Double the fun

Today was Babysit The Neighbor Day. It went surprisingly well. I will admit that I was very excited to watch this tiny baby while having Sam at home so I would have something to go off of as to how life might be once Second Baby comes in March. (HOLY COW THAT IS HAPPENING IN LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS. HOLD ME.)

Looks like I haven't lost my touch..

While I cannot predict the temperament of this upcoming baby, I was curious as to how Sam would react to the little blob. At first, he was not too happy about the situation. The baby was fussy when he came over and Sam was put off that I was paying this OTHER kid all of HIS attention. So he fussed and whined and got sent back to his crib to adjust his attitude. He came back down a little while later and continued to be perfectly normal for the rest of the day.


But I am starting to realize a few things that will instantly become more difficult once Second Baby comes. Funny you should ask! Well, for one, getting both of them up and down the stairs. The baby didn't seem to appreciate sitting down on his own, so I fished our front-load carrier out of the garage and stuck him in that. He was great in it. But I had to haul Sam out of crib with that thing on (and my ever-expanding belly), change Sam (praying the entire time that we all weren't going to take a golden shower), and then haul all four of us down the stairs. (Yes, I'm totally including Second Baby in that number because s/he is definitely making his/her presence KNOWN at this point.)

Lunchtime was another interesting point during the day. Oddly enough, we ALL felt like eating at 12:30. Go figure! Luckily I had a lot of finger foods for Sam so I could give the really scream-y kid the bottle. And then I put the baby in Sam's old bouncy seat and he LOVED it. (Richmond Craigslist, I cannot sing your praises enough!) Sam was pretty interested in it too. He kept going over there and checking everything out, touching the little animals, and looking just like a BIG BROTHER OMG.

 
I was really shocked at how well he did. He played so well around the baby, only tried stealing his pacifier twice, and never got jealous when I was holding the baby instead of playing with him. THIS GIVES ME HOPE.

But it's not even the idea of two kids that scares me. Or getting them both up and down the stairs. Or fed. Or changed. Or bathed. Or put to bed. Gosh, breastfeeding doesn't even have me worried at this point. What has me shaking in my boots and having mini panic attacks every time I think about it is the lack of sleep that comes with a newborn. Oh sure, everyone ELSE'S newborns are only waking up something like twice a night (I think I go to the bathroom more often than that NOW), but Sam just never slept at that age. (And I'm the type of person who deeply cherishes her SLEEP.) He was up every. single. hour. And then refused to be put down just any ol' way. You had to do this magic act of slowly sliding him off your arm and into a swing (!!!) and then turn it on and make sure it was set on the ocean noises because OMG if someone left it on the song setting from earlier he was just going to FLIP HIS LID and punish me for that by wailing for another half hour. And I know whenever Steve was putting him down in the swing, he would literally hover over him and make shushing noises for something like five minutes straight just to be sure that the sleep "took." UGH I'm just not a newborn person. Today was fine, perfectly fine, because it was someone else's kid, and I could look at the clock and think that I only had 2 hours left and then I would be DONE. But that is not real life!

So all of THAT to say that after today's experience, I'm feeling reassured that I can, in fact, handle two kids at once, and still get stuff done. (Like those three loads of laundry and that baked chicken? DONE.) But I also take that feeling with a grain of salt, because I had a nice chunk of sleep in me last night, and I don't think real life will be so kind.