Life With Two Kids – Month 1

Hi friends!

It’s officially been a month since Little Miss entered the world. And guess what? We survived! I won’t sugar coat it for you and say it’s been easy, because it hasn’t! I figured I should try to bring you guys up to speed on what’s been going on around here. I’ll try to break it down into some categories you may have questions about:

• Sleep
• Squish
• Baby
• Mom
• Breastfeeding

So here we go:

Sleep

Simply put, I’m not really getting any. With the exception of one time (two nights ago), I have not slept longer than 2.5 hours straight in a month. I’m exclusively breastfeeding, so when baby wants to eat, it’s me feeding her….and she is a frequent eater. Squish was a very good sleeper, sleeping 3-4 hour stretches pretty much right from the beginning. Not the case with this one. She’s pretty much up every 2 hours wanting to eat. Couple that with the fact that  I have a toddler who thinks that 4:30 – 5am  is an appropriate time to start the day and yeah….no sleep. I’d say I’m averaging 4-5 hours of non-consecutive sleep a night.

Baby sleeps much better during the day than she does at night…but during the day Squish is awake and when he goes down for his nap, she always seems to be awake. On a rare occasion, they’ll both be asleep at the same time during the day and I can sneak in a quick nap.

The good news is, on Sunday night she slept long enough for me to sleep 5 hours straight and it was glorious! I almost felt like I didn’t need my second and third cups of coffee on Monday! Almost. And last night she slept a little over 3 hours straight so maybe we’re turning the corner a little bit. Now if I could just get Squish to sleep in!

Squish

Speaking of Squish, many of you have asked how he’s doing with his sister. This was one of my biggest anxiety sources during my pregnancy and I spent a lot of time worrying about how he would handle it. Turns out he’s doing great! Sure he has his moments where he’s a little overly exuberant around her…but hello, he’s a toddler. Overall, he’s not super interested in her. He will show you where she is if you ask, occasionally give her toys when she cries, etc….but he doesn’t seem all that interested in holding her or trying to play with her.

In the past week or so, he seems to have taken a bit more interest. He attempted to brush her hair after her bath and tries to put her binky in when she cries.

Squish has always been very mommy-attached so I knew the transition would have some challenges…and it has….but having daddy home for those first two weeks after baby was born was invaluable in helping to deal with him. The hardest times of day seem to be meal time. Whether it’s trying to keep him entertained while I’m nursing her…or trying to feed him while she’s screaming to be fed as well, it can get a little overwhelming….but we’re surviving. He’s been watching his fair share of tv because it’s the one thing I can count on to contain him to the same room while I’m trying to nurse.

Overall I’m proud of what a good big brother he is and I’m excited to see how they start to interact as she gets older.

Breastfeeding

This is the big one I know a lot of you are wondering about. If you don’t know my story about breastfeeding with Squish you can read it here: Breastfeeding is Hard. To sum it up, I got mastitis a week after he was born, which developed into a breast abcess. I spent 5 days in the hospital and stopped breastfeeding when he was 6 weeks old.

Many people asked me if I was going to try again after my terrible experience the first time. My answer was yes. When I got mastitis, I was given a few rounds of medication that were not ideal for treating it (and didn’t work), because I have a drug allergy to meds in the same family as the drug they typically treat it with. In the end, I was given that medicine and was fine….but because I didn’t get it right away, the infection kinda spiraled out of control. So my hope was that breastfeeding could and could go better the second time….and it has!

But I stand by my statement that breastfeeding is hard. Just because it’s going well does not mean it’s easy. It definitely helped to know what to expect this time around. I spent a ton of time disconnecting and relatching the baby right from the beginning to avoid damaging my nipples and I think that helped a lot. But I still forgot how painful it was in the beginning as they learn how to latch, milk comes in, etc. Plus, for the first week or so I was using two hands to keep her in position, etc which made it nearly impossible to deal with an active toddler who also needed me.

After about 2 weeks, I started to get my groove. She learned how to eat, I learned what position was best, I could have a hand free to look at my phone or deal with Squish. After a month we’re too the point where it’s pretty comfortable. I’ve fed her on the couch, at the kitchen counter, while walking around the kitchen trying to get dinner ready for Squish, at the table while we were out to eat…

She’s a pretty good eater and will typically nurse for 15-20 minutes on each side. Her brother as constantly falling asleep while eating and we had to strip him down to a diaper at every feeding, cold wash cloths etc. She’s much better at staying awake…which is nice.

But it’s also time consuming. I added it up one day and found that some days I’m actively nursing her for 6 hours. You guys, that’s a lot of time. With Squish we dealt with jaundice and low supply so we were supplementing with formula after just a few days and then after a few weeks, on formula completely. He would suck down a bottle in about 2 minutes and be done with it. This time, every time she nurses it takes 35-40 minutes. That’s been hard to adjust to.

I posted this on Instagram the other day:

Let me tell y’all a little bit about breastfeeding. It’s challenging, exhausting, time-consuming and oh so rewarding…all rolled into one. It takes time, patience, dedication and did I mention time?? So if you know a breastfeeding mama, give her a hug. She’s working harder than you know!

A photo posted by Lindsay L, RD (@theleangreenbean) on Dec 1, 2016 at 5:41pm PST

Judging by the response I got, many of you agreed! I’m so grateful breastfeeding is going better this time around, but it’s still hard.

Since I had low supply last time, I still find myself worrying about that with her, but she’s gaining weight so I know that means she’s getting what she needs.

Baby

Baby girl is doing well. She was 8 pounds, 10 oz when she was born and according to our rough estimate using a bathroom scale at the gym, she’s up to about 10 pounds now. She doesn’t go back to the doctor for her first round of shots, etc until after the holidays so we’ll have a better idea of her weight and height again at that point.

She’s definitely more work than her brother was as a newborn. Simply put…she’s fussy. If she’s not sleeping or eating, she’s usually fussing, crying or full on screaming. I think she’s a bit colicky….from about 7-11pm is her worst time of day, typically full of screaming…but luckily she gives us a break some evenings. Mornings are when she is happiest and she will occasionally sit in her rock and play and just look around. But she definitely prefers to be held. Oh and she’s not a fan of the pacifier. Squish took one immediately when he was about 3 days old and it was a lifesaver. She’s just not really interested. She wants to suck her fingers or thumb but can’t get them into her mouth and she’ll only take a binkie about 30% of the time…and only for a few minutes.

Luckily she likes the Ergo and will usually calm down and go to sleep if I put her in it during the day. She’s not a huge fan of her carseat and cries in it a fair amount…but if the car is moving she does alright.

She’s already spending a fair amount of time at the gym and does pretty well there. The loud noises and music don’t bother her. Unlike her brother, she usually doesn’t mind tummy time and she likes to be swaddled. Just like we did with him, she’s sleeping in the rock and play next to the bed for now.

At this point she’s napping wherever. The plan is to use Squish’s crib for her…but we’re in no rush. Squish still sleeps very well in the crib and I’m in no rush to put him in a toddler bed. Basically I’m waiting until he figures out how to climb out of the crib and gives me no choice but to transition to big kid bed!

She’s wearing some newborn clothes but 0-3 month stuff fits her best. She can fit into some 3 month sleepers and onsies but some stuff is too big, especially pants. She’s wearing size 1 diapers and has at least 1 blowout a day, without fail. They tend to happen when she’s in her carseat, which typically means we arrive home and she’s screaming and uncomfortable and Squish is screaming for his dinner and then I end up getting his dinner and then trying to deal with the blowout on the kitchen floor and simultaneously watch him while he’s eating.

But she’s still a sweet baby. She has big blue eyes and her snuggles are the sweetest.

Mama

Overall I’m doing well. Besides being tired and a little overwhelmed at times, I’m loving life. Being responsible for two littles is definitely hard…especially when they’re both screaming at once, or when they have opposite sleep schedules, or when you have to tell your toddler not to hammer his sister…or that he can’t sit on top of the baby in your lap…but we’re all adjusting.

I have my follow-up OB appointment on December 15th,  so hopefully I’ll be cleared to workout. Healing is going well. My stitches hurt more than I remember from last time…but last time I also had mastitis after one week and I was feeling pretty much all-around miserable so it’s a little hard to compare. I’m just a couple of pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight so most of my normal clothes are fitting…with the exception of a couple pairs of pants.

I’m excited to get back into working out! Again, it will be a little hard to compare my CrossFit comeback to last time because of how sick I got. I had an incredibly hard time coming back last time. This time will still be hard…but I don’t feel like I’ll be starting totally from square one. My goal is to spend the next two months building my strength and endurance back up again to be ready for the Crossfit Open at the end of February. I’m also super grateful that we own a gym so that I have the freedom to go in and do some random workouts if I need to work around the kids’ schedules and moods.

Dealing with a fussy/colicky baby can be emotionally taxing…but I know it’s just a phase and this too shall pass. I’m trying to keep us busy without overcommitting. Winter is definitely hard with an active toddler and a newborn. We’ve been to a few playdates with a friend or two for Squish and started going to The Little Gym once a week again to get him around other kids. Plus, we go to our gym several days a week and that helps a lot because he can run around like crazy and burn some energy.

I’ve been doing pretty well at taking a break from blogging and the work I do for Regan but that will start back up again after the first of the year. I’m a little anxious about how I’ll have time to fit everything in…but I’m just going to take it week by week and adjust as needed!

Whew….so I think that’s enough for now! I’ll check back in new month with more updates.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–