Rolling it with #2

We have been home for almost 2 weeks now – 11 days to be exact, and our first week has somewhat been a little manic as we try to make sense of things going on around us. 

While Squirt has pretty much managed to sleep all day for the first 2 days when we brought him home, come Day 4, he changed his routine. Squirt decided that he would wake up hour upon hour for a feed from 11 pm onwards. He did not stop his feeding frenzy till about 6.30 am in the morning. He then slept all day and it was impossible to wake him up from his slumber in the day. Grrrrrr….

On Day 5, he woke up at 2.30 am for a feed. And then he wet his diaper and needed a change. He then decided that he would want another feed again. He then had the hiccups as he was about to fall asleep, which annoyed the crap out of him. This was followed by a wail, and another round of a short feed seemed to stop his hiccup. And then he pooed.  In fact, he pooed 2-3x within a couple of hours that night and, after every poo, he wanted to be fed again. He pretty much kept us up till 6.30 am. By the time he was fast asleep, Spud was ready to start her day!

And what a start of our day that was as Spud also decided to throw us one of her biggest temper tantrums for a good part of the morning. The icing on the cake comes from Spud attempting yet again to play favourite to Silver Bullet for the rest of the day. 

By the end of last week, there were 2 very weary and sleep deprived parents.

This week, Silver Bullet went back to work for the first time in a week since Squirt was born.  Being in recovery, my movement is still pretty much restricted.  I have become quite dependent on the Nanny to help around the house. It was my first week “alone” with a 22 month old toddler and a 14-day old new born…

The first 2 days without Silver Bullet had seemed peaceful - I even managed a 2 hour nap in the afternoon when the kids were asleep. 

And then…all hell broke loose.

From a sleeping baby, Squirt decides that he was going to stay on my boobs every half an hour. The moment I put him down, he cried bloody murder! I blame it on his first bouts of growth spurt which tends to happen when a baby is about 7-10 days old. Hence, Squirt has been pretty much stapled to my boobs round the clock in the last couple of days…

…which did not help matters with Spud as she feels that it is in her birth right to be ultra-whiny as well.  Whenever she sees Squirt cries, she cries her most annoying whiny cries and then runs up to the Nanny asking to be carried. 

Spud has certainly been acting up to say the least. She’s in full-swing to touch everything she knows she isn’t allowed to touch. She whinged, wailed and cried bloody murder each time we take the item in question away from her. She yells and screams and shouts at the highest octave when she does not get her way (the Nanny tends to give in to her a lot).  She’s showing signs that she is about to embark on a “No-vote Mama” campaign because she can. She’s hell-bent on playing with Squirt’s newborn-sized nappy and trying to put it on herself.  She’s obsessive about washing her hands and using the hand sanitizer like 5x within the hour. (The last 2 quirks she has while does sound funny on the hindsight, can actually be quite annoying!)

Needless to say, Spud continues to push my buttons whenever she can. She pushes and she pushes and she pushes. There has been lots of crying happening from her, and when pushed to the brink, me.  I try to ignore it when she acts up, but really, this daughter of mine is driving me absolutely bonkers with her antics!

My saving grace is that my morning can be quite peaceful with just Squirt around when Spud’s being shipped off to school. 

In the recent days, I have also observed that Spud seems to be more pleasant when she comes home from school, as opposed to days when she is at home the whole time. That being said, it also convinces me that Spud should also start going to school 5 days a week instead of the 3-day week she is currently doing right now! (Hello, 5-day school week!)

So these few days, I have been silently wishing and praying and hoping …

That Squirt will cut me some slack (please, please, please be just a tad chill-out and not be a monster)

That Squirt will get into a routine quickly (his sleeping habits, especially at night is still a little erratic)

That Squirt will have his father’s personality traits (the world would be a better place with more of Silver Bullet around – trust me on this one!)

…just so that I have the strength to deal with Spud as she can take quite a toll on my emotional well-being!  

Although,  knowing my luck and how it has always been , I don’t count on it being so easy from here on. Still one can always hope. 

"Insanity is hereditary - you get it from your kids"

-Sam Levinson-