One of these days I’d like to make the Miss Lily dress by The Handmade Dress

You are my sunshine pillow by Inkore makes me happy.

This post has been sitting unfinished for days. I started it but then had difficulty finding the time or energy to finish it. It’s not Nathan’s waking every few hours at night to feed that’s keeping us up. Sure that takes it’s toll but it’s the unexpected that has been harder to handle. But I’ll get into that a little later in this post. So onto my original post.

You’re probably wondering how Isabelle has taken to Nathan so I thought I’d talk about that today. She adored him right away. It’s not surprising since she used to talk at my belly saying, “I love you baby!” And she’ll quite frequently come up to Nathan just to kiss his head. But having someone else take mommy and daddy’s attention has definitely had an effect on her.

The first night at the hospital, when Olinda was with us, Isabelle was happily playing. But later on that night, after Olinda left, she saw Nathan nursing and she started to cry. She wanted milk too. Well, that’s been pretty much the pattern since that day. It’s not every time I nurse Nathan. It’s mostly at night when she’s tired.

So, bedtime is a matter of juggling, giving Nathan milk to hold him off for a couple of hours and then giving a little milk to Isabelle to put her down for the night. And if Isabelle and Nathan want milk, at the same time, in the middle of the night, I have to give Isabelle milk first or she really wakes up for good.

I’ve tried to explain to her that milk is for babies and she isn’t a baby anymore but she insists that it’s for Isabelle too. She says in a sad little voice, “but I like milk”. I honestly have no idea how to get her to stop. I haven’t really pushed her though because I don’t want to give her a reason to resent Nathan.

Something else new, she seems to get upset very easily now. Doesn’t get her way? Why she throws a tantrum. Look at her wrong? She’ll start crying. It’s so sad. And she won’t always play quietly by herself anymore. Sometimes she just wants me or Alan to sit with her because she says, “I’m scared”.

And did she always used to be soooo very loud? It’s like she’s trying to divert some attention her way even though we’ve been doing more with her. This past week we’ve been out to watch a magic show, a puppet show, the Academy of Sciences, and a visit with her cousin Ebow. But I guess she still misses when she had our undivided attention.

And that leads me into what has been interrupting our sleep, the unexpected. Isabelle has had a few more bloody noses than usual. I know she can’t control them but she’s been having them a lot more since Nathan’s been here. They’ve been early in the morning and after a bloody nose she won’t go back to sleep. So, our already interrupted sleep has been shortened too.

On top of that Isabelle has been peeing in the bed. She never did that before Nathan and now she’s done it four times. A couple of times she was asleep when it happened and didn’t even wake up. The last time she woke up immediately afterwards saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

My sister mentioned that her son started doing that when she had her second baby but it still surprised me when Isabelle did it. And do you know how disruptive peeing in the bed is? There’s definitely no more sleeping after that happens in the early morning.

I don’t know what to do to make her feel better. Before I would have said, maybe some alone time with just mommy or daddy but she’s had that with Alan. Going out with Alan just makes her cry, saying “but I’m going to miss the baby”.

Maybe she needs more time to get used to having a little brother?

I just quietly made that noise and frustratedly ran my hands through my hair. Why? Because the days are slipping by too quickly and I’m not posting frequently enough. Not enough for me. That’s right. It’s all on me. Wow, me is such a slave driver.

But seriously. Nathan is almost a month old and I feel like I barely have any pictures of him up here. And I haven’t really talked about him.

So, let me remedy that and get typing and share some random photos.

I know I’ve mentioned before that nursing Isabelle was very hard in the beginning. That is why I never really tried to stop nursing her in the event we got pregnant again. Well, with Nathan…what a difference. After Nathan was born and got checked by the NICU doctor, they gave him back. We sat together bonding for a good amount of time.

I put him onto nurse and he got it right away. With Isabelle and nursing, I don’t think we really got it until our second month. So, Nathan getting it the first time was shocking, absolutely shocking.

So, it was a bit of a surprise when my milk came in three days later. Or I should say when I got engorged. I didn’t think I’d have to go through that awful ordeal again since I was already nursing Isabelle. But maybe the sissy, only once or twice at night nursing can’t compare to newborn nursing. I don’t know.

All I know is that it was very uncomfortable and stressful. That’s when Nathan started having a hard time nursing. He couldn’t latch on properly. I cried in the shower that night. I called my sister for advice and actually yelled at my mom when she didn’t put her on fast enough.

But a couple of visits with a lactation counselor and I was good as new. And Nathan was back to nursing like a champion. Yes, Nathan is a regular little piggy.

That’s why this picture:

is not really accurate anymore. He’s already gotten bigger, noticeably bigger. I asked Alan to confirm what I just wrote. He gave me a look that said, “hell yeah he’s gotten bigger. Do you even have to ask?!”

So, see my dilemma? He’s growing too fast and I’m not writing about it fast enough!!! Aaaaahhhh!! And there go my hands through my hair again.

Oh and almost forgot. A video of Nathan doing nothing because my sister asked and because well newborns really don’t do anything.

Video on Flickr