George turned one month old on Saturday. The last month has flown by. I went from being pregnant, exhausted, uncomfortable, waddling to client meetings, photo shoots, and preschool pickup to spending all day at home with my newly expanded family. The mother of two beautiful children, an amazing girl who suddenly seems so big, not my baby anymore, and a tiny little boy who spends his days sleeping, eating, pooping and screaming at me to put him to bed, feed him, or clean up his poop.
Eleanor is already madly in love with her little brother. She is constantly hugging, kissing, and trying to help take care of him. We were afraid that she’d be jealous and resentful of the little crying creature who’d come into her house and taken away her parent’s attention. And while she’s definitely acting out a little because of the change, she has never blamed her little brother. She’ll get upset with Mommy or Daddy for being too tired or busy with George to play, but she doesn’t take it out on him. She can actually be surprisingly patient, waiting for me to finish a diaper change or feed George before doing something for her. I’m really proud of what a good big sister she’s turning out to be.
Even though it’s only been a month, it’s already fascinating to see the difference between George and Eleanor. We braced ourselves for the worst. Hoping that Eleanor had been the worst. We crossed our fingers and held our breath that George would be our “easy” baby. Eleanor spent her first six weeks constantly crying if she was awake, and the only way to get her to sleep was to hold her in your arms, because the moment you tried to set her down, the screaming and crying would start all over again. But you never know with babies, how they will be, and how much of your trouble with the first baby was your own fault as an amateur parent who really just didn’t know what you were doing, as new to parenting as your baby was to the world.
George arrived and we were pleasantly surprised by the differences. He latched well right away, and his first days at home he nursed like a pro, like it was his job, which it kinda is. Eleanor had a terrible time nursing at first. She wouldn’t stay awake to eat, she didn’t want to latch properly, she ate so lazily that she would nurse for 45 minutes to an hour, I barely had a break in between feedings. George also sleeps in his bassinet, which is such a big deal for us, as we spent the first six weeks with Eleanor holding her in shifts to get her to sleep, because she’d wake up the moment you’d try to put her down. And you can even put him down in his bassinet awake but sleepy and he’ll fall asleep all on his own. Eleanor didn’t do that until she was two.
I still wouldn’t call George easy. He’s cranky much of his waking hours, he cries and fusses a lot, and loudly. If he’s hungry, he’ll scream like he’s being murdered until you feed him. But as long as he sleeps without a problem I can handle the crying. And he’s sleeping pretty well at night. So far he usually gives us two or three good periods of two to four hours of sleep every night. So we get to sleep around 6 hours every night, which isn’t too bad at all. It’s definitely manageable.
Our days have been pretty pleasant. Josh and Eleanor spend most of the days playing, going to the park, swimming at the pool, or getting things done around the house. While George and I hang out on the couch, nursing, napping, and watching a lot of tv.
Even though we now have two kids that we have to learn to balance our time and energy between, I feel like having a newborn is so much easier this time around. Although, I say that now, before Josh returns to work and I have to spend my days with a newborn a preschooler and a business to run. I’ll let you know how that goes. Wish me luck! I’m sure I’ll need it!
