Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Part of the reason there have been few substantive posts is because we're busy and tired, but it is also because it is hard to give updates when things are constantly changing.  For example, we had a great night last night--Elizabeth slept the whole night in her bassinet and even managed one 3-hour stretch!!!!  Her previous record in the bassinet was 45 minutes and she had never done more than 2 stretches in there in a night.  But I know enough not to declare victory.  Given how sleepy she has been all day today, I think she is just having a sleepy day and so last night was more willing to sleep anywhere.  Until she does 3 days in a row of it, I consider it just a temporary reprieve.

Same goes for Nicholas.  He is all over the map.  In the course of a single day he has spells where he is absolutely angelic and the best helper ever and then spells where he is literally throwing things.  Yes, our sweet Nicholas throwing things.  And stomping around the house.  And yelling at us.  And laughing as he deliberately disobeys.  Clearly he is having trouble with the adjustment despite the fact that he absolutely adores his baby sister and loves being a big brother.  We are trying so hard to give him lots of good attention, but it doesn't seem to be enough.  I'm not sure how much more I can do, however.  I already read books with him and play games with him while feeding Elizabeth (and sometimes while eating as well) and I snuggle with him at rest time and bed time when I can.  I'm honestly doing a better job spending time with him than I expected to be able to.  And so the fact that even that isn't enough makes me worried.

Joe started back to work today and I'm already going a little stir crazy.  I have tons of work to do, but that isn't really helping.  Grading while sitting in the apartment feeding Elizabeth isn't that much better than watching tv while sitting in the apartment feeding Elizabeth.  We went for a walk today because it is 60 and sunny and will probably not be this nice again for another 4 months.  And luckily I have friends lined up to come by for a couple hours most days this week.  And then mom will be here Friday-Monday.  As I've said before, I'm not good at the newborn phase.

But Elizabeth is doing really well.  I'm not getting much sleep and even less continuous sleep, but it is so much easier this time around.  Some of that has to do with being second-time parents, but a lot also has to do with how good of a baby she is.  Yesterday Joe and I were looking at pictures of Nicholas at this exact age (you can do it yourself using the blog archive if you're curious) and Nicholas and Elizabeth parallel pretty exactly on how they look at each day-age, but what struck me is how different Joe and I look in the pictures taken when Nicholas was 8-10 days old and the pictures we took yesterday.  You can just see the exhaustion on our faces when Nicholas was this age--we look like zombies.  And when I look at pictures of us yesterday what I see is joy.  And, hey, I'm sitting here bored wondering whether I should try to get another paper graded before she wakes up instead of feeling like I'd been run over by a truck.  So, yes, no complaints.  Life is good.  We are so incredibly lucky.

From 2013 November

From 2013 November