Eric – The bearded head of our family has been super busy the past few weeks with harvest. Most nights I try and keep as quiet as I can when I’m up with Andersyn, but with not a lot of room out here in the guest house, it’s a little hard. Monday through Saturday, I don’t wake him up in the middle of the night unless absolutely necessary. Honestly, I silently look forward to rain days and Sundays when Eric can help in the middle of the night or during Anderdyn’s fussy times. He still gets woken up sometimes, no matter how hard I try and sush little miss thing. Let’s just say that both he and I have been drinking a lot of dark coffee lately.

Me – I have felt great since delivery! It’s amazing how literally ALL of my pregnancy symptoms disappeared right after birth and I am off ALL medications! My only complaint is being tired from our all nighters with Andersyn. I have healed fairly well, my stitches are almost all dissolved and I really feel pretty much back to normal. I’ve lost 17 of my 22 pounds I gained during my pregnancy and was thrilled when I got back into my pre-pregnancy jeans after one week. Breastfeeding is absolutely phenomenal! It’s what I always thought it would be and more. I feel so blessed that I am able to do this with Andi. Emotionally I feel wonderful and have only had one big breakdown cry since coming home. I have struggled with guilt involving Nora, though. Just like I knew would happen, she doesn’t have my undivided attention anymore, and it’s hard for me to watch her go through such big changes and not fully understand everything that’s going on. What helps gets through those feelings is one on one time with her everyday. It may not always be a lot of time, but it’s better than nothing!

Nora – Our sweet girl has handled all of these big changes better than I thought she would, but it’s still been hard. The first few days at home were the hardest. She was pretty mad at me for having little time with her. We have had to figure out how to have special one on one time with her, even if it’s just 10 minutes here and there. Lucky for us, my MIL has been so helpful with spending time with her while I’ve napped or been trying to calm Andi. It also helped that my folks were here for 4 days when the baby was born, so she got lots of extra attention then. Nora has become more demanding when talking to us; as in she keeps saying the same thing over and over again, louder and louder until we repeat back what she has said to us. It’s like her own way of making sure we are really listening. She has had to be told, “just wait one more minute,” more times than I would like, but sometimes “right now” isn’t realistic. That’s another new phrase she learned this month: “right now!” I feel very blessed, however, that she loves her baby sister! She is always bringing Andersyn blankets and toys, giving her hugs and kisses and talking to her in her own baby voice. It’s really adorable! She does a great job of throwing out poopy diapers, alerting me when the baby is crying and giving her sister “check ups” with her doctor kit. It really is so sweet watching her with Andersyn. This week we have really tried to re-establish a better schedule for her, along with incorporating Andersyn’s schedule as well. This will certainly take time, but I know if we stick to it, both of our girls will do great!