Life so far...

Wow. So, getting used to 2 kids has been fun and challenging and interesting. Carson has been doing pretty well. We have good moments and bad moments. The good moments are when he wants to hold her, kiss her gently, bring her toys, play peek-a-boo. The bad moments are when he comes up and slaps her on the stomach, shakes her pack 'n play violently (while she's inside), tries to pry her eyes open b/c he's decided she's done sleeping, literally crawls all over both Sydney and me while she's eating, and generally disobeying and pushing the limits in many ways.

As previously posted, I, personally, have kind of been dreading the logistical side of having a newborn. For me, it is all about the sleep people. I am tired and cranky if I get 7.5 hours instead of 8-9, so you can imagine how I do on 4-5 in short spurts. However, Sydney's personality and sleeping pattern, like her entrance into this world, have been the opposite of her big brother. She sleeps a LOT. The doc thinks it is partly due to the fact that she is a little early. This sounds like a dream, but I've spent much of the past 9 days in a building frustration, trying to wake this limp, peaceful child so she will eat and gain weight. (Carson didn't gain his birthweight back until almost 6 weeks. It was a kind of a dangerous thing, and I am not willing to risk that with Sydney.) So we are pretty consistent about getting food into her. As with many newborns, she didn't get the memo about OUR sleeping schedule and wanted to party and eat all night and sleep all day; but the last few nights, she's done pretty well. In fact, I've had to wake her a few times at night too.

One really nice thing is that when she is awake, she has lots of times when she is awake and content. Those two adjectives didn't go together with newborn Carson--probably because he was starving! When she does get worked up, she's fairly easy to calm down so far too. I'm just crossing my fingers that the mellow Sydney we've met this last week is the Sydney that is here to stay. I know these things can change in a day.

Here's a great video of a "good" moment between C-dog and Syd. Here he is telling her a story. Just a little background: each night Trent or I tell Carson a story with the main character(s) of his choosing. Lately he's been asking for the 4 main characters he uses here. Also, he calls the swingset in the back yard the "play park." We've found ourselves here many mornings lately...all of us lounging around in a tired stupor on the unmade bed, enjoying the cool air before it gets warm. Even though Sydney was dead to the world, it didn't stop Carson from wanting to be on camera.