November Family Update

Hi everyone,

I finally have a second to post an update on our family ... I've been working on this update for a few days now lol.

Madelyn is almost 4 weeks old now, and is changing every day. She is going through a cluster feeding phase right now. I thought it was a growth spurt, but apparently it's not. Every night she'll nurse for up to 4 hours at a time (30 minutes at a time with a 10 minute break before starting up again). With the cluster feeding, she's trying to stock up for the night, and fortunately, she'll crash for up to 5 hours once she's done, so it's good for me. It was kind of hard last week because Dave was on the late shift at work and so Logan got to watch more TV than normal because I was glued to the couch unable to do stuff with him. Nursing is going so much better this time, but I do have some "war wounds" that I got that first day which I'm working on healing (and Madelyn's nursing marathons are NOT helping right now). I've been pumping during the day as well to give myself a break, and the other night was the first time in about 3 weeks that I got to read Logan his bedtime story and tuck him in while Dave got to hang out with Madelyn. I haven't been to the doctor yet to weigh her, but I stepped on our scale with her last week, and she's up to 9lbs, 3oz - which is on track for her age. She is also smiling now, which makes her even cuter. She really likes having a bath now too (the first time was a rather upsetting experience for her) and on many levels, she is very different from her big brother.

Logan is still loving having her around. He is never anything but gentle around her and loves to kiss and hug her. He has been testing us though, probably because of the changes from our normal routine (because I can't always sit at the table with him for meals, he gets to eat at his desk in the living room) and I'm sure it's also because I haven't been able to spend as much time with him. I always make sure that we do at least one thing together without Madelyn each day though, even if it's just reading a quick story. Dave always takes him out to do stuff on his days off (swimming, run errands, shopping, etc), and we took him to see Santa last Tuesday (Madelyn can wait until next year for her turn). He's still growing like a weed, and is now wearing size 4 shirts and size 3 pants. We measure him on the wall every month, and he's growing about a 1/4 inch each month, sometimes more. He never wakes up when Madelyn is crying at night, which is such a relief and he still has no interest in potty training, unless he sees it as a good opportunity to procrastinate going to bed.

Dave is doing good too - getting ready for his first round of school starting in January. He's a little nervous about the whole experience, but I know he'll do great. It will be nice to have him home at a decent time each day and home every weekend. I'm enrolling Logan in gymnastics again starting mid-January so that one of us can take him and one of us can watch Madelyn.

I'm doing good. Life with two kids is a little crazy at times, and I don't make it out of the house very often any more, but I'm sure part of that is the cold weather. Trying to get ready for Christmas too, we decided not to go overboard this year, we wanted to scale it back a bit since I'm not working, and starting next month Dave won't be either. I am actually getting a fair bit of sleep too (which is funny because I was going off much less when Logan was a baby), and even get to nap with both kids during the day which helps. It will be nice when I can get my day into some sort of rhythm/routine so that I'm not relying on Dave to cook supper every night. I'm working on getting Madelyn to sleep somewhere other than on me for at least part of the day so that I can get some stuff done (tidying, laundry, etc) and so far, so good (hence why I'm able to finish this update) ... right now she sleeps with me at night, we both get lots more sleep that way, and I'll move her into her bassinet or crib as soon as we're both ready.

Well, it's time for Logan's nap - better get going. Will update you again as soon as I can - maybe I'll start writing it now and it will be ready in a month or so. :)