First day back at work

Today was the first day I went back to the office since Abigail was born. This also meant it was the first day for Danielle to take care of the kids without my help. It was a day none of us were looking forward to.

It's amazing how different you feel sitting at a desk doing your work versus staying active taking care of two kids and various home projects. I'm just as tired in both cases. But sitting at a desk made me that much more aware of how utterly exhausted I am. Not sure how much coffee will help.

Danielle did okay and was at least able to take an hour long nap while Joshua and Abigail slept this afternoon. She's still exhausted mind you. But that was a plus.

Last night, I had a taste of the trials one might go through taking care of two young children. Danielle went to a baby shower for a woman in our church. We decided to leave Abigail with me. When she left, it was time to begin giving Joshua his bath and start the "going to bed" process. At the time, Abigail was sleeping. Of course, she woke up in the middle of Joshua's bath and eventually began wailing. Not your typical everyday wail...the ballistic, end of the world, I need something right now or I'll hyperventilate sort of wail. I know you're not supposed to leave a young child in the bath unattended, but I quickly went and got Abigail (who was in her crib in the bedroom, not the bassinet) and held her while Joshua played in the bath for a minute or two. Once she was being held, she was fine. But I had to finish with Joshua. So, I put her in the bassinet. A minute later, she began her "end of the world" wails. I went over to her and it smelled like she dropped a bomb. So, I quickly finished Joshua's bath, dried him, picked him up with one arm, went over to the bassinet and picked her up with the other arm, placed her in the crib in the bedroom and put a diaper on Joshua - I wasn't about to let him roam around without a diaper and create little pee spots everywhere...yeah, I know where my priorities are.

Now, I went to check Abigail's diaper. Clean...at least from #2 which means she had really bad gas *sigh*. Changed her diaper nonetheless and swaddled her which really helped to calm her down - Miracle Blankets are awesome! Joshua in the meantime started having his own mini-tantrum. Wasn't a whole lot I could do because I was trying to calm Abigail down. So, now I have two crying kids *sigh*. Once Abigail was wrapped and calm, I could focus on Joshua and get him to bed. Eventually, Abigail went to sleep, Joshua was asleep and I had about 30-45 minutes of quiet before she was awake and was time for her to be fed. But that was thankfully uneventful. I even got to watch the Antiques Roadshow.

This again gave myself (and I know Danielle concurs) a renewed appreciation for single parents and stay at home moms. I don't know how you can do it on your own.

Abigail now at 9lbs 10oz

We went to see the pediatrician again today and have Abigail weighed. She came in at 9lbs 10oz. He said he was very pleased with the progress and that we'll see him again at her normal 2 month checkup. So, that's good we don't have to run tests or anything.

We're still struggling a bit with keeping her awake during feedings. It literally takes an hour to an hour and a half for Danielle to finish breast feeding because she just doesn't stay awake. Not sure how that's going to work when I'm not around during the day and she has to watch Joshua too. Hopefully, this weekend, she'll pick up the pace a bit so that next week will be better. Either way, it's been challenging and probably will continue to be so in the next few weeks.

LOST in Smallville

If there's anything relatively consistant in our lives right now...it's that we keep up on two TV shows: LOST on ABC Wednesday nights and Smallville on the WB Thursday nights. Last season, we also tried to watch Veronica Mars and House. We realized we can't keep up with that many right now, so we're narrowing it down. Kind of a bummer since Veronica Mars and House were both really good shows in their first season. It'd be fun to see where they go in their second season.

If you haven't seen LOST, it's pretty addicting. One of Danielle's professor's this past semester had never watched it and then saw a show recently and was instantly hooked...bought the first season DVD, found a way to see the episodes of this season she missed and so on. I guess we're somewhat hardcore too since we try never to miss a show and if we know something's happening, I better set up the VCR - okay, no we don't have TIVO or digital cable or whatever. Rabbit ears for us is fine, thank you very much.

Smallville, if you haven't seen it, is basically a look at Superman's (Clark Kent) life as a teenager starting in the first season when he was a freshman in high school in the town of Smallville. Lex Luthor and him become really good friends and in the fourth season, Lois Lane shows up. It's had its moments of crudeness and relatively painful dialog. But all in all, it's an intriguing storyline. Clark Kent's father, Jonathan, is played by John Schneider, who oldtimers will remember was Bo Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard TV series back in the 80's (or was it the 70's?). So, occassionally, they'll throw in something that relates it to the Dukes of Hazzard show - like once Jonathan is driving in his truck listening to music and the music is the Dukes of Hazzard theme song ("Just a good 'ol boy...never meaning no harm..."). We're pretty addicted to this show at this point...in the 5th season and we've bought seasons 1-4 on DVD. Not sure I ever saw myself doing that.

*sigh*

Abigail back to 9lbs 8oz

Took Abigail in Monday morning and she weighed in at 9lbs 8oz, 1 ounce below her birth weight. Our pediatrician was very pleased that she gained that much in 3 (almost 4) days. The deal was that if she didn't make her birth weight, he'd likely have to run a few tests. But given how close she was, he decided to have us keep doing what we're doing and come back Friday to have her weighed again. Assuming she's continuing a gradual weight gain, I think we'll be on the right track.

Abigail's first checkup

Had Abigail's first doctor's visit on Thursday afternoon. Turns out she hasn't gotten back up to her birth weight of 9lbs 9oz. She left the hospital at 9/2 (9lbs 2oz). At her checkup, she was still at 9/2. That, coupled with the jaundice she's been experiencing (oh yeah...will have to blog on our ER visit concerning this), our pediatrician was a bit concerned. Not in an alarming way, but enough to want to make sure something is done sooner than later. Basically, he wants Abigail's weight to be back to her birth weight of 9/9 by Monday. That means feeding, feeding and more feeding. Our biggest problem thus far has been keeping her awake while feeding. I'm sure most parents deal with that. But it has been especially difficult. So, we need to do whatever it takes to keep her awake. It's been challenging, but I think we're making headway. But we'll see tomorrow when we get her weighed. Let's hope we make it...that is, let's hope SHE makes it.

Joshua's waking up from his nap and so I have to get him. Will blog more later...hopefully.

Trying a couple of pictures

It seems this blog system allows to post pictures a little easier than before, so here's a couple recent ones that I'll test with.

As you can see this is of the whole family now, one with Goldie. She's had the hardest transition of everyone. She's very clingy (is that a word?). She definitely does not like being near Abigail. But that's the way she was with Joshua at first. She still tolerates Joshua and has to move around much more often than before since Joshua is so mobile. And he LOVES to chase her while making various high pitched noises in delight.

Let's try this again

First off, here's a recap of the past few months (since the last big post)...

• Joshua started walking a few days before his first birthday September 9! He hasn't stopped since.
• Danielle took two classes last semester and finished her theology degree at APU and graduated December 17 with a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies (MAPS). We are all very proud of her.
• We had Goldie spayed, so now it's official that we won't be breeding her. *sigh*
• Lisa came home in November and is here till the end of February when she'll go back to the Anastasis for a few more months.
• The exciting news with Lisa is that she got engaged to a South African man, Lance. They will be married September 2.
• Abigail Renee Cannon was born January 6 via c-section. It's been quite the transition and will be something I will try to blog on more.

As I think of more, I will post it. But mostly I will try to just post on the everyday happenings here with two kids in diapers 16 months apart.