Settling In

Here we are, 3 days after the birth of our little Jason. Things are going extremely well. Not everything is perfect, but can you really expect perfect right after such a big event? Nope, so I'm pretty happy with what we have.

We learn more about Jason everyday. He's really gotten the hang of nursing since my milk came in Sunday night. He nurses frequently now, and for a decent length of time at each session. Luckily, I haven't gotten engorged yet, though I know it's only a matter of time. ;-) The only complaint I have about nursing is that we need to work with him on getting a wider latch. His isn't bad now, but wider would be better. But his mouth is still pertty small, so I know it will certainly get better with time. He is mostly a calm baby, pretty relaxed. He has a strong need to suck though, so he often get a pacifier to help him soothe and calm down, especially to sleep. He takes it well and keeps it in his mouth easily, unlike Jilly who never got the hang of it (but she didn't need it the same way either). He greatly prefers to be cuddled up on our chests, over anything else, and sleep much better when tucked in bed with Mama and Daddy at night. But he sleeps a lot and can nurse when I'm laying down, so I'm still getting sleep. Hooray!! Jason seems to have inherited more of my body shape, but Steve's arms. In other words, he has looooong limbs and a shorter torso. Even his fingers and feet seem long to me. He's not entirely a string bean, but definitely more along those lines than his chubby sister. ;-) His little sideburns crack me up!

I guess I should point out right now, that our camera stopped working a few weeks ago. We were given a new one from my good friend at work, but we haven't gotten a connector cable to link up with the computer, so we can't get the pictures off of it yet. Hence, we don't have pictures to upload. As soon as we get the cable, you can be sure we'll be posting pictures like crazy!! Just bear with us until then.

Jilly is doing pretty good. In reacting to Jason, she either ignores him or dotes on him. If he is upset, she gets worried and will come running into the room to make sure someone is attending to him. She hasn't reacted jealously to him yet, which is good, but I figure that too, will happen at some point. She mostly is the same, but has been a little whinier lately, so that's been less than amusing for us parents. Really and truly, she's not any different than she was before he was born, but it's harder to deal with right now. She often doesn't listen when we tell her not to touch something and will cry and whine for no good reason. But she's 2 1/2 and just had a new baby brother born, so her life is kinda thrown off. She hasn't napped in a couple weeks, which is really annoying, but at least she'll sleep a good 12 hours or so at night. She has started spitting lately though, and this is really gross to both Steve and me. It's disgusting, and of course she finds it hilarious. If anyone has any helpful hints on getting her to stop, I would really appreciate them!!

Steve is amazing. He has been taking on all of the housekeeping, cooking, errand-running, etc responsibilities. Not to mention, the bulk of the Jilly responsibilities and taking care of me and Jason too. He's a rock star. Yesterday he took Jilly out to Costco and Safeway to fill up on groceries and diapers & wipes. (Side note: Changing a boy's diaper is WAY more complicated than a girl's! There are way more folds and places for poop to hide. We use like two or three times as many wipes for much smaller amounts than with Jilly. Was not expecting that...) In the mornings, he'll get up a little before me and take Jason for like an hour, so I can sleep all by myself. Then I get up and he cooks a delicious breakfast, cleans it up and works on something else around the house. I am so blessed to have him here with me!! I look forward to another week with him at home. Not sure what I'll do when he goes back to work.

I am doing good too. The pain has been increasing the past couple days, but is still quite manageable. I just have to keep up with my ibuprofen and make sure I change positions often, so there isn't pressure on any one spot for too long. Nursing came easy once again, and it's even easier to get into the swing of things this time. I probably should sleep more during the day, but I haven't felt like I really need to yet. I'm sure I'll get there. :-)

So there you go! We're all adjusting pretty well to the new little guy. He gets cuter and cuter everyday and we fall more in love everyday too. The weather has been quite pleasant, not too hot but warm enough, and sunny. To sum it all up: We couldn't ask for anything better!