Life with two

We've been parents of two for almost four weeks now. Of course we are in love with our new addition to the family and our hearts seem like they couldn't be fuller. But it's also been crazy, hectic, busy, exhausting and at times frustrating. Paul had enough days built up to take off the rest of the school year so except for a few meetings here and there, he has been home with us this whole time so far.

The first week and a half was crazy in the sense of just adjusting to life with a newborn again and just life with two in general. Other than a few really fussy episodes, Walker pretty much slept for almost two weeks. Those really fussy episodes let me to cutting out dairy again but we saw improvement and started to think we'd "lucked out" with a really easy, laid back baby. And then he woke up from the newborn sleep all day, all night phase. He started having terrible gas pains and seemed more fussy by the day. At Gray's two year well check we talked to Dr. Bill about it and he explained that around his age, babies were having to learn to make themselves have a bowl movement, rather than it just happening out of their control. He said that was probably why he was being so fussy and that as he got more used to it, it would hopefully get better. Within a week we were calling the doctor again, just to see if there was anything else we could do for him because it had only gotten worse. When he was having gas or trying to poop, he screamed bloody murder in pain. It would sometimes last a minute, sometimes he would scream off and on for an hour. We felt like we were headed down an all too familiar route and I prayed so hard we would never hear the word "colic" again. The nurse recommended we give gas drops before he ate (we'd been giving them when he got fussy, which was too late) and start giving him gripe water before feedings. We tried those things and then some with Gray and had no luck, so I wasn't very optimistic. But within just a day or two things seemed a little better, at least as far as the gas pains were concerned. I'm not sure if he is just getting more used to it or if the gas drops and gripe water are working but we aren't ready to change anything to find out!

Things have still been better with his gas pains but last week I was noticing a different kind of fussy, mostly when he was nursing. This was stressful because he'd been a great nurser since day one. On Saturday we had family over to finally celebrate Gray's birthday. In the midst of presents and cake, Walker let me know he was ready to eat. I decided to give him a pumped bottle so I wouldn't have to go upstairs and miss anything with Gray. He refused the bottle and was screaming his head off so I went upstairs to nurse him and he completely refused that too, all the while screaming to the top of his lungs. It was stressful and bad timing and I just wanted to cry. At that point, along with some other symptoms we'd noticed over the past several days, I was pretty sure he had reflux. We got an appointment for Sunday morning and our suspensions were confirmed. I was so glad that Dr. Bill happened to be the on-call doctor that day and we left with a diagnosis of reflux and a prescription for Zantac. Thankfully Walker doesn't seem to have a super serious case and he doesn't (yet anyway) spit up like a lot of babies with reflux. In fact, despite his refusal to eat the evening before and having some other challenging feedings, he weighed 10 pounds, 6 ounces on Sunday. That's one ounce away from gaining two pounds in just a little over three weeks of life! We are hoping the Zantac will bring some relief to our sweet boy soon.

On a more positive note, Gray has adjusted pretty well to having a new brother. He had a few major meltdowns within the first few days and has overall been a little more whiny and needy, but he has been nothing but sweet to Walker and there have been very few times that he has seemed to be jealous. He hasn't seemed to be bothered at all by Walker's crying and/or screaming. In fact, every time he cries Gray runs to find him a paci or a blanky or a stuffed animal-it's so sweet!

Paul starts summer work outs with his soccer team today and he will be very busy and gone a lot for most of the summer. When school starts back he will be gone all day and won't get home until late every night. I am thankful for the time we had over the last several weeks and especially for how helpful he is when he's home. I'm not gonna lie, it's a little scary to think about tackling the next few months practically by myself. I am praying and hoping Walker gets less fussy and I can get back on a routine with my boys. Since we've been down this road once before, I know it gets easier and goes by fast. So even in the midst of the fussin, I'm trying to soak up these moments that I know one day I'd give anything to have back.

Walker will be one month on Sunday so hopefully a post about that will be coming soon!