Land of the Living

After Cora was born, I felt pretty great. Brandon was home for a few days, and we got into a pretty good rhythm despite the chaos of having a newborn. We ran a man-to-man defense, with Brandon covering most of Jonah's needs and me with Cora. I think we made a pretty good team. We even got ourselves to church the first weekend home, and I managed to sneak away for dinner out with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday! I felt like I was recovering much more quickly this time around, and we were on our way to adjusting to life with two...

Then, a week after Cora was born, I crashed. I felt totally drained. I couldn't keep down any food - or even water. I became quite dehydrated. No fun. Thankfully my mom was in town, especially because Brandon had already returned to work. I felt completely useless. I was basically feeding Cora, and handing her off to my mom. Grandma was pulling double-duty, balancing Jonah and Cora (although I suppose she has a little experience juggling multiple kids at one time :). Each morning I felt a little better, but I wasn't able to eat much food, and by the end of each day I was feeling wiped again. It was beyond frustrating to not be able to get anything done or help care for my children.

Well, after another week, I finally feel like I am back in the land of the living. My energy has returned, my appetite is back, and I have been able to knock a few big items off my to-do list in the past few days. What a difference it makes when caring for two little ones. Tuesday was my first big test, as it was the first time I was on my own with both kids. We had a few stressful moments. Jonah is doing really well overall adjusting to all the changes, but it is pretty evident that he's had a lot of extra attention and out-of-the-ordinary routine lately (things haven't been "normal" since before Thanksgiving and all our traveling, really). It will just take time. I had a little moment of panic when it was approaching lunchtime and I realized it was just about time for Cora to eat, too. We figured it out, though. I guess my kids will just have to learn a little patience. And I may just have to relax a little :)

It ended up being a pretty short-lived test period ...because Grandma returned on Tuesday afternoon to provide a few more days of back-up. I did get another little test Wednesday morning when I took both kids with me for our first solo outing. I met up with some mom friends at our church gymnasium for a little open gym/free play/let-the-kids-run-off-some-energy time. It was almost a disaster before we left the parking lot:

I rushed out of house without looking outside, only to discover my choice of fleece jacket and the Toms I slipped on my feet were maybe a poor choice for the 10 degrees and freshly fallen snow. By the time I got Cora's car seat snapped in and around to the other side of the car, my toes were frozen, and Jonah was covered in snow. Then I had to clean an inch and a half of snow off the car (and then a hefty coating of ice under that, left over from our tropical weekend weather). By that time, Cora was pretty much done. This having a newborn in the winter is not for the faint of heart. But we once we made it out of the parking lot, it was smooth sailing. With the movement of the car, Cora quickly dozed off. And once we got to the gym, Jonah enjoyed running around with his friends. (And Mom enjoyed the chance to chat with some friends and show off Cora). AND...Grandma cleaned my oven while we were out!

I'd call our first outing a mild success. I learned a few things - 1) glance out the window before you head outside, 2) leave ample time to clean off the car if neccessary, 3) plan on leaving about 30 minutes sooner than you think you need to. We'll get there. I think it was a successful week two! And thank goodness we have Grandma around for a little bit longer before we really, really have to figure this two kids thing out :)