Adventures in Babyville

I know that there is more going on around here than nursing, crying, and trying to sleep, but I usually miss out on a lot of it. Not this weekend. Jeremy has a conference in San Diego and it's just me and the 4 kids. (Sort of - I do have family in town for back-up, thankfully!) It has started out mostly well. Shawn has been sleeping in the swing for about an hour and a half (unheard of!) and I got bacon made for dinner tonight (breakfast - it's hard to fry bacon with a baby attached to you. This is a fact), the diapers dried and put away, another load started, part of the floor swept, the dishwasher loaded, some pots washed, a delicious salad made and eaten, and made my bed. I'd call that plenty accomplished for one midday! Time for resting, which means computer media stuff, since Shawn and I already napped from 8:30 to 10:30.

Not sure what to do with that poor baby. He is so gassy, and often cries and cries trying to get it out before he will nurse after he wakes up. We're doing mylicon, gripe water, essential oils, and I've eliminated dairy and gluten. Cheeseless tacos are not delicious people. Especially if it's not going to make a difference. But I'll stick with it for several weeks, because I think you have to do it that long for it to get out of your system. Also, even after his tongue tie got clipped he only gained like 4-5 oz last week. Sigh.  Anyway. He's really cute.

Most exciting happenings the last couple of weeks? Not much. The kids are still doing well in school, Katy started Sunbeams, and seems to be doing well there. We went to Pima, which was cool (if a little tiring, and short). Shawn got to meet his Great-Grandma Cohn. :) Also, we got to take the kids to the open house of the Gilbert temple. It is so, so beautiful! They were sort of impressed. Reilly may or may not have thrown a fit in the celestial room because we didn't want him walking way ahead of the rest of us. I had to ride in a golf cart and several elevators, but otherwise it was a successful outing. :)

Shawn is being helpful and taking at least one or two naps a day on his changing table or in the swing. So awesome. He has also started smiling at people here and there. You just never know when he's going to pop one out. We are 6 weeks into this "new baby" thing and hoping that things will continue to improve!

Sleep

How I miss it. And, to be fair, I'm getting more sleep than I usually do with a newborn. But that's mostly because I'm still alternating from the chair to the couch at night, and have a baby attached to me for 95% of that time. So it's not -quality- sleep, but I think I'm averaging 6-7 hours most nights, just broken up a bit. And I try to nap several times a week. Some of those naps are baby-free, and completely delightful. Not to say that Shawn isn't delightful too, it's just harder to be comfortable when a small (very warm) being insists on being attached to you. I miss my bed, though. It's a nice bed. Shawn likes it too.

In other news, it's been nice to have the older two kids back in school. Our kids are all kind of intense, and life with a new baby is intense (and not very interesting, as far as projects and activities go), and they've been going a little crazy here on the days we were just all home. They both really like school (ifnot the time the homework can take). I'm very grateful for that, and grateful that their vharter school closed last year, though it was super stressful at the time. If they were both going to the charter school there would be three 20-minute round trip pick-ups and drop-offs every day, and I can just imagine how stressful that would be right now. Yay for a closer, (very good) school with nice bus drivers!

Right now.

I'm just going to have to backtrack, because there is no time right now for catching up. There is barely time for trying to do the things that need to be done.
We are 3 weeks into this "new baby" thing, and though I'm sleeping better than I usually would (because I have mostly just slept WITH him) things are still a little rough. C-section recovery (while trying to take care of a newborn) is no joke. I'm grateful for c-sections, and I have no complaints about how mine went, or even the reasons for it (due to a breech baby that they needed out ASAP because of my blood pressure), I am frustrated with the (non) speed of recovery. Seriously, don't get a c-section just because you think it might be easier than labor (oh, so true) because... just don't.  Nursing has also been a little rough, because he has some tongue tie, and all the sitting-on-the-couch-all-day hasn't really helped to gain quite enough weight. But we're hoping to get that resolved within a week or so, so hopefully it will improve. I'm so grateful that Jeremy's schedule is so flexible and that he is mostly home, trying to keep everything under control right now. Especially with the kids out of school most of this time. It's been an adventure.

 But right now is good.

Jeremy's at the office for a bit, and I was actually able to lay Shawn down after he fell asleep. Unusual, but appreciated, no matter how long it lasts. Because of that, I was able to get three (apparently always starving) children lunch (which they are eating outside, since he's in the dining room). And sit down to write for just a minute.

 I wish I could fast forward a few weeks, to where we have some kind of schedule and I'm feeling better, and not like I'm going to split apart if I move wrong or sneeze too hard. Except that they I would miss out on so many of these cute sights: