Thursday, November 15, 2012

Two kids: Ten times the work, 1/10 of the sleep

Our baby girl will be three weeks old tomorrow. I can't believe it's already been three weeks! Part of me feels like it's flown by... I still feel like she was just born yesterday. But in some ways it's hard to believe it's only been three weeks because we've had plenty of loooooong days and nights that have made the time drag by.

So here's a recap of our first three weeks as a family of four. In a nutshell: I am TIRED. I'm up and down with Brielle all night long, some nights only getting a couple hours of sleep. Then I'm up with Perrin by about 6 AM every day. That's one reason I'm just now getting around to blogging--if I have a spare moment where both the kids are occupied and/or sleeping, I'm most likely going to spend some quality time with the couch rather than do anything that requires a moderate amount of brain function.

For about as long as I can remember, I've always spent time praying at night in bed before I fall asleep. I've noticed lately that my prayers have gotten a little weird... like, "God, please watch over our family and purple elephants skydive in the ocean....zzzzzzzz." I really do try to stay awake for meaningful prayer time, but it's like I start dreaming while I'm still praying. Perhaps I should try praying out loud--maybe I could stay awake that way. Or if not, at least it would give Trey a good laugh.

Perrin is still doing great as a big brother. He's always asking to hold Brielle, and he gives her kisses and asks to see her "little bitty baby toes." He helps me change her diapers and he checks on her when she's sleeping. He's been pretty perfect, aside from one instance when he asked if he could eat her. But I'm pretty sure he was joking. Hopefully.

On a more serious note, I passed out a couple nights ago. I got up in the middle of the night and was on my way to the bathroom. The next thing I knew, Trey was waking me up from our bedroom floor. Apparently I crashed pretty hard and woke him up. I'm thinking it was caused by anemia... but whatever the case, it was a little scary. I'm having my blood drawn soon to see if we can figure out what's going on. If it is anemia (and I'm almost positive it is), then that adds another layer of fatigue to my already zombie-like body. This zombie will be really happy when Brielle is sleeping through the night!

Despite the challenges, I'm really happy with our little family. Perrin is growing up so fast--he's learning new things every day, getting taller by the second, and talking our ears off. Brielle is so sweet and cute and tiny. I love holding her and rocking her and can't wait to see her personality develop. Our kids are worth all the hard work and sleepless nights. I just need to remind myself of that at 3:00 in the morning. :)