7 week update

Levi is now 7 weeks old and around 14 lbs, he's growing up so fast! He's trying now to reach out and touch, he's reached out for both Eric and I. I've also seen him reach or try to reach for a book I was showing him about colors, he reached for multicolored bird. His legs are starting to not be so scrunched up to his body, womb-style but he still does it a little.

We left the kids on Sat night so we could go out to dinner just the two of us. I think Levi was excited about being with the grandparents even though he was tired he'd only catnap so he could be part of the action. It's interesting that with my first leaving the baby was such a big deal I was so nervous about but now I just don't feel that, I was mostly worried Kaylee might hurt him - she can climb atop him trying to hold and hug and needs to be watched carefully and policed away from him. Another thing that helps is that he's been taking a bottle no problem, he's been doing it about 3 weeks when I am not around. This allows me to run an errand, go out with just 1 child or get some shuteye at night. I love it. Of course the main (95%) way of feeding him is still breastfeeding. It's so fulfilling for us both, so convenient but as any mom knows who's tried public breastfeeding is still slightly uncomfortable. I think the main thing to do is to find a private corner if possible. However, I believe public policy on this has helped but could still improve, I think design-wise especially in spaces where kids are welcomed, an environment more friendly to breastfeeding could be better pursued. Also I think it should be required that restaurants and stores have baby changing stations in the bathroom, female and male. I have recently come across so many restrooms without one, and as a parent or caregiver it leaves you in quite the awkward predicament. Eric tells me it's real hit or miss for men, he estimated that only 30% of restrooms for men have them.

I have been starting to feel like I can handle picking kaylee up earlier from daycare. I wanted to spend some of my maternity leave with her too so it feels good to be able to squeeze in a trip to the park with her or set up a play date for her.

Kaylee is now able to draw a couple of shapes and draws lines saying they are people. She also draws horizontal squiggling lines, which my mother in law, whose a teacher, says is pretend writing.

The reverse life and mounting excitement about Halloween

Being on maternity leave with my second baby is like living a reverse life of what I was living before. The easy (it's relative) part of my day is now the opposite of what I considered it before. From 8-4 while Kaylee is at daycare and I am just home with Levi, that's my 'easy' part of my day. In the evenings and on weekends, those are harder. What I mean is, it's so much more work with two. It's enjoyable and I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world, but it is definitely harder than with one and harder than being at work (at least at this stage with Levi being so little and demanding). It's just odd this sensation that my life has reversed itself. I find myself looking forward to Friday night, until I realize the real work is just beginning with two kids all weekend. Again I'll say, I do love it - just another one of the adjustments.

Yesterday Kaylee said something funny while Eric was playing tag with her in the house. She said, "Daddy, you don't chase me. I will chase myself." Then she would run through the house with much hilarity, looking behind her expectantly for her playful Daddy to pursue her. Sure enough he wouldn't let her chase herself for long, and would go off to 'get her' much to her delight.

Levi has had a very sleepy today, I really hope that doesn't mean that he'll have a wakeful night. But it seems if I do something during the day like take him grocery shopping, even if he sleeps it must not be a deep, restful sleep because he seems to need to make up for lost time later on.

Levi is liking his bath time. He even got a huge, open-mouthed grin on his face the other day as I put him in. He barely fusses except for if I have to reposition him. Soon enough, I know he will be kicking his legs and splashing and we will hear his belly laughs. I can't wait!

Kaylee is getting excited about Halloween. Our daycare provider's older daughter likes to play trick-or-treat setting up her own play door and practicing saying "trick-or-treat" for M&Ms after knocking on the door. They dress up to do this sometimes as well. Now she thinks every day is Halloween, she is going to think the month of October is a never-ending good time. I picked out pumpkin costumes for both kids. I opened up a magazine to show Kaylee all sorts of costumes, and she said she wanted to be a pumpkin. How sweet. It won't be long until she insists on being a princess or some girly thing so it's fun to dress her up in something appropriately toddler-ish.

Levi at one month old

Levi and I are getting to know each other better. We are over the hump of the first month. He is now starting to organize himself, understanding the patterns of our day a bit better. Although I regulary stay up with him 2 hours in the middle of the night still, making attempts to keep him from waking Kaylee (and Eric if he's not already engaged in helping with Levi). Eric is very helpful with the kids and very good at calming them both and keeping Kaylee disciplined as necessary. Levi's also understanding more the attempts we make at comforting him, and being more receptive to us as we are making our way towards satisfying his needs, i.e. there's less crying and more of little protesting squeaks instead. Levi has started to coo a little bit. He's made a couple of sounds that are not cries or squeaks but are the use of his voice. I get so excited every time he does it. Also, he smiles at my efforts to play with him at least a couple times a day now. Some of the smiles are large, open mouthed excited-looking smiles. So cute! I weighed Levi at Oct. 5 - one month old - and he was 12 lb 2 oz. He's a big boy but very proportionate in his size. Eric and I are both having our aches and pains related to carrying, holding, sitting and rocking as needed to care for him.

I am feeling better each day and have been having more days when I don't take a nap with Levi. I have found that it's just easier to go to bed at 8:30 or so with the kids and get all the sleep during the night. I now have only 10 lbs to lose and I know those are going to probably be the hardest from my experience with Kaylee. But it's only 5 weeks postpartum so that's pretty good, there's a lot of time left - as my doctor puts it "It takes you 9 months to get this way, why would you not allow at least 9 months for yourself to get back to the way you were before pregnancy?" Makes sense but I'm impatient.

Sunday we went to the apple orchard with the family. It was fun to see how Kaylee reacted to the apple orchard this year. She loved picking up the apples from the ground, even though we weren't supposed to take those we did let her have one. She was disinterested in the pumpkin patch but liked the hike up to the patch anyways. She loved seeing the little play house for the kids, watching the tractor rides (the line was way too long for us to go!) and she enjoyed her apple doughnut snack very much. We opted out of the shopping side of the trip thinking the day had gone well so far without deviating too much from her nap time. It was good to see everyone in the family, but the trip is getting more challenging with the family growing more. Each family has its own thing it wants to do. But the trip was still very fun and hopefully I will have some cute photos to post here soon.

We also went to the zoo. It was fun to see how she reacted since it had been a while since I took her myself. My mom and I took Levi and Kaylee and I can say if I had done it by myself we would've only lasted about 15 minutes - that would not have been good. We saw the new polar bear exhibit, the tiger/lions and the seal/fish building. That was enough and then we called it quits. Of course Kaylee doesn't really want to stay in her stroller so that adds to the challenge of the trip. We decided to stay in the one location and have lunch at their deli, and that worked out really well again allowing us not to deviate too much from nap schedules. at the end of the day she said she had fun and "I like the tigers - rahr!"

If anyone wants to come by and visit - feel free. We are doing well and ready for visitors! Just give a call!

Eric's parents visited weekend before last. We had so much fun with them during their trip. It was really nice to see them again and exciting to introduce the new member of our family, our Levi, to his parents. They had fun holding him, helping out and providing fun distractions for Kaylee. We went out to dinner a couple times and we ordered in a couple of times, also we were able to get together with more family over at the great-grandparents too. It was a fun trip, not too busy though - just right!

This past weekend and still today I have been pretty sick. Eric had this thing last week and looking back I think Kaylee had it too. I seem to have gotten a real bad case. I have hot flashes and chills, sore throat, achey (very achey hips!) On Saturday I was so bad I was crying from being overwhelmed. My parents came over to help when Eric had to do some stuff (Eric's been very helpful). That was nice because that was the one time Kaylee got ouf of the house this weekend to do something fun. I was so glad for that. I felt slightly better yesterday, it'll be a relief to be back to normal. I'm really hoping that Levi doesn't get sick with this thing and I haven't seen any evidence that he has it or is getting it so far. I'm not sure how he wouldn't get it though at this point. Hopefully those antibodies in my breast milk protect him!