My first five days home with both my boys and my husband were a bit of a whirl wind. Slowly my mom has shortened her visits here to help, trying to give our newly extended family more space. When writing these posts I heard Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek with beeps and all. I feel as if I have entered a strange and exciting new world. Each day offering new ideas and new lessons of an alien land.

I have learned that waking up early and staying up has it’s benefits but by noon I am giggly and by 3pm I’m starting to sound like my cranky toddler that is demanding his own quiet time without company. I have also learned that it may be time to give in to naps late in the evening so that I have a fighting chance to have a conversation with my husband without falling asleep mid-sentence.

I’m left further amazed with any mother I know that has done this and survived beautifully. I’m slowly learning that the house doesn’t have to be spotless, playing with my toddler and holding my newborn are much more important than a company ready home. My boys needs will change daily, what worked perfectly yesterday may not work perfectly today and that is ok. I have said for quite some time that my life will never be boring again since I had my first child, and my second child has added a new dimension to life that I can’t imagine my life without.

I heard time and time again that your heart grows when you have your second child. I had no idea how instant this occurred, and it was instant. I adored my second son from his first cry and continued to love him by the minute.

I survived my first five days of being home and a mother of two, with lots of help, and I’m hoping to continue to grow and learn with each following day. I admit that the sleep depirvation caused giggles, the hormonal fluctuations caused a few tears over the silliest moments, but all is worth every second I can enjoy this incredible blessing that is parenthood.

Day Two

Waking up at home is amazing, not having my blood pressure checked, my temperature checked was a nice change. My newborn seems to not be phased with the change of location. My toddler is excited to see his baby brother in the morning. I am thrilled to be allowed to move to another room and get comfy and lounge. I love to be home.

My husband is sick, and I’m starting to worry about him. He is tired, lethargic, and just feeling all around icky. My mom is here and thankfully helping me with my toddler and house duties as we both watch the hubs attempt to do all he can in his current state. He ended up napping much of the day away. Poor guy.

I’m doing ok, slowly recovering, still leaps and bounds better than last time. Breastfeeding has been going well, T is a pro at this point. The sleep deprivation has been interesting to say the least but due to the great support I have so far I have been able to sneak a nap in here and there. My eldest son has been a crack up with his epiphanies about his little brother. Today was good.

Day Three

Today was a day that started with a jump and jolt. My husband got really sick and now it is mission keep husband hydrated and fed. I’m bummed as this means I have to keep myself and my boys far away from him for fear that he may be contagious. Yeah, not an easy feat when you are still recovering from a c/s and have a toddler that wants nothing more but than to be close to his papa.

Today was T’s first pediatrician appointment, thankfully my mom was able to take us to the office and wrangle my toddler. Sadly due my husband’s symptoms he had to miss this appointment, he wasn’t too happy about missing his son’s first appointment. The great news is T is back to his birth weight and the doctor said he was doing well. We made a follow up appointment and we are hoping the hubs will be able to join us. Q was thrilled to be out of the house and have company in the back seat.

I pulled out the Baby Bjorn carrier today and all Q wanted was for me to take it off and let him hold ‘his baby’. T, the newborn, was ok with the Bjorn. Today was long as the hubs was asleep for much of the day trying to recover, I missed him like crazy. My mom was my super hero leaping tall buildings and flying in to save the day for all four of us, I’m not sure what would have happened without my mom helping us out.

I’ve never been so happy to see my eldest son’s bed time till this evening because I knew once he was in bed I could cuddle the tiny baby to sleep and start my longer cat naps of the day. Usually I am not too excited to see his bedtime as I love every minute I get to play with him. Exhaustion makes you look at things differently. I still miss the hubs, a lot. I hope he feels better asap.

Day Four

I slept in, kinda. I woke up at 5:30am in pain, the incision is healing well but I have to stay on top of my Ibuprofen intake or else suffer. The sad part of my morning? I had to wake my husband to be able to get said Ibuprofen, my poor sick husband. The baby and I were off to the living room after it kicked in to have new surroundings and so I had a fighting chance to jump into the shower after the new born was fed, burped and changed. I hopped, well as much as I can hop, into the shower and felt refreshed.

Today is the day I discovered the amazing invention known as the bouncy seat. Who knew that a bent piece of metal that allowed a soft cushioned seat to bounce and vibrate and play music would allow a mother to put down a drowsy, slightly cranky newborn for a few minutes would make the world a better place? I sure as hell didn’t. I am in awe of the person that created this thing and even my toddler knows the baby in the bouncy seat is a good thing for all involved. I was able to put my beautiful baby boy down and tend to the toddler’s needs to the best of my slowed ability and even got to pee without hearing screams from either child. A-MA-ZING!!!

I was excited every time my husband made an appearance outside of the bedroom, it is starting to look like he is doing better. My mom came over in the morning and helped me around the house with both children and making sure the husband was eating and doing better. Knowing that he was improving I even got some girl chat in. I’m learning that if I want a fighting chance to nap this is the only way it is going to happen is if I bathe and then crash afterward once I confirm all is well in the house and all are sleeping.

I’m learning, slowly, and at this rate I may have a fighting chance of figuring things out before I become delirious with exhaustion. My husband is doing much better now, we got to enjoy a lot of his company minus one nap today. The bad part is my early wake up means limited amount of time with the husband, he is definitely the night owl of our household. It worked nicely for us when we had our first son as he took the late night shift with him while I took the early morning shift. Now that there are two, we seem to have fallen back into our old schedule which works but we are going to have to figure out how to make the time for quality time for the two of us together. I know that we are only six days out with a newborn and toddler so we have time to figure things out, I’m just starting my planing now.

Day Five

I slept in even later than yesterday, 6:30am, Hooray!! My toddler announced that it was time to get up and was excited to see his mom and baby up with him. He even made up a cheer for the light outside and us being up. Sadly this meant that I didn’t get my early morning nap, and that I was trying to figure out how on earth I was going to feed my newborn, myself and be prepared to jump up to feed my toddler when he deemed it time. It didn’t work out all that well. It took me two and a half hours to eat a simple yogurt breakfast as my toddler discovered many different things for me to stop eating to investigate. I didn’t get my early morning shower in. Then when the newborn needed to be fed my toddler appeared once I got settled and nursing my newborn to demand breakfast.

Thankfully the husband came in and rescued me and fed our toddler and made sure any other possible needs that could come up in the next twenty minutes were cared for. He then returned to bed. Only to be asked an hour and a half later to watch the boys so I could bathe, he really is a good guy. My mom didn’t come over till much later and we hung out with the boys and chatted. She left relatively early, compared to the first few days, we survived and enjoyed our time with our boys. We even found time to talk and cuddle after our toddler went to bed. Today was a lovely day.