Life with the Magic Number: Our First Week at Home

When we pulled up to our house, the kids were outside waiting for us. They couldn't wait to get a peak at the newest addition...

And were so sweet rocking him together. They were singing, "night night" together, too. Melt. My. Heart. (I attempted to get video but it didn't work out)

Taking turns holding "bee-bee"/"bay-bee"

So blessed.

We put the bassinet by the fireplace ledge and the kids love to perch on it and watch their brother sleep or help me change his diaper. Avery is especially good at getting diapers for me and throwing them away. The first few days at home, she was constantly checking the bassinet for him. If I had him in the other room, she would get so concerned that he wasn't where he was supposed to be.

Rudy loved holding his brother those first few days. He wanted to hold him while he watched his shows. We were so impressed how long he would sit still and hold on to him… up to 30 minutes at a time!

Snuggle time!

Taking care of a newborn is exhausting!…even for these two!

Isabela came to visit and she sang Ben a special song that she made just for him, and it put him right to sleep!

But otherwise, it has been pretty much business as usual! The kids still love playing outside… so Ben comes along!

Avery and her snakes/spiders!

Sweet, peaceful sleeping baby...

…with a cement truck in the background. That's normal for newborns, right?!

Ben has been a really, really good baby. He sleeps most of the time and I have to wake him up to eat usually. He rarely fusses or cries, mostly just when he gets a bath or a diaper change takes too long. He doesn't mind getting moved around in his sleep or taken here and there. One night we took the kids for a walk and John said, "You never would have put Rudy in that (the Baby Bjorn) or left the house with Rudy when he was only a few days old." And he was right. Nor would I have risked disturbing the sleeping beast for fear he would wake up screaming! But Ben gets picked up in his sleep and off he goes! But it doesn't phase him. I don't know how we got so lucky. LeeAnn said, "God only gives us what we can handle, and he already gave us Rudy!"… so maybe that's it :)

And speaking of Rudy… he has been quite a handful, and that's putting it nicely. Considering Ben really hasn't required too much attention, I'm surprised at how much he has been acting out. We keep going back and forth between "we have to do something" and "he's adjusting and this will pass." His sleep habits are horrible. He refuses to fall asleep unless someone is laying with him and he wakes up in the middle of the night and won't fall back asleep unless someone is with him. And some mornings he wakes up way earlier than usual, which makes for a difficult day. He's back to sleeping on the couch for naps and falling asleep in the living room before going back to his bed. His attitude could also use some serious adjusting. He doesn't listen. At all. It's a vicious cycle. He doesn't get enough sleep so he acts up, but you can't force someone to sleep… especially Rudy. And the harder we try, the more he resists and the less sleep he gets…which makes him act up, whine, etc. If we keep him entertained or busy, he does much better. But with a new baby and a 1-year old, he can't be the center of attention all the time, especially when John goes back to work and the visitors aren't so frequent! I don't want to be giving him too much of a break, and I won't for much longer, but it was never this bad before. John and I were getting so frustrated and worked up, but we had to step back and remind ourselves that although we were ready to be "normal" again, we can't expect the kids to act normal after just a few days of coming home. People write entire books on bringing home a new baby… I figure we give them a couple weeks and if things are still difficult, we will come up with a plan and stick to it. My heart wants to give him more time to adjust to everything new that's been going on and to settle back into a routine after the craziness that our lives have been for the past month with all the outside activity and stress it caused John and I… but my head knows the way things currently are can't last, and its just not good for anybody.

One particularly stressful afternoon that we attempted to make Rudy sleep in his own room… he was doing all he could to show us how mad he was for having to be in there, even dramatically throwing Tom Brady into the hall

Avery on the other hand has been fine. She's been a bit more grumpy at times and will come to me for attention and some snuggles, but it could be much worse… especially considering how attached she was/is to me. She is still sleeping great and does her thing during the day.

Some kids are effected more by a change in schedule/routine/etc and Rudy is one of those. As well as he does around large groups and activity, he has to have consistency at home or he just falls apart.

But enough of the negative times… being home has also had its great times, too!

We had Ben's one-week check-up and he did great!
One week stats:
Weight: 7 lbs, 10 oz (39%)
Height: 21.25 in (94%)
Head: 34.8 (41%)

Sleepy baby

…and sleepy kids!

Lots and lots of time spent outdoors. John was attempting to power wash the driveway (it has been a horrible period of day after day of falling tree parts … I don't know what term to use… but we are wanting to seal our new concrete but it has been impossible with the amount of stuff that falls every day!) and the kids had fun splashing in the water!

We also took some time getting our pond up and running. We picked out several new fish!

Rudy insisted on holding them… I'm still not quite sure how we made it home with all swimming fish :)

Getting the fish "acclimated"

Ben was really impressed, too, as you can tell...

Setting them loose!

And giving them "lunch" - Rudy refers to every meal as "lunch" - said with a strong "ch"

Even more excitement followed that day as Tony, Patrick, Dawn, and Kate came for a visit!!

Check out these yummy and awesome cookies Aunt Dawn the Great made for us!

We spent one morning at the zoo...

Checking out the monkeys!

Of course Ben made the trip too and slept the entire time on my chest...

Precious :)

Fearless Avery...

Rudy said, "Mom, me rest 2 min" and found a little spot to do just that.

If I could morph these two pictures together, I'd have one really great picture!

Avery's favorite exhibit! Half the group couldn't even stand by the glass, but not Miss Avery. She was all smiles checking out the live snake!

We also spent one morning doing yard work and planting flowers (I wonder if we will ever finish the outdoor project?!). We had to stop by the Farmer's Market and the kids love the lawn ornament section, especially all the little ducks.

Hallelujah!

And Tony and Patrick brought us some fun new water toys!
Running through the sprinkler with Uncle Tony...

…and making water balloons with Patrick. Poor Patrick. We learned the hard way that we should have filled a bunch of balloons in advance because these kids have about zero patience. He was going as fast as he could, all while Avery asked repeatedly, "Mine? Mine?" (Ever see Finding Nemo? Some times I feel like I live in that seen on the dock with all the pigeons… "Mine. Mine. Mine.")

Dad just couldn't resist jumping through the sprinkler!

Avery's face when we first attempted to put the water balloons away...

So of course we had to get them back out!

…that's much better!

Ben just snoozing through it all...

Show time before bed!

Ben's kind of party...

And our weekend wouldn't be complete without a little baseball! Uncle Tony was announcing for Rudy, "Rudy Cicci up to bat…"

We all got quite a laugh when it was Tony's turn and Rudy shouts, "Toe Cicci up bat!"

Uncle Tony was sure to get in a little time with Sis and her frog

and with an awake Ben!

It was very sad and disappointing when our guests had to leave and it took a couple days for Rudy to stop asking for them… if only they could live closer!

But so far, life with three hasn't been all too bad.

John had to leave for a couple hours so I broke out the last of the water toys -- it's amazing how entertained kids are with a bucket of water and a couple squirt guns! First couple hours alone: Success!

We had Ben's newborn pictures done and tried to get some family ones at the same time. It was by far our worst photo shoot ever. Not so much the actual pictures, how our photographer got some good ones out of them is beyond me (I'll share some soon!), but the kids were being so difficult. It didn't help that the first time slot we had got rained out...when we were on our way there! We were all dressed and ready, packed up, and in the car when it started raining. So we tried again for 8:30 am the next morning. Rudy and Avery wanted nothing to do with it. It's not all that surprising for Avery, being a shy girl and all she has never been much of a fan of a photo shoot, but Rudy was so uncharacteristically uninvolved. Neither wanted to cooperate or do anything we asked of them. Something tells me it's not going to get any easier when Ben is mobile!

Of course once we were home they were as sweet as ever to their baby brother...