We're three weeks deep into the land of four heartbeats in this house. We've had friends bring us food, family come to visit and love on us and we're slowly becoming comfortable with the awkward dance of toddlerhood meets newbornhood.
Back when Eowyn was around 10 months, a friend of ours commented to us, in the thick of newbornhood with his second, how easy we had it. He commented that having two was waaayyy harder than having one. He pulled the card that every person reminiscent of earlier days pulls. "Enjoy it now while it's easy."
Except it wasn't easy then. I was overwhelmed and in the thick of it then, We had just found out we were pregnant with our second, and I was
While we all know the story played out quite differently than my fears predicted, and we didn't have to face the two under three challenge until now with an Eowyn who is a nice sprightly "two half" year old, things weren't easy then, and they aren't easy now.
BUT, the God that carried us through the struggles then is doing the same now. He's overwhelmed my heart and opened my eyes to just how blessed we've been. Our labor with Elias, the friends that have blessed us with food and company, my sister and mom coming to visit, even our marriage has a grace to it that when we first entered the newborn days with our little miss E, we didn't experience.
Ben in a stroke of genius decided to split his week of vacation time into two halftime weeks, giving me a near month of help with my sister+mom, his one week of paternity, and these two weeks of halftime. The freezer meals we planned have gotten us through, and now that they're dwindling, we have friends that are bringing us meals near every other day this week. We've just been really blessed with this transition.
Ben and I are both pretty exhausted. But, that's kind of the rite of passage with newborns. Ben is much more gracious about his lack of sleep than I am. I turn into a she-beast after one two many days without a nap. I'm learning. The fire-breathing has, thankfully, been to a minimum.
Elias is pretty cool as far as newborns with blob-like tendencies go. There's been moments when the only calming force has been his sister, which is flustering, but sweet all the same. He has a banshee shriek like none I've ever heard, but we're rolling with it. He definitely wont be shadowed by his sister. The two of them have an innate ability to make themselves known.
Eowyn has been amazing. She loves to hold him and gives him kisses and hugs. He also 'tickles' her often (whenever he touches her.) The only downside is whenever he starts crying she screams and informs us he's hungry. She's doing a great job of watching out for her little bro. He most certainly will not miss his next meal.
I'm doing decent. Recovery isn't as easy this time around, but that might be due to pushing out a 9 pounder vs a nice polite 6 pound 13 ouncer. Also, toddlerhood is a wild crazy ride. I'm refusing to think to myself how 'easy it was with a toddler', or how easy all those new mom's get it when they just have to deal with one. Because I remember just dealing with one newborn, and man-o-man it was just as hard, actually...I think it was harder. I remember crying to Ben that the sleep deprivation would. never. end. I also refuse to compare tiredness to Ben because we all know nothing starts a war in a home like comparing fatigue and who's doing more. Thankfully, this time around we're wise enough to ask for help and laugh it off when our ears seem to literally not be working anymore.
Praising God for grocery delivery, sweet Finnish women who comment how beautiful our baby is, the grace to say 'no' to things these past few weeks (with Eowyn I assumed we needed to resume life STAT) and the wisdom of Ben when he decides that rather than (for the millionth time) talking through the latest newborn/toddler problem, we watch funny shows instead. Duck dynasty has been a recent fav. Nothing like a bit of 'Merica to lift the spirits.
Oh, and the store down our street sells pop-tarts. We hadn't had pop-tarts for three years, and on a whim we bought then when we went to get Elias' passport photo (which, by the way, is AMAZING!) Now we keep raving about those sweet pastries like we're 10 again. So much deliciousness in a shiny, silvery bag.
So, I'd say three weeks in, things are going quite well.
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