This week!

This week has had its share of moments that were so much easier than I expected and moments that were way more challenging than I expected. Today is my second full day home alone with both girls. It really isn't going too bad. Here are the challenges that I had not expected ahead of time:

- How whiny Abigail would be! This is probably my biggest challenge. She is getting to the place where her verbal skills are good enough to be able to communicate what she wants. However, she still resorts to whining a lot of the time. I know this is just a phase but it is tiring. She doesn't do it in response to the baby really, just when she wants something. I'm not talking about when she was sick either. Whining while that sick is understandable!

- How hard it would be to have Abigail so sick. I hate it when my kid (now kids) are sick but it is even worse when you have a very new baby you are trying to keep healthy. Today is Abigail's second fever free day (I think - she was a little warm last night still) and so I think we're in the clear as far as contagiousness goes.

Here are the things that have gone better than expected:

- Even though I feel like I'm having a slow recovery, with a lot of pain and achy"ness" leftover from the birth, I'm still able to do lots around the house. Laundry doesn't take long and as long as I'm sitting down to do the folding, it doesn't increase my pain. I was also able to make dinner last night (heated up a frozen meal, actually) but that felt good.

- How much I love being home with my girls! I enjoy interacting with both of them and managing the business of the home. I'm looking forward to doing more and more of this when I am able to physically.

Since Andrew has gone back to work, it feels like my "materity leave" is over. Days of staying in bed, not cooking, not cleaning, etc. However, yesterday my mother-in-law took Abigail all day (she spent the night actually) and the day was quite restful and productive. I got a nap in, got to take a bath, did laundry, and cleaned out the dishwasher. All are big accomplishments!

I also keep forgetting that . . .

My mom is still coming to help!!! :) She is coming on Friday and I am so looking forward to her visit! I can't wait for someone else to help entertain Abigail and hold Elsie (I would say "when she is fussy" but that is a pretty rare occurance at this point). Hopefully with her here to help, I can continue to get some sleep during the day.

-----------------------

Elsie is still doing fairly well at sleeping. She had several 2 to 3 hour stretches last night, which isn't bad. The thing that makes the nights go so much better is when she goes back to sleep easily. When she cries for food, it takes me about 1/2 hour to do the feedings (both sides) diaper change, and swaddling. If she goes back to sleep right away, then I have only lost a little sleep and can head right back to bed. It's when, after that 1/2 hour, and I'm back in bed, if I hear her crying, I know it will take me a while to get her back to sleep.

Okay, sorry for writing a book. Most of this is just for my memories sake. I wish I had written more after Abigail was born so I'm trying to do better this time. I'll hopefully have more interesting things (like pictures) and well written things to post later!

----------------------

Oh, and P.S. For some reason I'm having a very difficult time keeping up with all the old blogs I used to read. I may have to go through them and only keep the people I know and the ones that are really interesting. I think I have 1000 unread blogs by this point. Yikes!