Life's Still Great!

Woo Hoo!! Here I am updating my blog!!

Life is fantastic. This whole postpartum thing has been awesome this time around. My mom was here for the first week and that was great. Michael had the second week off and so he completely took care of Ashlyn and Lincoln and even Levi when it wasn't chow time. The third week through the 5th & 6th weeks I was still super spoiled, lucky, and blessed because Michael gets home from work at 9:30 a.m. That means that the kids would wake me up (sort of - I was kind of in a daze) around 6:30 a.m., I would make them hang out in bed with me for as long as I could keep them there while I fed Levi, then I would finally come downstairs with them, throw them a cereal bar and a sippy cup of milk and park them in front of PBS kids on TV, and I would try to not drift in to too deep of sleep on the couch that they got into too much trouble until Michael got home at 9:30. Then I would feed Levi in bed, call for Michael to take him when he was done eating, and then I would sleep for a good 2 or 3 hours. I know - isn't it so unfair that I got off sooo easy? I honestly feel kind of like a spoiled brat, but I am so grateful at the same time! Sometime during week 5 I started not needing my morning naps as regularly and I feel pretty much full of energy now and I love it! I thought that I was being so lazy at the end of my pregnancy, but now that my energy is back I am realizing that I was just out of juice at the end there.

I've been wanting to get this next picture up here forever . . .

Before Levi: Ashlyn and Lincoln shared a room. Ashlyn was in a twin bed and Lincoln was in the crib. No major problems or drama.

When Levi came: We moved the twin bed to the office so that my mom would have a place to sleep. We brought Ashlyn's toddler bed up from storage for her to sleep on. Then my mom left.

A little after Levi came: When my mom left we let Ashlyn sleep on her bed which was still in the office. Amazingly, both kids seemed to sleep a little longer when separated like this, so we just let Ashlyn sleep in the office for a couple of weeks. During this time, Lincoln started crawling out of his crib on a regular basis. It had happened occasionally in the past, but there was no turning back this time. After a particularly challenging nap session for Lincoln one day, I went in his room, took his mattress and bedding out of the crib and traded it with the toddler mattress (just so that he could see it was his bed). From that day on he slept in the toddler bed without any problems. Finally on February 21st it was time to move Ashlyn back into her room because I wanted to move Levi to the office. That first night with Ashlyn and Lincoln trying to sleep in the same room without Lincoln being confined in his crib was a looooong one. They were having the time of their lives in there!! It didn't help that we also rearranged the room that day because that just added to their excitement. We love Super Nanny, so we repeatedly went in the room, and gently walked them back to their beds without engaging in conversation and a couple of hours later it was finally quiet. When we checked on them on our way to bed, this is what we found:

I just thought it was the cutest thing that they both took all of their bedding and met in the middle between their two beds. It wouldn't have surprised me to find Lincoln in Ashlyn's bed because that's where he was most of the times we went in there, but I just loved this.

For the record, it's pretty much been a circus ever since this night. Ashlyn actually asks us to keep Lincoln out so that she can go to sleep without him bugging her. One of these months we'll finally finish our basement, move the office down there and then Ashlyn can have her own room.

And now for the cute Levi guy. . .

Don't you love cute baby toes? I wish I was a real photograper, but this will do for now.

Here are my 3 boys (that's a lot of boys!)

When Levi was 3 weeks old, Ashlyn and Levi got their hair cut! Levi's was just a little wild and needed a trim - if I remember I'll get the pic from Michael's phone later, but here's Ashlyn with her new 'do! I held onto her length for as long as I could, but it was just so thin and really needed cut and it's so much better/healthier now.

Lincoln has been doing this goofy face for a long time, and I finally took a pic. He's a ham!

Till next time . . .