we are doing well. I went back to work today (Marina is almost 3 months, I had 12 weeks leave) I am going to do 4 day work weeks (I have lots of vacation saved) until xmas, so that'll be nice. Honestly, I am more worried about going back to work affecting my son than Marina! since she is SO EASY its ridiculous. It is night and day compared to how my son was at this age.
a) she rarely cries, if she does, its always 'fixable' - a burp, nursing, etc.
b) she didn't seem to have an issue with my oversupply/letdown - can suck w/ the best of them
c) falls asleep BY HERSELF (what is that all about?!!!) I wouldn't have even discovered this if I hadn't put her down drowsy once (I had to pee) to discover she fell asleep a few weeks ago - now I do it way more often
d) doesn't need constant movement - i can wear her and stand around some, I can put her in a bouncer and play w/ my son, etc.
e) wakes up once a night
f) has a 3-4 hour nap midday (what?!!!)
I had heard of babies like this, I never though I could have one
I guess I was evidently like this as a babe, my older brother though, and my husband, were like Z (never sleeping more than 45min a row for months; colicky/high needs, take an act of congress to go to sleep, needing constant movement, etc)
its awesome, since my high needs son is still, well, high needs, even at 2. he takes longer to go to sleep than she does for sure, and needs a parent there
And he is adjusting okay, I guess, but 2 hit him like a ton of bricks. He's defiant, tantrum-y, etc. So he takes so much energy, its nice that she is so easy. Though I am always afraid I am taking advantage of it
luckily, I get lots of one on one time with her so I don't feel like I am not attached/bonded to HER, but I do sometimes feel like she might not be as attached to ME, since I could be the ceiling fan and she'd be as content, but that's okay I suppose!
of course, now I'm worried I'm counting on all this behavior to function, and that she'll regress terribly when teeth/milestones/etc come in. But still, its nice that Z has this mellow time to adjust a bit, and then if she does require more later on it'll be easier, hopefully. We'll see.
she is SO cute and smiley right now
I do wonder if she'll do things at a very different rate given her easygoing personality (Z was SO cranky about being a baby I think, that it got him crawling by 5 months and walking by 9, which greatly improved his happiness, etc) but she's already rolling from belly to back, just not the other way around, and is always trying to push forward, and has been standing (needs balance, but can hold her weight) since 6 weeks, way earlier than Z did. So we'll see, it'll be interesting to watch
I am still nursing him, which is going okay. I thought tandeming would be harder, but it helps that he is in school 3 days a week (this summer was two half-days and one full day) so that its not a constant 'drain' on me
I thought he'd lose interest after the 'restock' but no, still going strong. He asks to nurse *really* often, when we are home. And I am incapable of doing bedtime or naptime if nursing doesn't get him asleep, since its all he wants to do with me. I keep pushing other 'closeness' (cuddling, reading) to no avail. But it is nice that we still have that connection, so I am letting him guide me right now and usually say okay to his nursing requests, as long as Marina is fine. (he'll say 'Z turn!'
) Now that I am back at work he'll be nursing less also. It was definitely nice to have him help w/ my oversupply as well, and it might be why unlike Z, Marina is so easy to breastfeed (Z and I had huge issues due to letdown/etc until 4mos old or so, he was pretty boob-averse, until then) that and I knew to stop eating dairy ahead of time.
my mom still implies though that Marina is easy because she's not my first, but I know better - its so obvious how different she is! Basically, being tired doesn't make her cranky, and she's able to burp SO much better, plus the letdown thing - its so much easier when boobs *work* to calm a baby down rather than make a baby more cranky! I had to bounce Z to calm him enough to nurse for *months* it was so frustrating.
anyway. So yeah, enjoying this new arrival - I was so worried I couldn't love another babe as much as I love Z - but she really has captured my heart. Its nice to have the enjoyment of babyhood as well - Z was so rewarding, since every smile/happy moment seemed like it took SO much work - so it was just a different kind of joy I had with him at this age - this is so unsolicited, but so peaceful - Its nice to have such a different experience
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