9 Weeks: Little Charmer

 

Our little man is now 9 weeks old and officially a few days over 2 months old, and I can hardly believe it. The other day I asked Nate if it was weird that we now have two kids because for me? It’s both. It feels like we’ve been Mommy and Daddy to these two for forever because we can’t imagine life without them, but I still feel like a child myself most of the time. It’s still a shock that I’m “allowed” to have kids!

 

Austin has been so much fun this week as his little personality comes out more and more. He’s so smiley and laid back – when he’s not hungry or sleepy – and he’s just been growing so much. I think he’s chunkier than Wes was at this age, and I’m eating up the leg rolls and chubby little belly and cheeks. We have an appointment in two weeks for his 2-month stuff and while I’m dreading the post-vaccination meltdown (for both of us) I am excited to attach numbers to his growth.

Almost as if exactly on cue, he has found his hands this week just like Wes did at 9 weeks! It’s manifested a little differently though; Wes used to chew on his fingers and Austin sucks on the part of his fist right under his thumb. I wonder if he’ll be a thumb-sucker? Wes never cared about pacifiers or his thumb, but as they’ve continued to show us over and over again they are different boys. I suppose we’ll find out!

 

One of my favorite things is when Wes gets excited about “helping” me change Austin’s diaper. No matter what he’s doing, if I tell him I’m going to change Austin’s diaper then he comes with me and turns on the lights in the room and hovers around talking about Austin’s poopy diaper. As soon as I’m done I go to wash my hands and Wes lays down next to Austin and demands that I get my camera and take pictures of them 🙂 So I have tons of pictures of the two of them on our bed and I look through them every night with a big goofy smile plastered on my face. I hope they know how blessed they are to have each other!

 

A big part of figuring out life with two kids has been getting out of the house and giving Wes a chance to run and climb and explore, while I get some fresh air. It’s not always easy and most of the time I dread the process of getting ready to leave, but once we’re out somewhere it always ends up helping us all. I alternate between wearing Austin in a carrier and leaving him in his carseat/stroller; he sleeps better in his seat and most of the time we are going out while he naps. But for any new mom of two kids I would say that as soon as you can get outside you should. It’s been so worth it for me!

 

This week was actually pretty rough in the middle: our dryer broke, Wes got a 24-hour fever virus thing with a little vomiting, Nate was working late, and the whole having two kids thing got very real. It was really hard when Wes was sick and needed me to also have Austin needing to nurse and be held and changed and everything two. Having to make those choices on who needed comfort or food or care the most in a single minute was total misery. My sweet friend Mandy called and talked me down from my panic. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have other mommy friends to speak into my life.

Nate is an amazing father, which isn’t a surprise, and has been doing a great job spending time with both boys. Austin’s now getting to a place where he’s able to interact more and isn’t just interested in feeding and sleeping, so Nate finally has a chance to play with him. I love watching Wes wanting to do everything Daddy does and seeing Nate teach him how to do it all too. There are so many times I’ve tried to teach him to do something and he just doesn’t care, but if Nate shows him he catches on immediately. That boy wants to be just like his dad – and that would be 100% fine with me!

 

I’ve talked about it for a couple weeks now, but we are finally actually going to start transitioning Austin into his room and eventually into his crib. We’ve been having him sleep in his Rock & Play at night; I like the angle because he’s had some small issues with reflux. But as he gets older (and too big for the Rock & Play) he needs to start sleeping in his own room and in his crib. Plus it’s about time that Nate and I have our room to ourselves again. I’ll go into the process later (you know, as we go through it), but we’re at a place where I’m having to start breaking some bad (although necessary) habits I’ve picked up along the way. Things like nursing Austin to sleep for every nap and at night and that sort of thing.

 

This week I’m working on really cracking down on eating habits. When it was just me and Wes I had time during naps and such to do food prep and make healthier choices, but with two it’s been a lot harder. Coupled with interrupted sleep, having my hands literally full all of the time makes grabbing things like bars and crackers and candy and such a lot easier. As has always been the case, I love working out and have never had a problem making time for exercise. Using the mental strength to make smarter food choices is where I struggle though. This week my plan is to take the time to do food prep for the week – making salads (minus the dressing) and having them ready to go in the fridge, washing fruit, and having breakfast items ready to go as soon as I’m done nursing. I’ll report back on how it goes, but I know that having healthy choices ready to go will help!

 

9 weeks has been amazing and I can’t wait to watch this little nugget grow even more!!!