Just the Three of Us

I survived my first week at home by myself with the boys. Jamie went back to work this past Monday and it went pretty well! All though I will admit, I was kind of eased into things. On Monday, Jamie only worked half a day, so that he could keep Noah while I took Collier to his 2 week check-up and then my mom was off work Thursday (Thank you, Veterans!), so she spent the night Wednesday night and helped out the following day. However, I didn't have any emotional breakdowns and I'm feeling pretty confident that I'm able to handle two! I even got them out by myself and we went shoe shopping for Noah and then on Friday, after Noah seemed to have a bit of 'cabin fever', we loaded up the double stroller and went for a long walk around our neighborhood. Speaking of... I think I've found a form of excercise! That HUGE double stroller weighs a good 35 lbs + Noah (35 - 40lbs) + Collier and his carseat = one heavy load. Pushing all of that uphill had me breaking a sweat and my muscles burning!

During the 2 week check-up on Monday, we discovered that we've got quite a little piggy on our hands! In 10 days, he gained 1 lb and 4 oz and was up to 9 lbs 12 oz! He had only been going about 2 hours a night between feedings so I had actually been concerned about him getting enough to eat at each feeding. Apparently, that isn't a problem! Dr. Allen told me I could try 1 formula bottle at night, in hopes to stretch out the amount of time he would sleep, which would allow me a little extra zzz's. I tried it for a couple of nights, but it didn't really make a difference in his sleep, plus it seemed to cause some tummy issues, so I've taken him off of it for now. Wednesday night was a pretty rough night and he was up on the hour every hour, however Thursday and Friday were much MUCH better, with him going 3 - 3 1/2 hours between each feeding. Noah has always been our easy-going little guy and I think Collier is going to be our opinionated, more stubborn one. He isn't like a typical newborn, sleeping majority of the day; he's awake ALOT. In fact, Thursday (after being up almost all night) he only napped for maybe a total of 2 hours?! Thank goodness I had my mom there with me! Thankfully, Friday was much better and he napped on and off throughout the day. I've been getting up with him each night by myself, simply because I feel bad asking Jamie to help when he has to go to work the following morning (plus, it's not like he can breastfeed). So Friday night, after Collier ate at 8:30, I went to bed. My mom fed him a bottle that I had pumped at midnight and he didn't wake up again until 4am... so I got a good 6 hours solid of sleep and felt like a brand new woman! What would we do without our mommas? :)

It's crazy to me that he's already 3 weeks old and I realize just how quickly it's already going. The newborn stage is TOUGH and EXHAUSTING as every mom knows, however I'm just trying to savor every minute of my boys and the age that they are right now. Yesterday, as we were waiting on Jamie to come home from work, Noah crawled up beside me on the couch and fell asleep with his head in my lap. Collier was asleep in my arms and I thought... it really doesn't get any better than this. I'll take the sleepless nights and the trying days for moments like these!