My babes

Let me start off by saying that my girl has been delightful for the last several weeks. Just when I was worried about how it would be bringing baby home, she has surprised me in many ways. First, when she came to the hospital she was super excited to see the BABY! CWYIN! From the get-go she has wanted to hug and love on him. More like super-squeeze him, but it really is sweet. She wants to kiss him all the time. However, she doesn't realize how strong she is and can sometimes be a little much for him. One of her favorite things to do is hop up on the changing table when changing baby and check to see if he's pooped. She thinks its hilarious. She also likes to say penis. We had to put ointment on his circumcision and whenever I would get the tube out she'd yell PENIS! I would say "Yes, baby, we have to put the cream on his penis". She thought that was too funny. 
She pays attention to him, but she isn't obsessed w/ him. She goes about her day and when she feels like checking on him, she does.  She's quick to point out when he's crying. "Baby, cwyin'".
We also worked on her being a "Big Helper" before he arrived. Now, whenever she does anything to help like hold the bottle or get a diaper, I make a big fuss about how good of a job she is doing. We sing a little song we heard on one of her favorite shows about being a big helper in the family. The positive reinforcement seems to help.
I haven't seen any aggression towards the baby or me....or anyone for that fact. I also haven't seen her vying for attention. She seems to be okay, thus far, when I tell her to hold on, I have to do X for the baby. This was surprising since she doesn't have much patience. Well, what 2 year old does, right? She has had less tantrums and is able to verbalize herself much better. Her newest "thing" is that when she goes to bed she says "birds, sky". I don't know what this means or where she got it from, but she tells me almost every night about it.  She's starting to have a memory and will tell stories about her day. We recently went to a "gunkin patch" and she has continued to talk about it randomly when she sees pumpkins.  There is also a blowup witch on a street close-by and its arm rotates. She will say "witch, wee-ooo, wee-ooo" while moving rotating her arm around like the witch. She wants to go by it all the time to see if it is awake (blown up and turned on) or sleeping (on the ground, turned off). Really cute to see her excitement about it.
I am already starting to feel like holidays will be way more fun now that she is "getting" it. We went to a pumpkin patch, actually decorated the pumpkins, and have them set outside. And I had FUN too!
She is also very snuggly and wants to read a lot, do the rocker where she sits in my lap, we go on a ton of walks down the street.....it has just been fun with her. We've spent a lot of quality time together and it's just felt good.

Overall, she has taken to the new baby completely in stride and I am really happy/relieved with how she's been. Something I thought of too, is that the other change is I am home all day. Even though a few days she still goes to one of the babysitter's house, I'm here.  I do think that makes a difference, I can't help but think.

Even though I am off on maternity leave, I still have the babysitters watch baby girl full time. I just need another set of hands and some time where I can rest......so one of the babysitters takes her to their house and the other comes to our house. For the one that comes to the house, we mix it up where sometimes she watches baby boy, sometimes baby girl--we each take one.  And, sometimes when I need to sleep or get out of the house, she watches them both.  It has really made the transition to two very doable. I haven't had them both by myself all day/night since baby boy's been born. It has been so helpful...expensive, yes, but totally worth it in my opinion. I have rationalized that I am still getting paid for full time work, so it's fine that I continue w/ my babysitters like normal.

Right now I feel really lucky because I have people that stop in just to watch the baby, feed/rock him, or take my girl to the store, etc..I didn't have any of that w/ baby girl. Once the newness wore down, it was just her and I, really.  Also, the babysitter that lives close to me not only cooks and leaves things in my fridge, she also brings meals regularly from their house.  We still argue about her making sure she puts additional cost for food on her weekly bill (that's what I want her to do).....but she's one of those people that does for others just because. I am not used to that at all and it's hard for me to accept sometimes because I always feel like I need to pay her back somehow....and monetarily is how I normally do. It is just such a different experience w/ somewhat of a 'community' around us compared to when I had babygirl.

That brings me to baby boy......

I prayed for a 'relaxed' baby considering my baby girl was not easy.  So far, he seems to be a good baby, but he's really been suffering from gas problems--which has made sleep hard sometimes for both of us.  We already switched formula and that seemed to help some, and also added some gas drops, which may have helped some.....but the best way I can describe him is fidgety. He's pretty squirmy, mostly because he's uncomfortable. For example, he wakes to eat every 2-3 hours and is up to 3 oz. I was used to baby girl where when she woke during the night, I fed her, she fell right back to sleep. Not so w/ baby boy. He'll wake, I feed, he'll burp, then squirm around, cry some....sometimes for up to an hour.  Then fall back to sleep. He gets hit w/ gas pain and it wakes him or prevents him from sleeping. You can tell it hurts him and I'm doing everything I can to help.
That's the toughest thing we've dealt with. He doesn't spit up much, he doesn't wail for hours on end, he just seems to suffer from gas......and right now from cluster feeding w/ the bottle. This little monkey has sometimes started to want to eat even less than two hours later. Sheesh.
However, a major difference from baby girl is that he is much more of a snuggler. He loves to be held and prefers it, really. He also will lay on his tummy on my chest.....I will then lay my cheek on his head and smell him. I love it. I remember baby girl hated that position and pushed herself up and cried whenever I tried.

It has been tiring w/ the nighttime schedule, for sure. He doesn't go right back to sleep, has the gas, and seems to be ready to feed just when I've dozed off.  I know in time it will get better so I am doing my best to rest during the day when he rests.....when someone else is watching my two year old.
I honestly have a hard time imagining what it would be like caring for a newborn, then turn around and be up all day entertaining my girl. I'd be a zombie. That's why the babysitters work for us, for now.

I mentioned before but it feels like he just fit right in. We are a family of three.
So great.