Weekend

We live for the weekends around here. Weekends = Daddy home!! Today John chose our morning activity-the zoo! This was Alex's first trip...he was an angel (of course) and was quite content to just be carted around while he snoozed. He didn't seem to mind that he never caught glimpse of one animal while he was there :) Will made sure to fill him in throughout the morning on what each animal was and what they were doing so he really didn't miss much!

Will LOVES his little brother....sometimes a bit too much...
This is the face he gets when he tell him to stop petting/hitting Alex on the head...
They are pretty cute!

Sleepy

I feel like we are in a constant state of "sleepy." Things have settled down around here and have gotten MUCH better. We are still adjusting, but Will is getting easier and I am figuring out how to manage two. Once you get out of the newborn stage and have a toddler that sleeps great, you just forget how exhausting getting up in the middle of the night can be. Alex is going about 4 to 4.5 hours at night. We are still playing with a schedule for him. We have tried several different things to figure out what might work best for us. We were total Babywise freaks with Will. We did everything by the book!!! We want Alex on a schedule (I just feel like it is so much easier on everyone when baby's routine is consistent) but I keep telling John that someone should write "Babywise for the 2nd Child." There just isn't the kind of time that you had with the first child anymore. While trying to keep baby on routine, I have a toddler to think about and entertain. Alex is still super laid back and very much go with the flow. No idea if this is just him or part him/part us or just what comes with the territory of being a 2nd child. Tonight we took him with us to a rehearsal dinner for John's cousin who is getting married tomorrow. We left our house at 6:30 and did not get home until 10. Alex never even came out of his car seat. He never woke up!! We would have never done this with Will (I would have been way too freaked out to keep him out that late in a noisy atmosphere). Oh well....live and learn I guess!

Super Dad!

Happy Father's Day (a little late) to my precious husband!! There is no one else I would rather be raising kids with :) John makes this crazy adventure called parenthood so much fun. He keeps me grounded, is usually more patient than I am, and being the engineer that he is, is constantly rethinking schedule, night routine, etc to help me figure out the best way to do things. My mind doesn't work that way and I just end up getting frustrated. Especially here lately. We were so used to Will sleeping so great ALL night, that getting up at all hours of the night with a newborn can make me a little nuts. I have to remember this is only a phase!! John is amazing with our boys. The moment he gets home from work, he goes right to work here and grabs Will and takes him outside or to the park or to the pool to get some of his energy out. It is pretty hot outside, but John doesn't seem to mind. He makes sure that he is intentional in the time he spends with Will. After dinner they can usually be found sprawled out in our entryway playing cars. Wills new favorite thing to do with John is "westle." They rough house all over the rug and I've just had to get used to it. I was surprised to read in several of our parenting books that it is actually healthy and beneficial for boys to play around and wrestle with their dads. I have probably given less than 20 baths since Will was born. That is John's time with him, and now Alex. He does them both and doesn't just bathe, but plays with squeezable choo choos and shoots hoops and makes bath time entirely more fun than I do! Will whines when I give him a bath because he is so used to the way daddy does it. I am SO thankful for John. He is my perfect mate and we compliment each other well and I can't imagine not having his support and help in something as important as raising our children. Happy Father's Day John!! We love you so much!!

Family Trip to the Pool

John has been taking Will to the pool a lot since Alex has been born to burn off some of his energy in the afternoons. I have been sad to just be stuck at home, unable to watch him play. Yesterday morning was pretty cool and breezy (relatively speaking). Our neighborhood pool has a clubhouse with seating outside by the pool under a roof with fans, so I figured we would try it out with Alex and if it got too hot I would just bring him home. The weather was perfect. He snoozed the whole time and I got to watch my big boys in the pool for a few hours. Just the change of scenery of getting out of the house was wonderful!

2 Week Stats

Weight: 9 lbs
Height: 21 inches

Big boy is growing! Our pediatrician was super proud of him...He was born weighing 8 lbs 1 oz. We left the hospital at 7 lbs. 9 oz and today, just 15 days after he was born he weighs 9 lbs.Tonight was his first "real" bath. His umbilical cord fell off last night so we were excited to be able to treat him to a real bath tonight, instead of a cold sponge bath. He was pretty mellow throughout the whole thing, pretty much how he is all the time.
That's all for now. Thank you for your sweet words of encouragement from my blog last night. Today has been much better. Granted Will went to school today, and it for sure makes such a difference. But I know even on the days that we all stay home, it will get easier....I just find it very therapeutic for you to share in my pain with me :)

2 Weeks!

Today Alex is 2 weeks old. Will and I decided to celebrate after nap time with some blizzards from Dairy Queen...it just seemed like the right thing to do :) Alex was his usual self...sleepy and precious. He didn't seem to mind that he wasn't able to partake in his birthday treat. Will LOVED his blizzard. He had never had one before and the "mini" size was the perfect amount for him.

We go to the doctor tomorrow so I'll be back with 2 week stats, but for now I'm just going to keep it real for a minute. Yall, two is hard. Like really hard. I know this is all new and this is an adjustment phase and "this too shall pass..." blah blah blah, but for now it is just plain hard. On the days that Will does not go to school I find myself about to lose it. On Monday I said he wasn't bad, just busy. Well today he was a little bad. Threw tantrums while I was trying to feed Alex, when I sent him to time out, he went, but slammed the door on his way to his room (that sent me over the edge and I seriously had to wait and breathe before going into his room for fear that I might spank him a little too hard). I have to keep reminding myself that he is two and he doesn't understand all that he should about this situation and all he knows is that, and I quote, he wants "to play choo choos with Mama NOW!!" He loves Alex and wants to constantly touch, poke, look at him. This is all well and good until he just. won't. stop. He doesn't listen the first time (again, I have to remind myself that he is 2), but trying to predict his next move and control his actions towards Alex is exhausting. I find myself on the days he is home all day constantly saying "stop," "no," "please stop," etc. I told John I feel like the bad guy all day. There are fun and happy moments in between but overall trying to figure out how to balance and manage 2 at home is crazy chaos right now. I don't have enough hands. Enough time. Enough patience. Tonight when I was saying prayers with Will, I asked him who we should pray for. Without hesitation the first person he said was Mommy. Usually I come last, as he mentions people in pairs, and Mommy and Daddy, Bent Bent and Alex are usually last. This really hit home with me. Out of everyone that we mention on a nightly basis that need prayer, I am the first. I need more patience. I need grace. I need forgiveness for when I really blow it and lose it with Will when he doesn't deserve it. I need to calm down. So pray for us. We are loving our family of 4 and wouldn't have it any other way...it just takes some getting used to!

Settling In

We are settling in around here. Today is the first day with both boys by myself at home....I'm not gonna lie-at approximately 8:38 I seriously considered taking Will to school. I had decided to just send Will on Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer. However, this morning made me seriously question my decision. He is not bad...just busy!! By 8:15 we had already eaten breakfast, made snakes and fish out of play dough, played with all 48 cars all over the floor, "mowed" the backyard with bubble mower, played choo choos (all over the floor on a blanket, NOT on the cool, large, expensive train table....)Thankfully Alex's morning doesn't start until around 8:00. He is still doing great at night. Last night we put him down at 9:30, he woke up at 1:30 to eat, and didn't get back up again until 5:15. Then I normally wake him up to start his day at 8:00. He is super easy and thankfully is content to just lay near me while I try and entertain Will.Why didn't someone explain to me when I was exhausted just after having Will that newborns were a piece of cake??? Seriously, they sleep ALL the time. Which meant I could have and should have slept just as much when Will was a newborn. Now, once 6am hits, my day has begun whether I like it or not. This morning I put Alex back in his crib at 5:45 after feeding him and crawled back into bed. John had already left for work and I was just praying for 30 more minutes. As soon as I pulled the covers over my head, I heard Will's sweet voice just a chattering over the monitor. So it was back up! Will doesn't wake up sleepy, nor does he need a little bit to get awake....hence all of our activities accomplished before 8:15 :)
Managing 2 has not been nearly as bad as I thought though. It is a little crazy in the morning when I am still trying to wake up and have a toddler to entertain, however it has gone much smoother than I anticipated. I actually think the transition from 1 to 2 kids was easier than 0 to 1 kid. We know what to expect and are much more laid back. Nights are enjoyable. We have our routine down pretty well so that we both are able to spend time with Will and get him into bed and then get Alex bathed and asleep by 9:15 so we aren't zombies by the time we actually get into bed. 9:30 bedtime for us isn't bad at all!!!

Sweet Baby...Sweet Friends

Alex has been a dream baby!! He is still so laid back...I hope that it sticks! He is sleeping great, day and night! I know once this newborn stage is over he will "wake up" a bit, but for now he spends most of his day sleeping. He is going about 4-5 hour stretches at night, which makes for a very happy mama!! We have only heard him cry when we are giving him a bath-he seriously doesn't seem to be bothered by anything else. Even when he wakes up at night ready to eat, he just sort of grunts and coos rather than cry.

Will loves waking him up in the morning. He wants to pat-pat him through the crib.*Yes, that is still a paci you see in Will's mouth. We are weak, I know. We are just choosing to pick our battles right now and with a newborn at home, the paci is the least of our concerns. He has been good about leaving it in his bed when he gets up and not getting it until time to go to bed at night. Baby steps...:)
Two of my sweet friends from Auburn came yesterday to visit and we had the best time! It is so nice when you are at home a lot to have people come see you! It breaks up the day. Those of you that know me well, know that I can't sit around and do nothing and it kills me to not be out and about all day long. Anyways, they brought Tazikis for lunch, treats from Edgars, and their cute little kiddos to play with Will. Alex slept the entire time they were here so we were able to chat while the kids played. Holly had a great idea to set up some water toys outside and the kids played great!! Thank you Shealy and Holly for coming, even if only for a few hours. I loved your company!!
Will also decided to be a daredevil and go down the slide head first on his stomach. John has been trying to get him to do this for weeks and he finally did it. He was hysterical!!

Home!

We got to come home with sweet Alex on Saturday morning. I have never been so ready to be home in my whole life. 3 nights in a hospital with nurses in and out ALL DAY LONG and not being able to spend a lot of time with Will was about to make me crazy. I missed that little guy more than I ever thought I would. I was so ready for us all to be at home together and start trying to figure it all out. And guess what??!! It hasn't been bad! As I have said with many things on this blog, I think the anticipation makes it far worse than the actual experience. This was no different. I had a million questions as to how this would go, how Will would react, how we would get used to a newborn again, how we would handle being sleep deprived again.....granted we are only a few days in but we have been making it just fine. Will is an awesome big brother. He LOVES Alex. He asks for him first thing in the morning. He loves to watch him and loves giving him kisses on his face. He has been a little overly excited at times around Alex...for some reason he loves to touch/gouge his eyes. He also likes to touch his hair really hard. We are working on listening to mommy and daddy the FIRST time :) Overall though he has done great! I am going to send him to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer and I think tomorrow he will be excited to see his friends and get back into a routine.
The hardest thing I have found so far is figuring out how to share my time. Thankfully my mom was around today which gave me a lot of play time with Will. I want to make sure that he doesn't feel left out or that the baby is getting too much attention. I know in a few weeks we will have it down, but for now we are trying extra hard to keep his life the exact same. John and I still manage to do books and bed together with him-this was really important to me. I loved this time before Alex came and didn't want to have to give it up. I am sure it will get a bit more challenging, but for now it is a sweet moment for us to still read to him, say his prayers together, and tuck him in. And as for the lack of sleep, I have always said I am a firm believer that the Lord just prepares you for that part of the deal and you really don't feel all that bad, even though when you think about how often you were up at night, you should be exhausted! The second time around to me seems so much easier-probably because we feel at least a little confident that we know what is going on because we have been through it once and Will didn't turn out so bad :) I feel like both John and I are much less stressed and much more relaxed about things. Alex is a very chill baby and I don't know if this is because we are more laid back about things or if this is just the role of the second child. He has been an absolute angel. I have barely heard him cry. He just whimpers when it is getting close to eating time. He is content in our arms, in his swing, in the bassinett, in his lounger.....anywhere! Okay...here are some pictures of our first few days home!

Coming Home OutfitNothing sweeter than baby toes!!!

Big Brother Will met us at the hospital so he could drive home with us

He was SO excited that we were all going home together!

He giggled the entire way home-it was precious!!
First family pic at home!

Around the House...
Mickey Mouse courtesy of Will....

Meet Alex

John Alexander was born yesterday, June 1, at 8:17 A.M. He weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. We are quite smitten already...we had forgotten how sweet and small and yummy smelling a new little baby is! Life is good and we feel super blessed to now be the proud parents of 2 boys!

Meet Alex...A precious new addition to our family!Unfortunately, blogging in the hospital makes for some SLOW uploading of pictures....so here are just a few more...we are enjoying our time here getting acquainted with our newest "little man," but we are missing Will something awful!! Thankful for grandparents and cousins that are making his life super fun right now, but I am so ready to just be home with both my babies and figure out some way of settling in to our new normal :)