Our Update

This will probably come back to bite me in the "boohind" (as Miss Em would say), but little Ethan is a pretty easy-going fellow. Not at all like his high-drama and maintenance big sister. (Of course, I can't imagine her any other way.)

Quite honestly, I had no idea two children from the same two sets of genes could be so diferent.

When Emily was an infant, from her very first night in the hospital, she did not want to be put down. She slept in my arms in my hospital bed, while I barely slept, so afraid I would drop her when I fell asleep. Emily had horrible startle reflexes that lasted well past the 3 month mark, meaning that whenever she would finally fall asleep enough that I could put her down, she would inevitably startle herself awake, over and over again. Miss Emily was a very fussy, colicky, bad sleeper. Okay, horrible sleeper. This lasted pretty much until this year. We visited the behavioral psychologist twice for the sleep issues. It didn't help, but that's how bad it was.

Ethan, on the other hand, seems to be a very laid-back little guy. He is perfectly fine being put down. He likes to sleep in his crib...or the play pen...and the swing (where he has currently been rocking back and forth for about 3 hours. He sometimes sleeps through diaper changes. He doesn't seem to greatly mind his bath. In fact, nothing much really seems to bother him. In huge contrast to his big sister, his little arms and legs stay very relaxed and other than the first couple of days in the hospital, he barely has any startle reflex. He just likes to chill. He fusses a little bit when he is hungry, but certainly not the soul wrenching screaming that Emily did for hours on end. In short, he is, at least to this point (knock on wood, fingers crossed, etc...) a very easy baby. He has his days and nights a bit mixed up, which is making for a bit of mommy hazing, but even that is tolerable as he doesn't spend the wee hours screeching, just merely not sleeping.

I feel great. I must say that although the pregnancy and labor were hard, recovery this time around has been super easy. I almost immediately felt better than I had for the month or so leading up to delivery. All the aches and pains were almost instantly gone and I really have no complaints. I'm liking this kid out much better than in! I've also lost 30 pounds over the last 12 days....okay, probably much of that was during the actual pregnancy, but still, it's a very, very nice thing to be able to say. Hopefully it will stay lost...plus some.

We've (that would be the 2 kiddos and I) have survived two outings to two different Walmarts...one for grocery shopping and the other to find a new phone that the first Walmart was sold out of, and today we tackled the mall. All in all, life with two kids has been pretty good. Emily seems very smitten with her little brother and loves to talk to him, give him his pacifier and try to soothe and entertain him when he starts to fuss. She'll say something like "Hey little buddy, it's your big sister. It's okay. Mommy is a nice mommy." It's pretty sweet. She's a big helper (for real) and seems to relish her role as big sister. Let's just hope that lasts!

So that's our update. Thanks for all the kind comments and congrats.