2U2: Week Three

Week Three had it's ups and downs...  We made some progress, and we're slowly figuring things out.  It hasn't been as easy as I expected or as hard as I remembered.  Somethings, like breastfeeding, are second nature now.  Other things, like sleeping, aren't as textbook as I had hoped...

Here's a recap of our third week:

BREASTFEEDING
Is going well.  Park is a great breastfeeder, still exclusively breastfed.  He's even starting to get chubby!  He nurses for 20-30 minutes every three hours.  He has been more alert, so I don't always have to change his diaper to wake him.

NAPS
In an effort to help Parker get his days and nights straight, I decided to follow Kate's suggestion, and started waking him from naps after 2 hours (instead of 3 hours).  His typical waketime is 60 minutes, which puts us on a three hour schedule.  Parker goes down awake and swaddled.  Prior to this week, he laid there quietly until he fell asleep; but, this week, he's started crying-it-out.  The first time he cried, I checked on him immediately.  After checking his diaper and attempting to nurse, we decided to try letting him CIO; he cried for 8 minutes.  It was a little tough, but nothing compared to the first time Lucy cried-it-out.  He seldom cries for more than 5 minutes.

I also want to mention that we're swaddling a little differently than we did Lucy.  Our nurses in Postpartum told us to leave Parker's arms outside of the swaddle to reduce the risk of SIDS.  I leave his arms free or won't swaddle at all for naps, and then at bedtime I'll wrap his arms to make sure he stays warm.  (Hoping that makes breaking the swaddle habit a little easier in a few months!)

Lu is in the process of dropping her morning nap.  Sadness.  Most days she'll go down between 12-1, depending on lunch, and sleep for 1.5 hours; but sometimes she'll surprise us and take two naps.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP
We had some improvement from Week Two!  Park goes down between 7:30 and 8:30, and sleeps for 4 hours; I nurse him, change his diaper, and return him to the pack and play.  The rest of the night is kind of choppy...  After the first 4 hour stretch, he sleeps for 3 hours, then 2.5 hours, then 1 hour, and our daytime routine usually starts between 7:30 and 8:00.  So, still not perfect, but progress nonetheless.

Lucy has been going down at 8:00 and waking between 8:00 and 8:30.  (Which I appreciate mucho!)

DIAPERING
Both kids are in cloth during the day and disposables at night.  Parker is a very heavy wetter compared to Lucy.  I don't remember Lucy ever soaking through a prefold when she was his age; Parker, on the other hand, soaks through in an hour.  It's disrupting his sleep.  He's still too small for pocket diapers, so, for now, it's disposables to the rescue.  During the day he wears prefolds and Thirsties covers.  Lu wears BumGenius 4.0 pockets or Thirsties covers with Flip inserts.  Ah, and I'm still laundering each day.      

SIBLING INTERACTION
Literally as soon as I hit 'Publish' on last week's update, Lucy turned into this crazy jealous thing.  She shrieks whenever Casey holds Parker, and she acts out when I hold him.  She climbs up on tables, on the baby swing, the stairs, she pulls everything out of non-baby-proofed cabinets and drawers, yanks out every.single.wipe, yells, hits, yadda yadda yadda.  She still loves her brother, but she does not love to share her parents with him.  She smothers Park with kisses and hugs and occasionally love taps.  (We're working on the hitting...)

CONCLUSION
Is it horrible that I'm ready to wave the white flag?  One kid is hard enough, but 2U2 is REALLY HARD.  This last week I questioned whether I was cut out to stay home.  What does that say about me if I think a daycare is more capable of handling my kids than I am??  Maybe it's Postpartum Depression, or maybe it's just sleep deprivation, but I feel overwhelmed sometimes.  I feel guilty for snapping at Lucy.  I don't know how other SAHMs spend their days with their kids - doing projects or something educational.  I feel unproductive - like, if I'm home, I should be cooking and cleaning, and teaching Lucy something.  Instead the house is trashed and we're living off those freezer meals that I made when I was pregnant, and I'm embarrassed when Casey walks in the door each night.

And on that note, here's some pictures of the kids to distract you from my depressing ass...

BOOM!  Big wheel!

We color coordinate our stand mixers and bath towels.  No big.

The neck strength on this one...sheesh