Five Weeks: Busy, Different, Good

I'll be changing Aaron's name on the blog to Little Buddy and will edit previous posts to reflect that change. Just a heads up!

I never know how to begin these updates. I mean, everything is going well. It feels like Little Buddy has been with us forever. Life is different in big ways but the same in many ways. We are full and busy. What else is there to say, really?

Busy
Life is really full with two children! It comes as no surprise but there you go. Getting out the door takes longer. You have to plan backward by twenty to thirty minutes, making sure the baby is fed, clean diaper, bag is packed... And that's just for baby! Still have to make sure the big girl is dressed with shoes, fed, uses the bathroom, has an activity for the car. It's a lot!

Bedtime is a challenge. Little K needs to have a snack, take vitamins, allergy meds, inhaler, brush teeth, brush hair, use bathroom, put on pj's and headgear, and a bedtime Jesus Calling. That doesn't count the nights we have bath and need to blow dry her hair. And somehow during all of that we have to keep Little Buddy happy. So, at least fifteen minutes before Little K's bedtime, we have to nurse, change diaper, and change into pj's. And then pray, pray, pray he doesn't start fussing in the middle of our big girl routine.

Different
There are so many ways that parenthood the second time around is wonderfully different! Everything seems less urgent, less stressful. I know that so much of that is because we've done this before. But there is the added blessing of my milk coming in quickly and no baby blues/PPD.

I'm surprised at how much I've learned from my sister! When Little K was born, the current parenting tools (baby wearing, baby led weaning, extended breastfeeding, natural/homeopathic remedies, cloth diapering) weren't as mainstream, so I didn't pursue them. My sister lives is Austin, TX where that style of parenting is HUGE. With her experience with Baby M and her wonderful doula friend, B, she has been able to really embrace these parenting trends and pass those values on to me. It is so cool and humbling to be learning from my younger sister!

Speaking of such things, we have ended up cloth diapering! Woohoo! I talked for years about wanting to do it but ended up choosing disposables for Little Buddy. That only lasted ten days. After that short time, we realized just how draining disposables would be on our finances and made the switch. I am LOVING cloth diapering and am SO happy we are doing it! I'll blog about that more later.

Good
Life is just so good! Little Buddy is such a sweet baby, usually only crying when he's hungry or tired. We are still dealing with the two hours of bedtime fussing, which I've just decided to accept. We have a sweet bedtime routine, with quiet play time, fresh diaper, bedtime story, nursing, and gripe water. Then it's into the Moby and I bounce with him on my birth ball until he falls asleep. The fussing usually starts at the end of nursing at 9:00 and ends around 10:30. It's rough but we're coping. Honesty, with everything that was hard with Little K, if this is Little Buddy's the only hard part, I'm good!

My body is healing well. My emotions are stable. We've resumed all of our regular extracurricular activities (church, bible study, karate...). Our house isn't clean, per say, but we're staying on top of trash, dishes, and laundry. At five weeks, what more can you ask for?

Life is crazy and life is good. Guess we'll call it crazy good.