Days go by

I'm glad I didn't make any high-flying promises that I'd blog more after the baby arrived. It's not even that having two kids is a lot more time-consuming than having one, really. It is more time-consuming, but not extremely so. But just like with Nico, I ended up having milk supply issues with little Baby Needs-a-Blog-Pseudonym. I should probably write a whole separate post on that since I have a lot of pent-up frustration that needs venting. The short version is that Baby started out with a bad, painful latch. We saw a lactation consultant the Friday after he was born and started working to fix the latch. It was starting to go well, I dared to let myself hope I'd get to have a normal nursing relationship with this baby, and then about a week after our first LC appointment, he started a nursing strike. He didn't nurse from Saturday at 11 pm until last Tuesday at our second LC appointment which I made after trying to get him to nurse all day Sunday and half of Monday to no avail. At the Tuesday appointment I got confirmation that my supply is crap again and I will admit I took it really hard. It's a shitty feeling to fail utterly at something that is supposed to be "easy" and "natural" and best for your baby. I've been instructed to pump 8 - 12 times a day for 20 minutes a day. Twelve times is not happening. I can barely fit in 8 sessions without leaving the boys to their own devices for much more time than I'd like and without passing on every opportunity to leave the house or have people over. I'm willing to do everything I reasonably can to make as much milk as I can for Baby T, but not at the expense of everything else in our lives or his needs or his brother's needs. We'll see how things go. He's nursing again but I don't think he's getting much out on his own. Right now I'm pumping as much as I can to give him by bottle and chowing down fenugreek and hoping for the best.

Adding to this shit sandwich of a situation, in the midst of the baby's nursing strike, Nico developed a runny nose that turned into a cough that turned into a scary wheeze that turned into him feeling so miserable that he fell asleep on the rug with his matchbox cars at 6:30 on Tuesday evening. I took him to the doctor first thing Wednesday where he got a diagnosis of croup and an ear infection. After his appointment I took both boys to visit my coworkers. While we were waiting for a few people to get back, Nico asked to feed the office turtles. I took him out to feed them and it was this really sweet, cute moment…until I took my eyes off him for literally maybe 30 seconds and the cage lid slammed down on his hand and badly cut one of his fingers. I was about ready to quit the whole world by the end of that day. Anyway, Nico's nearly recovered, his finger is almost healed, and the baby goes in for another weight check tomorrow. So far Nico is being very sweet to the baby and the baby is being pretty easy on me other than the nursing disaster which isn't his fault. I had a nice weekend after a crap week. Having a baby in the house again is wonderful and it's making me appreciate and enjoy my big kid even more, too, which is a nice bonus. We're just going to keep on going and see how things turn out. Meanwhile, have some kid pictures. Some days I still can't believe there are two of them!


one week old and briefly back up to birth weight


waiting on brother to finish his swimming lesson






two weeks old, burrowed in


tiny sweater!


pitiful sick toddler; also, LIMBS EVERYWHERE


working to rebuild his cheekfat reserves




contemplating a rescue mission










possibly one of the greatest baby photos of all time, yes?




baby's first unsightly self-inflicted fingernail mauling


Reading:  Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Playing:  Babel by Mumford & Sons