Good Days & Bad Days

We all have them!  That's how I would describe the last couple weeks - some days good and some days, not-so-good.  It's mostly determined by Rachel's emotions/behavior, except for that couple day stretch where Andrew somehow randomly got his days mixed up with nights.  Let's be honest, I'm sleep deprived and forgot how dysfunctional I become - also forgetful, irresponsible, airhead-ish, and I even say dumb stuff - how awesome is that?!  Remember back when I only had one and could sleep whenever she slept ... wow, that seems so easy now looking back.

In some ways having two kids has been easier than I imagined - like getting out of the house isn't as difficult as I thought.  We still go to the park lots and I have even ventured into a few stores.  :)  I also have worried a lot less about Andrew than I did with Rachel (I was worrying about Rachel even when she slept it seemed).  And in some ways it has been harder - like dealing with Rachel (and trying to be patient with her) and staying awake in the middle of the night while nursing (so I'm getting creative and usually nurse in front of the computer watching shows on hulu or checking blogs).

Enough about me, here's some updates about the kiddos.

A small miracle occurred and Rachel is sleeping almost 11 hours a night (up from 10) - the thought occurred to me to turn off her nightlight and it has made a world of difference (I already had black out curtains to keep the sun from shining in but I didn't think a nightlight that had already been on all night would make a difference).  Something funny she says lately is "last-erday" which is anything that happened in the past.  She is a sponge and repeats everything and is learning so much, and her memory is incredible!  Lately, I often hear the question, "... does that sound like a good plan mom?"  Usually it's something like, "After I wake up from my nap, I can watch a movie ... does that sound like a good plan?" or it might have something to do with having a treat or popsicle.

Andrew is a little tank!  He's approximately 14 pounds at six weeks.  He has a double chin that makes me smile ... oh he is definitely getting enough to eat!  I think he looks like Brandon (so does his mom), but I think he has some similarities to Rachel at this age as well.  He really is a good baby so far!  But any idea when these kids start taking a binky?!  He has no interest, and it's fine now that he's so little, but I know I'll want him to have one in a few months.

We also had to have Andrew bilirubin checked again since he was still a pumpkin at one month, and sure enough it was back up to 17 (so confusing, all of this jaundice stuff) so the doctor told me to stop nursing for 3 days and then get it re-tested.  Andrew was a trooper with the formula and I'm giving myself a pat on the back for pumping - it was pretty miserable but I shouldn't complain because I know a lot of other moms do it a lot longer than I had to (shout out to my buddy, Kristen!).  Sure enough the level went down, which indicated that the jaundice was still in his system because of my milk - and that means it isn't harmful to the baby so I got back to nursing.  We're finally done with the jaundice drama.

The last couple weeks my mom has been in Australia and we (Rachel and I) have missed talking to her everyday!  Her sister's family lives there and they paid her way so that she could help them remodel and redecorate their house.  Lucky for us, she had a layover in Phoenix and so I packed up the kids and we made our way through security to go meet Nana at her gate.  Good thing I didn't tell Rachel about this adventure until that morning because she was ecstatic and talked about it ALL morning!  We were so excited to see Nana, even if it was only for 15 minutes or so.  Nana had a shirt, stuffed kangaroo and koala for Rachel and chocolates for me and Andrew.  She showed us her pictures and videos and cuddled with the kids for a minute and then she had to get on her next flight - it was totally worth it to see her.
(FYI - Southwest's policy is that they usually don't let people in past security to see Grandma, but I think it just happened to be the right time with the right worker and she let it slide - whew!)