Adjusting

So far, the adjustment from two children to three has been easier than the moves from none to one {the very hardest of all!} or one to two.

With three children born in pretty quick succession, there have been very few nights of uninterrupted sleep in the last 3+ years, only a couple months have passed when I was neither nursing or expecting, and we have always been on diaper duty, so this all feels amazingly familiar.  Joyfully tiring, but familiar.

I'm also making a pretty good recovery from the C-section, which distinguishes this birth from the last two in such a lovely way.  It also makes everything seem easier.

Of course, my Mama has been here helping, I have not yet left the house, and the boys are still head over heels in the honeymoon phase with the baby.

Little Guy, totally self-prompted, is in the midst of nighttime potty training.  {4 dry nights in a row!  Woohoo!}  Buddy Boy {and his little 1.5 year old, non-verbal self} is absolutely dying to be potty trained, so he's getting a chance at the Elmo seat a few times a day and sporting underwear over his diapers, day and night.  This is not exactly the time I would have chosen for either of these new activities, but it what it is.  And they are who they are.  They don't stop growing just because Mama is busy with a new baby right now!

All that to say, reality may hit hard in a few weeks.  But it'll be a fun ride, regardless.

We've had lots of visitors for Baby Girl.  My brother and sister-in-law made a quick trip to town with their little girl.

 We had such fun hanging out with them.

Buddy Boy especially loved having his twin cousin there.  He could just tell they matched up perfectly.

Some children play with the toy kitchen.  Some children play on the toy kitchen.

I think this sweet girl learned a thing or two from her wild boy cousins, for better or for worse.  From what I hear, she's started climbing.  Before her trip to DC, she never even knew such a thing was possible.

Jacob's brother has also been in town on business, and we got to enjoy his company for two evenings.  The first, he spent snuggling his new niece.  The second--well!--the second evening, he swooped the boys away to play baseball, and brought them back thoroughly sweaty and exhausted. He then took on the heroic tasks of bathing them and brushing their teeth.  Besides staging total hunger meltdowns in the bathtub, the boys also decided to throw their clothes and a full-size bath towel into the water.  Uncle definitely earned his merit badge in uncle-ing that night! 

We've also enjoyed several visits from other sweet friends, including law school buddies from Wisconsin and Boston, who were on their way to our 5th reunion!

Law school + 5 years = 6 babies and 1 on the way.
{Counting Little Guy in that equation, even though he doesn't really 'do' group pictures.}

Baby Girl is so very loved already, and that makes us very thankful.

She is doing great and really thriving, but we have had a little issue with her tummy.  A week or so of on-off bloody vomiting followed by some bloody stools, a trip to the ER on the day we brought her home from the hospital, a couple follow-up visits at the pediatricians, and several phone consultations have resulted in a diagnosis of allergic reaction, likely to cow's milk, soy, or nuts {since both the boys are peanut-allergic} received through breastmilk.  I'm cutting the suspects from my diet immediately {nuts are already forbidden in our house, but what am I going to eat, without my beloved dairy?} and she's taking Zantac.  We hope to see improvement by the middle of next week.

She's still so tiny that sometimes when I pick her up, her foot and leg disappear down the sleeve of my robe.  That's tiny!  I just hate to think of her tummy being irritated enough to cause all that bleeding.  May it pass quickly!

Look at those long, slender fingers and perfectly oval nail beds.  I may have birthed the world's next great hand model!

Life around here is full and happy.  And interesting.  Always interesting.