For fourteen days, I have been a mom of two.
In fourteen days, I have only seen the inside of a hospital, Target (once) and a grocery store (once)…and finally today the library and Matt’s work.
In fourteen days, I have seen highs in the 50s and lows in the teens. I’ve seen the sun shine brightly enough to need sunglasses and I’ve seen snowflakes falling.
I am thankful that Lake was born in the spring. That way my days aren’t filled trying to shield him from every kind of sickness that winter can bring. We can go outside and enjoy the nice weather, go on long walks and hikes and take Big Brother to the park. That’s the plan at least.
Every calendar says spring began on March 20. In many places that is true. Here in Montana, we received a few wonderful days of spring. Then it decided to snow again (and again) and remain in the low 30s.
So, while it may be spring, my oldest has a cold and I am sheltering in place until it warms up again. I am also blocking all friends on Facebook who are back east so that I can no longer see their shorts, t-shirts, pool pictures, pictures of their already growing gardens and complaints of sweating.
All joking aside, these past fourteen days have been very good. But only the past five have been a test of ‘real life’ since my mom has been here for most of it.
Here are some highlights of the past two weeks:
Picture Overload
A week or so before Lake was born, I bought a new iPhone with the sole purpose of getting Portrait Mode. I love pictures and missed this feature from my previous phone that had gotten water damage. I knew I’d be taking hundreds of pictures (NOT an exaggeration) and wanted them to be great. I just can’t help but capture every smirk, facial expression, or movement that he makes. I did the same thing with Liam. The first few pages of our 2015 family photo book are just a collection of Liam in cute poses, cute outfits, or making cute faces.
Mom Left
Family means the world to me. And it’s hard being so far away from them; especially during monumental life events like the birth of my second child. I am forever grateful for my mom for coming and staying with us for a week and a half. She was my built in Liam-sitter (and dog-helper an house cleaner and…) and he couldn’t have been happier.
I’m normally okay when we drop our family off at the airport but this time was a bit harder for me. And it didn’t help that Liam is so good at verbalizing his feelings so all of his “I miss Gigi. When do we go to NC? When do Nonnie and Pa come?” comments were hard to hear.
And then, five minutes from the airport, a nice police officer pulled me over for speeding through the small downtown. Thankfully, if she saw the tears in my eyes, it gave her sympathy, because she let me off with a verbal warning.
Sleeping Panic
Lake takes after his mom. He sure seems to enjoy sleep. The nights have not been hard. I can remember hardly being able to stay awake while nursing Liam in the wee hours of the night. With Lake, it’s not been as difficult.
I believe it’s partly because my body has been getting less sleep than when I first had Liam. But Lake is also sleeping for long hour stretches so I get some nice rest in between feedings.
The second or third night, though, I woke up and realized it had been close to four hours since I’d fed him. I rolled over and didn’t hear him breathing. I lay my hand on him and he didn’t move. I picked up his arm and it felt limp. I jumped out of bed, turned on the light and grabbed him. His eyes flew open and he gave me an angry, confused look. After apologizing to him (and Matt), I thanked God for a healthy, sleepy baby.
This age can be so easy yet so scary.
Big Brother is Getting Too Big for His Pants
Big Brother has been a bit out of sorts. What do people call their snarky three-year-old? Threenager? That’s a bit like him at the moment. A bit of disobedience with a side of being rude.
I remind myself that he had ten days of GiGi’s attention, a new baby brother has come home to stay, he’s four, and we’ve stayed in the house for an extended period of time which can make anyone crazy. And, to top it off, he’s come down with a cold. So, all of that combined has thrown him off a bit. He NEVER naps and has taken one (on his own) the past two days. That just tells me his little body is trying to heal itself.
One day the sun will come out again and the temperature will warm up and he’ll get to spend his days outside, playing in the dirt and swinging on the swings in the backyard.
VIPKID Started Back
I told you I was going to make a plan to slowly start back. The plan: Open evening class slots and see if anyone books. No one ever books evening classes Monday’s through Thursday’s but this week I was in for a surprise: 13 slots were booked!
I quickly realized that doing two hours with a thirty minute break in between was a bit much. While Lake sleeps all day, he is awake in the evening and so that threw off my plan a bit. So I quickly changed the rest of the week after I realized this.
One of my regular students, Annie, was so excited to see me again. She kept saying “the baby” over and over. I realized she was wanting to see Lake so I showed her some pictures and she was so excited. It was sweet to see how excited she was and that she remembered that I’d had a baby. These students may be in China but they are MY students and I love that.
Meal Train Meals
Cooking is not at the top of my list of favorite activities…especially when I have a two week old at home. It has been the biggest blessing to be part of a Moms group who help each other out. I have had three meals delivered so far with five or six more to come in the coming weeks. I’ll talk more about this later but I am incredibly grateful for the gift of food from these ladies (who all have children of their own).
We Visited Dad at Work
I don’t know if the ladies at Matt’s work wanted to see Liam more of if Matt wanted to show off his precious Mini-Me but Lake got his first tour of Simms. He slept through most of his tour but there will be many more trips to come!
Here’s to the next fourteen days and beyond!