Mom, are you going to work today?

Every morning, Max wakes up and calls "Peter, come get me" (okay - 2% of the time he calls for Momma) and Peter hears him on the web cam and goes and gets him from his bed.  He brings Max into our bed and then goes and gets him his half a vitamin, some milk in a non-spill sippy cup, and some type of dry breakfast cereal (lately cheerios, fruit "hoops" (loops), or "crunchies" (Cap'n Crunch Berries) in his snack cup.  Max eats his vitamin and then enjoys his milk and cereal while playing on the iPad.  He gets up typically between 6 and 6:30 am so certainly before we are ready to get up.  He plays on this while dad gets ready for work and then after dad leaves until mom is up and has nursed Emmalyn.   Before the baby, I would be somewhat conscious for this process.  Since the baby, this is probably when I get my best sleep and so I am OUT.  Peter is awesome and just takes care of everything and lets me sleep.  

So once I am somewhat up and starting to get going, Max asks me every day "Mom, are you going to work today" and I get to tell him No!  I am staying home with you today.  I love that I get to say No.  I know I am blessed with the ability to take a leave of absence from work and not everyone has that luxury.  It makes me sad because I also know that Max will eventually stop asking every day and then one day, I will have to tell him that I am going to work and it is going to come as a surprise to him and he will have to readjust to me being gone again.

Emmalyn and her buddy Landen

Max is helping more and more with his sister.  He wanted to help put her socks on.

He's really into "Team Work" lately and wants to do everything with team work.  For example, put his pajamas on with team work so that we both do parts of it or cleaning up the toys with team work.

A sign that things might be getting better?  I made myself lunch!

Video - Max wanted to call Peter but instead we sent him a message since he was at work

Still has a bit of hair back there

We planted two different kinds of tomatoes in the topsy turvy planters.  Please tomato gods, give me some tomatoes this year!

The girls getting a little fresh air while the boys played ball

She often will sleep with her hands all tense like this and won't relax them.  Looks uncomfortable to me...

Look how big that white onesie is on her - it's a 0-3 months.  She is so little, especially her lower half...little waist, little bum, little thighs...

Nap time bedhead

Our neighborhood had a neighborhood garage sale and so I spent the day before getting stuff together that I wanted to sell and then taking it over to my great neighbor's house who was letting me add my stuff to her stuff.  The next morning, Max and I hit up a couple of neighbor's houses to check out the kid/baby stuff.  We got some clothes for Emmalyn, a play kitchen (with the supplies) for max (!!! - so excited about this), and Max found this toy and played with it forever while Momma chatted, so we brought it home.

Man, is my kid handsome or what?!

He sure loves wearing his sunglasses

They are starting to develop the land for the 3rd phase of homes behind our house.  Britt and the boys went over there to explore.

So, clearly I post a lot of pics of Emmalyn sleeping and you would think, wow...that baby sleeps a lot, things must be going pretty easily.  NOT.  Here's a note I wrote to Peter on May 2nd to give you a little peak into an honest moment... "I'm tired of this.  I'm tired of dodging poop and cleaning it up.  I'm tired of listening to Landen yell.  I'm tired of listening to Max and Landen fight.  I'm tired of Max not listening.  I'm tired of Emmalyn screaming.  I'm tired of not being able to eat.  I'm tired of hurting.  I'm tired of being tired.  I'm tired of not feeling that I have anything to wear."

Yeah, tough times right now in this new way of life.  I try to remind myself that there are a bunch of adjustments going on... I am adjusting to being home and not at work all day, which also means being around everything that goes on in my house during the day.  I am adjusting to the new baby.  I'm adjusting to dealing with the demands of the new baby.  My body is adjusting to not being pregnant.  Understanding all this mentally doesn't make it easier to deal with emotionally.  I'm blogging about this not because I want sympathy or advice...I'm blogging so that if there is a next time, I can read this and remember that feeling this way is normal and maybe I'll do a better job of adjusting my expectations quicker about all these adjustments.

She's about to be a full three weeks old and I am just starting to feel like she's beginning to connect with us more.   She gives us a little eye contact and I can tell she is listening.  She seems to really struggle to poop and burp.  She cries when she needs to poop and seems to hold onto her burps and we have to work really hard to get them out.

Easter egg hunts

2 weeks ago I wondered if Max would get to do any Easter egg hunts because my c-section was scheduled for the day after Easter and I figured I'd be too pregnant to want to do anything.

Turns out - not only was I not pregnant on Easter, but we were already home from the hospital!

On Friday, we just hung out at home.  It was unseasonably cool outside.  I got on the scale for the first time since giving birth and it was a nice surprise.  I had lost over 12 lbs from my pre-birth weight.  We spent a lot of the day in the guest bedroom since the carpets were still damp.  At one point all of my family was in there plus Britt and her boys.  Well, Brittany was changing Emmalyn's diaper and Emmalyn repaid her by shooting poop on her.  I say "shooting", because that's what it is like.  You have to watch out or she will get you!  (When we were in the hospital, Peter was changing her diaper in the bassinet and she shot poop out that hit the end of the bassinet, like a water balloon splat.)  All the little boys were pretty traumatized watching that and Peter was cracking up because he had warned Brittany about Emmalyn's poops.  I pooped for the first time since going into labor, which was traumatic for me too.  :)  Not fun.

Max was really whiny and just wasn't listening to his parents and doing what we wanted.  He had another accident again.  UGH!  Despite clearly adjusting to having his sister around, he did show a little more interest in her and wanted to look at her once.  Then, when she started crying, he immediately started looking for his headphones (FUNNY KID!).  He wanted his sister to play basketball with him and we had to explain that she is too little.   If she even comes close to touching him, like when we were cuddling at night, he says "Baby Sister is kicking me!" and gets upset.  He can't remember to use feminine parts of speech and instead says "he" and "his" when talking about Emmalyn.

Video - Max and his cousins throwing ice against the bricks to break it.  Super cheap entertainment!

Max got to participate in 2 hunts on the day before Easter!

Look at all that hair!

Her hair curl on the front of her head.  It's super cute now, I'm sure she'll hate it later.

Trying the bouncy seat for the first time (notice the baby spoon Max brought and put in there for her on the right side)

My pretty girl - thanks Aunt Tawny for the outfit!  She only fits in newborn sized clothes right now.  She swims in the 0-3 month sized stuff.

Roly poly girl.  This doesn't even look like her.

Saturday morning, Peter decided that he would take Max to the egg hunt at Brittany's church.  We hadn't talked with Max about it earlier because I wasn't expecting Peter to want to do it but he did.

Ready to start going after those eggs

Silly boys

Enjoying the "fruits" of his labors

According to Peter he had a good time

Meanwhile...back at home...She slept (she loves her hands up by her face)

...and then slept some more

Video - Max sang to Emmalyn to keep her happy - - so crazy cute

That afternoon, our neighbors put a little egg hunt on just for Max.  They had a basket for him to use and everything.  Have I mentioned how great they are and how appreciative I am that we live next to them?

Chris and Mary Ann helping Max find the eggs while we sat and watched

Max also enjoyed some of Mary Ann's home made treats.

How it's going...
Today (4/19/14)I was down 15 lbs total - nice to be heading down on the scale instead of heading up. The past two nights at home Emmalyn's done great at waking up to eat and then immediately going back to sleep every three or three 1/2 hours.  Hallelujah, I think I am finally past the engorgement stage in breastfeeding.  I can't believe how beautiful Emmalyn's face is!  She has some baby rash though that moves around (I didn't know that baby rash can move around but it totally does!) Max does NOT want his sister touching him at all.  We tried to lay her next to him and that was a big failure.

Max spelled his name today for Ms. Mary Ann - - M  A  X.  I was so proud!  I didn't know if he could do that.  As I showed in the video above, he sang songs for his sister to get her to stop crying and it worked.

We are adjusting to the new "normal".  Peter feels like he's doing everything and I feel like I'm doing more than I should and instead I should be resting more which just leads to us both being unhappy.  Good times.