Smiley Guy

I have all kinds of pictures of Brennan and Cate from these first two weeks home, but they're on my camera and I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. So for now, enjoy this smiling little man, snapped on my cell phone last Sunday morning. Eric and Cate headed out to church while I stayed home with Brennan and snuggled in bed. He was all smiles having mommy to himself.

Today, we actually did venture out to church, but we sat in the atrium and watched the service on the TV screen. While Brennan eats pretty predictably every 3-4 hours, I wanted to make sure I had quick access to the nursing moms' room just in case. And I didn't want to disrupt anyone sitting around us if he started to fuss. We'll probably start leaving him in the nursery in a few weeks.

We've actually had a few outings this last week. Yesterday we went to Maggiano's with my parents, brother, sister, and grandmother (mom's mom) to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. We've been to Target a couple of times as well as the Starbucks drive-thru. I have not ventured out on my own with the two of them and probably won't for at least another week or so.

My recovery is going great, but I don't want to overdo it. I'm down to over-the-counter pain meds twice a day, but still can't do a ton of heavy lifting. I am allowed to drive again and I did escape to run a couple of errands last week when Eric got home from work. It's supposed to be really cold and snowy here this week anyway, so I'm not in a hurry to get out of the house anyway. Thank goodness for our finished basement, Play-Doh, and tons of new Christmas toys and books.

Keeping Cate entertained while tending to Brennan's needs is tough. I'm not going to lie. And the last two weeks have brought some frustrating moments. But we're all learning together to adjust to life as four. Eric has been a rockstar. He lets me sleep in until about 30 minutes before he leaves for work. And more than once last week, he brought me breakfast in bed to enjoy in peace and quiet. Naptime is a challenge with Cate as she is sleeping in later too (since I'm not working, she doesn't hear me getting up), but it also means that since she is cooped up in the house all morning, she's not tired by naptime. We're working on this though. Cate has been a rockstar too-- usually helpful and understanding and not trying to test me like she did that first day home with them both.

Aside from my family coming for a visit this weekend, a friend from high school whose husband was in town on business, brought her kids (her son is a couple of weeks older than Cate and her daughter is a couple of months older than Brennan) over for a visit. She also brought gifts, lunch, and paid for dinner. Our older kids had a blast playing together and we had fun catching up. A couple from our small group brought over dinner another night last week and we had a wonderful time catching up with them while our kids all played together. We truly are blessed to have such awesome friends and family rallying around us as we learn how to navigate the waters of more-than-one-child parenting.

So all in all, I can't complain. Brennan is sleeping like a champ-- waking at night only when he needs to eat (which is every 3-4 hours). He's an efficient little breast-feeder too, which makes those middle-of-the-night feedings go quickly. I will admit that being at home with two kiddos has it's challenging moments (and we're only two weeks into it), but as the weather warms up and Brennan gets some meat on him and Mommy gains confidence in going out with two, things will get better. For now though, I'm content to snuggle up to my kids, face the challenges as best as I can, and just soak it all in. It'll only be like this for a season.

~Melody :-)

PS. Look for more pictures later this week.