Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I'm too tired to think of a witty title

When Sam was born he was 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 19.5 in. long. He had his two week check-up yesterday and here are his new stats:

Weight: 8 lbs. 4 oz. - 50th percentile
Height: 20.5 in. - 50th percentile
Head circumference: 35 cm. - 50th percentile

He grew an inch in two weeks! But he's still not as big as Ben was when he was born. I never imagined my second kid would be so much smaller than my first. Heath was a tiny kid for a long time. In fact, when we started dating in 10th grade I was taller than he was. So maybe Sam is taking after that side.

It's so interesting to see what features Sam inherited. He definitely has my nose, everyone agrees on that. His skin tone is much more like Heath's. He's not pale like Ben and me. His hair color is like mine now, although when I was born my hair was really dark, almost black. He and Ben are opposites in a lot of physical ways. Obviously Sam's still a newborn and he has to grow into his looks, but I'm not sure he and Ben are really going to look like brothers. I don't think my brothers and I look alike, either, so it doesn't bother me, but it is kind of neat when you can look at a family and really see the resemblance. Oh, well. Now instead of people making inappropriate jokes about Ben getting his hair color from the mailman, they can make inappropriate jokes about my kids' two different fathers!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Introducing...



... Samuel Donald Borders, a.k.a. Sam, Sammy or Samwise. Born Monday November 14, 2011 at 12:09pm after only 4.5 hours of labor!

Things are going okay around here. I think it's a combination of Sam being a pretty good baby and us feeling more calm as "new" parents. I know that I, for one, am able to sleep a lot better during those times when he lets me sleep. With Ben I lost a ton of sleep just from being too freaked out to sleep.

Ben loves his baby brother and gives him hugs and kisses all the time. However, this is not an easy transition. Ben is very out of sorts. He's super moody and just not his usual self. It doesn't help that the day after we got home with Sam he developed a strange rash all over his body, which turned out to be an allergic reaction to some medication. And he's having ear tube surgery next week. And I had a blood pressure scare (which is currently being controlled with medication). There hasn't been one non-weekend/non-holiday day since we got home that SOMEONE hasn't been at the doctor.

So, it's been hard. I'm still hormonal, not to mention recovering physically, which makes Ben's outbursts harder to take. Though Heath is bearing the brunt of that. At least this time we know it will get better. That just seems a long time off.


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Big Brother Ben


Ben is having a very similar reaction to Sam's arrival as he did to starting preschool. He's very excited, but I can tell he's getting nervous. He's fascinated with the 3D ultrasound picture I got. I put it on the refrigerator where he can reach it and sometimes he takes it down and kisses it. And he keeps talking about wanting to read to the baby. However, the bathroom accidents are starting again and they're worse. The most spectacular one was last Sunday morning. Heath was gone when Ben woke up, so when he couldn't find Daddy he stood at the top railing overlooking our foyer and peed so much that there was a huge puddle on the carpet upstairs and a bunch on the wood floor downstairs, as well. That was an awesome way to start the morning. Almost every day since then has featured at least one accident.

At least with school I could give him a concrete start date. Obviously it's a little different with a baby. I've explained that babies come when they're ready and we don't know exactly when that is. He's at a hard age for this, because he understands that things are going to change and something big is coming, but he still can't really grasp it and deal with it. If he was younger he might just be oblivious and if he was older I might be able to explain it better. *shrug* I think once the baby's here he's going to be fine. It's just the waiting that's driving him (and me) nuts.