Our new family of four

As warned, I haven't been posting much lately. But I have a good reason!

We welcomed Louisa Maria to our family on Thursday, May 19, 2016! She was born at 9:26 PM, weighed 7 lbs 2.8 oz and measured 19 inches long. We had a smooth, uneventful delivery (thank goodness) and we've spent the past 2.5 weeks adjusting to life as a family of four...plus two dogs and a temporary live-in Auntie.

It has been quite an adjustment bringing baby #2 home...but not in the way I imagined. Incorporating a newborn into our life again has actually been way easier and more seamless than it was the first time around, likely because we know what we're doing this time and pretty much have everything we need. 

Everything with regard to Louisa is going swimmingly; she's nursing well, sleeping a ton during the day and some at night, and she's a fairly even-tempered little gal. It's her big brother who's been throwing things for a loop. He loves his baby sister. But he also misses being the center of our universe, so the first week home was quite rough. He was acting out by throwing things, hitting/kicking, throwing tantrums, etc. He stopped sleeping through the night. He had a hard time being gentle with his baby sister. It was quite overwhelming and concerned me a little, if I'm being completely honest. I mean, the kid just turned two, so the "Terrible Twos" could be partially responsible for his negative behavior. But we also brought a new attention hog into the house, he had to spend two days and nights without mom and dad, Mommy couldn't pick him up/snuggle him/dote on him like before, and we had lots of extra people here helping (my mom came to stay with us/help for a week, and my in-laws made frequent visits, as well). He's not getting the same attention he's used to, so I guess negative attention was the next best thing. I was worried that this undesired behavior was going to turn into the new normal for us.

Thankfully, Max's behavior is steadily getting better as the days go by and he adjust to this new season of life. His tantrums/hitting/kicking/defiant episodes are dwindling. He's sleeping better again. He gets excited and announces "Awake!" whenever Louisa opens her eyes. He kisses her goodnight and asks to hold her frequently. As time goes on, things are looking up, thank goodness.

As for me, I'm recovering quite well and I'm feeling fantastic. I think recovery has been much swifter this time around, perhaps because it's not my first rodeo, but also because the postpartum lounging/ days of ease are non-existent with a 2-year-old running around; I have no choice but to get up and power through! If I could change one thing about our current situation, it would be to get more sleep, but I'm getting by with naps during Max's naps. I also had some painful engorgement last week, worse than I ever experienced with Max. I was incredibly uncomfortable (I cried a lot over the course of a couple days), so I visited the lactation consultant at our pediatrician's office. She told me I was pretty close to developing mastitis, so I followed her advice to the letter, and thankfully it all got better within a couple of days (the magic "cure" was warm compresses before each feeding, mamas. It didn't fix it immediately, but I felt some relief quickly and after a day or two, I was 100% better.)

We just love our little Louisa and feel so blessed to have her here with us finally. It's a whole new ballgame, having a baby girl, but it's so much fun! She's already grown so much over the past 2.5 weeks, and I know she's going to change daily as time goes on. Everyone says she's the spitting image of Max when he was a bitty, but she has her own special features too, Her hair is more of a strawberry blonde/light brown (Max's hair was red like a brand new penny), and she has more of it than Max did at birth. Her cheeks are chubbier than Max's were at this age, as well. We're intrigued to see how much they'll resemble each other as they both get older!

I'm slowly trying to get into the groove of doing things on my own with two little ones. We've survived a couple of days at the house alone, and this morning I ran my first errand alone with both kiddos...to the grocery store! It went great, surprisingly. Max was a champ and sat in the cart without protest (which I don't think has happened on any errand in the past 3 months), and Louisa slept in the Solly Baby Wrap (I can't sing the praises of this wrap loud enough. I LOVE it and highly recommend it!). The worst part of it all was getting everyone into/out of/back into the car, mainly because it takes way more planning than you would anticipate! We might brave Target this week, as well. But Costco will not happen for quite some time, I think!

Thank you to everyone who has already offered their well-wishes to us regarding the arrival of Louisa! In the coming weeks, I plan to share my thoughts and observations regarding being a new mommy of two, the story behind choosing Louisa's name, and Louisa's birth story. I should probably also share a 2-year update on Max (he turned 2 two days before Louisa was born). Be sure to check back, or enter your email on the right to receive a notification when I publish new posts!