The Transition Continues...

While our subsequent nights home haven't been quite as long as our first, the last week has been a long one. Some "highlights" from our transition to a family of four:

* Kevin has been sick--fever, head cold, the whole nine. Between my postpartum night sweats, his on and off fever, and spit up from Paige, I'm trying not to think about how gross our bedsheets are right now (since there's no time to wash them).

* Feeding the wee one: Breast, bottle, pump, breast, bottle, pump. It's exhausting and I'm hoping to get the ok to stop the bottles and pumping soon. Honestly, we're already skipping a couple bottles in the 24hr period since Paige doesn't really seem to latch on well, and following bottle feedings she almost ALWAYS spits up. And when I say spits up, imagine the exorcist. Suffice to say it's a little disturbing to watch milk squirt so far out of a tiny baby's mouth-especially since Reese hardly EVER spit up as a baby.

* Baby Sister: Reese can't decide what to make of Paige. If she's sleeping quietly and not occupying mommy or daddy's time or space, Reese seems to enjoy her. She gives her gentle kisses on the head, shows her toys, and loves helping pick up and clean up all of her feeding/pumping supplies. BUT, when Paige needs to be fed, all sisterly love is lost. So far, our favorite lines have been (imagine them being screamed, of course): "Stop feeding baby sister!" . "Put her down!" , and "I'm running away." While Reese hasn't packed a bag and made it out the door, she has announced her intention to run away several times and then proceeds to run to a distant corner of the house. Once she gets there she then yells, "mommy, come get me!"

* Since our return from the hospital, Reese has decided to stop calling me Mommy--instead, everything is "Mom." I feel like I'm talking to a teenager, and it was hard at first to not take the transition personally. I'm sure she's just experimenting with words--still, the timing is strange.

* Reese is still going to school on Monday and Fridays. Today was my first time taking her to school and dropping her off by myself. Similar to our experience on Monday, she was fine until it was time to go into the classroom, then she broke down in tears and didn't want to enter. I'm sure this is part of her transition/feelings of abandonment since it was never an issue before Paige arrived. Her teachers are wonderfully sweet and console her when it happens and she's always smiles when I pick her up in the afternoon.

*Fair warning: due to time constraints, I have not been proof-reading my posts before publishing them; so please forgive any and all egregious grammatical errors.