them sleep upstairs with us a couple of nights, and while Uzi still yowls for a bit when I lock them downstairs (they have a nice basement, don’t pity them), overall I think we’re all happier with each other. Uzi is still naughty and has his frustrating moments like meowing enough to wake a sleeping child, but he hasn’t been chasing Ziggy as often and Ziggy even stayed in the same room as Enzo (hiding under the table counts). I’ve been trying to have Enzo be the main treat-giver as well, and while Ziggy isn’t ready to accept them from him yet, Uzi has been receptive to the idea as long as Enzo doesn’t squeal too much. He almost knocked Enzo over the other day by rubbing up against him, much to Enzo’s delight. 😉
2 Months
Well… 2 months certainly snuck up on us, didn’t it? Our little lady is officially 2 months old and now weighs 10 pounds 10 ounces and is 22.75 long. (She was 6 pounds 11 ounces when she was born and 20.5 inches long). She got her shots on Monday and only cried for about a minute, so she’s a toughie. We’re not sure if the experience stressed her out, though, or if she has a mild tummy bug because I got a call later from day care that she had projectile spit-up an entire bottle and didn’t want to eat again and was inconsolable. Thankfully she was okay when we got her home and after we gave her some Tylenol, and she seems to be back to herself again.
We thought we got lucky with what an easy baby Enzo was, but I think this little girl might be even easier. Sure, she’s a really slow eater and tends to fall asleep while doing so, so feedings take a while, but she is one of the happiest babies. She doesn’t fuss all that often, and more often than not you can find her taking everything in and smiling as sweetly as can be when something delights her (and a lot seems to). She likes music and fun lights, and soft things, though she isn’t sure yet what to make of the cats. While Enzo often gets the most smiles, she gives her Mama and Papa pretty big smiles as well and a chuckle now and then to boot!
So far we’re still attempting babywearing (as we did with Enzo), but like her brother she hasn’t been a fan of the ring sling or the Baby Bjorn. I still try and put her in now and then to get her used to the idea, but this girl likes to move and just fusses when I try and get her situated. While she likes to be held, she more often than not would rather be laying down on a blanket or play mat so she can wriggle and move rather than being held or in a bouncy chair or swing. I’m still hopeful we can get her to warm up to a carrier since that would make traveling so much easier… I guess we’ll see!
Big Brother
If the cold weather lately has shown me anything it’s that the adjustment phase of becoming a family of 4 is over. For the majority of my maternity leave, Enzo was having some difficulty with the arrival of our little girl, and during that time it was so great that he had day care to go to during the day because there were A LOT of tantrums during those weeks. While he was never angry at his sister, he would often act aggressively towards us and some of his tantrums were so intense they scared me. Being a toddler is hard and when you can’t communicate what you’re feeling… I can imagine the frustration. He went from being our one and only to suddenly having our attention (especially mine) split and more focused on baby girl.
I can’t even tell you how many nights Josh ended up on the floor of Enzo’s room because he just wasn’t sleeping and would cry and cry if Josh didn’t stay in his room. While things started calming down the closer I got to going back to work, I noticed a major change in him when I left Phoebe with Josh and went to pick Enzo up from day care – the first time in weeks. He was beyond excited to see me when I got there, and I that really signaled to me that I wasn’t spending enough time with my kiddo. We also really started to pay attention to how much sleep he was getting and make sure he gets to bed earlier on nights when a naps are short, but also try and focus on paying more attention to him. Not just in play, but in learning how to better communicate with him and allow him to help out, and in turn avoid tantrums which can happen so easily as we enter the Terrible Twos.
Anyhoo, back to the cold weather – we kept the kids home on Monday and normally 3-day weekends can be tricky because Enzo is ready to go back to day care and stick to his routine, but this past Monday went great. He was in a fantastic mood (we saw the return of Baby No-Pants) and is also slowly learning that sometimes Phoebe needs a bit extra attention, and has been playing by himself more often rather than constantly needing one of us to play with at all times. This girl loves her big brother, though, and as you can see, he adores his baby sister.
I’m looking forward to seeing how these two continue to interact in the future, but in the meantime love to watch them now. Phoebe smiles when she hears Enzo in the room and Enzo gets just as excited about his BeeBee. At day care they sometimes let him go say ‘Hi’ to her (they’re in separate rooms) and he likes to give her a big kiss good-bye most mornings, and usually before he goes to bed. He may not give mama a kiss good-night, but you can almost guarantee that he’ll give one to Phoebe. Parenting may be hard, but it’s the moments like this that make it all worthwhile.
PPD
I wasn’t sure if I’d share something quite so personal with the interwebs, or even the people I know, but I feel like it’s one of those things that should be said because even though it’s so common still feels so hush-hush. It’s not a secret that postpartum depression happens to many women, and I knew going into both pregnancies that I was at a higher risk for possibly getting it.
With Enzo, the standard baby blues (first 2 weeks after birth) were pretty bad, but after a couple weeks I was starting to feel pretty good again. During my pregnancy with Phoebe, my emotions were a little more intense, so I tried to prepare in case postpartum my emotions were also more intense – I decided to get my placenta encapsulated and honestly? I was feeling pretty good while taking them… my energy was high and I generally felt good, however you may recall that I had PUPPPS, and it flared up worse than ever – apparently because of the placenta capsules, so I had to stop taking them.
No matter who you are, the first 4-6 weeks of having a new baby are hard. I won’t go into all the details, but once again I had trouble with breastfeeding (supply) and we also have a toddler who was getting mad at mama for not being available to him because I was constantly breastfeeding or pumping to try and get some kind of a supply. I went to a couple lactation consultants and did everything they suggested, but even they could only shrug and agree that it looked like we’d be supplementing, so long story short I backed off of pumping and let things take their course. Once I stopped being the main person feeding Phoebe, Enzo started doing better. I was able to play more with him because Phoebe could last longer between feedings and I wasn’t constantly hooked up to a machine. Things were looking up… only not really. My declining appetite, mixed feelings about breastfeeding (if my mental health was better, could I have lasted longer??) and daily crying probably should have tipped me off.
I blame it partially on the time of year – winter is never a good time for me emotionally. I also feel better now that I’m back at work, but in all honesty I think I’m only feeling better because I finally admitted to Josh and the midwives that I’m not really okay. It can be really tiring to try and put a smile on your face and pretend nothing is wrong to everyone around you, you know? I eat because I have to, not because I have any real appetite and if I had my choice I’d stay in bed all day and do nothing because I have zero interest in doing anything really. Along with the apathy has been constant irritability at everyone and everything, and that isn’t fair to my husband or kiddos… plus it’s not fun to see yourself acting completely irrationally. There were other signs as well, but part of me wanted to ignore them all. I’ve been off of medications since before Enzo was conceived, so going back on them felt like admitting defeat. I knew it was time, though, when at my postpartum checkup the midwife asked how I was doing and I cried in answer… actually I knew a little before then when I admitted it to Josh and he kind of breathed a sigh of relief and said he had been afraid to say anything to me. Sigh. So, I agreed to start taking Vitamin D and something a little stronger (Zoloft) and hopefully in about 6 months I’ll be able to leave the meds behind again. I think I already feel a bit better just because the weight is lifted a tad by admitting that something was wrong. I want to be a good wife and a good mother, and I can’t do that if I’m not mentally and physically healthy.
— I wrote this post a week ago and never posted it, and already I can feel myself starting to feel better after a weeks worth of meds if only because my appetite is returning and I’m sleeping better. I’m hopeful that in a few more weeks I’ll feel 100% better and maybe even start posting more considering I’ve hardly had the motivation to even go downstairs other than to feed the cats the past few weeks. —