Every Mother's Wish

One afternoon this week Ben, Sam and I were sitting in the living room and Ben was regaling us with stories about his trains, while pushing them around the track. Sam was relatively happy and alert, having just been fed, and I noticed something. Whenever he could see Ben, he watched him as long as he could. Ben would walk into his sight line, pushing James along the track, and Sam would crane his neck to keep watching Ben. After a while he would get a little upset until Ben came back into view. Is it possible that the little brother adoration has already started?

That makes me very happy. Even after Heath and I are gone, Ben and Sam will have each other and it's so awesome to be watching the very beginning of that bond. Believe me, I realize that they won't always get along. Ian and I fought like hell when we were kids and if there's any karma that should come back and bite me in the ass, it's the sibling rivalry karma. But not all siblings fight incessantly. Maybe we'll be lucky!

Another Christmas present!

Sam smiled at me for the first time today! Taking care of a newborn is a grind, but that's one of the rewards.

I got my Christmas present early!

Last night Sam slept from 10pm-5am.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

Holy shit! He's only five weeks old! Ben didn't sleep through the night once until he was five months old, and then he didn't do it again for four more months. So you can understand why this is so amazing and perplexing to me. I'd hoped for something like this to happen, but never dreamed it actually would.

Who knows if this will be a permanent state. But seven hours of sleep IN A ROW? I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Picture round up

 So cute!

This is my new computer desktop background.

Same as last year, the best of a mediocre bunch.

I have about a million shots of them together. I can't resist!

I don't care if I'm biased, we managed to create another gorgeous boy.

From the looks on their faces you'd think we were about to 

make them eat brussel sprouts, not shower them in gifts.

You should see the cougar!

Scene: Ben noticed the long, purple stretch marks that now cover my stomach from hip to hip.

Ben: Those are claw marks!

Sickness update

Ben's surgery on Monday went very well. They took him to the OR at 8:30am and by 8:45 the doctor was back telling us it went fine. We were home by 10:30! He was pretty out of it all morning, but by the afternoon he was bouncing around and back to his usual self. Hopefully this will mean a lot fewer trips to the doctor this winter.

Ben's been on ear drops, eye drops and antibiotics all week (plus some Tylenol after his surgery), but I'm happy to report that by this evening we will be DONE with all his medications. I'm not against medication by any means, but I also hate putting that much stuff in his body at once. Especially since he hated the eye drops and is only slightly less hostile toward the ear drops.

I'm also glad to say that he's been more pleasant in general this week, I assume because he's not feeling so sick. Heath's going back to work on Monday and while I'm partially terrified of how I'm going to handle a newborn and a three year old by myself all day, I think we're all eager to get back to our normal routine. I'm hoping Ben's moods will even out a little once we're out of this limbo period.

I wish I was Jewish so I could say, "Oy Vey."

Sam will be three weeks old tomorrow. In that time Ben has suffered from the following ailments:

-A rash from head to toe, which turned out to be an allergic reaction to some medication.
-A constant cough and runny nose.
-An ear infection.
-And... PINK EYE. He came home from school last Wednesday and I saw some goop in the corner of his eye. Some more seeped out within minutes and my stomach sank, because I knew what it meant. For those not in the know, pink eye is extremely contagious, so there's been some serious hand washing and hand sanitizing going on in the house. Plus, we've had to keep Ben from touching Sam, which sucks because Ben wants to hug and kiss and help feed his brother and I definitely want to encourage that. But we can't risk Sam catching anything. Luckily he's shown no signs of being sick and Ben's eye drops have his eyes looking much better.

In addition to all this, Ben is scheduled for ear tube surgery tomorrow. I feel like we're being tested. Just how much shit can we take before one of us flees to Mexico? I'm sure I'm overreacting. There's been more than one (or two... or three) crying sessions on my part in the last three weeks, and I know it's mostly due to hormonal changes and sleep deprivation. But seriously, isn't bringing home a second kid enough stress, without adding all the medical drama on top of it?

Everyone I've talked to says the surgery is no big deal. It literally takes 10-15 minutes and he can go to school the next day. It's going to be for the best, because now he shouldn't be getting ear infections every five minutes from October to March. I just wish we didn't have to do it three weeks after I gave birth. I predict more crying in my future.

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!

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.

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.