Ivan thinks very highly of his little sister. Any time she makes a noise, he runs over to her to see if she's ok. When he wakes up in the morning or from a nap, he runs over to her and says hi. I really likes to pet her head. He's really good at being soft with her. So far he hasn't shown a tremendous amount of jealousy, which I think is a pretty big deal since he's such a momma's boy. When we brought Charlotte home, we gave Ivan a bunch of presents. He got some dinosaur toys, playdough, and the quilt I made for him. He likes the animals on his quilt, but still prefers his doggie blanket. We haven't actually opened the playdough yet. He really likes playing with the containers they came in. I got a pack of 10 and they came packaged in a box with holes to fit each individual container. He likes to take all the containers out, then place them one by one back into the box. Today Michael showed him how to make a tower out of the containers. Sometimes Ivan will take the containers and put them all right side up then one by one flip them upside down. He is really entertained by them. Ivan loved the community Easter egg hunt we went to Saturday. He loved even more hunting for eggs at home. He has a big bucket that he'll put all the eggs in, then dump them out, then open all the eggs and put them back in the bucket, and so on. Boy that stuff keeps him busy for hours. And a good thing too, now that it's warmed up outside if Ivan isn't well pleased with his toys inside he'll cry and cry til he can go outside.
Charlotte is a really good baby. On Wednesday night she slept 6 hours straight! She really gets this whole nursing thing, which makes life so much easier for me. She doesn't cry very much but she does make these cute little baby noises, grunts and coos. I love it! Have I mentioned how pink she is? She has so much more color to her skin than Ivan ever did and more than he has now. Her eyes are a dark grey/blue but I'm sure she'll get hazel or brown in the end. When we took her to the doctor for her 4 day check up she had gained 3 ounces! Normally there is a dip in baby weight where they lose a couple ounces after being born because being born is pretty traumatic. Not my kids. Both her and Ivan gained around 3 ounces for their first appointment. I absolutely love newborns. I love the snuggly and cuddly babies and how small they are. I'm so smitten with this little girl that I can't even explain it!
I am doing really well. I did tear a little when Charlotte was born, but it hasn't bothered me very much at all. I've been doing some light walking and I feel really great. I'm so glad I decided to go natural, I think that made all the difference in the world. I am more hungry now than when I was pregnant. That's kind of annoying. I haven't needed nearly as many pain meds as they gave me. In fact, I've had a couple days already that I've only needed one tylenol or less. Today I made it back into a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans! It's probably a little too early, they're kinda tight, but it makes me feel better about life. Mentally I'm doing really well. I thought having 2 kids would be really super hard, but Ivan is a pretty good listener and helper and Charlotte is just plain a good baby. Michael has been super helpful and I've had several friends that have watched Ivan for a little bit so I can get an extra nap in. My emotions are still a little all over the place but I think that's to be expected for a little bit. I have found that since I'm so keyed in to Charlotte that I have a lot more patience with her. When she wakes up to eat in the middle of the night, I wake up to her little grunts before she cries. That makes the feeding so much easier and quicker. Life is good.
Michael is having a little bit of a hard time. Finals are coming up next week and he's taking quite the credit load this semester. His classes are all pretty demanding and difficult too. Add a newborn to interrupt your sleep and a wife that wants more help than normal and that makes for a pretty stressful day. Soon enough the semester will be over and he'll get a little break. And the longer we have 2 kids the more adjusted we will be to taking care of them. Well, that's the idea anyway.
Just realized I made this whole post about our expanded family and I don't have a single picture of the 4 of us together. I'll have to fix that.
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