Sam’s second week, A. stayed home on Monday but that evening he had to go to a neighborhood meeting. I walked with him, wearing Sam in the wrap and pushing Ari in a stroller, for a vote that was happening at the beginning of the meeting, then the three of us went home without A., and I was outnumbered by children for the first time! Except for when I was a babysitter, but that never involved a newborn. The same tension, difficulty breathing, and back stiffness was still there, but everything went very well. We got home and Sam was sleeping in the wrap and he stayed asleep while I fixed Ari some food (he’d had dinner but was saying he was hungry again – and now he wanted his vegetables, plus extra carrots!), got him ready for bed, read him stories, and sang him to sleep. After Ari drifted off, Sam started to stir, and I was able to feed and cuddle him with no interruptions. It was actually a great evening!

Tuesday was A.’s first day back at work. In the morning, we all went together to take Ari to school as sort of a practice run for me to pick him up with Sam. Then Sam and I had a day alone together, and it was wonderful. I got to just look at him, and talk to him, and feed him on demand. He also took several 1-2–hour naps, on his back in his bassinet! I don’t think Ari ever did that. I cleaned the house and even started reading a new book! It was a very peaceful, nice day. Having a newborn is a piece of cake after having a toddler! Man, I must have had SO much free time before having kids if I thought having a baby was hard the first time around. 😛 Of course it never felt that way, though. And I remember other moms saying how much they missed those newborn days, because they would sleep so much and they could get so much done, and once they got the house clean it STAYED clean. I always felt like maybe their babies were easier than mine, because I was having such a hard time, and I do think Ari was a difficult sleeper (and still is), but it’s also just the transition to parenthood that is overwhelming. Now, I feel like I have way more free time than I had a couple of months ago, because then I had to work on most of Ari’s school days, and now I have them ALL off! Even if I’m busy with Sam most of the day, at least I get a few hours of quiet time with my hands free. I am missing out on sleep, though!

Once I got the house clean that day, I took some pictures because A.’s parents had helped us rearrange our furniture, at A.’s mom’s suggestion, and we’ve been really happy with the results. We basically swapped the locations of our office/play area and the dining room, and got a smaller desk for me, now that I’m the only one using a desktop computer and we’ve just set up both monitors for it.

Picking Ari up that day, with Sam in tow, was a terrifying prospect but it went smoothly. I used the stroller to contain and move Sam around while I wrangled Ari, and Sam was quiet and content for the entire excursion. (So far he’s mostly been great in the car, overall.)

A. stayed home again on Wednesday and a friend and her 3-year-old son visited in the afternoon. We ended up going out for pizza, and it wasn’t until we were there that I remembered that I had wanted to avoid going out for the first few weeks. We discovered that now, when we go out, one of us has to hold the baby, one of us has to chase the toddler, and neither of us gets to eat! But I also remembered that we’d gone to the same place for Ari’s first restaurant outing when he was five days old, when it was a breakfast place in the same location. So we had to take a picture!

On Thursday, Ari went to school again and I don’t remember exactly what I got done that day, but I took some photos of Sam smiling in his sleep and one with his eyes open:

Because of some previous cluster feeding, I finally got my new pump set up and all the parts sterilized and pumped a couple of bottles on Thursday so that A. could feed Sam a bottle the next time I felt like he was hungry and I’d either run out or just needed a break, or if I wanted to spend some time with Ari. That evening, he took both bottles eagerly!

Friday was Ari’s birthday! I’ll write about that in a separate Ari-focused post, but after I took him to school I sent some photos to the pediatrician of a rash I’d noticed the night before on Sam’s chest and back. He didn’t seem sick so I wasn’t too worried, but she called me right away and told me to take him to the emergency room (probably because she was out sick and couldn’t see him herself). So we went straight to the ER, and fortunately it seemed like we were the only ones there so we were seen quickly and were home by about noon. It turned out to be a common newborn rash that something like 50% of newborns get, and it was gone within a couple of days. Good thing we have insurance for that ER visit! I guess you can’t be too careful.

On Saturday, I took some photos of his cute little frog legs:

On Sunday, we had our first long drive with the two of them, to visit family in Olympia. I pumped in the morning while he was sleeping, then he woke up hungry so we fed him the bottles right away. Ari helped! Although he lasted about one second before he said, “Done!”

Oh, it was also Father’s Day on Sunday so I got up with the boys in the morning and let A. sleep in a little while. That was the most I could manage to do, with the two of them!

My parents followed us back on Sunday night and stayed until Wednesday to help me get through the first Monday and Wednesday with Ari home and A. at work. On Monday morning, they took Ari to story time at the library. And Sam was two weeks old!