What Having 2 Would Feel Like...

8.07.2012

On Monday, I got delivered a sleeping baby bundle around 8 am, an hour before our home study caseworker would come over. Thankfully she slept until right after she left. Cai was very, very, excited to find out that a baby was actually sleeping in the crib set up in the adjacent room. He wanted to "Hold it!" immediately.
He really was so sweet with Annabelle.
It was fun to see that he would make a good big brother! However, we would have to work on "gently" a little more. Boys are just rough.... A took it like a champ though!
I got down the Jumper from the attic, and a few other baby essentials, and both of them loved it!
Ah, I forgot how much baby legs make you happy! She was the cutest little chunky monkey ever!
I can tell Tummy Time would be more fun with 2, or 3 counting Abe (who seemed to remember having that tiny baby like yesterday, Abe really did so well with A, too).
I don't think Annabelle's mommy realized how many photos I take on a daily basis, especially if cute babies are in them...
You all know how much I love putting babies to sleep. This time though, I had a rampaging toddler in the back of my mind to think about, too. I realized how much time it takes to devote to another little one versus how much time Cai is "on his own". I definitely realized that it was good his room is a "safe place" for him to be during all the time it takes to get a baby fed and down for a nap.
And I realized that having an ERGO baby carrier is an absolute must for the next go around. I'm pretty sure, I would become more of an attachment style parent for round 2 when needed.

Overall, keeping Annabelle for a day made me think about a few things.

1)I will need to move my sewing space out of that room completely in the coming months. I usually sew when a baby is sleeping. I would never sew if I left it that way with another child, that means my sewing space will have to be moved to the main living area somehow.

2)A 4 month old takes a lot of work.  Funny how you forget how much work a baby takes, even an "easier" baby like Annabelle. You forget some of the basics because while a toddler can be a little wild, they are constantly becoming more independent. When you go from having a toddler that can hold their own cup, eat their own snack, and follow most directions to a baby that can't even sit up on it's own, much less hold it's own bottle....you quickly realize your "free" time isn't so free. The only really crazy time was when I realized that both kids needed to nap at the same time and the baby still needed to be fed WHILE reading trying to hold a book to put Cai down, too.

3)I will need a better schedule. It's already got me thinking about how I probably need to go ahead and get us on a more "structured" routine where Cai knows what to expect when. I'm not very good with that sort of thing at home, but it's something to work towards.

4)I'm much more laid back than I was with Cai. It's hard that you sort of forget "what works" and have to figure it out with each child, but your mom knowledge of things to try is much wider, because, especially with a difficult baby like Cai, you had to try EVERYTHING. As I was caring for Annabelle, I realized that the tendency to "freak" that she only took a 45 minute nap at one point, was not as strong, because you can just put them down a little earlier next time. It all works out, so that was great, and kind of a good feeling that can only come from being around the mom block one time already baby-wise. 

5)I'm excited about having OUR baby. As fun as it is to snuggle up with a baby, period, it wasn't MY baby, and it will be fun whenever that actually happens, but for now, I'll enjoy my sweet boy, because taking care of another child definitely took away from the obvious length of time that I normally spend with just Cai. However, it reminded me of the fact that God gave me Cai first, because he needs this amazing one on one time that we have together every day, to teach him and grow him up like Jesus.
I'm looking forward to the day when that spot holds MY sleeping baby, which I'm sure is just around the corner this next year!

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