The first 2 1/2 weeks with two kiddos....

I never thought an 8lb little bundle could make our lives so crazy!  We've had good days and bad days.....but basically Nick and I are working 24/7 to be sure the house is clean, the kids are bathed/dressed/fed, the laundry is done.....etc, etc.  Two kids are hard.  I don't know why it's such a change but it is.  I'm up at night with Oliver and then all day I am bouncing between Gabrielle and Oliver until I go to bed....for two hours....before Oliver's first night feeding.  Hard.  It is going well, I just always feel like I'm neglecting someone now that there are two with very different needs at this point. 

 

The first week went really well; the second week was kind of a mess (mostly due to feeding issues/mastitis).  The same thing happened as with Gabrielle - spiked a fever of 103 at five days old and kept getting them until I was on antibiotics.  I felt better but my milk supply has greatly diminished.  His first week of life he gained 7 oz (which is great!) and is second week of life he gained 1 oz.  Not so good.  I am trying a combination of herbs and medication to see if I can regulate again.  Oliver hasn't had to have any formula yet, but it's a possibility.  He goes for another weigh-in tomorrow.  Other wise he looks to be very healthy and pretty happy too, which is nice!  He has had great head control from birth and loves to lift his head while on your should or even a bit during tummy time. 

 

He seems to have a pretty good little schedule, and does well at night usually.  He sleeps for approximately three hour intervals at night, has awake time in the morning, sleeps mostly in the afternoon, and then has awake time from about 6pm-9pm before going to bed.  We won the paci war yesterday too!  I bought the Tommie Tippee pacifiers because they were supposed to be so good.  Well Oliver absolutely hated them and totally refused to use them - he'd rather have a finger or two if necessary.  Ugh.  So I picked up some cheap paci's from Meijer yesterday - he got that sucker in his mouth and never looked back.  Yay!

 

Gabrielle has been doing really well which is a giant help.  If she was a complete basket case on top of everything else I don't know what we would do.  I feel like she has grown up about five years since Oliver came.  She's much more independent from me and just in general.  Which is good and bad - the other day I was feeding Oliver and Gabi was carrying her stool upstairs.  I asked what she was doing and she said "I just going to get some lotion".  Oy....not something you want to hear from a three year old.  But really she is doing great and likes us to be all together. 

 

 

Meeting great grandma Pat

 

 

Jess came to meet Oliver

Oliver and great grandma Taylor

Gabrielle and great grandpa Taylor

Borrowing Grandma Jojo's pinky

Papa Paul holding Oliver for the first time

Meeting Uncle Greg

Greg held Oliver for a couple of hours so we could get some stuff done.  This was one of a couple of days that Oliver only wanted to sleep while being held.

 

His first real bath.  Before the actual washing began

After the washing started.....

 

 

And we even ventured to my parents for Thanksgiving. 

Feeding the birds with Papa