About Me

I am 36 years old (37 now)(38 now)(49 now!), single, and want to become a mother. I had my ideal of marriage, house, baby, happiness. Well, life teaches you that nothing is certain and we all need to forge our own path. This is mine. UPDATE: and baby girl makes family :) And now baby boy makes bigger family!

Saturday, November 8, 2014

2

Let me start off THIS post by saying that naive mom strikes again.....I was so delighted last post that I hadn't seen any rough/aggressive behavior from baby girl towards her brother that I thought we were in for smooth sailing....HA.
Over the last several days we have had a few incidents where baby girl has not been very nice. And what I mean by that is--she dumped the baby out of his roc.k an.d pl.ay, headbutted him, and side swiped his head with her hand while running by.  I am about to research toddler behavior w/ new baby and see what can be done to help her understand more that this is obviously not okay.  I've taken the approach to sit her down immediately and tell her NO, that hurts the baby. She says okay and moves on......but then does things again. As an example, the headbutt. She leaned over his rocker onto him and I said no, that can hurt the baby. She stood back up, but then quickly leaned over him again.  I physically pulled her back up and said again, NO, that can hurt the baby, we don't do that.  Well, she proceeded to lean over again much faster and knocked her head against his--I don't think she meant to headbutt on purpose, but she certainly meant to defy what I was telling her. It is clearly to get attention because she does it when the adult (me or babysitters) are near the baby i.e. she does it right in front of us all.  Maybe she initially thought the new baby was new and cool and now that she realizes he's not going anywhere she's reacting. Will see what I can find.
Also open to any suggestions for those of you who have two and have seen this from your own little ones and what might have worked.

We have continued to have tummy trouble w/ baby boy. He seems to be fine one minute then gas hits him and he screams out....it wakes him up and keeps him from sleeping.  He has a ton of gas and his toots are manly.  At his one month appointment the Dr. recommended we switch to a low lactose formula (also a suggestion in one of the comments) and initially it seemed to help (this is his 3rd formula now). Where it has gone awry is now that he is trying to digest to the point of pooping....OH EM GEE. yesterday was terrible for him. At times he was inconsolable.....and finally he pooped late afternoon after 2 days of not pooping. Was a little better then he started up again early last evening....I thought he was hungry. Babysitter said no. Babysitter was right because we gave him one ounce extra and he barfed all over everything--and pooped again at the same time. I had just bathed him before the bottle, but he was so yucky that we threw him back in the sink and started over.

With two there are things that are so amazing and awesome and things that are really challenging....here's a snapshot of what I've learned so far:

Challenging:
--not enough hands. When both are screaming/crying/need something I have to say to myself, zone defense
--not enough sleep.  Baby boy eats every 2.5-3 hours (eats 4 oz.) and it takes about 30 minutes....then he doesn't always fall right back to sleep.  Baby Girl is still waking at least once a night, it seems.
--stress level when both are cranky-fied.
--keeping a two year old occupied all day long when you have to man a newborn.
--being limited with going out (even outside) because the baby should really stay in until a little older.

On the flip side.....even though some days are tough.....There are things I love about having two:
--sitting in the rocker with baby boy on my left and baby girl on my right--sometimes reading
--baby girl walks by and kisses the top of baby boy's head, or when she gently holds his hand
--watching my girl play and holding baby boy against my chest
--seeing the excitement for baby girl when time to change his diaper--she has to jump up on the table too
--when we are all sitting together baby girl says Picture!....she wants one taken

Overall I will say it is hard, but very worth it. I know it will get better when baby boy is sleeping more/better. I am hopeful that baby girl does too.
It's funny how when I only have one I now think it's a break.

As an update on the job front, the company talked to me about a position that really isn't a good fit for a single mom w/ two small children (far commute and big big job) so I actually withdrew from consideration. Most likely that means I will be leaving my company end of year. I have already started talking w/ recruiters about new opportunities. My preference is to stay here for next 2.5 years or so because I have such a good support system and it is just necessary when they are this little. But, I have to be open to move for the right opportunity. I am only considering here and my old city. I need to be where I know people.
Will see how all of it progresses.
I am trying my best not to let the job situation stress me out such that I don't spend time enjoying the time while baby boy is a newborn and I am off of work (and still getting paid).
That is what is important right now and I remind myself of that often.

1 comment:

  1. Felix is 2 1/2 and I have the same problem with the way he treats our young cat. He will be sweet one minute, then body-slamming and pulling fur the next. And if the kitten bites him? Oohhhh he comes running, crying, tattling on the kitten and showing me the (invisible) owie Leo caused. I chalk it up to classic impulsive toddler behavior. It can be exhausting and I'm hoping he outgrows a lot of it before I adopt again.

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