All in all our Christmas has been nice with lots of presents to open and a good lunch of prime rib, roasted carrot salad, hashbrown casserole and coffee and cake. Deeper down it's been a little more difficult.
Life with a 10 day old baby is pretty easy. She's a good sleeper and eater and is pretty relaxed about most things. Sounds don't bother her (which is good because our house is LOUD) and she's content sleeping in our arms or in her rock and play. Luke, though, is having some difficulties adjusting. Our sweet boy is angry with us I think for bringing a baby into our mix and we're at a loss at how to help him cope. He loves the baby and is so good with her and helping, but he's mad at old mom and dad for adding someone to our gang. So, we've all been a little on edge this week trying to get adjusted. I knew that it might be difficult and we would have a time period where things were off kilter, but this. is. hard. Meh. I never would have thought that the preschooler would have been harder to care for than the newborn.
We try to spend devoted time to him, doing things he'd like to do. We've ignored some behaviors and some we just can't, so discipline is in order. Our routine is all over the place with Christmas and no school and even when Luke does go to school, daddy's taking him and not me and aargh. I assume that we'll get a good routine going and then I'll have to go back to work. No one ever promised that parenting would be easy, that's for sure.
Anyways... now that I've thoroughly brought Christmas down, I do realize how truly blessed we are. I know that we will get adjusted and Luke will come around and while I've focused on his negative behavior we've had some really sweet moments together today. The magic of Santa Claus was fantastic this morning. His sweet face lit up when he saw his gifts under the tree and that the milk and cookies were gone from the night before. Polar Express is our new favorite movie and he loves talking about the North Pole and the choo choo train and hot chocolate.
I love both my babies more than anything so I know we'll weather through this time as best we can, just as we always do. Maybe tomorrow we can get out and do something fun. Or we can just play with one of the bajillion toys Luke got today.
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful day filled with love and joy and that 2017 is filled with all things that are good.
pretty flowers from my coworkers
Dillon's cousin Cory and his wife, Lindsey, were in Asheville for Christmas and so they came for a visit yesterday!
We spent Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's.
Peepaw's WV Gnome!
Back at home, we put out cookies for Santa. We compromised on 4 cookies instead of the whole plate.
Christmas jammies picture.
Toys are out! Santa left Pampers for Charlie.
Coffee. Lots of Coffee. :-\
She just couldn't contain her excitement.
He was really excited about his fire boots!
New cookie baking sheets!
Dillon's been wanting a food processor for a long time, Merry Christmas, Dill!
We've had a busy 5 days since baby Charlotte made her arrival. The first two were in the hospital so it was full of blood pressure readings, temperatures, foot sticks (for the baby) and not a lot of sleep. Friday night the nurse came in and said that Charlie's bilirubin levels were a little high so she slept in a lighted blanket and some really cool (not) sunglasses. Saturday the levels had dropped a little so we were free to come home.
We came home around lunchtime and promptly set up shop at home. Our doggies sniffed around the baby and Luke was pleased as punch to have us all back under one roof again. He never showed that he was sad that we were away for 3 days, but I know he was. He kept hugging us telling us he had missed us and staying close. Speaking of Luke, he's been the BEST big brother and helper to mom and dad. He is so sweet and calls little Charlie "my baby". He's held her a few times, he'll rock her when she's sad and he gives her kisses on the top of her head all the time. He was a little nervous to begin with, but he's come around.
Nighttime rolled around and we were all really nervous but Charlie has slept so well, she's skipped the "2nd Night Crazy Baby" syndrome, where they "wake up" and scream all night. She's doing so well at sleeping and then waking every 3 or so hours to eat. And when she's hungry she never screams and cries, she just starts gnawing on her hands and making noises. The first night we were home, as soon as the house got quiet and we turned off the lights she started crying. We thought at first that maybe she just wanted to be held, but last night we realized it was just too quiet in the house for her. So we turned on some white noise and she went straight to sleep. Last night she woke up at 11:00, 2:00 and 5:30 which is so doable. Ha!
Yesterday, we had a good visit with Dillon's family where Charlie got to meet some of her family. We shared Christmas gifts and caught up with everyone. Today, we had our first visit with our pediatrician and Charlie's down to 7 lbs. 4 oz., which is normal. She's still a little yellow from the jaundice so we had to run to the lab and have her blood drawn again. We're waiting results now, but it should be all ok.
I've had a few baby blues and catch myself crying for no reason at all which is fun (and probably a little befuddling for Dillon). I've cried at paying bills, articles on Facebook and commercials that aren't that sad. I'm also having some anxiety with taking her out and about. We've pretty much bathed in hand sani and I about came out of my chair when the lab tech sneezed today right as she was taking the baby's blood. Good times. I feel pretty good and am trying to take it easy, but sometimes that's easier said than done.
Dillon's home with me for the next few weeks so I'm excited for the holidays and for us to have a quiet time at home. It feels nice. Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes! We are so glad to be where we're at with our sweet babies.
All these pics are out of order... so sorry, but I don't have the patience to fix it right now, ha!
