Sleep and Milk

Two children under two means lots of diapers, lots of breastfeeding and not a lot of sleep. I should hardly be surprised. In spite of that, I've got questions and I'm hoping that you guys have thoughts. 

First, the sleeping.

Monkey sleeps like a champ, but he eats almost every two hours and the process of feeding him from start to finish (with diaper change) lasts about an hour. This makes the nights at our house something short of restful. 

The factor that pushes all of it over the edge is Yogi’s recent shift from a 6:30-7 wake up to a 5am start time. 5AM??!!! The boy is an early riser and I have made peace with that, but 5 o’clock is a little hard to accept. More than a little really. So I’m thinking some kind of gentle scheduling shift is in order. Here’s how Yogi sleep has been looking for the last quite some time (since about the time he turned a year):

6:30ish Wake-up

12-2 Nap (This ranges btw 1.5 and 2 hrs)

7ish Bedtime

This means that at 21 months, Yogi has been sleeping about 13 hours a day. Now it’s more like 11 hours.

There are a few things that make this complicated. The first is that almost every night Yogi is skidding into bedtime on fumes. The little dude is d.o.n.e. by 7pm and I don’t know how we could keep him up any later. It’s also the case that if we do something in the morning that involves either the car or the stroller he almost always falls asleep, which makes me feel like pushing the nap back isn’t the best idea either. But what to do? There has to be something, right? If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Next, the breastfeeding.

Monkey is doing well and aside from the fact that he wants to eat all.the.time we are having no trouble with him in the milk department. And then there’s Yogi. 

Yogi was exclusively breastfed through his first birthday. Around that time, we introduced whole milk and he began nursing only at night before bedtime. As he got older, these sessions became increasingly brief and my wife never knew how much milk he was actually getting. We both assumed that he continued on with it for comfort reasons and because it was part of their bedtime routine. On the rare evening when I did bedtime, he never complained about the lack of milk or asked any questions about it at all.

Since the arrival of Monkey, Yogi wants to nurse both more frequently (he asks for Mommy Milk at nap AND bedtime and he has asked a handful of times when he sees Monkey nursing - my wife has agreed to nurse at nap and is continuing with bedtime, but has gently refused the other requests and he hasn’t protested) and for longer duration (which I imagine is a function of that fact that her supply is much greater).

I’m not officially worried about this, but I’m wondering if his response is a typical one. Anyone have any experience here? I’m thinking that the novelty of this will wear off, but maybe not? 

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Glimpses of the First Week

Yogi reaching for the bucket when my wife walked in from the hospital with Monkey.

Kissing Monkey's baby cheeks while he snoozes.

Yogi's sidekick lovey almost never leaving his side. Paci too. These guys have never been outside the crib for any length of time and never out of the house so it's a whole new wide world for Yogi's buddies. One that I hope to be narrowing soon.

Yogi's renewed interest in the Ergo, or as he calls it "backpack".

Early morning walks on the greenway and breakfast at the neighborhood bagel joint. Milk for Monkey and Blueberry bagel with a side of peanut butter for Yogi. Yum!

Enjoying snuggly Monkey time while Yogi naps.

Waking up in the night with a "Mama, Mama!" Yogi. We had this problem licked, but since the arrival of Monkey I can't bear to think that he feels abandoned with all of us in the other room. This ends tonight. Pray for me....

Wondering what we ever did with all that time we had when Yogi was an infant. Babies really do sleep all.the.time. How could we have thought we were tired?

Trying to pick my battles with a veggie burger throwing, kiddie hammer banging, standing up in his chair and laughing hysterically toddler. I love this boy, but sometimes he drives me crazy. But, maybe that's the sleep deprivation talking.

Yogi's excitement about Muzzie, Grandpa, Nana, Pops AND Moka (the dog) all being in town at once.  He really got into hugging everyone good night before bed. So cute.

Hearing Yogi say his brother's name. Nothing better.

Remembering too late that you should never leave the house with an infant without a burp cloth and a change of clothes. How quickly you forget.

Yogi going (too exuberantly?) for a big bite of ice cream and accidentally sending ice cream flying into his brother's face. Oh the poor, poor second child.

The anatomy lesson that breaks out each time Monkey sits in his bouncy seat. Yogi marches over and begins "Ears, Eyes (this one is a bit scary, but so far so good), Nose, Mouth, Hair, Hands, Feet, Knees". Never gets old.

Feeling relatively certain that my house will never be clean again.

Yogi, Monkey and my wife on the afternoon before labor began.

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Yogi the Big Brother

My parents took this picture on his last day of school, which also happened to be the day after he met his little brother.

This guy has been on quite a wild ride this week and I couldn't be prouder of how he's rolling with all of the changes. On Wednesday morning he woke up to find Muzzie and Grandpa had come during the night. Later that afternoon Nana and Pops arrived and soon after Mama came home and everyone loaded up to head to the hospital to see Mommy and meet Monkey.

Muzzie helped him pick some flowers and when he walked into Mommy's room he delivered them proudly. He got to meet Monkey before anyone else did and he ran around the room eating Goldfish (thanks Nana!) and stopping occasionally to rub Monkey's head and say his name over and over. Then we walked out into the waiting room to gather the grandparents and Yogi led everyone back to meet his little brother.

After spending the morning at the library with Nana and Pops, he was enthusiastic about greeting the three of us when we all came home from the hospital. He greeted us with big hugs and immediately grabbed the handle of the baby bucket (chanting "hebe" - translation: heavy) to help walk his brother into the house. When he got inside he started chanting Monkey's name.

I don't have a younger sibling and know nothing of what Yogi is feeling right now. Since getting home yesterday he's had some fussy moments and maybe he's a touch clingier than usual, but I think he's handling it pretty well. We are of course only a few days in. I guess what I'm saying is that I love this guy like C.R.A.Z.Y. and I hope he knows how much his Mommies love him in spite of how so much is changing.

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