Arabella is just a couple of days shy of 7 weeks old. She is a great little girl and we love her so much. I weighed her when I had my 6 weeks check up this week and she is just a little over 11lbs! I can't believe how fast she is growing! Motherhood, at least in my opinion is never easy. It is hard to give up that independence you once had and trade it for being accompanied to the bathroom, sometimes eating cold meals, eating someone else's leftovers, answering a cry or call for mommy at anytime of the night, no getting to sleep in even if you stayed up the night before, not being able to have a night with your husband without the risk of it being interpreted by a little one who needs you, and basically being on call no matter what is going on or how you feel... there is always someone who is more important than your self. All that being said.. being a mom is the great job I have ever had. You certainly get everything you put into your children and more. I love being a mommy of two (and hopefully more in the future). It isn't always easy but it is the BEST.
Arabella sleeps well and nurses well which makes it easier to be less stressed. She has and maybe still is having a fussy period normally between 11-1am. Josh and I are night owls so the time isn't too bad, although we normally do try to be in bed by 12am. The crying is hard to deal with some times. Other than the late night fussiness which seems to be getting better, she is a happy little girl who brings lots of joy to our lives.
She baby talks a lot, cooing, gurling and oooing. I love it!! I can't wait to talk to her like I do with Landon. She typically takes two long naps during the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon (if I am lucky everyone is sleeping in the afternoon at the same time!). If she is having a fussy night she sleeps from 7ish-11ish and then wakes up and stays away until 1-2am. If not she goes down at 7:30ish. Either way she ways up around 3-4 and nurses and goes right back to sleep. She typically gets up between 8:30 and 9:15am.
She is already holding her head up most of the time. During tummy time she is rocking back and forth so I think she will be an early roller but we will see. I don't think I am ready for a mobile baby! Landon and I need to get our act together with the little toys and their pieces before that can happen. Landon is really into marbles right now and every time I find one in some random place I think to myself... soon this will be a BIG problem.
I am getting back in the swing of taking care of the family and house by myself. Josh and Sally cleaned the house for me for several weeks while I was still recovering. Some weeks I am amazing at what I can do around the house with two, well three on the weekdays,children. I don't think I was this effective with Landon although he needed mommy with him a LOT more. Other weeks, I get frustrated and try to remind myself that a clean house doesn't equal a happy house. A happy mommy equals a happy house and I shouldn't need the house to be clean just to be happy. I have started back with doing preschool work with Landon and Zach. I haven't managed to do it every day like I did before Arabella was born but we are just taking small steps and I am more doing it because it is fun for all of us than something specific has to be learned.
Well, what days a typical day look like in our house? I don't think we have one! But this is some of the stuff that typically goes on during a normal day/week.
We (the kids and me) start out by getting up at 8-9am all depends on Landon and Arabella. We pray and eat breakfast. Zach comes over. The boys play for a bit. I typically nurse Arabella and try to start on my house work.
Mondays are laundry days (and normally runs into Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesday, and often the laundry doesn't get all put away until Friday). Since I try cut back on using energy and spending money I hang most of our clothes so my house looks like a laundry mat for a day or two.
At about 10:30-11ish we try to do a structured learning activity in the morning. We might make a craft, like the cow puppet or color, or make a book about a letter.
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| I have no idea why this is upside down. These were done before Arabella was born. |
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| Our projects for the letter D |
Arabella sleeps, sits or hangs out with Mommy during "school" time
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| My down time is frequently spent with a little girl on my chest ;) |
The boys play when they are done with "school" while I make lunch. After lunch the boys play some more, if it is nice we go outside. After about an hour or two of playing, we read books for 15-20 minutes.
The boys spend the rest of the day playing (and sometimes arguing)
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| The new favorite game is dress up spurred by Zach coming over one day with a dragon costume on. |
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| So I pulled out all of Landon's dress up clothes (our great neighbor had a tons of stuff and gave it to us for Landon this past Halloween, Thanks Sherice!) |
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| Tummy time! Look at our little strong girl! |
After playing and reading books the boys and hopefully Arabella go to sleep. When the boys wake up they play some more (frequently outside) and sometimes we read some more books. I make sure Zach's things are packed up and start on dinner. After dinner, it is bath time, read book time and sing songs then sleepy time for Landon and hopefully Arabella.
We also started going to music class at the library again. This was Arabella's first time. She slept the whole time, so I guess she enjoyed herself. The boys loved it as always. David the teacher always seems to get a kick out of the boys because the are SOO into the music and dancing.
