Life With Two

Diapers, diapers, and more diapers! I woke up this morning and stepped on three diapers trying to get out of bed. Breast babies, as you may know, usually need changed after every feeding and when you can barely keep your eyes open in the middle of the night and are so tired you can't even think how to put the diaper on right most of the diapers end up on the floor beside the bed. We've been working on potty training with Reid for several months now. I didn't want to push the issue. I just wanted him to start to get the feel for it and then progress as he was ready. He was doing to well at first I thought, no problem, we'll have him potty trained before LilliAnn gets here...WRONG! He's still in diapers...well, pull-ups most of the time. He does still go in the potty sometimes and does take his own diaper off when it's "wet mommy," but we aren't completely potty trained. This makes for LOTS of diapers at the Rollins house! And this is funny. Reid loves to go pee pee outside lately. So today he told Jeb he wanted to go pee pee outside so Jeb told him to go. He walked out into the backyard and supposedly "pee peed" then came back in the house. He ran into the bedroom and climbed up on the bed with me with only a shirt on. Then, I smelled it! Poop! I asked Jeb if he changed Reid and he said that he had went outside. I looked at Reid's bottom and it was dirty and so was our bed!! Ahhh! Then Jeb looked outside and there it was...a poo poo log sitting on our patio!

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Reid has done pretty well adjusting to his new role as big brother. At first he ignored the baby and didn't want much to do with her. I don't think he quite got the concept at the hospital that this "thing" would be coming home with us. He's starting to get the hang of things now and is such a big helper. Jeb will tell him, "I have to change sissy now," and Reid will run and get her diaper and wipes! The past few days he's started to want to hold LilliAnn. He'll ask, "mommy, I hold da baby...pease!" When he holds her he pets her little head like she's a lap dog and kisses her forehead. If he wants me and I have the baby he'll say, "daddy hold baby." Occasionally, as he's walking through the house he'll stop and look at me or Jeb and hold his hands out and say, "what's sissy doing?" And the name that he's given to her is sissy baby. Jeb rocks her and sings this song he made up that goes something like, "sissy baby, sissy sissy sissy baby." It's pretty cute. 

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And I thought Jeb was protective with Reid...wow, he's so much more protective of LilliAnn. He seems to worry about every little thing with her. If she rouses at all at night he picks her up and lets her sleep in the crook of his arm. He rocks her and talks to her saying, "what's daddy's little princess doing?" or "how is my gorgeous little girl?" He is such a an amazing daddy. I didn't even change one of her diapers until two days ago because he would always do it. He wakes up with me for night feedings to help burp her or change her and he has been the one to give her all of her baths so far. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who takes his role as father so seriously. He's so good to me and I love how he's "all about our kids." I overheard him telling someone yesterday who commented on how good of a dad he was that he didn't want his kids to ever think that he wasn't there for them.

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Another big change: Reid hasn't been sleeping with us anymore...well, for the most part. I put a twin bed in his room when I transitioned it to a "big boy room" and it's a little high and doesn't have rails on it. I went ahead and skipped the toddler bed because I knew he wouldn't sleep in his room by himself anyway. We have a really thick mattress pad that we put on the floor in the corner of our bedroom and Reid's been sleeping on this since LilliAnn was born. I know I probably will one day, but at this point I can't say that I miss him sleeping with us. It's been forever since Jeb and I got to sleep next to each other and cuddle. Don't get any ideas...we're pretty sure that we're finished having kids :) If he keeps this up for the next few weeks I'm going to buy a little toddler bed to keep in our room and then eventually will transition him to his own room. LilliAnn sleeps in her bassinet/co-sleeper that's next to our bed and is a great sleeper. She usually wakes every 3-3 1/2 hours at night to eat. Last night I think her tummy was hurting because she had lots of gas and was very hard to soothe. I let her sleep sideways in bed by us with a pillow separating her head and Jeb. I know, this is NOT what you're supposed to do but it was the only way any of us could sleep last night. So I guess you could say we're starting to get our sleep schedule all figured out. 

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Onc of the hardest things for me has been that I can't pick up Reid. After a c-section you're not  supposed to lift anything "heavier than your baby" for 2 weeks. Reid just doesn't understand this and it breaks my heart every time he holds his arms up, jumping up and down in front of me saying "mommy hold you," "hold you mommy!" I go and sit down and hold him in my lap but then he wants me to "hold you up!" I know I'll be able to hold him again in a few days but I just don't like him thinking that I don't want to hold him. I've explained to him that it's because mommy has a boo boo and have even showed him my incision. He seems very intrigued by this and sometimes will ask to see my boo boo. 

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Then there's the "ba ba" issue. Reid still occasionally asks for a bottle and we let him have one. I know, I know, we're working on it, but it's just so hard to say no when he asks, "mommy, ba ba pease?" or "I wanna bobble pease." And no, we don't let him go to sleep with it so I'm not worried about baby bottle teeth and I don't give it to him in place of meals so he's not anemic. But yes, he's WAY too old for a bottle! Anyway, today I had just pumped and LilliAnn started to get hungry so I made her a bottle for the first time. I wanted to make sure she would take my breast milk from a bottle and didn't want to wait and try when she was three months old and already too used to only the breast. She took to it like a pro and gobbled down 3 1/2 ounces in no time! Reid saw her taking the bottle and of course he wanted one. He even pointed at the pumped breastmilk and wanted sissy's milk. So....what did I do? I gave him a little bit. I thought Jeb was going to freak out at first but I told him that it was good for him and that he drank it for the first 13 months of his life. He drinks goat's milk now and I've heard that it's similar in taste to human milk. No, I haven't tried either one to verify! The bad news...Reid LOVED the breast milk and asked for "mon mommy!" (he says mon for more). I gave him a little bit more then told him it was all gone. I can't be nursing one and pumping milk for the other! I think that will be Reid's last taste of breast milk, but hey, he got some good nutrition! Hopefully his diaper won't look like mustard tonight like LilliAnn's :)

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So all in all, in really hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be having two kids under the age of two. I know it will probably get much harder as LilliAnn gets older and does more than just eat and sleep all day, but for now things are pretty good. The baby is easy, it's Reid that requires so much time and attention. But we seem to have it all under control...today that is! As Jeb says, "we make a great team," but Jeb...this is it.