State of Rex

 

I don't write nearly as much on this blog as I did pre-Rex. I was thinking of blaming this on 2nd kid syndrome. In other words, the second kid never gets as much coverage as the first kid because as a mom....I've been there, done that. Perhaps taking photos this time around is just not as interesting. BUT, this is not the case. If fact, I take a ton of photos and videos of Rex....because he'd so cute and because he changes so quickly as babies tend to do. The problem is that I have no time to actually get these photos up on the blog. Not because its not a priority -- just because I have even less time than before, caring for two kids instead of one.

HOWEVER! This week, Rex hit a major milestone. He is sitting up for loooong periods of time without falling over. I wouldn't call him a professional sitter just yet, but he definitely has his amateur status and is improving daily.

The really cool thing is that Fay hit this milestone at almost exactly the same time. So I'm going to show some videos and photos side by side to show you just how crazy similar they look as babies.

[If you are reading this on Facebook, you will have to jump to the blog o see the videos.]

http://eastriverbaby.blogspot.com/2010/12/state-of-rex.html

sweet fay memory

This is a brief post of a moment that I want to be sure to remember. Tonight we returned home from 5 days in Florida. Both kids had a long travel day and they were both troopers. Especially considering that they both picked up colds during our vacation.

Rex was extremely tired when we walked in our door at 6:30. He had been crying for the last 10 minutes of the cab ride because he was sooooo tired. I nursed him to sleep right away. He seemed to fall asleep, but was up again at 7pm and then at 7:15.

Rex and Fay started sleeping in the same room about one week ago. But we've been putting Rex to bed at 6pm. For Fay, we switched to reading our bedtime books in our room and then sneaking into her room around 7:30pm so as not to awaken Rex. Tonight, because of the travel circumstances, we got our first experience of putting both kids to bed at the same time.

When I left the room after putting both in their beds, Rex was pretty noisy. I expected Fay to get mad or frustrated at not being able to fall asleep because of the noisy baby! But instead, I heard her trying to soothe him to sleep "It's ok baby, you're ok..."

I was so touched. She really does love Rex so much; she constantly surprises me. What a sweet sweet sister she is.

sleep

I think sleep deprivation is starting to take its toll on me. Its been about three months now of no more than 2-3 hours of continuous sleep. I suppose moms have done this for ages, so I guess it won't kill me in the end. But I think its making me a sad and crabby person.

I'm normally quite the morning person. Ryan jokes about how annoying it is to see me upbeat and smiling in the mornings when it takes him a couple hours to crack a smile.

Now, on about 5 hours of cumulative sleep, I wake up and get Fay breakfast, play with her, tend to Rex, and some days, get Fay off to school. I feel like a zombie in the morning. With a baby in one hand and a doll in the other, I feel like I'm just going through the motions. I am not enjoying the playing and the cute moments with Fay. I'm just getting through the morning or the day.

On the days when Fay is not in school, I watch the clock, hoping for 1pm to come soon so I can hopefully get a nap when Fay sleeps. If Rex is not interested in sleeping, I'll convince him by putting him on the boob next to me while I sleep.

Of course all that is not as bad as when I get irritated by my little Fay asking the same question 10 times over. Or when I snap at her for not listening to me when I'm trying to get her clothes on. The minute it happens, I want to take it back. I want to be the patient and calm mom that I think I am.

And all this makes me terribly sad. I remember having an identity crisis when Fay was born and I was trying to understand my new role as a mom. Now I am trying to maintain my identity as a good mom. One that listens to her child and plays with her and enjoys her.

Rex's first shots

Rex is 10 weeks and we had his 2 month checkup today. That means he got his first shots. :(

But first the happy stuff. Rex weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs! He was born 7 lbs 11 ounces, so that is a heafty increase. A baby is supposed to triple his weight in the first year. If Rex continues to gain at this rate he will definitely surpass that goal.

He is now 23.5 inches long (compared to 21 inches at birth) and his head circumference is is 41.5 cm (35.1 at birth). So he is a growing boy.

The shots were heart wrenching. Rex did not like them at all. He took two shots to the thigh and immediately let out an angry and sad cry. His face was bright red and he wailed like I haven't heard since he was born. Rex was naked from all the weighing and measurements. And after a couple minutes of crying, he peed, all over me. (I'm not sure why the pediatrician didn't think to tell me to put on his diaper..I'm sure this happens a lot).

As soon as I got Rex's diaper on, I was able to nurse him and calm him down. Then he conked out and I took him home. He slept for a while, but then about 4 hours after the shot he became inconsolable. He didn't want to nurse, he couldn't fall asleep, he did not care if I held him or laid him down. He just cried and cried and cried. I couldn't soothe him at all. It made me think of colicky babies. I can't imagine how hard that is on the mother to not be able to soothe her baby. I remember Fay being a little irritable after her first shots, but not this bad.

Finally I took Rex outside for a walk and he calmed a little and fell asleep for about a 1/2 hour. Then he was up again and crying. Finally at about 6pm tonight he broke his first smile since this morning....and I knew it was over (at least I hoped I knew). The inconsolable period really only lasted for 2.5 hours, but it seemed to last forever.

Labor Day lake house

Our friends, Adam and Natasha invited us to their upstate house for Labor Day weekend. I took to calling it the lake house as an easy title for Fay to grab onto. There was a lake nearby, and the house had stunning views of it, but the house was not on the lake.

Let me just say right off, we had SUCH a fantastic weekend. Ever since Rex was born (10 weeks ago), its been difficult for Ryan and I to feel like we have any down time. Even when we've gone out on a weekend night, I'm thinking about breastfeeding and whether we can get back in time to only miss one feeding. And its hard for us to stay out very late since Rex wakes us up throughout the night and we do not get much sleep these days. That being said, this weekend away really felt like a vacation. Adam and Tash made us feel so comfortable in their home. They were laid back enough to let us feel like we could be at home, and yet planned tons of meals for us and fun kid outings. I hope the weekend wasn't too much work for them, because they made it seem pretty effortless (beyond the obvious work of caring for two kids).



Adam and Tash have two kids, Paul who is 3.5 and Juliette who is 1.5 . Fay and Paul were fast fast friends. We never know if Fay will be extremely shy (and a little ornery) in a new situation, but I think Paul's sweetness and welcoming attitude just won her over instantly. They were playing human train within minutes -- meaning Paul was all but dragging Fay along by her hand throughout the wrap around porch.

Some highlights:



We went to the Farmer's Museum on Sat where they have an entire little village set up and actors re-enacting jobs from the period (blacksmith, pharmacist, woman baking bread). They also had a carousel!



On Sunday we went to the Apple Cider Mill where the kids could feed the ducks, take a tour of the cider press, and low and behold they had a bouncy house! Along side the bouncy house they had a game where a person (me!) can wear a harness and try desperately to dunk a small ball into a basketball hoop. We have excellent photos of this feat, but they are on Adam's camera, so I'll have to add them later. Ryan and I both teared up when we saw the photos because I look so ridiculously determined to sink that ball.



Both Sat and Sunday nights Adam lit a fire in their fire pit and we roasted marshmellows and sat around the fire with the kids. There is something truly wonderful about getting to stay up late and sit around a fire in a little chair that is just your size. And you could see it all over Fay's face. I think that is the part she will remember the best. I wish I had photos of it. When you picture it in your head, remember to give each kid (Paul and Fay) a bag of marshmallows of their own to hold in their hands as they stared into the flames.



Rex continued to sleep, eat and poop a lot. Also enjoying his weekend.

No sleep and marbles

Rex is 7 weeks today. This is the period where my baby book says he is supposed to start to lengthen his sleep periods. Rex is not a big reader yet, so he's not sticking to the book's schedule. Rex's longest sleep period is for only 3.5 hours when he goes to sleep at night around 8:30pm or so. After that the sleep periods get progressively shorter until morning breaks.

Also, Rex is like his sister, he has tummy issues after a feeding, so sometimes its hard for him to get back to sleep. I've started to drive myself crazy thinking its something I ate that has made him gassy. Last night he was up and down between 3 and 8am. He wouldn't sleep for longer than 1/2 an hour. So you can imagine my desire to find a reason for his gassiness and try to fix it. But I'm starting to think its not me, its him. And I have to admit I have no control over this one.

And speaking of gassiness, the other area, I have little control over is Fay's potty training. She has successfully gone number one in her little potty, but refuses to go number two. So I took an idea from a mom friend of mine....and I'm using marbles. After Fay did so well with a Dora potty sticker chart (she got a sticker after each pee-pee on the potty), I'm trying something similar for number two.

The Potty chart only gave us about 7 stickers and then there was no motivation to go on the potty anymore. I need a much longer period of motivation. So I have three cups of marbles. There are three different colors. One for pee-pee, one for poo, and one for dressing herself (hey, might as well throw that in there). When she gets all the marbles from their starting cups to the finish bin, she gets a present. And she already knows the present is some kind of Little People Toy. She loves all things Little People.

So far today, one day one, she has earned one marble for going number one. But she also had an accident on the playground when we tried to go out without a diaper. So...we will see if this has any effect.

Nana visits

My mom came to visit last week and to meet Rex for the first time. Her visit fell mostly over the weekend, so she was able to spend a lot of time with both kids. Its nice for me to have the grandmas help with several things....playing with Fay while I nurse Rex, holding Rex while I play with Fay, or household stuff like laundry.

Fay tried to rule out the first option by using a new phrase I've not heard from her before...."I want to play by myself". She said this on the last day Nana was in town when Nana tried to play with her and Fay wanted mommy instead. Ryan is no stranger to this attitude. Fay has always displayed her preference for mommy harshly, or candidly. Its difficult for me to see her do it to my mom, since Nana doesn't get to see Fay everyday. But we all know its not personal, so I assume my mom took it in stride. In fact, my mom may be tickled to know that I received the phrase from Fay just yesterday. She wanted to play with me at first, but then when I colored in her coloring book the "wrong" way, she told me she wanted to play by herself. I guess everyone gets attitude these days.

We spent time playing at home, going to playgrounds and going to the "Water Taxi Beach" with friends. The Water Taxi Beach is an area near South Street Seaport that has a sandy play area with picnic tables. They serve kid friendly food like hot dogs and fries...and parent friendly drinks with alcohol. The best of both worlds. Fay had a good time playing in the sand with her friends. Rex had a good time sleeping in the Baby Bjorn. And the adults attempted to have a conversation.

On the day before my mom left, Fay was in school, so she took Rex and me out for a day of brunch, pedicures and shopping. The outing was in honor of my birthday which occurred a couple weeks ago. It was really nice to be pampered since the actual birthday was filled with mostly kid activities. I do have to point out that each stop we made involved nursing Rex. Nurse while eating brunch, check. Nurse while getting a pedicure, check. Nurse in the dressing room of a clothing store, check. My boy Rex loves to eat.



Before leaving, we all had drinks on the balcony, with Rex as the centerpiece.