I am finally online and able to share a bit myself about this sweet little boy who has joined our family :)
The birth was fairly similar to Katya's... woke up in the middle of the night (about 3am) with some pretty intense contractions, was at the hospital by 5am (already 8cm dilated), and gave birth at 6:40. The pushing stage was longer (40min) and significantly painful despite the epidural, but I think that has a lot to do with having stayed in shape with Katya and being on bed rest this time.
Right from the beginning we've noticed that he is a very different personality than his sister. More laid back and relaxed. Katya had serious bouts of crying those first several weeks...Joshua just kind of fusses a bit, whimpers and groans (much less stressful, even if we are up in the night with him). Katya was very active, trying to hold her head up that first week, hated to be swaddled. Joshua enjoyed being swaddled at least at first, and just recently really started working on holding his head up. Katya wanted to nurse 24/7, it was her answer to all of life's problems. Joshua eats, then is done. And if I try to offer before he's ready (for example, to avoid a meltdown in the car), he has no interest. So it should be very interesting to see this little person/personality emerge and watch the differences between him and his sister.
He's been a decent sleeper from the get-go, in terms of newborns. He's slept about 4 hours the first part of the night since our first night home. On good nights, he gives us another 4ish hours after nursing and pooping around 3am. On bad nights, he grunts and groans and fusses for a couple of hours. Plus, we had one week where he caught a cough from his big sister, and no one was sleeping well. But overall, not bad. And the fussiness has been getting better.
Joshua is officially huge. At 3 weeks, he had gained 4 lbs already, which put him at the 95th%ile. (For a little perspective, Katya gained 3lbs in the first month). I'm pretty sure that he weighs somewhere around 13 lbs at this point. He'll be 6 weeks on Saturday.
Katya just loves her little brother, had since day one. She's always kissing him and hugging him, wanting to hold him. She's my big helper, always willing to run and get a diaper or burp cloth, handing me his change of clothes, etc. The first few days she cried if any visitor tried to hold him, saying he belonged to me. She's quick to respond to him, saying loudly, "God bless you!" every time he sneezes, hugging him and apologizing for any and all bumps or knocks, or calling out to him if she hears him fussing, "I'm coming, Joshua!"
Everyone has been really impressed with my quick recovery from birth, but a natural childbirth is nothing compared to major surgery. And after that recovery, and all the bedrest, and just the normal hard to move cuz your pregnant stuff, I've felt great. it is so nice to be able to move around normally, hold Katya, get housework done, etc. And it hasn't been nearly as hard as I imagined getting into some kind of household routine. I haven't had any help other than Herme since my mom left a week after he was born, and sure there are days where I feel like I do more nursing and changing of poopy diapers than anything else, but overall things are getting done. It does help that he is a pretty laid back little guy, and that he doesn't want to be glued to the breast like his big sister did. Plus, compared to not being allowed to do anything around the house, just doing a little bit of the basic stuff done is exciting. Nothing like major surgery and weeks of bed rest to put things in perspective for you!
PS: Sorry some picture go published 2x, not sure what that's about!
