April flew by with a blur...and with it came the birth of our daughter, Samantha! Thankfully, labor and delivery was MUCH better this time around (full story here)! But as many mommies don't advertise, it's not the L&D that's difficult...it's the recovery and first two weeks that really smack you in the face. The good news is once you get past that, it only gets better from there. But it's definitely memorable enough to remind myself that I do NOT want to go through it ever again!
It's hard to believe that Samantha has been in our lives for only two weeks, yet has already altered our lives so significantly. Baby weeks are like years...and since I've been held captive in my apartment, it's been pretty isolating and hard to remember what life was like beforehand. Being my second time around, it's not as jarring as the first time. I hate to say it, but I now realize how much *easier* it is to be with a newborn now that I've experienced the demands of a toddler...I mean, all she really does is sleep, eat, poop, and make horse-like grunts all day long! However, it's still been hard as heck with the sudden loss of sleep, pain from healing, and nonstop demands/concerns of nursing. I know I shouldn't complain about her being a really sleepy kid, but this has meant lots of prodding and bothering to get her to eat...which is exhausting! Luckily, having help from Shaggy, my mom, sister, and visits from other family and friends has made an incredible difference in giving me time to rest and some company to break up the monotony. Plus, since my appetite has been through the roof lately, their gifts of food have been especially appreciated! Whoever hyped up pregnancy cravings was wrong! My post-pregnancy cravings have been insatiable - all I can think about are donuts, Korean bread, and hamburgers all day long! This is not going to make losing my pregnancy pooch easy...
Of course, the key difference this time around is caring for a toddler at the same time. How do you parents of 2+ children do it?!? Even with help, Shaggy and I have felt so harried trying to juggle the needs of both kids at the same time. Having our nanny around has been critical for Josiah - not sure how I would make it through the day otherwise. She's been able to provide him with structure and attention so that I can focus on attending to Samantha and getting in some naps during the day. And since Sammy had some initial issues with feeding and inadequate weight gain in the beginning, it was important to give her our undivided attention. That said, I've really missed my quality time with Josiah and try to scrape by any time with him that I can get. Next to Samantha, he now seems like this massive man-child! It's hard to believe that he was once a small and helpless baby....although, for those who remember, he was a feisty and unique kid from the start!
As natural as they may be, it's heartbreaking to see Josiah go through such conflicted emotions these days. When he's in a good mood, he's GREAT. He plays well both independently and with others, loves goofing/hamming around, and enjoys singing and dancing around to music. However, when he's upset, he will cling to us, scream/cry, and have complete meltdowns. He varies between demanding ("Mommy HUG!") and rejecting ("No, No, No!") us, depending on his mood. While he's curious about his "baby seester", he pretty much ignores anyone who is holding her. But with each day, he seems to be coming around bit by bit. He likes to look at the baby monitor, touch her bouncer and swing, and sometimes even give her a kiss. As sweet as he can be, we still have to watch him like a hawk since he's made a few swipes at her already!
With his pent-up energy and a bit more courage these days, Josiah has been loving his daily trips to the playground and playdates with kids in the building. He's still pretty careful (says "ouchie" and "sowee" constantly), but more willing to try new things. While he still is a bit timid physically, he's completely confident with his verbal skills. His new phrases these days are "good morning", "good night", "scuse me", and "have fun". He continues to be a complete chatterbox and socializes with everyone in he comes into contact with in our neighborhood. And now that he has been learning a bit of Spanish (he can recite 1-10) and Korean, and repeating everything he hears, his gibberish has become even more indistinguishable! But generally speaking, he's expressing so much more these days and is very assertive about what he wants...which is usually "Disney Channel" or "Veggie Tales", which he chants on a 24/7 basis! He loves to sing along to the theme songs and has such a great memory for the melodies and even detailed inflections. I love when he randomly breaks into song, proudly chanting his ABCs, "Happy Birthday", "Let It Go" or any other new song he's picked up. He loves jamming on his doggie guitar alongside his Daddy. Can't wait to get him started on music lessons!
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