I forgot how sleep deprived you are after the birth of newborn.
Actually, I don't think I knew what sleep deprivation was after having Kaden, because there was just Kaden. Now there is Everett and Kaden. So when the baby is sleeping (and that's a mighty big WHEN, because this kid isn't much of a sleeper unless he's being held), that doesn't necessarily mean I get to be sleeping.
Oh. My.
I'm not much of a mathematician, but I am pretty sure that 1 crazy toddler + 1 less than stellar infant sleeper = 1 sleep deprived, slightly frazzled mama.
Thus, I have not written a single blog since Everett's birth story, and he is now a month old. So, I am now going to attempt to document an entire month in a single blog post. I am nothing if not ambitious.
Also, I am pretty sure I'm inept at this motherhood thing, because everyone swore to me that the transition from one to two kids was easier than the transition from zero to one. Hmmmm . . . all the newborn stuff IS easier, but I don't think any of those people had a first child named Kaden Fox.
First of all, when we came back from the hospital, Kaden decided he hated me. Seriously. He would say things like, "I just don't like you anymore," and would only let his Gigi or Daddy do anything for him. I even offered to take him to the park one day, but he didn't want to go unless Gigi took him. He'd scream, "I don't want you!" if I tried to be the one to read him stories and put him to bed. I knew I should be happy that he wasn't being mean to the baby, and that he was taking out his jealousy and frustration at no longer being the "one and only" on me instead, but it was hard because my postpartum hormones were raging. So I pretty much burst into tears every time he said or did something hateful to me. That part (thankfully!) has gotten better, and he likes me again.
Kaden has been an amazing big brother!
This rocked out version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" is proof that though Kaden looks exactly like his father, he inherited his desire for the spotlight from his mommy:
Chad's Grandma Reese used to sing him this song as a little boy, and Kaden's Gigi taught it to him:
Got to love a good Primary song, too:
Kaden self potty trained for two days after my parents arrived to visit. Seriously. He just started peeing an pooping in the potty. We didn't remind him to go try, he would just say, "I need to go pee pee in the potty!" and go do it. Amazing. Until he decided to stop doing it. Great. Guess I will have to go get those potty training books I thought I may no longer need from the library.
That atrocious umbilical cord stump finally fell off, and Everett had his first soak in a real bath, which he loved. He loves to be naked, and he loves bath time!
Everett got a terrible cold and an eye infection at the same time! POOR KID! He would look up at me with these gooey eyes that seemed to say, "Mom, aren't you going to DO something about this?" We had an eye ointment antibiotic (thanks to my optometrist father-in-law) for one set of problems, but after a trip to the doctor, we confirmed there wasn't much to do about the killer cold but let it run its course. So our already noisy newborn sleeper (he snores and fidgets like crazy!) sounded like Darth Vader whenever he was getting some shut eye.
Kaden developed a "naughty" streak. It is so unlike him to be purposely naughty, but since the baby's appearance, he's definitely tried a few stunts. He drew all over the cream bassinet we borrowed from friends in RED INK pen (hairspray, cold water, and a toothbrush will take red ink out of fabric, in case you were wondering). He also dumped an entire roll of toilet paper in the upstairs toilet when he was supposed to be in bed asleep. He then flushed the toilet, which overflowed. That was a fun one to clean up. He's also started telling me, "No, I don't want to!" when I ask him to do something. He picks the perfect moments to do these things, usually while I'm occupied nursing the baby. This has been frustrating, because we've really made an effort to make sure he gets lots of positive attention. I could understand it more if we were giving him the shaft all the time. The tantrums that had gotten so much better over the last six months are back in colossal force, and we've had some stellar power struggles. So frustrating!
This last week, I finally feel like I have more of the "old Kaden" back, and things are starting to feel more normal. We have had the best week. He's become sweet and fun again with the occasional strong-willed power struggle that is more normal for him.
Kaden has been doing a great job taking naps again, as long as I will lie down by him and snuggle until he falls asleep. I just have to try to get the baby to go down around the same time I need to put Kaden to sleep. It can be interesting, but hopefully we can keep it up. He does so much better when he gets a good afternoon nap.
Kaden turned three on August 11th, and we blessed Everett on the same day. We ended up blessing him at home, with permission from the Bishop, because he was still sick and we didn't want to take him to church where he'd be exposed to even more germs. My dad was only in town for one weekend, and we wanted him to be a part of the blessing. Chad gave Everett a beautiful blessing, and we had a big appetizer feast followed by birthday cake and ice cream for Kaden. Kade was incredibly spoiled with fun gifts on his birthday. He was so excited to finally get his own bicycle, after falling in love with his friend Liam's a few months ago.
Giving Gigi and Poppy thank you hugs:
Grandpa and Grandma's turn for thank you hugs:
My father in law insisted we take a photo by our car, because he said one day we'll love looking back and remembering what cars we drove. I'm going to take his word for it and add it to the blog for this purpose. So, here we are with our Toyota 4-Runner. He was so good to us all through college and is still going strong!
Kaden refused to get off his bicycle for the group photos. Also, neither of them is in focus.
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Kaden got to go on his first greenway bike ride with Daddy the next day, and he was pretty psyched about that:
Everett is starting to show more of his little personality. We love it when he tries to "talk" to us. It's so cute seeing his whole body wiggle, so he can work out a simple sound. He smiles occasionally, too, which melts my heart.
I developed mastitis and started antibiotics. Hallelujah for feeling almost instantly better 12 hours later. Luckily I caught it early, before it got too bad. I love that when I told Chad, "I think I may have a breast infection," he said, "That's a thing?"
It took me almost four weeks to finally realize Everett doesn't like to be swaddled. This was shocking to me, because it's the only way we could get Kaden to sleep (we swaddled him until he was 9 months old and there were no blankets big enough). Now we leave his arms free, swaddle him from the waist down, and tuck a blanket around his lower half while he sleeps, so he can't lift his legs and wake himself up. He has slept WAY better at night since I started doing this. He was sleeping in our room in either his car seat or bouncy seat (we could never get him to sleep in the darling bassinet). When we transitioned him to his crib, my mom suggested trying the blanket tucked into the crib mattress, since they do that in the NICU. We tried it, and it worked!
He's still not sure about a paci, but the one he likes best is a NUK. He'll take it, but you have to keep holding it in his mouth, because he has a tendency to spit it out. He always makes a face like it's the worst tasting thing in the world when you first give it to him.
Chad was called to the Young Men presidency and I was released from the Young Women presidency (pretty impossible for us both to be there on Wednesday nights with two little ones at home). I am pretty sad about no longer serving with the Young Women. I really loved my calling. I know Chad will do a great job with the Young Men though, and it will be nice to have a break for a bit, before they give me a new job.
So there you go. A pretty eventful month!
