The month of May was quite a whirlwind for our family. Turns out that May is a very busy month with sports and school ending, but throw in a new baby, sickness, and surgery, and things get quite hectic!
Daniel is wonderful. So far in his little life, he's proven to be very sweet, a good cuddler, easy to console, a healthy eater, and as cute as can be. He is spending more time awake during the day now. He wakes up to eat a few times a night, but usually goes back down pretty easily. At night he is sleeping in the pack-n-play in the master bathroom. Daytime naps usually happen in the bouncy seat or while being held. We have been experimenting with the swaddle wrap at night to see if that gets him any longer stretches of sleep. The current record is about four hours. He is comforted by a pacifier but doesn't ever seem to fall into a deep sleep when he's had it, so we're just using it here and there during the day. He has been happy to take a bottle from Matthew during the night to allow me a little more sleep.
It has been interesting to see the big kids interact with Daniel. Ethan didn't want anything to do with him at first and showed extreme jealousy whenever I was holding him. This has decreased a little over the last week but my previously very independent toddler now wants to hold my hand and/or be held much more frequently. Ethan calls him "baby" but will say something that resembles "Daniel" when prompted for baby's name. Ethan does randomly approach Daniel and kiss him on the top of the head, sometimes when he doesn't even know we're watching. James is very sweet with Daniel. He wants to be right there closely observing everything. James is usually the first one to jump up to try to help when Daniel starts to cry. James tells me multiple times a day "he's so cute!" Claire likes to be very involved with Daniel and is willing to help out. We are still working with her on giving Daniel a little space and not being too rough with him. We don't let any of the big kids be alone with Daniel for more than a minute or two because we don't really trust them yet, but if we had to choose, we'd probably trust Ethan the most. :)
Ethan decided that this month was a good time to jump straight into the terrible twos. OK, it may not be that bad, but he has certainly started to exhibit some of that behavior. Lots of tantrums when he doesn't get his way. This seems particularly evident during meal time when he always wants what is on someone else's plate (even when it is often on his plate as well). Ethan has started asking "Why?" to just about everything. Unlike the other kids, who seemed to truly want to know why, Ethan seems to be just saying the word. He does use it appropriately though, never in response to a question. It is actually pretty funny, especially when he does it with Claire. She will answer the "why" question and he will keep saying "why" and she will keep giving further explanations. She's getting a little dose of how she used to be! Ethan also insists that he's three years old. Again, pretty funny considering how he's acting like a three year old. I can say, "Ethan, how old are you?" and he'll say "free!" I will say, "No, you are one" and he'll say "no, free!"
We do still see glimpses of our sweet, happy little guy. Ethan loves to be outside. He copies EVERYTHING that James does. When he's happy, he walks with a little swing in his step, and a literal swing to one arm. He has a great laugh and thinks Claire and James are quite funny. Ethan makes silly faces and silly voices and sounds. We love to ask him what a dump truck says because his "HONK! HONK!" response is hilarious and at a very low pitch. Ethan sleeps well at night, averaging 11 hours. He naps for about 90 minutes every afternoon. He eats well but is showing a little more pickiness. He has had two more teeth come in (very slowly...over the course of several months) making a total of 16.
James had a great year at preschool. He always got out of the car happily and never seemed to have any issues. His teachers loved him and often said how funny and silly he was. Ms. Mary shared with me that she read a story to the class about three little owl babies who are waiting for their mommy to come back. Ms. Mary said that she's been reading this book to two and three year olds for twelve years now, but James was the first to offer any feedback on the plot of the story. James wanted to know where the owl mommy had gone and why. When the story didn't provide answers to these questions, James decided that he didn't like the book.
James had in inguinal hernia repaired on May 20. This was an outpatient procedure and very stressful and painful for James. Though he had had the hernia since birth, we did not have it diagnosed until this past April. James often complains that his tummy hurts. We knew some of these responses we not legitimate (for example, those immediately following the sentence "Time to clean up"), but some episodes left us scratching our heads about what was going on. He would always be fine the next day. We looked for patterns with diet or circumstances that might be causing him discomfort and came up empty. One afternoon, his pain seemed to be out of nowhere and it was a day that Matt had come home early, so I decided to take him to the pediatric urgent care center. The hernia was incarcerated at the time, so the doctor was able to quickly diagnose the problem. He sent us on the the ER and prepared me for the idea of emergency surgery that night. James was a mess, crying, screaming, and writhing in pain. On the drive from urgent care to the ER, James finally fell asleep and the hernia was no longer evident for the ER doctors to diagnose, so we didn't have the surgery that night but were able to wait. Waiting ended up being a little bit of a blessing and a little bit of a curse as we discovered that scheduling the consultation and surgery was a process that would take weeks and we knew we had a baby coming at any time.
Thankfully things worked out to schedule the surgery in May and not late June like they first offered us. James seemed to be in increasing amounts of pain, even though it was not continuous or considered a medically urgent situation. The day and night before his surgery were in fact so awful, that we weren't even sure we would make it to the surgery. Matt literally was in the parking lot for the ER when James finally calmed down and fell asleep around midnight. Matt drove him back home, slept for a few hours and drove him back for the surgery early the next morning. I hated not being able to be there with him, but we couldn't risk exposing eight-day-old Daniel to the germs in the waiting room. The surgery was successful and both the known hernia and a smaller hole discovered during exploration were repaired. James was a mess when he woke up from the anesthesia. He hated his IV and was inconsolable for a period of time. The days following the surgery weren't much better. The surgeon had said that most kids were running around and playing the next day like nothing ever happened. James was not in this category. He was pretty miserable. Some was from pain and some was from discomfort from the bandages (he's a sensitive child about wrinkles in his socks, so having his groin all bandaged up was quite stressful for him). Now that it's been over two weeks, he's physically healed but mentally still hasn't gotten over his "boo boos" hurting. It's getting better, but when he's tired or hungry he still complains.
Claire has been a good sport while so much has been going on with her brothers in the last few weeks. She stepped up when James was having such a rough time and helped distract Ethan on numerous occasions. I got a bad stomach bug last weekend. James and Ethan went to visit my parents, so Claire and I had a lot of time together. I wasn't up for doing much, but we did lots of crafts and tried to have a special time. When I finally felt up to leaving the house, we went and got her her very own library card. She's quite proud of it and has told many people. Claire also had a great year of preschool and seemed to love every minute. Claire doesn't seem particularly sad about finishing preschool but is very much looking forward to starting kindergarten. She's really turned a corner with her reading. We practice every night and she's having to sound out less and less. She's reading a Level 2 book right now about Amelia Bedelia. Claire loves art projects, coloring, playing with Barbies, books, and playing outside.
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