Baby Season

After 2 boys, my sister had a baby girl yesterday.  She's a sweet little (I use that term loosely) thing with a head of dark hair and pinchable cheeks who weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces at birth.  Ouch.  My sister had a 3 hour labor with no time for drugs so the whole thing was natural.  Double ouch.

Princess with her newest cousin

We're very excited about the birth of little Abigail or Abby as she'll be called.  Princess had the decency not to say "I told you so" over Abby being an Abigail instead of a Gabriel.  She kept telling us that it was going to be a "girl baby" and, we kept telling her it could very well be a boy, but she was positive and wouldn't be swayed.  By the end of my sister's pregnancy, when asked what the baby would be, Princess would say begrudgingly, "It could be a girl baby *sigh* or it could be a boy baby." and then she would brighten up and finish with, "But it's a girl baby!!"  Kudos to you, Princess.  She now has a 100% track record with predicting genders (that would be 5 out of 5).  I'm thinking I might start charging people to find out what they are expecting.  Hey, the kid might as well earn her keep around here.

My brother and his wife are also expecting a baby in November.  Yeah, I know.  When we have babies in my family, we have them in batches.  First were the three oldest kidlets, Princess and her two cousins who are about 6 months apart from oldest to youngest.  Next came the 3 younger cousins who are less than a month apart from oldest to youngest.  And now my sister and sister-in-law are having babies close together.  I opted out of this stretch of baby production.  Hubby says we're out of the game completely, but I can just picture God leaning out of Heaven with a chuckle saying, " How about I bless them with a set of triplets to show 'em who's in charge here."

To be honest, I was sitting on pins and needles until my sister actually delivered her baby yesterday.  The first two times she announced a new addition, I followed with an announcement of my own.  Both times, I told everyone I was NOT pregnant and then found out a few days later that I had unwittingly told a lie.  So this time, when my sister started glowing and throwing up, everyone looked at me expectantly (no pun intended).  Like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" or the contemporary version of this fable, "The Girl Who Cried Because She Was Hormonal and Pregnant, But Didn't Know It Yet" they naturally didn't believe me when I denied any upcoming offspring.  After this happening twice, I thought for sure, my sister's pregnancies were contagious and, no matter how hard I tried to prevent it, I was sure to follow her footsteps again.  But here we are...baby Abby is practicing her newfound stretching skills, and I'm (as far as I know!) not in the baby-making business at the moment.



 

Growing Pains

I've heard so many people say that they worried they wouldn't love their second child as much as the first only to discover that when the second one came along, their love expanded exponentially to include the new baby. I wasn't worried about that. I loved my baby from the moment I found out I was pregnant. And when Little Man was born, I fell in love with him even more. To be honest though, I really didn't start liking him until four days after his birth. I know that sounds terrible, but he was born screaming mad and the next couple of days were spent either trying to get him to stop screaming or trying to get him to nurse which made him scream even more. There really weren't too many opportunities to bond during that time. At one point, while we were still at the hospital, I handed Little Man over to Hubby so I could take a few minutes to use the bathroom. While locked in the luxurious closet sized hospital bathroom, I could still hear Little Man voicing his indignation at being born, and I thought to myself, "What have I done?"

On top of Little Man's anger and eating issues, Princess came down with a cold the day Little Man was born and obviously didn't feel good. Try telling a two-year-old that Mommy can't rock her when she's sick because her new brother needs to be fed or calmed down again. I felt like I had just ruined her life by bringing this new kid home.

On Saturday, Hubby took Princess to his mom's house to give me a break. As soon as they walked out the door, I started an email to my best friend telling her how I felt about my son at the moment and expressing the usual mommy guilt over such feelings. She wrote back to tell me that while it was true that my love could grow to include another child, nobody ever tells you that it could involve growing pains. She also pointed out that while I'd known Princess for over 2 years, my relationship with Little Man was still brand new and needed time to develop. She knew exactly what to say to make me feel better and that afternoon, as I spent one-on-one time with Little Man, I finally bonded with him. It helped, of course, that he finally started getting over his four day long temper tantrum directed at being born and started learning how to nurse.

Today, Little Man is 9 days old and I am thrilled to be his mother. He's a good baby who only gets up once a night to eat and is learning to tolerate his big sister invading his space every second of the day. I actually wish she didn't like him SO much, but hey, at least she's not jealous.

Unsolicited Advice: Never say no when someone offers to help you out with something after you've had a baby. Giving birth is kind of a big deal and requires time to recover. Make sure you don't prolong your recovery by overdoing it after birth.