Life As A Mom

I started writing this post when the new family addition, Jacob, was 5 weeks old…he’s nearly 3 months now.. I think?! Safe to say – I’ve been busy!

So….. I’m a mom of two boys now! I’m so glad we didn’t find out the sex beforehand. It felt beyond awesome to lift the baby up in front of me and announce it myself! I was quite sure it was gonna be a girl though because I felt my pregnancy was so much more different this time around. But like I always say – there’s no way to guess and it’s pointless to believe any old wives tales.

It’s quite crazy to have two kids all of a sudden! Adjusting with our new life arrangement was made a bit easier by the fact that we had Quinn sleeping at my mother in law’s for the first two nights after coming back from the hospital. I hadn’t seen him for like less than 24 hours but suddenly he felt and looked sooooo big!! It’s crazy how you look at your (still) little toddler differently all of a sudden once you’ve been holding your newborn for less than a day. But him meeting his little brother was the sweetest moment ever! I remember he tried to be on his tiptoes and peek inside of the Moses basket…Ah…! And then he came over for a cuddle🖤

However things got very real on day 3 when he was officially back home. All that running and screaming and general “loudness” was just too much, not gonna lie! And what came like a shock out of the blue was that on day 4 (so Jacob was only 4 days old!) Quinn got really ill for the first time in his life.. high fever, not eating (this is huge btw because this boy could eat every minute of the day), throwing up (also for the first time), just a MESS! So 4 days after giving birth I had to go and comfort him which obvs included picking him up and holding him. Makes me sore thinking about it now. I’m actually quite sure you shouldn’t do that so soon after giving birth but when mama is needed – mama is needed! Of course my husband did most of the work but I can’t just look at my baby being unwell and not taking care of him. Everyone knows that when things get bad, all kids run to their moms. Luckily this bug didn’t last long and after a lot of worrying about Jacob, he didn’t catch it either.

Even though the first weeks were a bit mental, we’ve realised that after you get past week 5 it’s all going to be okay…. I almost feel though that I worried more this time around because I kept falling asleep with the baby on me. Alllll the time! In addition to being a colicky baby, his reflux issues started really early so all that “have him upright for 30 minutes after a feed” was a bit of a mission impossible to be honest. I feel that first time around I had more energy to fight the sleep deprivation but with two kids it’s basically impossible to stay awake when it’s dark, white noise is on and there’s this nice warm little body on you. Just nope. Also, I could not put him down… it would take 5 minutes max and he would start crying. So this is how I “slept” for the first 4-5 weeks – sitting up. At the time it felt like it was never going to end but here we are, he’s been sleeping through quite a number of nights already (a luxury that I never had with Quinn at this age) and is happy with his routine. I follow the same Little Ones guide I did with Quinn and it’s just amazing!

Time. When Quinn was born we said to each other that what on Earth did we do with our time before in our lives??! Now I say to myself what on Earth did I do with my time having just one child!? I mean it’s a piece of cake thinking back about it now. One baby….pheeeew! That’s nothing!

It’s a lot of work and planning (oh so much planning) but I absolutely love being a mom of these two munchkins now! Except when I’m loosing my marbles! Oh and let’s not forget all the smelly joys – being covered in milk vomit basically every day, the baby’s poop explosions or the older one’s poop problems (he’s not even two yet but I wish he’d start using the toilet already!!!)… I see so much poop all the time it’s insane!

To anyone else planning to have another baby while having a toddler – absolutely go for it! It’s amazeballs, BUT make sure you’ve got a good support network around you, without that it would be mega-hard! I have my mom in law 5 minutes away, husband who is self employed and has a very flexible working schedule plus I had my mom staying with us for nearly three weeks during the most difficult time. It really helped having another “body” to be Jacob’s bed or take him for walks while I either slept, hanged out with Quinn, made dinner or used the time for whatever I’d struggle with while looking after them both alone in the early days.

Finally – all those questions I had in one of my previous posts about how I was gonna do anything on daily basis….for example breastfeeding while Quinn needs to have dinner etc. The answer is – I am freaking killing it! Like a machine!! My two hands have to do the work of 4! And all of you other mamas out there, you’re doing the same! You know what I’m talking about! And yes, sometimes I fall behind and then they both scream at the same time, but shit happens, hey! Regardless – we are the bloody COO-s of our households! Boo yah!

Drops mic.