Typical

Life with 2 kids is hectic. It's a good hectic, though. At least, most of the time. My anxiety issues have mostly settled down. I still get flashes every now and then, but it's not nearly as severe as it was, and I feel pretty confident now that it will be short-lived so I can muddle through.

Robbie and Charlotte

Robbie's coming out of the three-teens a bit. He still has an attitude that makes me want to throttle him sometimes, but he's also so funny and cute. Sometimes all at the same time. Last week I told him it was time to take a bath and he said no. I said yes. He said "I SAID NO!" I took the stern tone and said "I SAID YES!" He thought about that for a long moment, then finally said "NO, I gave you your choices! I said no!" I had to bite my lip and turn around to keep from laughing at his naughtiness.

He's an amazing big brother, though. I was concerned about jealousy but honestly, it's very few and far between. Even when he wants my attention and I can't give it, he's nice about it. "Mommy put sister down and come play."

Yesterday I put Charlotte in her crib for a minute. She started fussing a bit. I asked Robbie if he would go talk to her for a minute until I could get back to her. He said "Yeah!" and went in to see her. I hear him say "Hi little baby Charlotte. It's Wobbie. You're my bruvver!" (Pronouns are hard, ya'll!) Just when I think I can't love him more, I do.

Charlotte's an easy baby. I think it's partly comparison to Robbie who was.. well... not an easy baby. But she's also just really good natured. Everyone who meets her comments on it. She cries when she's tired and if she's hungry and I can't feed her quick enough. She doesn't like to be left alone. (I mean I can't leave the room. I promise I'm not running errands while she's at home.) She doesn't like the car, but I think that comes back to not liking to be alone again. Robbie's back there with her, but she can't really see him so I think she thinks she's alone. But outside of that, she's just a happy baby all around.

She sleeps through the night pretty regularly. She had a 4 month wakeful period (ouch) but before that, she had even gone 12 hours a few times. She's coming out of the bad cycle, and it's not uncommon for her to sleep 10 hours. She goes to bed about 8 and will eat about 6 and go back to sleep. We do still have nights where she eats every 2-3 hours, but it's not every night.

She loves to eat. Not from a bottle, of course, but she eats. I still find it amazing when she fusses for food, eats, and then is happy again. That's not an experience I had with Robbie. It's very novel. And honestly I really enjoy nursing. I really wish she would take a bottle for many reasons, but I really do love nursing her. Again, maybe it's because it's SO much better than pumping, but now that we have the hang of it, it's so convenient most of the time. (More on that later.) I just love how happy she is to see my boob coming. Sometimes she actually giggles. Of course, that makes me giggle.

Robbie started back to school this week. We're sending him just for preschool (2 hours) on Monday & Wednesday and all day on Tuesday and Thursday. He was so cute when we pulled in the parking lot on Monday. "Yay yay! We're home to the kid's house!" The kids were happy to see him, too. There was a lot of happy greetings and hugs when we got there. And one friend chased us out the door (with their teacher calling him back) that afternoon to give Robbie a hug goodbye. Everyone is happy he's back.

Outside of that, I've been helping organize a local walk for the Preeclampsia Foundation. Of course, we also have our March for Babies team as well. I haven't done a lot for it this year as I've been so focused on the Promise Walk. I feel torn between the two, really. The MoD has done so much for babies, definitely impacting Robbie's survival. But I worry about Robbie and Charlotte having to deal with preeclampsia if/when they want to have children. In the end, I just wish neither were necessary.


Honestly, the biggest concerns I have these days are Charlotte's bottle refusal and Robbie's potty training refusal. Typical parenting problems. Typical is good.

--Trish