Life with Katelyn

Well, we've been getting used to juggling two kids around here. The surprising thing is, Madison has been the hard part! lol She has recently started waking up in the middle of the night for no reason. She'll wake up at 2, 3, 4..some random time and then she's WIDE awake and is determined to go downstairs. Of course, being the middle of the night, we don't take her downstairs, we just take her in our room bc she won't stay in hers, and she'll play around in our room, or sometimes, she'll flop on the ground and cry that she wants to go downstairs. Eventually, she'll calm down or just fall asleep. Then, lately everything is a whine. *sigh* Madison was the perfect baby...then she turned two and a half. I know research shows that kids get more difficult around two and a half due to a brain growth spurt, so maybe that's part of it. I'm sure having a new baby around, getting less attention from us, has not helped the situation. Hopefully, she'll get over this by the time she turns three! One can only hope! lol

But in general, Madison is still such a sweet girl. She LOVES her baby sister and wants to hold her all the time. She's constantly trying to give Katelyn her paci and wants to feed her all the time, which is difficult since I'm nursing the baby, but I do give her a bottle supplement every now and then, so I make sure Madison gets to help.

Katelyn is doing great, and is being nice by letting me sleep 3-4hours at a time. She likes to be held a lot and likes to fall asleep being held. She doesn't like to be put down awake. Once she's asleep, she'll stay asleep when I put her in her bassinet by our bed (at night) and most times when I put her in her crib (during the day). Although, sometimes, she just wants to be held. I sure don't mind holding her all the time right now, but I don't want to get her used to it because I don't want to have a 9month old who has to be held 24 hours a day! Madison was this same way when she was tiny. In fact, I just remembered that as Katelyn started wanting to be held. I remember that I broke down and bought one of those stupid slings that I hate, bc I couldn't get ANYTHING done with one hand. But I returned it after a little bit bc I really hated slings. (It turned out to be a good thing, though, bc months later, that sling was recalled because the adjusting strap would come undone and babies would fall to the floor!!!)

Katelyn is not a big fan of her carseat, though neither was Madison. In fact, the first time we put her in it, she cried so loud and so instantly that we thought maybe there was a tag or something sticking her. But nope, she just didn't like it. Luckily, my neighbor at the time had an older version of that same carseat, so we used that instead, bc Madison would tolerate (but didn't love) it. We don't have that option this time, but it doesn't matter, bc Katelyn tolerates this carseat about as well as Madison did the second one. Except Katelyn cries when we put her in the car in her carseat, but not as soon as we put her in the carseat. Also, she doesn't like a paci very much, so offering it to her when she's crying in the car does no good. That makes for a bit of a stressful car ride bc I hate hearing her so upset, but nothing consoles her, short of sticking my finger in her mouth to suck on and unless I turn into the mom from The Incredibles with super stretchy arms, that's just not going to work! lol So hopefully, Katelyn will learn to love a paci soon!

I'm also very excited because yesterday, I tried on my regular, pre-pregnancy jeans and they actually fit fine! 11 days after giving birth and I can fit into my old clothes. That certainly did not happen with Madison!!!! I only gained 12 pounds the whole time with Katelyn, and have already lost about 20 pounds in the last 11 days, which means I weigh less now than I did BEFORE I even got pregnant. Let's hope this trend continues! Having Katelyn/nursing is a great "diet"! lol

I've been going a few places this week...mom and I took the girls to McDonald's yesterday after Gordon had taken Madison to her dance class (she brought home her recital costume...I'll have to post pics of that later...too cute!). Madison played while Katelyn slept and mom and I ate. Then we tried to go to Target, but Madison was exhausted and melting down (which was my fault, really...it was 2:00 and she hadn't had a nap...what was I thinking?!). So we went home instead. Then today, I went with Katelyn to have lunch at chili's with my whole family (Gordon stayed home with Madison because she was taking a nap....and we didn't want to wake the beast! lol She's fine if she wakes up on her own, but you don't want to suddenly wake a toddler in the middle of a nap!). Katelyn cried the whole way there bc she hates riding in her carseat, but she fell asleep by the time we got there, and slept the whole time we were there.

Our church is providing meals for us this week and some friends from my playgroup have/are cooking for us, too. That is so nice! My aunt Pat and my cousin Amira came by to visit today and they brought food, too! Very nice.

Overall, we are adjusting quite well to having two kids. I'm not even constantly exhausted like I was with Madison (which is what I was expecting!). I am so happy with my two girls!