I can't believe that we're coming up on Madeline's 2 week birthday already! We took this picture of all three kiddos last week before Ashley and Mason headed back to St. Louis. I can't wait to start doing group shots and looking back at how little they all were. :)
Daddy's first picture at home with both kids. Joseph still loves to be around Madeline, giving her lots of kisses and asking to hold her. He also likes to tell us about what she's doing, but is generally most interested in her "making moises" (noises) and going "pee pee and/or poop in her undies" since that's still an important part of his day. It's a little difficult trying to explain to him that it's ok for her to do it, and no, she won't get a cold water bath as a consequence. Hopefully it doesn't mess up his potty training success, but so far he hasn't had any regression issues at all.
Madeline got her first bath at home on Tuesday the 11th, and Joe realized that he'd forgotten a few key tips for keeping her happy that worked well with Joseph. So the experience was super quick and not very pleasant for her.
We spent most of the first weekend at home just hanging out, save for Madeline's newborn photo session on Saturday morning and Joe's long run Sunday morning. I was amazed, as was he, that his first true long run (20 miles) since being home with Madeline went really well. He was able to achieve a great pace, feel good and wasn't too sore afterward. He's had some great runs again this week, which is great considering the interrupted sleep he's been getting. The Chicago Marathon is now just 2 1/2 weeks away!
Sunday afternoon we grabbed lunch with Scott and Tricia, and then parted ways so Joe could take Joseph to see Finding Nemo in 3D, while I headed home with Madeline to get some sleep. Although she's still sleeping plenty, last week each day became more and more difficult as she started to fuss and cry a lot more, to the point of us being able to anticipate that between 10pm and 1 am she'd cry off and on, and nothing we did would calm her down. It was beginning to seem like we had a colicky baby on our hands, so I opted to start cutting out possible food irritants from my diet and researching other things we could do to make her happier.
Unfortunately, I also started to get really run down, and by Sunday afternoon was running a fever of 101-102 degrees. Madeline didn't want to sleep after our family lunch out, and I was getting to wit's end. Ashley offered to change her vacation plans and come back up to KC to help out so I could rest, hopefully kick my fever and recharge my batteries, and while I felt bad agreeing, I took her up on her offer. She and Mason arrived by train on Monday evening, and will be leaving early tomorrow morning for a long trip to Destin. It's been a blessing having her here to help with Joseph and keeping the house clean and running, and I'm feeling great again. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with things better this time around!
I'm also praying that Madeline isn't just responding as well to having Mason and Ashley here as Joseph is; she has become 100% better since Sunday. She's sleeping better and back to crying at what I'd consider a normal baby amount, and for problems we'd expect and can fix. The colicky behavior has basically disappeared. I've also started spending more time massaging her tummy, trying to keep high levels of stimulus down (that has seemed to bother her a bit), and she's been getting better at taking a pacifier. We'll see if the diet changes (namely drastically reducing dairy and caffeine) was important as I completely forgot tonight and ordered my favorite meal from our favorite mexican restaurant for takeout that has a lot of cheese in it. Oops. At least if she gets really fussy again tonight/tomorrow, I'll know that it might really be an issue to keep an eye on.
We'd been keeping Madeline in our room, next to me in the pack n' play, although during the peak of her fussy times, the only way I could get her to fall asleep was if she was laying on my chest or in my arms. So she slept on my chest or right next to me in bed most of the time. I wasn't thrilled about having her in bed with us, but I don't move much, if at all when I sleep, and I was desperate to get some rest for the both of us. As soon as I'd put her in the pack n play, even if she seemed soundly asleep, she soon start fussing and wake up crying. Sunday night was the first time she slept for good stretches in the pack n play, so I was a little leery to turn it over to Mason. But he definitely needed it more than her, so Monday night she ended up sleeping most of the night on her changing table pad next to my side of the bed, which worked out great! Tuesday night I decided to try having her sleep in her crib, so that Joe could get better sleep. She ended up sleeping in her crib after her 1:45am feeding, only waking to eat at 4:30, 7 and 9:15am. Success! She also took a really long nap in her crib this afternoon, so if tonight goes well, we may just go ahead and leave her in there, as I think we both sleep a little better without her right next to us.
Joseph has absolutely loved having Ashley and Mason here and even though we told him tonight that they'd be leaving in the morning, I know he'll be sad and asking about them for a while. She video chatted with Mimi, Papa and Mikael a few times with him, so we'll have to be good about keeping that up. They went to storytime at the library today, now that it's started back up for the school year, so that I could run to Target with just Madeline for a few essentials, including new nursing bras. They spent lots of time playing together, whether with his new cars or playdough, reading stories, or just watching videos on the ipad. Joseph can't wait for Mason to be old enough to play with; they are definitely going to be good buddies!
Tonight all three kiddos got to take baths. Maddie seems to be enjoying her tub baths a lot more than the sponge baths, and since her cord stump fell off just 4 days after being born, it's a plus for everyone!
She still is in the super slippery, no control stage, which makes it hard to keep her upright and straight in the water. She definitely prefers being on her back in the water to being turned over and having her back washed!
Mason had a great time in the bath, and has been staying awake most of the afternoon...so we're assuming he's just really excited about flying to Florida tomorrow to see Mimi, Papa and later on, his daddy!
And just to toot my own horn/so I can remember later on, today I was able to fit into and wear my "fat" jeans! I gained 37 lbs this pregnancy, and so far have lost 22, so just 15 to go. Just being able to wear my own "real" clothes less than 2 weeks after giving birth is so nice and feels like such a great reward for keeping my weight gain more manageable this time. I'm optimistic that the rest will come off fairly quickly, especially when I'm able to start running.
Whew! I wasn't intending this to be such a long post, but I figure I need to write all of this stuff down before I forget and wish I had thought to document it.
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