First there was one in the wolfpack....

...and then three became four.
Long overdue, but Eva Grace was born on June 20th. I can't believe it's been six weeks. Whirlwind does not begin to describe it. But adding the little glow worm to the mix doesn't change the chaos level here too terribly much. Except for evenings. Those are tricky. But it's bound to get better right? At least in a few years...



Anyway, the differences between James as an infant and Eve are remarkable. Starting with the pregnancies where this time I had zero complications aside from being diabetic. They actually stretched us to 39 weeks which was based on new research and before now fairly unheard of. But babies are better being left in as long as all is healthy, it's just kind of rare for it to go so well. There were differing opinions between the regular OBs wanting to take her at 37 weeks and the high risk docs citing the new research and wanting to wait til 39 weeks. That made me nervous, so at 37 weeks we moved to the Hampton Inn walking distance from the hospital. My mom took an adjoining room and we had a great time despite my enormous size, raging sinus infection, etc etc. But we did think something might happen before 39 weeks. I had twice weekly monitoring which was nice not to have to drive 2 hrs for plus James got a proper nap every day. But nothing happened except I got bigger and bigger and bigger. And we were in the SOUTH people. In June. Seriously, strangers were stopping in the street out of pity and shock. But then miss Eve came out in all her 9 lb 5 oz glory and by about a week later I had lost 30 lbs. Made me feel a little better about myself. If only I was one of those people who only gained 30lbs total...anyway, moving on.
So we get home and after a few days of figuring everything out, I wasfeeding breakfast to James while Eve was still asleep in the cosleeper. Tom and I realized that when James was an infant, that never happened. Ever. He basically only slept in my arms or for a very short period of time in a bed. So after that I started really noticing differences that are probably part of who they are, but also very related to all the sensory stuff that started so much soonr than we realized.
For one, James woke every 1.5 hrs to eat really for almost two years where Eve eats every 2-3 during the day and will go 4-5 hrs overnight.
Bliss.
James would nap in his swing but only until the music stopped, so you had to be ready to run and press the stupid button every 8 min before the stupid automatic shutoff. I thought eve was difficult during the day and would just tie her into the moby wrap all day so I could be sort of normal. This was before I discovered 2 things: the Soothie pacifier and the fact that she just wanted to sleep swaddled in her bed with it. I was so used to my 'happiest baby on the block" kid, it never occurred to me that I was making things very difficult for myself.
Eve is quite content to kick around in her bed or floor or whatever just to hang out happily. That's new.
When James was a babu, if he started to fuss, the key was to help him asap if you had any hope of moving on. This is why I don't sleep anymore and of course why he doesn't self soothe very well. He couldn't! The other morning eve started to cry a little but I was making james' breakfast so she was going to have to wait a bit, but she just fell back asleep. Unheard of. It was amazing.

Now I don't want anyone thinking I'm playing favorites here, so let me tell you Eve's querks and then I'll tell some great things on James.
So eve does not love her car seat. Rough stuff in our family. When we get in the car, it's a big excursion. She has gotten better due to the beloved Soothie, but there were some dark days. She's also pretty fussy at night. The normal stuff. But it takes some time to get her down. That's pretty much it.

Now James is the best big brother I have ever seen. He has not once acted jealous when he has good reason after being the center of my world for so long. He wants to show her his toys, spiderwalk on her, pet her head (hey, we have a lot of dogs), and wants her to go everywhere with him. Turns out the poor kid just wants a friend. Lol ;)

His eating is fantastic. He is eating more difficult textures in smaller bites so is able to eat less processed foods. His volume has increased considerably and he is starting to feed himself more. I'm so proud of him. We will continue to challenge him but keep letting him dictate the pace. It's worked so far so we'll just keep on keepin on!