What Day Is This?

I think in fragments these days. The sleep deprivation is getting to me. I get three straight hours a night between 1 and 4 and that's about it. Elizabeth is a night owl. Her witching hour begins at 9:30 and lasts until after midnight. She must be held, jiggled, fed, burped, and entertained with old Lost episodes during this period OR ELSE. She is also an early riser who wants to chit-chat at 5 am. If I didn't have two other kids who need attention this really wouldn't be a problem, but the whole sleep when the baby sleep thing is null and void unless you only have one child. I am not complaining, though. I knew this was my fate when I saw that tadpolish blob on the ultrasound screen in September. I kind of even like spending all that alone time with her, although it would be nice to condense into just one hour maybe.

The husband took all of last week off and "helped out". He was good keeping the boys entertained and trimming trees and mowing the lawn and running errands and moving furniture around so I shouldn't gripe........bbbbuuutttt......

Before I had kids of my own my WV friend started her own family and told me her husband was so in awe and grateful to her for giving birth to their son that he was like a new man, lavishing gifts, taking care of the baby, cleaning the house. She was kicking herself for waiting ten years to have kids. That lasted seven days and then her husband settled back into his old life and she wasn't that cool anymore. Apparently this is a phenomenon that most men go through. Mine does everytime, this time though, I was cool for only five days. By last Tuesday I was on my own during the night, pretty much, which was ironic given that the one person who wasn't supposed to be doing much (major surgery remember?) was doing it all while the rest of the house enjoyed uninterrupted slumber. Of course, he can use the old b***stfeeding argument, but, rocking a crying baby doesn't take bodily skill. I did get a pair of diamond earrings during the awe inspired phase out of it though.

The boys are doing really well with Elizabeth. Jacob kind of goes about his business as usual, but he was excited to share the news with his classmates and enjoyed passing out pink chocolate cigars to them his first day back at class. Adam is an absolute riot. Who knew a two year old could help out so much? He fetches diapers and wipes and always deposits the dirty ones in the diaper gen*e. He helps burp and pat and coo and sing and I crack up when he sniffs the baby vapor from the top of her head. He loves her immensely, probably more than me at this point. I have tried to sit in the chair with just him and he refuses. Sissy has to come too.

As for Elizabeth, I can tell she's gaining weight. When we brought her home she weighed five pounds, 15 ounces and we had to go out and get preemie diapers for her. The newborn ones fell right off her skinny rump. We only had one preemie outfit that belonged to Jacob that she wore the first couple of days until we had to twist my mom's arm to go out and buy some girl ones. She is already starting to grow out of those and into the three newborn things I have. We have gotten lots of clothes as gifts, but most of them are of the 6-9 month variety so they aren't doing us much good at the moment. I am eager to hit the Carters store once I am cleared to drive. How weird it will be to shop from the left side of the store!

I still have tons more to blog about, hopefully I will get into some sort of routine with the children soon so I can finish my birth thoughts....lots happened in that hospital....they almost lost my baby, they tried to pump me with the wrong blood type, it was loads of fun. So stay tuned, maybe I will get it churned out before summer.