life with two

Second children. I feel for them. It is so true what they say about birth order shaping who you become as a person. I swear, first borns are much more doted on and "spoiled" simply because mommy and daddy only had you to shower with attention. But when there's two kids in the house, poor child #2 is sometimes left to cry for longer periods of time, not carried as much, not played with as much and is somewhat expected to do things faster than baby #1.

For example, E's actually a pretty good baby. She's very smiley, loves to cuddle (C did not!) and sleeps for longer stretches much earlier than C ever did. Yet, I seem to unrealistically expect her to get on a schedule and sleep through the night by 3 months. With C? That would be crazy talk.

Thankfully, E has taken to my pushy behavior quite nicely! I got on her on a pretty good schedule that goes like this (again, just documenting for posterity):

8:30am  -- Wake.

8:45ish -- Feed 5 oz. breastmilk. Yup! 5 ozs!! This girl eats WAY more than C did at this age.

9:00am -- Put down so mommy can pump. I really should get up before she does and pump but I'm up at 6:30am to see C off to preschool too. After that, I just want to go back to sleep! During this pumping time, I make my breakfast and usually have to move E around to 3 different spots cause she gets bored. She sometimes also just wants me to sit in front of her where she can see me while I pump. If not, she cries. What a high-maintenance girl!

9:30am -- Play with E.

10:00am -- Nap her. She's held for most naps (as I did with C) but even this she's being pushed earlier. I'm trying to put her down more to nap so I can get stuff done around the house. With a toddler messing it up every 5 seconds, the clutter and chaos bothers me so much more than when it was just me, B and baby C.
 
11:30am -- If I hold her, she'll nap and hour or so. The last 2 days, she hasn't wanted to eat as frequently and has dropped a mid-morning feeding. Usually I pump somewhere around this time.

12:00pm -- Feed 5 oz. formula. I have so much more breastmilk this time around that E gets a good amount. But she still needs 1-2 formula bottles a day. I space them out strategically due to 1) her gas. And 2) timing of when she poops as formula seems to make her want to go.

12:30pm -- Play, sling, etc.
 
1:30pm -- Nap! Again, another hour or so here if it's a good nap.

3:00pm -- This is a good time to put her down and pump. It all kind of varies though.

3:30pm --Feed 5 oz. breastmilk or formula.

4:00pm -- Play with E.

4:30pm -- Short nap. Try to put her down so I can cook dinner!

5:30pm -- This is ideal. I'd like her up at 5:30 (or earlier depending on how her day goes) so she has an hour and half before her 7ish bedtime that I'm shooting for.

Then this is the time of day it gets crazy. Cam is home, he needs to eat dinner. It's nonstop 3-year old talking and managing both kids at the same time. Evenings are HARD.

6:15ish -- B usually gives E a bath while I pump and take care of C.

6:45pm -- One of us gives C a bath while the other feeds E 5 oz. breastmilk and gives her gas drops (E seems to need them but C never did)

7:00pm-ish -- E's bedtime! On weekdays, I put her down cause she goes down easier with me. While I do that, B gets C ready for bed and reads him a couple of books.

7:30pm -- E's usually down for a bit and I go in to sing C a few songs and put him down for the night.

From 7-8:30pm, E usually sleeps and fusses, sleeps and fusses and one of us needs to go in and soothe her back down. I swear it's the gas. If I tried to put her down later I truly believe we would then be up with her until 10. I'm hoping she grows out of this!

8:30pm -- She's been consistently quiet by this time the past few nights!

9:30pm -- Last pump before bed.

3:00am (or somewhere around that time) -- Wake for a 5 oz. breastmilk feeding. Pump. If I do both on my own, it takes me at least an hour, usually more like 1 1/2. So that means I'm not back to bed til 4:30am. This SUCKS. Some nights, I wake B up to help by feeding her while I pump and he's great about it.

6:00am -- B's up to get C ready for school.

6:30amish -- I get up to help get C out the door and say goodbye. Then it's back to sleep for me!

8:30am -- Wake for a new day and it starts all over again!

See? Really not a bad schedule at all for a 2-month old. But we are crazy exhausted!! I swear, it's just having two kids that's the killer. I don't know how we thought we were tired with one and I also don't know how people have more than two!


Re-reading this, it's been a scattered post, I admit. Oh, well. No one's reading it anyway. ;P